Hey howdy hey! This idea hit me the other day and I've been itching to show it off. :) Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, but I am borrowing him for the purposes of fanfic.

Half Ghost
by
CatalystOfTheSoul

Summary: Danny and Vlad are in for the shock of their lives when they discover not one, but hundreds of pairs of eyes flashing with a new, raw color. Suddenly, their world doesn't feel very…human, anymore.

In the gentle breath of wind that rustled October leaves and whistled comfortingly across the fields, there was a subtle chill that shivered through the air. The boy that had been relaxing on the edge of a wagon watched the wind with vague annoyance as it pushed the pages of the bound item in his hands. With a scowl, the boy licked the tip of his writing utensil and focused back on the journal, scribbling in childish handwriting that didn't nearly match his age.

"A, a," he drew, careful not to scrawl as usual.

The boy smiled a little and compared the new letters to the million other copies of them all over the page. These two letters actually looked almost kind of neat. He scoffed, a little victory lighting up in his eyes, "And Maggie says I can't do nothin' but plow." Snapping the journal shut and waving his hand around to release the writing cramp, he decided he'd had enough for the day. Hopping to the ground, the boy began to make his steady way to a wooden fixture not an acre away.

Another burst of song-like wind rustled the boy's hair good-naturedly. He paused, facing the head of the wind with a tiny look of confusion entering his eye. He watched as fields of wheat waved back and forth with the pull, rustling in a pretty sort of way. He wasn't exactly sure what had him saying it, but the shaky whisper came out anyway, "Hullo?"

Staring into the empty field as if it would suddenly grow eyes and stare back, the boy's foot moved the other direction, as if trying to slowly retreat. Realizing his action, however, he shook his head and murmured a curse under his breath. "Jumping at shadows," he mumbled, turning as if to stalk off in the direction he'd already been going. However, before the boy had the chance to take even a step, a strange popping noise filled his ears, the momentum of his body carrying him into a forming swirl of greenish orbs.

Shock initially muting his ability to react, it took a moment for the odd, gut-wrenching sensation that ripped right through his stomach to push a nearly electric scream into the air. Its hollow echoes scattered across the trees like a ghostly howl, and did not go unnoticed by the family in the cottage up the way. However, by the time anyone could reach the field to find the source of the commotion, the damage had already been done.

Danny was not in the mood to open his eyes. He could already sense the amount of dizzy vertigo that would accompany it and he was a fair amount certain his stomach would lose the almost nonexistent grip it had on the food in his stomach. Clenching his teeth, Danny sucked in a sharp breath and his fingers gripped the railing even tighter, trying not to move his body.

Somebody was laughing next to him, but he was not in the mood to hear it. Or care. Or think. There was a pressure that was beating at his skull and refusing to stop and right now it didn't really matter that anyone was laughing or screaming or being stupid. He just really, really didn't want to puke. If he threw up, he owed Tucker ten dollars.

And he didn't have ten dollars. He'd spent it on nachos.

Irony. Sadistic, evil, completely unfair irony. Trying not to shake his head, there was some sort of slowing of the pressure on his chest and Danny's white fingers tightened even harder. His human muscles could probably bend the metal at this point—the entire desire to slow down in the first place instantly vanished as the change in speed set another sick wave of nausea down Danny's spine.

But it was over quickly; with a fierce shudder the ground halted and Danny felt his grip loosen. Some sort of mad cackling was filling his ears and he didn't really want to look at the dancing expression in Tucker's eyes. "That's ten rounds, Danny!" Another sharp laugh. "Think you can actually walk off of this thing without tossing up chunks, or are you going to blow it in the last few seconds?"

Tucker's dramatic tone clearly stated his opinion on the matter. Blearily, Danny cracked open an eye to send a short glare at his best friend, "How," he took a deep breath and swallowed, hands falling from the railing as Danny somberly began to walk off of the stupid, spinning carnival ride, "are you still coherent?"

"All that meat!" Tucker shouted joyously, patting his friend's back a little too hard. "Got a stomach like a rock!"

"I don't think that's necessarily a good thing," Sam stated blandly, staring up at them from the ground and casting one disgusted glance at the ride before taking a noticeable step away. "'All that meat' is probably causing serious health issues." She folded her arms tighter across her chest and scowled as Danny shakily descended the grimy metal staircase to her side. Like a switch had been flipped, she grinned, "How're you feeling, ghost boy?"

Danny shot her the same glare he'd given Tucker and mumbled, "Like Skulker just turned my body into a teather ball, played ten rounds, and then kicked me in the gut." He glanced at the ride and then back at her, "Why did I take that bet?"

"Because you wanted my ten dollars for a ride into the tunnel of looove-birds." Tucker made a gross little kissy face, swung an arm around his best friend's shoulder, and held up a five. "But this is all I've got on me, so it looks like you'll just have to take yourself." He grinned.

Danny rolled his eyes, and reacted in unison with Sam. "We're not love birds!" Letting out an exasperated sigh he snagged the money and pocketed it, an equally evil grin sneaking onto his face. "Nah, I think I'll just use it to utterly cream you in another ring toss."

Something bordering on grief flickered into the darker boy's expression before he shook his head and whispered something along the lines of "InvisoBill cheater…" before perking up and racing ahead of the group. "Ferris Wheel's next!" he called over his shoulder. Danny and Sam exchanged exasperated glances before they chuckled a little and hurried to catch up with their bizarre friend before he got lost in the carnival's complex network of game-congested lanes.

Again.

Needless to say, Vlad was not happy. His fists were constantly twitching for something to clench and the look in his eyes bordered on pure murder. "What," he hissed, "could have possibly gone wrong this time?"

The nervous secretariat in front of him jittered from side to side, looking around the room with wide eyes and backing away a few feet. He clutched the folder in front of him and pushed his glasses a little closer to his nose, clearing his throat and opening his mouth to repeat, for the fourth time that day, that the ectomaniabites had stopped working. But telling Vlad was a lot worse than telling anyone else.

The mayor had practically thrown his heart and soul into the project these last few weeks, and discovering that they were, once again, malfunctioning was putting a lot of kinks in his plan. Of course, the secretariat had no idea that it was a lot more than just small technical failures that had Amity's mayor particularly on edge this Friday night. But nobody really needed to know what exactly Vlad was up to, and he liked it that way.

"Never mind," Vlad growled, throwing his face in his hands and blowing a long, drawn-out sigh through his lips. "You may go. Home, or wherever." He glanced out the window and realized, in almost acute surprise, that it was already dark. "Weekend. Take a break."

There was a pause on the other side of the room and the male stepped forward, almost uncertainly, and set the manila folder on top of Vlad's desk. "Maybe you should also take a break, sir," he murmured, turning away and swiftly heading out of the door. "Three day weekend and all." With that, he was completely gone.

Leaving Vlad alone in the office to mull over the events of the week. Month. Whatever. He slowly raised a hand to rub at his aching forehead. "I hate," he said slowly, "remodeling. Oh, peanut brittle! Anti-ghost weapons failures. Idiots. Jack Fenton. Power-hungry, snobby amateurs. Children. But I really, really hate remodeling." He repeated the last bit with a relish, a tiny flicker of a smile balancing into place as he stretched in a little relief. "I will never, ever propose it to City Hall ever again."

And with a tired yawn, Vlad stretched and rose from his seat, walking around the desk and hovering his hand over the manila folder. He stood there for a minute, staring at it, before he finally rolled his eyes and walked away. "It can wait until Tuesday," he stated firmly, snagging his coat off the hanger and marching out of the office. "I'm going to go find a distraction, coffee, and maybe Danny."

A bit of a wicked smile splitting his cracked lips, Vlad chuckled, "And I know just where to get all of that."

It was official. Danny couldn't believe it. Nope, not at all, never, ever again. His faith in his best friend completely lost, he turned around and flung himself dramatically at Sam, throwing his arms around her neck and crying out in indignation, "Oh, the pain! I can't watch!"

He felt her pushing him away before he even had a chance to break out into another dramatic sentence. "Geez, Danny, chill out." She grinned a little wryly, "Tucker's had more practice shooting things with actual guns."

Danny pulled away and pouted, his mock emotion jumping over the top in a way he knew Sam was absolutely going to get more flustered by. Holding an arm around her shoulder, he shook his head, "He's overshadowed, Sam. No one beats me at these stupid water-pistol game things." He leaned in, mischief floating in those big blue eyes like green fireworks. "Maybe we should check if he's overshadowed. One shot. Shouldn't hurt."

Sam pushed Danny away and rolled her eyes. "Don't be a sore loser, Danny. And give Tuck his money back." She leveled her gaze at the technogeek, who was now nonchalantly checking his email, and waved her hand flippantly. "He's probably just going to lose it to you again soon, anyway."

Nodding with a still dramatic and sorrowful flourish, Danny cast himself in front of Tucker with a deep bow. "The maiden has spoken!" he proclaimed with a sly grin. When he straightened, his voice went back to normal. "Here's your cash, Tuck."

Even though the money had been diminished to two dollars and seventy-three cents, Tucker snagged it and placed it in his pocket without a second glance; his eyes still roving across the front of his PDA with a completely zoned-out expression. Used to his best friend's seemingly random lapses of silence when absorbed in technology, Danny snagged his and Sam's arms and proceeded to drag them towards the next attraction. "No more getting distracted this time. Ferris Wheel."

They were all in complete agreement. This moment had been avoided too long, seeing as they arrived at the carnival a full three hours ago to do this one thing. But, as Tuck so dramatically loved to put it, that was the power of friendship. Distracted, disoriented, and too busy actually having fun to do what was set out to be done. Doomed as a study group, but perfectly balanced when it came down to interaction.

Somehow, however, their friendship always did get interrupted. And this time, it did not arrive in the form of a groan and a cold breath of air escaping Danny's lips. This time, it came in the form of a shadow and a cutting voice that sneered at the children in front of him. "My, what a lovely surprise," Vlad murmured, steaming cup of coffee hanging in his grip, "running into you here."

Danny stared for a moment, blinking. The dramatic energy from moments before still coursed through his blood and he deflated, whining, "Oh, man. Doesn't he understand the rule of no more distractions?" Danny turned to Sam very seriously. "Can't he be a bro and respect that?"

Sam's eyebrows were lifted in amusement, but there was a subtle hint of unease in her gaze. "I guess so," she replied, turning to Vlad and casting him a writhing glare. "But, no, I honestly don't think he's ever heard the rule."

Vlad's teeth glinted almost unnaturally when he beamed in response. "Good evening, Samantha." With a curt nod, he turned to Danny and, as if it were possible, his grin widened and got particularly devilish. "Danny, a word, if you don't mind." He stepped aside and indicated a lonely area of the carnival next to one of the less popular pink-coated dunk tanks.

Danny made a face like sucking on a lemon. "Um…no thanks, Frootloop, but I've got plans for the night." A wild grin fitting itself into place, Danny's eyes flashed across the crowd a little too merrily, "But if you really wanted to make that dunk tank more popular, I'm sure I could help you get inside." He leaned forward a little and looked up at Vlad with a wink. "The proceeds could go to charity."

"Mmm. Noble cause; not in the mood," Vlad responded stiffly. His shoulders had suddenly grown tense and his sharp gaze bit into Daniel's with more than a hint of lurking red. "If you really want me to force you…"

Danny threw his hands in the air with a disgusted huff, "I can't have one stinking night of fun, can I?" Waving away his friends, Danny mumbled, "Be right back, not sure if I'll be sane when I return." Then promptly marched off towards the spot indicated.

Vlad was more dignified and slow in moving, seeming to absorb the looks of pure hatred from the teen's two friends before slowly turning and following his adversary. Once they were in a generally less populated area, Danny spun himself around and dramatically folded his arms. "What do you want, Vlad." He practically ground the name out with all the venom he could muster.

Which, surprisingly, wasn't as much venom as he wanted. While it was unbelievably easy for Sam to jump from one mood to the next with all the grace of a twirling ballerina – and don't ever let her know that analogy was used – Danny had more troubles going from totally-awesome fun night to totally-suckish Vlad weirdness. He hefted a sigh and allowed some real tiredness to seep through. "You seriously couldn't follow the bro rule, though."

Vlad cast him an odd look before shaking his head. "Where on Earth you come up with these things…" He trailed off and continued to shake his head. "I'm not your… 'bro,' Daniel." Air quotes were thrown in as needed and Vlad's face lit up with a particularly snarky smirk. "But if that's how you want to act…"

Danny paled. "Okay, no, nevermind. Forget the whole thing and just spit out your creepy evil plot or whatever." Danny hunched his shoulders and continued to mutter lewd comments without a hint of care as to whether or not Vlad decided to listen.

Which, to be honest, he hadn't. Vlad was busily taking a dreg of his coffee and inspecting Danny very carefully before saying, "My ghost alarms have been going off all week."

Somewhat surprised, but not really caring to let it show on his face, Danny stared at Vlad as his eyebrows slowly knit themselves together. There was brief moment where Danny considered the past week's ghost fights and confirmed to himself that, no, he hadn't been anywhere near Vlad's place in any of them. "Um, that's great?"

Vlad glared freezing cold daggers at the boy. "The alarms are specifically keyed to half-ghost signatures. AKA: you."

Silence. Danny really was showing his surprise now. Well, surprise and then anger. "Look, come on, Vlad. I haven't had beef with you for at least three weeks now, I've been looking forward to this carnival for, say, all of three weeks, and you're throwing around stupid accusations?" He rolled his eyes. "I haven't gone anywhere near your house with a thirty-nine and a half foot pole."

Vlad's expression only grew colder as Danny went on with a biting, sarcastic edge, "Sure you're not setting them off yourself?"

"They don't register me," Vlad stated stiffly. "And you need to stay off of my property. If this is another stupid game, I am not going—"

"I'm not playing a game, Frootloop; that's your thing," Danny cut in. Then, he paused and added almost reflexively, "Well, mind games. I'm sure I could cream you in the video-field of that topic..." Flashing his signature cocky grin, Danny waved his hand through the air. "Did you seriously just come all the way out here to yell at me about stupid alarm stuff, or was it just because tormenting me really was just an excuse to come the carnival?"

Vlad's face darkened with resolute distaste, his lips curled and he hesitated before responding. The truth was, actually, almost something along those lines. But Danny was never, ever going to know that. He opened his mouth to respond with something probably vile and incredibly rude, but Danny beat him too it with an outbursting cry, "I knew it! You want to ride the Ferris Wheel!"

There was a moment, albeit brief, where Vlad's face was nothing but pure shock. However, it twisted into disgust. "Is that seriously the best you can throw at me?" he asked resolutely, voice barren of all emotion. "That's…" He trailed off and blinked a few times, "…the most idiotic thing I've heard all day."

Danny's grin only widened, "But, Vla-ad, why else would you come here?" He gestured to the people milling about. "You never come to yell at me in public. Like, ever. Because everybody notices the mayor – " As a matter of fact, an elderly couple had chosen that moment to send Vlad a little wave as they passed by. "So you're obviously not really here to yell at me. That leaves only three things; Friday night, carnival, Ferris Wheel." Danny stood up straighter, his eyes dancing excitedly as he heaved a dramatic sniffle, "It-it's just, you act so-so..." his voice cracked mockingly under false tears, "so human sometimes, V-Man."

"If you start throwing around false pride, Daniel, I swear I'm going to shove your head into the popcorn machine." Vlad hissed, his eyes glowing. Then, with a weary sigh and a lowering of his shoulders, Vlad glanced at his coffee and took another long dreg. "But, if you're inviting me along with your friends…"

"Okay!" Danny snapped out of his over-dramatic flailing and stood to attention. "Okay, fine, I get it. Whatever. No, I didn't mess with your stupid sensors. They're malfunctioning or something." He took a wide step back, "I'm going to go back to Sam and Tuck, pretend this night hasn't had the fun sucked out of it, and you can just… not invite yourself along. Ever."

Shuddering a little too obviously to be realistic, Danny turned heel and started towards his friends. However, he froze mid-stride and groaned, a shiver racing up his spine as cold air fogged in front of his mouth. "Wonderful," he murmured, turning right back around and stalking past, to his irritation, a very amused Vlad and waltzing behind the empty pink dunk tank.

In a flash Danny Phantom's slim form shot above the carnival, unnoticed by mostly everybody as he hovered there, looking around suspiciously. It would be just like Vlad to send in Skulker or someone to mess with him while they were talking. He was joking earlier, of course. There really wasn't any reason he could figure about why Vlad had shown up except to maybe – probably, no, definitely – make his life a lot more suckish.

Throwing a ghost into the mix would be very, very like him.

However, the sky was… empty. The only flashing lights that drew his paranoia were obnoxious carnival things. Danny squinted at the harsher lights, trying to make everything out and keeping his ears pricked for some random human to scream in surprise and start the panicked "it's a ghost" run from the area. The wind tussled Danny's messy hair as he waited, impatiently, for something to happen.

After a full minute and a half, Danny sighed and rubbed his forehead. "Great," he mumbled. "Just great." Deciding that he could just as easily wait for the ghost to show its face down on the ground – in human form, eating cream pie – Danny whisked himself around to find a place to change back. The swift motion would have gone smoothly if he had not run head-on into something blocking his path. Danny hopped back several feet, eyes widening to take in the ghost that had, apparently, just been waiting behind him the whole time.

Young, physically in his twenties and wearing some sort of wavy country-boy outfit that danced in a thousand different invisible breezes, the ghost gave him a pale smile. "Howdy." The ghost tipped his all too serious looking cowboy hat, a little smile on his lips. "Mind if I join ya? The air feels nice tonight." As if to emphasize his point, purple eyes closed and his head rolled back to feel the wind brush across his death-white skin.

"Uhh…" Danny's gaze dashed around, his arms – which had been thrown up defensively – began to falter. He wasn't used to the nice-ghost approach, but it didn't mean he hadn't seen it before. Not even quite noticing the pun, Danny threw caution to the wind and allowed his arms to dangle at his sides. "Who are you?"

"M'name's Tanner," the ghost mumbled, rolling his head back to a vertical position and opening his eyes to inspect Danny. "And some of my friends want to talk to you." Without another word, the ghost raised his arm as a particularly fierce gust of wind kicked up and unnaturally slammed into Danny, ignoring his yelp as the invisible current whisked him away and threw him head-on into a large, dome-like circus tent.

The fact that Danny hadn't noticed the gigantic tent until now wasn't the weird part. The weird part is how the tight material making up the roof suddenly opened up to let his body fall right in, the wind still barreling him down until his back met cold ground. Blinking, Danny sat up and shook the stars out of his eyes. "I really should have expected that…" he muttered under his breath before jumping up to get a grasp of his new surroundings.

He flinched.

The center ring. A stone of dread sinking into his stomach, Danny looked around cautiously for Freakshow. He really, seriously didn't want another encounter with the ghost-obsessed human. However, the ring was empty; save one, specific detail. At the only entrance, there was a scuffle going on and shouts of indignation as two particularly large humans wrestled someone into the ring. Shouting one last time, and then letting loose an involuntary yelp, Vlad was cast onto the floor.

Okay, that's out, Danny thought. Vlad wouldn't plan this if he was actually going to get thrown on the dirty floor. There just wasn't enough class in the action. Casting another nervous look around, Danny finally registered the audience.

It should have hit him earlier. The huge, stuffy, massive audience was filling every single seat the tent had to offer. People sat everywhere, staring at them with locked, silent eyes. A steady feeling of unease filled the teen as he realized none of them were talking. Heck, they weren't even really moving. "Uh…Vlad…" he muttered weakly, turning to the man as he got to his feet. Danny caught the billionaire's eye and gestured to the crowd mutely.

Without skipping a beat, Vlad looked around them thoughtfully. "Tartar sauce," he mumbled, but otherwise remained nonchalant. Cooly placing tensed fists into his coat pockets, Vlad made his careful way backwards. Why he had been shoved into a giant circus tent with Danny – ghost Danny – he was genuinely afraid to find out. Trying not to blow his cover, Vlad looked around for someone in charge, his eyes flashing in anger.

"Hullo." Materializing in the center of the ring, Danny recognized Tanner instantly. The ghost had his hands tucked languidly in his old-western style pockets. The fact that the ghost was inside did not stop the way his clothing and scraggily bits of hair were pulled by invisible forces. The ghost looked at Vlad and nodded. "I'm Tanner," he supplied with a little smile.

"You're a ghost." Vlad's attempt at feigning surprise was almost laughable.

Apparently, so laughable, that the ghost actually did begin to chortle. "Oh, that's, that's…" He trailed off and shook his head, beaming. "Aw, you'll get it later. Or now. I guess I drew the short straw, you know?" The ghost nodded to himself and said with a sweet southern drawl, "Apparently I gotta do the explaining. Which really isn't fair because Ash said she'd rigged it so we didn't get picked, but that's Ash for you." He shrugged, "About as reliable as Ma's mood swings."

Danny was half in the air with an almost-intention of attacking the ghost as he exchanged glances with Vlad. Clearly, the Frootloop's look wanted nothing more than for Danny to get up the nerve to attack already, but something was holding him back. He couldn't quite…place it. But something was off in a … somewhat less then forbidding way. "You attacked me," Danny decided to state flatly, watching the ghost for a reaction.

In that, the ghost actually did shift nervously. "Now, I'm sorry 'bout that, but it's understandable you ain't the trustin' type to just let me guide you here." He looked around at the audience. "We've all been pretty nervous about talking to you two, you know? I mean, most of us, we just got hit like it was an accident and didn't never see it coming. But we're bred outta nature, and we're more in the harmony enda things, and you're just…"

He blew out a sigh, "Well, you're just not. None of you is harmony or nothing." He swallowed, shakily amending, "Not that that's a bad thing, you know. We actually think we mighta come to like you a little. Well..." He cast a serious look at Vlad and then turned back to grin shyly at Danny. "Well, when you started parading around, we thought maybe the Unnatural Ones might be less malicious then we thought."

Danny's lips were open and his eyes were fogged, as if trying to puzzle out what on Earth the ghost was raving about. Normally he didn't listen to ghost-rants, but normally the ghost was attacking him while they said it. This situation was… different; and weird.

"Who is this 'we'?" Vlad cut in softly, his calculating eyes taking in the audience. Unlike Danny's observation, he noticed that the audience's gaze were locked on the conversation at hand, and they were moving—albeit barely. Small twitches here and there. He tried to shove away the sensation of a hundred pairs of eyes focusing on him while his throat cleared. "I don't suppose you're the one who's managed to hypnotize a group this large, are you?"

Danny stiffened at that, memories ringing in his brain – the only thing better than an audience, is a captive audience! Freakshow flashbacks being far less then desirable, he again looked around for the pale human with a glowing red staff. "Oh, this is just stupid," he muttered darkly to himself. Duh. The ghost's little chat was some sort of distraction for some sick plot that, for an unfathomable reason, needed a large human escort to sit helplessly and watch. Danny hunched his shoulders and collected energy in his palms. "What do you want?" he seethed, allowing his annoyance to seep through to his voice.

To his complete surprise, the other ghost actually squeaked and backed away. "No, no, I did recon watching you six times now. No way, not here for a fight." He shuddered, "You make the wind flustered. Nobody can make the wind flustered, but you made him flustered." The ghost closed his eyes and held his stomach tightly. "Look, I'm just going to get to the point. There. Here, you're a half-ghost, and so are you," he looked at Vlad, "and look, here, you can get along with me because we're alike. You, me, him..." he grinned. "Half ghost."

Without waiting for any completely unbelieving responses, the ghost held his arms tighter to his stomach and closed his eyes. Like a rain of wind blowing through his hair and swirling around his body, the ghost morphed. It wasn't like any transformation Danny had ever witnessed before; and it certainly wasn't a half-ghost transformation. There were no rings jumping into existence to split the body from one plane to another. There was just wind, teasing and swirling, pulling at the boy's black hair until it pulled the color away and made it sandy blonde. Tugging at the Cowboy hat until it flew off and drifted into nothingness, changing, gently, slowly, it was almost…

…natural.

What was left was a raggedy guy. Same age, almost, in a baggy blue t-shirt and jeans, freckled face and perfectly normal grey-brown eyes landing on the two halfas. His not-pale, tanned arm lifted and waved a little uncertainly as he greeted them. "Hi…" He licked his lips and smiled a little shyly. "I'm Tanner. Um, still. It never really occurred to me to change my name or anything between forms." Shaking a little, he turned and indicated the audience, which had grown almost restless to the point of standing up. "And these guys…well…"

He let out a soft chuckle, "They're hybrids, too."

Okay, I'll admit it! Halfa OC's are actually a really good story idea! You just gotta do 'um right. ;) And that's what inspired this entire...thing...much love! Hope you had fun!

~Catalyst