"So I need you to help me pick out some of the music we'll be playing at the reunion. You know, since a lot of my classmates will be bringing their teenagers. What do you think?" Vlad asked his son as he took a bite of his lasagna. He stared intently at the boy seated across from him, chewing thoroughly and swallowing before speaking again. "Daniel?"
"Huh?" Danny startled, blinking a few times before coming back to reality. "Oh, yeah. Sounds like a great plan." He quickly shoved a forkful of his dinner in his mouth, not meeting Vlad's eye.
Vlad simply raised one eyebrow, focusing his eye on Danny's downturned face. "You're not listening to me."
Danny swallowed, staring down at his food. "Yeah I am. Party. Music. There's going to be other teenagers. I got it."
Danny sweated as Vlad continued to stare at him, as if he was trying to read his mind. Finally, Vlad sighed and put his fork down, pushing his plate away and folding his hands in front of him. "Daniel, is there something going on?" Danny looked up from his plate, meeting his father's inquisitive eye. "Something you're not telling me about?"
Gulping, Danny, quickly returned his gaze to his food, spearing a bit of lasagna on his fork. Of course, he had considered telling Vlad the truth, several times, but each time his fear overwhelmed him, forcing him to abandon whatever idea had begun forming in his head. But Vlad was obviously becoming suspicious of his dodginess, his sudden reclusive behavior.
Plus, it was getting harder to mask his 'accidents.' At first his plan was to stay in his room until the weirdness had either gone away or became easier to control. But it hadn't. If anything, the weirdness got worse. And he didn't want to tell Vlad what had happened in the Fenton's basement; what the reason behind his sudden 'clumsiness' was.
Danny didn't want his father to know he had become a…freak.
But he couldn't deny that he needed some help, had to figure this out. He couldn't just wait around for his body to do something crazy again, something that could really get him hurt this time. And who better to help with his problem than his Dad?
Danny bit his lip and took a deep breath of air. He had to tell his father. Had to get it off his chest. He looked across the table and into Vlad's concerned eyes and opened his mouth.
Right that instant, his fork fell straight through his hand, like smoke.
Danny yelped and jerked backwards, staring at his hand for a second before looking up at his confused father.
"No. Nothing is going on." He snapped, grabbing his plate and walking over to the garbage disposal, scraping what little there was left of his dinner in. "Everything is fine. There's nothing for you to worry about."
Vlad marched over, placing his plate down on the counter and looked around, annoyed, before he realized that it was the butler's night off and popped the dishwasher open. He glared at Danny angrily out of the corner of his eye. "But I do worry, boy, I'm your father. If I didn't worry about you, I simply wouldn't be doing my job."
Danny turned away, rolling his eyes as he grabbed the dish soap. "There's absolutely nothing for you to worry about. I'm fine." Vlad closed his eyes, rubbing his temples.
"You certainly are not fine! You come home straight from school almost every day, you go straight to your room and you stay there until dinner." Vlad opened his eyes, beginning to list off Danny's offenses on his fingers. "You've avoided your friends, your grades are slipping-really, Daniel, I got your progress report this morning, and I have to say, I expect far better from you."
Danny looked away, staring intently at his shoes as Vlad crossed his arms and stared at him.
"What in the world is going on with you, my boy?"
Danny snapped his head up, his eyes boring into his father's as Vlad glowered back. "Nothing is going on! I don't know why that's so hard for you to accept!"
"Because I know you, boy!" Vlad closed his eyes and pinched the tip of his nose in annoyance. "I know this isn't normal behavior for you. So I am simply bringing my questions to you."
"Well, here's your answer!" Danny yelled over his shoulder as he walked out of the kitchen. "I'm fine! Now leave me alone!"
Danny didn't wait to see Vlad's response to his outburst. He turned and towards the stairs, taking them two at a time. He could hear Vlad yell something behind him, but he ignored it, slamming the door to his room for good measure.
Finally alone, Danny turned around and pressed his back against the door, sinking to his feet and wrapping his arms around his knees. "I'm a ghost, Dad." He admitted for the first time in three weeks as he buried his face in his folded arms. "I'm a ghost."
A year ago, maybe even a month ago, he would have thought that something like a human-ghost hybrid couldn't be real. A month ago, he didn't even think ghosts existed, much less half-ones.
But he couldn't deny what he was. The image of Sam, Jazz, and Tucker's slack jaws and wide eyes as he stepped out of the smoking portal in the basement of FentonWorks was ingrained in his mind. He could remember raising his hands and shakily attempting to reassure them he was fine when he noticed how his voice seemed to unnaturally echo in the small lab. He thought of how weird that was when he caught sight of his white-gloved hand.
He had been confused for a minute, remembering the jumpsuit he wore into the portal was white with black gloves. But then his brain had caught up to the situation, and he raced to the closest bathroom, his heart hammering in his chest.
Nothing could have prepared him for what he saw in the Fenton's mirror. His normally black hair was a glowing white, quite similar to his own father's hair color, once he thought about it. His skin had turned quite a bit darker. But worst of all, when he looked into his eyes to find the bright, striking blue color he had always possessed, he was met only with a glowing, unnatural green.
"Danny, my dad can fix this." Jazz had reassured him as he stared at his reflection in horror. He could still hear her in his head; the way she tried to keep her voice even but couldn't mask the panic so evident in her eyes. Danny hadn't responded, just stared at himself as Tucker and Sam joined them in the bathroom, all three of them trying to talk over each other as they tried to figure out a solution; a cure.
Eventually, Danny figured out how to turn back, which he was immensely relieved about, knowing that he was not, in fact, a ghost, and had not died in the portal.
Once he had managed to turn back to his human form, he quickly stripped off the jumpsuit, thanking Jazz before he, Tucker, and Sam departed for Tucker's house.
Sam had tried to talk to Danny once they were up in Tucker's room, but Danny had ignored her. Tucker sided with him; suggesting that maybe the random color change was only temporary and the entire ordeal would be soon forgotten.
Danny hadn't responded. And after Jazz told her father about the accident and Mr. Fenton called him on his cell phone to see if he was okay, Danny had barely responded to his questions and refused their offer to look him over and make sure he was indeed alright.
Deep inside, Danny knew that whatever the ghost portal had done to him, it was permanent and irreversible. He could feel his mutation, his ghost-half inside him, just waiting to burst forth.
Danny sighed as he got to his feet. His father had apparently decided to leave him alone, and he could hear the sounds of the television as Vlad turned on the Packer's game. Overwhelmed by sudden curiosity, Danny closed his eyes and focused on the icy feeling centered in his chest, allowing it to spread out over his body. He immediately felt a sharp, bitter cold shoot up his spine, replaced quickly by a pleasantly cool sensation as the cold fingers of his ghost half glided over his skin. And, unbeknownst to him, two white rings appeared around his waist.
Danny's hand flew to his chest as he braced himself against his desk. "Whoa. Certainly wasn't expecting that." He whispered to himself as he jammed his fingers against his neck, searching for his absent pulse.
"Figures. I really am a ghost." He muttered, shaking his head before deciding to try out the one power he could sometimes even think he might be excited about-flying.
He switched off the light to his room before becoming intangible and floating through his window. He waved his arms a bit, unaccustomed to keeping his balance while floating 20 feet in the air, but he soon got the hang of it. Soon enough, he was testing his speed, flying fast over the large houses in his well-to-do neighborhood. And for the first time since the accident, Danny smiled.
His friends were now aware of what the ghost portal had done to him. Two days after the accident, Danny had made Tucker stay behind in the locker room as the rest of their class went off to gym, freaking out as he showed Tucker how his arm kept going invisible.
Tucker had been shocked, of course, but he hadn't had the slightest clue as to why the ghost portal would have had that effect on him. They had been forced to tell Sam that same day in the gym, when Danny had attempted to do a few chin-ups and his hands kept passing through the bar like it wasn't even there.
She dragged him straight to Jazz as soon as school let out, who bit her bottom lip and looked at him with a mixture of worry, pity, and confusion in her eyes.
"I don't know, Danny." She had said when they asked her what could possibly be going on. "My parents might know if they could take a good look at you. They might be able to help."
Even though both Sam and Tucker had pleaded with him to take Jazz's advice, he had refused, and begged all three of them to keep it between the group. Jazz was the hardest to convince, but finally she had to agree when Danny brought up how her parents were scientists and probably wouldn't be able to stop themselves from experimenting if they did find out the truth.
Truthfully, Danny didn't know why he wanted to avoid involving the Fenton's. He knew they probably would at least have some sort of idea of what could have happened to him. And he seriously doubted that they would use a friend of their daughter's as a lab rat like he told Jazz.
But he still stood firm in his decision to keep his…freakishness between him and his three friends.
Danny turned over on his back and looked up at the sky. He could tell it was starting to get late, and he knew he should probably go home before his father decided to check on him at half-time.
Even with this in mind, Danny began veering in the opposite direction of his home, until he found himself above FentonWorks. Blinking a bit to clear his head of a bit of déjà vu, Danny quickly became intangible and flew through the roof.
He had no idea which room was Jazz's, having only been to FentonWorks once and never setting foot in the second floor. So he wasn't surprised when he landed on the floor and looked around to find that it wasn't Jazz's room.
What he found peculiar, though, was that it looked like a bedroom. The light was off, but with Danny's heightened ghost senses, he could see fine. A twin bed sat underneath the large window overlooking the street, and a wooden desk was pushed up against the adjacent wall. A decent sized dresser was placed along the opposite wall, and a single picture frame was set on top.
Danny blinked, trying to figure the room out. It certainly wasn't a guest room, or else it would have contained a double bed. And from what little he knew about Jazz's dad, he could safely assume that any guest room the Fenton's had in their house would probably be buried in her father's various ghost 'weapons.' But he had pieced together from their various conversations that Jazz was an only child, so it wasn't a sibling's room.
Closing his eyes and rubbing his temples, Danny let out a sigh. "I'm standing here wondering about the purpose of a random room in someone else's house. It's official. I've gone insane." He muttered, before becoming intangible again and phasing through the wall. This time, he could tell he had gotten it right.
Jazz was sitting at her desk, scratching away in some textbook as Mozart played quietly. Danny flew right behind her, becoming tangible again as he landed and leaned over her shoulder. "Boo."
Jazz shrieked loud enough to wake the dead, her pencil flying through the air. Danny clutched his stomach as he doubled over laughing. Jazz stood up, turning around to confront her friend.
"Danny! How did you get into my-"She stopped suddenly, finally taking in the sight of her friend in his black and white jumpsuit with Sam's weird D still attached to the chest. "You can…go back and forth?"
Danny shrugged, changing back to his human form. His hand flew to his chest as his heart restarted, and he gritted his teeth against the sudden, unexpected pain. "I guess. I just decided to try it now, and figured I'd try flying."
Jazz's mouth fell open, but she soon snapped it closed and smacked Danny with the first thing she managed to get her hands on, which happened to be a stapler. "Danny! What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed!" She continued to hit Danny with the stapler, despite his attempts at worming away.
"Ow! Jazz, I'm fine!" He pushed her away and threw his hands out to his side. "See? Fine. I'm not growing a third eye, and I'm not spontaneously combusting. I. Am. Fine!"
Jazz stepped back, folding her arms as she pursued her lips. "I don't know, Danny. I don't like the idea of you using your powers before my parents make sure that it's safe." She looked down, fiddling with the stapler in her hands. Danny put his hands up.
"Wait. Powers? Jazz, I don't have superpowers, I have a mutation." He said, running his fingers through his hair as he sighed. "Look, you're the one who told me I wasn't dealing with the whole accident and everything. Are you telling me now that I shouldn't try to accept it?"
"No, no!" Jazz insisted as she set the stapler down, putting her hands on her friend's shoulders. "I just don't want something to happen-"
"Jazz? Jazzypants?" A loud, booming voice reverberated across the house. Jazz whipped her head around, and then grabbed Danny by his collar and dragging him across her room.
"Oh, crap, you have to hide!" Jazz quickly yanked open her accordion-style closet door before hastily shoving him inside. "I'm sorry, my dad doesn't like me being alone in my room with boys. I'll get rid of him as fast as I can."
Danny opened his mouth, but Jazz had already shut the door, leaving only a small sliver of light at the bottom. Danny pressed himself against the edge, trying to get a good look around the edge of the door and wishing that he was more confident in his ghost powers and could just stay in her room invisible.
"What's going on in here, Princess?" said Jazz's father as he burst into her room. Danny squinted his eyes, but all he could see was a large mass of orange. He nudged the door slightly so he could see better. "I heard you talking to somebody."
"Oh, I was just talking to Tammy over the phone!" Jazz said in a voice two octaves higher than normal. "When did Mom say she was coming home?"
"I could have sworn I heard a boy in here." Mr. Fenton mused thoughtfully as he looked suspiciously up at the ceiling. Jazz shook her head vehemently, her grin widening. Danny leaned in closer.
"Nope! Just us and the floorboards! When's Mom going to be home?"
Mr. Fenton finally heaved a sigh, defeated. "Said she'd probably be back around ten. I guess I'll let you call your friend back now…"
Danny failed to cover up his shriek as he suddenly became intangible and phased through Jazz's closet door, becoming solid again just before he hit the floor; his now-tangible foot nudging the closest door farther open.
He laid there for a second, ignoring Jazz's father's scandalized gasp. "I knew it! You were hiding a boy in your room! Boy, when I get my hands on you, I'll-"
"No, no, it's not like that!" Jazz ran in front of Danny, holding her arms out to the side. Danny hesitantly got to his feet, brushing some dirt off the knee of his pants. "Dad, this is Danny. You know, the kid who got injured by your portal?"
Jazz stepped aside and gave Danny a slight nudge. Danny stepped forward, rubbing his eye and looking at the floor. "Um, yeah. By the way, I am really sorry about messing around with your portal…"
Mr. Fenton blinked a few times, obviously not expecting his daughter's 'guest' to be apologizing instead of making up excuses. Danny tried to stare back at him, but had trouble locating his face amidst his tremendous girth. When he finally locked eyes with Mr. Fenton's round eyes, he noticed that they were quite similar to his and his father's unique coloring.
"Danny's still pretty shaken up about the accident. He came over to talk." Jazz folded her arms as she glared at her father, who now looked completely embarrassed. "And he didn't really want to talk to you because he knows how much you've bothered me about getting him to come over and give you blood samples and all that crap."
Danny stared at Jazz with an amazed and confused expression on his face. He hadn't known that Jazz's parents had been bothering her about getting him to come over. Maybe his 'lab rat' fear wasn't so far-fetched after all…and Jazz had continued to fight her parents on his and not reveal his secret, despite how worried she was. Danny suddenly acquired a whole new respect for his ginger friend.
"Umm…well, now that you're over here, Danny, it would be the perfect time to do that!" Mr. Fenton cried as he wrapped his hand around Danny's bicep and ran out of the room, dragging Danny along with him. "I know you kids don't really like needles, but I just need a little blood! And once I get a sample, I can test it to make sure you haven't gotten sick from the ectoplasmic radiation!"
Danny gritted his teeth, hoping that his arm wouldn't suddenly go intangible with Amity Park's head ghost hunter was dragging him around. "Wait, Mr. Fenton, I-"
"Dad, knock it off!" Jazz yelled as her father pulled Danny down the stairs with him. "Quit freaking my friend out!"
"Ah, Princess, I just want a blood sample!" Mr. Fenton whined as he reached the bottom of the stairs. But he did let go of Danny's arm.
"I know, Dad, but you have to understand that the portal turning on with Danny inside it really messed with Danny's head! He's not ready for lab experiments." Jazz leaned against the stair railing, crossing her arms. "Actually, I don't think you should ever perform experiments on my friends."
Mr. Fenton pouted. Danny opened his mouth, but closed it again quickly when he realized there was really nothing to say.
He couldn't give Jazz's father a blood sample. He had no idea what exactly the portal had done to him on a molecular level to make him…half-ghost, but whatever it was, Danny was sure that Amity Park's leading ghost experts would be able to tell what he was by looking at his blood.
And Danny could not afford that.
"Well, as long as you're here…" A creepy grin appeared on Mr. Fenton's face as his eyes slid over to the kitchen. Jazz groaned and slapped her forehead. "Why don't you join Jazzy and me for some ice cream?"
Danny grinned.
"So, Danny, how do you know my Jasmine?" Mr. Fenton asked once they were all seated at the Fenton's round table, vanilla ice cream, chocolate syrup, and whipped cream laid out in front of them. Jazz had decided to pass on the toppings, politely spooning plain vanilla ice cream into her mouth, while both her father and Danny had loaded their sundaes up until they were more topping than ice cream.
"Um, really just through our friend Tucker." Danny cleared his throat. "Tuck and I have been best friends since I moved to Amity Park, and he's pretty smart, so he and Jazz share a math class."
"Remember Tucker?" Jazz chimed in, relaxing a bit for the first time since Danny appeared in her room. "You know the Foley's, Dad. They live on the next block over. Tucker's their son."
Mr. Fenton looked confused for a second, but then smiled brightly. "Oh yeah, that kid with the beret! He ate all the hot dogs at the neighborhood barbeque last year…"
Danny stifled a laugh. "That's Tucker for you. He's a carnivore through and through."
Jazz's father laughed heartily, as if Danny had just told a hilarious joke. "Kinda like how I'm a fudge-eater through and through, right Jazzypants?"
Jazz looked stunned, her spoon still in her mouth. Finally, she spat the utensil out and placed it back in her bowl. "Uh, yeah. My dad loves sweets. And now that he knows you like them, he'll probably force you to pig out with him every time you come over.
Danny laughed. "I'm good with that. My dad doesn't like junk food, and he usually doesn't allow it in the house. So thanks for this, Mr. Fenton." He lifted up his bowl, gesturing to the ice cream.
"Aw, no problem, kid!" Mr. Fenton clapped his hand on Danny's shoulder, and Danny was barely able to hide his grimace of pain.
"Hello? Anyone home?"
The sound of the front door opening and Mr. Fenton subsequently jumping up from his chair managed to cover up the sound of Danny freaking out as his arm suddenly went intangible, his ice cream spoon crashing to his bowl.
"Maddie, you're home early!" Mr. Fenton jumped over to the fridge while Jazz shot Danny a panicked look as the boy desperately flailed his arm, hoping that would somehow force it to regain tangibility. "Have some ice cream with us! I bought chocolate syrup today!"
There was a soft chuckle as Jazz's mom hung up her coat. "Well, maybe just a scoop or two…" Jazz let out a relieved sigh when Danny's arm turned back to normal, but Danny just became more concerned about the fact that his intangibility only transferred to his leg. Mrs. Fenton's footsteps could be heard padding across the living room floor, pausing when she reached the archway to the kitchen.
Danny looked up at Jazz's mother. Despite having recently been out in public, Mrs. Fenton was wearing a deep blue hazmat suit, very similar to Danny's own ghost-half costume, once he thought about it. The only differences, besides the fact that Mrs. Fenton's suit was blue and clearly made for a female, was that her suit had a hood, complete with a pair or red goggles attached. The hood was currently down, revealing her large, amethyst eyes staring owlishly at Danny as her mouth hung open slightly.
"Um, hi, Mrs. Fenton." Danny raised his hand awkwardly. "I'm Danny."
"Danny…" Her hand flew to a thin gold chain around her neck, fingering a small diamond pendant at her throat. Danny shifted uncomfortably as Jazz's mom stared at him.
"Mom, Danny's my friend from school." Jazz explained. Her mother seemed to snap out of her trance, turning her gaze to her daughter. "He just dropped by and Dad pretty much forced him to eat some ice cream with us."
"Danny's the kid who got hurt by the ghost portal, sweetie." Mr. Fenton said, his head still buried in the freezer. "He claims he's fine, but he won't let me take a blood sample."
Mrs. Fenton's face seemed to relax. "Oh, Jack, don't frighten Jazz's friends." Jazz's mom went over to the cupboard, taking a bowl down from the shelf. "Does Danny have a last name?"
Danny briefly glanced at Jazz before swallowing and opening his mouth. "Masters. My name is Danny Masters."
"Masters?" Mr. Fenton, having finally found the ice cream, stood up and turned around to face their guest. "That sounds familiar…"
"Darling, don't you remember Vlad Masters?" Danny nearly choked on his ice cream. Neither of Jazz's parents seemed to notice, Jack being too wrapped up in his thinking and Maddie being too busy scooping ice cream. "You wouldn't happen to be related to him, would you, Danny?"
Danny cleared his throat. "Um-yeah, actually. He's my Dad."
Maddie's head whipped around staring at Danny excitedly. "Really?" She grabbed her bowl and spoon, scurrying over to sit down at the table with her daughter and Danny. "Vlad was our best friend in college! Jack used to room with him, didn't you, Jack?"
"Oh, yeah! Vladdie and I were the best of pals!"
Danny stifled a giggle when he thought of Jazz's kind of insane and oafish dad referring to his uptight, strict father as Vladdie.
"Oh, I haven't seen him since he contracted that terrible case of ecto-acne." Jazz's mom mused as she rested her chin on her palms.
Danny shoved another spoonful of ice cream into his mouth. He wanted to ask about this 'ecto-acne'-it had come up in quite a few of conversations between Danny and his father, though every single time his father had been drunk and looked incredibly embarrassed before quickly changed the subject, making Danny even more curious. However, Mrs. Fenton began talking again before he even opened his mouth.
"I always wondered what became of him. What he did, where he lived, who he married…" Mrs. Fenton then turned to look at Danny expectantly. Danny put down his spoon.
"Uh, well, the only girlfriend I've ever known him to have was my mother, and she died when I was a baby…" Danny said. He looked down at his bowl to avoid seeing all the Fenton's cringe.
"Oh dear, that's terrible." Jazz's mom shook her head. "Raising a baby all alone like that. I can't imagine."
Danny opened his mouth to reassure her, but left his jaw hanging when he realized he really had nothing to say to Mrs. Fenton. Right then, his cell phone beeped loudly. Danny grasped the phone in his pocket and pulling it out, reading the caller idea and grimacing when he saw it was his father.
"Oh geeze, I'm really sorry, Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, but I gotta answer this." He pushed the chair back, walking towards the living room as he flipped his phone open. "Hey Dad."
"Where in blazes are you?" His father hissed over the phone. "I go into your room to apologize and you've disappeared! No note, no text, nothing!"
"Sorry. I'm at a friend's house."
"How on earth was I supposed to know that?" Vlad ranted over the phone. Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "You could have been abducted by terrorists or something, and I wouldn't have known!"
"I'm sorry. Look, I'll leave in the next two minutes and come straight home. Be there in a half hour, tops."
"You better." And then the line went dead. Danny sighed and snapped his phone shut.
"Thank you so much for the ice cream, Mr. Fenton, but I do have to get home before my father has a stroke." Danny said as he strolled back into the kitchen. A grin lit up Mr. Fenton's face.
"Of course! Anything for my Jazzerincess's friends!" Jack stole a glance at Jazz, who looked like she wanted to hide. "And call me Jack. I heard that all the 'cool' kids call their friend's parents by their first names."
"Um, okay. Thanks, Jack." Danny said, thinking about how weird it was to call Jazz's dad by his first name. "But I do really need to get going, or I'm going to be grounded for life."
"Do you need us to give you a ride home, Danny?" Jazz's mom asked sweetly. "A half hour is a long time to be walking, especially this late at night."
"No, I'll be fine." Danny smiled, eager to get away from the two ghost hunters. As nice as they were, something about the revelation that they were his father's college buddies deeply unsettled him.
"You sure?"
"I'm sure. Thank you so much. See you in school, Jazz!"
"Bye, Danny!" Jazz waved at him as he turned to walk out the door. "And next time you come over, remember to tell your father first!"
It had been a terribly boring night so far for Skulker. He had been patrolling the skies of Amity Park almost nonstop since Plasmius had detected another ghost's ecto-signature within Amity Park, but he was becoming skeptical. Plasmius had commented on how…weak the ecto-signature was, and the ghost hadn't shown his face once since his ecto-signature had shown up on the radar.
Skulker sighed. Most nights there would at least be some interesting fights to watch, or young children to scare, but this night was empty. No one was about, and Skulker felt…bored.
"Plasmius doesn't pay me nearly enough for this…" He muttered under his breath as he passed over the rooftop of Casper High. At that precise moment, his communicator let out a series of loud beeps. Skulker pressed down on a green button, and the face of Vlad Plasmius in ghost form appeared on the screen.
"The ghost's ecto-signature is getting stronger, Skulker. My radar indicates that it is somewhere near FentonWorks."
"What do you mean 'the ghost's ecto-signature is getting stronger,' Plasmius, ecto-signatures do not fluctuate!" Skulker grasped his head in frustration.
"I don't have time to figure it out, Skulker, just find the ghost and capture it!" Plasmius yelled in frustration. "Bring it here once you've done that. Then maybe I'll allow you to take it home." With that, the screen went fuzzy as Vlad terminated the call.
"Bastard…" Skulker muttered under his breath. Right then, he saw a streak of blinding white shooting through the streets below and he grinned. That would be his prize.
Skulker turned his guns on, aiming at the blur for a moment before firing. The ghost went hurtling to the ground below, and Skulker swooped down to meet him.
"New ghost in town?" Skulker said as he landed. "I should probably introduce myself. I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter." His serious face disappeared as he smirked. "And for the time being, I will be your teacher, while I educate you about who runs this town."
Skulker whipped out his gun and fired at the green-eyed ghost kid, who gasped and jumped out of the way. The ghost chuckled. "Why, you're just a pup. Tell you what, ghost child. I don't normally take pity on ghosts like you, but I'm in a good mood tonight, so I'll cut you a break. Come quietly to meet my employer, and you get to keep your head."
Danny looked up at Skulker with fearful eyes, his knees knocking together he was shaking so bad. "Wait, you don't understand. This is all a big mistake."
Skulker shrugged, aiming the gun once again. "Have it your way."
Expecting the shot, Danny turned himself intangible, floating down into the sewer below them and coming up behind Skulker.
"Seriously, you have to listen to me." Danny said as Skulker whipped his head around, confused. "I'm just a kid. I didn't ask for any of this."
Skulker blinked at him, and for a second, Danny thought that he just might be emphasizing with the younger ghost. But the softened look in Skulker's eyes soon disappeared, and brought his large gun up to his eye and aimed. "Neither did I, whelp. No ghost ever did."
The shot went off like a blast of thunder. Danny screamed, his body already anticipating the blow.
Skulker's ecto-blast hit his squarely in the stomach, sending his flying backwards into an alley, slamming against a dumpster so hard he turned back into his human form.
Danny saw the glow of Skulker's ecto-skeleton before Skulker actually entered the alley, so he quickly hid behind the dumpster he was thrown against, curling up in response to his injury. Skulker floated into the alleyway, hovering for a bit before checking a screen on his right arm. Finally, he turned intangible and phased through the asphalt.
Danny heaved a sigh, and forced himself to stand up. He pressed his hand to his bleeding stomach and, after testing his balance skills, ran like hell out of the alley.
"So the ghost just showed up out of nowhere?" Sam asked as she ran the towel under the hot water faucet. "You were just flying along, and he just up and attacks you?"
Danny attempted to shrug, but quickly grasped his stomach and sucking in air. "Pretty much." He adjusted his position, perched on the edge of Sam's bathtub in her spacious, luxurious bathroom, to lean back slightly and allow Sam to treat his wound correctly. "I think he said his name was Skulker, and that he was the greatest hunter in the Ghost Zone."
"My God. They really do exist." Sam muttered to herself as she wrung the now steaming towel out in her sink, turning around and walking over to her friend. "Hold still. This is gonna hurt." She moved his hand out of the way to reveal the large, circular wound, crusted with Danny's dried blood and traces of glowing ectoplasm running through.
"Yeah, and not only that, but-" Danny gasped as Sam pressed the burning hot towel to his stomach. The pain was intense, and it took every bit of Danny's concentration to avoid kicking Sam herself.
"Sorry. But I have to clean it or it'll get crazy infected." Sam told him a she began moving the towel around, trying to clean the blood from her best friend's skin.
Danny hissed, but the urge to kick Sam in the face was gradually disappearing. "Anyway, Skulker also mentioned an 'employer.' And something about somebody running the town." He grimaced. Sam put the towel down, walking over to her cabinet.
"I guess to me, it sounds like whoever hired Skulker to take you out is also the ghost who kinda rules over Amity Park." Sam theorized, before a disgusted look appeared on her face. "Ugh, gross. A month ago, I thought ghosts didn't even exist, much less rule over towns."
"Uh, Sam, you were the one pushing me and Tucker to go check the ghost portal out." Danny pointed out before wincing as Sam sprayed something onto a cloth and pressed it against his wound. Sam sighed.
"Yeah, but I didn't think it would actually work." She admitted, taking the cloth away and setting to work cutting up rows of gauze. "I just found the idea of another world for ghosts so intriguing. I never thought that this...Ghost Zone could actually exist."
Danny sighed, adjusting his position to sit more comfortably. "I thought the portal was just a pile of junk, like Jazz told us. I never thought that it could…"
He didn't finish, instead looking down at the gaping hole in his stomach. Sam reached up and pressed her hand to his face.
"Danny, your powers make you unique. Unique is good."
Danny pushed her hand away as he turned to look out the window. "Sam, I've only been using my powers for one night, and already it's gotten me beat up by a ghost, I almost got beat up by Jazz's dad, and worst of all, my dad is going to kill me when I get back home." He said, tiredness evident in his voice.
Sam picked up her scissors and continued cutting the gauze. "You got these powers for a reason, Danny. Now you just have to figure out what you're supposed to do with them."
"That's just it, Sam." Danny said as he moved down to lie down on the floor besides Sam. He stared at the ceiling avoiding Sam's eye as she began to lay the strips of gauze over his bloody wound. "I don't think there is a reason I got these powers. I don't think I have a purpose."
So I am REALLY sorry that this chapter took so long. But it's nearly the length as the first three chapters put together so that makes up for it, right? RIGHT? 'cricket chirp'
Sigh. In my defense, I did read the fabulous Checkmate, by Pearl84. That story kept me prisoner for about three weeks. (Which is actually how long it took me to read it, when I factored in things like working, and a social life.) But anyway. On with the story!
No, Vlad has not yet figured out Danny's half-ghost. Remember that the way Vlad got his ghost powers was way different than the way Danny got his. It's a safe bet to say that Vlad received his powers either as a result of the ecto-acne he contracted after the first portal blew up, or the ecto-acne developed as a side effect of Vlad getting his ghost powers. Either way, Vlad's powers probably developed differently than Danny's, so I don't think he would recognize the signs when he saw them in Danny.
That being said, I hope you all enjoyed the little scene where Danny meets his real parents! Thinking some shit would go down? Keep in mind that Danny has no freaking clue he's been kidnapped. He think Vlad is his father and his mother died when he was little, which is exactly what Vlad has told him. And the Fenton's have no reason to suspect that Danny is actually their long-lost son. To them, they're just finding out that their daughter has become friends with their college buddy's son, who just happens to have the same name as their missing child. (And Daniel is a fairly common name, so it's not that weird.)
Did anyone catch the Spongebob reference? If anyone did, you win 15,693 Kameko points. And Sokka and Zuko will come to your house and sing you 'Bad Romance.'
Zuko: 'glowers'
Sokka: "Yay!"
Also, in this story, Danny's birthday will be April 3rd. (The day Danny Phantom premiered in the real world.) His actual birthday, the day he was born. Vlad makes up another birthday, just to throw people off. There is a small Easter Egg relating to Danny's birthday. If you actually find it, you are a god and Sokka and Zuko will sing to you the 'Bad Romance' and YuGiOh parody, 'Leather Pants.'
Alright everyone, review! Review! Hopefully everyone was more in character this time. I had issues with that last chapter...the first three chapters existed purely to set the story, this is where the fun begins! And where we see longer chapters.
Okay, time for me to take a shower at 5:30 PM. Here's a quote from my Daddy.
"Don't look at me in that tone of voice!"
-Kameko Awkward Chimp
