So... a year... Sorry for the kinda hiatus but now I'm back!
That Friday morning Danny woke up at the blaring sound of his alarm clock, groggily he opened his eyes and put off the alarm lazily. Done with the early annoyance Danny tried to sleep for a few more minutes, having to hunt ghost bats almost all night can get anyone weared off, he was almost asleep again when he heard an annoying knocking in his door.
"Danny! Get up or you will be late for school!" Jazz exclaimed through the door while knocking rhythmically.
"Urghh… five more minutes." Danny mumbled putting his head under the pillow trying to muffle his sister attempts.
"Come on Danny! There is only one cereal box and we have to eat it before dad." Jazz insisted.
"Hmm… fine… I'm up." Not ecto-contaminated food was a great incentive to start the day.
Danny decided to take a shower to clean his mind from the sleep. Once cleaned and more or less awake he went to the kitchen hoping that Jazz had saved him some cereal, unfortunately it wasn't the case, he found his sister seated in a chair with a glare directed at Maddie.
"Morning." Danny said confused as to why it was only their mom the one in the kitchen and not both of their parents.
"Good morning sweetie." Maddie responded while working on the microwave, which was glowing faintly.
"Where's dad?" Danny asked curious.
"Oh! He is still sleeping. We stayed up until very late so I'm making breakfast to wake him up. You know that when he smells food, he's up in less than you could say ghost." Maddie explained not looking up from her work.
"Oh? What are you cooking?" Danny asked, like his father he liked a good breakfast, but he was also wary of his mom's tendency of mutating their food when left unsupervised by either of the Fenton kids.
"Just a new oatmeal recipe I want to try in the microwave. Jazz wanted to have cereal but I don't think it's a very healthy choice of breakfast for growing teenagers." Maddie said.
Now Danny understood why Jazz seemed so angry, oatmeal was fine but the ecto-powered microwave tended to mutate everything that wasn't in liquid form. Most of the mutated food screamed very loudly before exploding in inedible goop and the few that could keep whole tended to grow eyes, sharp teeth and a tendency to attack them or escape.
"Uh… are you sure you want to use the microwave?" Danny asked hoping she would remember all of the incidents.
"Of course! I've been working on it with your father all night and I'm sure this time the new filter is enough to avoid contamination." Maddie said oblivious that that hadn't reassured her children at all.
"Now Danny could you put these under two minutes?" Maddie asked her son while giving him the small bowls with the uncooked oatmeal in them.
"Sure." Danny said forcing a smile, he didn't trust that machine at all.
Everything was normal when he put the oatmeal inside and closed the door, then the expected weird things happened. When Danny tried to put the time, a small green electric bolt passed between his finger and the microwave, Danny only had time to put his finger away, surprised by the sudden zap. Before he could think about it the microwave started to act weirdly, all the lights turned on, the numbers on the clock changed rapidly and the alarms sounded without reason, it only lasted for thirty seconds before it gave various sparks and fell silent.
"That's weird." Maddie frowned and started to examine the machine.
"Yea…" Danny said distractedly while nursing his finger. He was confused that it broke just when he touched it, but he was also glad that now they were free of mutated food for a while.
"Danny are you ok?" Jazz asked, noticing how he was holding his finger.
"Yes, I'm fine." Danny reassured her.
"Well, we'll have to eat the cereal now, the microwave broke and it will take me awhile to fix it," Maddie said while searching for the cereal box," besides a little more sleep will be good for Jack."
Jazz and Danny celebrated doing a silent high five at their mother's back. The prospect of normal food was always received with a brief celebration by the Fenton children ever since they were in kindergarten and more after the Christmas when the turkey came to life.
After breakfast Jazz offered to give Danny a ride to school, which he readily accepted, it has been awhile since he could talk freely with his sister. Once in the car they talked about school, things in which Danny could improve and about ghosts, specially Danny's adoptive ghost family.
Danny told Jazz about their new official cousin, of how Elle was adopted by Nocturne and when he visited her. The dream realm was strange but cool, especially the night sky, he also told her how Elle decorated her room, the walls were covered by thousands of pictures of every place she had ever visited, there were some shelves with figurines of a lot of different cultures, she had also some books to learn different languages. Traveling it was to her like space was to Danny.
He also told her how his training with Pandora was progressing, now he could understand Greek almost like a native and his training with weapons was improving. His sword skills had increased a lot, hard not to do it when your trainer uses four swords at once against you. That night pandora was going to start teaching him to fight with spears, last time she had showed him some expert moves he could do at the end of his spear training, he was really looking forwards it.
"Well here we are" Jazz said when they stopped at the parking lot of the school, "have fun little brother."
"Ha ha! Your jokes are improving sis." Danny said sarcastically while getting off the car, he waved at her and went towards the entrance.
Once inside the school Danny meet with his friends and they made their way to their first class, unfortunately it was English with Mr. Lancer. They have been studying Greek mythology but to Danny it was a waste of time. Most of the myths were inspired by ghosts and being the son and nephew from some of them made him learn the truth behind the myths, which many were greatly inaccurate. Pandora hated that her myth made her being remembered like a weak child, Nocturne didn't care much for his and Clockwork was amused.
"Good morning class." Mr. Lacer greeted the students not getting much response, normal thing for teens in a Friday before noon.
"Today we'll continue with mythological literature with a myth about the cycle of life" Mr. Lancer said while writing in the dashboard some Greek letters.
For the majority of the class those letters were gibberish, but for Danny it was pretty clear. At reading it Danny couldn't help but snorting at what was written.
"Is there a problem Mr. Fenton?" Mr. lancer asked at hearing Danny.
"No Mr. Lancer" Danny responded trying to not laugh in his teacher's face, after all is not every day that your most serious teacher writes 'bungus is life' in the board.
When Lancer wasn't looking, he told his friends about it and they had a hard time not bursting in a laughing fit. Holding his laughter Danny reached for his cellphone to take a picture of it, he was sure his mama would find it funny. When he took it, he noticed that his battery was way lower that he remembered. After a few more periods it was the lunch break and the three friends were making their way towards the cafeteria.
"Ha ha ha! I still can't believe he wrote that" Tucker laughed holding his middle.
"I can't believe he tried to write in a dead language" Sam said trying to not smile but failing miserably, "he was probably trying to be cool again."
"I propose we empower that phrase, bungus is life will be ours now" Danny said grinning.
"Agreed" Sam and Tucker said at the same time grinning alongside Danny.
Once in the cafeteria Danny and Tucker made the queue to get their food, while Sam, that always brought her own vegan food went to look for a table. Tucker took their food and Danny went to the soda machine to buy something to drink for the three of them but when he touched it to see what drinks he wanted his hand received a brief shock, making him jump a little and retracted his hand. Next thing he knows, the machine turned on all the lights and dropped off all of its contents onto the floor. All the students that saw the free drinks on the floor happily lunged for them, Danny quickly took three sodas and dodged people on his way to the table.
"What just happened there?" Sam asked curious about the chaos near the soda machine.
"Uh… I don't know. I just touched the thing, it gave me a shock and the next thing I know there are all the drinks everywhere." Danny explained.
"Weird. Do you think it was a ghost? maybe Technus?" Tucker asked worried for his precious technology.
"I don't think so, my ghost sense didn't go off, so there isn't any ghost near right now." Danny said.
"Or maybe it finally broke and the school will finally replace that old thing." Sam suggested.
"Yea makes sense" Danny said convinced by Sam.
Nothing major happened after that and school went normally, when the teachers knew about the machine it was too late, no soda was spared from the thirsty teenagers, the only thing remain was a useless machine and a lot of empty sodas. Danny was worried for a few moments that there really was a ghost in the school, but after nothing happened, he passed the school day without too much worry. The only weird thing he could recall was that before leaving school the battery in his cellphone was recharged, he didn't remember having doing that and assumed that Tucker noticed and did it.
The rest of his day was as normal as he could get, he fought Skulker, the Box Ghost, Johnny because he had another fight with Kitty and played some with Youngblood. The only thing that annoyed him was that every time he touched something made of metal, he got a little shock, apparently, he had a lot of static electricity. Later that night Danny made his way towards Athens, looking forwards his training, he was so excited that he left before his usual hour while telling his parents that he was going to spend the night at Tucker's.
"Hi mama!" Danny greeted Pandora when he found her at the study room, just before hugging her.
"Hello my son. How have your day been?" Pandora asked while returning the hug.
"All normal, though I got lucky to have a normal breakfast today" Danny said
"Hmm… I'm assuming you are staying for dinner?" Pandora asked noticing how early he was that night.
"Yup, and I'm not expected home tonight so I can stay all night and even morning" Danny said exited.
"Excellent! Now come I'm sure Behemoth wants to see you. We'll have dinner in an hour and then we'll train with the spears." Pandora said and was amused by the scream of joy Danny gave.
They went to the garden towards Behemoth's shelter where the great beast was taking a nap. He woke up at hearing the voice of his friend and rushed to greet him with the usual tackle hug that knocked Danny down and made Pandora chuckle a bit. They played hide and seek for a while with Behemoth in the forest near the labyrinth, Danny was the best at hiding but Pandora and Behemoth were good seekers. After an hour they ended the game in a tide.
After the game they went to dinner at the palace, when they reached the kitchen Pandora started to cook some fish and meats. Danny helped her and at the end they had seasoned fish and a stew with lentil and meat, accompanied with bread, some cheese and wine, Danny was glad the alcohol didn't affect him. While eating Danny told her how his day was and pandora told him the most recent news of the kingdom. After dinner they went to the training field where Pandora has been teaching Danny how to wield the sword.
The training grounds looked like a gym but the size of an Olympic stadium. It was divided in sectors, some places had targets to practice archery, other had big rocks where ghosts can test the maces and different areas were they could train with a specific weapon. In the day it was always full with warriors of Pandora's army training and spectators, but at night it was almost empty. There were some ghosts still training and Danny was glad that there weren't spectators, he didn't want to injury someone accidentally like the time when he learned how to control his ice powers.
"Ready to start with the spears?" Pandora asked beaming, the spear was her favorite weapon and she wanted to teach all the tricks to her son.
"Yes!" Danny said enthusiastically, after having learned how to wield two swords like an expert he wanted to learn new things.
"Alright, first thing to learn is how to grab it…" Pandora started the lesson while giving Danny one of the spears. It didn't take too long for him to assimilate the posture.
"Good now as you can imagine the spear can be used as a shaft but before getting into that you'll learn to use the spike. Now watch closely." Pandora said before demonstrating the technique, she showed him the steady position and stabbed the air in front of her letting him to copy her movements.
Danny started slowly but quickly catch out how to do it and soon enough he was following her movements almost the same way. After some time of practicing he felt a tingling sensation run through his arms but thought nothing of it until he stabbed the air like all the other times. Unlike previously when nothing would happen, this time a huge bolt of lightning appeared from the spike, directed towards Pandora.
At the beginning Danny was scared that he hurt his mama but was relieved and shocked at what he saw, Pandora took head on the lightning and redirected it away from her with minimal effort. He was awed at how cool she looked doing that, though he was confused by the concern in her face when she approached.
"Danny are you alright? Are you feeling any pain?" Pandora asked worried while examining him.
"Yes, I'm fine" Danny mumbled while feeling for something wrong in his body, "but my fingers are tickling now."
"Really? That's all? No burning in your arms or fingers?" Pandora asked, she wanted to be sure her son was fine.
"Yes really" Danny said but at seeing she was still concerned he removed his gloves and pushed up his sleeves showing his uninjured bare arms and countless scars with the most prominent being an old electric burn in his left arm.
"See, nothing to worry about" Danny smiled.
"That's good, but I'm still worried, last I knew ice core ghost can't make lighting like that." Pandora said still holding Danny's hands.
"Uh, now that you mention it, that was the first time I created lighting. Before it was just the ghost stinger" Danny said.
"Hmmm that's strange, usually only lighting cores and some fire and air cores are able to use electricity" Pandora explained.
"Do you think there's something wrong with my core?" Danny asked worried.
"I'm not certain, I'm not a core expert. We should ask a ghost that knows about them" Pandora said.
"What about Frostbite?" Danny suggested.
"The leader of the Far Frozen? Are you sure he can help us?" Pandora asked.
"Yea! I'm sure he can tell us what's happening with my core, he and the other doctors where the ones that saved me from freezing over when my ice core activated. Maybe they can see if there is something different this time." Danny said.
"Hmm yes, it's a good idea. There are rumors that they have the best medical facilities of the Zone" Pandora contemplated.
"For what I saw they were more advanced than the ones in the Living World" Danny said.
"Alright, let's go now. The faster we got this sorted the better, besides it's been awhile since I've had any contact with the tribe" Pandora said and Danny nodded in agreement.
Before making their way to the ice realm Pandora got warmer clothes to wear and a fur lined royal blue coat. She decided to leave her helmet behind, after all this was more of a social visit, with that in mind she made a fast braid of her pink flame hair and left her realm with her son.
The journey went without problems and Danny spend the time talking about his friends of the Far Frozen. When they reached the ice kingdom it didn't take long for the yeti like ghosts to receive them.
"Great one!" Frostbite exclaimed opening his arms.
"Frostbite!" Danny yelled and flew to the ghost to give him a hug, the ice king returning it and making Danny disappear in all the fluff.
"Greetings King Frostbite, it has been a while since we last saw" Pandora greeted formally the yeti.
"Hello Queen Pandora, it's an honor to have you here. Thought I must tell I didn't expect a visit from you and the Great One" Frostbite said.
"Oh right! I couldn't tell you before! Pandora adopted me!" Danny exclaimed smiling.
"This are fantastic news Great One! We have to celebrate it with a feast!" Frostbite proclaimed.
"And we will gladly stay but we came with another reason than bringing news" Pandora said.
"Oh? What can we do to assist you then?" Frostbite asked.
"I want to do a core check in Danny" Pandora requested.
"Yes, we can do it. Please come with me" Frostbite said while leading them towards the medical facilities while putting Danny on his shoulder.
The half ghost chatted happily with the yeti from his perch, Pandora followed behind with a fond smile adorning her face, it made her happy to see her son enjoy himself with his friend. They went through a series of caverns until they reached one with a huge door with a red plus symbol in it.
"Here we are" Frostbite said while opening the door. Inside there was medical equipment so advanced that resembled a futuristic science fiction scene. Some yeti doctors were working near the machines, unlike the other yetis they didn't wear togas, instead they were dressed in some kind of white robe, similar to the ones that Danny's parents wear in the lab but looking more ancient.
Once inside they were approached by Glacius, the head doctor of the Far Frozen. Danny recognized her because she was the one that helped him, besides Frostbite, when his ice core activated.
"hello Great One, I hope you have been in good health" Glacius greeted him.
"Hi Glacius and yes I've been well" Danny said, "Glacius I want to present you my mom Pandora, she adopted me a few weeks ago."
"it's an honor to meet you Queen Pandora" Glacius said bowing at Pandora.
"Likewise doctor Glacius, Danny has told me a lot about you and how you helped him with his powers in the past" Pandora said.
"It was my pleasure to aid the Great One" Glacius said.
"It's good to hear that" Pandora smiled, "but I'll need to ask for your services once more doctor."
"Alright, what seems to be the problem?" Glacius asked.
Pandora tells her about what happened when they trained and requested that they check if Danny's core is in good health. Glacius nods at the explanation and leaded Danny towards a machine that looked like the tank where he was de-frozen, but with more lights and without the strange liquid.
"What does it do?" Danny asked Glacius while looking at the machine.
"It does a deeper scan of your core than the one we did when your ice core awakened" Glacius explained while making the half ghost stand in it.
Danny stood in the circular machine, glad that he didn't have to undress this time. The inside was covered with sleek metal and some portions of glass where Danny guessed the scanners were located, he was proven correct when Glacius turned it on and blue lights from the multiple scanners appeared. Danny stood still for about 30 minutes, sometimes he felt that the pressure around him raised like going underwater and other times he felt so light that if he made any movement gravity would not work anymore.
"Alright, it's over now. You can get out of it Great One. Your results will be ready in an hour or so" Glacius informed.
"Excellent! Come, we can wait for the results in the crystal chamber" Frostbite exclaimed.
Danny and Pandora followed the ice king into a huge cavern that was used like a public park by the Far Frozen. It was full of open spaces, soft snow perfect for a snowball fight, benches and one could find big sculptures made of ice scattered in a hard to find pattern.
The local artists had a practice that once a month they put a performance to the public of their mastery over ice by creating detailed sculptures of various themes. Of the hundreds of art pieces, the audience voted for the best ones and those were left to be enjoyed by all, until the next month when the sculptures are dismantled and new ones are made.
The two ghosts and a halfa took a seat in a bench near a statue of a giant bird taking flight that wasn't very far of the entrance.
"It's good to see you again Great One. Hopefully the results will clear this mystery about that electric power" Frostbite said cheerfully.
"Thanks Frostbite, I'm sure the docs will find out. I'm not really worried but is very annoying to have to wait." Danny was impatient to know.
"I'm sure we'll know soon" Pandora said while petting Danny head trying to calm him down, "Oh! Would you like to hear the story of how Frostbite and I met?"
"Ha ha! I still remember that time, it was glorious!" Frostbite exclaimed.
"Really?" Danny said, all his attention focused in the yeti.
"Oh yes Great One! It was one of our hardest battles…" Frostbite started to narrate the tale of how the Far Frozen were in war with their longtime enemies, the Fire Tongues, a species of fire lizards that's been at odds with the yetis for a long time. He told of the alliance they made with Athens after an attack from the Fire Tongues to the Greek merchants, "…and then there she was, the queen of Athens and their best warrior. We fought side by side in many battles, she kept our enemies at bay with her lightning while we attacked with our ice. At the end the Fire Tongues couldn't handle our combined power and surrender."
"Wow! That was so cool!" Danny exclaimed making Frostbite smile in pride, he always enjoyed the reactions of a good story told.
"Indeed, we've been allies seems then" Pandora said.
"This was a great story but, what time is it? Wouldn't the results of my core have been done already?" Danny asked, he really wanted to know.
"Maybe they are. Let's go and check" Frostbite suggested.
They left the public snow park and went again to the medical facility. Danny was catching a ride in Frostbite shoulders, he loved doing that ever since the first time he met the yeti.
"Oh! There you are. I was just going to send someone to look for you" Glacius said, she had various papers so full of medical lingo that Danny didn't even try to read.
"Well we are here now. What does it say about my core?" Danny asked slightly bouncing in Frostbite's shoulder.
"Patience Great One, I'm getting there." Glacius laughed, "The results show that you and your core are in perfect health." This calmed most of Pandora's worries, "We thought the dual element was strange so after some extensive studios we concluded that you don't have and ice core or an electric core."
"I don't?" Danny asked tiling his head, confused.
"No, you actually have an adaptable core. One of the rarest types of core of the Ghost Zone" Glacius informed.
"A what core?" Danny asked still confused.
"An adaptable core, Great One, is the one that will make you show powers that adapts at any situation" Frostbite explained, "like when you first showed your ice powers you just had an opponent with weakness to ice"
"Yea Overgrowth didn't stand a chance" Danny mused.
"Exactly! Now when you have been training with your mother, your core had been adapting to the energies she gave do to her own electric core. That made yours learn how to produce your own electricity" Glacius explained, "So now you have ice and electric powers with the possibility of getting more depending of the situations you will be"
"Oh, wow!" Danny exclaimed in awe, he never though his multiple powers were the result of his core.
"This is great!" Pandora exclaimed with a huge grin, "I can teach you so much about electric powers. I can show you how to make a lighting whip, put electricity in your sword, redirect storm lighting… Oh! It's going to be so much fun!"
"I can really learn all that?!" Danny asked amazed at how versatile this new power was.
"Yes! And more" Pandora answered very enthusiastic.
"Hmm… I wonder if you can combine ice and electricity for an attack" Frostbite mused while putting Danny back on the floor.
"You'll have to experiment later. Now you have to let your core and body adapt to this new energy, otherwise you could get hurt" Glacius proclaimed
"Of course, doctor. I'll keep an eye out of it" Pandora promised, she wasn't going to let her son hurt himself under her tutoring.
"Good. Now if you excuse me I have other patients to attend. May your health be optimal Great One" Glacius bowed before leaving.
"Bye Glacius!" Danny said yawning.
"It seems that we been here for too long. Thank you for your hospitality King Frostbite, we have to see each other more often" Pandora said.
"I agree Queen Pandora. Hopefully our reunion will be in better circumstances" Frostbite responded.
"Yea! Well next time we come you better teach me how to make a denser ice, mine breaks too easily" Danny said.
"Ha ha! of course Great One" Frostbite laughed.
Danny and Pandora said their farewells and made their way back to Athens. While traveling Danny almost falls asleep three times, making Pandora take the decision of carrying him. Once in the city pandora took him into his bed, she tucked him in and went to her own room. She couldn't wait to teach Danny everything she knew about welding electricity, it felt like their family bond was growing and that was wonderful.
