Chapter One: Close Call
Danny
On a dark street in the northern part of Amity Park, a 14-year-old teen in a black-and-white hazmat suit with white hair, florescent green eyes, and a slight tan was flying through the air, the infamous DP logo on his suit indentifying him as Danny Phantom. Ectoplasmic blasts filled the space around him, below him, above him, and at all sides except forward. The ecto-blasts came from two figures on the ground below him, one large and in an orange jumpsuit, the other petite and with a bluish suit. He didn't even try to fight back against his pursuers who happened to be Jack and Maddie Fenton, his parents.
'I have the most rotten luck in both this world AND the Ghost Zone!' Danny mentally complained. He was beyond tired having gotten zero sleep the night before and forty-five minutes accumulatively in-class. Bruised and beaten up from fights with Skulker, Technus, The Box Ghost, Desiree, both Skulker and Box Ghost again, and the Lunch Lady within 12 hours, he hadn't gotten the chance for sleep. But just when the fat, meat-obsessed ghost-lady was in the Thermos and Danny thought he could get some sleep, his own parents showed up and started shooting at him!
"You can run but you can't hide ghost-boy! There is nowhere you will be safe from Jack Fenton's wrath!" yelled Jack.
Maddie proclaimed, "I'm gonna take great pleasure in dissecting you in the lab once we capture you, ghost!"
And Jazz wonders why I haven't told them yet… Danny thought grimly. At any other time, Danny would have come up with a witty retort. As it was, he continued to dodge and attempted to speed up. But the stress and lack of sleep caught up with him, and Danny's eyes began to close only to open up wide when one of the many badly-aimed ecto-blasts that were being fired at him hit the mark, specifically Danny's leg.
A pained gasp and a sudden drop in altitude informed his attackers that they'd hit him, and Danny's father gave a celebratory whoop. "That's right, no ghost gets away from me!"
Feeling extra snarky, perhaps from a searing pain in his left leg, Danny quipped, "Except every single ghost in Amity Park!"
Ignoring his comment, the ghost-hunting pair started to close in. Danny panicked. His parents were getting too close for comfort and he almost too tired to fight back. He couldn't afford to be captured. They might run a bunch of painful experiments on him, or maybe skip right to the chase and 'rip him apart molecule by molecule'. They might find out his secret. I can't let that happen. Left with no real option, Danny fired an ecto-blast from his finger, hoping beyond hope that his aim was still good. And it was. The ecto-gun in Jack Fenton's hand fried. Then Danny took aim and fired again, disabling Maddie's gun.
The two ghost hunters glared poisonous, flaming daggers at Danny. He was very glad that looks couldn't kill, because if they could he'd be completely dead instead of his current half-dead state. With a sheepish grin, he said, "Sorry!" Then he turned painfully around and started flying away.
"Come back here, coward!"
"You won't get away!"
His parent's voices started to fade away. In fact, everything started to fade away. His vision blurred, his eyes closed, and there was a sudden feeling of gravity. He would have fallen asleep right there had he not collided painfully with the hard cement ground. Feet came rushing towards him, and Danny looked up in panic. Oh no…
He got up quickly and backed away.
His parent had him. He had his back up against a wall, just barely awake enough from the adrenaline to not change back to Danny Fenton, but not enough to fly or turn intangible. He couldn't run on his injured leg and he doubted he could go any actual amount of distance if he could. There was no sewer access, no nearby alleyways, not even a gutter he could slide his thin frame into. There was no escape and he was all alone…
It was one of his worst nightmares turned reality.
After a few moments of silent communication between his parents, his father pulled out the Thermos.
Crap, crap, crap, crap, crap-
Click Whoosh
… I am so screwed.
Maddie
Yes! We finally got you, you emotionless glob of ectoplasm! Maddie thought happily as they rushed to where the Phantom-boy had fallen. His slightly glowing form was collapsed on the pavement, his snow-white hair messy and various little wounds oozing a green-red substance. Green-red? Well we'll find out what that's about when we get him back to the lab. Said ghost's head snapped up to see her and Jack coming towards him, and she thought she saw fear in there. Which is complete nonsense, she thought, Ghosts can't feel fear. He's just a good actor, all ghosts are.
When they finally reached him the ghost-kid scrambled to his feet, green eyes wide. Their fight had led them to the end of the street. Phantom was trapped, wounded, apparently tired if that was possible, assuming from the dark circles under his eyes that were not there usually, and was all theirs for the taking. All they had to do was make the move.
Which Maddie would have very well done had she not suddenly been hit with a wave of guilt. Where did this come from? Guilt? For an emotionless ghost?
Some voice in her head, her conscious she assumed, whispered, 'Does he really look that emotionless to you?'
Scrutinizing the ghost's face, she found he didn't. Those green eyes of his were bigger than dinner plates; his hands were trembling, heck all of him was trembling. He looked left and right for a way out. He even tried to faze through the wall, but he was too weak. Left with no way to escape, the ghost simply pressed himself against the wall and stared, wide-eyed, at her and her husband. She suddenly noticed how much the ghost looked like Danny, because she recognized the behavior. Phantom, the infamous ghost-kid, was scared.
What's he scared of?
'What are all sentient things scared of?'
Dying? He's already dead!
'He's afraid for his existence, afraid of being destroyed. Even if you don't rip him apart what are you going to do, run painful tests on him? Wouldn't you be afraid of that?'
After a moment of thought, she mentally cursed. Stupid conscious for being right.
Stupid guilt.
Stupid Phantom for looking just like my son.
Maddie looked at her husband and he looked right back. He was having the same problem. Being husband and wife who worked together, they had perfected the art of speaking with their eyes.
We can't do this.
I know.
We have to let him go, don't we?
Yes.
We're probably gonna regret it later.
I know.
Suck-n-release? At least to see if the Thermos works?
She paused. Fine.
Jack whipped out the Fenton Thermos.
If it was possible the ghost-boy, who had watched silently throughout the whole 'conversation', pressed himself even further into the wall and flinched at the sight of the device pointed at him. With the click of the button, a blue-white beam came out of the Thermos and Phantom was sucked up.
Sighing, Jack put the Thermos housing the ghost-kid in a specialized pouch on his belt. Looking at each other, we saw our own emotions reflected in the other's eyes; confused and uncertain.
Jack was the first to speak. "Where're we gonna put him? I don't think he lives in the Ghost Zone, but he doesn't seem to haunt anywhere in particular…"
She wearily shook her head. "I don't know dear. We'll figure it out. Besides, it's not like he's going anywhere."