"Whoa, whoa, whoa," Kwan cried out and frantically waved his arms, taking a step backwards. "I only asked what exactly I volunteered for, not that I wanted to volunteer. I mean, not everybody becomes a ghost," Kwan said, mind straining to remember everything he ever learned about ectoplasm and ghosts lest he become shish-kebab. The concealed weapon the skeleton carried looked dangerous. "If I volunteer, and that's a very big if, by the way, there's no guarantee I'll even turn into a ghost."
Keeping them talking, stalling, still stalling, that was the only thing Kwan could come up with at the moment. Danny had to have transformed by now. Maybe he hung around invisibly, getting ready to take on yellow-eye and scatter their ranks.
"Oh human, there are so many ways to turn into a ghost," the skeleton said and did a horrible thing where he laughed by clacking the bones of his jaw together. "The GLF can guide you along the path. We can make you so much more than merely revolting flesh and life."
"Why do you hate live humans? You're alive as well," Kwan blurted out and promptly wished he hadn't. The blue flames inside the skeleton's eyes burnt a sickly orange for a few seconds and a hiss of disgust passed all around him as the ghosts reacted to Kwan's statement. Any moment now he expected to see the handle of the concealed weapon protruding from his body, but the skeleton held back. A shiver nonetheless passed over Kwan's body as he realized he could very well talk himself into death with this bunch of ghosts around.
"You... say that with such... conviction," the skeleton slowly said. "Explain yourself."
Getting put on the spot wasn't a good position for Kwan to be in. He had been trained to deal with all kinds of situations, but he preferred to be a background character to many situations. Thinking on the feet was best left to Danny. But now Kwan's life truly hung in the balance for the first time in his existence when he was able to do something about it. Technus' attack had been too overwhelming to even begin an assault against and whenever Danny flew Kwan somewhere he trusted the half-ghost not to crash.
Kwan squared his shoulders and lifted his chin up, staring straight at the blue flames. "Ectoplasm itself is alive. It feeds, it procreates, it can contain itself, it adapts. Your, ah, souls may be... deceased, but the stuff you're made of is alive. So if you hate live humans or anything living, ipso facto, you hate yourself."
Never before in his life did Kwan wish so hard for a pair of sunglasses he could don. He knew his little speech wouldn't convince the ghosts to give up their obsessions since being a ghost was all about obsession. Still, he could stall some more, if he didn't get outright murdered for his probably wrong usage of Latin and his theory on living ectoplasm. But it still felt damn good to stand up to these bullies. He spotted some ghosts looking uncertain and resisted the urge to smirk. The courtroom soaps Dash made him watch came in handy sometimes.
Skeleton ghost just looked pissed off, along with yellow-eye. The commander hovered closer to the pair, his voice a tad louder in volume to intimidate.
"Like the human said, you won't have to die to become a ghost and join our ranks! You only shed your filthy body and grasp your beautiful soul, you'll become so much more powerful, smarter, stronger. You no longer have to obey the laws of physics."
'He's good,' Kwan's mental voice said, giving two thumbs up.
Kwan felt his stomach grow cold at this reply. Yellow-eye could twist arguments against his beliefs to his advantage within seconds. Maybe he'd been a cult leader or a twisted psychologist in his previous life.
"Do you have an explanation for that?" Yellow-eye asked in a challenging tone. His eyes glowed brighter and Kwan felt his life expectancy shorten even more. "Living things stay ground-bound, gravity always pulls at your bones."
The skeleton opened his jaw to say something but yellow-eye waved a hand. "Not yours, Servius."
'Gravity is the weakest force,' his mind came up with as a response, but his self-preservation instinct kept him from immediately voicing it. By now it was clear that Danny had gotten tangled up in something else, maybe he even got sucked into that giant thermos-like thing and hadn't managed to escape. Kwan hoped that new ghost fighters had risen, otherwise the fifteen humans inside the circles would soon become fifteen ghosts.
'Floating is hardly impressive, anti-gravs were around a hundred years ago,' his internal voice supplied.
"Defying gravity isn't that impressive," Kwan said out loud. "Birds do it as well, and anti-gravs exist."
"Commandant, are we going to continue debating with this imbécile, or are we going to look for a volunteer?" one of the ghosts interrupted. The female ghost had an accent and sported a ridiculously huge nose, along with clothes belonging to a ballroom of Versailles during the 18th century .
"Madame Deuxcheveau is right, our time is better spent on another volunteer and tracking Phantom," Servius summarized. He rejoined the circle up in the air but the tightness in Kwan's chest stayed. He feared he'd left the frying pan.
"Are any other humans willing to take control of their own fate, become more than merely-"
"I'm terribly sorry to interrupt, capitaine, but I smell Phantom nearby," Madame Deuxcheveau said. Her nostrils flared and she inhaled air as if she was about to swim underwater for the next five minutes.
The terrified humans in the circle perked up and strained to spot the ghost. But no matter how hard Kwan looked, he couldn't find his friend.
'So now I'm your friend,' Kwan's mental voice commented. Something was wrong with that thought, but Kwan found it hard to focus on the why.
"Ghosts, stand ready. Remember, he could look like a child or like an adult, but his face always shows Phantom at some time in his life," yellow-eyes warned. Shields were raised and blasts were readied, but still there was no sign of Danny. The lobby stayed silent for ten, twenty seconds. Madame Deuxcheveau flew around, sniffing the air much like a manic terrier. She wavered between tracking the apparent scent down by the huddle of humans and on the right upper wall of the bank, unsure where Phantom was supposed to be. The other ghosts were tense but looked ready to attack and Kwan wished for the first time that Danny didn't show up.
Of course, that was when he soared through the right wall.
XXX
The ghosts were fast to react, but Danny still had the element of surprise, even if Madame Deuxcheveau had accurately predicted his entry point.
The circle of ghosts blasted at the point where Danny had been a second ago while raising their shields. Servius hurled his shield again but this time it shattered a window behind Danny, who had gone intangible.
An elated grin graced his features and in his arms he held glass jars filled to the brim with dirt. He zipped around the circle once before sailing above them, his back scraping the ceiling and his ghostly tail trailing behind him. At the center of the circle he released the many jars cradled in his arms and Kwan saw the labels of the jars flash as they tumbled through the air. The glass contained herbs and salt.
The moment Danny's hands were free he pointed one palm at the circle of humans and aimed an array of blasts at the jars with his other hand. Several things happened at once. A green ghost shield erupted over the humans, barely big enough to cover them. A second later the first of the blasts pierced a jar and powdered herbs shot out as the glass shattered under the ectoplasmic energy. Three more jars shattered and one of the ghosts managed a return blast, tinted an ominous purple. It hit Danny in his side and he got smacked against the ceiling, plaster showering down around him. But he didn't stop firing.
'Ignite, damn you!' the voice screamed and Kwan felt the muscles in his left arm pull as if it was spasming. Involuntarily he half-raised his hand when whatever Danny aimed for happened.
There was a big enough cloud of herbs and salts in the air to ignite.
Kwan ducked instinctively as the insides of the bank lit up in yellow as the herbs exploded. The humans around him didn't have enough time to scream, they just hit the floor as the fireball roared towards them, the heat far outstripping the heat outside. The ghost shield was the only thing protecting them from the worst of it, but the ghosts screamed in pain. The shockwave roared against the green shield but all Kwan heard was a sound as if someone fell in a pile of cushions, a dull whomp. The whomp briefly drowned out the echoing wails but they went on long after the fireball disappeared, leaving only small fires to light the blackened walls, ceiling and floor.
In the aftermath of the explosion Kwan could only gape at the multitude of ghosts writhing in pain in mid-air. Some of them descended to the soot-covered floor where they created twisted snow angels. The green ghost shield dissipated and some humans used the opportunity to make a break for the exit, shrinking the group of fifteen to eight. Others, like Kwan, were too dumbstruck or in shock, unable to beeline to relative safety.
The woman who had held on to Kwan's arm so hard was one of the ones left behind. She screamed in belated mortal terror and sought out a new squeeze toy, thankfully. Kwan searched the ceiling for Danny, but the half-ghost wasn't in view. The sprinkler system finally detected that there was a fire and with a pitiful whoop the fire alarm activated simultaneous with the sprinklers, drenching humans and ghosts alike. Kwan twisted his head away from the water when drops fell into his eyes and he focused on the ghosts lying on the ground instead. Maybe he could do something about them, capture them somehow with the hopefully not too broken thermos system.
Before he could get two feet something seized up in his brain and he couldn't move anymore. His head swiveled upwards against his wishes and he automatically focused on the blurred figure of Phantom hanging near the ceiling. The big white hair was plastered against his head, making him look remarkably small. The sight of ectoplasm dripping from his hurt hand didn't add any confidence either. Until Kwan noticed his eyes.
If Danny had ever turned such eyes on Dash, the bullying would have been over in seconds, never to be picked up again. Kwan was reminded that Danny had been fighting undead beings for more than half his life, and a small circle of cultist ghosts were no match for the unbridled protecting fury which always surrounded the half-ghost.
'Hell yeah,' the voice in his head cried. Kwan had a suspicion what was going on and it got confirmed when his hand got lifted by the voice and a clear ghost ray burst out, targeting the momentarily dazed yellow-eye. An icy-blue blast hit the commanding ghost at the same time, stemming from Phantom. The water helped freeze the ghost and the ice spread out, jumping from ghost to ghost.
There were, however, ghosts still floating in the air. The original twenty-one had dwindled down to fourteen. Some of them nursed injuries from either the fireball or the herbs, but they could still fight. Two more had gotten caught by Danny's ice blast, but the others hid behind their shields. Kwan had seen Phantom use ice before to take down enemies, but this time the blast bounced off the shield.
'That's not possible,' Danny said inside Kwan's head, and Phantom again tried to take them down through frozen water, but once more the blast didn't get past the shield.
They knew you were here, Danny, maybe they've prepared themselves, Kwan suggested. Hell, they're here especially for you.
'That makes me feel so special,' Danny said at a flat tone.
"Regroup!" Servius called. He had picked up a new shield from a fallen ghost and had used it to ward off the blasts. With yellow-eye momentarily incapacitated he assumed control and the ghosts listened to him. "Target him, fire!"
Phantom scrambled to get out of the way of the blasts in time. He didn't quite manage and erected a small ghost shield around himself to ward off the blasts. They ricocheted into the walls and ceiling, blackening them even more. The azure ceiling had by now completely given way to black and Kwan could no longer see what the mosaic on the floor was supposed to be.
"Acmon, left! Pugdala, right!"
Two ghosts broke from the circle and stretched their hands out. The left one was dressed in garish colors as if it stumbled through a wardrobe with glue on his body and he had a magnificent white beard which stood at odds against his blue skin.
'Like a Smurf,' shot through his (Danny's?) head.
The one on the right only had a vaguely humanoid shape. It had four arms and three legs and its skin wavered between yellow and orange, depending on the angle. Scales covered its back and the head was situated on the torso, going by the narrow slits posing as eyes.
Phantom dodged the first blast of air Acmon hurled at him, but the amount of dark matter Pugdala threw at him was too large to dodge. It hit his left leg and Phantom screamed as the darkness curled around his leg and began to dissolve his hazmat suit. Or, it tried to, since Phantom's suit being a hazmat suit meant it offered enough protection against acids. Phantom twisted his legs into his ghostly tail as he dodged another air blast and the dark matter fell off.
'Sorry Kwan, I need backup,' Danny said. Before Kwan could ask what he meant by that both Kwan's arms lifted up and powerful ghost rays emerged, hitting Pugdala and Acmon in the back. They dropped to the floor next to their injured kin.
Servius finally seemed to notice that the ghost rays came from two places at once and he took action. Kwan felt his mind being gripped by the powerful force of Danny and his muscles flung his body sideways without the signals traveling to his brain to ask for permission. He landed awkwardly on his side and rolled out of the way of more blasts Servius sent his way.
'You're too big,' Danny complained inside his head. Kwan was too busy figuring out the next move of the ghosts to talk back. 'Not athletic enough, you're all muscle and not ... stringy.'
Servius charged Kwan and two more ghosts followed his example, prompting Phantom to hit them with snowballs littered with ghost rays. That sent them sailing on a trajectory which ended against the wall but the snowballs had been too weak to do any lasting damage. Kwan felt light-headed, the same sensation he recognized as belonging to flight. Danny lifted them up from the floor, into the air, and more ghost rays escaped his fingers. If flying felt light-headed, ghost rays were streaks of boiling fury. It made his fingers tingle and for a moment Kwan remembered the injustice of a bad referee call.
He wished he could shake his head to clear his thoughts and chase the foreign feelings from his system, but Danny still had power over his movements. Kwan's body shot through the air, heading for the disrupted row of 3d-printers. The explosion had blackened the perspex cube as well but the printers looked unharmed, safe from the fight raging above them and the water coming from the sprinklers. Apart from the printer that got squashed by a shield, of course. Through patches of clear perspex Kwan spotted their printer. The heads had retracted back into the machine and standing gleaming in the small rays of daylight breaking through smoke and debris stood the transformer. It looked ready to be put to good use.
Danny maneuvered Kwan's body through the perspex via intangibility and his hands stretched out to grab the long-sought after item. They wouldn't be able to print a new one, Kwan knew, so this one simply had to work. Before he could grab the transformer Danny's attention got yanked back to the fight.
Servius had once more regrouped and now pelted Phantom with everything his motley group could throw at the half-ghost. The ghosts had various abilities and that translated into one giant mess of blasts, air, acid, pink goo and Kwan even saw one ghost throw shoes. And Phantom couldn't dodge all of them, despite the various methods to his disposal. He separated his upper and lower half, went intangible and turned part of his body into mist, but he still ended up with pink goo in his hair and acid trying its hardest to eat through his glove. He did duck a shoe.
You used to be better at dodging, Kwan observed impartially. Now that he was no longer in control of his body, he felt his mind actually relax. Danny had been in plenty of scrapes and he still (sort of) lived, he could handle this as well. Kwan couldn't do anything about it anyway.
'Usually I haven't duplicated myself and poured three quarters of my power into your body,' came the terse reply. 'I hope I can still do this-'
Kwan felt Danny shift inside his head as more power poured into the duplicate. Phantom inhaled and turned to the attackers, head lowered and fists at his side. He bent forward as he sent a Ghostly Wail towards the ghosts. Before the Wail hit them they hid behind their shields. For some reason the Wail didn't push them that far back, not enough to incapacitate them.
I guess that's why the shields are so layered, to stop your Wail. They really came here prepared with the intention of beating you, Danny, Kwan said, but there came no reply.
Phantom dodged another barrage coming from the ghosts before he could counter-attack. A belated shoe clattered to the floor below Phantom. The half-ghost inhaled deeply, but instead of his Ghostly Wail there came shorter bursts of a sonic attack, aimed directly at the ghosts instead of in their general direction. With the ghosts distracted dodging and shielding themselves from this attack Danny used the opportunity to hit the ghosts once more with rays from below. He stuck intangible hands outside the perspex cube and hit the ghosts. The pink goo-throwing ghost tried to shield herself both from the concentrated Ghostly Wail and the ray and got hit by both instead. The Wail sent her towards the wall but the ray propelled her upwards, so she turned intangible and disappeared through the ceiling.
'I call it my Wailing Pulse,' Danny commented. 'But it's hard to do, so right now there's not much power in your body.'
Can't we just grab the transformer and go? Kwan asked. Or can't I grab the transformer and leave? That way you don't have to duplicate your body anymore.
'As long as the humans are in danger, we can't leave. I don't see any ghost fighters yet either, so we have to keep them busy, or they might end up hurting people,' Danny said not unexpectedly, with his annoying hero complex.
If you leave, the ghosts might follow. They want you, after all, not these humans.
'They want to use them to keep me here,' Danny reasoned. 'If I leave, they'll start hurting them. They're not above that.'
Kwan tried to think of a way to convince Danny to stop overshadowing him and leave with the transformer so the half-ghost could go all-out without endangering Kwan's life, but all of those inside got distracted by a pinprick of green light coming from left of the teller windows. The eye was automatically drawn towards the pinprick as it grew larger and colors seemed to warp next to the pinprick, as if a wet vacuum was set loose behind a recently painted oil painting. The familiar green swirl of the Ghost Zone began to shine through as the hole in reality quickly grew.
'Oh, this is not good, I think,' Danny commented. He sounded uncertain but was kept transfixed. A chilled breath escaped both Kwan's and Phantom's lips. A hand appeared behind the hole. Kwan caught a glimpse of white gloves and a black suit before Danny forced Kwan to look away. In two steps he stood in front of the 3d-printer and he grabbed the transformer, tucking it under one arm. Phantom used the distraction to invisibly lower himself and rejoin his duplicate, or Danny rejoined Phantom, Kwan wasn't sure, he only knew that Danny was once again one person, situated inside his mind.
His body went into a full-body shiver when Danny dove out of Kwan's body. Danny's eyes shone unnaturally bright as he turned around, eyeing the being stepping forth from the portal. Before Kwan could focus on the ghost Danny positioned himself behind Kwan, grabbed his arms and lifted him up, heading towards the nearest wall.
"Keep hold of that transformer," Danny hissed as he turned them intangible and fled the scene.
"What the hell?!" Kwan yelled towards his airlift. The transformer was secure in his arms as the buildings flashed beneath them. Danny was fast, Kwan knew, but this was the first time he truly felt that speed. Nevertheless his voice had been loud enough to penetrate the sound of wind.
"Clockwork's gonna have my ass if I'm ever found in the presence of a future me," Danny yelled back. The opera house shot underneath them and they now flew over open water, invisibility be damned. They were going too fast to be identified anyhow. Danny angled for the avenue where they had exited the ghost zone but overshot, so they came to a jerky stop inside a park which stretched out underneath bridge pillars. The noise coming from the cars heading up the bridge was unpleasant so the park was only occupied by people walking dogs and the occasional jogger. Danny let his ghost form go, hidden in the branches of an overgrown tree. He slid down the trunk and landed next to Kwan, who still clutched the transformer in a white-knuckled grip.
Kwan didn't waste any time with the first question. His body felt warm, hot even, now that the chill of half-death had left him. But that didn't make him feel any less stressed. His heart had had the exercise of its life in the last ten minutes and if he closed his eyes he still saw the fireball racing towards him.
"Who the hell is Clockwork?" he yelled. "And why did you, we, just leave like that? First you were all 'we have to save these people' and the next second you say 'nope' and run like, like, the Box Ghost! And all this because of this guy Clockwork. So. Who is he?"
"Kwan, calm down-" Danny tried, but Kwan interrupted him.
"And why did you overshadow me anyway? I never gave you permission, you just invaded my body to be used as your puppet. You nearly got me killed!"
"I was trying to keep you safe!" Danny replied in an even tone, but to Kwan it just sounded like an excuse. "Remember how I told you about a ghost who controls time? Clockwork is the name of that ghost. And if he gives a warning, you listen to it. He told me to never, ever be in the same room as any future or past version of me."
Ghostly green was back in those blue eyes but this time Kwan wasn't intimidated. It only reminded him of the strange powers this man in front of him possessed, including the power to take over his body. What gave him the right to do that?
"So yeah, I ran," Danny said as he narrowed his eyes. "And I very much want to go back and check to see if everybody is alright and beat that damn yellow-eyed ghost and Servius and god knows what else those ghosts are called, but I can't. Maybe when I was young I would've, but I've seen Clockwork in action. There are some forces of nature you don't argue against."
"But you're-" Kwan began. Danny was suddenly three steps closer and standing on the tips of his toes to minimize the height difference a little. His big hair was back, dried by the whipping wind, adding those extra inches he sorely lacked.
"If your next words were going to be 'Phantom'..." He trailed off. He drew back and took a deep breath. "Listen, Kwan. I had to do something to battle the GLF. I'm sorry that I overshadowed you, but I had to incapacitate some of them if I wanted any chance to win."
"You didn't win," Kwan growled. "They're still out there, with future you fighting them." Kwan put the transformer down as it was getting heavy and he used his freed arms to gesture in the direction of the 3d-bank. "You could've at least stayed around and made sure the other people got out before you bailed. Isn't that what you usually do?"
"This isn't exactly an usual situation. Future me is more than capable of dealing with those ghosts, alright? I can't do any more damage to the timeline than I've already done. I could actually be erased from existence if that happens. And that'll leave Amity Park utterly defenseless. Wanna know what life is like having the town torched by every passing ghost, Kwan? Then make me go back inside that bank and you can find out first-hand!"
Kwan wanted to snap something back, but he recognized the situation. During training they'd dealt with anger management, and this was a classic example of an argument gone wrong. Danny had too much of a temper to deal with this constructively, so it was up to Kwan to defuse the situation.
"Alright, this isn't working," Kwan said. "We'll meet back here in twenty minutes and talk about this like adults." Danny opened his mouth to retort, but Kwan cut him off. "Like professional astronauts, Danny. Remember the anger management training. Twenty minutes."
Danny was clearly unhappy with the situation. His anger made him a good fighter, Kwan had seen that. But right now that anger stood in the way of a good, clean fight. Kwan also wanted to yell at the half-ghost about his tendency to overshadow people willy-nilly, but he knew he could wait. Danny on the other hand still sported the narrow green eyes, the tense shoulders and he took two steps after Kwan as he turned around and walked away.
"Danny, go fly somewhere, clear your head," Kwan said. "We'll meet here soon, like I said."
For some reason Danny flinched but finally looked like he wasn't ready to start the first ghost-human war. Half-ghost-human war, Kwan amended in his mind. Danny scrambled back up the tree and two seconds later a thin shadow flitted across the grass and disappeared.
Kwan lifted the transformer up and walked until he hit the shade of the bridge and collapsed onto the grass, rolling onto his back and latching his hands behind his head. He needed some time to calm down from his brush with death first before he could even begin to deal with the argument he'd just had. Some time to dry his clothes didn't sound half bad either. Yeah, the NASA therapists were going to have a field day with him when all this was over.
XXX
Twenty-three minutes later they met up next to a pillar of the bridge. Kwan sat slumped against it and Danny joined him at a reasonable distance, had they been strangers.
"All of them survived," Danny began the first salvo of the second argument. Wait, Kwan corrected himself, Danny didn't sound angry anymore. Not happy either, but neutral.
"I thought you weren't supposed to go back there," Kwan said, attempting to use the same neutral tone Danny had used.
"I only did a fly-by. Clockwork warned me I should never be in the same room with future me, he didn't say anything about the same city. The police were there and I saw all eight people outside, so they're okay. No sign of ghosts, though."
"I'm glad to hear it," Kwan said. In the past twenty-three minutes he'd gradually calmed down from the adrenalin high and now just wanted to go home as soon as possible. In those minutes he'd checked the transformer for any damage. It looked fine on the outside, no dings or rattling sounds. Which meant that they were one step closer to home. But his only source of transport and protection was a high-strung, half-dead geek who couldn't even-
"Waffle?" Danny asked, holding out a perfect golden-brown square piece of baked dough. Powdered sugar covered the square and parts of Danny's fingers. Kwan accepted it and noticed it was still warm. With some flourish Danny next produced strawberries from a bulging pocket in his jumpsuit. Silently Kwan let Danny spread the fruit over his waffle before devouring it. He hadn't realized how hungry he'd gotten over the course of these past few hours, but finally he noticed the toll this day had taken on his body. Walking around half of Sydney and getting into a life-or-death fight sure awoke his appetite.
Danny scooted a bit closer while eating his own waffle, making it look like they were friends enjoying some peace and a snack to the casual bystander. When they'd both finished they sat in silence for a while. Kwan thought of a hundred ways to start the inevitable conversation, but every time he let the moment whoosh by, content to stare at the water and listen to the sounds of the futuristic cars crossing the bridge overhead.
"Alright, let's do this," Kwan began after he'd thought of what he wanted to say. He turned towards Danny. "Thank you for rescuing me from that situation. I know you did the best you could under the circumstances and in the end everybody's safe. I understand that this Clockwork ghost gave you specific instructions and if you obey those, that ghost has to be incredibly powerful." Danny opened his mouth to say something, but Kwan wasn't done yet. "What I didn't like was the way you sneakily took control of my body. You were inside my head for far longer than I even noticed. I get that you thought it was the best way to keep me safe, but you should've at least announced yourself. Maybe then I could sympathize, but right now I'm just angry that you did it without consent."
Danny looked away as he answered. He clearly remembered the anger management training they'd both been through, because he started off with a compliment. "I appreciate the incredible calm and ... professionalism you've been displaying the past two days, Kwan. I doubt any other person would've rolled with these circumstances like you have." Next he moved on to put the thoughts and especially the feelings inside his head into words. "I feel angry at you for making me feel like I had the ultimate responsibility inside that bank. Like you said, I did the best I could under the circumstances, but... I can always do more."
"If you say 'with great power' I'm leaving to get another waffle until you have purged all of the geek references from your system," Kwan warned with a bit of humor in his tone. Thankfully Danny chuckled and met Kwan's gaze. He departed from the constructive argument script with his next sentence. Danny should have addressed Kwan's major objection to the overshadowing part, but instead he sighed and let his head fall back against the pillar.
"I guess I'm not really angry at you, I'm angry at the situation. Clockwork's warning felt like an excuse to flee the scene to save my, our hides." His head jerked up as he said his next bit. "I am sorry I overshadowed you without announcing myself or even asking first." And finally Kwan got the explanation he had been waiting for why Danny chose that route in the first place. "I had to duplicate myself to get the herbs and keep an eye on the ghosts inside the bank, and you were the logical choice. I could use all of my powers without the, ah, subject going through that cold-withdrawal thing first. And that way I was undetectable to scanners and ghosts with a similar 'warning system' like mine."
"Except for scent, apparently," Kwan said, remembering Madame Deuxcheveau with her big nose. Danny wrinkled his own nose as he smelt the air, mimicking the French mademoiselle.
"Yeah, I hadn't counted on that power. Good thing I had duplicated myself, or the dust explosion surprise would've failed."
That reminded Kwan of something. His eyes trailed down Danny's body until he noticed the bandages on Danny's right hand, the hand that he had sacrificed to keep the ghost shield steady. "How bad is it?" Kwan asked. Danny shrugged and held out his hand, palm up.
"I'll live."
By now Kwan knew that the half-ghost downplayed his injuries, so he tried to give him the look he had seen Sam give Danny to get him to spill. Sadly he lacked the spunk and spirit the Goth seemed to have in spades so he had to resort to words.
"How bad is it really, Danny?"
"Seven butterfly stitches but in the end it's just one more scar."
Danny withdrew the hand and it was Kwan's turn to let his head thump against the pillar. "I get why you chose to overshadow me, I do. But why not announce what your plan was? I could've helped you better, acted earlier, I don't know, distracted a ghost."
"I've had to hide for so long it's become second nature," Danny replied with a shrug. The matter-of-factness of that remark made Kwan realize that Danny was lonely. "I have never fought ghosts with you before and I had no way of knowing how you were going to react. I thought I'd get most of them with the dust explosion and thought that I wouldn't even have to use the duplicate inside your body. Until those ghosts showed a lot of power. You wouldn't have found out, and I could've kept you safe should a stray blast hit you somehow. Win-win."
"Except... it didn't really happen that way," Kwan said softly. Danny grinned back but the expression looked like somebody had taken a mandarin and painted it green, claiming it was an apple.
"It never does. By now I should be used to it, but hope springs eternal."
Kwan didn't know what to reply, so he stayed silent. The brainwave he'd just had regarding Danny's loneliness still spun merrily around inside his head, and this time there was no internal voice to distract him from it. Rationally he knew that Danny was two of a kind, but connecting that to the tired man with a five o'clock shadow took effort. Half his life he'd been an extreme outcast. He had a wife and friends, but at the same time was a, a... superhero. A dead one, but still. Phantom seemed so strong, so secure in his strength. No wonder nobody had linked the two of them together when Danny presented such different masks to the outside world.
"I forgive you," Kwan said. The look Danny gave him made Kwan wonder if he'd carried the same dumbfounded expression on his face when Danny had said those words two dimensions away. Then Danny gave a real smile.
"Thank you, Kwan."
"Hey, if you can forgive me for bullying you all those years, I sure as hell can forgive you for saving my life."
Danny laughed and got up. "If you put it that way." He extended his hand and pulled Kwan to his feet. "Shall we chase away the globs which by now have nestled inside our station? And then finish our engine and get ourselves back home?"
"Two brilliant ideas, Mr. Fenton," Kwan said. After a beat he added, "I'm glad we could talk about this. I know it sounds not very jock-like-"
"You're no longer a jock, Kwan, you're not even close to the bully I knew in high school. And I'm glad too. I really didn't want to talk in rhyme again," Danny said cryptically before lifting Kwan into the air, heading for Holbrook Avenue.
XXX
A/N: For some reason I find it hard to write a good fight between characters. It either seems over the top or too mellow to me, and the characters either hate each other for eternity or they're far too forgiving, it feels like. So I'd like to know how this argument came across - were the reactions believable, did the resolution truly solve the fight, was either Kwan or Danny too harsh or too much of a push-over? I'd love to hear your thought on it!
