Prompt by bibliophilea. This was actually the second fic I started for the Phight but I kept shoving it back because I didn't know where to go with it.
Also general reminder to check out my Tumblr (inky-interest) for all kinds of writing stuff. I regularly post about my writing process and bits of upcoming/unposted fics.
Winds whipped past Danny. The air currents brushed through his hair, mussing it into something even more wind-blown than usual. The dampness of the clouds greeted him as he dove through them. Up and up he went.
Then finally he emerged from the other side. The moon, large and full, shone bright and welcoming. All around it, the stars blinked and winked at him.
Danny twisted around, letting his momentum carry him into a loop. This far above civilization, no one could see or hear him. He whooped in joy, carefree.
Flying was, by far, Danny's favorite power. Sure, he could find useful applications for all of his powers. Was quite inclined to use most of them in his daily life, too.
But flying… Flying was something special. Even on his worst days, flight was a guaranteed pick-me-up. It never failed to cheer him up, even if only temporarily.
Lying on his back, Danny trailed his fingers through the clouds as if he were floating on water. Above him, the stars shone. Smiling to himself, Danny moved to trace the constellations – he had them memorized, after all.
Then he jerked to a stop. Lifted up one of his hands to connect the stars.
Frowned to himself as the dots didn't quite connect. He tried again, with a different constellation.
Once again, they didn't match. No matter how he tried, none of the stars formed into the constellations he knew. They were off, just slightly.
Repressing a shiver, Danny rightened himself. Whatever night sky he was looking at… it wasn't the right one. It wasn't Amity's sky.
But… how? He was just in Amity. He had been working on his homework, but he had gotten frustrated so he had decided to go for a fly.
Right?
So then how had he gotten… wherever the fuck he was?
It couldn't be a dream, or something else based on his mind. He was familiar enough with the stars to properly mimic the constellations. And if they were off enough for him to tell, then clearly he hadn't been responsible for making them so.
He lowered himself again, dropping through the layer of clouds. And below him, the familiar cityscape of Amity Park greeted him.
Frowning, Danny started moving through the streets. Following his set patrol routes – he knew these streets just as well as the stars, and if they were off too…
Well, he didn't know what that would mean.
It didn't take long for Danny to conclude that the streets, the layout of Amity Park, seemed to be correct. It was the details that were, once again, off – windows in the wrong places, houses painted the wrong colors – and once again, it made him feel uneasy.
After all, he was somehow in a world almost like his own… yet not exactly. It was a close enough match that he wouldn't have noticed if he hadn't been looking for it.
Who could have done this… And why? More importantly, how? After all, if he could figure out how he got here, he could get out too. Right?
Good, okay. Focus on the here and now. Plan. Make a plan.
Step one: figure out how he got here.
No, wait, scrap that.
New step one: figure out where here is. Because if it's not really Amity Park, is he real? Is this his actual body?
Danny groaned. This situation was too complicated for him. He preferred an enemy he could just punch. Not all this… planning stuff. Maybe he could find Jazz…
Wait. Where there any people in this fake Amity Park?
He scanned the streets below him once more. They were fairly empty, but a few people were wandering around. No one he recognized, not even vaguely. They just looked… generic. Like computer-generated AI in a video game. A crowd of barely sentient beings for the player character to move around.
The thought was an interesting one, and Danny made sure to remember it. He wasn't sure where it had come from, but… now that it had come to him, it seemed right, somehow. The way the people below moved, not interacting with each other in the slightest…
Repressing a shiver, Danny angled himself towards FentonWorks. Whether Jazz – or any of his family – existed or not, there were things there he needed to check. After all, Amity Park was an imitation, if a fairly well-made one. If the Ghost Zone was more accurate, it would suggest that a ghost was behind this.
Intangibility washed over him as he dove through the walls of his home. He didn't stop to look at the living room, but went straight to the lab.
Shiny steel greeted him. Walls washed white, immaculate floors and walls and hell, even the ceiling was spotless. The tables were empty, and the gadget racks pushed against the walls were neatly organized.
It was a beautiful lab, and well-kept. It definitely wasn't his parents'.
More strikingly, however, was the Portal in the back. Or what Danny assumed was the Portal. Because it held very little resemblance to the actual thing.
Rather than a metal arch, the opening to the Portal was simply a hole in the wall. The metal edges were shredded and ripped, mangled and even slightly blackened. Like something had blasted its way through the wall.
The Portal itself looked like a natural portal rather than the artificial one it should have been. Its edges flickered, the size varying as it whirled around itself. It wasn't connected to the walls at all. Instead it floated freely, right in the center of the tear in the lab's walls.
It wasn't realistically possible. And while yes, that sounded a little weird considering ghosts and physics generally didn't mix, this was something else. A natural portal wasn't stable. It couldn't maintain itself. Or rip a hole through the wall, like this one seemed to have done.
Which suggested that whoever had made this simulation, they weren't familiar with ghost portals at all. And, besides, any ghost who could've reached Danny would've gone through his parents' lab. They would've done a better job of imitating it.
Danny took his eyes off of the Portal again, scanning the lab. Really, it looked more like what he imaged a GIW lab would look like. Shiny, immaculate, way too much white and steel.
Hang on… Could the Guys in White be responsible for this? Could they have somehow set up some sort of simulation and trapped him in it?
Soundlessly he touched down in the lab. He turned to watch his reflection – the walls were so shiny he didn't need a mirror. His normal ectoplasm green eyes blinked back, looking the same as usual. His hair looked the same too – and when he combed his gloved fingers through it, it felt just as real, too.
He groaned, digging his fingers into his scalp.
And barely repressed his yelp when his fingers dug too deep, his skull giving way like it didn't even exist-
Wait.
Danny looked his reflection straight in the eyes, slowly lifting his hands off of his head. He held them out in front of him, gently grasped one hand with the other.
Then, with all his force, he clenched his left hand – the one he had wrapped around the right.
Like he had expected, his right hand gave way easily. It squished like… like it had no bones. Like the tentacle of an ectopus. Like it was made entirely out of ectoplasm.
So that was another point for the GIW. And proof that this wasn't his own body. He wouldn't have to worry about taking care of himself – if he had no bones, his body likely followed all the basic ghost rules. Or what the GIW thought were the basics for ghosts. No food, no water, no sleep…
All the more time for Danny to figure out how to get out of here. Or how to break the simulation, or whatever this was.
Either way, he had to be careful with what he did, now. If the GIW really were responsible for this, they would be watching. Recording it, too. Anything he did could leave them more informed. Any powers he used that they didn't know about yet would surely be turned against him in the future.
He wouldn't even consider turning human. That wasn't something they needed to know. Besides, he didn't think he could do it, anyway. If this body was made according to what the GIW knew about Phantom, it wouldn't have a human side to switch to, anyway. Unless the could alter his body – the simulation – to his own knowledge and will… But if that was the case, then surely he wouldn't have been able to squash his own hand like that?
Anyway, not important. Now that he (probably) knew who were responsible for how he got here, and what, exactly, this was, he could go back to figuring out how to leave.
So it was a simulation, likely made by the GIW. Were they trying to study him? His behavior? Was this a way to separate his mind from his body, so they could dissect him without risking the loss of his mind?
This time he shivered physically. That was a line of thought he didn't want to come back to.
He floated out of the lab again, hoping that the change of environment would help. Outside, the streets were still empty. The clouds had dispersed a little, the stars visible from the ground.
They served as another reminder of how wrong things were, here.
"Okay," he said, softly. Danny didn't make a habit out of talking to himself, but the eerie silence was starting to get to him.
"Okay," he repeated, combing his fingers through his hair again. "So this isn't Amity Park. This isn't real. Fuck."
When no answer came, he continued to fill the silence with his thoughts. So maybe it would reveal to the GIW that he had caught on to them. Whatever. If he had to listen to this nothingness for any longer he would go crazy.
"So this is just some kind of… simulation, or whatever. This isn't my body, and it isn't my world. I just need to… disconnect, somehow." He shivered, feeling increasingly uncomfortable in his own skin. Or, well, not his own skin, but the body he was in control of.
For all that it had felt correct at first, now that he knew it was off, it started to bother him more and more. The feeling of air rushing through his lungs, the slow but steady feeling of his heart beating…
It was all missing.
Instead of letting the uncomfortable thoughts distract him, however, he focused on the feelings themselves. Focused on the differences between reality and this.
In his peripherals, he could see the world distorting. Glitching. It was falling apart, darkening steadily. Somehow simultaneously sharpening into clusters of pixels and fading out.
He lost feeling in his fingers. He couldn't remember if he had ever felt his toes in this simulation.
Danny embraced the darkness eagerly.
When he came to, he was still surrounded by darkness. His eyes were closed. He was itching to open them, to check where he was, how he was-
But he could hear the voices of two adult men. They didn't know he was awake yet.
"-But how could it know?" one man asked, frustration lacing his voice. "The simulation was nigh perfect! No ghost should be perceptive enough to figure it out!"
"Why do you think I know, K?" another replied, gruff and equally angry. "We both know that Phantom was unique. Maybe it's just a little more special than we thought."
So it was the GIW. He had already been pretty sure, but the confirmation was nice.
Just like the steady beat of his heart was nice. The feeling of air rushing through his airways, silently. The hidden warmth of his human form, even while he was in ghost form.
He couldn't believe that he hadn't noticed that it was missing during the simulation.
"Whatever," the first man – agent K, apparently – said. "Doesn't matter. At least with its mind occupied, the little bastard can't wake up. Even if it knows that it's trapped in a simulation, it can't break out of it, anyway."
Hah! Or so they thought. Maybe he couldn't have done it, had his body been correct. Focusing on the differences, on the mistakes, had been what allowed him to disassociate with the simulation, after all.
The sound of footsteps leaving, another pair of shoes scuffing the floor near him. Danny itched to open his eyes, but he wanted to maintain the illusion a little longer. If the GIW didn't know that he was awake – that he could wake up – then that was his best weapon.
Instead he focused on exploring his environment with his other senses. He was lying on a flat metal surface, cold and hard. Not very surprising.
Neither were the hard cuffs around his wrists and ankles.
What was surprising was the lack of buzzing from them. Normally, anti-ghost weaponry gave of a faint whir – a feeling like static, the mishmash of conflicting energies. But these cuffs didn't do that. Were they… were they really not ghost proof?
Were the GIW so sure of their simulation technology that they hadn't bothered to lock him up properly?
"Hey, look at this," agent K said. The pair of shoes that had remained near his table now also left. Not far, but…
Danny risked opening his eyes a little. The light was blinding, but he adjusted to it quickly. The lab looked exactly like what he would've expected from the GIW.
It also looked a lot like the lab in the simulation. How predictable.
Both of the agents had their backs turned to him. They were looking at something on a far table, but Danny couldn't see what, exactly, that was. A glance downwards confirmed his initial suspicions – the cuffs didn't seem to be ghost proof. They were ordinary metal.
He grinned, turning his arms intangible. Then he sat up, phasing them through the metal effortlessly. Idiots.
Suddenly one of the agents turned around. He could see himself reflected in the sunglasses the man wore – his vibrant green eyes glowing like hellfire.
"Shit," the man swore, tugging on the sleeve of the other agent. "It's awake, O!"
"What?!" The other agent – so agent O? – also whirled around, reaching for a weapon on his belt. "Impossible!" he said, despite looking at the evidence.
Not wanting to get further into this mess, Danny phased his legs out of the cuffs as well. He crouched on the table, ready to launch himself out of this building. Or the room, at least, since it didn't seem to have a ghost shield. What were they, amateurs?
Agent K, still unarmed, held his hands out. Placatingly, maybe? "Wait," he called, although Danny wasn't sure if the man was speaking to him or to his colleague. "How'd you know?"
"What?" Danny asked, thrown off by the non-sequitur. "Know what?"
Now agent O also paused, apparently curious. His ecto-gun was in his hand, but still aimed downwards. Danny figured he had enough time to leave, should the man change his mind.
"That it was a simulation." Agent K gestured with one of his hands, still raised. "How did you break out of it? It should've been foolproof!"
Danny frowned, then shrugged. "The stars were wrong. And after I noticed that, all the other things stood out, too."
Agent O lowered his weapon even further. "But ghosts aren't smart enough to see such things! They're not observational enough to notice such things!"
"Uh," Danny gestured at himself, "I beg to differ."
Now the agent's brows creased, the fingers around his gun clenching in anger. But before he could act on it, agent K pushed the other man back a step. "Don't," he warned. Then, turning back to Danny, he explained, "That goes against everything we know about ghosts."
He snorted in answer. "Shows how little you know, doesn't it?"
The man paused, seeming to think this over. Agent O, standing behind him, crossed his arms. He couldn't get a direct shot on Danny with agent K standing in front of him.
Finally, agent K broke the silence again. He frowned at Danny, lowering his hands again. "This… This isn't humane. This isn't okay."
He took a step back, forcing agent O further back too.
"Leave, Phantom. I can't… I can't support doing such a thing to a sentient being."
Danny blinked, surprised. Automatically, he straightened up a little. "Really? I mean, uh." He blushed, bright green creeping over his cheeks. "Thanks."
Invisibility washed over him, Danny embracing the feeling. He lingered for a moment longer, but agent O immediately stormed off. Agent K lingered for a moment longer, sighing heavily.
"I should've known," the man said to himself, so quiet that Danny could barely hear him. "I should've realized sooner."
Convinced that the man had meant what he said, Danny left. No other part of the facility was shielded. He returned to Amity no worse for the wear.
The stars, blinking above him, sparkled their usual constellations. Just as he had always known them.