Author's Note: I own nothing.
4 A Bit Of Control
It took them a few minutes to calm down from their laughter Dani still holding the bunny. Tanya frowned.
"That looks so weird. It looks… glooby." She frowned in disgust and Dani laughed again, her voice slipping back to normal. Dani shrugged running a finger over the bunny's head.
"It actually doesn't feel that weird. Wanna touch him?" Sam frowned standing from the desk chair and carefully stepping over to Dani.
"Are you sure it's safe?" He asked frowning slightly. Dani nodded.
"Of course. I'd never let anything happen to you guys." The comment was causal, and she looked more content in that moment than she had since the accident but still for a brief moment Sam saw her eyes flicker green. He shook his head, maybe that one had been a trick of the light. He shook it off slowly reaching out to the bunny blob. It seemed to sniff his hand for a moment before letting out a shrieking squeak and nestling into Dani's hand. "It's ok. He's not gonna hurt you." The bunny looked at her for a moment searchingly. Then it hopped down her arm, leaving a trail of ectoplasm as it sniffed at Sam again and this time allowed him to gently run a single finger over its head. Satisfied that Dani had been telling the truth the bunny settled into the crook of her elbow and by all appearances went to sleep. Tanya giggled as Dani grinned. Sam though was thinking as he wiped the ectoplasm off his hand.
"How did it get here though?" That single question made Dani go as pale as her ghost form without ever changing.
"The portal's still open." With that she sank through the floor. Tanya and Sam raced out of Dani's room and down to the lab. They found Dani standing in front of the portal which was still open, swirling almost hypnotically. They stepped up to her, one on either side. She shook her head as if just noticing they were there.
"This thing has been open since yesterday. Who knows what all got out of here. Something tells me not every ghost is gonna be harmless like this little guy." Dani said gently tapping the bunny on the nose. It squeaked seeming to wake up and notice where they were. It nosed at the air for a moment then hopped down out of Dani's arms and back through the portal. Her arm was left covered in ectoplasm. She frowned. "What if something dangerous got out? My parents are ghost hunters who've never even seen a real ghost." Silence rang through the room as the gravity of the situation settled over them.
"I mean you have superpowers now." Tanya's comment was joking but Dani turned to her looking like she'd just handed her all the answers she was looking for.
"Yes I do." Sam caught on to what Dani was thinking and frowned slightly.
"You want to fight ghosts?" Dani frowned.
"Not really but I opened the portal, it's sort of my fault if they get out in the first place. So, it would be my fault if they hurt someone." This time when she looked back at the portal there was conviction in her eyes. Tanya was grinning.
"You even have a secret identity." She said bouncing slightly. Sam frowned, but Tanya was on a roll. "When you first came out of the portal I barely recognized you. As long as you don't get too close to someone who knows you really well no one should recognize you as a ghost." Dani nodded slightly.
"That's not a bad idea actually." Dani said and Tanya bounced as Sam face palmed.
"You just need a cool name! Like Ghost Girl. Or The Female Phantom!" Sam shook his head.
"You do remember that your parents hunt ghosts right? What if they see you?" He pointed out.
"What if they get hurt?" Dani shot back. "All their tools and training has never been tested. I don't even know if any of this stuff really works." She said gesturing around the room and Sam frowned nodding.
"Fair but…"
"There's no but. I need to figure how to use these powers I've got to do some good." Sam nodded.
"That's noble but we're gonna need a safe place for you to train."
Somehow that led to Tanya's dad driving the three of them to a small campsite near Amity Park the next day after school. Sam's parents had apparently rented them a plot to camp out for the weekend, they'd be staying in a cabin nearby, but the three teens would be on their own for the most part. They'd gotten Jack and Maddie to agree easily enough, Maddie didn't want Dani anywhere near the ghost portal after the accident. Jazz agreed that Dani getting out of the house was a great idea. They'd be staying the weekend there, heading back on Sunday which left them that night and all of Saturday for some practice. Sam finished setting up his tent and headed back outside to help the others. Dani's tent was all set up but Tanya was having some troubles with hers so Dani was helping hammer in a few of the tent spikes into the ground Sam frowned.
"Should you be doing that with your hand messed up?" He asked and Tanya swore.
"Sorry Dani with everything that's been happening I totally forgot about your burn." Dani shook her head.
"Well, that's actually not a problem anymore." She unwrapped the bandage from around her hand, revealing a fully healed shiny pink scar. It looked like someone had trapped a perfectly circular spray of lightning under the skin of Dani's palm. Sam took her hand and frowned. It looked old, way older than two days.
"How did you heal so fast?" Dani shrugged.
"No clue. Had to google how long it takes burns to heal. Normally forty-five days. It barely took me three." Tanya pulled off her beret wiping away the sweat and pulling a face.
"That shouldn't be physically possible." Dani nodded.
"I know, I have a theory though. Sam, can I borrow your knife?" He pulled his pocket knife out of his boot and handed it over.
"Yeah why?" She shook her head tucking the knife into her pocket for a second as she pulled a duffle bag out of her tent.
"I snuck into the lab last night and grabbed some equipment." She opened the duffle and pulled out a small cube. Tossing it onto the grass she watched as it popped open into a table, it was small but big enough that they could work with it easily. She pulled two boxes of beakers out of the bag and set them on the table. She also pulled out a first aid kit, setting all of the items onto the table. Tanya and Sam frowned.
"Um what are you doing?" Tanya asked as Dani pulled Sam's knife out of her pocket.
"Testing a theory." And with no more warning than that she ran the blade of the knife over the pad of her thumb. Tanya gasped and Sam lunged forward to stop her but she had already stopped and was staring at the blood welling from the cut. "Is it just me or is my blood glowing?" Sam pushed his panic aside and lifted her cut thumb to his eye level. If she hadn't pointed it out he might not have noticed. It wasn't overly bright but yes, her blood was glowing. Tanya frowned at them.
"And this tests your theory how?" She asked popping open the first aid kit. Dani shook her head.
"Well it tells me I need to not get cut around my parents, as oblivious as they can be there's no way they won't notice glowing blood." Sam nodded reaching for a band aid from the kit, he wrapped it around her bleeding thumb. She frowned.
"But I was gonna see what happens when I transform." Sam laughed lightly at Dani's pout.
"So you figured out how to do it when you want to?" He asked. She wrinkled her nose at him.
"Well no." Sam nodded slightly.
"Maybe let's start there?" She nodded and they began. They worked for hours, trying to figure out just how her powers worked and by the time the moon was up none of them were any closer to figuring it out. But she had managed to successfully transform twice. They wound up roasting marshmallows and sausages around the fire watching the stars shooting ideas around the campfire of what her superhero name should be.
"I like Phantom." Dani stated firmly.
"I still like Specter." Sam offered but Dani shook her head.
"My parents have been drilling me on the difference between types of ghosts for years. A specter is defined as a threat. I don't want to be a threat." Dani stated staring into the fire. Sam shrugged popping a marshmallow in his mouth.
"But why Phantom?" Tanya asked and Dani frowned, leaning back against the log they where using as a bench. She stared up at the sky for a moment.
"Mom always said that there was only one kind of ghost that wasn't real. She called them Phantoms. A Phantom was an idea, one without a real form like other ghosts. A Phantom could be anything, a Phantom could be good. Which is why mom always insisted they weren't real." She pulled her slightly charred marshmallow out of the fire with a frown.
"So are you just going with just Phantom?" Tanya asked. Dani frowned.
"I mean I like my name. I think Dani Phantom works. What do you guys think?"
"It's a bit risky. I mean Dani Fenton, Dani Phantom. There's not much difference." Sam pointed out but Dani grinned as she skewered another marshmallow.
"But think about it this way. No one is going to associate the name of a ghost hunter with a ghost." Dani said holding her marshmallow over the fire. Tanya nodded.
"That's one way of thinking about it."