"Smile!"
Holding up an instant camera to her face, Sam clicked and snapped a picture of Danny by the Fenton Portal. It was deactivated and empty and a metallic void, but it was impressive. It was supposedly a portal to a world of ghosts. Impressive. And scary. Ghosts and scary was right up Sam's alley in enjoying horror. So, yeah, impressive. Despite Danny's embarrassment to be holding the hazmat suit with his dad's face plastered on it while he stood beside it.
Tucker was still kind of glad it wasn't turned on and didn't appear to work. Like. What a relief.
"Okay." Danny tossed down the suit, glancing over at the portal, embarrassment of the suit quickly giving way to annoyance. Clearly wanting to leave. Tucker was fully behind that. The tech was interesting and neat, but still. A world filled with ghosts? No thank you sir.
"I showed you the Portal, can we get out of here now? My parents could be back any minute. Besides, they say it doesn't work anyway."
Think of how come there is a world of ghosts, Tucker thought. People had to die. Go to the hospital and die. The hospital. Yeah, no. Tucker was good in not entering or seeing that world.
"Come on, Danny," Sam wheedled. "A Ghost Zone? Aren't you curious? You gotta check it out."
Sam could be curious. Danny could be curious. Tucker could be curious.
But hello people! Ghost Zone! Ghosts. Not meant for humans. Alive ones anyway.
Curiosity didn't mean they had to check it out. Like now. That kind of meant, uh, well…dying first? And they were all kids. Way too young for that. Tucker didn't want to chance anything that got close to the hospital. Nope. Never liked hospitals. There was just something about them. He'd rather not be in one. Checkups were bad enough. Tucker's mom probably didn't get or like or enjoy whatever hang-up Tucker had about hospitals, but they were all one big nope.
NOPE.
"You know what? You're right."
Tucker spun his head over at Danny. What? Well, yeah, Sam wasn't wrong, but…ghosts. Dying. The fact Danny was so resistant to showing them this due to his embarrassment about his parents and their ghost obsession. Actually, that part was great. Getting Danny to show them and to watch his face. Hilarious.
"Who knows what kind of awesome, super-cool things exist on the other side of that Portal?"
Uh, ghosts?
Well, it was a portal. The idea being traveling. Not the more traditional way one would travel. Via possibly the hospital. Besides, it didn't work anyway. What was Tucker fretting about? It should be fi—
Oh god, this was awesome! Danny was putting on the hazmat suit! A source of embarrassment of what his parents nearly always wore, even when outside of the basement lab! It had Jack's grinning face right on the front of it!
Where was Sam's camera? Quick!
"Hang on."
Tucker felt his face fall at the sight of Sam stepping forward to rip off the image of Jack.
"You can't go walking around with that on your chest," Sam declared.
What the hell? What happened to the camaraderie of watching Danny's embarrassment? Or the fact that Sam was the one who absolutely loved and always—always—took photographic evidence of embarrassing moments?
If Tucker had to suffer last week's snapshot of him, then Danny for sure had to suffer too.
It wasn't fair!
And, well, kind of reinforced any thoughts Tucker had that Sam had come to like like Danny the past month or so.
Cautiously, Danny looks inside the interior of the Portal and steps inside. The dim greenish light from the chamber made Danny look as though he really was about to enter another world. Something unsettling sank within Tucker's stomach.
It was fine. Danny walked through the chamber with nothing happening. All good. Even rested his hand on one of the sleek sides of it. It's not like the Portal wor—
Wait.
What was that click?
The humming?
Glowing and lights filling up and the sheer crackling energy Tucker could feel from outside of—
Screams of horrible pain echoed loudly, bouncing off the interior of the chamber, filling up the Portal and the basement.
"DANNY!"
Horrified, images of Danny in the hospital and dying and everything flashed through Tucker's head, Danny barely a silhouette Tucker could see within all the bright light and energy.
His hands gripped tightly, on Sam who was the closest object to him, wanting to run in but sure as hell that was an awful idea. For him, for Sam, for Danny. Danny, who was in there!
"DANNY, THIS WAY! GET OUT OF THERE! THIS WAY! DANNY! DANNY!"
The screams continued.
On and on and on and on.
Sam struggled, but Tucker couldn't loosen his death grip on her.
Death grip.
Images of Sam in the hospital and dying raced through his mind.
The force of his hold on her hurt. Muscles and tendons working overtime. Shaking. Throbbing.
Waves of pain and suffering wailed out from the Portal.
From Danny.
And terrifyingly, slowly began to lessen, began to die off.
Squinting through the light, body amped up in sheer utter absolute fear and terror, Tucker saw Danny's silhouette stand a little less straighter.
"Danny!"
The form inside the Portal stumbled, then fell. A barely perceptible click sounding in Tucker's state. But he heard it. And registered the Portal turning off shortly after. Energy and light and electricity becoming no more. Spots flickered in Tucker's eyes.
There a body lay inside the Portal. Unmoving. Quiet.
Cautiously, as Danny had done minutes—ages ago—Tucker took a step toward the portal.
"D…Danny? Danny?"
There was a gasp and the body shot up, sitting up on the ground, head spinning to Tucker and Sam at the Portal's opening.
Eerie green shone through the spots of Tucker's vision. And it took a heart stuttering moment for Tucker to realize it wasn't the dim lighting of the Portal. But eyes. Glowing, shining, green eyes flashing out from the dim like a cat's eyes when it spotted a vehicle with headlights coming toward it in the dark.
The palest of green hair.
No.
White hair. That looked greenish in the light.
This wasn't…
Tucker took a step back, Sam took one with him, his grip still tight on her.
"Danny?" Sam's voice quavered.
"Ow."
The voiced echoed and echoed again in the chamber.
Rubbing at a head, it turned those eyes off of them and to the side of the Portal.
"Where… Where did Danny go?" Sam's head turned to Tucker, fear wide in her eyes as her voice trembled. "Did it…did it work maybe? He's just in the Ghost Zone, right? We just have to get it back on somehow and—"
"Why did my parents put the power button inside of this thing?"
Both Tucker and Sam stared at the grumbling…person in the Portal.
"Seriously. Why? That rea—"
"Danny?" Tucker asked in disbelief.
This wasn't… That wasn't… No, that couldn't be…
"Yeah. What's with the looks? I mean, everything hurts, but it's kind of like that time as a kid I uh, kind of grabbed a hold of an electric fence? I was a kid! I didn't realize the barbed wire thing would do that! I just wanted to get a closer look at the cows! Which, they're big and could have injured me too, but… It's all good guys! I'm fine!"
The voice echoed and echoed again in the chamber, louder, but it did sound kind of like…
"Danny?"
"Yeah." Face going very unamused, those glowing green eyes leveled a look over at them. "Okay. Seriously guys. What is with the looks? Is my hair standing up on end or something?"
"It's white!" Tucker blurted out. "Your hair is white and dude! Your eyes are glowing! Green!"
"What?" There was laughter. "That's ridiculous, Tucker."
Reserved, Sam spoke up. "They're really green. Really, really, really green."
The hand came off of the head, waving the idea off, laughing. But it was more nervous and uncertain now. "My eyes are blue, just like… Hey. This suit was white, why is it…"
Eyes widening, glowing green shining and flashing brilliantly at Tucker and Sam, panic rushed over them.
Ran right out of the Portal, practically flying out, and Tucker flinched and shuddered at the feeling of being passed through not passed by.
Even before Tucker and Sam turned, the…boy was standing in front of the wash station, hands on the sink and staring wide eyed at the mirror, mouth dropping open in utter shock.
"Wha—what?"
Jaw trembling, a hand reaching up to touch his face and the mirror, the boy yanked his hand back as it went through the mirror. The boy shook his head furiously back and forth, and backed away from the mirror and wash station. Glowing green eyes stared down at his hand, like he'd never truly seen it before. Then panicked, kicking his feet around, staring in wide eyed fear even after his feet landed and stayed on the floor rather than floating inches off of it.
"Sam. Tucker." His voiced echoed. And croaked. Pleading. "Guys, what happened to me? This… This isn't… Did I… Did I die? Am I a ghost?"
No! This wasn't supposed to happen! This wasn't supposed to happen!
This was Danny! He was—
All three of them yelped at the sudden burst of light from Danny.
Then they all blinked. Tucker blinked at Danny. Sam blinked at Danny. Danny looked up and down himself, holding out his hands and staring at his feet and tapping at the ground, blinking in wide eyed reassuringly normal blue at himself.
Danny let out a huge sigh of relief.
"I guess… I guess that was temporary? Whatever that was."
It was not temporary. Danny really had died. And, at the same time, did not die.
Yo, Danny Fenton, he was just fourteen
When his parents built a very strange machine
It was designed to view a world unseen
Desiree had kept his wish.
When it didn't quite work, his folks they just quit
Then Danny took a look inside of it
There was a great big flash, everything just changed
His molecules got all rearranged
Sam and Danny had not died.
When he first woke up he realized
He had snow white hair and glowing green eyes
He could walk through walls disappear and fly
He was much more unique than the other guys
Pushed it. Danny had gotten close. Made the events happen so she could still enter the Human World.
It was then he knew what he had to do
He had to stop all the ghosts that were commin' through
He's here to fight for me and you!
Not that Tucker had any recollection of it to call her out on it. Or to panic over the possibilities with Sam. Or fear what may come after his wording of 'they were just kids' came to pass as they all three reached adulthood.
He's gonna catch'em all cause he is Danny Phantom
Gonna catch'em all cause he is Danny Phantom
Gonna catch'em all cause he's…
Danny Phantom