AN: I'm going through and tweaking some of the chapters, to edit mistakes I missed (The glory of self-beta-ing)
I don't own Danny Phantom or Supernatural, or any rights to them.
Thank you so much for all the amazing reviews! They're really encouraging, and keep me inspired to write more.
Something Wicked
Chapter 5: Roll a Stealth Check
Danny found himself crouching under the window, trying to act nonchalant, like he was looking through his bag or something equally casual that would warrant hovering under a window.
He even unzipped the bag and stuck an arm inside. Clever disguise, right?
The voices were muffled through glass and walls, the rustle of wind overwhelming what he could hear. Something comics never mentioned was that enhanced hearing didn't necessarily mean enhanced selective hearing.
An epiphany smacked him upside the head, and he made a face, incredulous at himself. This was his own freaking house, why was he sneaking around?
He swung his backpack up, letting it settle over one shoulder, and brushed dirt from the knees of his jeans.
The door opened easily, and he could see his mom already entertaining her guests in the living room. He shuffled in, kicking off his shoes and tossing his bag onto the stairs.
Just as it thumped into place on a step, he recalled there was, in fact, a sword inside, and winced. Thankfully, there was no audible tearing sound, and he allowed himself to focus all attention on the two men inside his home.
They were seated on the couch, close enough to be comfortable in each other's space, just on the edge between professional and casual. The sharp suits probably enhanced the business-like feeling. After a quick glance-over, he was privately thankful that Jazz was away at college.
Between "Tall, green-eyed and handsome" and "Taller, shaggy and handsome" he wasn't sure if he wanted to see his sister's reaction.
(This coming from a purely observational standpoint, mind you. He never had a reason to doubt his sexuality, and even these guys weren't a tipping point)
Seeing her date average guys was weird enough. There WAS a moment of narrow-eyed inspection, as he hadn't seen that shade of green outside people who were possessed, but his ghost sense didn't even flicker.
He lifted a hand in greeting, edging around the room. His mom brightened, turned and beckoned for him to join them.
"Welcome home sweetie! How was school?"
He forced a small smile, still eyeing the two.
"It was good. Nothing new."
"Oh that's good, I wanted to introduce you to these two. We've been emailing back and forth for the past week or so - They're fellow ghost hunters, you see."
Ah. Shit.
"Ah..."
He offered them a small wave, which the smaller returned, while the taller sent a friendly smile. Really, this was confusing. They were both huge, totally unfair.
"Nice to meet you, I guess. My name's Danny."
Tall-and-Shaggy nodded his head.
"I'm Sam Winchester, this is my brother Dean. Good to meet you as well. Your mother was just telling us about some of your family's inventions."
Well, that solved it. He was getting out of here as soon as possible. He didn't want yet another ghost hunting team seeing the Boomerang smacking him in the ass. Depending on oblivious people could only go so far.
Danny started sidling toward the kitchen, and Dean shot him an amused look. Something like 'It's really obvious you want to run, but I'm not stopping you'
Part of him bristled, and he bustled around the kitchen, opening cupboards and pretending to deliberate on what to eat, while one ear was turned on the living room.
"Thank you so much for stopping by, I was really excited to see your notes on the difference between soul-based and ectoplasm-based ghosts." There was a rustling of papers.
Danny crouched down behind the door of the fridge, glaring at the sausage links still trapped in the bottom drawer. He checked the lock, and they grumbled at him, glaring back. Dad was the only one who had a whet of trust for the little guys, the rest of the family having endured their tiny fangs and snake-like coils one too many times. Fire didn't seem to harm the suckers, but they started dissolving if left at room temperature for too long.
Jack had made with the puppy eyes until Maddie relented to letting them 'stay with the rest of their food buddies', under the condition that their housing remained sealed away to avoid contamination. (Thank everything holy, she was learning. No more ghost turkeys for thanksgiving!)
"We honestly haven't encountered many ectoplasm-based ghosts outside of Amity Park, we mostly deal with the type that you can fight with salt and iron….and fire" The last one seemed to be an afterthought for Dude-Sam.
Still, Danny was intrigued despite himself.
He plucked up a jar of green olives, delicately fishing one out of the brine and popping it into his mouth.
There were those… dead-people ghosts elsewhere?
He privately winced at the terminology of his brain. There were only so many terms for ghosts he could think of, and he had kinda lumped them all into the same definition: Green, glowy, probably out to harass others, occasionally not.
He wondered if Sam would be entertained by the idea of a tall, pretty dude sharing her name.
Danny filed that thought away, tightening the lid and pushing the olives back onto their shelf.
Their conversation had continued without him.
"-so the energy from filtered ectoplasm actually disrupts their own natural frequency, resulting in actual damage to the ghost, that they can't phase through."
"That's fascinating! I wonder if they'd respond to strong magnetism, or sound waves in a similar way."
"Jack and I have been trying the magnets, but it's hard to get a strong magnet close enough to a ghost to observe the results."
"You mentioned that you fight them often. Are there any we should watch out for?"
Danny sighed, pulling out the half-full jug of chocolate milk. Here comes the accusations against Phantom….
"Well, you should keep something on you to defend yourself - there are ecto-guns or purely defensive items, like the Specter-Deflector, but the self-aware ghosts rarely target individual people. It's the animalistic ones that you have to watch out for. Even they aren't much of a problem any more, with anti-ecto defenses becoming more widespread."
…
Eh?
"So Fido wants to maul, and the people-shaped ones want to move boxes?'"
Danny rolled the cap back on, shoves the jug back into place while taking a sip from his glass and peering around the corner to watch the proceedings. This was new, coming from his mother.
She gestured to something.
"I included the pamphlets about basic ghost information and safety, as well as my personal notes on the subjects."
What Pamphlets?
"Sweet! Our very own Monsters Manual."
"Thanks a ton. Want us to leave the notes? We'll be in town all week, and can pick it up later."
Dude-Sam (He already had a friend Sam, two people with the same name is weird!) waved away Maddie's enthusiastic thanks, saying she had provided a ton of information already online, it was only fair they returned the favor.
"Besides, our methods are pretty much inconsequential. Salt lines against domes of energy? There's no comparison."
Danny quietly cursed himself for zoning out earlier, but had an idea that half their conversation bounced from the emails that he hadn't read, anyway.
He took his milk out into the living room, heading toward the stairs. The kitchen excuse wouldn't last much longer.
"Hey buckwheat."
He paused. Really? Of all the nicknames.
Danny turned, staring at the green-eyed one. Dave? Dean? Something with a D.
"What's your take on the whole ghost business, while these two are busy nerding out?"
The man gestured to his brother and Maddie, who were bent over a notebook and taking turns pointing out things. Fast friends, apparently.
Danny took a slow sip of his chocolate milk, mulling over his options.
On one hand, he could agree that ghosts are evil, while on the other… well, Mom didn't really phrase it like that, did she? She didn't go on a rant about their evil nature, or how destructive they could be.
He swallowed.
"They're… interesting, I guess. Act a lot like people, for better or worse."
The man threw him a casual grin, standing up and straightening out his suit jacket.
"See a lot of them, then? Ghosts, I mean."
Danny regarded him warily, wondering if the sudden movement was meant to be an intimidation tactic. It certainly didn't work - Many ghosts he faced were several times the normal size of what they should have been. After punching what looked like a were-jaguar the size of a van in the face, it was a bit hard to be intimidated by normal people.
Not even touching on Pariah Dark, or even Walker, who seemed to switch sizes constantly.
"Yeah, sometimes. They pop up at school a lot. It's been awhile since anyone got hurt from the appearances." He paused, wondering if he should even continue with the thought.
The next words were tentative.
"Phantom is usually quick to drive them off."
The man nodded, slouching against the door frame and rubbing his jaw thoughtfully. Not intimidation, then.
"Sammy's told me a bit about that Phantom character. We'll probably look into him later."
Danny took another drink, feeling curious.
"You don't seem very passionate about the ghosts." D-something quirked an eyebrow. Danny rephrased.
"I mean, You don't sound like you're talking about something evil."
The man hummed, looking… melancholic? Maybe he was misinterpreting body language.
"These guys, the Ghosts here, they bug people, and damage buildings, throw the town into another dimension, but none of them seem to go out of their way to hurt or kill people."
Danny wanted to mutter something like 'Yeah, 'cause I kick their butt before they have a chance to execute their dastardly plan' but remained silent.
"The ghosts we hunt down, they actually kill people. It's almost nice to find a monster that just annoys people."
D-something shot him a cheeky grin, but it fell too quickly to be genuine.
Danny didn't bring up possession, or Skulker's plan to skin him and mount his head on the wall, or a sword that forced living your worst fears, or having happiness sucked away. If Mom was the one briefing them on ghosts, they'd learn.
He figured their conversation was over, and headed up the stairs. He snagged his bag, careful not to slosh the milk, and glanced down.
Green eyes met blue, carefully considering on both ends.
He closed his room door, locking it to be safe, before dumping the sword on his desk and flopping onto his bed.
He scrunched his eyes shut, violently ruffling his own hair before curling around a pillow, just breathing.
Today… Today had been eventful.
He needed to decompress.
Some part of Jazz's lectures wiggled in his mind, and he turned his face further into the blankets, letting the memory of this morning resurface.
With the sword quietly buzzing on the edge of his senses, it wasn't hard.
The man had been wearing a suit, and the green goo around him suggested he'd been killed by ghosts...but had given as good as he got. The light show couldn't have been random, and the sword just felt strange.
Why were the Winchesters in town? They were ghost hunters, apparently, going after ghosts that killed people. How would they have known about the body? From the sound of it, they'd been in town all day, and had been emailing Mom for days. How the heck did he remember their last name, but couldn't freaking remember the green-eyed dude's proper name?
He tapped away on his phone, shooting Tucker a message.
The only reason he knew he was drifting off was the sharp jerk back into reality by Tucker's return text alert.
He vaguely heard the front door open and close, the rumble of an old car engine start up.
Danny pushed the phone to the edge of his bed, setting the alarm to an obscenely early hour.
His brain and body were fried. He'd study in the morning.
Exams started tomorrow, right?
No wait, that was next week. He went through the motions of pulling his notebook out, arms feeling more and more tired as he made a note to himself.
Homework, then. Homework in the morning.
Wasn't he meeting someone?
Tucker, probably.
Ever heard of the Winchesters? They stopped by FW. Apparently ghost hunters. - DF
Somehow I ended up on guns and police records. -TF
No relation to Dean and Sam Winchester, right? - TF
That's their names, actually. - DF
Yikes. I'll send you a link. -TF
Be Careful. -TF