Danny sat resting his chin on his hand at the kitchen table, surrounded by textbooks and disorganised papers. He was trying to get his mind off things by doing homework for a change, but it didn't stop the endless thoughts rushing through his head about what transpired only a few hours ago.
Skulker disguising himself as a human? Where the heck did he get that idea? After all these months of hunting him, why did he decide to do it now instead of earlier?
His cellphone vibrated on the table, but he immediately hung up, not caring to check whether it was Sam, Tucker or someone else's name on the caller ID. He didn't want to go outside or talk to anyone; just wanting to be completely alone.
Even in his usually busy home he may as well have been, as his family were focussed on other matters. His parents were down in the lab, no doubt creating another invention that could potentially blow his head off if he wasn't careful, and Jazz was busy writing elsewhere. She had been asked to give a short speech the following day to some exchange students as Casper High's most recent success story. All she really needed to do was say a couple of lines, but of course she had to go above and beyond by adding a full-blown history lesson of the school to it as well.
Right as he was thinking about her, Jazz strutted into the kitchen with an irritated look on her face. Before Danny could ask her what was wrong, she clutched his upper arm tightly, pulled him out of his seat and dragged him into the living room.
"Ow! Watch it!" he complained, stumbling behind her. The television was turned on to the news, and from the first complete sentence he heard from the female news anchor, it was easy to figure out why his sister was so angry.
"Our top story tonight: has local ghost boy Danny Phantom gone mad?"
"What?!" Danny exclaimed. So much for taking his mind off of things.
With a headline like that, he hoped his parents were safely oblivious down in the basement and weren't listening to the same broadcast. They didn't need another reason to go after Phantom aside from his mere existence.
"If you're just joining us, Danny Phantom was seen today at Amity Park Mall," the newscaster continued. "According to those present at the scene, he was behaving strangely, scaring customers and intentionally destroying objects. He was pacified by an as-of-yet unnamed Amity Park citizen, seen in this recording provided by a witness."
Footage that appeared to be shot from a handheld camera began to play on the screen. It started off showing him taking out his aggression on the Fenton Tracker and followed the short chain of events he remembered up until he lost consciousness. Before he fell, Danny saw himself get snagged in the same net he woke up in. The camera quickly panned up to a disguised Skulker hauling him in.
"Fear not, panicking civilians!" The hunter shouted proudly. "I have apprehended the crazed ghost child!"
Okay, he had to be getting acting lessons from Vlad. The way the crowd was so easily swayed by his words while being painfully obvious to Danny that he was deceiving them reminded him far too much of his arch-enemy's performances.
The recording then cut to the latter part of their fight outside the abandoned store, and it didn't paint the young hero in any more of a positive light. His furious expression combined with his messy hair and scuffed-up jumpsuit from the ceiling falling on him made him look insane.
"Minutes later, the ghost boy was spotted violently attacking the same man. We attempted to interview the unnamed victim, but he declined to comment and fled the scene badly injured. Obviously, he must have been traumatised by the ordeal."
The footage stopped playing just before the mass booing started. This gave Danny some relief, as he really didn't want to relive that moment for the second time that day.
"An extensive amount of property damage was also reported, but as an early adopter of ghost insurance, the owners of Amity Park Mall have assured us that it is a minor issue. Is this event an indication that the ghost boy is reverting to a naturally malevolent state?"
This tabloid-level speculation made the teen scowl.
"And now, Lance Thunder with the weather."
"How do you explain that?!" Jazz demanded, pointing at the television with her free hand.
"It was Skulker – Ghost X – whatever it is you're calling him now! He was wearing a disguise! I swear it's true!"
Jazz released him from her vice grip.
"I'm not doubting you, little brother," she sighed, walking over to the TV and turning it off. "I mean it's one thing to take on someone in a position of power like the mayor-"
"Hey!" Danny interrupted, about to protest, but his sister carried on.
"-but it's not like you to attack a random person without a good reason."
"So...you do believe me?" he asked.
"Of course. In my experience, this is hardly a new phenomena. I've been face-to-face with ghosts that pass themselves off as humans several times now, not to mention ones I flat-out couldn't see."
Jazz put her hand on her younger brother's shoulder to comfort him.
"Ghosts pull new tricks all the time. You'll find a way to handle this one. You always do," she smiled and gave him a reassuring pat. Danny smiled back.
"Anyway, I've got a speech to write and you've got homework to do," she said, stood up straight and went up to her bedroom.
Danny gazed back at the television. His sister's reassuring words took away some of his stress, but it didn't ease the worry he had about his reputation. With the short amount of hours left in the day, all he could do at this point was hope that this would blow over soon, leaving the whole afternoon to feel like some crazy dream.
It was pretty hard to ignore the gossip the A-listers were spreading the next morning at school.
"Did you see what Danny Phantom did yesterday?" Star asked.
"Yeah," Kwan said. "He was seriously wailing on that guy."
"I know. It almost made me think twice about how I look when I teach nerds a lesson," Dash mumbled, scratching the back of his neck. "Well...almost."
"I can't believe it! Why is my ghost boy acting like this?!" Paulina sobbed hysterically, and fled from the group in tears.
Danny mentally cursed himself for believing the news would leave the minds of the public so quickly. It hardly compared to the negative attention he got yesterday, but it still stung. Outside of his friends and sister, his classmates were always the first to defend Phantom. If he lost their trust, he'd be back to square one.
The discussion continued around him, his fellow melancholy students sadly mourning their hero's apparent betrayal with a distinct lack of any optimistic rebutting. It wasn't until he heard his friends voices amongst them that he started to feel somewhat motivated again.
"Wish they would've kept the camera rolling. I'm incredibly photogenic!"
"You wouldn't have been photogenic for long if your parents saw you running into trouble!"
Sam and Tucker stopped walking and talking when they locked eyes with him.
"Ready to talk?" Sam asked, breaking a moment of awkward silence between them.
Danny sighed and took a step forward.
"Sorry I was ignoring you both. I should've thanked you for helping me escape."
"Don't worry about that," Tucker replied, "Just tell us what happened back there; everything we didn't see."
Danny recounted his side of the whole experience to his friends up until they showed up, and the both of them listened intently.
"They're hiding all their ghostly features down to a T, but I can still sense them," he finished.
"'Them'? So you think there's more than one ghost out there with a disguise?" Sam questioned.
"Definitely. I'd never seen Skulker's human body before then, so there have to be others walking the streets in broad daylight like last morning."
Danny unloaded all his textbooks from his backpack into his locker.
"Listen, I've got a free period now, so I'm gonna do some more thinking about it," he told them. It was better to get his fretting over with now than let it distract him during class. He couldn't let his grades suffer along with his confidence.
"Good call," Tucker agreed, "Tell us if you come up with anything."
The bell rang for class and the trio went their separate ways.
Danny wandered Casper High's now quiet halls, pondering about how the human disguise worked. Judging by the way it retracted when he messed with Skulker's wrist computer, it had to be a physical change and not some sort of hologram or illusion. Could it be the work of one of the many bizarre and often cursed artefacts located in the Ghost Zone? He'd have to ask Sam later if her favourite goth book shop had any literature that could give him some clues. He also needed proof for his theory that Skulker wasn't the only ghost walking around in a human skin suit.
Suddenly, a puff of mist from his ghost sense appeared as if on cue, telling him that he wouldn't have to wait long to get it.
