Ahnd heah, een eexheebeet Ah, vee see zee feenehl chahptah. Thanks much to all my reviewers, particularly RainbowSerenity, Silver Fang's Revenge, and Fox of Light. I appreciate the compliments and specifics. Everyone who reviewed has my permission to conceptualize their Zen pennies. :) Everyone, that is, except Chibi MP, who gets smacked upside the head with a large trout for other reasons. Enjoy the finale!
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He woke up the following morning to the bleeping of his alarm clock, irritating as always. He opened his eyes groggily and looked at the time. 6: 30. School didn't start until 8:30 . He didn't know why it was set so early. He didn't know what his dream meant, either. Some kind of crazy ghost-powered bonanza. He rolled over, but it put his arm in an uncomfortable position beneath him, so he adjusted it. His eyes snapped open and he looked at his arm, which had passed through his mattress. He sat up in a hurry and slammed his alarm off, but he had to slam twice since his arm passed through it the first time. He remembered anxiously the accident, his powers, his session with Tucker, and his parental dilemma. His eyes wandered dismally to the rows of sunlight peeking between the blinds and arranged neatly on his floor. Rows of muddy shade and morning light. He found it strangely encouraging, and he stood up to get ready for school.
Breakfast went by without incident, other than his parents' enthusiastic acclaim for their recently successful failure. He froze suspiciously when they joked about his possibly fixing it, but nothing came of it and he was soon out the door to the bus. A spit wad on the bus hit him on the sleeve, and nobody noticed that the irritation he registered was accompanied by a slightly discolored aura about his eyes. Sam and Tucker met him at a bench outside of school, as yet quite empty since his was the first bus to arrive. He took a seat, shifting uncomfortably. "Hi guys."
"Hey Danny. Why the early meeting?" Sam inquired.
He glanced at the grains of the table, wondering if this was such a good idea. "Well, there was this...thing yesterday that happened, and I was... well, it was..." He looked at them, lost. "Listen, can I trust you guys? I mean really trust you guys? If I told you something, you'd never... you'd keep it a secret, right?"
Tucker smiled at him. "Danny, anybody willing to show up at school early for someone isn't going to blackmail."
Sam nodded. "You can trust us."
He looked from one to the other. Sam looked earnest and curious; she could be trusted. Tucker waited passively, smiling knowingly, arms crossed on the table. "Well, alright. Last night my parents showed us a machine they built. They called it a ghost portal and it wouldn't work when they tried to turn it on."
"As usual," Tucker said amicably.
"Then they all left for dinner, but I begged out of it for homework and rest. So I started poking around alone-" Sam raised her eyebrows and half-smiled. "-but I was careful! Or I tried to be, but-"
"It exploded," Sam finished.
"No! Yes. Well, kind of. I got knocked out, and when I woke up..." He paused uncertainly.
"What? What happened?" Sam asked.
"Well, I have... powers, now."
They exchanged a skeptical look. "Okay, what kind of powers?" Sam asked.
"I'm not kidding!" He sighed in exasperation. "Watch." He passed his hand through the table. Tucker chocked on his skepticism, and Sam stared wide-eyed. "See? That's just the beginning of it. I can change into something, fly, make objects intangible, phase in and out... The accident made me a Danny Phantom."
"But your parents are lunatics," Tucker stammered. "There's no such thing as ghosts." Danny's hand remained implanted in the table.
"I think reality might disagree with you on that point, Tucker," Sam said, still staring in fascination at Danny's hand and the faint bluish glow at the border between it and the table. She tore her eyes away and glanced up at Danny. "What are you going to do?"
He sighed and removed his hand. "I don't know. I don't know, especially with my parents being who they are. I don't know how I'm supposed to hide something like this, what I'm supposed to do with this..." He faltered.
"It'll be alright," Sam said, placing her hand on his. "You've got something really special about you, now. You're unique out of everybody here!"
"Yeah, by accident," he replied sourly.
Tucker had finally gotten over his initial shock. "Wait, you've got Powers!" The capitalization was audible. "That's amazing! You can do all sorts of stuff to people now!" They both glared at him. "Well, he can."
"That's not the point. I didn't ask for these powers. I actually liked being normal."
"Really," Tucker said flatly.
"Well, okay, so not really. But I certainly wasn't asking for ghost powers, although I guess they could potentially be pretty useful."
Sam read the mischief on his face. "You have to be careful. If anyone finds out-"
"I know, I know. I should be able to have a little bit of fun, though."
"Now you're talkin'," Tucker said comfortably.
"Just be careful," Sam cautioned again.
"I will." He sighed. "These powers just came so randomly. I don't think I deserve them any more than the next guy."
Sam shook her head. "Personally, I don't think that's true. Most people here at school are jerks. You're not a jerk, and neither is Tucker or I. You're a good guy, Danny, and I think that whoever-if a who is involved, that is-gave you these powers made a pretty good choice."
Danny looked up at her. "Thanks." He thought he saw her blush, but it may have been the light.
"I agree. Can you imagine powers like that in the hands of Dash?" Tucker laughed. "Complete mayhem."
The bell rang for the start of class, and the three of then stood and gathered their things. "I'll catch up with you guys after school."
"Right you will. You've got to give me a demonstration," Tucker said.
"See you then," Sam added with a wave.
Danny walked off to class, his mood considerably improved from when he'd left that morning. He was nervous about seeing Dash. Today, he wasn't sure if he was hoping to have or avoid a confrontation.
Biology went relatively smoothly. Lancer made some snide remarks about the quality of yesterday's test results, but that was all other than some notes on organelles. In English there was more student griping about the essay, which he neglected to join in out of pensiveness. He was thinking more about what Tucker and Sam had said. He wanted to talk to them more at lunchtime. He still wasn't sure what he was to do with his powers, but by the end of class he was sure that he wasn't about to abandon them. In the meantime, he missed more notes on the Schaffer format, was caught "daydreaming" by his teacher, and was instructed to make up the time at lunch. He had forgotten to do his algebra homework, but he brushed it off easily since those assignments weren't worth much anyway. Spanish was simply smiling and nodding, and he was on the point of running out to meet his friends when he remembered his date with the English teacher. He spent the time making up algebra and getting notes on the essay, and when the bell rang he headed on to his next class. He was disappointed to have missed Sam and Tucker at lunch, but in the hallway he ran into someone he didn't really want to see at all.
"Hey! Watch it, Fenton." Danny realized with chagrin that he'd spilled Dash's soda. "You spilled my soda!"
He spoke quickly, backing up slowly. "Oh, I'm sorry! I was just on my way to class and I didn't-"
"Yeah, I know you didn't. Tell you what, I'll do you a little favor and make sure that next time, you will." Dash's eyes narrowed and Danny had occasion to note that Dash had about eight inches and the position of football quarterback on him. In one deft motion, Dash grabbed Danny and shoved him into a nearby locker one of his buddies had held open and waiting.
A stubby metal coat hanger dug into Danny's shoulders, a metal shelf quashed his head into his torso, and his legs were shoved into an impossibly scrunched position against somebody's books and coats. He heard Dash laughing outside the locker, and Danny watched his red and white jacket move back and forth from the slim ventilation slits in the locker door. He was sick, sick, sick of this sort of thing. But now, for the first time in a long time, Danny Fenton, once totally average, run of the mill geekbait, could do something about it. He felt a burst of relief as he went intangible, his legs came free and his shoulder was relieved. With a precision born of years of frustration, he flew out and sprung the locker open and threw in Dash in mid-laugh. He noticed with satisfaction the astonishment on the faces of Dash's accomplices, then flew off chuckling smugly to P.E.
There were no further hang-ups for the remainder of the school day, and he met Sam and Tucker after school. "Hi guys," he greeted, walking up eagerly to them. "Do I ever have a story for you!"
"We heard," Tucker said excitedly. "You must be Dash's locker demon. Most of the school knows about it." He grinned and flashed thumbs up. "Score one for the little guys."
"If half the stuff we've been hearing is true, then you certainly did a number on Dash. I can't say I recommend making a habit of it, though," Sam added.
"Yeah, I know. I don't really plan on doing that sort of thing often. But man," he said with a laugh, "was it ever overdue. It was great to finally be able to put that guy in his place."
"So, are you still gonna give your eager fans a demonstration?" Tucker asked.
"Sure! Come on; let's go to my parents' lab. They're out for the day on a ghost hunt in the country, and I want to show you the portal-thing they built." On the way to his house, Danny gave them the details on his run-in with Dash, and when he was done Tucker regaled them with tales of Bytters' evil project and the latest mayhem wrought in her class. Eventually they reached the chrome recesses of Danny's basement, and he pointed out the particular machine that had changed him so drastically.
"Wow," Sam watched the swirling colors and the faint reflection on the floor emanating from the portal. "I guess they finally made something that works."
"I helped a little," Danny added proudly.
"What's on the other side, though?" Tucker asked.
"Something my parents call the ghost zone. It's supposed to be the place where ghosts live."
"It looks like something's moving in there," Sam said, squinting into it.
Danny laughed nervously. "I don't think there would be. I'd hope my parents would at least have the sense to put some kind of filter in place." A thread of blue vapor slid out of his mouth and dissipated instantly. "Did you guys see-"
"Look out!" Tucker shouted. A tentacle figure resolved itself in the portal and streamed out into the lab. Sam barely had time to jump out of the way, and the ghost hung in the air for a moment, growling incoherently.
"Hey Danny, um, who's you're friend?" Sam asked. The ghost, a gooey bright green mutated octopus, hung in the air and jerked about spastically in surprise. Danny yelped slightly as his powers triggered themselves, sending a pair of incandescent blue bands outward from his waist, changing his eyes and hair and suiting him up. The ghost started in surprise and watched the odd transforming human warily. Danny began backing away, and the ghost took off after him.
"See if you can fight it, Danny!" Tucker shouted eagerly after him.
"Forget a fight; just get it back in the portal!" Sam yelled.
"Easy for you guys to say!" He struggled into the air, but the ghost rammed him, sending them both into a pile of lab equipment. As he struggled with the ghost, it occurred to him briefly that at least his powers might be good for ghost-fighting, if he could ever learn to control them. He doubted the occasion for that would come up often. After all, what were the odds of something like this happening regularly?
END