Pre-Story Author's Notes:
This is part of a longer series, and is a sequel to "A New World Network". This one is stand alone enough that you do not need to read the preceding story to enjoy it, but it is part of the same series.
Other than that, all yours. Enjoy the reading.
The Future
Fenton Works, Amity Park
Wearing an orange jumpsuit and a headset tucked neatly into his ear, Danny looked over those who were gathered in the lab. He was in his human form still, saving his energy for what was coming as he took stock of the volunteers as they were getting a crash course in the various weapons, a far better course than they ever had before. Valerie was busy instructing in marksmanship, the array of targets Danny had used to practice shooting ghost rays now used to train the students of Casper High and a few adults. So many fellow students, suited up again like the time they raided Youngblood's ship. Except this time, he knew a lot of them would not be coming back, and he suspected a lot of them knew it too, since there was a grim air of preparation in the lab. And... fear.
But the fear, he realized as he continued his informal inspection and assisted here and there with weapons practice, was far more his own than theirs. They were busy organizing an order of battle with what was available. The nerds and geeks had turned out to be surprisingly good long shots and were filling in a support role with support gadgets and gizmos like the Thermos and power drainers, while wielding ecto sniper rifles as a primary weapon. The band members were going for weapons similar to their instruments and some bits of protective anti-ecto plating, used to the weight from their marching uniforms. The jocks had grabbed the heavy weapons and armor while most of the 'shallow' girls had (to his surprise) picked melee weapons with a favoring for more claw-like ones. He wondered how long they would last once the brawl began; though he knew how vicious they could be from Tucker's experiences, few of them had ever been counterattacked during such clawing. Everyone else was grabbing whatever weapon they were best suited for, a mix of ecto rifles, pistols, smaller Fenton Bazookas, grenades, medkits, and an assortment of melee weapons from Fenton Fishers to Jack-o'-Nine Tails. Everyone had at least one ranged weapon, even if it was just a pistol, since they knew they would fight many fliers.
Danny sighed as he walked over to the sealed ghost portal, looking at it longingly and then towards the kids preparing, realizing how many of them would find another route to the Ghost Zone. He knew them, but more than just classmates. Many of them were friends, yet the most experience with a gun almost any of them had was playing Doomed.
Valerie walked over to him as the groups switched training weapons, clad in her usual Axion Labs based combat gear but without some of the heavier weapons the lab had provided. "So. It's come to this, huh?"
"I guess." Danny answered as he slowly shook his head. "I never intended this to happen, I just wish I knew where I went wrong, where I let it get this far. Did I put too much into trying to maintain something of a normal life that I ignored the threat?"
"Danny," Valerie cut in, "We both know that you of all people did more than anyone trying to stop this. It's not your fault that we're in this war."
"Yeah, but... just months ago, we were telling so many of these kids that we didn't want them involved!" Kids... Danny blinked, realizing that most of the Casper High students there were his age, a few were older. No, Danny realized. Kids in nature, not age. He remembered how Jazz had gone on about being an adult in a teenager's body and realized that, snotty or not at the time, she was onto more than he had realized. They should have been busy studying or gossiping, not preparing for a battle where many of them would be taking a different route to the Ghost Zone than the portal that had given Danny his powers and started everything.
"Yeah, we were." Valerie admitted, "But I think that a lot of them learned the lesson. They know that this isn't just a Box Ghost run in. They've seen the news of what he can do, and his army. They volunteered knowing what's going to happen and a lot of them are as ready as you can be for fighting. It's not your fault that they're willing to do this."
"Maybe." Danny answered, "But I've told you how much this is my responsibility. I just can't believe how much things have changed since we met these guys as an organization, not a last minute collection for a crazy rescue stunt." He closed his eyes, remembering the first time he had met so many of these students as an organized group. No, it was not the time he had unified them to fight Youngblood, nor the time where he stood in front of the world to save it from the Disasteroid. It was after a moment of desperately using his powers to avoid the fans and being caught over it, and an alternative punishment done to keep fairness yet recognize the demanding circumstance. Valerie had been there with him, and she was the only one who had heeded the points he tried to make, when her role as a ghost hunter had eventually been revealed when she stood in to save them from their own overconfidence.
Now, he realized that he would have given anything to turn the mood back to what it had been then, the level of danger the city faced to what it did. To have leading them into a war against ghosts to be nothing more than a distant fear of a worst case scenario, blissfully unaware of what he now faced. Yes... simpler times... when I was more worried about getting detentions than going all dead instead of just half and leading others to join me there...
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
XXX
Chapter One
The Present
Casper High, Amity Park
"Danny! Danny! Danny!"
The chant was getting closer as Danny ran down the halls at full speed. He had just stopped an attack by Johnny 13 in front of the whole school, the biker ghost attacking him mostly to blow off steam after Kitty was captured by Walker, and as a warm up for the rescue. Danny had instead captured him and his stupid Shadow in the Fenton Thermos and switched back to human form since school had started. Unfortunately, the whole fandom was out that day and saw it, and were in a full fan frenzy of black and white. "Man," Danny muttered as he leapt up the stairs, "I thought dodging from Dash was bad enough, but now everyone wants me!" He turned and saw another crowd coming down, Paulina in the lead. Gasping in realization, Danny turned to the last route he had to get to class where he would be vaguely safe with Lancer...
He leapt up to the side stairs and climbed over the railing, vaulting over with the athletic capability he had developed from his heroics, starting to take gym class seriously, and just a hint of flight powers to make sure he cleared the jump. As he ran up this flight of stairs, however, he realized that a third crowd had headed him off. "Darn it!" Danny shouted as he realized he was cornered with nowhere to go. Bracing himself for the mob, he was trampled in the group as he tried to struggle free and past them. Everyone was trying to hold onto him, some of them wanting him to sign their DP memorabilia (or worse, he could of sworn Paulina had tried to shove an undergarment into his face), but most of it was mindless fan love. Suddenly, he found himself unable to breathe, crushed beneath the weight of his own fans. Irony, death by... he paused, everything slowing for him as the realization hit him. He smirked and his eyes began to glow green. Screw this, I'm already half dead... He did not even need to go ghost, he just turned intangible, then invisible, and phased into the floor and flew to class through the building. Hopefully, the delay of realizing he had phased clear would buy him time to get to class where the bell would save him.
He phased up from below the floor outside the room, out of sight of the door's window, and released his powers as he landed gently on the floor and breathed a deep sigh of relief. "Phew, just avoided them..."
"Ahem." another voice cut in and Danny turned in horror, almost voiding himself as he saw Lancer standing there with arms folded. "Well Phantom of the Opera," the bald English teacher stated plainly but sternly, "using powers on school property during school hours. It might not be the most agreed upon of rules as far as punishment goes, but it is a violation per the emergency patch." He gestured to the door. "Speak to me after class so we can discuss your punishment." Danny gulped as he walked in, taking his seat near Sam and Tucker who raised an eyebrow at him. Glumly, Danny pulled his books out and sighed as he found all his pencils broken from being crushed by the fans, who shortly after began filing in with the late bell. At least the Thermos wasn't crushed, he decided given it had a ghost inside.
"What happened?" Sam asked.
"I got mobbed after beating Johnny 13 outside," he explained, "and I had to go intangible to dodge them since they had me on that corner in the stairs." Tucker shivered, well aware of what a death trap it could be. "Lancer caught me as I came out, though."
"Oh boy." Sam said as she sighed, "This might be a problem. My parents are seriously considering that restraining order again after the Technus incident, and I told them that you were a good guy and all. My grandmother talked them out of it, but still..."
"I doubt they'll flip over this, but here's hoping they don't anyways." Danny retorted as Lancer briefly lectured the class on tardiness before beginning the lesson. Danny spent the majority of the class worrying. It was an honestly minor situation and one that would be fully understandable when Lancer had the details, but Lancer was strict in his fairness. But it also brought up other worries, his conversation with Sam about the political reality and how even though he saved the world, he was still one of the most powerful, personally, individuals on the planet and a walking superweapon. Oh man, what are my parents going to say? He was left wondering the whole time, wishing for class to finish so he could get it over with.
When the bell finally rang, he told Sam not to wait up and walked over glumly to Lancer's desk and was surprised to see a concerned face on Lancer. "Daniel, let's be honest here." Lancer began with open palms, "I'm aware of what occurred and seeing the state of your backpack..." he glanced over to the battered books and the broken pencils, "...I suspect that you were mobbed again."
"Yes sir," Danny answered truthfully. "It was bad enough I was having trouble breathing."
To his surprise, Lancer nodded slowly. "I understand. However, I have to keep the precedent of fair to all present, even the resident town superhero. That said, I am willing to offer an alternative punishment to a week's worth of detentions, if you want to hear it, one you may very well find suitable for longer than making penance."
"What's the alternative?" Danny asked tentatively, remembering the last time he had done a 'get out of detention' scheme for Lancer and how he had nearly gotten the whole town sucked into an eternal Halloween where the scares were real.
"Axion Laboratories has recently given the school a grant," Lancer explained, "they want us to train those willing to be better prepared for the research they are going into. They want students who are familiar with the nature of ghosts and are untainted by, shall we say, older lines of thought in regards to them."
"So, they want students and potential employees with a better background on ghosts, because of how often they show up here." Danny said, filling in some blanks like 'older lines' referring to his parents' research, though given Lancer's comment of long term he also ruled out experiments. Cruel as Lancer could be as a teacher at times, he never would endanger his students to amateur science experiments in a comparatively new field.
"Correct, and I suspect that you showing them firsthand how some ghosts work and what works on them might help. We've tentatively called this 'Ghost Club', and you offering some displays on the basics instead of detention would be what I'm offering you as an alternative. A few meetings should cover it, enough to be equivalent to detention time plus some more. Though, be aware, detention can be crowded when there's a celebrity."
No choice at all really, Danny decided as he figured out what the clever glint in Lancer's eye was. Be mobbed in detention as a bunch of kids try to get into it just to see him where he could not dodge out, or try somewhere where he would at least be able to get clear and, if he kept things quiet long enough, would be more reasonable. "I'm assuming this means that I'm free to use my powers during this, given this is 'firsthand'."
"Correct, though none of that overshadowing business and you pay for whatever you blast if it's school property. Yes, that includes shipping and handling." Lancer explained as he noticed the bell was about to ring and Danny recalled that this was Lancer's free period. "I'll write you a pass to your next class. The first meeting is on Thursday, right after school in the auditorium."
"Got it." Danny answered. He had the rest of the day and the school day of tomorrow to get ready, and he had a few ideas already. "I'll take the alternative then. You might want to send me a list of what's expected, so I can better prepare for it."
Lancer nodded as he finished writing the pass and signed it. "Stop by my office on the way out of school then." He handed the pass to Danny. "By the way, good job on that last essay."
"Thanks," Danny answered awkwardly as he took the blue slip of paper, "I uh, had a little more time since I don't have to dodge constantly to hide my identity."
"Well then, you better hurry." Lancer said as the bell rang. "I'm sure Miss Tetslaff is eager to run you through the gauntlet."
Oh, crud. Danny thought as he hurried out the door, remembering that there was a fitness test today and Tetslaff was never kind about them, or lateness even with a pass.
XX
"So, what's the damage?" Tucker asked as they were running through the obstacle course together. Danny was able to do it consistently, though Tucker still had problems despite the endurance his human body had finally built up from ghost hunting.
"I basically have to either take a week's worth of detentions, or go to this new Ghost Club thing for a few meetings." Danny answered as he leapt up on the pull-up bar and lifted himself up. "I'm taking the latter."
"Threat of fans in detention?" Tucker as before dropping into the sand with a quick scream.
"Threat of fans in detention." Danny answered, deadpan as he finished and swung forward to keep ahead so Tetslaff did not start using him as a dummy. While some of the other teachers had given him a little space, likely for the same reasons Kwan had been so freaked out about hitting Tucker with a football the other day, Tetslaff kept chewing him out, and with Lancer and Faluca she made a triumvirate of teachers who showed no fear of his powers. Danny ruled that as a good thing, much as he wanted to start acing his classes, he wanted to be a better man at it than Dash. Now, a little understanding when we have a lot of crazy flying around... he mused as he leapt up to grab the monkey bars and started climbing across before leaping down and sprinting to the end.
Tetslaff nodded slowly as he crossed. "That'll do, Fenton. Consistent timing that's slowly getting better. Suppose it works out more than nothing."
"Thanks..." Danny said as he caught his breath. He never quite realized how much he had depended on his powers until he was stuck running her gym classes. And after Skulker had nearly skewed his head off because his latest suit was fully functional while Danny was losing his abilities, he decided to take physical education a lot more seriously. Tucker crossed the line soon after with another resigned sigh from Tetslaff, and the two walked over to the case of water bottles.
"Man, I need to hit the gym at this rate." Tucker said as he pushed on his back, arching his body backwards with audible cracks. "This is killing me."
"Yeah," Danny agreed as he pushed his hands to hopefully relieve his tired arms. "I've tried that weight room, it works pretty good..."
"Wait, Dash lets you in there now?" Tucker asked in confusion.
"Well, yeah." He shrugged like it was obvious. "I mean, if you were him wouldn't you want to say Danny Phantom worked out in your gym? Or at least the gym you pretty much run even if it's the school's."
"True," Tucker acquiesced as he reached for his PDA. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to do a little technogeek recovery." He walked into a corner to start using his PDA while he had a break and Danny simply shook his head. Ah Tuck, that's not going to help. At least walk while doing that...
"So," Sam asked as she walked over, having finished the course long before anyone else. "What are you going to do for GC?"
"GC?" Danny asked cluelessly before realizing what the acronym was. "Oh. Yeah. Right. Well, I'm going to get a folder on what's expected after school then find something out. I might just do some demonstrations on basic abilities."
"Well, it's probably better than everyone trying to get into detention just to be near you. But still, be careful. You don't want that to turn into fangirl central, and we have plans that night."
"I know," he answered as Tetslaff blew her whistle for everyone to head inside and change back into their normal clothes. "But, we'll see what Lancer wants. Hopefully, it won't need too much and we'll be free."
XX
Several Hours Later
FentonWorks
"Okay, this shouldn't be too hard," Danny said to himself as he flipped through the folder in his room, glancing up at the X-23 model space helmet he had kept from Axion Labs for his infrequent jaunts into the void of space, musing that stopping someone's supercomputer from being abused (even if he blew it up) had its perks before turning his mind back to what he was doing. "Show a few ghost basics, show how a few common anti-ghost gadgets work, explain some basics of what I know, generally help out." He nodded his head back and forth idly as he considered. Well, showing them how to use some basic gear like the Thermos wouldn't be a bad idea, but I'm not sucking myself into it and I'm not dragging Sam or Tucker into this even if they volunteer. So that means we need a ghost for dummy duty. Yet, he did not want to bring a ghost that was seriously dangerous into Casper High intentionally. But he also wanted one he could convince to be passive for the demonstration, ruling out the weak, non-sentient blob type ghosts he sometimes destroyed just by punching them hard enough as Phantom. He thought through the list of those he would seriously ask such a question. Definitely not Frostbite, Wulf would scare pants off even if he was happy to, Clockwork stays on the down low, Cujo would be ghost animal abuse, and Dora's all busy keeping Aragon and his remaining supporters from rising up... Dora. For some reason, that was giving him an idea.
"Of course!" He realized with a wide grin, "Pandora. Or, specifically, a certain ghost who's only dangerous with her box." And, he realized, the Box Ghost might appreciate a break. He needed to check a few things first with Lancer to make sure they were allowed, but it seemed like he had a plan. Do some basic demonstrations of basic ghost powers, possibly have someone throw a few things at him to show how a lot of human world objects at high velocity just pass through harmlessly (though not the other way around), then use the Box Ghost to show how a Fenton Thermos works.
He blinked a moment as he recalled Jazz in her more uncharacteristic moments in ghost hunting. Right. Some of these guys might get too eager. I'll have to make sure I'm clear that I'm showing it in case they have no other option but self defense, that I don't want them jumping in, and that ghost hunting has a lot of risks. Unbidden, images of the close calls they had came to him, and his more dangerous foes. Undergrowth, Pariah Dark, Dan, Vlad, the Fright Knight, Nocturne... even his more mundane foes were dangerous when they wanted to be. Skulker, Walker, the Lunch Lady, Spectra and her snippy little assistant Bertrand... they were lethal when they wanted to be, even if they were normally not so threatening. While most did not care for collateral damage, they never sought to cause it for its own sake. Walker's wide array of attacks was close, but that was at least damage with a reason, to cause the town to turn against him.
He exhaled, putting the worry off. While he had rallied them against Youngblood, most of them would probably prefer to avoid getting hurt in a fight and his fights were usually comparatively quiet. But, the thought of what would happen in a larger mess like Pariah's attack worried him. If there's an attack that big, they're in danger anyways, he finally reassured himself as he turned his computer on and started going through the family files on ghost gadgets and looked for the ones that were common anti-ghost devices. The Thermos was a Fenton unique design other than that one Vlad knock-off that Valerie had tried to use the first time they fought, but that was an important tool of the trade in Danny's mind. Okay, ecto-guns I'm not even considering bringing in, though I should talk about them. He saw the Specter Deflector's file and realized that with a GIW version out there, that would be one to go over, though he was not going to even touch it while active. And I'm not letting it out of my hands either, he silently added as he looked for other common pieces he could borrow.
XX
Wednesday, After School
Casper High
"Looks good, Mister Fenton." Lancer said with a nod. "Within school rules and no real weapons brought. However, I am slightly concerned that you plan on bringing that... what was he, a caterer?"
"Box Ghost," Danny corrected, "But he's the only one I could think of using for a combat dummy to show how a Fenton Thermos works and the only one I would be able to talk into doing this."
Lancer put down the write up Danny had given him. "Let me guess; being used as a dummy is better than what he's stuck with?"
"Well, how'd you like to be getting constantly zapped while being forced to clean up a maze for the lady you stole something from?" He shrugged. "I went into the Ghost Zone last night, he'll do it and his jailer is fine with him getting a little break... and a chance to do some of his penance here or something to that effect."
Lancer nodded. "And this 'Box Ghost'? How dangerous is he?"
Unbidden, he remembered the future version of the Box Ghost he had met when he was shot into the Ghost Zone ten years in the future. Beware... He almost shivered, remembering how that normally cheesy catchphrase had scared the remaining half of his life from him. He pushed the thought aside. "The most dangerous is when he had a few upgrades, 'secretly borrowed' from his jailer before she got him. Otherwise, he's a cakewalk and easy to contain. He's only coming out to demonstrate how the Thermos works anyways, otherwise he's staying in it."
"Good, good." The round shaped English teacher was smiling, "Now, realizing how hard it is to plan for classes, don't you?"
"Uh, yeah." Danny replied awkwardly as he rubbed the back of his neck. "So, anyone of note joining in?"
"Danny?" someone else asked; a girl. Danny turned and saw Valerie standing there. "Wait a second," Valerie said as she visibly connected the dots. "You're in this ghost club too?"
Lancer glanced to Danny and nodded, Danny catching the clue that it was alright to tell her it was a dodge. "Yeah. Technically, it's an alternative to detention and the fans."
Valerie frowned and folded her arms, almost daring Danny to tell her what he did and giving him a glare that could kill.
"Don't worry, Miss Gray," Lancer cut in. "I checked the rules before offering the choice to him and it is permitted. This is not the first time that students have done other things to avoid detention, though most of them did things worse than what he did."
"Powers?" Valerie asked, loosening her expression as she connected the dots.
"Yeah."
"Fans?"
"Again."
"And to think I was once part of that crowd." Valerie almost sounded disgusted at the thought. "Anyways, I'm going to a few of those meetings too; my dad suggested it since it's an Axion backed thing and all."
"Good," Danny said with a warm smile, "It'll be nice to have someone I know there." And, unsaid, someone who could protect the club if he was not around and a ghost attacked because they were delving into that subject matter.
"No need to dodge the issue, Lancer knows." She pointed out, the gauntlet part of her hunting armor forming around her fist before fading after the brief display. Danny nodded in understanding.
"So, you're security if things go down the tubes?"
"Not quite. Most of the school still doesn't know of her... activities." Lancer cut in as he handed Danny the folder. "I can't say I'm impressed, but her father is allowing her and she isn't bringing weapons onto school property. Or at least, any more than you would just entering the school. You better fill in Miss Gray on what you have in mind."
Danny nodded and passed it to Valerie. "It's pretty simple; I'm going to go over some basic ghost abilities, and some of the common things you see with ghosts. So, the Thermos, Specter Deflectors, that sort of thing. No ecto-weapons like your old grenade launcher, but I plan on going over the generics of an ecto-weapon quickly. I got the Box Ghost lined up as a dummy for showing how the Thermos works."
Valerie looked it over and nodded. "I'm guessing you're going to ask what Axion had in mind getting the club made in exchange for a grant, aren't you?"
Danny and Lancer glanced at each other and shrugged. "Yes, if you know, that'd help a lot." Lancer said.
"I'm sorry, but I don't have that either." Valerie closed the folder and gave it back to Danny. "All I know is they wanted a little more awareness on some of these... eh, 'physics' involving ghosts considering they've been doing a lot with them lately." She looked to Lancer. "Still, I'm surprised the school's fine with it. You'd think that it'd be one of those too dangerous deals."
"Well, we all know that at some point students are going to make a club for ghost hunting or something like that." Lancer pointed out, "And with young Daniel here... how do you say it? Kicking ghost butt all over town, they might think it's easy." Danny and Valerie glanced at each other awkwardly at Lancer's attempt at modern slang; particularly since it was less awkward than usual. "Better to have a pre-set club that keeps some lines on it then them going and doing it on their own."
Valerie nodded slowly as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "Alright. Well, I'm not known around school for what I do, but if they do start doing something crazy we have that safety net. It's probably not a good idea to get them actively hunting like you do with Sam and Tucker."
"Agreed." Danny answered, "But let's be fair, ghost attacks are common enough here that they should know the basic tools of the trade and how to defend themselves long enough to run and escape. Honestly, right now I'm more worried about it turning into fan central if word spreads that I'm there."
"Don't worry about that," Lancer pointed out, "the club can only hold so many people, and we're already mostly full. Now, the first meeting is tomorrow and I need to correct your papers, so you should probably get going."
The two nodded and left. Outside, Danny glanced to Valerie after making sure the halls were clear, finally both remembering and having the chance to ask. "You know, I never asked why you weren't angry when you found out. I mean, besides the circumstances making it a bad idea. I know we briefly talked after, but I never asked why you weren't angry, and I should have."
"Partially because you came over and explained it to me. I was still debating if I was going to still go after you, then you pointed out that you knew it was me since I started." Valerie shrugged. "I thought it over after, and realized that I'd of been terrified of telling me about it too, and then I compared some of the fighting footage of you fighting other ghosts and our little chases and realized you were never trying to seriously injure me, just get me off your tail."
He blinked, surprised that Valerie was so forgiving. This is pretty out of character for her. She's usually so determined that it's hard to sway her. Then again, he had to remind himself, he was able to get her to end up being pretty good friends with Danielle. Or maybe they had some sort of connection. But, he remembered when Technus had possessed her old suit. "What about me revealing your secret to your father? Or the time I blew up your suit in front of you? I was pretty sure you thought I tried to waste you."
"Well, looking at you as just Phantom, yeah. I assumed you were, it was one of my main reminders of why I had to be against you even as everyone called you a hero. After the Disasteroid and you talking to me, I started considering some of my points, trying to see it. I knew you muttered something by name about me then, then shouted you weren't holding back. I never thought of it as realizing you didn't need to hold back until I thought of how you'd be trying to figure things out there. As for revealing it to my father..." she shrugged. "Well, he'd of found out at some point anyways. I suppose having it over and done with worked out better in the end."
He nodded. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that, but I didn't want to start a fight and possibly trash the ecto-skeleton... ah, Nathan isn't in the club, is he?" Danny asked to change the topic as he saw the dejected geek walking up the stairs.
"Nope. Kwan is, but not Dash. Mikey's in it, though." Valerie answered, catching on extremely quickly to the topic change and lowered her voice. "Still, keep my other activities on the DL, would you?"
"No problem; it's your secret." He paused a beat as he realized he had, technically, betrayed it once. Wow, now I feel like a jerk. "If you want, we can finish this later."
"Yeah, when we find the time, though I'd say there isn't too much to finish besides comparing notes."
XX
Thursday; After School
Casper High
"Tell me again why I agreed to this?" the Box Ghost demanded as Danny let him out of the Fenton Thermos for a few moments, though he kept it primed and pointed at him in case he tried to run. They were in a side room as Danny wanted no collateral if the Box Ghost decided not to cooperate.
"Because you're sick of being zapped by a pissed off Greek ghost of high power?" Danny asked, still in human form. "Look, I'm not going to be shooting you with ecto rays or punching you through walls unless you try to break away. You're just going to be Thermos fodder for a few rounds, then it's back to the Ghost Zone and the acropolis. Honestly, the fact that you just had to spend a day in there is probably a break from the perils of Pandora."
The blue skinned ghost glanced both ways and sighed. "Yes. This is true. BUT BEWARE... my eventual ESCAPE!"
Danny simply sighed and shoved the Thermos into his face and activated it, sucking the ghost inside. Well, this shouldn't be too hard. Show a few things off, get out of here. He clipped the Thermos onto his belt and quietly entered the room where they were hosting the meeting; one of the larger science classrooms which had a full lab setup and plenty of open space up front for science project displays. Or, Danny thought as he stood in back where all the members of the new club were not looking, showing fellow teenagers how ghosts tick.
"Well then, have fun with your first meeting." Lancer said as he finished at the front of the room and walked out. Danny recognized Ricky Marsh taking the front, the brown eyed and freckled science nerd beaming in the white jacket he always wore... and it was covered in something from his science experiments. He took the opportunity to recognize some of the students within the club. Kwan was the easiest to spot, the only jock in the group. He recognized a few of the band geeks like Lyle, who was busy cleaning his spit valve. Mikey and a few other nerds were there, and he was certain that it was Paulina hiding behind some of the larger kids. Figures, even if she wants a glance of me she's careful not to get associated with the 'losers'. Exactly why he had realized she was not worth his time or effort. Which reminded him that he could not afford to stick around too long; he had a date with Sam that night.
Ricky coughed into his hand to start the meeting. He was somewhat shaky, but he had enough confidence to keep his cool up there in front of the crowd. "So, welcome to Ghost Club. I'm Ricky Marsh, and I've been selected to be acting-president of the club until we iron things out. We're here to study the paranormal that always comes into good ol' Amity Park."
"So we're going to be hitting ghosts?" Kwan asked.
"It might come to that, but hopefully not." Ricky said. "We're not a ghost hunters club, though I got a feeling we'll get a taste of that just from being here in Amity Park. That said, we do have a guest speaker here today. Everyone give Danny Fenton a warm welcome."
Danny took his cue and walked up between the desks, smiling awkwardly as he passed by Valerie and Kwan. He was sure he heard Paulina cooing in awe that Phantom was here, even if he was hidden under the guise of the former generic victim of the school.
"Uh, hi guys." Danny said as he reached the front, trying to mentally block out the DP shirts a few students were wearing. "So, I'm pretty much going to give a couple basics. General gist on the nature of ghosts, some common ghost gadgets you see, that sort of thing." He pulled the Specter Deflector and put it on the lab table in the front and put the Thermos next to it. "I'll also give a quick rundown on powers and some basic pointers if you get attacked. That said," he put a hard edge into his voice as he grabbed the Fenton Thermos and hit 'release'. The Box Ghost popped out, disoriented, and the group had just enough time to recognize the ghost when Danny activated the Thermos again and sucked him inside. "Ghost hunting is not as easy as shoving this guy into the Thermos every other day. There's a lot of risks involved, so I don't want you going out doing it on your own even if I am giving you guys some pointers on defending yourself." He put the Thermos onto the table again and plugged a flash drive into the computer and brought up the power point and clicked it to an image of one of the many blob ghosts he had fought before. "Alright then, let's start with the basics on what a ghost is. There's a couple varieties, which I'll go over shortly, but the general gist of a ghost is they're some sort of ectoplasmic being with varying levels of power and sentience."
"You almost sound like they're people." Paulina said with surprising conviction. "But, aren't they just like demons or something?"
"Well, a lot of ghosts like the Box Ghost here," he gave the Thermos a quick shake, "were people once. Still are, in a lot of ways. I'll get to that later. Now, I've generally ran into a few basic categories. One I'd just call 'blobs', like the one up on the power point." He nodded his head towards it. "Generally speaking, they're the weakest and have minimal to no sentience, more being pure instinct. Sort of what you think off when you assume monster. I've occasionally destroyed some just by hitting them hard enough." He paused to let the few kids taking notes catch up, amusingly Valerie was amongst them even though she knew most of this already by benefit of Danny sharing some of his files on ghosts with her. "Now, this is only a theory, but my guess is they're the Ghost Zone's equivalent of early life; single celled stuff or whatever Mr. Faluca said. Just ectoplasm instead of cytoplasm."
He clicked the mouse and the power point shifted to a few file photos of some of Danny's regular rogues' gallery, specifically those with some notability in Amity Park. Specifically, the Box Ghost, Poindexter, the Lunch Lady, Youngblood, Skulker, and Ember. "These are generally what you'd consider a shade or echo of some sort. A lot of them I've dug up history on as to who they were before they somehow ended up dead. They're all sentient, though I don't know enough to tell you if any of the sentience was lost in the process."
"Hey, isn't that Ember?" Kwan asked as he recognized the image.
"Yup." Danny answered. "She's a ghost."
"That... that puts the lyrics of her song in a whole new context." Kwan said, glancing down sadly.
"I know." He responded with a nod. "Now, these ghosts tend to be more powerful, though some are more along the lines of the Ghost Zone's equivalent of humans coming out of early life. A lot of them just want to be left alone, but the ones up on this image have various motivations for coming at us. Good news, though, is they can be reasoned with and I've ended up working with them a few times, like that whole Pariah Dark incident or the Disasteroid." He glanced around then hit the mouse to put it to the last slide for this topic.
"Now, the last group is made up of ghosts who are of something, like the Fright Knight, Pariah Dark, Undergrowth... a couple of the ones who've started crossing over." The slide showed each of them. "They're ghosts who have some sort of domain, like the Fright Knight with Halloween or Undergrowth and plants, and as far as I know they were never human even if some of them have human like forms. They have all the traits of the last type, but are more powerful as a whole. Tentatively, I've used the term 'deity type' to describe them because of their power level and the fact that they have a specific role of being something."
"Wait, so you've been punting gods around?" Valerie asked in surprise, though it seemed to be more in response to the terminology than the fact that he could take on and beat such powerful beings.
"Not quite," Danny corrected quickly. "It's more of a temporary name because I can't think of a non-mouthful way of describing ghosts of some element with a lot of power and I haven't found any technical ghost classifications used by ghosts." He recalled how Vlad had become hailed as a deity in ancient Rome just by floating around and Hotep-Ra's scheme with Tucker. "Though, it wouldn't be too hard to convince cavemen who don't know about this stuff of that. The real shtick with these guys is they have some sort of domain to them. If you ran into one of them... well, I'd probably run as far away as possible and try to stay out of the crossfire." He paused a moment before amending the statement. "Or just do that for any fight going on." A quick cough into his hand, and he returned to his speech. "On the upside, all ghosts tend to have some sort of weakness based on their thing, and even these powerful ones have weaknesses. Take Undergrowth; freeze his roots and he becomes a lot weaker." He noticed that eHRicky had raised his hand. "Ricky?"
"Where do you fall in this, then?"
Danny realized he should have saw this one coming. "That was my next topic. The last 'classification' isn't really one, but you probably would be asking me anyways." He switched to Phantom form, the white rings passing quickly around him and changing him from human flesh to ghostly ectoplasm. "Half-ghosts, or 'halfa' as it got coined in the Ghost Zone, are pretty much an unknown, even in the Ghost Zone. All I can offer you on the specific nature of them is some theory work based on what I've figured out. The big thing about half-ghosts, though, is..." he switched back to Fenton form, "the fact that they have two forms, one ghost, one human. I still show up on a lot of ghost scanners and can use my powers even as Danny Fenton, but I can pass through things like the ghost shield my parents have without issue." He shrugged. "I'd probably fall in a 'none of the above' if you wanted to use my categories. I can take on all three of the categories, but I'm definitely not as strong as the deity-type ones in direct comparison. I can beat them, but I usually need to nullify their power somehow, usually by some weakness like freezing Undergrowth's roots. Power level? Well, at first all I could do is the stuff every ghost can do, but over time I've gotten some more. I'll give you guys more on those later. So, any other questions so far?"
XXX
End Chapter
A few brief author's notes:
Note that what Danny is explaining is all theory work for many things, particularly classifying ghosts. These are not meant to be hard classifications like an RPG class, but rather a general classification of where ghosts come from and my attempt to explain why some ghosts are pretty clearly dead people, others are just... things, and some like Clockwork are specifically treated like they are a natural part of the multiverse or are sort of like how ancient deities had some domain. Take them as the theories they are in-universe.
Ricky Marsh is actually mentioned once in 'Splitting Images', and that he was pushed off the Monkey Bars by Sam in second grade after Tucker puked in her lunchbox and blamed it on him. I figured I might as well use him for the club since he's such a blank slate as far as canon went.
Oh, and for those who track shipping with the character list: while this one does say Danny & Valerie for the characters, that does not mean it ships them. My general rule of thumb for using the characters is "who are the two primary characters in the story". So here, Danny and Valerie are the most important even if I'm keeping to DxS.