A/N: This is my first DP fanfic, but I have been writing generally for a few years now. I like to think I'm a decent writer, but I'd love to hear your thoughts! Thanks for reading!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom, the ghost hunger au, or the story image.
Danny aimed his glowing palm at the Box Ghost, preparing to give the annoying spectral entity a quick zap before sucking him into the Fenton thermos. "You with feaaaar me Phantom! I am the Boooox Ghooost!"
"Yeah yeah, you're so much scarier this time than all the other times," Danny responded. "I know you're a box ghost but you should seriously try to can it."
Danny fired off an ecto-blast...or at least he thought he would, until he saw the green glow fading pitifully from his hand. "What the hell?" he wondered aloud. It wasn't a second before the telltale white rings sprung to life around his waist, replacing his black-and-white jumpsuit with his jeans and t-shirt. Danny cried out in surprise as he dropped from the air and landed in a pile of cardboard boxes; it wasn't the best thing to break his fall.
Above him the Box Ghost cackled. "You have made a wise choice, Phantom! Embrace the power of three dimensional rectangular objects! BEWARE!"
The overall-clad ghost vanished, leaving Danny confused, and suddenly exhausted as he hauled himself up from the mountain of cardboard. He picked up the Fenton thermos, sighing as he met back up with Sam and Tucker outside the warehouse.
"All right, Box Ghost down! Again!" Tucker exclaimed, raising his hand to give Danny a celebratory high-five.
Danny shook his head. "Not this time Tucker."
Sam snorted. "Oh come on, don't tell me the 'all powerful Box Ghost' defeated Danny Phantom?"
"Not exactly," Danny replied. "I was going fire an ecto-blast at him, but my powers suddenly faded out. I transformed back and..." his voice lowered, "I fell into a pile of boxes."
"What?" Sam said, the mockery in her tone quickly replaced by concern. "How?"
Danny shrugged. "I dunno, but let's deal with it tomorrow. I'm tired and hungry and...oh man, I've probably missed dinner again."
The young ghost teen groaned. It was the fourth time this week he had skipped a meal in favour of fighting ghosts, and he knew that if his parents had been ignoring this regular weekly pattern up until now, they'd start worrying any time soon. He was not looking forward to that.
By the time he got home, Danny was famished and exhausted. Since he suddenly reverted to normal, non-ghostly Danny Fenton, he'd had to walk all the way home. As he suspected, the rest of the Fenton family had long past sat down for their evening meal; Jazz was studying in her room, and their parents were down in the lab-of course. Danny figured he would just release the few ghosts he had in the thermos tomorrow. They could wait one more night.
Danny kicked his shoes off at the door, shuffling over to the fridge; Jazz must have heard him come in, because she was downstairs in a moment. "Hey Danny," she said with a smile. "There are some leftovers in the fridge. How did it go with the ghosts?"
"I don't want to talk about it," Danny said with an unusual air of finality as he pulled what was left of dinner from the top shelf. Jazz cast him a puzzled look; he didn't look like he had too many injuries-for once-so could it really have gone that badly?
Danny didn't want to tell her about his powers disappearing. She would probably read something into it when she didn't need to; he was most likely overtired and he was only half ghost, as he was constantly reminded, so a lack of sleep would definitely affect his energy level in a fight. "Are you sure you're okay?" Jazz prompted.
Danny just gave her a tired nod as he sat down. "Yeah, I just need some sleep. As always."
Jazz gave a worried sigh. "Okay, if you're sure. I'll be upstairs if you need anything."
Danny nodded again. "'Kay, thanks," he said.
He tried to eat quickly, since he wanted to get as much sleep as he could. Tomorrow was Monday; he couldn't even remember what homework he'd been assigned over the weekend. By this point he'd almost stopped caring. He could scan through his agenda and try to finish whatever he could, but he was sure that in the grand scheme of things, it wouldn't contribute too much to boosting his grade; it was beyond saving by now.
Danny lay in bed, briefly glancing at his alarm clock: 12:34am. That meant he could get about seven hours. That was better than normal. Or at least it would have been, if he had any luck falling asleep. He pulled the covers around himself in an effort to get more comfortable, realizing belatedly, that he was still kind of hungry...
Danny woke up to the smack of Mr. Lancer's meter stick on his desk. "GHOST!" he exclaimed automatically, his heart beating wildly for a few seconds, until he realized where he was.
"No, Mr. Fenton, just me," Mr. Lancer said tiredly.
Danny's shoulders hunched and he felt his face burning as the class erupted into laughter. "Fen-turd's becoming more like his crazy parents every day!" Dash teased from somewhere behind him. Danny gritted his teeth in frustration; he was so not in the mood for this-like anyone ever was.
"Detention after class, Daniel," Lancer said, narrowing his eyes, "again."
Danny sighed resignedly. "Yes Mr. Lancer."
Sam cast him a sympathetic look and in return, he gave her a small, thankful smile. Afterwards he kept his mouth shut and did his best to stay awake for the rest of the period.
Lunch couldn't have come any sooner; Danny was starving, despite actually taking the time to eat a proper breakfast that morning. He had felt the same the night before. Maybe his busy and irregular ghost-fighting schedule was finally catching up with him. Danny looked down at his lunch tray to the ambiguous sludge on his plate that may once have been stew; he didn't even care how disgusting it looked (or tasted), since he was too hungry to complain.
"Dude, your parents even been feeding you?" Tucker asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Of course Tuck," Danny replied as he shoved the tasteless mush in his mouth. "I've just been pretty hungry lately."
Sam made a face as she watched her best friend eat. Boys really were disgusting. She pulled out her own recyclo-vegetarian bag-lunch, but she was finding her appetite, unlike her ghostly friend's, was quickly dwindling.
Just as Danny finished eating, a chilly wisp of blue curled out from between his lips, signalling a nearby ghost. "Man, duty calls," he said with a sigh.
"We'll cover you next period bro," Tucker said. "Go kick some ghostly butt!"
Danny nodded, casting his best friends a smile before he sprinted out of the cafeteria and made a bee-line for the boys washroom. He made a quick check to confirm he was alone. "Going ghost," he said to himself with a smile, and an ethereal ring of light appeared around his midsection, splitting in two and transforming Danny Fenton into Danny Phantom. He quickly activated his intangibility, and phased back out of the door and out to where his ghost sense was leading him.
"Good afternoon, Daniel. Shouldn't you be in class?"
Danny whipped around; standing-or rather hovering-across from the teacher parking lot, white cape flowing in the breeze, was Vlad. "Lunch break, Fruit-loop," Danny said with a resigned boredom, charging an ecto-blast in his palm. "What are you doing here? You're too old for school, and you know what they say about old dogs and new tricks."
Vlad flashed the ghost boy an amused grin, his pointed teeth glinting. "Well Daniel, I heard an odd rumour last night from some very talkative spectres; they say that the Box Ghost defeated you yesterday."
"What?! That's a load of shit, Plasmius. You know it!" Danny said defensively.
"But you didn't defeat him, since I was told he still hasn't been 'returned' to the ghost zone," Vlad replied, his smile unwavering; it got on Danny's nerves. It must have showed on his face, because Vlad laughed. Silently, Danny cursed his terrible poker face. "So, it is true then? What stopped the great Danny Phantom from defeating the Box Ghost?"
"None of your business, Plasmius," Danny replied curtly. "And if that's all you came for you wasted your time, so I suggest you leave before I have to kick your ass."
Like I would tell him the truth, Danny thought. I don't even know why my powers failed.
"I don't think I like your tone, Daniel," Vlad replied, his smile slowly curling into a scowl as a glowing ball of red began to pulse in his hand. "I'm a curious man, and I don't like to be kept waiting. What happened with the Box Ghost?"
"Nothing!" Danny exclaimed, firing his charged ecto-beam at the older halfa. In his momentary anger, the beam wasn't quite on target, and Vlad easily dodged.
"Is that the best you've got, Daniel?" Vlad teased. "Something must have you distracted."
He returned the fire, and the speeding crimson ball of ectoplasm hit Danny square in the chest before he could dodge, knocking him back into the wall of the school. The ghost boy wheezed as the breath left his lungs, and his head whacked the cement. Danny stumbled, but maintained his footing. Why was he so weak? He just hoped if he could make his transformation hold, unlike last night. Vlad was the last person he wanted to advertise weakness to.
Danny shook his head to clear his thoughts, charging another ecto-beam. This time it shot out full force at Vlad, who dodged again, but not before the sizzling green nicked his shoulder. Danny cursed inwardly. This sucked.
Danny was about to fire again, when he suddenly felt a twisting pain grip his stomach. He grimaced, doubling over onto the grass. Vlad stopped in mid-retaliation, looking oddly concerned as Danny groaned, the familiar white lights branching out around his torso and washing over him. Danny breathed heavily, pushing himself back up. Not again! he thought. Get ahold of yourself, Fenton!
"Good lord, Daniel. You don't look so good," Vlad said, with a noticeable lack of teasing in his voice. "Alright, well, I'll save my inquiry for another time, but don't think I'll let it go so easily."
Before Danny could reply, Vlad flew off. Danny sighed, still leaning against the wall; he was let go by Vlad's mercy yet again. What a great hero.