Training
Danny POV-
"Daddy why are we up here?" Lizzie asked as we stood on the top of an apartment complex.
"Don't get too close to the edge," Sam squeaked as Grayson inched closer to look at the city below.
"He'll be fine," I said, "It's not like we can't save them if they fall off," there was an obvious smirk in my voice, and I was hoping that my kids heard it.
Lizzie did but she didn't say anything, instead, she just gave me a bizarre look.
"Go ahead," I grinned, "Fall off, I'll prove it," Grayson almost looked like he was about ready to accept the challenge.
"Danny! No!" Sam warned, "Grayson, Lizzie DO NOT listen to your father."
"She's right, don't listen to me. I think that classifies as bad parenting, and I'm sure the police would be wondering why you two were on the roof in the first place. But that's not to say we couldn't save you," I smirked.
"Why are we on the roof?" Lizzie asked.
"Well, we told you we had a surprise for you," Sam replied.
"Okay kids, come over here," I waved them to where I was sitting on top of an air-conditioning machine, "Okay, you know all of those stories I've told you about Phantom?"
They nodded.
"Well they weren't just stories…" I told them, they looked at me confused, "They actually happened, just, not exactly the way I told you they happened. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"You lied to us?" Lizzie remarked, with her mother's tongue.
"Yes, but, we did it to protect you. Because, if you had known the truth, you could have put other people in danger and been in danger yourself. But, now that you've started school, we think it's time that we tell you the truth," I looked at Sam, who nodded back at me. I took a deep breath, and Sam and I transformed into our ghost halves.
"I'm Danny Phantom," I said simply.
"But—but—but—you've both been in the same place!" Grayson protested.
"You mean," I duplicated myself, and made him transform back to his human form, "Like this," my duplicate and I said in unison. I recalled him back into my own body.
Lizzie ran her fingers over the scar on her forehead.
"I remember…" she muttered, barely above a breath. Sam and I looked at each other, we had been afraid of that. The last thing we wanted either of our kids to remember was the ordeal with Vlad, and they had been so young, we thought that there was no way they could remember. Apparently not.
Suddenly, the same look of remembrance crossed over Grayson's face. Since they were babies, Sam and I have been convinced that Grayson and Lizzie share some kind of telepathic connection (even though they, obviously, aren't identical twins), which, we think, they had shared just now with Lizzie's flow of memories. We hope, that maybe, when we begin to teach them how to use their powers, that we will be able to get them to strengthen that bond between them as well.
"That's right, guys," Sam nodded sadly, "Those memories you are feeling right now, are real, they weren't just a dream."
"So we were kidnapped?" Lizzie asked.
"Yes, sweetheart," Sam told her.
"There was this lullaby…and then there was you, and then there were explosions," Lizzie said frantically.
Sam nodded, putting her arm around our panicked daughter.
"It's okay sweetheart, it's just a memory. You're safe now," Sam rubbed her arm, kissing the top of her head.
"Why us?" Lizzie asked finally, now that she had calmed down.
"Because," I sighed, standing up, "You guys have ghost powers too."
Their eyes widened in surprise.
"Really?" Grayson asked a mix of shock, awe, admiration, and joy on his face.
"Yep. Surprise," I smirked, "And, we're, going to train you."
"You're going to train us to kick ghost butt like you?!" Lizzie grinned, the solemn edge to her voice gone, as she grinned up at us.
"Well, that sounds like someone I know," I said to myself, thinking about Dani and what she had said shortly after I met her: "You want to ask questions or do you want to kick some butt."
"First things first," Sam handed them some white and black Hazmat suits, "You're going to want these."
Sam and I made them invisible so that they could change.
When they were done, we took down the invisibility.
Their suits were different from mine and Sam's, and different from each other, of course, that was courtesy of Sam's designing skills.
"The first thing we need to teach you," I told them, standing in front of my children, "Is how to transform."
They grinned in anticipation.
"Okay," I told them, "You feel that power, right here," I asked them, pointing to my chest. They mimicked me, putting their hands over their chests, waiting to feel something. They must have felt it, because they both looked at me, nodding, waiting for what to do next, "Now, close your eyes. Relax the tension in your shoulders, come on, shake it out," I playfully shook their shoulders. They laughed, eyes still closed, but now, visibly relaxed, "And focus on pulling from that power in your chest."
Their closed eyes squinted tighter in concentration and, for a second I worried, that maybe they hadn't gotten the ability to transform at all, like Sam hadn't been able to in the first few months of her pregnancy. But suddenly, two blinding white lights appeared. The fact that they appeared at the same time, I felt, had something to do with their telepathic connection.
As the light traveled up their bodies, slowly, being that it was their first times, I'm not sure I have actually ever been more proud.
Finally my children opened their now, neon green eyes.
"Did it work?" they immediately asked in unison, before looking down at themselves and then looking at each other.
"Whoa!" they said at the same time, taking in their twin.
Lizzie gently touched her brother's arm, and suddenly, a large wooden box on the roof exploded in bright green light. Lizzie immediately retracted her hand, holding it close to herself. Lizzie and Grayson exchanged a look and then they looked at us. Suddenly, Sam and I were out of the loop.
"You guys know that you're connected, don't you?" Sam asked. They nodded.
"We used to get dreams and see stuff before it happened and sometimes we feel what each other is feeling," Lizzie admitted.
"Well, don't worry. We'll teach you how to control it and use it, but, for right now, I wouldn't stand so close to each other," Sam said, instinctively, they both took a step back, Lizzie nearly falling off of the roof. Sam and I both lunged for her, but, as it turned out, our efforts were unwarranted.
Lizzie had just figured out that she could fly.
"Weeeee!" she cried happily, flying in circles around the roof, reminding me of how Sam reacted the first time she figured out that she could fly.
"I want to fly too!" Grayson whined. I smirked, coming up behind him and tossing him in the air. Sam was waiting to catch him, in case he fell down, but he didn't. He managed to stay in the air, joining the air show his sister was creating.
Sam and I chuckled, floating in the center of our spastic five-year olds.
We trained them on the rooftop for several hours, managing to teach them most of my more-basic powers: invisibility, intangibility, and a ghost ray, although they still needed a little practice. Finally, they collapsed on the roof, changing back to human form, happy but completely exhausted, the way you feel after spending an entire day at the amusement park.
"We need names!" my daughter affirmed.
"Okay what do you want your names to be?" Sam questioned them.
"I want to be The Gray Phantom!" Grayson announced dramatically and we laughed in response.
"Okay, Gray Phantom it is. What about you Liz?" I asked her.
"Lizzie Phantom, I guess?" she shrugged.
"Hmm…" I thought for a minute, "How about your middle name. Luna Phantom."
At this her eyes lit up and she smiled widely.
"What about mommy?" Grayson asked, "Does she have a name?"
I glanced at Sam, we hadn't really talked about it. Very few people knew about her anyway, aside from a few reporters who captures "Another Mysterious Phantom" around Amity Park. But they didn't even give her a lame nickname. I suppose, now that we would be training the kids around the city, sometimes in broad daylight, people would see her and she would need a name. We knew we couldn't very well call her Sam Phantom or Samantha Phantom. The people of Amity Park may be clueless, but they aren't stupid. Somebody would catch on.
"Phantom Angel," I said after a minute, smiling at her, at my angel. I looked at my kids, "What do you guys think?"
They beamed, approving of my name choice.
"Okay, Phantom Angel it is," Sam yielded a few seconds later. The sun was just starting to go down, and, from where we were sitting, we had a great view of the sunset reflecting off of the lake in the park, the river around the city, and the pier in the distance. It reminded me of the night I had proposed, and, catching the look out of the corner of Sam's eye, I knew that she was thinking about the same thing.
"Wait a minute?" Lizzie asked, suddenly, "Does that mean that you're the tooth fairy?!" Lizzie cried out.
"No, no, sweetie, it's like I told you. She was busy so I was on tooth fairy duty. The tooth fairy and I are actually good friends, that's why she asked me to do it, especially considering that you two are my kids," I covered up. She breathed a sigh of relief. It's funny with how old she sometimes act, how old they both act it's hard to forget that they're only five and still need to believe in things like Santa and the Tooth Fairy.
"You two know that you can't tell anyone about this, right?" I reminded them, realizing that I hadn't quite embedded that into their minds yet. They nodded, "No. I mean it," I reinforced, "You cannot tell anyone outside of our family, your grandparents, Dani, Valerie, Tucker, or Jazz and her husband. And by grandparents, I only mean Grandpa Jack and Grandma Maddie. Do NOT tell your Grandpa Manson," I amended. Since her talk with him at the supermarket last year, Sam's dad has stepped up a little, to the point where our kids now call him Grandpa. "And don't tell anyone at school, not your teacher, not your principal, not your new friends. No one. Not even by accident. You have to always be careful what you say so that nothing slips out. You guys have to promise me to keep this a secret, if you don't you could be in really big danger and so could everyone else, not to mention you will be in gigantic trouble with me and your mom. Promise me," I looked them both in the eye, conveying the seriousness of the situation. They seemed to understand, nodding solemnly.
"We promise," they agreed.
"Okay, good. You are both official members of Team Phantom, now." I breathed a sigh of relief at their promise, and they lit up at their official acceptance into the secret we had held for so long.
"Speaking of new friends," Lizzie broached slowly, "Um…can I have a friend over for dinner tomorrow night? She loves hotdogs but her mom never lets her eat them…so um…can we have hotdogs for dinner tomorrow?" she wondered.
"Sure honey that sounds like a great idea. You two can walk home together," Sam said.
"Speaking of dinner, can we go get some? I'm starving!" Grayson pleaded.
"Jeez you sound like Tucker," Sam rolled her eyes, but she stood up to leave. Our kids made a move for the stairs we had come up.
"Have you guys forgotten?" we called to them, transforming into our ghost forms, "We have a better way of going down."
They grinned, transforming and standing next to us on the ledge of the building.
"All you need is faith, trust, and ghost powers," I changed a line from one of their favorite Disney movie. It was one that, between the ages of three and four, was constantly playing in the DVD player, and one, which I'm pretty sure, Sam and I could quote, nonstop, word-for-word.
They giggled, obviously recognizing the reference.
"Alright guys," I said, "Here we goooo, off to Neverland," we jumped off of the roof, launching upward in a very Peter Pan fashion.
Under her breath I noticed Sam begin to sing "Think of the presents you've brought. Any merry little thought. Think of Christmas, think of snow. Think of sleigh bells. Here we go! Like a reindeer in the sky. You can fly! You can fly! You can fly! You can fly!"
We were certainly attracting a lot of attention from the people below, four Phantoms, flying in a line.
We waved to the people and I could almost hear the gossip begin to buzz.
'Oh well, I guess I'll find out in the papers tomorrow morning,' I rolled my eyes, shaking my head.
The four of us stopped, invisibly, in an alleyway, before changing back, and going to enjoy some quality, family, food at The Nasty Burger.
Quality, yeah right.