"Sam, I..." Danny shifted nervously from foot to foot facing his female friend. "I don't know about this.."
The two were standing together with their other friend in front of the so-called Fenton Ghost Portal. Danny was clutching tightly onto the white and black jumpsuit, the nervousness he felt was very apparent.
His parents had walked away from their basement lab only about 10 minutes prior, very upset, and very disappointed in their findings. They had dedicated most of their life, as far as Danny knew, trying to work on the portal that would connect their world to the ghost world; something he felt shouldn't even have the right to exist. Who knew what could happen if they were to be successful? How many ghosts of their dead relatives would they have been able to see then? What about the evil spirits that could come through and start haunting their house? Things like that just shouldn't be allowed.
To top it off, Danny was terrified of ghosts. Even though he lived in a rather safe household, one that would keep him safe from ghosts, it was exactly why he was afraid of them. He knew it was an irrational fear, that ghosts couldn't – no - shouldn't exist, but the way his father always told him stories before bed when he was younger, they were always about ghosts, whether it was a scarier story, or one of the nicer ones, he got scared of them. The way in the middle of the night, when it was completely dark in his room, he got scared thinking that there could be one in his bedroom with him, whether it be across the room from him, under his bed, or in his closet. He always had to sleep with a nightlight since, even to this day, for fear that there could be a ghost, and the house would suddenly come to life and attack it with all the hidden weapons inside the walls.
His parents were a little too obsessed with ghosts to even realize he was afraid of them, and they were the core cause of it, not that he would ever tell them that.
"Come on, Danny. One quick picture." Sam replied, pulling Danny out of his musings, waving the camera in front of his face, who looked at her pleadingly. "I promise, and then we can leave it alone."
"Yeah!" Tucker chimed in, wrapping an arm around the back of Danny's neck, pulling him close. "I mean, it's not everyday we get to go near your parent's inventions, and they're not here right now."
"I.." Danny hesitated again, but upon seeing both his friends' happy expressions, he couldn't deny them. After all, he would be the one who would be the safest around the equipment, knowing what it would do first-hand. "Well, alright." He said, pulling away from Tucker's grasp, and began to put the jumpsuit on over his clothes. "But only for one picture!" He pointed at Sam with a sharp look, making sure she promised.
"Only one." Sam promised him, with a nod.
Her and Tucker knew about Danny's fear of ghosts, and knew the nervousness he felt right now stemmed from the fact that this non-working portal involved ghosts, much like everything else down there, but she and Tucker firmly believed that ghosts didn't exist, so it'd be fine. It was like a once in a lifetime opportunity to be down here alone and do this, since Danny's parents were very protective of their lab, and refused to let the kids be down there without their permission.
Once Danny was suited up, Sam stopped him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I don't think you would want to remember this being on your chest in the photo." She pointed out, and tore the Jack Fenton face sticker off of the chest of his jumpsuit. "It would look silly." She grinned at him. Of course his dad would stick his face onto anything he could.
Danny smiled back, giving a small laugh of his own. "Thanks Sam, dunno what I'd do without you." He said, then took a deep breath, facing the portal.
He began to slowly walk towards the empty portal, glancing back at his friends a few times, who only urged him to keep going. Sam got the camera ready as he stepped past the outer ring of the portal, and into the inner workings of it. Up close he could see a bunch of wires running along the floor towards the wall, some of them sparking a bit, making his black hair stand a little on edge.
"Okay.." He said mostly to himself, breathing slowly and carefully. "Just one picture." He muttered, and then turned around to face his friends. His foot got caught in one of the wires as he turned, making him lose his balance quickly. "Whoa!" He cried out, his hand reaching for the side of the portal to steady himself.
He heard a click, and then the sound of something powering up, followed by a flash of bright light and green and screams. Was it his own screams? He didn't know, but the light quickly engulfed him with pain. There was intense pain, that one could only describe as being electrocuted, one that screamed through every part of his teenage body, right to his very core. He felt as though his insides were burning up, like his skin was peeling off. It was like at that moment, his life flashed before his eyes, his life that all but consisted of ghosts, and he knew he was going to die. He was never going to see Sam or Tucker again or his family again. The pain was unbearable, but almost as quickly as it had started, it stopped, and the world was black.
"Danny!" Sam and Tucker cried in unison as they heard the portal boot up with their friend inside of it, followed by his ear-splitting screams. They ran towards it as quickly as they could, camera dropped and forgotten, seeing Danny's form falling over past the green swirling mist of the now working portal towards them, grabbing him and pulling his limp form away.
The temperature seemed to completely drop in the room, making the two of them shiver slightly. They stared down at their unconscious friend, taking in what had happened, and what they were seeing. The two were 100% sure that it was Danny laying in front of them, but he was changed, and looked different. His black hair had turned pure white and glowing, he became even more pale than he was before, and his jumpsuit changed colors, or more, inverted colors.
"Oh my god, Tucker," Sam started, the weight of what happened sinking in, grabbing hold onto her hair, trying to keep herself from freaking out and staying calm, facing the darker skinned friend. "What are we going to do!? What happened to him!?"
Tucker wasn't taking the situation much better, but was staying relatively more calm than Sam was. He was honestly surprised that Danny's mom and dad hadn't heard him screaming from inside the portal and come running down to see what happened. What would they even tell them? Hey, your son Danny? Yeah, he got electrocuted by the portal and it was our fault for making him go in it in the first place! Yeah, because that would go over well.
Tucker kneeled down beside Danny's form. "I don't know Sam, I don't know." He replied, shaking his head, reaching out to grab Danny's shoulder. All he could feel was cold from grabbing it and being in close proximity to him. He shook Danny gently, trying to get him to wake up. "He's so cold, Sam, I don't think he..he's..." He choked on his words, not wanting to say what he was thinking out loud, for fear it could be true, for fear that they both just lost their childhood friend. "Danny, please man, wake up!"
"God," Sam said, clearly distressed, shaking her head as though trying to deny everything that was happening in front of her. "This is all my fault.." Sam said, falling to her knees beside Tucker, wiping her eyes with the back of her hands as tears began to form in them. "If I hadn't made him go in there, this wouldn't have happened, it's all my fault.."
"Sam, it's no one's fault." Tucker said after taking a deep breath to calm himself and try and think clearly. "We couldn't have known Danny was going to trip.."
"Maybe not, but we made him, Tucker. He was so scared of going in, in the first place!" Sam covered her face, shoulder bobbing as she sobbed into her hands. "We should've been better friends..." The consequences of what had happened had never occurred to them before they did.
"Sam," Tucker started, ready to argue against her again, before they heard a groan from beneath them pulling them both from their thoughts.
"Danny!" Both of them cried out, grabbing onto him to keep him steady as he tried to pull himself upright off the floor.
Danny sat up, bringing a hand to his head as it pounded with a very obvious headache, groaning quietly. He blinked slowly at the ground, trying to get the headache to subside long enough for him to see clearly at the floor, before he brought his gaze up to his two friends. He heard their surprised gasps, but didn't pay much mind to them. "What...happened?" Danny finally asked, finding his voice, and was surprised to hear it seem to.. echo around them.
"Danny, your eyes.." Sam said, gazing into them almost curiously, ignoring his question. They weren't the bright blue she remembered them being, but instead they were a bright neon green color. They were the first thing that drew Sam's attention when he had woken up again. Everything about Danny was.. Different now, and they couldn't understand why or how.
"My..eyes?" He asked her confused, meeting her gaze. He watched as she pulled a small mirror out of her purse pocket, and held it up in front of him. He looked at himself in the mirror, and was barely able to recognize himself. His eyes glowed bright green, his hair was so white, his whole body seemed to even glow a soft white color. "What happened to me?" He asked again, more to himself than Sam or Tucker as he brought a gloved hand and ran it through his hair.
"We don't know, Danny..." Tucker said quietly, shaking his head. "You were in the portal when it turned on."
Danny gave a shaky breath as he brought his hands down in front of him, and looked at them. They were gloved, and white, unlike the black they were before he went in the portal, and did they just-? Danny yelped in surprise as his hands turned invisible right before his eyes, a tingling sensation flowing through them before they appeared again. "What the hell was that!?" He asked, looking back up at Sam and Tucker panicked, hoping they saw what he had.
Their wide eyes and gaping mouths confirmed it for him. "Your hands just turned invisible." Sam said, finally after long moments of silence of them trying to take in what had just happened. "God, Danny, I'm so sorry." Sam said, the guilt crashing into her again as he had to suffer through this, none of them knowing what was going on with his body. She reached towards him to hold one of his cold, gloved hands gently.
"Look, i-it's fine." Danny stuttered, gently pulling his hand back away from Sam's warm one, a little shaken up. "Maybe it's best if I.. if I have some alone time, y'know?" Danny suggested, slowly getting to his feet. All of it was too much to take in for one night, and he needed time to think to himself about everything, and he was sure his friends felt the same way.
"Dude," Tucker interrupted, as he and Sam stood up with him. "You're floating!"
"I'm what?" Danny asked, a look of confusion spreading across his face. He looked down, and sure enough his feet weren't even touching the floor, and somehow he hadn't realized. He let out yet another surprised yelp, beginning to flail in the air trying to get his feet to touch the ground again.
"It's like you've got superpowers!" Tucker exclaimed, and couldn't help the grin that spread across his face as he watched Danny struggle despite the tension of the situation. He and Sam both grabbed one of Danny's arms helping him back down to the floor. "Way cool."
"It would be if I knew why." Danny replied, steadying himself on the floor with Sam and Tucker's help. His head throbbed again from the headache, and he brought a hand up trying to ease the pain again.
There was a sudden flash of light making everyone shield their eyes from it, and Danny suddenly felt.. Warm. Human, again. He could feel the beat of his heart that he hadn't noticed had stopped beating, and feel the blood pumping through his veins, and finally he realized he was breathing, such a natural thing that he never realized he had stopped doing as well. His friends' hands weren't burning against him anymore, and were more appreciated and welcomed at that moment.
"Danny, you're.. You again." Sam said first, after she had opened her eyes again after the flash of light, and saw Danny's black hair, saw his blue eyes, and felt his skin warming up again.
Danny looked between Sam and Tucker, and then down at his hands, thankful that they didn't disappear on him this time. "Then who's the other me..?" He muttered quietly to himself, slowly shaking his head.
"Kids!" The three teens looked up at the stairs leading down to the lab where they were as they heard Danny's father call down to them. Danny was slightly relieved by the distraction. Jack sounded to be in a better mood since when he'd left the lab earlier with Maddie. She probably gave him some fudge. "Dinner's ready!"
Danny sat down on the side of his bed, his head in his hands. Sam and Tucker had gone home shortly after they all had dinner together, and it was one of the most stressful meals he's ever had with his family and friends. If Sam and Tucker weren't there, he probably would've excused himself from dinner early.
The way his parents had gone on about the ghost portal again, and ghosts in general, it kept making Danny think back to what had happened in the lab. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he was showing... Ghost-like symptoms. He had no idea what to do with that information, and quite honestly, it terrified him.
Since a couple hours after the accident, he had noticed a few changes about him, and not only about his other white haired self. But the way he was always slightly colder now, and how his heart was beating at a slightly lower pace than normal. It was weird, and it was scary. He had a few instances after his friends left where his arm or hand would turn intangible, and it would take him long moments of freaking out to get it to show up again.
He didn't know what he would tell his parents, or what he would tell his friends when he came to the realization of things, of what all this had meant. Ghosts were actually real, and he was living proof of it. How would he ever be able to explain it?
"I think I died and became a ghost."
A/N: So this is the first of a few Danny Phantom fanfics I've been writing, and the first one so far that I'm rather happy with after going over it again. I'm not sure if I wanna continue it for a few more chapters or not, or where even to take it, since it kinda takes on a more serious tone, but idk, i hope you enjoyed :3