This is my favorite chapter I've written thus far.

I forgot in the last few chapters, but just in case it happens again-

Disclaimer: I do not own any shape or form of Danny Phantom and this applies to any chapters before or after this disclaimer in the event that I forget disclaimers again.

…seriously? Do we have to do that with every chapter?...*sigh*

I hope you enjoy this nice, long installment of Danny Phantom Reversal.

-Crow


Chapter 4

Danny woke up uneventfully the next day. No parents barging in or anything. He woke up refreshed and changed back to his usual ghostly self.

He walked downstairs to the basement to find his parents eagerly zipping around the basement lab yammering in the ever-tricky language of "science".

"Hey, guys. What's up?" He called out. They stopped immediately and beamed at him.

"Son! It's the most amazing thing! The portal suddenly started working yesterday!" Jack boomed.

"You're father and I have been analyzing the data and have even sent a small probe through. It's a stable wormhole through to the mortal plane!" His mother said excitedly.

"Cool! So, uh, does that mean people can go through it or…"

"What? Of course not, son. We still need to run more tests. I mean, eventually we will go to the human realm for some close-up examination, but reconnaissance and patience are necessary for any good scientist exploring the unknown."

"Oh."

"Exactly! Is there something you wanted to talk about?"

"Oh, well, I- uh. I… was wondering who you were going to tell."

"Well, we were actually planning on keeping it a secret for now. I know every ghost here is itching to go back to the human world to live out their obsessions, so I don't want to tell too many people. We may tell Technus though…" His mother pondered over the option.

Jack decided to interrupt her train of thought. "Hey, Mads, how about to celebrate we go out for a change! We can tell a few people later. I heard Listz has a new sonata he's performing tonight. I remember how much you like his music."

Maddie beamed at the offer, but frowned in thought. "But Jack, don't you think-"

"Maddie, we've been at this portal for over 25 years. Don't you think it's time we take some time for ourselves just for a bit? I doubt the portal's going anywhere anytime soon."

She smiled and nodded. "Danny, I guess we'll be off for a while. So have fun, I suppose."

Danny smiled at the bit of freedom offered, but thought quickly. "Hey, mom, I was actually going to do some things for a while. I promise I'll be fine, but I was kinda planning going off to the Far Frozen for a while."

"Don't worry Danny, I trust Frostbite. How long are you planning for?"

"A week, maybe?"

"A week? Isn't that a little-… well alright, sweetie. Just be back soon and don't get into trouble, okay?"

He promised and watched as the two flew off to whatever they had planned for the time being. He drifted downstairs and turned on the computer. The small clock attached to Central Time stated it was 5:14 PM.

He smiled and opened the portal. He drifted upstairs and grabbed the backpack with his clothes and the pajamas. He left Jazz's bear under his bed for later.

He drifted back down to the basement and walked through the swirling green mist to the other end. The portal was still behind the same statue in the same section of the graveyard. He smiled, at least his way home was pretty much guaranteed.

He concentrated and felt the rings of light turn him human again. He looked down and saw the familiar t-shirt and jeans. Just because, he put his hand to his neck. Ba-Bump.

He smiled. This was freaky, but way too awesome!

He made his way out of the brambles and towards the gates of the graveyard. Even before he got through the gate, he was amazed at what he saw. Last night had been desolate, but at 5:30 there was plenty of activity and plenty of people.

He actually gawked slightly at the sheer amount of activity, though. He remembered phones from when he was alive, but here people were talking into flat, black rectangles or looking at said rectangles with concentration. A few were even tapping their thumbs against the base of the rectangle.

I definitely need to figure those out. He thought to himself. He continued on, staring at people passing by or looking through some windows at restaurants. Cars zoomed by and people rushed here and there in efforts to go… somewhere. People talked, people did, people lived.

Everything here seemed so much more exciting. The Ghost Zone was… excuse the pun, dead. Here, everything seemed so much more… lively.

He mentally facepalmed at the puns, but couldn't help it. No other adjective fit better for the places. Here there was promise and a future and people running around living lives. The Ghost Zone was basically like God's waiting room. Ghosts stuck around doing whatever to keep themselves occupied while waiting for their number or their turn to move on. And of course, like any waiting room, it was boring.

Eventually, he got over his future shock and saw kind-looking woman with her 4 or 5 year old daughter. "Excuse me, miss. I'm new here. Do you know where the 'Nasty Burger' is?"

The woman smiled warmly. "Of course, it's down this street and you turn right at the next intersection."

"Thanks." Danny headed off, but heard the young girl whisper to her mother.

"Mommy, why did you talk to the dead boy?"

He shuddered, but kept walking.


So, this is the Nasty Burger. He thought to himself. The place was a simple restaurant designed to resemble something from the fifties. Danny had no memories of it, so he assumed it was intentionally designed that way. No one back then would've called something "Nasty Burger".

He walked in and was greeted by the sounds of teenagers laughing and chatting and the overpowering smell of grease and salty foods.

He looked around at the tables and saw a small booth against a window. Facing away from him was someone with black hair, but on the opposite bench was a young African American kid in a red beret tapping away on something that looked a lot like those popular black rectangles.

He walked up to the boy and awkwardly grabbed his attention. "Uh, hey. Are you Tucker?"

He looked up and then his eyes widened a bit at a sudden thought. "So, you're GhostBoy?"

Danny smiled and nodded. "Yeah, but my real name's-"

He cut off as he looked at the figure across from Tucker. She had familiar purple eyes, black hair, and gothic clothes.

"You!" They shouted simultaneously.

Tucker was stunned for a moment before he broke the awkward silence.

"I take it you two know each other?" He asked calmly.

"Know him? He's that kid I was telling you about!" Sam angrily stated.

"Seriously? This is the guy?" Tucker looked at Danny.

Danny sighed. "Look…Sam?" she nodded. "Sam, I'm sorry for what happened last night. I'm grateful and all for you helping me out back there, but I'm alright. I'm just here to meet with some internet friends." Sam smirked.

"I know GhostBoy. Nice to meet you." She stuck out her hand. "I'm Chaos."

Danny's mouth dropped slightly. "Wait, you're Chaos?"

She nodded triumphantly with her arms crossed.

"Well don't expect me to start worshipping you, then 'Oh Great Destroyer of Galahan's Castle'." They both laughed and the tension dissipated fast, though Sam still kept her eye on the mysterious kid. They introduced themselves properly and he sat down.

Tucker, being the typical loudmouth, started up the conversation. "So, dude, how'd you end up here? You said you were somewhere in Canada last time."

Danny rubbed the back of his neck. "Oh, well, my parents kinda moved on a last minute basis. I just got here last night and I had no idea where we were going, let alone that I was heading for Amity Park."

Sam stared a bit wide-eyed. "Woah, are you, like, part of WPP?"

"What?" Danny asked, confused.

"Witness Protection Program."

Danny laughed a bit. "No, it's nothing like that. My parents' job makes them move around a lot. We don't stay anywhere too long so I've gotten used to moving without much notice." He saw their expressions drop and added. "but, this time I think I'm sticking around for a while." They smiled a bit.

"So, what do your parents do?" Sam asked.

"They're scientists. They do a lot of experiments and field research." Technically he wasn't lying that time; he just left out some of the more distinct details about them. Like a lack of heartbeat.

"Dude, we should totally come and visit some time!" Tucker said excitedly. Danny put his hand to his neck as he came up with a story.

"Oh, well you see, my parents are kinda reclusive and guarded with their work. They don't really like too many guests. Even then, the house is kinda dangerous if you don't know what to look for." Again, not a lie, just not the truth.

"Oh. That's cool, then. You should totally hang at our places, then." Tucker said.

"Sure, it sounds fun."

They kept going about what the town was like and soon a server came over and dropped off a tray of burgers and fries. There were two beef burgers and a tofu burger.

"Here, dude. I figured you're more of a meat guy." Tucker said, handing over one of the beef burgers.

"Wow, thanks man." Danny said accepting the offering.

Sam and Tucker started munching on their food and Danny watched them eat before copying their movements. His eyes widened after he took the first bite.

"Wow! 'Zish is sho good." He said through the bite. Tucker swallowed before answering.

"What, do they not have burgers out in Canada?"

Danny swallowed and shook his head. Most of the restaurants in the Ghost Zone were more culturally-based like Pandora's Greek restaurants or Kuchisake-Onna's Japanese places. So far, there wasn't a burger place that he could tell.

"This is way better than what we had out where I lived." Danny answered truthfully.

They kept talking about the town and what to do in it. They even told him about some cool places to hang out. Danny was somewhat happy when he found out that the arcade hadn't shut down, it just moved.

"Hey guys, I was wondering about this one place. I can't really find anything on it."

"Yeah? What place?" Tucker asked.

"This weird building on Specter and Vincent Price." Sam and Tucker shared a look.

"The burnt-out mad-science building?"

"Yeah."

Tucker grinned while Sam rolled her eyes. The techno-geek then started speaking in a comically overdramatic scary-story-style.

"They say the place is…haunted." He chuckled evilly.

Danny smirked. Well the building is haunted, just not that version.

Tucker continued the story in a more-normal-voice. "Years ago, there were these two scientists who made all kinds of crazy stuff in their basement. Then, one day the entire place just exploded. Both scientists died along with their son and daughter." Danny felt some chills at that point. It was obvious who the son was.

"What were their names?"

"No one remembers. It was, like, 30 years ago and from what we've heard they were never really too social, either."

"Okay, so why doesn't anyone tear the place down?" More out of curiosity than a desire to see his past demolished.

"That lab they had was a pretty messed up place. According to the city, they had conduit wires in their walls hooked up to huge generators and some pretty nasty stuff in their chemistry sets.

"No one knows how to safely get rid of the stuff without either blowing something up or getting electrocuted from capacitor discharge. They mostly just tell people to stay away."

"Huh, so it's just home to a bunch of homeless people and looters?" Danny asked.

"That's the other thing; no one lives there, ever. They say that a looter went in and just died. There wasn't even any reason for it. He just dropped dead when he went in and some people found him days later when he started to… smell." He grimaced at that. Danny bet it was just an urban legend. That or he really did get the wrong end of one of his parent's inventions.

"Since then, no one lives there. As far as anyone knows, anything in the place that survived the blast is still in there." Danny nodded. That much was true. "It's not like it really matters, though. It's pretty well known that they had nothing really valuable, unless you count all of the copper pipes in their home. But even then, everyone knows not to go bashing into the walls of the Specter House. You never know where one of those high-voltage cables are."

"Specter House?"

"Yeah, it fits. The house is on Specter Street and it's haunted. Specter House." Tucker explained simply. Danny nodded in understanding.

The conversation continued. Tucker was excitedly talking about things in the town while Sam was cautious about the new boy's body language. From what she could tell, he was more interested in the Specter House than the new café on Green Street.


Danny said goodbye to his friends an hour or so later. He didn't get anywhere in regards to his old house, but he was still happy to have made some friends. In the end, he decided to do the one thing he (and probably Jazz) could think of.

He went to the library.


Hours.

He spent hours going through old microfilm newspapers on Amity Park. He started from that day and moved back. Nothing jumped out on the front pages and obituaries were a dead-end.

He went all the way back to 1990 and there was still no record of an explosion or accident on Specter Street. He would have kept going, but after hours of sifting through intelligence alone, he needed a break.

He shut off the machine and walked down the halls. Weird, everything's dark. Where is everyone? He thought to himself. He eventually reached the front door and pushed against it-

*clunk*

He frowned. The doors were locked.

He looked up through the dimness at a wall clock still ticking away. 3:50 AM.

He cursed softly to himself. He was locked into the most boring place on earth. While this was Jazz's dream, this was probably Danny's nightmare.

He tried any door he could think of but they were all locked. Frustrated, he sat down at a nearby chair.

This is so stupid! If I was a ghost I could just phase through that. As soon as he thought about phasing, he remembered the feel that accompanied him. Strangely, he felt that same feeling now.

He looked at his arm and gasped when he saw it was slightly tinged blue and somewhat transparent. His surprise ended the effect and his hand regained color and solidity. He gulped and focused on the feeling again. This time, his entire arm had the effect.

To experiment, he set it down on the chair's arm and watched as it sank through. He pulled it out and let it regain solidity.

Awesome! He thought. Having ghost powers in human form was definitely a bonus.

He walked to the front door and willed the feeling on himself. This time, he focused on his entire body. When he looked down, everything had the slight bluish color and semi-transparency. He confidently walked through the glass door.

He stopped for a moment when he heard something go *shhh* on the other side. He looked and there, slowly sliding down the glass, was a t-shirt and jeans pressed against the door.

Mortified, he felt his cheeks heat up as he glanced down.

Yep.

"OH, COME ON!"


It took a few tries, but he eventually figured out how to phase through with everything intact.

He spent the remainder of the morning walking around the town, watching early-risers on morning jogs or a few garbage men making their rounds. He definitely liked the evenings better.

At around 9:30, he was still wandering somewhat aimlessly as he passed by a squad car parked on the side of the street. He jumped when he heard the "whoop!" of the siren and stopped to look at the officer pulling up.

"Young man, do you know what day it is?" The officer asked sternly.

Danny shook his head. The officer's forehead creased; either the kid was clueless or a smart-alek. "It's Wednesday, kid. Aren't you supposed to be in school?"

Danny's eyes widened in realization and he stammered a bit. "I- I'm sorry, officer. I just moved here, so days are still a blur. I-I'm still finding my way around. I'm not even enrolled anywhere yet."

The officer looked the kid over and saw he was new to the town. So far, it checked out. Though…

"Alright kid, how about this? There's only one high school in town; Casper High. I'll drop you off and you can sign the forms to enroll. 'K? It's illegal for kids your age to not be in school."

Danny shrugged. He guessed a school would be a good place to get some answers.

The officer led him to the car and let him sit in the passenger's seat. Turns out, the guy was pretty okay. He asked a few questions about where Danny was from and Danny stuck to the story he told Sam and Tucker. Soon enough, they pulled up to an old red-brick building with "Casper High" on a sign nearby.

Lots of students were milling around the lawn in front of the building. The jocks were flirting with the cheerleaders, and a few thick-glasses-wearing geeks were talking animatedly about the future of the "home computer".

He looked back at the red-haired woman who drove him. "Have a nice first day, sweetie."

He blinked and the scene shattered. The front yard was empty (it was in the middle of the school day, after all) and the exterior was slightly more worn.

The officer looked at him in concern. As far as he could tell, the kid just froze up for a second.

"Hey, kid. You alright?"

Danny nodded, still analyzing the… thing.

"Okay. Are you sure you don't need me to pick up your parents?" Danny turned to the officer and forced a smile.

"No, it's fine. They're pretty busy so I can fill out the forms myself." Danny assured the officer. He got out calmly, ignoring the uneasiness from the… whatever-that-was. The police man gave a brief nod before driving off.

Danny entered the school and saw a few stragglers walking around the halls, but everything was mostly empty.

He wandered around until he found the main office. He approached the counter and a somewhat bored secretary looked up from her magazine.

"Hi, I'm new. I was hoping to enroll here?" The secretary frowned a bit at the unorthodox situation. Usually it was the parents who came to fill out the forms. Still, they don't pay her to be concerned.

She pulled out the stack of papers and handed them to the boy along with a pen. He slowly filled them out, signing his name with a bit of awkwardness. He left a bunch of forms blank or replied that he had no insurance.

Under address, he listed the address of the wreckage on Specter Street. Technically that was still his home.

He gave the forms back to the secretary, who frowned at a few of the blanks. "You know, sweetheart, you need insurance at some point."

Danny smiled pleasantly as he lied again. "Oh, well we had to change insurance companies before we moved. We'll get something soon, don't worry."

The secretary shrugged and directed him to a plain, white wall before taking out a small camera. She snapped a photo of him and ran it through a small machine. After a few seconds, a small, plastic ID card popped out the other end.

"This is your ID card, it'll have meals and allow you access to the school library. Here is your schedule, just start at the next hour's class. And here is a list of some books you need to check out from the library as soon as you can."

Danny thanked the secretary and headed off to the library. He'd luckily been wearing his backpack when he was caught, so the books he checked out fit well in it.

He took a look at the schedule and packed any extra books in the locker number on the syllabus before going to the next course on the schedule.

Danny knocked on the door and a voice said to come in. He opened the door and took a look at his class. Most of the students were looking at him, somewhat relieved for the interesting interruption. The teacher was a bald, mildly overweight teacher with a black goatee and a book in one hand.

"Can I help you?" The teacher asked.

"Uh, hi. I'm Danny Fenton. I just enrolled."

"Ah, please take a seat then, Mr. Fenton. My name is Mr. Lancer and for today we are talking about the works of Emily Dickens. Now class-" Mr. Lancer continued to lecture on.

Danny took a look at the seats and found an empty one by-

Tucker waved in the seat to the left. Sam grinned in the seat to the right. Danny smiled.

"Awesome."


The school day went by easily. Danny had a lot of fun, actually. No, he wasn't a preppy, gung-ho scholar like his sister, but it was kinda cool to be a normal teenager again. After all, this was what he'd dreamed of for years.

He walked down the street, thinking to himself. He'd been assigned homework that day and told a few things to catch up with. Luckily, it was still September, so he didn't have much.

He thought about what to do from then on. His parents would get suspicious if he kept going into the lab or encouraging them out of the lab. He could always sneak in and out invisibly, but he didn't want to risk them noticing.

Besides, he'd already warned them he'd be gone for a while, so he just needed a place to crash.

What better place to live than home? He mused to himself as he approached the wreckage. The neighborhood was pretty alright. Thankfully, the derelict building didn't cause a ghetto to form around it, so there were still pleasant families around the building; they just didn't look at the eyesore.

At the moment, no one was around to see him. He walked into the building carefully and went upstairs to his human-self's room. It kept out the rain and the walls were still intact along with the window, though it had a crack through it. Overall, it was still inhabitable.

He plopped his backpack on the floorboards and looked at his desk. It seemed almost a shame to sweep away the old homework, so he did the work on his bed. It creaked a bit, but was still pretty nice.

By about 7:00, he'd finished his work and was staring at his ceiling. So far, he'd reached dead end after dead end with uncovering his past. He barely noticed the sun set until it was dark. He had looked around the house already, every lighbulb was shattered and every electrical conduit in the house was long-since fried.

He decided he needed the light, so he put a small amount of ecto-energy into his hands and caused a small orb or light to form. The orb floated around him, flickering in a cold, blue-white flame and casting a faded blue light on the room.

He grinned. It was a trick some Japanese ghosts had taught him. These orbs were just little balls of ectoplasm that looked like they were burning, but really couldn't light an alcohol-soaked piece of paper on fire. Completely safe in his room.

He stared at his little, glowing orb as it flickered and bobbed aimlessly around his bed.

He decided it was too late to do much, so he got up and snuffed out the "flame". He changed into the pajamas he had in his backpack and laid down in bed to sleep.


Maria Burton was your average skeptic when it came to ghosts. She liked to humor ghost stories, but never put much thought or conviction into them. However, that night she became a firm believer that something was beyond the grave.

And some things didn't leave.

It started the day before. She'd been walking with her daughter, Anna, when a polite young boy with messy hair and baggy clothes asked her for directions. After she gave them, her daughter gestured for her to come in to hear her whisper.

She grinned and complied, but her face fell when she heard what her daughter had to say.

"Mommy, why did you talk to the dead boy?"

For a moment, she was too confused to answer right away. "What do you mean, Anna? What dead boy?"

"The one you just talked to."

Maria looked down the street at the young man walking down the street. She did find it odd. He had a kind of feel to him that didn't really fit with anyone else. It was like he wasn't really from around here.

Or like he wasn't used to this time period.

She noticed him looking at buildings with confused looks and even staring a bit at someone's iPhone like he'd never seen one before. He was definitely weird.

"Anna. It's not nice to call people names. Besides, he looks pretty alive to me."

"But mommy, he's not. He's one of the ghosts in Specter House." Her daughter insisted, scared.

Maria frowned a bit more sternly. "Anna, he's just a boy. Don't go spreading rumors like that."

The rest of the day went by normally, but the next day she went for a walk with her daughter and husband. They lived a few blocks down on Specter Street. It was a bit cheaper because of the house at the end, but it was a nice neighborhood. Either way, it was somewhat fun to hear the ghost stories about the place.

That evening, her daughter was skipping ahead and her husband was smiling next to her. They got to the end of the Street where Anna stopped suddenly and stared at the Specter House.

"Anna, what's wrong?" Maria asked. Her daughter just stared at the burnt-out shell. Maria followed her gaze-

And felt her breath catch.

Through one of the windows on the second floor was a faint, blue light. She kept staring at the window and saw it was from a small circle, but it wasn't a candle or something.

It floated.

She was sure of it. The small, flickering circle was floating around the room, casting blue out the window.

Her husband gawked at the window. He'd always been a believer. That was part of why he enjoyed this neighborhood, but he'd never expected to see an actual ghost.

The orb floated around and Maria noticed a shadow come in between the window and the orb.

It was obviously a silhouette of a young boy with messy hair and somewhat baggy clothes.

The light went out and the room was dark and still like it had always been since they moved here. Maria looked at her awestruck husband when her daughter cleared her throat. She was smiling slightly at their expressions before stating calmly.

"See mommy, I told you he was a dead boy."


AN: Hahahaha! I loved writing that last one. I love those stories about kids saying, seeing, or doing creepy things like this. It's like "Poltergeist", but with less TV.

If you're wondering about the library scene; yes, he phased his boxers through, it was just his jeans, shirt and shoes that didn't… *coughcoughpervertscough*

The floating orbs are actually called "Hitodama". You've probably seen/heard of them if you watch any ghost-related animes. They're those little fire balls floating around Japanese ghosts. I figured it'd be a neat trick for him to have. A little OOC, but I want to have some fun, too. It's a bit more entertaining than just the "glowy palm" thing he normally does, though that'll make an appearance if necessary. And the glowing, blue orb thing set up the last few paragraphs perfectly!

Yeah, I know hamburgers were around when Danny was alive (later half of the 20th century for people speculating any earlier), but I bet they tasted a lot different back then, plus he hasn't eaten in 30 years.

I wanted to thank you guys. I'd actually forgotten about the "flashbacks" he'd been experiencing. I hadn't included any more originally, but after a few people pointing them out, I decided I wanted more of them throughout the plot as Danny explores. So, thanks guys!

Also, thank you to Wooster for telling me that the chapter didn't upload correctly. I'm not sure what happened, but if it ever happens again, nobody be afraid to PM me. I'll see what I can do.

This chapter (and ending Author Notes) is probably one of the longer ones, but it was pretty fun to write and I couldn't find a decent place to cut it for a new chapter.

The next one I want to put a bit more fluff in to space out the meaningful plot-driven stuff. Probably more teenage hanging out.

Hope you enjoyed this installment.

Until next time!

-Crow