"So how long has it been since you saw her?" Sam, one of my best friends, asked from beside me.
My other best friend Tucker responded for me from Sam's other side. "Six years if you don't count the brief visit three months ago that led to her being in the hospital."
"Did you ever find out what happened that day?"
"She was alone and she can't talk. Kinda makes it hard to know anything." I told her. "I also haven't been to see her the entire time she's been there."
"And whose fault is that?" She questioned.
I had nothing to say to that. Even without actually saying it I knew what she meant. I'd gone six years without having hardly any contact with my own sister. Twin sister at that.
I was about to say something else but then my dad began on some lesson he had wanted to give us. "So Danny, you and your little friends want to hunt ghosts?"
"Uh, actually, Dad, I want to be an astronaut." I corrected.
Then Sam went on with, "Sorry, Mr. Fenton. I was into ghosts, but they're so mainstream now. They're like cellphones."
"Waste all these looks and charisma hunting ghosts? Criminal." Tucker commented.
"Well, if you do want to hunt ghosts there are a few things you need to learn," he continued as if we hadn't said anything while messing with some beakers on a table. We all just sat in our chairs bored while my dad went on his rant.
Until my ghost sense went off that is. "Oh no, this isn't good."
Two ectopusses came out of the ghost portal in the wall and grabbed Sam and Tucker out of their chairs. I had no choice but to change into my ghost form and attack the ectopusses while my dad talked, not knowing what was happening behind him.
Sam and Tucker fell back into their chairs as I fought the ghosts and send the two ghosts back to the Ghost Zone before my dad noticed. In the end, my two friends were shaking in their chairs while I stood next to Tucker panting as I held his chair for support. How my dad missed everything that happened I'll never understand, but I'm not complaining.
While everything downstairs happened, a phone was ringing upstairs. Jazz Fenton, a sixteen year-old girl with red hair and teal eyes, was the only person to hear it.
"Hello. No, this is her older sister. She is? Alright, I'll be right there." She hung up the phone and sighed. She grabbed her keys and made her way out the door and to her car where she promptly drove to Amity Park Hospital. The red headed teen made her way to the front desk where she told the receptionist, "Hi, I'm here to pick up my younger sister, Nyx Fenton."
The woman maintained a constant smile as she typed a few things into the computer before telling Jazz, "It appears all the paperwork has been handled. All you need to do is sign here," she slid Jazz a paper, "saying she was released to a legal guardian. Then your sister may leave when she like."
Jazz signed and said her thanks to the woman for her help and made her way to the room she knew her sister to be in. The door to the room was already open when jazz got there, but she still knocked on the door frame enough to alert the younger girl sitting on the bed of her presence.
When Nyx's silver-gray eyes landed on her sister at the door she couldn't help the grin that spread over her face. Jazz had been the only family member that had bothered to keep in contact with Nyx during the girl's time in the hospital and when she'd been away at a private school a few states away. She wasn't too surprised to see her older sister came alone, she probably would've gone into shock if her whole family showed up.
"Ready to go home?" Jazz asked her.
Nyx nodded. Despite the fact it had been years since Nyx thought of Fenton Works as her home she was ready to go back. She quickly grabbed her bag of possessions the hospital had allowed her to have and walked with Jazz out of the room. The two sisters made their way to Jazz's car, but before they could get in Nyx stopped her sister and started to use sign language.
"They forgot, didn't they?" She had a feeling she already knew the answer, but she wanted to hear it.
Jazz looked down for a second but nodded in response. She'd always been honest with Nyx, a quality the younger girl appreciated, no matter how much the truth hurt.
Jazz was surprised when she felt her sister hugging her. "Thank you for remembering and not lying to me."
The siblings then headed for Fenton Works with Jazz asking Nyx questions about how she's doing and how she felt about going to a public school rather than private. She made sure to keep questions answerable with 'yes' and 'no' so all Nyx had to do was nod as apposed to signing and having Jazz take her eyes off the road to watch what she's saying. Jazz also updated Nyx on what's been happening with the family and around town, though there was little to tell since Jazz didn't go more than a few days without talking to her sister.
At some point the two had decided to get something to eat on the way to Fenton Works and by the time they got home it was already late with everyone else asleep inside the house.
Nyx looked up at the giant monstrosity that was Fenton Works and wondered briefly what her life would have been like if she hadn't had an accident in the lab that had cost her her voice and changed her life in more ways than one. How would she have matured? Would she still have the same relationships she has with her siblings? Would she actually know anything about Danny, her own twin?
Though all these thoughts ran through her head, she quickly banished them. She'd learned a long time ago it's best not to dwell on what could have been. It was better to look at what could still be.
She felt Jazz put a hand on her shoulder. "It's okay to be scared you know. You've barely had contact with them for six years, I'd be scared too."
"I'm not scared," she signed, "it's just odd to be back after so long, for good this time."
The two sisters went inside and to their respective rooms, both hoping nothing would cause Nyx to leave again.
After years of having to wake-up before the sun rose, Nyx was awake and ready before the rest of the house even began to stir. Her old school had started earlier than most making Nyx start the day before the day had truly began.
Instead of staying at the house and waiting for the rest of the Fentons to join the waking world Selene wrote a note and left it on Jazz's bedside table, grabbed a fruit from the kitchen, and walked out the door. She intended to take a walk around the area to re-familiarize herself a bit and arrive at school early enough to notify her teachers and get used to the school.
The Fenton family was at the kitchen table a few hours later. Jazz was reading a book called 'Surviving Adolescence Through Therapy' and using it to block the sparks her mother, Maddie, was making with a blowtorch while working on another invention.
Danny, Jazz's little brother and Nyx's twin, was eating cereal with a bored look on his face...until his hand turned intangible without his intent and made him drop his spoon in his bowl. He let out a sound of shock when he noticed his missing hand and hid it behind his back before anyone noticed.
"Okay," Maddie said with a chipper voice, "two more days and it's done."
"What did you say? It's done!" came the excited voice of Jack, the father of the three siblings, as he held up the invention. "The Fenton Finder is done! This baby uses satellites to lead you right to the ghost."
One very important thing about Jack and Maddie Fenton, they were obsessed with ghosts. They were inventors whose only goal was to hunt, capture, dissect, and destroy ghosts.
"It uses what to track what?" Danny's voice was weak with an underlying tone of fear.
A robotic voice then said, "Welcome to the Fenton Finder. A ghost is near. Walk forward." Danny began to walk backwards with a worried look on his face as his parents stepped closer to him with excited looks. "Ghost located. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder."
Danny had backed up till he had nowhere else to go. He gave a sheepish smile while his parents looked the device in confusion.
"What? Oh, that can't be right." Jack said.
Danny accidentally turned invisible but reappeared before his parents noticed. He grew scared before he resigned himself stared to tell his parents the truth. "Actually, I need to tell you guys something."
"That's not all you need, Danny." Jazz said closing her book. "You need guidance and parents who can provide it.
"Sweetie, I know what we do doesn't make sense sometimes, but you're only-" Maddie was cut off by Jazz.
"Sixteen. Biologically, but psychologically I'm an adult and I will not allow your insane obsession with ghosts pollute the the mind of this impressionability little child. Come, you abused unwanted wretch, I'll drive you to school." She held Danny close to her while giving her parents a hard stare. She'd thought about bringing up Nyx but decided against it. They'd realize they forgot her and that she's back soon enough.
Casper High, the only high school in Amity Park and the place all three Fenton children are without all of them being aware of the fact.
Danny was walking with Sam and Tucker through the halls while talking about what he should do. "I think I should tell them." He felt as though it might be better to just be honest with his family rather than hiding the fact he was half-ghost.
"Why?" Sam, ever the most cautious of the three, asked. "Parents don't listen. Even worse, they don't understand. Why can't they accept me for who I am?!"
"Uh, Sam, I'm talking about my powers, my problems, " Danny reminded her.
"Oh, right," she recalled, "me too."
"It's been a month since the accident and I still barely have any control. If somebody catches me I go from geek to freak around here." As he said this his legs turned intangible and caused him to starrt sinking through the floor.
"Kinda like what you're doing now." Tucker pointed out Danny's current state to himself.
Sam and Tucker lifted Danny out of the floor as his legs appeared again.
"Darn it," he muttered. "If my dad could invent something that accidentally made me half-ghost, why can't he invent something that can turn me back to normal?" He accidentally turned intangible before walking into a soda machine and stepping out with a down look on his face.
"Danny, your powers make you unique." Sam told him, "Unique is good. That's why I'm and ultra recyclo-vegetarian." Sam took great pride in being different, in standing out. Everything from her lifestyle choices to the clothes she wore set her apart from others.
"Which means what?" Tucker had no idea what she was talking about.
"She doesn't eat anything with a face on it," Danny told him.
Tucker was just the opposite. "Oh, who cares about that stuff? Danny, two words: meat connoisseur." He pointed at himself with a grin before sniffing the air around his best friend. "Last night, you had sloppy joes."
"Impressive."
"Meat heightens the senses, and my all meat streak is fourteen years long." Similar to how Sam took pride in being different, Tucker took pride in his love for meat.
Sam was unimpressed by Tucker's display smelling meat. "And it's about to end. The school board finally agreed to try a new cafeteria menu. I wore them down."
"Wait, what did you do?"
The three of them didn't know they were being followed by an invisible figure that had heard and seen everything they'd said and done.
Throughout the entire morning Nyx had been able to find some way of communicating with all of her teachers while seeming to simultaneously go unnoticed by her brother and his friends, though the rest of their peers weren't as oblivious. Her sudden appearance and looks were enough to spark the interests of nearly every student in the school. By lunch time, the student body was buzzing with the rumor of a new girl that no one knew anything about.
The first any of the three had heard about the girl was while waiting in line for lunch. Being the most unpopular kids in the entire school meant that Danny, Sam, and Tucker didn't hear about anything unless they overheard someone else talking about it.
"Who is everyone talking about?" Danny asked his friends.
Sam and tucker shrugged. "No clue./Don't care." Tucker and Sam respectively said at the same time.
"Probably just another brainless popular of higher social status than us." Sam didn't care about anything that had to do with popularity and, therefore, no interest in whoever the new girl was.
"Sam's probably right," Tucker agreed. "Though that's not hard when being compared to us."
The three didn't discuss the topic anymore as they moved through the line, each of them getting what appeared to be a piece of bread with grass growing on top of it.
"What is this?" Danny asked looking down at it. "Grass on a bun?"
"What have you done!?" Tucker exclaimed to Sam.
Sam smirked at him. "Tucker," she held up her food, "it's time for a change."
Unknown to everyone, back at Fenton Works a ghost that looked like a lunch lady walked out of the Fenton portal in the basement and said, "Oh, somebody changed the menu." She then floated out of the building.
Back at the school cafeteria sitting at a table in the middle of everyone reading a book was Nyx. The table she was at was empty, not because she was a loner or considered a loser, but because no one was brave enough to talk to her. Those that didn't see her as too pretty were unsettled by her silver-gray eyes or simply hadn't tried yet.
Nyx didn't care. She'd never needed many friends or company in general. It was also hard to have relationships of any kind with people unless they knew sign language or were okay with reading everything she wanted to convey. In some ways she was glad she couldn't talk, it helped her know who her true friends were since only they would be willing to go to such lengths to be her friend.
She also enjoyed just watching other people around her. The book in front of her was just for show. Her attention was actually focused on her brother and his friends at the table next to hers. Their conversation was rather boring compared to the one they'd had earlier, but that didn't bother her. She knew it would change eventually, and she was proven right when a blue wisp escaped Danny's mouth.
"Uh, guys, I have a problem," he said. Then he got hit on the head with a bunch of mud while someone screamed his last name. "Make that two problems." He corrected and turned around.
Dash Baxter stormed up to him with a tray of what looked like mud from Nyx's perspective. "I ordered three mud pies. Do you know what they gave me? Three mud pies! With mud! From the ground! All because of your girlfriend!"
"She's not my girlfriend." Danny stated.
"I'm not his girlfriend." Sam added.
All Nyx did was grin at the jock's misfortune, he probably deserved it.
Dash grabbed Danny by his shirt collar. "These are the best years of my life. After high school it's all down hill for me. How am I supposed to enjoy my glory days eating mud!?"
"Actually, it's topsoil," Sam corrected.
"Whatever." Dash threw Danny back in his seat. He put his tray of mud in front of Danny and said, "Eat it. All of it."
Everyone in the cafeteria watched as Danny brought the spoon up as if he was going to eat it, but Nyx saw another blue wisp escape his mouth before he did. He suddenly yelled, "Garbage fight!" and threw the tray right in Dash's face. The room erupted in cheers as everyone started chucking food everywhere.
Nyx ducked beneath a table as soon the food started flying, as did Danny. She saw Danny pull Sam down with him and Tucker and watched as the three crawled to the door for the kitchen area and disappeared. Nyx knew why they decided to go in there but debated whether or not to get involved. Choosing to follow, Nyx began to make her way across the cafeteria.
Inside the kitchen Danny, Sam, and Tucker came across The Lunch Lady who seemed very kind and polite at first but quickly showed how evil she was when Tucker told her Sam changed the menu.
"Get behind me," Danny commanded his friends. "I'm going ghost!" Two white rings appeared around his waist and spread in opposite directions over his body. His white and red t-shirt, light blue jeans, and red and white tennis shoes changed to a black and white hazmat suit and white boots. His hair went from black to white while his blue eyes became neon green.
The newly transformed into Danny Phantom flew into the air to confront his opponent. At the same moment, Nyx stepped through the door without anyone noticing.
Danny pointed to The Lunch Lady and yelled, "I command you to go go away."
Nyx nearly face palmed at his words. 'Did he really expect that to work?' She thought.
The Lunch Lady ignored him and made the dishes on the counter fly at him. He quickly managed to turn intangible and let the dishes pass right through him and smash into the wall. He smiled at his small success.
Sam, however, didn't have the ability to use when the plates started flying towards her. Lucky for her, Danny swooped in front of her and caught all the plates on his arms and with his tail that replaced his legs. The same happened with Tucker, but there were so many plates Danny had to catch a few in his mouth.
The same couldn't be said for Nyx. The teens hadn't even noticed she was in the room until plates started flying towards her.
Even if Danny could hold more plates he couldn't get to her in time. Luckily, he didn't have to.
A third ghost none of the teens had seen before grabbed Nyx and pulled her out of the way and beside Sam and Tucker.
Danny put all the plates back on the counter they were originally on. "Well, if this superhero thing doesn't work out I could have an exciting career as a busboy." He said while looking at the plates that were formally in his mouth.
The ovens behind the ghost started shaking. "I control lunch!" The Lunch Lady yelled. "Lunch is scared! Lunch has rules!" Her tone suddenly softened. "Anybody want cake?"
Sam and Tucker nodded slowly, their faces showing their shock while Nyx and the other ghost just glared at her.
"Too bad!" Lunch Lady shouted. "Children who change my menu do not get dessert!" She then phased through the ceiling while the ovens had green flames burst from their tops and insides.
The ovens became monstrous with teeth and eyes as they flew towards the group of teens. Green fire was shot at the teens, but they all managed to jump out of the way in time. But when the ovens came closer Danny grabbed Sam and Tucker and the other ghost grabbed Nyx and phased them all out of the way through the wall.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker rolled a bit before landing in a heap. Nyx and the other ghost actually landed on their feet as if this was a normal thing.
"Hey, it worked!" Danny exclaimed as he stood with a grin.
"This is the thanks I get for thinking like an individual," Sam exclaimed.
"You're not very good at this are you?" A female voice asked from beside them.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker turned and finally got a good look at the two figures that appeared during the fight. One was a ghost and the other was a human, and both were girls.
The human girl had long raven black hair, silver-gray eyes, and was slightly tall for her age. She wore a navy blue one shoulder tank top that showed her mid-drift, black skinny jeans with a loosely hanging chain, and black combat boots that weren't as bulky as Sam's. Five or six earrings could be seen in each ear, as well as a black crystal necklace, and a charm bracelet on her left wrist.
The ghost girl's white hair progressively turned purple towards the bottom which matched her violet eyes. Her black long sleeved top also showed her mid-drift and had a thick dark purple-blue streak running diagonally across her torso. Her black pants were form fitting, had a similar streak to the one on her shirt, and were tucked into white boots that matched her white gloves. The feature that was a dead give away that she was a ghost was her light blue skin.
"Who the heck are you?" Three voices asked in unison.
The ghost girl just raised her eyebrow and said, "You're new at this, aren't you?"
"That didn't answer our question," Sam stated.
"It wasn't supposed to," she shot back. She turned to leave, Nyx following not far behind.
"Where the heck are you two going?" Danny demanded.
The ghost girl didn't even bother turning around as she called back, "Anywhere but here. Neither of us are going to wait for the demon lunch lady to come back. Have fun dealing with her." She then grabbed Nyx by the arm and phased them both through a wall.
"Well that was odd." Sam said.
"We can worry about them later. We need to-" Danny didn't get to finish before the lights went out and sent sparks raining down on them. Lockers slammed open, their contents flying out and towards the Lunch lady floating at the end of the hall.
School supplies weren't the only things flying, however. Different types of meat from the teacher's lounge, which Tucker managed to name just by smell, were flying with the books and papers. All the meat converged on the Lunch Lady until she was covered in layer of various meats.
"Prepare to learn why meat is the most powerful of the five food groups!" The giant meat monster yelled while pointing to Sam. "Cookie?" Sam shook her head. After losing the slightly puzzled look from that response, "Then parish!"
"Forget it," Danny said jumping in front of Sam. "The only thing that has an expiration date around here is you!" He pointed at the monster as head spoke and made his hand into a fist when he finished. Sparks then started on his fist and spread over his hand, arm, and eventually entire body, turning him human. "Whoops, I didn't mean to do that."
The meat monster threw Danny at Tucker against the lockers who were then covered in papers. The Lunch Lady grabbed Sam in her giant hand and disappeared down the hall.
"Come on," Tucker commanded, "change back, we gotta go."
Tucker and Danny felt a hand on the backs of their shirt collars. "You two aren't going anywhere." Mr. Lancer, the vice principle of Casper High, held them both to prevent them getting away.
Dash had told Mr. Lancer they were the ones responsible for the cafeteria and it wasn't really a lie. "Told you you'd pay, Fenton."
The two girls were just around the corner and had seen and heard the whole thing. "Apparently those two don't know how to get anything done." The ghost girl smirked. "Guess that means I'll just have to bail them out."
A few minutes later the two girls were standing in a room while Tucker and Danny were sitting and waiting for punishment. They were both invisible and not known to be there by anyone, even Danny whose ghost sense didn't go off in response to the ghost girl's proximity at all.
"Tucker Foley. Chronic tardiness, talking in class, repeated loitering by the girl's locker room." Mr. Lancer read from a file. "Danny Fenton. Thirty-four dropped beakers in the last month, banded for life from handling any fragile school property but no severe mischief before today. So, gentlemen, why don't you tell me why the two of conspired to destroy the school cafeteria!?"
"Dash started it," Danny attempted to defend, "he threw-"
"Four touchdown passes in the last game and therefore exempt from punishment." The duo of girls couldn't believe he actually said that. Talk about favoritism. "You two, however, are not. I'll map out your punishment when I get back. Mr. Baxter, watch the door." He and Dash, who'd been leaning against the wall by the door, walked."
"You two probably have the worst luck I've ever seen." The girls reappeared right in front of Tucker and Danny.
They both screamed in surprise. "Uh, um, who are you?" Danny feigned ignorance. He wasn't sure he was going to tell his family his secret, there was no way he'd tell someone he didn't even know the name of.
"Don't even try it. She probably knows more about you than you do." The ghost girl had no patience for this. "I know you don't know me or trust me, but I'm willing to help you save your human girlfriend."
"She's not my girlfriend." Danny wondered why she thought Sam was his girlfriend, why everyone thought that really.
She ignored him. "After that, I don't care about the ghost. You can deal with her on your own."
"Why do you care about Sam?" Tucker asked.
"I don't." She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "But I do care about humans not getting hurt and your friend is human, so I'll help you."
"And her?" Danny gestured to Nyx. "Why's she involved?"
"That's not your business." As far as she was concerned, Danny didn't need to know anything about Nyx at the moment. "For now, just know she'll be the reason Mr. Lancer won't be focusing on you two for awhile. Your friend is in the storage room in the basement. I'll follow you in a minute." She and Nyx then phased out of the room so that Nyx could begin causing a distraction.
Danny transformed and phased Tucker and phased the two of them through the floor where Ghost Girl, as he'd taken to calling her until he could get her name, had told him Sam would be. True to her word, in the basement storage room there were boxes of meant everywhere and The Lunch Lady ghost with Sam in a pile of meat.
The Lunch Lady had asked Sam why she didn't want to eat meat and told how good it was for people to eat.
"We don't need meat," Sam stated. "That's fact." These words sent the ghost into a rage.
"Silence! You need discipline, manners, respect. You know where that comes from!? Meat! Chicken or fish?" Sam was beginning to feel as though the ghost's constantly changing mood from sweet to demonic and back was more unsettling than her just yelling all the time.
"I'll take care of the ghost. You just find a way to get Sam out of that pile of meat."
Tucker just held up a fork and knife. "Way ahead of you."
The two went around the corner. Danny flew at the ghost managing to surprise her and actually land a punch.
Tucker had taken is set of utensils and began eating the meat Sam was buried in. "I'll have you free in no time, Sam."
"You've got to be kidding me." Not only was she trapped in meat, she'd have to wait for Tucker to eat it to get her out. She was really starting to hate her day.
Ghost Girl had phased through he ceiling at about that time, very much questioning this boy's logic in her head. She simply swooped down and grabbed Sam by her arms to turn her intangible. Sam didn't even bother asking the ghost why she helped, she was happy enough being free to not care.
Danny's part of the plan wasn't going as well as Tucker's. He was literally being thrown around by The Lunch Lady. If it weren't for his ghost powers he'd have been slammed into a wall and impaled by a shish kebab by now.
Lunch Lady, obviously angered by his lack of being hurt, roared and summoned all the meat from the boxes surrounding them. Just like in the hall she transformed into a giant meat monster. She grabbed Danny in her enormous hand and threw at the opposite wall.
He phased through the wall, but that meant Sam and Tucker were all that was left for the ghost to take care of. She roared again.
"Run?" Tucker posed the idea.
"Run." The two teens took off while Ghost Girl took the liberty of landing a solid ecto-charged hit at the Lunch Lady's head. Six years of practice made it so that that hit was pretty effective at getting the Lunch Lady's attention and knocking her to the ground at the same time.
The Lunch Lady literally threw her fist in retaliation, but Ghost Girl easily avoided it only for it to block the door Sam and Tucker were trying to get to and escape out of.
Danny phased through the wall again just as the two ran in another direction to escape the pursuing meat monster. Ghost Girl distracted Lunch Lady while Danny flew after his friends and caught both of them in his arms before phasing all of them though the wall and outside the school.
Ghost Girl followed right behind them. Once they were safe she heard Sam say, "Gee, Danny. Fighting meat monsters, phasing through walls. You must be exhausted."
"What?" Danny exclaimed. "Of course not. What would...give you that idea?" He fell asleep flying and would have hit the ground if Ghost Girl hadn't managed to grab the three of them and lower them to the ground in a safer manor. Danny transformed to his human half as soon as he touched the ground.
Sam and Tucker looked at him then each other and finally at Ghost Girl.
"Not that I'm complaining," Sam started, "but why did you help us?"
Before Ghost Girl could respond Nyx ran up to them with a smirk. Her distraction had gone off without a hitch. Not only had Mr. Lancer forgotten about Tucker and Danny, he was now focused on who had defaced an entire hallway of lockers.
"And who are you two?" Tucker continued asking the things they'd been wondering for a while.
Ghost Girl sighed before kneeling to scoop up Danny in her arms and started carrying him home. "I'm Selene. This is Nyx." Nyx nodded to them when they looked at her. "She's the new student people at your school have been talking about all day."
"That doesn't tell us why you both helped." Sam didn't trust them, even though they'd helped the trio of friends.
"I helped you because I don't like seeing humans hurt by ghosts. It's bad enough humans to hurt each other in whatever way, but at least they don't overpower each other as much as a ghost could."
"That seems awfully humane for a ghost." Sam was still skeptical. It just seemed so off to her that a ghost would want to help humans.
Selene shrugged. "How's it so different than Danny here?" She personally saw no difference. All she saw was someone protecting those he cared about, she was essentially doing the same.
"Because Danny's also half-human." Sam stated. "You're not."
"Shouldn't matter what I am." She countered. "All that should matter is that I'm not gonna hurt you, I've even helped you." Sam went silent after that, mulling over Selene's words. "Why are you so quiet Tucker? I know you're not as vocal about things as Sam, but you're not usually this silent."
"I'm wondering why Nyx's name seems familiar, and why she's involved in any of this?"
"Why are you two involved in all this?" Selene responded simply. "Because Danny's your best friend and you're his. It's similar for Nyx and I. As for why her name's familiar, I'm sure Danny mentioned he has more than one sister."
Sam and Tucker gaped at her, then at Nyx. Nyx smirked at them and gave a sarcastic wave. She wasn't surprised they didn't recognize her, they'd never even met her before that day. She'd had her first lab accident just days before Danny had met them. Even if they had met her, it'd been six years since she was home for more than a few hours, people can change a lot in that time.
"That explains why you haven't said anything," Sam realized. "You lost your voice when you were eight, right?"
Nyx nodded.
"Hmm, wonder why Danny didn't tell us you were back," Tucker mussed.
"He didn't know," Selene said, "Nyx got home late last night and left the house before anyone else woke up. The only other person that knows she's home is Jazz."
"Why not?" Sam questioned. "Shouldn't your family be thrilled to have you home?"
"She's not close with them." Selene explained. "The only contact she's had with her family aside from Jazz is a quick hello every now and then."
"Must have been pretty hard," Sam remarked. "My parents aren't my favorite people in the world, but I couldn't imagine not talking to them for so long."
Nyx just shrugged.
"Well, she wasn't without company all those years. An old friend looked after her and took care of her. They sent her to school, helped her adjust to a new life, taught her useful skills. They'd even found someone to teach her sign language so she didn't always have to write things out for people. Of course, Jazz is the only other person that knows it."
"I know sign language." Sam claimed.
"You do?" Tucker questioned.
Sam nodded. "I wanted to know it in case someone I met couldn't hear or talk but knew sign. I also knew Nyx was mute and thought it was a possibility she would learn the language. I wanted to make it easier on her."
"Even though you'd never met me?" Nyx inquired.
"Of course, plus we can have conversations with Tucker and Danny having an idea what we're talking about." Sam signed just to prove she could.
"I have a feeling this is the start of a beautiful friendship."
Sam laughed. "As long as you don't like bright, happy colors and talking about boys all the time." Five minutes ago she didn't trust this girl, now she's having a secret conversation with her.
"Only if you're okay with video games and causing trouble."
"Okay," Tucker interrupted, "can you two please stop doing that? It makes me feel like I'm missing something."
The two girls would have continued if they hadn't reached Fenton Works at that moment.
Selene stopped walking at the bottom of the steps. "This is where I'll have to leave you three on your own." She told them. "Jack and Maddie Fenton may be the two most incompetent ghost hunters in the world, but that doesn't mean I'm gonna spend more time near them than absolutely necessary." She let Tucker, Sam, and Nyx take Danny, Nyx supporting most of his weight. She was surprisingly strong for a girl their age. Once Selene was sure they had him, she took off into the sky.
The three of them went through the door, Danny and Nyx's parents not too far inside. "Hey, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. What a school day. Poor Danny nodded off. We figured we'd just carry him all the way home and tuck him into without any parental interaction whatsoever." Tucker exclaimed as they carried Danny inside and started heading upstairs.
"Don't get up. We know where to go," Sam assured them.
The four teens disappeared up the stairs without Jack or Maddie saying a word to stop them.
"Was that Nyx that was with them?" Jack questioned after they were gone.
"That couldn't have been Nyx, Jack. She's not supposed to get out of the hospital until yesterday, remember." Maddie told him. She gasped when she realized what she said. "Oh my god, we forgot to pick her up yesterday."
The three friends put Danny on his bed. Tucker and Sam then sat down in waiting for Danny to to wake up. Nyx, however, turned to go back out the door.
"Where are you going?" Sam's voice stopped her.
"I don't think it would be a good idea for me to be here when he wakes up. It's been six years since the two of us talked and just because I'm his sister doesn't mean he'll like me knowing what I do. I'm gonna give him some time to accept that I know his biggest secret." Nyx told.
"But he doesn't know you're his sister," Sam reminded her. "He'll be even more worried about some stranger he doesn't know being aware of his ghost-half."
"Then explain who I am to him. I can't talk, he doesn't know sign language, I doubt he'll be willing to read the explanation written out, and me being here when he wakes up will just freak him out." Nyx stopped for a moment and sighed. "Tell him who I am when he wakes up and that I'll be in my room to explain everything to him when he's ready. I'll take care of the long complicated parts, just get him to come see me."
"Alright," Sam relented.
"Thank you." With that, Nyx left the room and closed the door behind her.
She turned down the hall and at the very end stood a door that had been sparsely used since she left all those years ago. Inside the walls were gray while the ceiling was painted dark blue like the night sky. A large bed with dark blue sheets was set against one, a nightstand on each side. A desk with her computer stood against the wall underneath one of the two windows in her room, a bookshelf on the left side packed with books. On the other side of her desk an art easel with a partially finished painting stood, several more leaned against the wall along with dozens of drawing and sketches Nyx hadn't seen in years. Another set of shelves were hung on the wall in the corner, crammed to the max with various art supplies. Anything from charcoal to paint brushes could be found on those shelves or in the set of draws below.
She'd missed her room. It wasn't always the cleanest of rooms, but it had always been cleaner than Danny's and no matter how messy it appeared, she could always find whatever she was looking for in no time.
She went over to her unfinished painting, examining it to see if she could remember what the image was going to be. A lot of it appeared blurry, as if she'd painted the base but never got into adding the details. Dark brown and purple were the main colors that took up the background. A large red-brown blob occupied much of the right side with a two smaller blobs at the bottom of it. One was mostly black while the other was yellow and green with a small quantity of red. Towards the left were two more small figures. One of them was black and white and if Nyx turned her head just the right way she could swear it looked like the figure was upside down. The last figure was made up of white, purple, black and a bit of blue.
After staring at the painting for several minutes Nyx finally realized what it was. The only problem was that it shouldn't have been possible. She quickly went to the back of the canvas and looked at the writing in the bottom corner. On every painting and drawing she did she would put the date she started (and finished if it took multiple days) so that she always knew when she had done each piece. The date on this painting was three months ago, but the event depicted in it had only happened today.
Nyx started looking at each painting and drawing, analyzing each scene and every detail then checking the day she'd made them on. Some scenes had happened, others didn't. She saw Selene carrying Danny home with herself, Sam, and Tucker next to her, Jazz driving her home from the hospital, Danny transforming into his ghost half in Mr. Lancer's office, and her spray-painting the lockers in the school hallway to distract Mr. Lancer.
Some scenes, however, never happened. Nyx being grabbed by a giant meat monster, Danny falling with Sam and Tucker to the ground, and Mr. Lancer walking back into his office only to find Tucker and Danny gone (Okay, she wasn't sure if that one really never happened).
Whether the scene depicted in each drawing happened or not, all of them were dated at least six months ago.
Nyx had gotten so lost in her findings she didn't hear Sam and Tucker yelling at each other or storming out of the house. She didn't notice the door had opened and that someone had walked in until she heard the person yell.
"What are you doing in my house!?"
Nyx jumped and turned around. It was Danny. But why was he confused as to who she was. Sam was supposed to tell him she'd be here.
"Why are you going through my sister's artwork?" Danny left her no time to respond as he continued to interrogate her. "Who are you anyway?"
She held up her hands to try to get him to stop asking questions , but he payed her no mind. "You were at the school with Ghost Girl." He recalled.
'"Ghost Girl?" Did Sam not tell him anything?' She thought to herself. She held up one finger as a signal to wait a moment then rushed to the desk to find some paper and something to write on. Once she did she quickly scribbled out what was most important at the moment so that Danny would quit thinking she was some creeper going through his sister's stuff after breaking in or something.
She handed it to him and waited as he read it. He surprisingly did so without question, though he did look at her in confusion for a moment. It wasn't long just a couple sentences, but Danny had to read it over multiple times to be sure he was reading it correctly.
Before Nyx could even comprehend what was happening Danny had swooped her up into his arms in a rib crushing hug. 'When did Danny get so strong?'
After Danny had stopped crushing Nyx's internal organs, the two had settled into talking about what they'd each done over the last few years. Well, Danny talked and Nyx would write things down for him to read or he'd ask questions Nyx could answer with nods or head shakes. The two fell asleep on Nyx's bed after hours of catching up.
Danny and Nyx walked to school together the next morning while he explained what happened between Sam and Tucker the night before. The two blamed each other for what happened with the Lunch Lady.
Danny had hoped the two would be over it in the morning, but when he saw what was happening at school he knew he couldn't be farther from the truth. Two protests had been organized. One advocating vegetables being led by Sam and the other demanding meat by Tucker.
Nyx left the scene as soon as she saw it. She refused to be involved in a dispute between two friends, even if it meant Danny was stuck in it alone. Instead, she went inside the school to where she'd caused trouble the day before. In some random hallway she'd found, Nyx had taken the liberty of giving the normally blue-gray lockers a makeover. Each and every locker was now covered in spray-painted ravens, crows, spiders, ghosts, and anything else that had anything to do with what went bump in the night.
The students that saw her work of art had actually enjoyed it very much, Mr. Lancer on the other hand, did not. He'd been ready to stage a full-on man hunt for whoever had done it, luckily, Casper High didn't have the resources nor did it have the willing volunteers to do it. In the end, the student population massively approved of the change, Tucker and Danny were given a few hours before Lancer had found them missing, and Nyx had a good laugh at her success.
She was quite content to just silently laugh over her scheme yesterday until she heard a roar from outside. "It's lunch time!"
'Does she ever quit!?' she asked in her head. Nyx made sure she was alone before she did what she really couldn't yesterday. Violet rings surrounded her waist and spread over her entire body. Her black jeans and navy blue top were exchanged for black pants and a shirt with a purple-blue streak on them. Her hands became covered in white gloves along with her boots. Raven black hair turned white and purple, and silver-gray eyes glowed violet. Nyx had become Selene.
She quickly made a duplicate of herself in human form and left it in the hallway. She'd make her way out and away from the scene to make it seem like she'd had nothing to do with it while the real her was making sure no one got hurt.
Selene flew out of the school down to where Sam and Tucker had just pulled apart to show Danny in his ghost form. He flew up to face the meat monster as Selene went down to Sam and Tucker. The normal humans had the good sense to run away from the ghost as soon as it formed so Selene didn't really have to do anything.
Selene didn't like to fight other ghosts not because she couldn't but because she preferred not to make them her enemies. She stayed out of fights as much as possible and only got involved if she had to. This was one of the times her help wasn't necessary so she watched as Danny got thrown around a bit but in the end had managed to capture The Lunch Lady in the Fenton thermos.
"Well," Selene started when he caught the ghost, "looks like you're not all that bad at this. You're not that great, but there's still hope for you."
"Cause you helped so much." He retorted.
"I told you yesterday I only care about making sure humans stayed safe. The humans ran when the ghost showed up, no one was in danger, and you had it under control. My help wasn't needed."
Danny had to admit she was right. Her points were sound. And even if they weren't she had no obligation to help him.
"Where's Nyx?" Danny asked her.
"I sent her home," Selene lied. "I wanted to be sure she was safe."
"Why do you care about her so much?" Danny questioned.
Before she had to come up with an answer she heard, "Ghost directly ahead." She immediately flew off even though she knew it wasn't her the device was tracking.
Danny hid the thermos behind his back, Sam and Tucker right next to him. "Oh, sorry, Dad. You just missed him." He fibbed.
"We got a runner!" Jack called and ran off with Maddie.
"Great," Jazz muttered, "back to square one." She walked away.
"So, you're not gonna tell them?" Tucker guessed.
"Nah," Danny replied, "I think I might have finally figured out what these powers are for. They make me-"
Danny felt a hand on his shoulder. Mr. Lancer finally found him. "In a world of trouble."
Danny, Sam, and Tucker were left with the job of cleaning up the mess caused by Danny's fight with The Lunch Lady while Dash and Mr. Lancer made sure the trio continued to do their work. Unknown to all of them, a sixth figure was among them as well.
So when Dash started chuckling at Danny having to clean, the dumpster he was leaning against mysteriously turned intangible and spilled food over the boy to the point he couldn't get out on his own.
"Fenton!" He cried out. "A little help."
Danny looked up just in time to see Selene give him a salute with a smirk while floating above the school before she took off into the night. It was then Danny decided even if Selene was just around to cause a little payback to Dash he was okay with her being there. "Whatever you say, Dash. Whatever you say."