Thank you once again. I am grateful to everyone who has shown support for this story by reading, reviewing, and putting this story and me on your assorted lists. Today is my birthday, so I give everyone a piece of chocolate birthday cake and fresh milk.

Kung-fu Blaziken gets an extra scoop of ice cream for being the author of the 100th review. Thank you again.

Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or The X-Men.


Chapter 9

The fact that it was after 11pm didn't phase any of the Fentons or the two teachers as they sat and processed all that was revealed.

Maddie gathered her thoughts and was the first to share them. "Danny, love, how long have you been a half-ghost, and how did that happen? Or, how long have you been hiding this from us?"

Danny sat straighter and made himself a bit more comfortable. "You remember when you first plugged in the Fenton Portal? You showed us all your blue prints and schematics, and stuff. I don't pretend to understand the technical details of why it was supposed to work, but I remember thinking about how cool it would be to explore the portal to a new, unknown dimension. You and Dad were so dispirited when it didn't work, Jazz suggested you give yourselves a break and do something for just the two of you."

The senior Fentons and Jazz nodded. It was a sad but memorable event. Even so, no one commented, as they waited to hear how Danny's story answered any of his mother's questions.

Danny continued. "Well, Sam and Tucker were over, and we talked about what a bummer it was that the Portal didn't work. I think Sam suggested coming down to the lab just to see it."

Danny closed his eyes, took a breath, and opened his eyes. "Anyway… well, I can't remember if it was a dare or a general suggestion, but I do remember thinking about checking it out from the inside. As you can see from my ghostly, uh, uniform, I did take precautions…"

Jack narrowed his eyes in thought. "My jumpsuits have always been orange, and your mother's are blue… At the time, the only haz-mat suits that might have fit you were white…"

"With an emblem of your face on them. Right," Danny confirmed. "And black gloves, and whatnot." He smiled. "Sam tore off your patch, but… properly suited up, I went in to check it out. It was dark inside, and the floor had more give than I was used to, so I ran my hand along the wall for balance."

Danny shook his head. "Dad, you put the on/off toggle buttons on the inside, halfway between the opening and the back wall."

As the realization of what had to have happened came to them, Jack's jaw fell open, and Maddie cried, "Oh, Danny! My poor baby! So, what happened?"

"I was shocked by an electric charge like you wouldn't believe at the same time as the green swirls of ectoplasm from the Ghost Zone hit me."

Jazz hugged him. Out of all the older Fentons, Jazz knew Danny's secret the longest, but not even she knew the gory details until now.

"Sam and Tucker said I was unconscious for only a few minutes, but when I fell out of the portal, I looked like this." Danny gave a mirthless laugh. "I remember that Sam and Tucker stared wide-eyed and told me to look in the mirror. Like you see, everything except my eyes was almost like a photo negative: everything black turned white, and everything white turned black. Besides partially thinking about how cool this was, I remember panicking and shouting, 'My parents are gonna kill me!' I willed myself to look like normal, and I was surprised when the bluish-white rings you saw appeared around my middle, moved in opposite directions, and completed the transformation."

Jack and Maddie nodded, dumbfounded. Charles pursed his lips, and then said, "That is positive confirmation of what I suspected when I introduced my hypothesis at the symposium."

Maddie hugged Danny. "Oh, Danny! So that explains when and how you became a ghost. But tell me about your powers."

Danny cut his eyes to the ceiling as he thought of how to explain this. Ah. He figured it out. "Remember when I stayed in bed for a week and then had my monumental bout of clumsiness? That was 'cause I was trying to get some control of my powers. The transformation and the three basics were the hardest to master. After the first three days, I got better at transforming at will, but when I use too much energy, I transform to my human form, whether I want to or not. That still happens, but I have a lot more stamina now. The invisibility and flight (and the adoption of my tail, when I want it) I got down by the end of the third day. But my intangibility took a month and a half for me to master. That… caused some of my most embarrassing moments."

Jazz nodded. "When I spoke to Mr. Lancer during the Spectra/School Spirit debacle, he told me about why you've been banned from handling glass and delicate equipment in any present or future science classes in Casper High."

Danny squirmed. "Yeah." If no one else mentioned his pants falling down or the whole dragon thing, he wasn't going to bring it up.

Hank's eyebrows shot up. Charles covered his mouth with a hand before he murmured, "Oh, dear. That has been known to happen. I trust you've since gained control and have moved beyond that."

Danny grimaced. "Of course I have. But… um, whenever I discover a new power, it takes me a while to get used to it."

Jack frowned. "How many powers do you have?"

Danny closed his eyes and put a hand on his forehead. "I don't know. I use them as I need them and remember them. Sam and Tucker have helped me train. They've been keeping track of all my stats: my vitals, speed, and general power intensity."

Maddie frowned. "You have been spending a lot of time with them."

"Mom, sometimes, they are the only reason I can stay sane. Well, such as it is."

"Danny, I don't like the sound of that."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Yeah, well…"

"Don't you take that tone with me, young man. Now that I know you're okay, you have some serious questions to answer. Like why you tried to kidnap the mayor."

To both of the senior Fentons' surprise, Danny started to laugh. "You guys have no idea how long I've wanted to explain all of that. Do you remember… well, of course you remember. Well, that massive ghost invasion that ended shortly after… that incident with the mayor…"

He blew a breath. "Ya see, I managed to annoy a corrupt ghost sheriff in the Ghost Zone – long story for another time – and he decided to get his revenge on me by destroying my reputation in the Real World. Obviously, it worked. Mayor Montez was, at the moment I was draped over him, overshadowed by Walker, that corrupt sheriff ghost I just mentioned. I couldn't break free of his hold as he 'called for help.' I don't know if you saw, but once we were inside… With a quick ectoblast, I got Walker out of the mayor."

Maddie recoiled as if she was struck. "Oh, Danny! We were so mad at the Ghost Boy... ah… for so long, and if we would have asked, this would have been resolved so much sooner."

Danny smiled wryly. "That can happen when you have a policy of 'Shoot first, ask questions never.' You're not the only ones. I'm kind of used to it."

Maddie sighed. "You shouldn't have to be, sweetie."

Before Danny could respond, Jack said, "So why did you shoot at us?"

Danny sighed. "Dad, that day, I had to deal with all kinds of people being overshadowed. And it's not like anyone actually looks or sounds different. When overshadowed, people act different when the ghost is in control of them. But besides that, I sensed it; see, I have a 'ghost sense,' which is like a ghost detector. With so many ghosts around during the invasion, my ghost sense was going crazy. Since everyone in town was acting, I don't know, not themselves that day, I kind of thought you and Mom were overshadowed, too. When Mom got mad, I realized that I made a mistake."

Maddie hugged her son. "Now that you explained that… It must have been so hard for you."

"Thanks for trying to understand, Mom."

It wasn't until they released their hug that Maddie frowned again. "And what about that crime spree around the time of that awful Circus Gothica?"

Danny screwed up his face in remembered pain and guilt. "Yeah, about that…" He rubbed the back of his neck with a hand.

That struck an odd image in Maddie's head – the brave and cocky Ghost Boy was rubbing his neck the way she was used to seeing her son do so when he was nervous. The fact that they were one and the same still threw her through a loop, but watching this familiar gesture happen in a form she didn't associate with human emotions almost made her giggle. She restrained it valiantly, as her Danny became more distressed as he settled in to answer her question.

"Freakshow was… This is hard for me to explain. See, the Showenhowers have run Circus Gothica for generations. The reason it was so successful for so long is that they had a staff with a crystal ball. With that, they were able to control the minds of ghosts, enslaving them until they were released from the spell."

Charles jerked his head. "Oh, Danny. Forgive me - I hadn't realized…"

Danny waved his hand. "No harm done, Professor."

Neither of the Fenton parents paid attention to the possible implications of the professor's seemingly incongruous apology. Dr. McCoy felt fairly certain that he knew why it was proffered. Jazz simply nodded in acknowledgement.

"But Freakshow, on the other hand…" Danny covered his face with both hands before he removed them to continue. "It's bad enough that he enslaved us. But that's not all. Freakshow decided that a circus of ghosts performing at his whim wasn't lucrative enough. No – he set his captive ghosts on the crime spree.

"My first involvement was stopping a heist from a jewelry store before the Circus Gothica train rolled in."

Jack said, "That's right. The news said that the police reported that they saw you at the scene of the crime."

"Yeah, they did. I wonder if the news reported that, at that time, nothing was stolen. The glass display cases were smashed during the fight I had with the enslaved ghosts, but all the jewelry was accounted for. We all disappeared once the police showed up."

Maddie shook her head. "So why did you skip school to go to that… you were there at the train for the show's premier."

Danny sighed again. This was truly painful. "I was on my way to school when the band of ghosts – and I don't blame them. They were trapped and forced to act against their will. Well, they were in the middle of robbing a bank. I managed to get some of the money away from them, breaking the windshield of a police car in the process…"

Jazz piped up, "Oh, Danny! You never seem to be able to catch a break!"

Danny gave a half-smile. "Well… sometimes. But the thing is, just following them made me late for school. I didn't know about the spell yet, and I chased after those ghosts, fully intending to capture them in the Fenton Thermos…"

"But it doesn't work!" Jack exclaimed.

Jazz looked away, embarrassed. She knew exactly how well it worked, particularly on her brother.

Danny stared at his father. "Oh, it works alright. I've been using it to capture rogue ghosts since you threw it and hit me on the head with it when the Lunch Lady ghost caused havoc in Casper High."

Jack beamed. "I knew it! It works!" Maddie rolled her eyes at her husband's antics.

"And having been on the inside of it, I can personally attest to the fact that it is seriously effective. But back to the Freakshow thing… I chased them back to Circus Gothica, and with his staff in hand, Freakshow said something about letting our dark side show, and displaying our true identities, or something.

"It gets complicated, but the thing is, everyone knows that Danny Phantom is a seriously powerful ghost. Freakshow – like everyone else – didn't realize that by controlling me as a ghost, he was messing up my human life. But…" His face fell, and he shut his eyes against the emotional pain. "He used me as a tool. He had me lead those crime sprees, and torture the other ghosts if they didn't move fast enough. He… he made me do a lot of bad stuff. I tried to fight it, I really did. Because of him, I almost killed Sam – twice."

"Oh, honey!" Maddie hugged him comfortingly again.

Since his accident, they seemed to be more distant, and she felt like all these hugs were beginning to make up for lost time. However, she was sad that getting close came at the cost of Danny having to expose some of the most dreadful, stressful moments of his life.

Danny allowed himself to be comforted. "In one of the struggles, the staff fell, and the crystal was shattered, and we were freed. I was back to as close to normal as I ever get, and we came back to the Mansons to serve our detention/ grounding/ whatever else you called it."

Maddie shook her head. "I get the feeling that the more we talk about your exploits, the more we'll see how badly we've misjudged you as a ghost. While I am curious and want to know more, it is getting ridiculously late. Professor Xavier, Dr. McCoy, could we put you up for the night?"

Charles smiled. "Thank you for your bountiful generosity, Mrs. Fenton. Henry and I would be glad to stay."

He thought, 'Then there is the matter of discussing Danny coming to our school, but that can wait for morning.'