I own nothing, not the characters, the space where this story exists, or even the eyes that you are using to read it. This is for entertainment proposes only, no money involved.
Two siblings sat huddled together on a bus ride to down town Amity Park, a twelve year old girl named Jasmine Fenton, though everyone called her Jazz, and her eight year old step brother, Daniel or Danny. Even though they were not really blood related they still shared the same heart shaped faces and crystal blue eyes. But Jazz's hair was straight and bright red where her brother's was a messy raven black.
"Jazz, everyone's staring." Danny whimpered. And it was true. Even though the bus was packed with people heading to their morning jobs, the two seats on either side of the children remained empty.
"Try to ignore it, Danny. We'll be at the museum soon." Jazz said patting at her little brother's hand.
Everyone in the town of Amity Park knew who these two children were, if not from seeing them themselves then from word of mouth. They were the children of Jack and Maddie Fenton, two scientists that had studied ghosts and the supernatural. Danny had been the child of Jack and Jazz of Maddie before they had married, but the two were as close if not closer than normal siblings and had never known there other sides of their families.
Just two years ago Amity Park had been known as the most haunted city in the entire world. Beasts and apparitions took solid form and attacked people in the streets in broad day light. The year that these attacks had gone on for was a year of pure terror for the inhabitants of the town. Several hundreds of people simply left the city to get away from the madness.
But then a day two years ago, all the ghost attacks stopped as suddenly as they had all started the year before. The only other event that was connected to the last day, was the spiriting away of three individuals; Jack and Maddie Fenton, and there college friend and mayor of the town, Vlad Masters.
Words and theories where thrown around and one thing was decide on. The three individuals had something to do with the ghost attacks and that they left because whatever evil they had meant to do was done. 'But why were the children left behind?' the answer to the people was simple, 'the children are cursed'.
No one would go near the Fenton children or the house that they still lived in. People became even more suspicious when an unknown person by the name, Thomas Chrono, became the legal guardian of the children and declared them to be home schooled.
From that day forward no one ever saw the children leave their house. They never went to get groceries or any other supplies and no one entered to give it to them. But they could see the lights on in the house and hear the children and others that didn't sound completely human. Rumors flew around, most saying that the girl was a witch and that the little brother was a demon she conjured. Their home became that house that all the children dare each other to ring the doorbell and run away at.
The only times they ever left their house was during two days a year; their parents' birthdays, and today happens to the Maddie's. The bus driver practically had a heart attack when the children first came onto the bus.
But even with all the rumors, they still went out on their parent's birthdays and braved the town to celebrate their parents the way that they would have wanted. Every year for their father's birthday they would go out and buy large quantities of fudge that would take weeks to eat. And for their mother's birthday they were going to the art museum that she had taken them to every year.
"Ok." Danny said to his older sister and continued to stare at the floor. Jazz smiled and placed her arm protectively around the little boy and they sat in silence, ignoring the whispers of the people around them as she thought back to how it had all started.
Danny had always been really closed to his older sister. She was the only one there when he had his accident three years ago, a day that changed Danny's life.
They're parents had long been trying to developed a way to go to the world of ghosts, or as they called it, the Ghost Zone. They created a form of tunnel or portal that was designed to do just that. But they couldn't get it to work.
One day Danny, who had just turned five that very day, was running around the house in the white and black jumpsuit that he had gotten for his birthday from his mom and dad. It was one just like the ones that they wore all the time; it was fire proof, bullet proof, frost resistant and none conductive. In the center of its chest was a black ghostly 'D' for Danny.
When Jack and Maddie went out to pick up his birthday cake, Danny went down into the family basement where his parents' had set up their lab. He ran into the unfinished ghost portal and pretended to work on it like he had seen his dad doing. It had just been a game of pretend to him.
"Danny, you know you're not supposed to play down here." His sister had scolded him. Danny had merely smiled and connected two wires. But the smile had disappeared when he heard a humming sound. "Danny!" Jazz had screamed as the machine had come to life.
Danny had screamed as there was a blinding flash of green light and electricity and some kind of wind pushed Jazz back and way from her screaming brother. But soon the portal had stabilized, and out stumbled the figure of the five year old Danny.
The colors on his jumpsuit had flipped, so where it had been mostly white before with black gloves and boots and a black neck guard, it had changed to being black with white gloves, boots, and neck guard. His hair had also changed from the raven black to a starch white. Danny had looked up at her with tears in his new vivid green eyes. As Danny collapsed crying into Jazz's arms a ring of light passed over him and turned him back to normal.
Their parents were excited when they got home. They had no idea what had made the portal suddenly work and thought it was some kind of miracle. Jazz had pushed though thought of the white haired Danny out of her mind, and told herself that it was just a trick of the light. Danny had seemed healthy enough and something inside her told her that it was not a good idea to tell their parents.
But late that night Jazz woke up to Danny's screaming in the room next door to hers. She ran in to find Danny, again with white hair and the jumpsuit that he had taken of earlier and she could see on his desk in the corner. He was flouting in the air upside down and panicking as he moved his arms as if he was trying to swim.
Jazz had hid what had happened to her brother from the world, even from their own parents. She had taken him out every night in secret so that he could practice controlling the power in him so that no one would find out on accident. She had seen movies of what scientists did to people that were different like that, and she had heard her parent's talk about what they would do, what they would do if they caught… a ghost. The nine year old Jazz, was afraid of her own mom and dad.
It didn't take much for her to convince Danny to keep it secret, even though the five year old boy didn't understand what was going on. But it wasn't long until other ghosts appeared and their parents caught one. For the month after it had happened Danny had snuck into Jazz's room ever night after waking with nightmares. He had learned why Jazz didn't want their parents to know.
But what had confused Jazz was that there family's Portal was not the one that the ghosts seemed to be coming from. It wasn't until later that they met Vlad Masters and found out about his condition and his portal, and about what Danny had really become. Not a ghost, but a half ghost.
It had begun Danny and Jazz's adventures together fighting ghosts. They fought some of the Ghost Zone's most powerful ghosts using Danny's blooming Ghost powers and the devices that they took from their parents' lab. Jazz had Danny put on a white hoodie and black jeans over the easily recognizable jumpsuit that would not come off, so that he would not be recognized by their parents.
Danny was given the name of Phantom by the ghosts and some of the humans that happened to spot him, and he became an icon of hope to each after his now legendary fight with Pariahs Dark, or at least legendary in Amity Pack and the Ghost Zone. They ended up going into the ghost zone themselves and befriending several ghosts on more than one occasion; such as Frostbite, Princess Dora, Pandora, the Ghost Writer, even the Box Ghost, his wife the Lunch Lady's ghost, and of course Clockwork. And it was these ghosts that had taken care of them after the disappearance of their parents.
None of the ghosts knew what happened to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton and Vlad Masters, except for Clockwork the aged keeper of time, the one who became the guardian for the two children. But he never revealed it, and if asked he would just say that 'all will be revealed in time'.
So Jazz and Danny were raised by ghosts, the very creatures that everyone feared. Being schooled by the Ghost Writer and Clockwork, and being trained by a mixture of Greek Spartans in Pandora's halls of Olympus, Medieval knights at Princess Dora's Court of Aragon and the tribal warriors of Frostbite's at the Far Frozen. They had enjoyed the two years of peace that they had with the ghosts.
Jazz looked up at the bus that was now nearly empty. Everyone had gotten off one stop after the brother and sister had gotten on. Looking out the window she spotted some signs for the art museum that they were going to. One of them boasted out the new Phantom exhibit. Jazz gave a light smile, how could it be that they look on the more human part of her brother as a monster, and yet they worship his ghostly self. There was some actual graffiti around the town that showed the five year old child with white hair and a crown of thrones with 'Phantom died for our sins' written in bold font. No one had seen Danny's ghostly self since the ghosts stopped attacking. They stopped because Vlad was gone, and he had been the one controlling them all along.
"Danny, we're here." Jazz said softly as she took her brother's hand and they left the bus. The moment the bus door's closed the wheels screamed and the bus took off. Jazz held back a sigh as she looked at the hurt face of her little brother. "Come on, let's start looking around. There's a lot to go through." She smiled and pulled him along.
Danny nodded and tried to hold his head with pride as they went into the museum and wondered through the rooms looking at the painting and point and laughing at the recreations of things that they had seen in the Ghost Zone.
"Why can't we go in here?" Danny asked as they stood at the entrance to an exhibit labeled 'Renaissance'.
Jazz had him by the arm and was blushing feverishly as she tried to think of something to say. "I don't think it's something you're ready for. Trust me Danny. I'll explain it when you're older." The twelve year old girl said.
"Your sister is right there." A middle aged balding man said as he walked up to the children.
Jazz looked at him for a moment before she recognized him. "Oh, Mr. Lancer, it's good to see you." She said nodding and giving a grateful smile.
"Hello." Danny said and moved behind Jazz. Mr. Lancer had been the vice principle at the elementary school that Jazz and Danny had gone to before they started being home school. Danny had been sent to him several times for fighting. Danny had never meant to, but he had had problems controlling his powers at the time and they had gotten him into bad situations, especially with the school bully, Dash.
"It's good to see young minds coming to the museum to look at the classes." Mr. Lancer said as he walked to a painting on the far wall that had a depiction of a World War One trenches and no man's land. "But everyone seems to be going to that exhibit on the more modern hero, Phantom. They just overlook the older generations." Mr. Lancer sighed and turned to them. "I hear your being home schooled, are you keeping up with your studies?" Jazz guessed that Mr. Lancer had always been a teacher and historian at heart. He never paid attention to things like hearsay and she was glad that he was there to show Danny that not everyone believed the terrible rumors.
Jazz smiled and nodded. "Yes, we've been studying. And as for the Phantom exhibit, well, some of those images about the ghosts are a little… gruesome. I'd rather not see them myself." Jazz said thinking about the guesses and various theories about the life and death of Phantom. Best if Danny didn't see any of them.
"I understand where you coming from. I don't exactly have the stomach for it myself." Mr. Lancer nodded looked back to the painting. "It's too bad that this small museum doesn't have any authentic classics." He mused but after a short pause he added. "Or perhaps that is a good thing. After all, there have been strange thefts across the globe." A look of anger passed the man's face. "How horrible, people stealing works of art away from the world." Mr. Lancer shook his head. "The worst part about it is that people are starting to throw around the word ghost again." Danny's eyes widened in shock, Mr. Lancer seemed to have noticed and clarified. "The thieves manage to make it in and out of the museums without showing any signs that they had ever been there, almost as if they just walked straight through the walls and all security measures." Then Mr. Lancer shook his head.
"I hope they're wrong." Danny said trying to smile at the middle age man. Mr. Lancer put out a hand and ruffled his hair.
"It's good to see you two again. You should come by my house sometime. You would always be welcome. And remember not to burden your sister to much young man." He said in a fake stern voice before waving goodbye.
"I don't think that it was a ghost." Jazz said as they waved goodbye to Mr. Lancer.
"Yah, we would have heard about it if it was." Danny agreed.
Jazz smiled down at her little brother. "Come on. Let's look at the outdoor exhibits. Some fresh air might be nice." She said and led the way outside.
They walked around and stared in relative confusion at the 'modern art' that was in the outside area. They couldn't make heads or tails of any of it. But just as they were thinking about going inside again they heard a voice that Danny had hoped he would never have to hear again.
"Ha, it's the freak and his keeper." It was Dash. Dash was an obnoxious blond kid from a privileged family that had always picked on the other kids back at the elementary school. Dash was only one year younger then Jazz and the eleven year old had always had a personal hatred for the Fenton kids, even before the town stated to say things about them.
"Uh, why are they here, I thought someone ran those freaks out of town." The Latino girl Paulina said in her snobby fake accent that she picked up from watching soap operas.
"Leave us alone, Dash." Danny muttered. Dash had evidently forgotten the last time he had picked on Danny. It had been shortly after their parents' disappearance and before they left normal school. Dash said that Phantom was the reason that their parents were gone and that he would come back for him and Jazz.
Danny had secretly blamed himself for everything, even though he had no idea what had happened. So when Dash said that it was because of him, no matter how unwittingly, Danny lost his temper and broke Dash's arm. He had regretted it later, but the foolish bully didn't learn, and it looked like history might repeat itself.
"I don't think so Freak, this place is for normal people. You and your witch sister should leave." Dash said angrily. He was feeling pretty confident in front of his six friends.
"Then why is a weirdo like you here?" Danny said mockingly. A large rock went through the air and hit Danny in the head. Danny didn't even look at a trickle of blood rolled down his head. He lifted up a sleeve and whipped the blood away from his eye.
"See, a monster like him can't even feel." Dash said and threw another rock that he picked up off of the stone path. Soon the other kids were joining in.
"Stop it!" Jazz shouted and got in the way. The moment the rocks started to hit her and Danny's eyes widened. He didn't care if they tried to hurt him, but his sister was of limits. Danny moved passed his sister in a flood movement before grabbing the wrist of Dash who was about to throw another stone. Pulling the older boy forward he punched him in the face.
Danny had been holding back, but there was still a crack as Dash's nose broke and the boy sprawled out on the ground crying through the blood. "Don't you dare hurt my sister!" Danny shouted as the other kids ran screaming about the monster.
"Look at that." One of the adults that had stood around doing nothing about the kids throwing rocks. "Look at what that freak did to that poor boy." "They should lock kids like that up and throw away the key." "They're freaks, just like their parents."
"That isn't fair!" Jazz protested looking at the adults. "Danny was just trying to protect me!" She said angrily.
But the words had pushed Danny too far. He turned and ran. Jazz could only desperately run after him, but no one could catch Danny when he was running.
She soon lost sight of him and was searching the exhibits. "Danny!" she cried out, but there was no answer. Losing Danny in a place like the human world was not good, especially not Amity Pack. Almost no one there would help her find him.
If she had thought clearly then she would have realized that Danny could take care of himself and fly home later, but she was not thinking clearly.
She heard a sound behind her and turned to see a wing that she hadn't noticed when she was coming in. The doorway was covered my red cloth and yellow tap declared it, 'under repairs'. But Jazz had thought she had heard something behind there. Thinking it might be Danny she slipped behind the red cloth.
Jazz didn't find Danny in there. What she did find was rather creepy. On the opposite side of the room, was a large woven tapestry covering the entire wall that seemed to be unwinding or perhaps it was unfinished. The treads coming out of the bottom were all stretched tightly to the ground.
The tapestry itself was dark and seemed to have several stained spots. It showed a depiction of a large poorly lit room full of dark figures in noble looking cloths.
Jazz knew that she should be going to find Danny, but her feet were frozen to the ground. She could only stare as a segment of the tapestry began to glow.
In a few seconds there was a new figure on the wall. It was that of a woman with short red hair in full armor that was surrounded by light. She was kneeling in front of one of the nobles whose face was stitched in a different style then the others. It seemed… vainer to Jazz somehow, triumphant maybe. The light that surrounded the woman grew and grew and as it did the other figures in the painting were replaced by soldiers holding old French flags. For some reason Jazz felt panic rising up inside her. But then the light faded and the entire tapestry turned black and then the bottom of it caught fire. Jazz shut her eyes tight against the flames and when she opened them again the whole thing was gone. She finally found that she could move and she rushed out of the room.
Looking over her shoulder she saw that the room that she had just been in was gone. She then spotted a clock and was horrified that two hours had gone by. "But… I was only in there for two minutes." She said in a panic and ran off calling for Danny again.
Danny had not noticed that the time had gone by. No, because Danny had had a strange experience of his own. Danny had not run back inside. He had cut into some of the trees that the museum used for setting the atmosphere for some of the pieces. He was sitting in a spot next to a lake that was outside the museum, and was throwing rocks into the water and crying when he spotted someone on the far shore.
It was a woman with blond hair that was tied up in a bun. She was wearing a strange white gown, a lot like the ones that Danny had seen Pandora wear on special occasions. In her arms was a bundle of rags. The woman seemed to be giving off a golden glow.
Danny was blinking at the scene, his first thought was a ghost, but he couldn't sense one… No, he could sense something… but it wasn't a ghost. The woman looked… beautiful.
She started to unwind the wrapped cloth in her arms and it exposed the naked body of a small infant child with small tufts of black hair and pale skin. The baby was crying weakly as its mother held it. Danny was confused, until the woman held the child gingerly by one heel, and dunked him head first into the lake.
Danny's eyes widened in horror and he tried to get up to go and stop her. But something was holding him down. He tried to call on his ghost powers but he couldn't. He was able to do anything but sit there and stare as the woman drowned the child.
The golden light around the woman seemed to darken and the lake began to glow green. Danny's eyes shot from the woman to the lake. Something was seriously wrong. The lake had begun to glow a dark and murky green and wispy white shapes were moving around just beneath the surface. Danny could see bones and organs flouting around just underneath the surface of the lake. It was all he could do not to lose his breakfast right then and there. It all looked and smelt so real, he could even hear the cries of the wisps.
The wispy creatures seemed to gravitate towards the drowning child and it started to glow with the same intense golden light as the woman had when she had first appeared. The woman gently lifted the boy out of the water and the baby had changed. Its hair was bright gold and its skin that had been pale was a deep tan color. The baby no longer cried. The mother set him down on the ground where the infant somehow managed to stand on its own and then the woman disappeared. The lake turned back to normal, and finally the baby faded from view.
Danny sat there panting for several second before he could get a hold of himself. The tears he had cried earlier had dried to his face and his hands were filled with large handfuls of earth. He slowly loosened his hands and got control of his breathing.
"Danny!" his head shot up as he heard his sister's cries. Jumping to his feet he dashed through the brush and popped out of the wooded area right next to her scaring the nearby visitors. "Danny you're ok. I'm sorry it took so long for me to find you." She said hugging him.
"Jazz, it's only been five minutes." Danny said trying to break the hug.
Jazz looked at him and blinked. "I thought so to but… the clocks say that two hours have gone by." Jazz whispered. Danny's eyes widened and he looked around until he spied a clock. "Did you see something weird too?" Jazz asked in a whisper. Danny merely nodded. "Let's go home Danny, we can talk about it there and get some lunch too."
Taking his hand they moved past the reproachful on lookers and out of the museum. They weren't waiting at the bus stop long before their bus came by, but instead of stopping to let the children on, it just kept going. "Maybe I should just fly us home." Danny muttered so that no one else would hear.
"'Grapes of Wrath', I can't believe this foolishness." An angry voice shouted. Danny and Jazz jumped and turned their heads around to see Mr. Lancer standing behind them. "They are just children for Pete's sake." He reached out and put a hand on the children's shoulders. "Come now, I'll give you a ride home."
He led them to an old fashioned car and they got into the back seats. "Thank you Mr. Lancer." Jazz said putting an arm around Danny.
"Don't mention it Jasmine, there is no excuse for how people were treating the two of you." Mr. Lancer said shaking his head. "I heard about what happened with Dash today, unbelievable. I have been an instructor for thirty years and I have never heard of children trying to stone someone. I should take him aside and give him a paddling he will never forget. Jesus, Mary and Joseph. Whatever happened to the values of the world? Love thy neighbor, seeking peaceful solutions and understanding, and treat others as you want to be treated. This would never stand in my day. In my day…" Mr. Lancer continued to go on about the wrongs of the world.
Danny was smiling as he listened to the bolding man. It was good to know that there were people who would always be kind to others. But Jazz was still thinking about the vision that she had seen. She thought that vision would be the best term for it. She also wondered what kind of things Danny had seen.
Sitting there in the back seat Jazz leaned back and heard a sound like the crackling of paper. She then noticed a lump in one of her pockets and pulled out a small cream colored envelope that hadn't been there before. On the front of it in a curling script was her name, Jasmine Fenton. Looking up and seeing that Mr. Lancer was preoccupied with driving and ranting she opened the envelope.
'Dear Ms Fenton,
Our records indicate that you registered as a potential this morning at 11:27 AM central stander time US. Congratulations Ms Fenton, you must be a very remarkable young lady, and we look forward to making your acquaintance. One of our regional representatives will be contacting you shortly. Until that time we would appreciate your absolute secrecy and utmost silence in this matter.
Best regards, Gabrielle Richter Executive Director'
Jazz didn't know what to make of the letter. It had not been there before, was it a ghost? No, Danny would have sensed it if it was a ghost. But then where did the letter come from? And what was a potential?
'One of our regional representatives will be contacting you shortly', Jazz did not like the sound of that. No live person had entered their house since their parents disappeared, other than Danny and Jazz themselves. Jazz looked up to see that Danny had a letter in his hand that was exactly like hers.
He looked over at her letter. "Maybe we should ask Grandpa about this." Danny mumbled. Grandpa was what they called Clockwork ever since he started teaching them history. Jazz nodded lightly and they both put the letters away and continued to listen to Mr. Lancer's rants until the man tired himself out and asked them about their studies in more detail. It took the rest of the car ride to convince him that they were on par or higher in every subject.
In truth Danny had often gotten jealous whenever the Ghost Writer would teach Jazz the middle school curriculum and would watch and try to understand it or pester him until he explained it to Danny to. So Danny was far ahead of the second graders who were still memorizing the multiplication tables and were convinced that the pilgrims were the first settlers and that Christopher Columbus was the first man to set foot in America.
Mr. Lancer pulled up in front of their house. The once proud, if unusual, Fenton Works with its sign and ops center was covered in graffiti and had the mailbox smashed off. Large patches of grass were missing were people had tried to start fires to burn the building down only to find the thing to be fire proof and the glass windows were almost unbreakable. The power lines had been cut, but they had a personal generator in the basement that used ectoenergy to run. The world had tried to get rid of the Fenton children, but they were still holding on strong.
Mr. Lancer tried to advert his eyes from the damaged house. All of the adjacent houses for two blocks were empty and most had for sale signs in front of them. "Here we are." He said with a smile that didn't reach his eyes. Danny and Jazz got out of the car. "Are you sure you two will be alright?" He said, a note of concern in his voice.
Jazz smiled. "Don't worry Mr. Lancer, we'll be fine. We always have been." They turned and went into the safety of the house. Mr. Lancer sighed and drove away, Jazz watching him from the window. "Don't worry Mr. Lancer, we're stronger than you think."