prompt: Instead of Danny, Sam is the one who goes into the Ghost Zone and turns into a halfa. @alyssumlovesthecosmere
hi ho hi ho
“Come on, show us the ghost portal!”
Sam grinned at Danny as he shook his head. She groaned.
“It doesn’t even work, what’s it matter if we go and take a look at it?”
“It could still be dangerous.” Danny frowned at her. “My parents don't even know what went wrong yet. What if it’s an exposed wire and we get electrocuted? Or there’s a gas leak coming from somewhere? Or-”
“Yeah, yeah, I get it. Catastrophic what ifs.”
“We could always wait for Danny’s parents to come back home and ask them about everything they did. Maybe talking it out would help them figure out what went wrong?”
Danny pointed at Tucker. “I like that idea. And then we can see the portal when it’s working and not when there’s something wrong with it.”
Sam rolled her eyes and slumped down in the arm chair she was sitting in in Danny’s living room. “You guys are so boring.”
“Whatever, I care more about not having my face melt off.” Danny threw a piece of popcorn at his mouth but missed. It flew over his shoulder.
Sam stuck her tongue out at his. Then Tucker stuck his tongue out at her. She stood up.
“I’m gonna go get a soda.”
She walked into the kitchen and pulled the fridge door open. She pulled an orange soda out and closed it. As she turned, she saw the door to the lab was open.
She looked from the lab door towards the living room where Danny and Tucker were.
She could just walk down there. She could sneak down while they weren’t paying attention.
Her eyes went back towards the lab door. She set her soda can down on the counter.
She took quick steps towards the door and the set of stairs on the other side. She slipped in before they could see her and walked down the steps.
She could feel the temperature drop the lower she went.
She stepped through the doorway at the bottom of the stairs and flicked on the lights.
There it was at the other end of the room.
The ghost portal.
It was bigger than she thought it’d be. All three of them could fit inside of it and then some.
She took a step towards it and then stopped. Danny’s concerns echoed in her head. Maybe she should take some precautions.
Sam walked over to the small closet the Fenton’s had in the lab. She opened the door and inside were jumpsuits hanging up on hangers, including two for her and Tucker.
She pulled out the purple and closed the closet door and pulled it on.
At least if she was down here against Danny’s wishes, she was being safe about it.
Pulling up the zipper, she looked at the ghost portal again. It was dark on the inside.
She walked over to it and peered in. It looked very scifi, almost like something she’d see in a movie.
She took a step in, then a second, and then a third. On her fourth step she tripped on a big cable on the ground and her arm flew out to her side to catch herself. She let out a deep breath and all the lights turned on inside the ghost portal around her.
Eyes wide, she turned to look at where her hand landed.
It was a power panel. With on off switches.
On the inside of the portal.
She had no time to even think of moving before green light enveloped her entire body. Everything felt like it was burning, almost even smelt like it too.
Sam screamed and screamed. She could feel every molecule in her body being torn apart and rewritten.
She tried turning around to walk out of the portal but instead she tripped over her now unsteady feet. She fell onto the floor and was taking deep, heaving breaths as she laid on the floor.
Her eyes were squeezed shut against the pain and sensations she still felt in her body. When she finally squeezed her eyes open, she was confused.
The gloves of her jumpsuit were now white instead of black. And the purple was green.
Why was her jumpsuit a different color?
Sam tried to pull herself over to the oddly placed mirror the Fenton’s had in the lab and pulled herself up to look. When she saw herself in the mirror, the wind was knocked out of her.
It wasn’t just her jumpsuit that was a different color. It was everything.
Her eyes were an acidic green that matched her jumpsuit and her hair was now snow white. Her ponytail was wispy and floating into the air instead of laying on top of her head.
What was going on? Why did she look like this? She didn’t look human anymore.
Her eyes widened at that last thought and a pit formed in her stomach.
Then, she jumped as a white light appeared around her waist. It transformed her back into her normal, human self. As if all at once, pain exploded all over her body and she collapsed back to the floor.
She was so tired and her muscles hurt, no doubt from the electrical shock from the portal. She had to-
“Sam!” She looked up and saw Danny and Tucker running down the steps to his parent’s lab. “Are you okay?”
Danny had a really worried look on his face. He looked from her to the swirling portal behind her. His eyes widened.
“What did you do?”
She looked up at him. Did she tell him what happened? Did she keep it a secret?
“Did you turn the portal on?”
Her gaze moved from Danny to Tucker. He was looking between her and the portal, back and forth. He finally knelt down on the ground and put a hand on her shoulder. When she didn’t respond he placed a hand against her cheek.
“She feels warm. Danny, does this mean she has a fever?”
She felt as Danny placed a hand on her face as well. She shook her head and swatted his hand away.
“Guys, I’m- I’m fine.” She tried sitting up but her entire body hurt. Danny and Tucker exchanged concerned glances with one another.
“Are you sure? We heard you screaming.”
“Yep! I’m totally sure. The portal-” She pointed over her shoulder. “May or may not have given me a pretty good zap, but I’m okay.”
She stood up shakily. Danny and Tucker didn’t look like they believed her.
“See?”
She walked towards the lab steps, trying to keep a neutral expression on her face.
She didn’t want them to know what had happened to her. She didn’t even know what happened to her. She just had one thought in her head on loop.
Was she dead?
~~~~~~~
Sam groaned. She wished this ghost wasn’t here right now. She was just trying to hang out with Danny and Tucker.
“I am the Box Ghost!”
And it had to be one of the worst ones too.
She had had to make another bad excuse to get away from them for a few minutes. She hated it and she could tell her friends were starting to notice how often she was bailing on them. She didn’t want them to stop being her friends.
“Boxy!” She shouted at him where he was floating in the middle of the mall. “I thought we had an agreement!”
“No agreement is strong enough to prevent me from causing my boxed chaos of doom!” He waggled his fingers at her.
“But you had all the boxes you could ever want! You were even filling them with things and shipping them out!”
“Spreading the boxy joy is not worth the working conditions in that warehouse!”
Sam snorted. “What’s considered bad working conditions for a ghost?”
“It doesn’t matter!” He raised his arms up and shoe boxes started flying out of a bunch of different stores. “Prepare for doooom!”
She rolled his eyes. This was a mess she was going to get blamed for. She shot an ectoblast at him and he dodged it easily. She pulled the thermos out.
“You cannot contain me in your cylindrical container! I am the Box-“
He shouted as the thermos beam caught him and pulled him in. She capped the thermos and shook it.
“Your thing is boxes, I don’t think you’re getting out of here.”
Sam flew through the mall towards a side hallway. There were bathrooms down here but it was usually pretty empty. She landed on the floor and destransformed right as she watched Tucker walk down the hallway. The soda cup he had in his hand slipped out of his grip and onto the floor, spilling everywhere. His eyes widened and his mouth dropped open.
“You-“
“Tucker, wait-“
“You’re Wraith?!”
Sam placed a finger on Tucker’s lips. She glared at him.
“Dude! This is a secret! You can’t say that so loud!”
“Sorry!” He lowered his voice and leaned in closer to her. “Why didn’t you ever tell us?”
“I was scared. You hear how Danny’s parents talk about ghosts, how they talk about me. I didn’t want them finding out. So you can’t tell Danny.”
“What?!” Tucker leaned back. “Dude, you gotta tell him! He’s been missing your company lately. If you tell him it’s because you’re Wraith and you gotta catch the ghosts then he-”
“No!” Sam took a step back. “What if he tells his parents? What if he wants them to help fix me? Or they just think I’m a ghost masquerading as a human? I can’t tell him.”
“Danny would never-”
“Danny’s afraid of the ghosts, remember?” Tears sprung to her eyes. “I just- I don’t want him to be- to be afraid of me.”
Tucker’s face softened at that. He opened his arms and wrapped her up in a hug. A tear escaped from her eye and trailed down her cheek. She wrapped her own arms around him tightly.
~~~~~~~
Sam hated dealing with animalistic ghosts. If they were just like regular animals that would be okay. She didn’t mind Cujo when he was acting like a normal dog but this?
This animal ghost looked like a mix between a bear and a wolf. It didn’t seem to have any thoughts aside from destroy and hurt. Animalistic ghosts like this tended to get out of hand fast. She got hurt more fighting ghosts like these and they caused a lot more destruction.
She flew over the park. It was headed towards the denser part of Amity Park and she wanted to get it before it got too far into the city.
She shot a blast into its back and it growled at her. It did a big loop and ended up behind her. She pulled out her thermos. If only she could turn around and surprise it. Then maybe she could catch it.
Sam turned around midair and pointed the thermos at the ghost wolf bear, but she didn’t realize how close it was behind her. It was almost immediately on top of her. She raised the thermos higher up and was about to press the button.
The ghost punctured her with one sharp claw and dragged. Her mouth fell open and she choked on the air she had just been breathing in.
She pressed the button on the thermos and it sucked the ghost inside of it, pulling the claw out of her as it went.
She fell to the ground and tried to take a shaking breath.
It hurt. Really bad.
She rolled over onto her back and tried to sit up just enough to lean against the alley wall behind her. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and dialed the only number she had in this burner.
It rang two times before he picked up.
“Hello? Sam?”
Sam took in another shuddering breath and opened her mouth to speak.
“Tucker. I need-“
“I’m on my way!”
He hung up before she could say anything else. She turned her phone off and pocketed it again. She was lucky Tucker knew how to track it. When she looked back up Danny was standing at the end of the alley staring at her.
She panicked. Did she hear her call Tucker? How much had he seen?
His eyes trailed down to the wound on her stomach. He looked like he wanted to be sick.
He looked back up to her face.
“Are you going to be alright?”
Sam was shocked by his question. She didn’t think he’d care how a ghost was doing.
She shifted and hissed and her injury was pulled. “I- I don’t know.”
“Do you need help?”
She shook her head. “I already called someone.”
Danny nodded. “That’s good.”
He stood there in silence after that. She couldn’t tell why he didn’t leave or why he wasn’t saying anything. He opened his mouth to ask her something but stopped when they could hear the sounds of panting and feet hitting the pavement coming from down the road.
“Sam!” Tucker came barreling around the corner of the alley carrying a first aid kit. She watched as Danny’s eyes opened wide, looking between the two of them. Recognition dawned over his face.
“Sam?” He looked at Tucker. “What do you mean that’s Sam?!”
Tucker’s head snapped to Danny, only just realizing he was there. He looked back at Sam.
“Shit.”
“Tucker! What do you mean?!”
Tucker ground his teeth together, his eyes squeezed shut. He made the last couple steps to Sam and knelt on the ground beside her.
“It wasn’t my secret to tell, dude!” He opened the first aid kit and pulled out a needle and thread. “I found out by accident! She was scared to tell us!”
“What, that she was a ghost?”
“I’m- only half ghost actually.”
Sam squeezed her eyes shut, both against the pain and so she didn’t have to see Danny’s face. But she heard his semi hysterical laughter from where she lay.
“How can you be half ghost? How is that even possible?”
“I-”
She cut herself off because she could feel it coming. In a moment Tucker was going to have a much harder time trying to sew her wound closed.
That white ring of light appeared around her waist and traveled along her body, leaving behind her human form.
She could feel her thick ectoplasm turn into blood and it started flowing out of her wound faster.
“Shit!”
She could feel Tucker’s hand moving faster, trying to close the wound. She could hear footsteps walking towards them. She peeked an eye open.
Danny was kneeling right beside her now. Him and Tucker were talking to each other but Sam couldn’t parse out what they were saying to each other anymore.
Then Danny turned his head and his gaze met hers. She could see him mouthing out her name but her eyes were growing heavy. They fell closed and Sam could just barely feel Danny shaking her shoulder.
Then everything went dark.
~~~~~~~
Sam slowly woke up. She could hear faint beeping around her. Her mouth was dry. Her bed didn’t feel like her bed.
The air smelt sterile and like latex and Sam’s eyes snapped open.
She was in the hospital.
Sitting up fast, Sam looked around. Her head started spinning. She needed to get out of the hospital. She couldn’t let anyone find out her secret. She had to-
“Woah, hey!”
Someone placed a hand on her shoulder. The world was still spinning but as it slowed down she could see Tucker staring at her.
“You’re okay, Sam. Everything is okay.”
She shook her head and swallowed. “Everything is not okay. Why am I here?”
“Danny called an ambulance.”
“Why did you let him? You were supposed to-”
The world finally stopped spinning and she saw Danny walk through the doorway of her hospital room. He had his cellphone in his hand and he looked like he had aged a couple years since he discovered her secret.
“Danny, why would you-”
“We were out of our depth.” Danny glared at the two of them. “How did you guys think Tucker was gonna stitch a wound like that?”
Tucker shrugged. “I’ve stitched things before.”
“Yeah, fabric!”
She could feel Danny’s fury radiating off of him as he looked back and forth between her and Tucker. She looked away from him.
“I guess my secret is out now.”
Danny sighed. “I don’t know if the doctors have found anything ghostly about you. But you needed to be taken to the hospital, Sam. Not get stitched up by McGeeky over here.”
“Hey!”
“Point is, I wasn’t going to just let you die there, Sam.”
“Can’t die if you’re already dead.”
Danny barked a laugh out at that and Sam’s head snapped up as she looked at him.
“I seriously doubt you’re dead. Or at least fully dead. I don’t think there are any ghosts that can transform into a human disguise and start spurting red blood everywhere.”
Sam felt something lift in her spirits.
“You’re not afraid of me?”
Danny shook his head. From what I’ve seen, you’re still the same Sam Manson I’ve always known. I don’t know what happened, but you being Wraith doesn’t seem to have changed that.”
Tears welled up in Sam’s eyes and she hiccuped. Tucker’s eyes widened and he sat on the bed next to her, wrapping his arms around her.
“I kept this secret from you guys for nothing. I was so afraid that you would be scared of me that-” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry.”
Danny shook his head and sat on her other side. “We’re your friends. We stick together. No matter what.”
“Yeah.” She looked at Tucker. “If you’re in over your head, you gotta have your friends around to have your back.”
I had a few different ideas for this theme, but I freaked out and felt too tired to draw them. So I just when with drawing the trio in each others design. Which felt…strange. Fun, but strange.
