A/N. Hey all. Welcome to my first venture in the world of writing fanfics. Though I give it my best without, feedback about the story will be very much appreciated.
So, before you start let me give you a small heads up timeline-wise. The story starts two weeks before the first episode of the series and will be happening mostly between the others following. Some, however, will be (partially) rewritten to fit the plot. Non-rewritten ones will end up like Journal entries similar to the one below.
Alright, other than that, I have no more things to bore you with so on with the story. Well... no other things than the disclaimer that is.
Disclaimer: Is Danny Phantom still airing? Is there a season 4? Does canon get posted on a Fanfiction site? Am I Butch Hartman? Would the owner of DP completely rewrite almost the entire basis of the story just for the heck and fun of it? No. And for those of you who miraculously still don't get the message; No, I don't own Danny Phantom.
Dear Journal,
Just in case anyone ever reads this (which I sincerely hope will never happen) let me make something clear just in case. This is not a dairy. It's a journal. There's a difference. I'm not going to write every excruciating detail of every horrifying day in this thing like Jazz does. It's just so I can track the progress of my ghost powers (and to appease Sam so she won't have my head next time I'm falling through the floor and I can't tell her it's getting less or worse 'cause I can't remember the last time it happened).
So, that aside, now to actually start… I have absolutely no idea what I'm supposed to write, but I guess I start with some sort of a timeline.
It's been 2 weeks since the accident. And in case I somehow become so old I manage to forget it or otherwise lose the memory of that day, it was the accident where I went into the not-working ghost portal, accidentally turned it on, zapped myself with electricity, ectoplasm and whatnot (my parents are the scientist, not me) and got turned into a half ghost. Yeah, I somehow half-died. Still don't have a clue how it's even possible for someone to be half-dead, but I'm not about to question it…
Anyway, I'm half ghost. And I got ghost powers. Powers that go haywire since I still don't have the slightest clue how to control them. So far I've turned invisible about 21 times (at least that I know of; yesterday I only noticed it because my dad muttered he needed to do something about the draft as he looked right through me at the open door), I've gone intangible 12 times (half of which I fell through the floor and ended up in the lab, thank God my parents didn't notice!) and turned into the ghost me no less than 5 times without wanting to. And once I started flying. I was stuck on the ceiling for about a minute or 5 before I suddenly plummeted down again. Oh, and all those number are without counting the moments only my hand or leg or something disappeared. Usually right in front of my parents or sister.
Yeah, my life is great at the moment.
The most frustrating of it all though, is that I can't seem to do any of it when I actually want to. But that's why I'm going to train tomorrow with Sam and Tucker. We got a list of ideas we're going to try… see if anything works.
You know…, as a side note, the strange thing is that I'm not panicking nearly as much as a should be. Oh sure, I had some serious freak-out moments, but other than that I'm apparently somewhat cool with the fact I'm actually half-dead. Can't exactly say I'm happy with it, but I can live with it so to speak.
…
Wow, I only now notice the pun. Great, I'm turning out to be just as observant as my dad… Sigh. But, I was writing about the powers. I hope the training tomorrow will help getting them under some control. It's manageable now, considering I'm still at home. Though, if it continues like this, I'm pretty sure I'll change that opinion in a week or two… especially since school starts again next Monday…
Ugh… school. Man, I hate it when vacations are almost over. Well, at least we're out of first year now. Still need to finish the homework though…
Oh crud, this thing really is turning into a diary! Alright… I'm going to call it quits before I start writing things I'm seriously gonna regret. So… uh… Bye I guess? I don't know… I never wrote anything like this before, how am I supposed to know how to end this? Just ending it is kind of weird as well and…
…
I'll just stop now.
Ps, note to self: make sure to hide this journal somewhere safe so my parents or Jazz don't accidentally find it. Somewhere like between my floor and the first floor ceiling once I get my powers under some sort of control.
"Does it look like it's working yet?"
"Oh it working alright…" Sam muttered dryly, rolling her eyes at the boy in front of her whose face was steadily getting redder and redder with each passing second. "Working on getting you a heart attack."
"Or stomach problems…" Tucker added, absentmindedly playing with his PDA as he resisted the urge to break his earlier promise and make a picture of his ridiculous looking friend. "You look like you're constipated man."
Danny managed to glare halfheartedly at his friend before he involuntarily let go of his breath, panting heavily as he dropped down onto the ground. Once he had his breathing under enough control that he could actually form a somewhat coherent sentence again, he muttered: "I guess you can-" Pant. "Scratch that one-" Pant. "Off the list as well Tuck…"
"Way ahead of you." Tucker answered lazily, showing the already crossed off option on his PDA screen long before he was even asked to.
"Seriously though? Holding your breath?" The Goth said, folding her arms as she leaned back against the back of her chair. "Did you really think that was gonna work?"
"No." Danny admitted, the bluntness of the word showing he had as much faith in the attempt as they had. "But I had to try something. I mean… it's been two weeks since the accident and I still have no control over these powers at all!" he grumbled. "Besides, we tried all the things that actually made sense already." The boy added in a low voice. Then he opened his mouth to continue, but suddenly his eyes went wide as, almost in cue, a by now very familiar feeling started to creep from his chest, through his spine and from there traveled all the way throughout his body. "Oh crud! Guy's… help!" Danny yelped, flinging his arms wildly in an attempt to keep his balance as much as he could while he slowly but surely started to float upward.
"Danny!" Sam and Tucker chorused as they lunched upwards almost in sync and each grabbed one of the floating boy's arms in an attempt to keep him from flying off.
"Ugh man, anyone ever tell you you need to lose weight?" Tucker managed to ground out as he pulled at the arm with all his strength.
"I don't think weight is the real problem here Tucker!" Sam grumbled as she, too, pulled with all her worth. Neither of their efforts seem to have any effect however, as Danny steadily kept moving upwards. "Danny, concentrate! Fly back down!"
"How?" The teen cried out, panicked. "I don't even know how I'm doing this in the first place!"
"I don't know, somehow!" Sam ground out, desperately trying to find some sort of foothold as she couldn't reach the ground with much more than her toes anymore. "Didn't you get ghost instincts along with turning half-ghost or something?"
"You think we would be here if he had?" Tucker replied before he yelped, his legs flying around wildly now that they couldn't touch the ground any longer.
"Danny, calm down! Take deep breaths and relax. Try to concentrate on the floor!" Sam commanded, desperately trying to remember what the boy had said he had done the last time he had suddenly decided to go and inspect his ceiling up close. She drew a blank however, much to her dismay.
Danny, meanwhile, tried his best to stop panicking and calm himself down despite the fact he was dangling upside down and all but pulled both his anchors with him towards the ceiling. Taking deep, slow breaths he could feel the strange sensation in his body starting to lessen. It was only a little, but proved to be enough to stop floating further and further upwards.
"Alright Danny! Keep it up!" Tucker exclaimed happily when the three of them slowly lowered back to the ground, once again able to feel solid ground under his toes.
"If I knew what I was doing I would…" Danny muttered. Once the three of them were back standing on the ground with both feet and full weight, he let out a relieved sigh. "Thanks for the help guy- AH! OOF!"
Sam winced as she watched her friend fly face-first against the ceiling the moment she and Tucker had let go of the boy. "You ok?" she couldn't help but ask. Even stuck against the ceiling the boy managed to level a glare at her. "Sorry, standard question."
"Ugh, I like seeing start on my ceiling, not from it…" Danny groaned as he rubbed his throbbing forehead in the hope of elevating the pain a little. Then he looked back down, only to be thrown into indecision whether to find this new perspective fascinating, or seriously disturbing. "Uh, guys?" he spoke eventually, finding himself moving along the ceiling, but unable to get away from it. "Anyone got a clue how to get back down again?"
"Dude, you're the one with the ghost powers. How should we know?" Tucker replied, but began to search in his back for his PDA charger nonetheless. "Here, I'll give you a lift." He said as he threw the cable like a lasso, hooking it exactly around the floating boy's foot and pulling it into a knot. A lot of things could be said about the techno geek, but him having bad aim was not one of them.
"Thanks Tuck," Danny said gratefully as he was slowly but surely pulled away from the ceiling. Though, now that he was dangling about a feet above the ground solely by a cable caught around his foot, he couldn't help but feel like some sort of weird, human balloon. "So…" he started, somehow managing to go and sit cross-legged and still keep floating horizontally, "You guy's remember how this stopped last time?"
"No. We weren't there, remember?" Tucker reminded him. "The only thing you told us was you just dropped back to the ground after a few minutes."
"Oh, right…" Danny muttered, rubbing the back of his neck in embarrassment.
"Maybe you should try changing into a ghost." Sam suddenly piped up.
"What? Why?" the raven haired boy asked, blinking in both surprise and confusion.
"Because flying is normal thing for ghost, right? So, it's probably easier to control when you're a ghost yourself." The Goth explained.
"Sounds logical… Only one problem though." Danny replied as he started to rub his face tiredly. Was it just his imagination or was this floating around seriously starting to drain him? "I can't exactly control when I go ghost either…"
"Dude… chill. I know how we can fix that."
"You do?" Danny and Sam chorused, the one sounding even more skeptical than the other.
"Yeah." Tucker said with a grin. With an air of knowing superiority he puffed his chest in pride before he pointed at Danny. "You need a battle cry."
Silence.
"What?" Tucker said, trying not to feel embarrassed by the two blank stared he received. "All superhero's have it and it works for them."
"Yeah, in comic books Tucker!"
"That and I'm not a superhero. I'm just a kid with ghost powers." Danny added, rolling his eyes.
"Dude… hello? Doesn't that, like, define superhero?" Tucker said enthusiastically, unable to keep the grin off his face. "You know what, let's make a deal. You try it, and I'll make you a copy of the new Doom game you've been dying to get."
"The new Doom?" Danny almost exclaimed, eyes wide. "You got a copy already? How? It's not even in the stores yet!"
When Tucker grinned mysteriously, Sam couldn't help but narrow her eyes. "It's illegal, isn't it?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at the boy.
"So?" Tucker replied with a shrug. "It's not like anyone will ever find out." When the other still didn't look convinced, he added: "Oh come on, give it a try. What do you got to lose?"
"Except my dignity you mean? Nothing…" Danny muttered more to himself than anything. Honestly, he didn't know which was worse; the floating or Tucker's ridiculous idea. Though he wasn't exactly sure he was one to talk. Holding his breath to try and turn into his ghost form was pretty ridiculous too.
Feeling the enthusiasm almost radiating off his friend, Danny finally sighed tiredly. If there ever was a sign of desperation, this had to be it… and desperate he was, oh he was. "Fine… I'll do it." he muttered, defeated.
At those words, Tucker looked like he had won the lottery. Sam however, loudly slapped her face with her hand. "Please tell me you're kidding…?" she groaned. Danny shot her an apologetic look, mouthing a 'sorry' at her, to which the girl only groaned even louder. "Boy's."
"So, what to use as a catchphrase…? It has to be something cool… Hmm, what about 'Hasta la vista!'"
"Tucker," Danny deadpanned with a glare. "I am so not quoting the Terminator. And I'm not quoting anything else either for that matter!"
Tucker entire frame deflated, for about two whole seconds. "What about 'turning spook'?" he quipped.
"Uh… no."
"Changing into a specter?"
"No way."
"Going ghost?"
"Nah…"
"Well, you have to choose something dude."
"Yeah, I guess… But it's gonna sound dumb no matter what I say Tuck." Danny said, groaning. "Oh, might as well get this over with." He muttered with a sigh. Then he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, tried his best to ignore his friend's expecting look and said: "I'm going… to become... ghostly!"
Peeking through one eye, Danny looked down. Much to his disappointment though, he was still in the same red and white shirt, not in his ghostly hazmat suit. And, even worse, he was still dangling like a balloon.
"How surprising. It didn't work." Sam deadpanned, rolling her eyes.
"Of course not." Tucker scoffed. "He needs a pose too."
Danny wasn't sure he wanted to laugh, cry or groan looking at the completely serious face of his friend. "Tucker. Seriously?"
"Yup. No phrase without a pose."
"You really like humiliating me, don't you?" Danny muttered with a glare. At the innocent face of that seemed to radiate 'who, me?' Tucker pulled, the boy couldn't help but sigh. "Whatever. What do you want me to do?"
"Hmmm." For a moment, the techno geek only looked calculatingly at the floating boy, circling him as he did. "What about this?" he asked, striking a pose himself.
The half-ghost could only stare at his friend in disbelief. "No. Nu-uh. No way."
"Oh, come on. Just try it!"
"No."
"Come on, please?"
"No!"
"Just do it already…" Sam muttered, shooting Danny a begging look. "You know he won't shut up until you do."
"No!" Contrary from Tucker's attempts, Sam only had to send to boy one single, threatening glare to force him into cooperation. "Ugh, fine! But if you guy's so much as mention this to anyone else-"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You'll kill us, we get it." Sam emotionlessly droned as she interrupted him. "Just get this ridiculous thing over with please?"
Tucker, although surprised from the sudden unlikely support, still managed to look confidently as he watched Danny, who still looked apprehensive, spread out his arms and legs and took a deep, almost hesitant breath.
"Alright, here goes nothing…" the boy muttered. Squeezing his eyes shut in concentration, he yelled: "I'm… going ghost!"
This time, Danny's eyes widened in shock when something inside his chest suddenly seemed to flare alive. Before he even had time to register it fully though, a white, luminescent ring of light appeared around his stomach. As soon as it had sprung into existence, it split in two and started traveling over the boy's in opposite directions until finally, his entire body had been engulfed by it.
"Wha-" Danny started before he looked down at himself. Unlike before, an almost glowing scheme of black and white greeted him. "It worked!" he cried out, ecstatic. "Haha! IT WORKED! YES!" Then, just as quickly as he had become delighted, some sort of horrifying realization seemed to hit him as his face fell faster than a meteorite. "Oh crud no, I can't believe it actually worked!"
Sam seemed to share the boy's mortification as she stared at him wide eyed. Tucker however, only huffed proudly, a satisfied grin plastered on his face. "See?" He said smugly. "Told you it would work."
"I swear Tucker, if I wasn't so happy I'd-"
"Danny? You in there sweetie?" A voice suddenly erupted from the door, paired with a knock.
"Oh crud, no! Mom!" Danny whispered frantically. "She can't see me like this! She'd completely flip!"
"Quick Danny, turn back!" Sam said in a hushed voice, reaching for her bag. "Or turn invisible, I don't care. Just Hide!"
"How?" The half ghost replied, trying his best to concentrate on going invisible but without much luck. "And where? I-" It was not the power he was trying for, but when Danny managed to turn himself intangible he wasn't about to complain.
"Hurry! Get out!"
"But-"
"Go dude, we'll distract her." Tucker said, holding up his thumb.
At that, Danny didn't waste another second to make himself scarce and disappear through the floor. He wasn't a moment too soon either, as his mother stepped into the room almost at the same instant.
"Hello kids." Danny's mom greeted the two teens as she stepped into the room after a quick look around.
"Evening Mrs. F." Tucker replied with a small wave, before he hurriedly turned his attention back to the game on his PDA.
"Hi." Sam simply said as she looked up from the book she had quickly pulled out of her spider-like bag, silently praying the woman didn't notice she was holding it upside-down.
"Have any of you seen Danny?" Maddie asked, glancing around in the room in the hope of spotting her son.
"Bathroom." Tucker answered, not even looking up from his game as he gestured in the general direction of the room in question.
"Is he? Alright than, could you two please tell him we're eating dinner in a few minutes?" Maddie asked, at which both teens glanced at the clock on the wall. "Oh, are any of you staying for dinner?"
"Sorry Mrs. F, But we're eating meatloaf and… well…" Tucker began, trailing off.
"I understand sweetie." Maddie said with a knowing smile before she turned towards Sam. "And you dear? Are you staying? I have a vegetarian salad made."
"Sorry Mrs. Fenton, but I promised my parents I'd be home for dinner." Sam replied with an apologetic smile. "I'd love a salad some other time though…?"
The woman smiled. "A shame. But I'll make you one next time." She promised as he headed back to the hallway. "Please don't forget to remind Danny." She reminded them as she closed the door.
"Will do!" Both teens chorused before letting out a relieved sigh.
"Wow, you guys are good." Danny commented as he popped his head back into the room.
Sam snorted. "Not everybody is as bad at lying as you are." She said before she grinned. "Besides, I had enough practice with my parents."
Danny and Tucker shared a glance. "We don't want to know, do we?" the techno geek asked.
"Probably not." Sam said, her grin even bigger now and a lot more menacing than before. "But I really got to go. Good at lying or not, my parents will kill me if I'm home late."
"Yeah, I need to go too. Don't want to miss dinner." Tucker said before licking his lips. "Hmmm, meatloaf."
Danny couldn't help but laugh when his friend almost started to drool. "Alright guy's, see you tomorrow then. Want me to walk you out or…?"
"Na, we know the way. Besides, don't you need to get ready for dinner?" Sam commented, picking up her bag.
"Yeah dude. I wouldn't go down there as you are now." Tucker added as he followed Sam towards the door.
The half-ghost blinked. "Oh, right…" he muttered after a quick look in the mirror. Going down right now would be nothing short of suicidal, and he wasn't about to thwart death a second time so soon. After a quick wave at his friend, who headed out of his room by now, Danny couldn't help but stare at his hands for a moment. "So… how do I change back again…?"
Danny sighed tiredly as he threw himself on his bed.
"Man, I'm exhausted! And it's not even eight PM yet!" the half-ghost complained with a sigh after throwing a quick glance at his clock. "I guess this ghost-training is more tiring than I thought…" he muttered, stifling a yawn.
Turning around, Danny flopped his head on his pillow and stared at his star-covered ceiling for a moment. Somehow, even though he had a bump on his head to prove it, he still had a hard time believing he had really floated up there a few hours ago. It just… felt so horribly unreal. Humans weren't supposed to fly. It was unnatural. It just wasn't possible. Yet, he'd done it. And he'd love to do it again. Though, preferably when he had his powers under control and without hitting his head…
Flying. Danny took a deep breath, his eyes glazing over as he tucked his hands under his head. Oh, how he loved the idea of being able to go and fly whenever he wanted to. Really, if he just could learn how to control that, being half-dead would actually be worth it to him. He'd put up with any kind of haywire-going powers if he could just learn how to fly.
With a small smile on his face, the half-ghost quickly became lost in his thoughts. Thinking became harder and harder though, as he felt his eyelids becoming heavier with each passing second. Soon Danny could feel himself falling asleep ever so slowly, and even though it was ridiculously early by the teen's standards, he was far too tired to actually go and fight it.
It didn't take long for his eyes went and closed completely.
Then, just moments before he completely lost conscious, an amused laugh cut through the silence like a dagger. "Really? Sleeping already?"
"Huh, what?" the half-ghost called out as he shot up. He could feel his face heating up in embarrassment as he turned towards the door. "No, I wasn't sleeping! I was just… huh?" He blinked. There was no one at the door, nor in his entire room for that matter. "The TV?" he questioned as he looked at the device in question. But no, the thing wasn't even on. And, judging by the lack of background noise, neither was the one downstairs. Even his parents were quite for a change.
"Weird… must have imagined it…" he slurred as he stretched, not able to hold back a yawn this time. Still, he could've sworn he had hear something… 'Great,' Danny thought as he groaned, letting himself drop back down on his bed. 'My parents' craziness is rubbing off on me already…' Then, catching sight of a book lying on top his nightstand, he groaned again.
"Oh, right… Lancer wants that book report Monday…" He said, mentally cursing the teacher in question as he got up again and reached out for the book. "Should probably get started on it…" The half-ghost muttered, taking a seat against the headrest of his bed. With a last sigh, he made himself a bit more comfortable and opened up the first page.