Hello viewer! Welcome to my first chapter of Blessings and Curses, if the name sticks. I have been in a bit of a rut recently when it comes to developing my own content. In response to this, I have decided to return to form. What I mean by that is writing about something that no one has given to me as a recommendation. Therefore, I have decided to write about something with minimal existing content, and something that I was nostalgic for.

Once again, I have chosen to do an OC-driven story. I believe that this is the best way for me to reflect on my own thoughts on the world, and how they might develop throughout it. I try my best to integrate them into the world of this story. That means I try to stay away from Mary Sues/Gary Stus, develop realistic friendships/relationships, and guide the unowned characters in a realistic direction based on the OC existing. I totally get that some of you turn away from that, and I respect that. I implore you to check out the story and see if you connect with it.

The premise of the story is this: A 17-year-old named Kirk Blakely has abilities that he views as a curse. He has been living with these abilities for about four years. He has decided to seek the help of Danny Phantom for help, the details of which will become known pretty quickly. Of course, there are ghosts and enemies of Danny that wish to use Kirk's abilities for their benefit, and Kirk's existence will become a complicating factor in Danny's and his friend's lives. I am still working on a big baddie at the time of the release of this chapter, but I plan to have them involve multiple unowned characters.

I do plan pairings, but they are hardly solid at this moment. The most solid would be Danny & Sam (the usual go-to), with the OC, Tucker, Ember, Valerie, other ghost antagonists, and the A-List cast playing varying roles. The named ones are definitely playing more major roles. Realistically, pairing with OC and Ember will probably occur with SLOW burn (as I prefer). I will also try not to completely OC characters that are not owned by me, if you get what I mean.

My default rating is M. Don't read too much into that as I prefer the freedom to write what I feel. If you have any questions regarding any of this, feel free to message me. I hope this interests you, and I thank you for checking my story out.

NOTE: For disclosure, I only own my OCs. The rest is not mine, and I do not claim it.

Let's get to it.

Chapter 1: Journey Finally Complete

Early August 2006

Darkness and silence persisted through the night over the road in the middle of nowhere. More precisely, it was ten miles or so from Lake Superior. Suddenly, a dim light lit up the surface of a road with the deep roar of a bus engine.

Another big jostle stirred those that chose to ride the midnight bus between the towns approaching the Great Lakes area as it had become customary for this backroad. The backroad happened to be a bit rougher, and the pitch-black night made it nearly impossible to navigate around without a bump here and there. Those taking the bus weren't exactly there for the comfort seeing as they chose to deal with this for the cheaper tickets.

Among the passengers, which included a couple of men who looked like stereotypical hobos, was a teen who looked to be about 17 years old. His brown boots were firmly planted on the floor while his legs were seemingly relaxed in the beige outdoorsman pants that covered them. His armed were folded together into his solid black shirt as they seemed to try and grasp for some warmth. He lifted his from awakening due to the bumpy ride.

His head brushed through his light brown hair while his forest green eyes looked around at the dimmed interior of the bus. He tugged on one of the earbuds that were in his ears to free it only for him to hear the continuous droning of the bus in motion. He took a quick glimpse outside of the bus to see that he couldn't distinguish much beyond the general form of the terrain.

Suddenly, his stomach gave a small growl as he found himself desiring some sort of food. He turned to the compact backpack on the seat beside him and began to rummage through it looking for anything that might satiate his hunger. To his relief, an energy bar was easy to find. That relief soon became a feeling of dread as he realized that he had only a couple more bars before he would be out of food entirely. A frown encompassed his features.

A slurred grumble behind him caught his attention, "HwyM, kud. You got anythimg inn thay bag fpr me?"

The speech was barely understood in English, but the kid understood it as 'Hey, kid. You got anything in that bag for me'. Even though they were a couple of rows back and in the other row, the smell of booze floated all the way up to him. All he did was dismissively shake his head before responding curtly, "No. Nothing."

The friend of the first one acted like he was whispering, "We voukd just take iT. It twoo od us versus hum."

The kid decided not to respond as he didn't feel at all threatened by the remarks. Instead, he continued to plan as he took his wallet out of his pocket before opening it up. The first thing that came into view was his old school identification with a much younger version of himself. It wasn't anything fancy. It showed his I.D. number, his picture, and his name, Kirk Blakely.

Kirk didn't even spend a second reminiscing as he opened every pocket trying to gauge how much money he had left. After the bus ticket and food expenditures from a couple of days ago, he was left with only $4.50.

A small curse escaped his lips as his options would be severely limited when he finally got to his destination. Sleeping in an abandoned location, cleaning in the river, and probably stealing again. The last one brought on a lot of guilt, but it was something he was going to have to focus on later since it resides at the bottom of his priorities.

A small jolt brought Kirk out of his thoughts as he looked to see that they were approaching a white building lit up by surrounding lights. Seeing as this was just off to the side of the road along with restrooms, a closed restaurant, and a small motel, it could be surmised that this was a bus depot. It wasn't surprising that this was here, it was more surprising as to why they were stopping there.

The bus rounded a corner before coming to a stop at some of the bus parking. The interior lit up to a nearly blinding degree compared to the outdoors. Finally, the bus seemed to sink a little with a very audible sound of the hydraulics releasing air.

The bus driver got up from his seat and turned to the very few people on the bus, "Alright, everyone off the bus. This is the end of the line."

Kirk was a little confused while he looked around to see that they weren't anywhere close to the city. He got up from his seat and swung his backpack over his back. He reached under the seat and picked up a duffle bag and slung that over himself.

Kirk slowly approached the driver, "I thought that the end of the line would be in the city."

The driver pointed to the motel on the other side of the road, "You can rest there for the evening and make your way into the city at dawn."

"That wouldn't be necessary if you just finished the route like I paid for."

The bus driver yawned as he rubbed his balding head, "Look, kid, I don't get paid overtime, so I don't really care what you paid for. I am tired, so I am going to follow my own advice and rest at the motel."

Kirk's fist clinched a little in irritation. The journey that he had taken had been an exhausting one filled with hungry days and sleepless nights. With him being this close, his patience had run out completely. He approached a little closer with a narrowed gaze glaring daggers through the driver's skull as the driver grabbed some of his personal items.

At the back of the bus, the two drunk men tried to stumble to their feet as they tried to get their bearings. Their actions were completely ignored as Kirk spoke with a sharpness toward the bus driver, "It is important that I get to-"

The driver seemed to have enough of the backtalk as he took on a more hostile tone, "I am not going to use what free time I have to follow some punk's beckoning call. If you wanted to reach your destination today, you should have left on an earlier bus." He turned his attention back to what he was doing. He failed to notice the deep crimson that slowly corrupted Kirk's Iris and the darkness that covered the white of his eye. His features seemed to go blank as if he wasn't conscious but in a trance.

The driver continued to speak without looking over, "I am off the clock and not making any more money today. Therefore, you aren't my problem."

The driver began to descend the steps. He didn't make it that far before something latched onto his foot. He looked down to see a claw made of some dark vapor latched around his ankle. He didn't even have a moment to process it before he was lifted into the air in an inverted manner back at the top of the stairs looking down the aisle.

While upside down, he still couldn't mistake the dark aura that encompassed the teen. The aura looked like the blackest smoke with glowing red like something was burning here and there. The claw extended from the smoke as if it were a formless creature of some sort. The color of Kirk's skin also seemed to disappear as if death had taken a hold of him.

The bus driver broke out in a cold sweat as he feared what might happen next. To his dread, another claw, and arm formed from the aura and grabbed onto his chest. He was quickly flipped up right before he was drilled into the windshield with a loud crack. His vision went fuzzy all the while he couldn't look away from the teen.

Kirk finally spoke, "How about I solve all of your problems for you really quick."

The driver was too petrified to even respond in any way. Instead, he seemed to see enough as he passed out on the spot. That didn't stop Kirk from forcing the driver into the windshield even more resulting in more fractures forming in the glass.

Words of fear behind him stopped him in his tracks, "G-G-Ghost."

Kirk looked around at the two drunks to see the fear in their eyes. The dark aura around him disintegrated, and the crimson and blackness of his eyes revealed the green and white form before. The unconscious form of the drive slumped to the floor while Kirk held onto his head as a massive headache overtook him.

Kirk suffered through the headache as he grabbed his stuff and quickly disembarked the bus. After that little episode, it was probably best to leave this place and walk the rest of his journey.

Small curses were spoken under Kirk's breath as he finally left the depot. 'It was foolish of me to allow myself to get that upset'. That wasn't the first time something like that happened. Negative feelings always released whatever was inside him and ruined his chances at a calm life. He would end up losing a job or end up ruining some friendship one way or another…

Kirk had no choice but to reminisce on the past as he walked down the dark road with no headlights in sight. These dark memories always ended up leading to one in particular, and that was the memory of how this all happened. Actually, it was probably better to describe it as a lack of memory.

Four Years Ago

The eyes of a younger Kirk slowly opened to dimmed surroundings of his family's personal laboratory, except he was laying on the floor. His head was in pain from the migraine that persisted even as his senses came back to him. However, that pain was nothing compared to the searing pain located right between his shoulder blades. It felt as if a cattle prod had been used on him there. Out of instinct, he reached his hand there to feel the spot only to be instantly burned.

Kirk drew in a sharp breath. He tried to steady himself on one of the tables holding scatted papers. He massaged his temples in an attempt of trying to remember what had happened. The memories were slow, but they managed to come back one at a time.

*Remembering*

His parents were physicists contracted by the government to research dimensional spaces to pave the way for travel on top of other uses. Well, that is at least how they tried to explain it to Kirk.

Well, a projector as a part of their most recent experiment seemingly malfunctioned and ended up opening a rift. Kirk remembered the excitement of his parents at the glowing green portal that obscured what was on the other side.

Kirk remembered his father's excitement from the portal, 'It is more exquisite than I could ever dream of.'

His mother's response seemed equal to his in awe, 'I thought we were at least a few months away from a practical test.'

Kirk finally steadied himself on the table before remembering how their awe turned into hesitation and then into fear. The portal seemed to be changed into a red before the figure of someone else appeared on the other side.

His father's panic echoed in his mind, 'Turn it off!'

'I can't!'

The figure slowly walked through. They wore a tattered cloak that obscured their entire body while their eyes glowed visibly from even Kirk's position from the other side of the room. A white hue that took intense focus to notice surrounded the figure. The deep and commanding voice of the figure spoke in an incantation with what sounded like a dead language.

While Kirk's parents stared at the figure, the figure's eyes rested solely on Kirk. One of Kirk's parents, what Kirk thought was probably his father, threw one of their notebooks at the figure. Each of them was tightened once they saw the notebook phase right through the figure as if they and the air were the same.

The figure outstretched its hand, one completely devoid of skin or muscle, at Kirk right as they finished their chanting. At the speed of a bullet, a dark cloud flew out and struck Kirk. The cloud slowly sunk into Kirk, and his consciousness started to go.

Everything started to become a blur, but he doesn't remember ever falling. His vision just started to go black, and one more sentence uttered from the figure, 'You should have never intruded upon my realm.'

The last thing that Kirk remembered at that moment was the figure moving back into the portal and the portal closing. After that, there was nothing.

*Done Remembering*

Young Kirk tried and failed to recall anything after that but didn't have to wait any time to figure out something terrible had happened. Gouges in the walls, ceiling, and floor were scattered everywhere in the lab. Anything that wasn't nailed down was upended, and anything that was nailed down happened to be warped and twisted beyond use. Most lighting fixtures were broken with the occasional light flickering. Additionally, his shirt was now missing, and the rest of his clothes were in a sorry state.

Kirk looked around in fear before his feet came to life in realization, "Mom! Dad!"

He ran out of the lab and into the hallway to the rest of his house. Every room that he checked looked a little worse for wear than the last. It didn't take him long to finally stumble into the kitchen to find his father's form.

His dad had a badly damaged arm with blood dried over the wound, with a few other scraps here and there. It was impossible to tell if anything was fractured, but Kirk could see that he was breathing at a steady pace.

The noise seemed to rouse his father from his exhausted state enough to look at his son. Kirk looked for any emotion that might calm the 12-year-old, but he was left disappointed when all he saw was fear. It wasn't fear of what had just happened. Instead, it was fear directed at Kirk himself.

Kirk's father coughed a few times before speaking out, "W-what have you done…"

Kirk was initially confused by that but followed his father's gaze toward another doorway. Kirk looked through the entryway to see that it held a little bit of light from a single source. A small streak of blood led to another doorway.

With a gulp and hesitant steps, Kirk walked down the hallway slowly with a pit forming in his stomach. He finally rounded the final corner to peer into his parent's bedroom. It was in a far worse state than that of any other place in the house. It was as if a small bomb had exploded in the room with splintered wooden furniture and disintegrated sheets and fabrics.

In the corner, Kirk couldn't help but try and look for his mom. It didn't take him that long to look over at the corner of the room to where the blood led for him to find his mom…

The Present

Kirk took a deep breath as he did his best to suppress the final thoughts of that memory. It was the memory that defined him at this point, and yet there was so much that he didn't know when he left four years ago. His family seemed to have nothing more than resentment towards him, and it ruined his life. He would have no moment of rest until he unraveled the mysterious nature of his circumstance.

The first thing was trying to figure out what the symbol on his back meant. A blackened dot over a crested moon-topped cross that seemed to be burned into his skin. He never really got a chance to scour through a library since he was always messing up things from town to town. The books that he did manage to get a hold of didn't have an explanation of what it was.

Kirk's thoughts revolved back to what was last said on the bus. Ghost.

Kirk shouldn't at all be surprised by the accusation seeing as he was approaching the heartland where fantasy became a reality. The one thing that Kirk did know was that he was not a ghost. He couldn't phase, shoot beams from his hands, fly, or do anything that he heard about on the news over the last couple of years. All he had was this dark power and the limit of his imagination.

However, that figure from four years ago seemed to fit the 'ghost' bill a little more closely. From Kirk's research, the portal that formed in his parent's lab was like a report of a smaller prototype portal at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the early '80s. It wasn't the incident that bothered Kirk, but more of how the portal was the same color as the one he witnessed, and it was an attempt to breach into what was called a 'ghost zone'. From this, Kirk surmised that whoever 'gifted' these powers to him was more likely a ghost.

Kirk looked down at his hands as he continued to walk down the empty road. He overheard many people through his who talked about how cool it would be to have powers. What they would do with them, or what kind of powers they would want. And sure, Kirk had wanted powers when he was much younger.

With great concentration, Kirk managed to will some of the dark aurae to dance around his hands. Even with these abilities, he found himself constantly at odds with control over them. Four years, and he hadn't even managed to control them beyond creating a silhouette.

Even when he managed to do what he wanted with them, he always felt as if he was being torn apart from the inside. The headaches and exhaustion were always something to look forward to after using his abilities, even if they had lessened over the years. Kirk wasn't even sure if he was meant to ever control it. The kid of the past wishing for powers had faded into the past, and now he just wanted an out from it.

The aura disappeared from Kirk's hands as he focused back on walking. With minimal use, he was able to get over the small pain in his head, which would be best described as a feeling of it being compressed. There was no future of normalcy that Kirk could see, but there was some hope in finding it where he was going. It just happened to be the least normal city in all the world.

A small light suddenly appeared down the road, but it wasn't just the usual white or yellow light that usual headlights would take on. There was a flashing of red and blue and the vehicle approached fast. As if it weren't his first time, Kirk rolled over into the ditch beside the road.

A few moments went by as the sound of rubber against the road got louder and louder until it felt and sounded like it was only a few feet away from Kirk. The night seemed to help Kirk since the officers seemed to blow right past him without noticing him. There was little doubt in Kirk's mind about where they were going and who they were looking for.

Kirk got back onto his feet and brushed off the dirt that had collected on his clothes. He looked back at the cop car that had now disappeared over a small hill or around trees back where he came from. Ahead of him was a bit of light pollution.

A sigh escaped Kirk as he fumbled through his pockets to pull out his music player with earbuds. He slipped both buds in before playing the sounds of Rush in the song Tom Sawyer. The rhythm along with the long walk did a lot to take his mind off the past and what he could be forced to face in the immediate future. Right now, he thought that it would be best to just enjoy the moment for however long it lasted.

The journey seemed to be one step closer to finally coming to an end once Kirk came over the final hill to finally see the city glowing through the darkness. It didn't seem like much when looking at it from afar, nor did it seem exactly special.

Kirk walked up to the sign with a sigh of relief. He almost read out the words plaster on it: Amity Park. Right below that: a Nice Place to Live. A small scoff escaped from Kirk's throat as he found it hard to believe that based on the news attention that this place received over the last couple of months despite it being weird here for the last two years.

A thought began to occur as to what his next plans should be. He didn't have anywhere to say, and he didn't have any money. Before he could continue with his plan, he needed a steady stream of money for himself or some sort of living plan. So, it was either a job, or he would have to resort to the foster care system in this city. With basically no control over his abilities, the second option was far riskier. However, it could lead to a better cover overall…

A yawn escaped from Kirk. He still wasn't even in the city, and he could feel the fatigue from the previous day's journey starting to take a toll on him. He had no option but to forget about the worries of tomorrow.

Kirk continued down the street closer to the quiet city. There seemed to be limited activity on the outskirts of Amity Park, which shouldn't have been surprising since it was the very early hours of the day. Kirk walked block by block for any indication of any spectral phenomena, but tonight seemed to be relatively quiet.

It wasn't disappointing to not see anything tonight, and Kirk didn't expect really expect anything to happen the first moment he arrived. Seeing as the sun was probably going to rise within the next five to six hours, finding a place to rest would be the best course of action.

As if were planned, Kirk managed to stumble upon a completely empty park. It didn't look to be anything special as there were a few benches, a bunch of trees, and a large fountain. It didn't matter as it didn't seem like there was anything that could bother the teen.

Kirk moved over to a tree at the top of a small hill before using his bags as a cushion that he could rest on. He got himself comfortable before looking up to the sky. Things had been difficult, but Kirk could tell in his heart that things were about to change. He doesn't know when, but he was determined to track down and find the ghost hero known as Danny Phantom.

Thank you for reading. Hope you enjoyed it. Please R&R.