updates will be slower now bc i'm all out of backlog. lemme know what you think of this fic! enjoy :3

The Nasty Burger, as it turns out, is a fast-food joint in town that all the local teenagers frequent. The trio and Phantom aren't the first to arrive, nor are they the last. Ellie grabs the four of them a booth, throwing their things across the vinyl seats, then hops back to them to take her place in line between Tucker and Sam.

Phantom scans over the menu, excited at the prospect of eating human food, courtesy of Sam. He can't remember the last time he took the time to eat something in the human realm, let alone something from a fast-food joint, so he frantically scans the menu for something small and innocuous enough that he can feasibly enjoy without worry about whether he would enjoy it.

By the time it's Sam's turn to step up the counter, he's decided on a simple milkshake. He passes along his request and not long after, the four are settled in the booth Ellie grabbed, the boys on one side, girls on the other.

The humans—and one half-ghost—dig in eagerly, while Phantom sips his shakes with much less haste. Sam keeps shooting him questioning looks and even Tucker spares him glances in between ravenously devouring his burgers. Only Ellie seems unbothered, if only because Phantom can see her struggling with maintaining tangibility on her hands.

The next time her hands lose their solidity, Phantom reaches over without a second thought and grabs them. As their intangible hands meet, she gasps and looks up at him, her blue eyes wide. "Focus on your hands," Phantom tells her, redirecting her attention to her malfunctioning powers. "You have to want them to remain solid. You have to believe that they're there, that they have substance, that they exist here and now."

Ellie nods and takes a deep breath, squinting at their joined hands. They flicker once or twice, and then they're solid again. His hands fall through hers without something to grasp, and he gives her a smile. "Hey! Good job!"

"I did it!" She laughs once and goes back to her food, offering him a smile of her own. "Thanks."

He pulls his hands back and drops his powers, taking a swig of his milkshake. "It's really no problem. Your powers are like a muscle that you need to stretch. You have to get used to the feeling of them in order to control them better." He gives a half shrug. "All ghosts have to practice at some point."

The humans think it over a bit, Sam and Tucker included. Then Sam says, "So, are you gonna tell us more about ghosts, or are you just here to mooch milkshakes from me?"

Phantom claps his hands and rises and inch above his seat. "Oh! Right!" He looks between then and leans in a bit, letting gravity take him again. "I asked this earlier, but we got interrupted. How much do you actually know about ghosts?"

Ellie bites her lip and furrows her brow. "We only really know as much as my parents have told us. Mom says that ghosts are 'ectoplasmic manifestations of post-human consciousness,' but I don't know how much I believe that."

Phantom nods, contemplative. "Well, that's… true in a sense, but not entirely correct. Not every ghost was once alive. Some ghosts were born as ghosts, and others are formed from strong enough ideals and morals. One of my mentors is a giant ice yeti and the other is the Master of Time. Neither of them was ever alive, but they're as much ghosts as me," he gives Ellie a look, "and you."

Sam and Tucker exchange glances while Ellie frowns, putting a hand on her chest. "You said something about a ghost Core. What is that?"

"All ghosts have a Core. Most of them aren't really anything special, but there's quite a few that are, for one reason or another. Lots of the special cores correspond to the elements." Phantom sets a hand down on the table and looks at them over his sunglasses. His ecto-green eyes shift to a cold, icy blue and the others watch in awe as ferns of frost spread across the table away from his hand. He pulls his hand back, leaving the frost, and his eyes go back to normal. He slides the glasses back up and smirks at them. "Mine is ice, obviously."

"That's wicked cool," Ellie murmurs, reaching out to tentatively touch the frost. The spiral she touches immediately melts under her fingers and she frowns, disappointed. "Aww."

Phantom leans in, intrigued. "Oh, interesting."

Sam raises a brown at him. "What do you mean, 'interesting?'" she growls, demanding his attention. At her side, Ellie looks mildly concerned.

"Oh," Phantom says, sitting back a bit, "nothing bad." He turns to Tucker and gestures for the frost. "You guys, you touch it too. You'll see what I mean in a second."

Sam and Tucker frown at each other, then set their fingers on the ice. It sits there, innocently, then slowly dissolves under their body heat.

Tucker's eyes go wide. "It's… slower?"

"Exactly," Phantom says, smiling at them. "I didn't really notice a few minutes ago, but." He reaches a hand for Ellie. "Hold my hand."

Ellie gives him a strange look but complies. Her hands are hot in his own, and he likens it to near scalding water. She stares their hands for a moment, astounded. "Your hands are cold," she murmurs.

"And yours are very much not. My best guess is that you'll develop some heat-based abilities, like fire or electricity, and your core runs hot." Phantom nods his head at their hands and says to the others, "Feel the difference for yourselves."

Sam levels him with a Look but reaches over the same time Tucker does. "Huh."

Tucker gapes. "Wow. I had no idea ghosts could be warm." He laughs and looks at Phantom. "Cold? Yes. But hot? Not at all." He takes his hand back and rubs them together. "Cold's kinda the horror movie standard, you know?"

Phantom's head tilts and he adopts a thinking pose. "I can see where it comes from," he says. "The Infinite Realms isn't exactly a warm place, and ghosts tend to run colder than humans in general. Most places are definitely colder than here, but not as cold as, say, the Far Frozen." He shrugs and shakes himself out of his thoughts. "Hit me with something else you don't know about ghosts."

"What's the 'Infinite Realms?'" Sam asks next, stabbing her salad with a fork.

"Oh, it's the place where ghosts are from. A parallel dimension that exists alongside the human realm." Phantom frowns and looks at Ellie. "You have portal to the Realms in your basement. How did your parents know about it if they didn't know what it was called?"

"They call it the Ghost Zone."

Phantom's laugh is loud and sudden. He reigns it in quickly, but not before their table receives the odd glare or two from the other patrons.

"The Ghost Zone? That's the most ridiculous name I've ever heard." Phantom snickers a bit more, then shakes his head. "It makes us sound like, I dunno, cartoon-y monsters, instead of a whole mess of beings. Sure, we're not human, but that doesn't really mean we're much different than them. You," he tacks on the end, pointing at Ellie.

She shifts uncomfortably under his finger, so he drops it, brow furrowing. "What? Was it something I said?"

Sam cuts in, "Everything we've ever heard about ghosts paints you in a bad light. The Fentons say all ghosts are evil, but they've ever even seen a real ghost, so it sounds to me like they're being bigoted and judgmental." She looks at the other girl. "No offense, Ellie."

Ellie sinks in her seat a bit. "None taken."

Phantom frowns. "That's a lot to unpack, but we'll start with this. They've never seen a ghost before?" He leans in, eyes narrowed behind his shades. "Ever?"

Ellie bites her lip and shakes her head.

Sam and Tucker pointedly look anywhere else, and he straightens. "So, they don't know you're half ghost." No one answers. "That's rough," he says, voice low. He sips his milkshake in the silence that follows. "Not all ghosts are evil," he says eventually. The others focus intently on their food. "Most of us just wanna be left alone. Most of us just stay in the Realms and mind our own business."

"Then why did you show up?" Tucker asks, shooting him glances from the corner of his eye. "If most of you like to stay there and not cause trouble?"

Phantom slumps, crosses his arms, and gazes out the window. He sighs. "Curiosity, mostly. I came across the portal on my side of the veil and I thought it just looked so weird and out of place that I had to come check it out. Then the Box Ghost showed up and he told me what it was, and he told me about the hunters, and I just couldn't resist the urge to check it out.

"This isn't my first time in the human realm, nor will it be my last. This is just the first permanent portal I've ever seen." Phantom shrugs. "I didn't even think it was possible, but here we are."

"Why were you at the school?" Sam asks, eyes hard and maybe a little suspicious. She's incredibly protective of her friends, even Phantom can tell.

"I've never seen it in full color before. A ghost I know lives in a black and white version of it, so I wanted to check it out." He looks her in the eyes, hoping to impress his honestly across to her. "That's all there was to it, seriously. Then I heard that little spat in the hallway, and I recognized Ellie's last name, and I just watched you guys for a bit. It wasn't supposed to be this whole thing." His hands gesture at the four of them.

"I believe you," Ellie says, voice strong. "You haven't done anything to any of us, and you've been here all day. I believe you."

Phantom smiles at her, grateful. "Thanks. I appreciate that." His eyes light up, metaphorically and literally as an idea hits him. "So," he says, hoping to up the dramatics. "That said, I have a proposition for you." He snatches the sunglasses from his face and leans on the table, hoping he looks cool and confident. "Let me be your mentor."