The Fenton Household. 2024.
Hehehehe . The little boy snickered, tiptoeing up to the bed.
"Diaaaaana, wake up," he softly teased. Big sister was sleeping hard. The curly-haired teen snored obliviously- an arm dropped over the edge of the bed.
He snickered, touching the frame and giggling as his sister fumbled in her sleep, landing on the ground with a plop.
"...Get. Out. Wes."
He let out a rather small 'eep' before making for the door, still holding down his own self-satisfied chuckles.
Little brothers, Diana thought groggily as she stood up through the now tangible bed. She walked to the vanity, getting a load of the tired fourteen year old with aquamarine eyes giving a rather flat look back. She splashed some water in her face, pulling a drawer to remove and slug back the bottom half of a can of energy drink. She knew she shouldn't, but they were useful keeping up the same old Diana with the new threw her old red standby tee- an 'I heart AP' shirt from uncle Tucker's shlocky 'ghost tours'- and pulled on a pair of jeans. She gave herself a second once over in the mirror, "That's it. Now you're ready to waltz down those stairs and act like you weren't up to two AM with the ghost girl last night."
She ran her hand through her hair as she headed downstairs, toward the smell of a fresh cooked breakfast. When mom came through, she came through .
"Mornin, honey," her mother greeted, in the midst of serving up pancakes, "You ready for picture day?"
It had entirely slipped her mind. Diana rubbed her hand vigorously into her face.
Why?
Diana ran over the options in her head as she sat down.
Food first. Then you can figure out how you're going to make yourself look presentable.
Diana ate, not quite realizing til now how much those late nights with the ghost girl had been taking out of her as she savored her mother's cooking.
Her mother raised a brow at first, but shook her head. Clearly her daughter was dealing with pressure.
After breakfast, she rushed up the stairs. She had ten minutes before her friends would be by… time to pick better clothes, or fix her face up a bit. She leaned the latter- after all, only the group photos would really focus on full body. She pulled her mane into a headband, before touching up her cheeks, thankful that it was relatively easier for her to hide her bruises- if it weren't for her mom's side, it'd probably be pretty easy to see she'd taken a fall or two last night. A little concealer on one of the more obvious spots on her face and it was clear.
With that situation under control, she made her way back down, backpack over her shoulder. Diana Fenton was not about to run late for school on Picture day. For once she was out before her friends. Cat and Luna were approaching, but seemed a bit preoccupied- the smaller girl holding the larger girl's hand. She didn't quite make out what was being said until the two were a bit close.
"I just- I want it to be perfect."
"Luna, I'm semi-pro at this make up thing, and you learned from me. You're going to look great in the pictures, if you can just trust in yourself long enough to smile."
Diana gave a small smile. Those two's friendship had always been adorable.
"Heyy, girls."
Luna's gaze darted up as she realized how close they'd gotten. "Morning, Di. You cleaned up nice after last night."
"Yeah, well, you know. It's the old Fenton family luck."
Catalina gave a bit of snort, "right, the same luck that gave you awesome powers your fam disapproves of you using?"
"Oh come on, Cat, they don't all disapprove. I think it's mostly Dad."
"Still enough your aunt has to sneak you out."
"Hey hey, I sneak myself out, thank you. Aunt Dani hasn't had to make an excuse in years."
Diana turned back to Luna as they kept walking, "And look at you, girlfriend! You look ready to kill picture day."
Luna flushed. "Thanks, Di. I guess it's just nerves, but I keep expecting something to happen and mess it up."
Unseen eyes watched the group from the rooftops as they continued on their way to school- the eyes of an old enemy. Or rather, a pair of them in a new form.
"Why aren't we taking advantage of surprise to attack, again?" complained the one that had clearly gotten the short end of the team-up stick, stuck as a face on the chest.
"A hunter doesn't jump the gun," came the terse reply, "The prey might spook, and the ghost child's ghost child is still not fully a known quantity. We wait, we watch. We have observed her combat. But her psyche requires closer observation. Besides, she has the same early warning system as her father. While a strike from range might be initially effective, it would warn too soon."
The hunter trailed the ghost girl and her friends to school… perhaps a bit too closely.
"...and then she says to me, 'you thought I thought a boy would notice this?'"
Luna snickered. Diana was a bit distracted though- her ghost sense had gone off. She stopped. "...you guys go on. I've got a bad feeling."
Cat nodded, "if you're sure."
The two continued into the school- Diana turned away, ducking out of sight to change.
"Goin' ghost," she spoke as her body was enveloped, shifting into her ghost form, her long hair- now white and the black cape of her ghost form blown back in the breeze of the energy. The alley glowed from the green light accenting her suit, a more sophisticated, comic book affair than her dad's, with flared gloves, and a raised emblem- that's what happened when you had a designer for your super suit and an older tutor old enough to coach you in how to change your ghost look.
"It's too late, she's already suspicious," observed the lower.
" Now we fire. Take the battle toward the civilians. Force her to stand her ground."
Diana had begun to rise into the air as the shot was finally fired. The large green beam whizzed at her, and Diana was nearly hit as she dipped in the air to avoid it.
She was taken off guard as she looked and saw a gunmetal black skull faced ghost shrouded in ectoplasmic flame jetting toward her. "What the-"
The punch was too quick on the heels of the blast and she flew backwards in the air, catching herself on the school flagpole before pulling herself upright.
"It's been a long time, Ghost child," came a mocking greeting from the second face on her adversary's stomach. "have you missed us?"
"I think you must have confused me with someone else, four eyes," she shot back, literally and metaphorically as she sent a blast at the ghost, "I've never seen you before in my life."
"You hear that, Skulker? She forgot about us." the lower face spoke with a faux-offended look, as her opponent dodged her fire.
"Well, then, we better introduce ourselves.. not that it'll matter much when she's a trophy," Skulker replied as he fired an energy net, trapping Diana around the flagpole. She tensed as she fought it. She knew those names- Skulker and Technus were two of her dad's old enemies. But why did they know her? No time to think about that. Time to break out something they hadn't seen before to buy her some time. She wrapped her hands around the flagpole, funneling her energies into it and imbuing them to transform the object into something useful to her in the moment- an anime-caliber oversized sword with arm armor, slicing the net handily with the zweihander. "You're pretty confident for someone who could never beat Danny Phantom," she replied, "what makes you think this goes down any different?"
"Because this time, we've got what he had working for him. We're a team," Skulker replied, "all the strengths of his two greatest foes."
"Combined into one tidy package. Skulktech 2.0," continued the lower face. SkulkTech gestured with a hand and the buses in the parking lot began to charge toward the area of the battle. Diana, grateful they were empty by now, held the blade at an angle to slash the tires as the buses angled to box her in, going for a lunge toward the armored ghost. For once, she landed a hit, the zweihander blade digging into the technological armor of his shoulder pretty deep. Skulktech grunted in pain, taking advantage of the fact she'd gotten in close enough to get a shallow dig of his arm blade at her gut before she went intangible and stumbled backward, clutching the wound.. Skulktech tried to move his arm. It moved-barely, and with a constant sparking.
"You caught us by surprise, whelp- but we will return," Skulker spoke, as he backed in a strategic retreat, "you can count on that."
Diana could feel the ectoplasm around the wound- she'd have to revert quick to avoid the injury carrying over. She was thankful for the inadvertent cover of the busses as she resumed the form of Diana Fenton again- just in time for the bells to ring.
"...just my luck. Not only did I lose the fight, I'm late."
Diana tried not to draw attention to herself as she slipped into class. She shared a knowing nod to Cat and Luna, "Did I miss the announcement of picture times?" she whispered.
"Yeah," Cat replied, "Ours is right up next, just before gym. Think you're gonna be okay?"
Diana nodded, "I think I can make it a few hours without messing my look up too much."
"If only everyone were so confident about their ability to withstand classical literature, Miz Fenton," came the rather dry reparteé of their English teacher. The older brunette wore a very, very slightly upturned smile under her black round glasses, "Since you're so outspoken this morning, perhaps you'd like to begin the spoken readings as we finish up our state-mandated Shakespeare for the year?"
Twelve stiff readings of Elizabethan dialogue later…
"Very good. Now, class, can any of you guess why Titus Andronicus was the selection I chose out of the Shakespearean tragedies?" Mrs. Lane asked the class.
The class, still somewhat reeling from the content of the play, had few takers. Catalina thought she had it pinned.
"Making up for lost time, Miss Fenton? Go on."
"I'm going to hazard a guess because a lot of us expected Shakespeare to be boring, and so you picked Titus Andronicus to catch our attention with its…" She looked for a polite word. "Graphic nature."
Mrs Lane nodded, "that's part of the reasoning, but I had something else to take away too. Titus Andronicus has not critically, been a well liked play. Its graphic nature did not play well to the audiences of the time, and even in modern times, critics often struggle to find worth in it. All this to say that in writing, and life, it doesn't matter how talented you are, everyone has blind spots, and everyone has bad ideas. You are not immune, and the sooner you become aware of that, the easier things will be."
"So… we weren't supposed to think the play is good?" came a question from the back.
Mrs. Lane actually chuckled, a rarity. "You know by now I'm here to teach you kids how to think about literature, not what to think about literature. If you enjoyed it, and can support that in your writing assignments, that's perfectly fine."
The bell finally rang.
"Class dismissed."
As the class filed out, in the halls where they could talk freely, Luna and Cat kept close to Diana. She'd been distracted all class. "So, spill. Who did the ghost girl get to send packing?" Cat teased.
Diana looked up. "Well, uh. Actually it was kind of a draw."
Cat's tone changed on a dime, doing her best to pivot from confidence to supportive.
"Well, they must've been someone serious to rattle you."
Diana nodded. "Two of Dad's old enemies somehow merged. What was weirder was, they seemed to know me- and think I should know them- but I've never run into them before. Either way, we both landed kind of lucky hits… and he ran. If he hadn't, I probably would have needed a doctor by the time I dropped down to human."
Cat made a face.
"Eesh. Maybe your aunt can give you more specific tips," Cat suggested.
"Exactly what I was planning to do after school," Diana replied, "I just hope he doesn't decide to come in closer. I don't need any more close calls today."
"Absolutely," Cat agreed, "The last thing we need today is pictures to get messed up." She gave a little playful grin to Luna, who gave a bashful smile.
"Caaat, c'mon, you know I'm all keyed up today."
There was a laugh from the other side of the hall, "Psssh, those girls getting all worked up over pictures . Can you imagine having so little going on?"
Luna winced, looking like she felt about ten inches tall.
Rebecca Stone. Ugh . Diana rolled her eyes, turning to face the infuriatingly chill girl, who cast judgmental eyes over them.
"Shut up, Rebecca. Just because you're not worried doesn't mean something's wrong with us," Cat shot back before Diana could speak.
"Pfff, Who even cares about school photos for yearbook anymore? Pictures happen all year round, and it's not like you three are even anywhere outside your individual photos. You can worry all you want about your lame portraits, I'll take my Instasnap experiences every day of the week."
Diana took Cat's hand, "You're not gonna change her mind, only gonna rub yourself in the drama."
"I know, I know, just-"
The drama would be interrupted by a crash several rooms over, followed by the telltale scattering of students and- yep, ghost sense. Right on cue , thought Diana, just what I needed now. Time for an exit stage right.
"Ugh, you just thrive on this stuff, don't you, Manson ?" she interrupted, glad to have an 'in' to their usual mode of excuse.
"Wha- oh, you like to think that, don't you, Fenton ? Why don't you go cry like you care , that's what you're good at!"
Diana hid her face in her hands as she ran toward the girls' room. Partly to hide that she still wasn't the greatest at keeping a straight face during all this. But an empty girls' room was the most convenient way to duck out and return to the halls as Di Phantom. Invisible gliding through the halls to the source of the disturbance, she found exactly what she expected.
"Skulktech. Back for a rematch?"
"So you finally arrived, ghost child. We were starting to think maybe you weren't here," spoke Skulker.
Skulktech had one of the other students in his grasp- one Diana recognized too well. Luna seemed less terrified than perhaps she should be by this, struggling against the larger ghost.
"But we figured endangering the humans would draw you out," Technus continued.
Diana raised a hand. " students. Alone."
"Ohoho, I struck a nerve there, didn't I?" Skulker taunted, "Good. Now that we have your attention, ghost girl. We told you this wasn't over."
Diana took a moment to process that. Skulktech tossed Luna down, leveling a blaster.
Diana just barely dodged the blast, phasing open a locker door to catch it so it couldn't hit anyone in the hall.
"Do we have to do this here? " she replied, using the locker door as cover, taking a shot back, "you have no fight with these people!"
He grinned as the ecto blast glanced across his armor. "Can't go fishing without hurting a few worms, girl."
Diana weighed her options, dropping below the floor, barely avoiding a few blasts before rising up behind Skulktech and delivering a blow to the back of the head. Skulktech wavered forwards a moment on their lack of legs,quickly spinning with a punch from their free arm. Diana backed, now stuck between a wall and Skulktech.
"Ghost girl, think fast!" came a call from Luna's side. Diana turned just in time to catch sight of Catalina, who tossed a combination lock her way. Diana grinned, knowing exactly where Cat was going. Diana gripped the lock in her hands, channeling ecto energy into the object, the metal bar latch lengthening into a curved hook. Diana jabbed upward, the hook racking into Skulktech's armor. Skulktech backed as the sparks flew, and Diana took the opportunity to flee to the right, through a door to the right. Diana winced as she realized this actually lowered her space to maneuver- she'd barreled into the natatorium. Skulktech came at her with the arm blade again, but this time Diana caught them with the hook.
"Just because I'm a teenager doesn't mean I don't learn from my own mistakes, two-face." She used the hook to yank and throw Skulktech off balance, before following with a high kick, sending the larger ghost into the pool. Skulktech sank like a stone, sparks fizzling from the gash in contact with water.
"I thought you said this armor was waterproof!" Skulker fumed as he tried to move.
"Water resistant to a depth of 6 feet! We were going into the suburbs, not diving!" Technus replied defensively as the pair ejected from the suit, retreating.
Diana breathed a sigh of relief. "That handles them for a while," she comments, ducking into the lockers adjacent to the natatorium to revert to Diana Fenton before making her way to the gym where pictures were. The class was a bit antsy and Diana wasn't the first or last latecomer with what'd happened. Catalina and Luna had made it there first, and Cat tried her best not to laugh as she saw Diana coming. Diana tilted her head. Luna gestured to the side of her neck, and Diana reached for her hair- only to realize it was standing up and out a bit from the exposure to electricity. She winced.
"Next portrait… Fenton," came a call from the other side of the room. Diana sighed as she resigned herself to her fate.
Several hours later…
Diana had texted her parents lying that she was going to hang with Luna and Cat this afternoon- she hated having to lie, but her Dad was very clear about his thoughts on her using her powers. She made her way through the sky as Diana Phantom, a bit of a sense of foreboding tinging the usual excitement she had for going to visit her favorite aunt. She landed in an alley by the apartments to take the normal way up to Aunt Dani's apartment on the fourth story of the building, knocking the door. A few moments later the familiar face of her very youthful aunt is there- Dani's look had always amused Diana for how 'young' it looked- bright greens, bare midriff, edgy undercut.
"Di, come on in! Wasn't expecting you today," greeted the energetic, youthful for her age ghost-lady, "How's my favorite niece today?"
Diana can't help but give a smile as she walks into Dani's studio apartment, "Unfortunately it's not just to see you today, Aunt Dani," Diana replies.
"So what are we looking at then?" Dani asked, "Problems with your powers? Something new happening?"
Diana shakes her head.
"Nothing quite that easy. I was attacked by something… really strange today," she replies, as she takes a seat on the couch in Dani's living room "Two of Danny Phantom's old enemies I recognized from your files, but very different."
Dani raised a brow, leaning in a bit from the chair she'd taken a seat in. "Can you tell me a little more, Di?"
"Technus and Skulker," Diana continued, "Your files said they hadn't been seen in years. But they showed up today, and they were fused into one body. To make it all weirder, they seemed to think I'd run into them before."
Dani winced. "...It's a long story, Diana, and I really shouldn't be the one to tell it. I only know what happened secondhand."
Diana's turn to lean in. "And?"
Dani weighed her options, "I promised your dad I wouldn't tell you when he realized you wouldn't remember it. But I guess it's your problem now, so I shouldn't keep it from you. You know how when you first started asking me I told you your dad and I had a disagreement and that's why I still fight ghosts, and he doesn't?"
Diana nodded.
"When you were very small, Diana, before I lived here, something happened with you. One of his enemies had you in danger and from how he tells it, you nearly died. Your dad got real spooked, and he decided ignoring the problem was the best way to make sure nothing ever happened again. That's what our disagreement was. A bit after that was when I moved in here. I thought your dad was being real stupid about things, and your aunt wasn't about to let him take the risk of just, well, letting ghosts go un-fought, so I came out and started fighting. I tried to get him to get off his butt and help, but even though your mom agreed with me, he was too chicken to accept that taking the chances would make everyone's lives better."
Diana was a bit broadsided by the whole notion. It was a big thing to take in, and it really made her think a lot more about how her mom and dad had reacted to her powers, and to her reactions to her powers and her Aunt growing up.
"...Wow," Diana replied after a moment.
Dani was not quite certain where to take it herself. "...I know it's a lot, and… I'm not saying your Dad was stupid, but, I hope you understand I'd agreed not to talk to you about it."
Diana chuckled, "Eeeeyeah. I… I can see why this is a sore subject for both of you."
Dani gave a little understanding smile, about to speak before being interrupted by a bass-line coming from her phone. She fished in her suit's pocket, and looked down, before giving Diana a bit of a grin.
"Well, I'm glad this one came in while you were here."
"Why, what's going on?"
"It's your dad. He wants me to bring the ghost girl I've been training on by, to be a part of family dinner this evening."
Diana blanched. Ohhhhh boy.