1. Electricity
"How's the royal highness doing today?" Sam teased as Danny plopped his lunch tray onto the table. A grumble was her answer. She gave him a quick glance, noting the darker skin rimming his eyes. "Didn't sleep?"
"Yup," Danny grumbled, his head bobbing over his tray of near inedible food. His leg bounced.
"Ghosts?"
"You can say that." With the short answer, he tenderly picked up his plastic spork and began scooping through his mashed potatoes. His other hand was tapping silently on the hard plastic table. "Just me really."
Sam rose an eyebrow, concern worming onto her face. "What happened?"
"Well-"
"Hey there Little Prince!" Tucker called out as he plopped himself besides Danny, who glared darkly at his best friend. Valerie seated herself on the other side of the table, beside Sam.
"Little Prince?" Valerie echoed in amusement.
"I thought we agreed to keep the secret a secret," Danny stressed. "Besides, I'm not that little."
"No, but I am taller than you," Tucker bragged as he pulled out his tablet. "And which secret are we talking about? At the moment, there's several."
"The royal pain in the neck one," Danny muttered, his glare going back to his potatoes. "The last thing I need to hear is Dash or Paulina spreading it around in their own twisted way. 'Look it's Fentino, the King of Losers!'"
"It's kind of too late on that one, Fenton," Valerie said as she took a bite out of her sandwich as Danny groaned. "There's no need to proclaim it." Swallowing, she added, "when will you be coronated?"
"Two weeks from now," Danny sighed, looking dismally.
"Is that why you didn't sleep last night?" Sam asked, hoping to get an answer this time around.
"Ehhh kind of?" he answered, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. "I mean, I am worried about it. What if Vlad shows up and tries to 'challenge' me or something? Or what if after my parents knowing my…other half, this might blow their minds too much you know? Jazz was saying something about too much change in too short of time can cause trauma or something like-"
"Um, Danny," Sam cut him off. "Your hair is kind of standing on its end."
"What?" Danny asked confused as his hand traveled to the top of his head, which had to dive into his static-filled head. His blue eyes widen comically. "What?!"
"That is so not your style," Valerie said. Sam threw her a glare.
"Of course that's all you worry about," Sam sniped. "How people look and the image that others would perceive."
"Says Miss Manson who deliberately dresses the way you are to annoy your parents," Valerie retorted.
"Not all the time!"
"Guys!" Danny exclaimed, earning the two females' attention. "Let's not get into an argument okay? Just for one day?"
"You're asking a lot of them," Tucker said absentmindedly. He immediately yelped at being kicked in the shin. "Ouch! And I thought Sam's combat boots were painful."
"Wait until I'm wearing heels," Valerie warned with a smirk. She turned back to Danny. "So you've got a bit of static in your system. You've been through worse right?"
"Well," Danny began, his hand falling onto the table beside his food. At his tone, both girls listened attentatively. Tucker even put his tablet on the table to pay attention to his best friend's words. There was the telltale sigh of an admittance. "For some odd reason, lately I've been feeling…buzzed."
"You were drinking?" Sam immediately asked, surprise on her face.
"What? N-"
"Without me!?" Tucker cried out. "Your best friend?!" He wrapped his arm about Danny's shoulders but the second his hand touched Danny's bare arm, he yelped, yanking himself away. "Ouch dude! You're more than just buzzed! You shocked me!"
"Shocking," Danny deadpanned. "Now will you stop interrupting me?" With a nod from Tucker, Danny continued, "but yeah…buzzed, static, whatever. It didn't bother me over the weekend, but last night after I helped Mom and Dad with harvesting ectoplasm from the portal, I could feel myself buzzing." He paused, placing a hand over his chest which Sam and Tucker immediately recognized the gesture. "Especially in my core. It's practically vibrating."
"So either you've been conducting electricity this entire time or your core has been storing this energy for a long time," Tucker trailed off. "Actually, maybe both, and now it's starting to manifest itself."
"Which means?" Valerie prompted.
"A new ghost power?" Sam asked excitingly. She reached over to touch Danny's hair, which had waved itself over to Sam's outstretched hand once it neared. "The ability to control electricity?"
"Maybe?" Danny shrugged, his leg bounced faster at the thought. "I hope not."
"Why?" Tucker asked, looking more excited by the minute. "Dude! You can be the human battery!" Danny threw him a dark look. "What? It's true! You can even charge people as you recharge their cell phones. Heh, get it?"
"I got it loud and clean," Danny grumbled as his face fell into his hands. Then, in a quieter voice, "I don't want to be the Fenton Battery."
"Fenton Battery?" Valerie questioned. "Your parents have their own battery brand?"
"They already have their own toilet paper brand," Sam reasoned with a shrug. "Besides the Fenton Batteries use ectoplasmic energy, not electricity. Granted, as long as the batteries don't become sentient…"
"Please don't remind me," Danny groaned from his hands. His leg refused to stop bouncing. There was too much energy in his system and he just wanted to let it all out.
"Dude, you're gonna shake the table soon," Tucker commented.
There was a deep exhale before Danny let his hands fall. "Sorry, I'm just…" He paused, his eyes looking far away before his brows furrowed a bit on themselves. "It's just like any other power. I need to practice wanting to make it happen instead of letting it happen."
"Now he remembers," Sam said with a smirk. "But how can you force something to manifest itself if it's only been buzzing and shocking others upon contact?"
"Visualization I guess," Danny said, staring down at his left hand. "If I can make it go through one way instead of letting it bounce around inside of me…"
"Wait, wait, wait," Valerie said, shaking her head slightly. "How can you have electricity flowing through yourself?" Danny didn't answer, so Tucker took his que.
"It's the ectoplasm in his body," Tucker said with the air of a mad genius. "Ectoplasm is a great conductor of electricity, thus why Danny didn't..." He faltered for a moment. "…why Danny got his powers from the Accident."
Valerie rose an eyebrow at this. "That's…rather vague."
"Hey you're more than welcome to ask Mr. and Mrs. Fenton," Sam said as she took a bite from her salad.
"Yeah, and then be stuck listening to them blather about ghosts for hours? Pass." The three friends turned their attentions back to Danny, his leg firmly planted into the tiled floor.
"Danny?" Sam asked tentatively.
"I think…" Danny began, his eyes narrowing on his left hand. Without preamble, he snapped his fingers together. To everyone's surprise, there was a crackle of electricity that sparked out. As green as his ghostly eyes, the spark fell from his fingers…
…and landed on Tucker's tablet. Immediately the screen blacked out the second the spark wiggled inside of the device.
For a moment, no one moved, except for Danny's hair falling back into it's normal mess. Silence was heavy between the four friends before Tucker pounced on his device. Fingers pressing the power button and swiping the screen, hoping to get the screen to light up once more.
It remained black.
"Stella!"
Sooo...Phanniemay has gotten me to write DP finally. :D
However, don't expect any updates from my other fanfiction sadly. My old laptop quit working on my earlier this school year, so I've been using my new one and I haven't gotten the chance to get my old documents off of my old one simply because turning it on makes it want to be on fire. And no, there's no fire but it is extremely hot and slow even though I would only have Word pulled up.
Sooooo yeah. Good news is that I'll be getting my Masters in December, so I'm completely looking forward to leaving the university and never coming back. XD