"I think we need to talk about your choice of wardrobe," Kudo said the next morning directly into his ear. Danny let out a startled yelp and jumped backwards, dropping the math book he'd just pulled out of his locker and trying to ignore the backwards glances of the passing crowd of students. He didn't particularly feel like giving people another reason to bully him today.

Danny shot a half-hearted glare at Kudo as he moved to pick it up. "What are you, the fashion police?" Just because they knew each other's identities now certainly did not mean that Kudo got to have adult authority over him, especially for something stupid like that. If Kudo didn't like his shirt, fine, but it wasn't like he had to be rude about it.

"No, but I am concerned about your choice of clothes when you do your…" Kudo paused, dropping his voice, "extracurricular activities. We can talk about it this evening perhaps?"

Oh, come on. "There's nothing to talk about—" The bell rang, cutting him off. "Joy," Danny deadpanned. "English with Lancer. I heard from the other class that he's making us analyze 'the American dream' or whatever in The Great Gatsby today."

Kudo's nose wrinkled in distaste. "Can I get exempt from this since I'm not American?"

"You wish," Danny countered easily, a small, relaxed smile appearing on his face. It was almost like the whole Nocturn thing had never happened, even as his eyes strayed to Kudo's sleeves. It still felt too surreal to be true; how could the complaining teenager in front of him be a dead international hero?

But hey, he had a schedule to keep. Not too much time to have a reality crisis now.

Lancer's room always smelled like a library (and cologne, but so did the entire rest of the building; that was high school), with shelves on the walls packed with worn books like The Picture of Dorian Gray and Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Lancer himself was sitting at his desk, watching everyone enter over a messy stack of graded papers. Danny would have bet his ghost half that the F he saw peeking out in the middle belonged to him thanks to someone who said "beware" a lot and would literally not leave him alone.

As everyone settled in, he handed the stack to Star to pass out to everyone. "Good morning, everyone. Your quizzes on The Great Gatsby were very good overall; it was clear to me that most of you were paying attention. However, I'm going to have to ask Miss Sanchez and Mr. Weston to see me after class to talk about grades. But that aside, I wanted to talk about Fitzgerald's view of society during the time period…"

Danny tuned him out as he got his own paper back, a big red C- written in the top left-hand corner with "Elaborate!" underneath. Better than he'd been expecting, and he certainly wasn't going to complain, especially since he didn't even read half the book. Plus, that meant he got out of having to have another meeting with Lancer after class or worse, after school.

That evening, Kudo showed up at his house again right on schedule with the same flimsy yet effective excuse: project for school. Danny had been poring over his constellational maps again, and stuffed them into a drawer as the knock came on his bedroom door. Kudo didn't bother with introductions as soon as the door had clicked shut behind him.

"So about your wardrobe…" Well, Kudo certainly did not waste time doing what he set out to do.

"Please do tell me what's wrong with my clothing," Danny said with an eye roll as he stood up and changed forms, giving himself an exaggerated examination. "Give it to me straight. Is this suit so last season or what?"

Kudo frowned. "No, unless 'so last season' entails a complete lack of precaution. Your face in…Phantom mode is completely exposed for the whole world to see. I can see every detail and you're supposed to be in your super-secret identity form right now. That's dangerous for obvious reasons," Kudo paced a bit as he spoke. "I mean, your hair color changing really doesn't do much to hide your identity, you've got to admit."

"But no one makes the connection. Whenever Phantom appears, I'm usually kind of busy punching ghosts, so it's hard to get a good picture. And besides, I'm just kind of, like, below average at school. Dash sees me up close every day and he practically worships Phantom, but he doesn't see it," Danny argued. "And even then, the idea that someone can be half-dead is impossible."

Kudo held up his index finger. "Improbable, not impossible. There's a wide gap between the two, as Sherlock Holmes could well tell you. Here's what I think: the people in Amity Park believe in ghosts, and the people who know you, barring Sam and Tucker of course, have preconceived notions about you based on the version of yourself that you present in public. Even one of those two factors is enough to cloud someone's vision enough not to recognize you. So what happens when you take an outsider, me for example, who has neither of those things? There was nothing stopping me from recognizing you the instant I saw your face in Phantom mode. There's hasn't been a good picture of you, but the keyword here is yet."

Darn it. Why did he have to have so many good points? But it wasn't like he could just change Phantom's costume. He wasn't even sure he could change it, though he'd never tried before. Plus, it was iconic. He didn't want to raise any eyebrows by getting a makeover now.

"All right then, what do you want me to do about it? There's not exactly a convenient 'Superheroes R Us' around the corner. And what if I don't want to change it? The suit's kind of grown on me."

"I'm not asking you to wear a clown suit, you know. You can keep your costume if you want, but I'm just saying that you should have something to cover your face. Could be a three-dollar Halloween mask from Goodwill for all I care. It's just that I worry for you as is since you're such a public figure in Amity Park. Sure, it's only one town, but you know that Amity Park is known for its massive 'ghost hoax?'" Kudo sighed tiredly and put a hand up to his cheek. "Please. If not for your sake, then for my sanity."

"Now hold on just a minute—oh, never mind." Somehow, Danny didn't think he was going to win this argument. And, well, with everything that had been going on around him under his nose, Danny didn't particularly want to be taking big risks anyway. "But for the record, we are not stepping foot in Goodwill for this."

Kudo's eyes seemed to warm up as his lips turned upwards. "Deal."

Two phone calls (because Danny didn't like doing anything regarding Phantom without input from Sam and Tucker, even for something as apparently trivial as this) and a hasty 'trip to the store for the supplies' excuse thrown at his parents later, four people sat in Sam's bedroom. Danny tried not to cough from the strong scent of candle smoke that always clung to the air.

"I'm not saying 'I told you so,' Danny, but I am saying that I always thought your identity was too open, what with the name and all," said Sam, leaning casually against her black metal headboard.

Danny scowled playfully. "That's just saying 'I told you so.'"

Sam tilted her head and stuck out her tongue. "Is not." Straightening up, she turned her head towards Kudo. "But then, what do you propose for a mask, Mr. Kudo?"

Kudo's eyes widened a fraction as he waved his hands in front of him. "Woah, okay, first of all, there is no need to call me 'Mr. Kudo,' and I would actually prefer it if you didn't. If you start thinking of me as Kudo instead of Conan, then you're bound to form a habit that might slip at a bad time. Hattori knows something about that; don't tell him I told you so, but he used to slip up all the time, and he still does sometimes. So yeah. It's probably kind of weird for you anyway, to address someone your apparent age as 'mister.'"

It was, kind of, but Danny hadn't wanted to be rude.

Conan's eyes slid over to the scissors sitting next to Sam's computer next to the black strips of cloth left over from the modification of the newest 'gift' from her parents. Danny could hazard a guess as to what it used to look like—it obviously had not been too well-received.

"No," said Danny before Conan could get any other terrible ideas. "I'm not wearing spray painted floral print. We can do better than that."

"Danny, I have a legitimate question for you." Sam reached under her bed and pulled out a purple notebook with a white spider web pattern that he had never seen before. "How goth are you willing to go?'

Danny shrugged. "I don't know, that probably depends on how harsh Mrs. Owens graded my last lab report." He did not miss the little "ouch" that Tucker whispered. "But isn't goth your thing?"

"Sure, but that doesn't mean that there isn't enough to go around." Sam's hair fell in her face as she looked down and flipped through the notebook. "I must admit that I've given some thought to your costume before—even before I knew it was going to be important, and you're welcome for ripping your dad's face off your chest by the way—I even designed some symbols for you. But the point is, I've followed not really the same, but a similar line of thought as Conan before so I have some mask ideas here if you want to look at them."

The pages were filled with pencil drawings of a ton of different masks (including Majora's Mask, Danny couldn't help but notice with a slight grin), everything from classic black ninja masks to jumpsuit hoods. How had he never noticed Sam working on all this? Honestly, he was a little touched that Sam cared enough to put all this time into energy into improving Phantom. As he looked up and caught Sam's eye, who cleared her throat and guided his finger to one design in particular.

It was kind of a half-skull. It would cover the top half of his face while tapering off unevenly to give the illusion that it had been broken, leaving his mouth, chin, and the bottom of his nose exposed to make it easy for him to breathe. The top was stylized with slightly jagged edges instead of a more rounded normal skull, complete with blackened tips.

It was perfect.

"Sam, you are the best, and also officially appointed head of costume improvements," Danny praised. "Really, thank you. It's, uh," and there he went, messing up his words again, "really cool of you to make all this."

For some reason, Conan and Tucker looked at each other with a knowing look.

Glowing with pride, Sam smiled. "Well, I'm glad you like it. It's just kind of a matter of actually making it now."

Suddenly, Tucker gasped loudly and his hand shot up in the air. "If I make it, can I put in cool tech enhancements?"

Danny hadn't even thought of that! Oh, this was going to be so cool! "Uh, yes you absolutely can, and in fact I highly encourage it." He could almost see the stars in Tucker's eyes.

"Give me a week."

And voila, problem solved.

A ringing sounded over the quiet Dumpty Humpty music playing from Sam's computer, and Conan slid his phone out of his pocket and snapped it open. He paled as he stood silently, a grim expression overcasting his face. By the time he got off the phone, he looked a bit like he was about to have a panic attack. He was breathing heavily with one hand on his jacket in the place that he hid his gun.

Nervous energy crackled through the air in the room. "Conan…? Are you okay?" asked Tucker, tentatively stepping forward.

"That was my boss. It seems that there's been an incident at Baxter Hotel. A really bad one."

Danny's heart dropped into his stomach. "What kind of accident?"

"Incident. This was no accident. You don't know this, but Baxter Hotel was the last place that Gin—the man in black who poisoned me and the one in my dream—was seen."

A cold draft blew into the room, chilling Danny to the bone as wailing police cars raced past the Manson house on the street below.

I feel like it's a lot of words for a small costume change, but here it is all the same.

Sorry this took so long! It's just been really, really difficult to find the time and motivation to work on this these past few months, though I've done some planning work so I have a more outlined direction now which should make it easier.

Side note: I did not edit this very thoroughly so I apologize for the mistakes that I'm sure are in there. I'll fix them when I see them.

Hope you enjoyed!