In Which Danny Experiences an Awakening (and Skulker is There to Witness it)
Danny approached Sam slowly, gently taking the hopefully just unconscious blonde from her arms. "Does she usually conk out like this?"
She shrugged, the gesture casual, but widened violet eyes betrayed the concern she was obviously feeling. "I don't know, I just met her today."
Hadn't Tucker mentioned something about Star being at the elementary school? Had the two women met there?
He'd have to ask later, when he wasn't a posing as half-dead vigilante ghost who'd almost been the unintentional cause of a concussion.
Oopsie.
"Do you have a phone on you?" He asked, trying to deepen his voice a bit in hopes she wouldn't recognize it. "Could you call an ambulance for her?"
Sam looked dazedly at him for a hairsbreadth before snapping out of it, nodding slowly and holding up her old device, "Yeah, I got it right here. I can make the call. What about him?"
His concern for Star—mainly for Sam, but he did feel a little worried for her passed out friend, honest—had almost made him forget about the reason for all this:
Skulker.
"Oh, right," He whipped his head over his shoulder, making sure the hunter was still incapacitated. "I'll take care of him."
"Really? It looks like you already did that." There was a strangely twisted expression on her face, like she was conflicted about something. "Did you…kill him?"
Danny frowned at that, trying to think of how best to answer. She was new to Amity, so would she even believe him?
He decided to give it a shot, figuring she deserved at least one truth, especially considering her daughter was currently stashed in the bushes to their right.
"He's kind of already been dead for awhile, so. No."
"Oh." She sounded skeptical, the disbelief emanating off her in waves. Even without his ghostly empathy, he would've been able to read it.
Danny tilted his head at her, one corner of his lip twitching up into a smile, "You think I'm not telling the truth."
"No!" Sam waved her hands in desperate dismissal, "It's not that, really. I just—ghosts? It's a lot to take in."
That was fair; it'd taken him awhile to come to terms with everything when it first happened, and his parents had been obsessed with all things paranormal even before the accident.
"Don't think of us as ghosts, then." He hovered a few inches off the ground, scraping his mind for an analogy that made some semblance of sense. "Think of us as…beings from another dimension. Like the Craiglin's from—"
Her eyes lit up, violet flashing in his peripheral vision, "—From DOOMED: The Limited Edition DLC they released for the fifth anniversary." She sparkled, cheeks dimpling as the title practically flew from her mouth.
Oh. Oh, no. He could feel his cheeks heating and knew they were probably turning a dark shade of green.
She was beautiful.
Sure, Danny had objectively noticed his new housemate was attractive; he was a recluse, not blind. But he hadn't really realized just how attractive until that very moment.
Until the smallest scrape of setting sun slipped out from behind the clouds' mantle, catching the autumn leaves ablaze in a kaleidoscope of colour. And there she stood, perfectly framed by oranges, reds, and golden yellow hues, frayed black hair escaping its low ponytail and appearing brown in the light.
Most stunning of all, however, was the passion that lit her face, illuminating every contour as a fire sparked in the depths of her smile.
It was nearly enough to take his breath away.
Scratch that, what was oxygen again?
It was only seconds later—though it felt like days—that he awkwardly realized he'd been staring for a socially unacceptable amount of time.
"Um, well, uh. You, you uh, played, DOOMED?"
He mentally facepalmed at that less than on-par delivery.
She raised a brow at him, "I think I should be asking you that question."
At first, he had not the faintest idea what she was hinting at, then it hit him like a thunderclap; he was Phantom right now. A ghost who'd never indulged in video games.
"Um, well." He went to scratch the back of his neck, but quickly cut the motion off, reminding himself that he wasn't Fenton.
Stupid. He was going to get himself exposed at this rate.
"I've heard things. People talk. It was pretty popular, back in the day." Danny carefully folded his hands, hoping that, at least, wouldn't give him away. "I honestly haven't ever met any fans of it in person."
It was true, for the most part. The only other people he'd ever met interested in the game had been behind online personas. Except for Tuck, but he figured it was probably best not to drag his best friend into this.
"I was obsessed back in high school," Sam stared absently at the smoldering hole in the ground to their right, that jaw-dropping smile still in place. "I was president of the DOOMED fan club but also the only member, so getting the position was a bit of cinch."
Danny barked a laugh before he could stop himself, not expecting that in the least. He hadn't pegged her as someone who'd be in too games, but the genuine tone in her voice said it all.
She allowed herself a small chuckle, too, before seeming to remember their current situation. "Not that I don't love talking about my pathetic high school career, but shouldn't you be dealing with the—" Sam paused, biting at the corner of her lip before continuing. "—ghost?"
His back straightened and he felt another flush colour his cheeks, this one spurred on by embarrassment and not whatever foreign mix of emotions he'd been feeling earlier.
"Right, right."
Together, they carried Star over to one of the surrounding benches and gently laid her down. Danny likely could've done it himself, but Sam didn't seem overly keen on letting her newfound friend go.
"Keep her on her side until EMTs get here, okay?" With a gloved hand he pushed the blonde fringe away from the downed woman's airways. At first, interacting with injured civilians had been nerve wracking at best, and absolutely panic inducing at its worst.
Back when he was just a confused teen figuring himself—and his new ghostly persona—out, there'd been multiple occasions when he'd start patrol feeling prepared, and end it a trembling mess, puking his guts out in Tucker's bathroom.
He shoved the memories away, carefully pasting his signature smile back in place. "If she starts seizing or throws up, laying like that'll stop her from choking."
Sam was giving him an odd look in her peripheral vision that he interpreted as worry over his grim pronouncement.
"Um, not that she will seize or vomit. It's just in case, you know?" Again, he had to stop himself from rubbing at the back of his neck. Curse his character quirks.
She nodded at his explanation then pulled out her phone, dialing up Amity's emergency number and pressing it to her ear.
When Danny still hadn't moved, she scowled at him and made a shooing gesture with her free hand, "Go do your thing, ghost boy. I'll handle her."
"R-right, I'm going." He unclipped the modified Fenton Thermos from his belt with a practiced motion, slipping it into his hand and popping the cap.
It felt wrong to leave her alone with an unconscious body, but Danny knew Sam was more than capable of handling herself. He'd seen as much in their scant time together.
Skulker's smaller blob form looked out-cold inside his mech suit, squinty eyes collapsed shut.
Sighing at the strangeness of a situation that he really should be used to by now, he hauled the limbed creature out from the twisted metal and set him down on the ground.
"Skulks? Skulker?" He gave the thing a shake, withholding the urge to slap the small creature in frustration. "Greatest Hunter in the Zone?"
The ghost's eyes snapped open, revealing his naturally red pupils, "Present."
It was still strange to hear the squeaky tone, unmodified by whatever filters were in the suit.
Pinching his nose to keep from doing something stupid—and quite possibly violent—Danny pressed on, "Why are you still pulling these same old stunts? I thought we had a truce."
The blob-like ghost frowned at him. "We had a truce while you were in high school. I'm still determined to catch you. 'Sides," He raised its nonexistent little chin to the sky, "This had nothing to do with you."
"Oh?" Phantom brandished the Thermos, fixing his off-again-on-again enemy with an appraising stare. "It certainly seemed like it did when you blasted me into that tree."
"Self-absorbed whelp." He tossed his tiny head to the side, "Not everything I do concerns you."
"And what little does concern me is already too much. I thought you gave up on your hunt when I reached a level eight point five?"
"I might've." Skulker fixed his beady little eyes on Danny's glowing green ones, "But like I said, this had nothing to do with you."
"Fine," He decided to humour the hunter, even if he didn't entirely believe him. "Care to explain, then?"
For the first time in ten years, the blobby ghost looked perturbed. "You do not know? But you are king, how can you not know?"
Danny let out an annoyed huff, tired of having this conversation again and again.
Ever since he'd beaten Pariah Dark in his teens, the entirety of the Zone had hailed him as their benevolent ruler. It'd taken a lot of convincing and a few well placed ecto-blasts to inform them that, no, he was not their king.
Now, he held a sort of unofficial place as their leader, but had mostly instituted a sort of democracy. Maybe.
Danny had never done particularly well in political science before he 'died', and it'd only gone down hill from there.
"I'm not king and you know it." He fixed the other with a tired glare, "If there's an issue you should've brought it to the council."
The hunter's mouth popped open incredulously, not even bothering to mask his surprise this time. "You have not heard?"
"Heard what?"
"Ghosts are going missing. Half the council has vanished."
Matter of fact, Danny had not heard. Guilt sucker punched him in the gut and left him reeling, that ever-present whisper of protect protect protect going awire at the thought that he'd abandoned them. His people.
It wasn't that he purposefully avoided the Ghost Zone or its inhabitants, it was more so that he had a rocky past with many of them. It was easier just to kick butt and throw them back into the Zone, knowing they'd work out their issues there without causing property damage.
He was a horrible half-ghost not-king, no doubt about it.
"Okay, okay, assuming you're telling the truth, who's been taken so far?" Danny figured Skulker was, for once, being honest. There was no reason for the hunter ghost not to be; unless this was another one of Vlad's convoluted schemes.
"Ember." The blob's face, though relatively incapable of expression, was illuminated by flashing crimson eyes. Barely suppressed anger coloured the air, making it writhe and adding a smoldering kind of dry heat to it. "Ghost Writer, Box Lunch, Technus, and Boxy himself.
The halfa let out a slow breath through his nose, slowly centering himself before he did something stupid. And possibly explosive. "Anyone else?"
"Maybe. I don't know, I'm not the Zone's keeper."
That was a very obvious and pointed jab, which Danny likely deserved to the fullest. "Look," He ran a hand through his pale hair, not really believing he was about to say this, "I'm sorry. Seriously, it's my fault that they're missing. I've just been—"
"Busy." Skulker supplied, though he didn't sound bitter about it this time. His squeaky voice took on a—dare he say it—teasing tone, "I'll fill everyone in on the situation at the next meeting, that way you can get back to messing things up with that black-haired hottie."
Danny literally choked on his own saliva, practically hacking up a lung in the process of clearing his airway. Once he could breath again, the half ghost gave the tiny hunter a shove,
"You can't just go around saying stuff like that! Besides, we just met the other day." He darted a head over his shoulder to make sure Sam wasn't flagrantly listening in, only to find the bench he'd left her at empty.
A jolt of panic coursed through him and he turned in a full circle, floating a few inches off the ground as he frantically searched the surrounding park. "Shoot, shoot shoot shoo—"
The Ghost Zone's 'greatest hunter' cleared his throat, one flubby eyebrow raised in what could only be interpreted as a suggestive manner. "Some nursey people came and brought blondie a stretcher while you were mentally berating yourself, hottie went with them."
Danny raised a hand in a universal time out gesture, that most recent string of sentences being too much for him. "For starters, stop calling her that. Seriously."
Out of the corner of his eye he saw the ghost's other brow join its companion, practically preceding his nonexistent hairline.
"And to finish, stop insinuating what I think you're insinuating."
"Oh, I know you know what I know I'm insinu-whatevering," Skulker gave him a gap toothed grin. "I have not seen our great king show such concern for a civilian before. In fact, I could hear your heart rate and blood pressure begin to rise when she spoke, most of which was concentrating in your lower groi—"
"OH MY GOD!" Danny clapped his hands over his ears, despite knowing his enhanced hearing would still be able to catch every word the other ghost was saying. "Please just stop talking!"
"I was merely making an observation," The hunter said, with no small hint of smug satisfaction.
"Well stop it!" The halfa could feel that familiar green consuming his cheeks again and he clapped his hands over them in horror. "I can't believe I'm actually having this conversation with you."
"It's about time the Phantom pulled his head out of the sand." He leaned as close as his small stature would allow, "And you seem incredibly flustered. Had I known the whelp himself was so subjective to simple schoolboy teasing, I would've exploited it years ago. Look at your face!" Skulker clapped his hands together gleefully, "It's green as a zipple fruit."
"What the hell is a zippl—you know what, never mind. I don't want to know. This failed heart to heart is over." Danny brandished the Thermos, "Either you come quietly, or I let you rot in this thing for a week. What's it gonna be?"
The ghost's lips tilted down in displeasure, though that pleased glimmer still lurked in their corners. "No less than an hour. I've got places to be."
"Yeah, yeah," Danny pressed the button on the side, feeling the contraption pull at the energy wrapped around his core. "Oh, and keep this to yourself."
The blob only grinned as he was sucked away in a whirling vortex, smile stretching as he vanished inside the Thermos.
Before the hunter disappeared, however, Danny thought he heard the faintest so it's a 'this' now, hmm?
He barely managed to repress a groan as he snapped the cap back in place. This was a disaster.
Yet, for some reason, that ditzy smile still wouldn't leave his face.
(A/N): A wild plot has appeared! Try not to spook it :o
I'll keep the ghostly plot stuff to a minimum, cuz this is a RoManCe after all. We here for kisses, not action.
Thanks for reading! And quadruple thanks to Phoenixdellaverita, org 13 is best, alexisnewbery2005, Cyber-Geist, darkangeloflove15, I can cry you a river, ShadowDragon375, ELIZABETH, Guest 1, Guest 2, andsibunasiren10 for reviewing! Y'all encourage me more than I could ever say 33333
In other news, I'm hoping to go back to my regular update schedule (a shorter chapter every couple days instead of a bulky one like once a week), but for now I hope this is okay :/
Have a fantastic (and very safe!) weekend! You're amazing :D
~ASL