Chapter 11

Later that night, I lie back on my bed for the second time, but now with a contented smile on my face. My mother, the ghost-hunter, is fine with her son being a ghost. Not a human with ghost-powers, not a halfa, but a full ghost.

I climb under the covers, still in my human state, and hold my pillow to my chest happily. I'd told her the whole story tonight, from the moment I stepped into the ghost-portal, to my encounter with Dan. There were tears, from my mom, Jazz and I'm not ashamed to admit, even myself.

But they were mostly from my mother who held herself accountable for everything that happened to me. Especially the whole "me turning into the evil me from the future" thing. Yeah, that would do it.

I hug my pillow tighter and burrow my head into it. I don't really need to sleep anymore but, man oh man, there's no way I'm giving up on that just because I'm a full ghost now. I am still technically a teenager, we're supposed to lazy, right?

Just as I'm about to drift off, I'm startled awake by two bright red tendrils of smoke curling from my nostrils. I rub my tingly nose in confusion, that's definitely new. Then I hear a theatrical moan coming from outside my window.

"BEWAAARE!" So, the red smoke is an upgraded version of my ghost sense.

I smirk as I think about the ghostly stress reliever waiting just outside for me. This is going to be fun.

I phase out through my wall, my human mirage still in place. I'm surprised at how easily I'm adapting to using it. It's not taking up as much energy as it first had to maintain it. Maybe being Dan Phantom is actually better than being plain, little ole' me. The Box Ghost, obviously, does not notice the fact that I'm still supposedly in my human form. If he did, he'd probably just think that I'd dyed my hair black. I chuckle at the thought.

"I am the Box Ghost, here to turn all of your shoe boxes against you! Beware!" I roll my eyes. It's almost cute how scary he thinks he is, if by cute you think of the most annoying creature you've ever come across and multiply it by one hundred then yeah, cute it is.

But man is he gonna get the fright of his life.

"Bewa – oh," he stops mid-moan, "Uh… how are you doing that halfa?" he asks me, about my being able to float. Wow, he's not as much of an idiot as I thought he was.

"Oh this? Just a few minor upgrades," I shrug it off.

He gulps, "Up – Upgrades?"

I chortle softly, shaking my head and allowing my voice to drop to its real level.

"That's right," I say slowly, "Upgrades."

With that, I summon the rings again and hold out my arms as if I were on the Titanic, the King of the World. Well, that's pretty accurate. I force the transformation to go slowly, allowing poor Boxy to drink in my new self in all of my terrifying glory. As I stare down at him with my blood red eyes, I grin menacingly, baring my fangs.

The ghost doesn't move, he floats in one spot, quivering slightly.

I lean over until my face is almost touching his.

"Boo."

And away he flees, screaming "Beware" at the top of his lungs into our basement, and presumably back through the Fenton portal to spread the word about the new and improved Danny Phantom.

They'll never know what hit them, I think to myself, as my red eyes darken slightly and my sneer widens, fangs glinting dangerously in the moonlight.

"Danny?" I hear my sister call out softly, with a giggle in her voice. I open my eyes sleepily and reach out for my alarm clock, intending to check the time. You can imagine my own alarm when I couldn't feel it, or the desk below it or, for that matter, the pillow that was supposed to be underneath my head. Actually, my whole bed seemed to have disappeared into thin air.

Wide awake now, my limbs flail frantically in the air trying to reach something, anything solid to grab hold of. My clenched fist crashes into a hard surface just above my head, smashing a hole straight through it and I gape up at the newly created cavity in awe. I can see tons of old boxes through it, collecting dust. A label on one of them catches my eye, it reads: Danny's Astronaut Suit.

I hadn't seen that suit since shortly after my parents bought it for me. I was seven years old, and we'd gotten it from a Cape Canaveral gift store.

When I don't see stuff around anymore, that generally means that they've found a new home in the attic.

The thought only just now occurring to me after this revelation, I look down and see my room spread out before me, Jazz staring up at me with an expression that was an interesting amalgamation of amusement and that typical older sister 'I'm-gonna-tell-mom-that-you-just-punched-a-hole-in-the-ceiling' look. 'cause that one is typical in most families, yeah right.

I rub my neck guiltily as I descend slowly to the floor, my eyes focussed on the plaster covered carpet of my bedroom.

Feeling Jazz' heated gaze on me, I look up at her and give her a sheepish, if slightly lopsided, grin. To my surprise, her lips twitch slightly before she bursts out laughing, letting out an unattractive snort here and there too.

"Oh, Danny - you looked so funny!" she barely manages to get out amidst the tears of mirth rolling down her cheeks. She waves her arms around in an attempt to show me just how ridiculous my muscled figure looked with its limbs flailing around wildly in panic. She almost hits me in the face with one of her out-of-control appendages, but I tilt my head slightly so that it just misses me.

I scowl at her, feeling embarrassed. If I could blush, my cheeks would be almost as red as my eyes right now. I cross my arms over my barrel chest, waiting for her to calm down.

She eventually wipes the last tear from her eye in an exaggerated, cartoon-like gesture and takes a deep breath to regain her composure.

I raise an eyebrow, "You done?"

She nods brightly and beams at me, "Who needs comedy when you're around, little brother?"

I huff as she spins on her heel and marches out my bedroom door.

"Oh, I came in here to tell you that you're late for school," she adds casually from the hallway.

I drag a hand across my face. Of course I am.

I zoom through the fresh, morning air in the direction of Casper High, flying low so that I can take in the scenery from eye level for a change, rather than the usual aerial view. Besides, no one would think anything of Danny Phantom flying through the town he protected.

I pass a crowd of my own classmates on their way to school on the sidewalk and wave at them brightly. Instead of the cheering and frantic waving back that I was used to though, they all just stare at me.

That's weird. They were all infatuated with me. Honestly, sometimes I thought it was worse than the whole vampires and werewolves' thing. So why weren't they going crazy for Danny Phantom right now?

I touch down in front of them, and try a friendly smile. To my utter astonishment, the girls, and some of the guys, shrink away and hide behind their tougher counterparts. The latter puff out their chests, in a weak attempt to make themselves look like forces to be reckoned with.

I sigh wearily, and impart some Danny Phantom ghost-fighting pearls of wisdom, "Do you really think that that will help you in a ghost attack?"

I cringe and almost slap myself for my stupidity as I hear my voice. My totally not Danny Phantom voice, which matches my obviously totally not Danny Phantom body. The whole crowd backs away from me slowly now, understandably taking my helpful advice as a threat. I decide to spare them any more fear and take off, mentally kicking myself over and over again.

How could I actually manage to forget such an important detail?

I become aware of a swishing sound and turn my head to see my cape flapping in the wind. How did I not notice that before I sent the whole of my high school class, and no doubt soon the whole town, into panic?