YOU GUYS HAVE NO IDEA HOW MANY CHAPTERS I HAVE OF THIS WRITTEN BUT NEEDING TO BE TYPED UP!
Anyway… Happy New Year!
I don't own Danny Phantom.
There was silence for a second as the duo stared at each other, Michael in shock and Danni in nervousness.
Eventually, Danni took a step forward, putting her glove back on. Her boots made dull thuds on the floor as she approached the coffee table where the pictures were spread out.
"Well," she said with a dry chuckle. "I—I guess you've figured a few things out."
Michael still just stared at her.
Danni's smile disappeared and she silently begged him to say something. ANYTHING!
The teenager bit her lip as she brought her feet up to hover, sitting Indian style in the air.
"It started with the portal. Everything does," she started. "Sam and Tamara, they wanted to see it. Sam wanted some pictures for his scrapbook." She bit her lip, remembering that day. "He—He wanted one with me in front of the portal so I let him take one." She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. "I was dared to go inside then. I was stupid and didn't realize what could happen. So I went in. I tripped over something, probably a wire and I—And I pressed—And I hit—" She sighed and opened her eyes, looking at her father, whose shocked expression had change to curiosity. "You put the 'On' button on the inside."
Michael's face paled. "No…" He froze. "Danni, that amount of ectoplasm and electricity should've…"
"It tried as hard as it could," she said with a slight smile. "I don't know how I'm still alive." She glanced to the side, thinking about Timepiece before shaking her head. "It was less than a minute but—but it felt like years with all that ectoplasm and electricity working together. It—It fused ectoplasm to my molecules. It changed me into a halfa, half-ghost, half-human." She paused and studied her father's facial expression again before playing with her braid and continuing. "I woke up to Sam and Tamara panicking and freaking out. I went to ask them what was wrong and they screamed in terror and jumped back. I tried to ask them what was wrong again but they wouldn't answer." She observed her white hair. "I don't blame them. I tried to get up but my foot went intangible and I fell to the ground. Tamara helped me up and helped me to a mirror so I could see myself." She cracked a smile. "Tam said I looked like I'd seen a ghost."
Michael smiled a bit too.
"I passed out from shock and fear and I guess I transformed back to normal me. Sam and Tam took me to my room and put me in my bed—"
"That's when I came home and your friends told your mother and I that you were given a slight shock by the portal and wanted to rest," Michael interrupted.
Danni grinned. "Ah, the first of many lies. Anyways, when I woke up the three of us decided that temporarily making me look like a ghost was the extent of the damage—"
"But it wasn't," Michael interrupted again.
"I know," his daughter said, slightly annoyed at being interrupted twice. "I'm getting to that."
Michael nodded and listened again.
"Strange things started happening the next day," Danni continued, rubbing some dirt off her boots. "For starters, I woke up on the floor in the kitchen. I was confused and went to get some cereal when James walked in. He muttered to himself that he could've sworn that he heard me down there. I spoke up and said that I was there, which made James jump. He looked around and called my name. I told him I was near the table and—" She hugged her knees and looked at the ground to her left. Her bright aura dimmed. "I'll never forget the look on his face. He didn't see me. He couldn't see me. Why? I was invisible and he looked right through me."
Michael was about to say something but Danni stopped him.
"No. You don't understand that feeling. It's upsetting the first time but you eventually get used to it. I don't mind it now." She gave a reassuring smile. "The minute I noticed that even I couldn't see myself, I ran upstairs to my room. I called Sam and Tamara and yelled at them to come to my house as quick as possible. They got here a few minutes later. By that point, I'd managed to get everything but my left arm visible again. Tam freaked out and even Sam seemed horrified. We spent an hour trying to get my arm back to normal. Sam said that it must have been another side effect. I agreed but there was something in the back of my mind that said it wasn't." Danni paused and turned her left arm visible and invisible again with little effort.
"So the day after that I woke up flying above my bed. I panicked and freaked out and Mom heard me. She knocked on my door and asked if I was alright. I panicked and said that I was fine and that I tripped over my carpet. She bought it and left me alone. I didn't want to bother Sam and Tamara so I didn't call them this time. I managed to grab my bed's headboard and pulled my way back to my bed. I tied myself down to the bed with my sheets. Sam and Tamara came over to see if I was okay, to which I responded with 'No, I'm not.' Tam, of course, asked why I tied myself to my bed and untied me, causing me to float back up to the ceiling and hit my head. I, of course, yelled in pain, while my friends stared in shock. Mom came back up to ask me if I was okay and walked into my room." She giggled a bit before telling the next part. "I pinned myself to the wall and out of her view. Sam and Tam managed to shake themselves out of their shock and turned to her. She asked where I was so they lied and said I was in the bathroom. Of course, she was confused and said that she'd heard me say 'Ow!', so Tam pretended to stub her toe and said "Ow!" in her best impression of my voice. Mom left after that, although it was obvious she was confused. The second she shut the door, I regained control of gravity and fell onto my bed. We passed it off as a side effect again. This time I wasn't so sure." She looked at Michael, asking a silent question.
"I'll ask questions later if I have any, sweetheart," Michael answered.
Danni smiled. "That routine went on for two weeks. I'd fall through things, I'd vanish from sight, I'd lose control of gravity, I'd suddenly become too strong… we kept passing everything off as side effects that would go away. Eventually, I got tired of 'It's just a side effect. It'll go away.' One night, I waited until after you'd gone asleep and closed my curtains, locked the door, and turned off the lights. I tried to remember what I'd looked like when I came out of the ghost portal. White hair in my signature braid, eerie green eyes, tan skin, green lipstick, and a black and white jumpsuit since I didn't have the outfit I have now until later on." She looked at her skirt and dusted it off, remembering how she'd originally worn a jumpsuit identical to Danny's.
"I was actually going to ask about that," Michael said. "Since when 'Phantom' first shown up, she wore a regular HAZMAT suit and then later showed up in a skirt and a long-sleeved crop top."
His daughter laughed. "I'll explain that later." She cleared her throat. "So I sat there in the dark with my eyes shut, trying to picture that… phantom-like girl—pun completely intended—when I felt cold. Like not even a simple chill, a full-on freezing cold. The cold feeling lasted a few seconds and then stopped. I opened my eyes and nearly screamed. I saw myself in the mirror and it wasn't normal blue-eyed, black-haired me. It was green-eyed, white-haired me. I tried to get up and lost control of gravity again. I realized quickly that I had much better control over flying in that ghost form and started playing around with it, you know, flying around the room and stuff. And then I got the brilliant idea of trying to fly outside. I didn't want to wake you up by going out the front door, so I opened the window and flew out. I hovered there for a second trying to decide whether or not to close it and eventually decided not to since I needed to come back inside later.
"I decided to fly to the park. I started off flying slowly and got faster, laughing as I did so." She smiled. "It was fun. Flying's fun in general with the wind in your hair and the feeling of weightlessness. I played on the playground. I soared through the trees…" She sighed and flipped over onto her stomach. "I then felt the cold feeling again. It transformed me back to normal me and I fell into the pond. I had to walk home and I got lucky because when I was wondering how I was going to get back through the window, my body decided that it wanted to fly again. I managed to grab the window and pulled myself through it and closed it behind me. I grabbed my way over to my bed and tied myself down before I fell asleep."
"Sounds fun," Michael commented.
"The flying part was," his daughter agreed. "Having to walk home soaked to the skin and trying not to float away while getting home wasn't."
Michael smiled.
"When I woke up the next day, I called my friends and told them to get to the park quickly. We met in a secret section of the woods. I quickly explained to them what had happened the night before. They were shocked and Tamara thought it was awesome. Sam then pointed out to us that the power slip-ups I was having all had one thing in common. Those powers were ghost powers. We knew that I couldn't be a ghost since I had a heartbeat and was breathing, so we came to the conclusion that somehow I'd been half-killed and was still half-alive. I'd somehow become half-ghost because of the portal." She stared down at her gloved hands and at the supernatural glow surrounding them before looking back at Michael. "After I remembered that you guys were ghost experts and could help me, I considered telling you—"
"You should've," Michael interrupted. "We could've helped you. We could've found a cure—"
"A cure?" Danni said angrily. She jumped to her feet, her boots slamming down loudly on the floor. Her glow flared up, making Michael wish that he'd kept silent. "There is no cure! This is permanent! You can temporarily get rid of it but it will never ever disappear completely! And I wouldn't even want a cure! I like being this!" She took a deep breath and calmed down. "Dad, this town would be in ruins without Danni Phantom. The ghosts would've taken over! People would've died!"
Michael looked down, ashamed he even asked the question.
Danni sighed and took another deep breath, her glow going back to normal. "Anyway, I tried telling you but I kept being interrupted. I told Sam and Tamara that I wanted to tell you but Sam said that I shouldn't. That was the day of my first major ghost fight." The halfa smiled at the memory. "It started because of Sam. Sam, as we know, is an ultra-recyclo-vegetarian and he changed the menu to ultra-recyclo-vegetarian foods. Unfortunately, the menu had been the same for 50 years and changing it invoked the wrath of the ghost called the Lunch Man. The three of us saw him in the kitchen in the cafeteria. I started a food fight as a diversion—" She gave a quick I'm-innocent smile when Michael glared at her before continuing. "—and we snuck off to the kitchen. The Lunch Man seemed nice at first and even asked us kindly if someone changed the menu. Then Tam said that Sam had changed it." She sighed.
"And?" he father asked.
"And the Lunch Man got mad at us and yelled at us. I managed to go ghost as I call it." She flashed one of her signature cocky smirks. "And then I tried to command it to go away." Her smirk fell.
Michael managed to hide a giggle at the thought of his only daughter commanding a ghost to "go away."
Danni rolled her eyes and glared at him for a second. "Of course that didn't work so there was a little battle which ended with me accidentally reversing back, Sam getting kidnapped, and Tam and I getting in trouble for starting a food fight. Ms. Lancer eventually left the room and had Dara guard the door… from the outside. The two of us looked on the security cameras to see where Sam and the Lunch Man were. They were in the basement so I phased us through the floor to get down there. When we got down there we found Sam trapped in a pile of meat while the Lunch Man was trying to get him to eat meat. I fought him away from Sam while Tamara tried to eat the meat and free Sam. The three of us escaped but I passed out from exhaustion. I woke up a few hours later and Sam and Tamara started arguing over whose fault it was that I got into a fight with a ghost. I thought it would be over when I got to school the next day but I showed up to two different rallies: one for meat and one for veggies. Before I was forced to pick a side, the Lunch Man appeared again and scared everyone away. In the confusion, I went ghost and attacked the Lunch Man. After a bit of a fight, he created these little meat monsters and I accidentally went human again and they grabbed me and flew into the air." She glared at Michael as she said the next part. "And then Mom threw the thermos away and hit me in the face."
"Oh!" Michael said. "So that's how you got the thermos!"
"I managed to change back and phase through the ground. I phased back up to face the Lunch Man. I then activated the thermos and sucked him in. I decided after that to not tell you guys. And I then got in trouble for starting a food fight and escaping Lancer's office. Yay."
Michael giggled again, causing Danni to glare at him again.
For the next hour, Danni explained her adventures to him, leaving out Daniella and the CAT test. She even told him about the Dimension Chasers and their current mission. Michael was surprised by the revelation of Vlada Plasmius's identity and was angry for a bit until Danni managed to convince her that Vlada was on her side for the moment.
"You're leaving out something," Michael said. "You said that the Dimension Chasers first met while fighting a ghost named Dan. Who's Dan's Dimension 2 counterpart?"
Danni hesitated before sighing. "Her name's Daniella. She's from an alternate future that I got trapped in for a bit during the CATs and a bit before them. She's pure evil and I hate her." She smiled nervously, knowing what her father was going to ask next and hoping to avoid it. "You asked why my costume was different when I first showed up as Danni Phantom. Well, after the events when Sam made a wish that Desire granted, Tam and I thought a new logo would go well with a new suit—"
"Danni…"
"So we designed one, which is the one that I'm wearing now—"
"Danni."
"We added the logo and—voila!—a new suit."
"Danni!"
The ghost girl went silent, her green eyes observing the carpet.
"Danni, you said that Daniella was from an alternate future."
"Yes," the Phantom girl confirmed quietly, taking her glove off and playing with it again.
"Danni."
The girl looked up.
"Who's her past self?"
Danni sighed and took a moment to answer.
"I am," she said quietly.
"What?"
"I am the past self of Daniella Phantom," Danni said. "In Daniella's timeline, I did cheat on the CAT test. Ms. Lancer called you, Mom, and James to the Nasty Burger. Sam and Tamara came to warn us that it was going to explode because the Nasty Sauce was heating up. It—It did. I was the only survivor."
Michael gasped.
"I went to Vlada because she was the only one who could possibly hope to understand my predicament. I wanted no more emotions. She tore my ghost half out. Enraged, it tore apart Plasmius and Masters. Phantom fused with Plasmius. While Vlada said that her evilness overwhelmed me, I know what really happened. Loneliness is what drove Vlada evil. Phantom had a lot of loneliness. Combined with Vlada's, well, it was enough to make her go insane. She, now Daniella Phantom, killed my human half and ran off to start a ten-year long killing spree. Ten years later, I found out about her in the present timeline and swore to never become her. Angry, Daniella fused a time medallion to me and disguised herself as me. She ran off to the past, leaving me stuck in the future. Daniella was planning to cheat and James found out that it was her and not me. She knocked him out and ran off to cheat and succeeded. Lancer called you, Mom, and her to meet her at the Nasty Burger. Sam and Tamara showed up, warning you about the sauce and then James showed up. He used the Fenton Peeler to reveal that Daniella wasn't me. Angry again, Daniella tied all of you guys to the Nasty Sauce vats and laughed as she watched. Unfortunately for her, she didn't predict an angry super-powered half-ghost teenager to arrive back from the future. I beat her with my newly discovered Ghostly Wail and captured her in a thermos. It was too late though and the Nasty Burger blew up. Clockwork appeared and gave me a second chance, rewinding time back to the CAT test. I admitted to thinking of cheating and Lancer gave me time to make it up. Daniella hasn't escaped again but if she does—" Danni smirked. "—The Dimension Chasers will be there to stop her."
Michael was about to ask another question when the house shook, throwing Danni to the floor and Michael into a wall.
Alright, here's a clue for the next story in the form of song lyrics from the song The Devil Within by Digital Daggers (Disclaimer: I don't own The Devil Within):
The devil within
You'll never know what hit you