Phantom.

Danny Phantom.

Danny mouthed the new moniker to himself. It still felt foreign.

Tucker came up with it earlier today, armed with a thesaurus flipped open to the "ghost" entry. He and Sam had come over to make a game plan for all the escaped spirits that were beginning to haunt the town. As days passed since Danny and Sam's battle in the park, it was becoming clear that they wouldn't be a secret for much longer. The local news had even begun to report on it, but for now they were treating everyone like they were lunatics. An old woman who swore she saw the ghost of her dead son in her backyard was framed as a tragic elder losing her mind to age. A security guard at a local laboratory claiming he saw four-legged monsters roaming the halls at night was used to discuss the dangers of overworking yourself. Miraculously, there were no reported injuries yet. Besides the few people who had seen them, nobody actually believed ghosts were in Amity Park.

That's why it was up to them.

And according to Tucker, that meant giving himself an alter ego.

Danny had protested at first — who would ever think the radioactive looking dead kid had a double life as a high school freshman with increasingly mediocre grades? And if the point was to hide his identity, didn't "Phantom" sound way too close to "Fenton?" But as they argued back and forth, it became increasingly clear that Tucker just wanted to come up with a cool superhero name for his friend. After all, Sam had been the one to name Danny a half-ghost.

It was only fair, Tucker had said.

So "Danny Phantom" it was.

The second part of their plan revolved around avoiding any injuries like the ones from Danny and Sam's fight in the park. Danny had healed quickly enough, but it was obvious that Sam would have scars for a long time, if not permanently. Danny didn't want to let his friends get hurt like that ever again.

That meant they needed some introductory lessons to ghost hunting. There was only one person they knew up for the job, and he was more than happy to comply.

Jack Fenton turned to face the three teens, who were situated uncomfortably in plastic chairs in the lab. "So, Danny…" he said, grinning at his son. "You and your little friends want to hunt ghosts."

Want? Danny thought. It was more like a necessity. No. He'd thought about it, and he knew exactly what he wanted to do with his life. And nothing, not even the accident, was going to get in the way anymore.

"Actually, Dad, I want to be an astronaut."

A.N.: Well, gang, here we are. 202 Word doc pages and eight months later, we're finally at the end of my very first story for DP, and I can honestly say writing this has changed my life forever. It helped me come to terms with having a mental illness, it taught me how to be creative again without just chasing likes or comments, and gave me multiple lifelong friends who have pushed me to pivot careers and begin to pursue my master's degree in teaching. I'm officially done with all the pre-reqs for my program, and I start next month.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me, in particular my beta readers turned dear friends Hazama_d20 and TwilightWakerofTime, who graciously looked over chapters no matter how many times I threw documents at them.

This may be my first DP story, but it will certainly not be my last.

Thank you for letting me be a part of your life, even if just for a few hours.
- Ani