If there was one thing Maddie and Jack Fenton obsessed over, it was the supernatural. More specifically, ghosts. Ever since college, they've been determined to find ghosts and understand them. And by that, it really meant hunting them down and dissecting and experimenting on them. They took their work incredibly seriously, even putting it above their own kids at times.
But little did they know that their own son, Danny, was a half-ghost and had been one for over a year at this point. Danny thought it was incredible that his parents had yet to figure out the blatantly obvious. While he loved his parents, he knew they were quite incompetent at their ghost-hunting job, so Danny had to pick up the slack with the help of Sam, Tucker, and now Jazz. Hearing his parents talk about how they wanted to capture and dissect Phantom sent chills down his spine and it made him never want to reveal his alter-ego to them.
When he did have to deal with his parents as Phantom, he would make sure to go easy on them because the last thing he wanted to do was hurt his parents, even though his parents wanted to hurt him. But that was back then before the pain and anger set in.
Now, he didn't care so much if he hurt other ghosts or even his parents. After all, his parents didn't hold back when they tried to capture Phantom, so why should he hold back now?
A week into Danny's spiral and he was doing some solo ghost hunting. Beating up ghosts, sucking ghosts in the thermos, the usual stuff. But then his parents just had to come in and ruin everything. They got out of the GAV (aka the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle) and pointed their guns at him, expecting him to corporate and come with them and risk being dissected. Yeah, like that was even an option.
"You know, I've tried to be civil with you two for a long time, but now I've had enough." said Danny.
"Enough of what?" asked Jack.
"Enough of YOUR BULLSHIT! Since you have that 'all ghosts are evil' mentality, I've always been an enemy to you. No matter what I do, I'm the bad guy. This is in spite of the fact that I'm the only one who's actually done something about the ghost problem. I've dealt with and gotten rid of ghosts that are actually causing trouble in this godforsaken town. I'M SOLVING THE PROBLEM." said Danny.
"Well, you're a part of the problem, Phantom. And the problem won't be fixed until you're in our lab." said Maddie.
Danny snorted and said, "You know, for people who are scientists and created all this advanced high-tech ghost equipment, you really are fucking stupid." Never in Danny's mind did he ever think he would swear at his parents, even if they were being dumb. But in his spiral, it didn't matter anymore. He didn't even feel that guilty about it. It did help that his parents still couldn't figure out the difference between Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom.
Jack and Maddie didn't take kindly to Danny's disrespect and shot at him, but Danny was able to dodge the lasers with ease. While dodging, he took the time to mock them by saying, "Wow, I thought you guys were professionals."
Getting more desperate, Maddie pulled out the Fenton Bazooka and shot a large beam of energy at Danny and it actually hit him, knocking him right to the ground.
"Yes! You got him, Maddie!" said Jack.
Danny held his mid-section in pain and Maddie went up to him, pointed the Fenton Bazooka at him, and said, "We got you now, Phantom!"
At that moment, Danny started to shake, and he only saw red. His self-control was gone as he knocked the Fenton Bazooka out of Maddie's hands, grabbed her, and slammed her against a nearby wall.
"Maddie!" a shocked Jack yelled.
Danny then threw Maddie into Jack, knocking them both down. Still shaking, Danny looked at his parents and said, "I'm only going to say this one time. LEAVE ME THE FUCK ALONE or I'll make you regret ever becoming ghost hunters.", before flying away, leaving Maddie and Jack on the ground, shocked and confused by what just happened.
Danny flew around town for a bit to get his mind off what he just did. Not only did he curse at his parents, but he got so angry that he put his hands on his mother. His own mother. Never in a million years did he think he would ever go that far. It made him want to throw up.
After a long hour of flying, he entered his room and transformed back into his human self. Once he did that, he walked around his room in a panic, trying to understand why he was acting like this. What was he turning into? Was he becoming like…HIM? Dark Danny?
"No. No. I'm not like HIM. He's gone. He's outside of time. He'll never exist." Danny said himself.
But then a sick thought entered Danny's mind. What if whatever he was turning into wasn't like HIM?
What if it was somehow WORSE than HIM?
Danny didn't want to entertain that thought for a single second because it couldn't be true. It would be absurd. Dark Danny was a monster. He was a psychopath. He killed numerous people, including his human self, and mutilated and destroyed ghosts. There was no way he could be worse than HIM, right?
Right?
Danny tried to push those thoughts in the back of his head by taking a long, hot shower. Once he was finished, he brushed his teeth, put on his briefs, and tried to go to sleep. But that proved to be impossible as the guilt of what he did was eating him alive. But what really scared him was that he didn't completely regret it either.
The next morning, Danny woke up with absolute dread. He needed to leave the house as quickly as possible if he wanted to avoid interacting with his parents. So, he uncharacteristically rushed to the bathroom, washed up, brushed his teeth, got dressed, and tried to eat some breakfast before rushing out the door.
Unfortunately, he wasn't as fast as he thought, as his parents entered the kitchen while he was quickly eating his cereal.
The awkwardness was suffocating.
"Morning Mom. Morning Dad." said Danny.
"Morning son." said Jack.
"Danny, you're usually not dressed and washed up until much later." Maddie noticed.
"Yeah, um…I have a test today and Sam, Tucker, and I planned on going to school early, so we could study a bit more." said Danny. That wasn't even a lie, so Maddie and Jack had no reason to think their son was being suspicious.
"Okay, well, do well on that test." said Maddie.
"Okay and what happened to you guys last night?" asked Danny.
"Phantom. We had a fight with him, and he was angry. Angrier than usual. He even put his hands on your mother." said Jack.
"Phantom did that? That's really weird." Danny said, playing dumb.
"It's no big deal. We'll just use more lethal weaponry on him, and he won't be a problem anymore." said Maddie.
That was the last thing Danny wanted to hear.
"You know, instead of wanting to dissect and kill Phantom, have you ever thought about COMMUNICATING with him? Understanding why he's acting this way?" asked Danny.
"Danny, don't be ridiculous. Communicating with a ghost is useless. They can't be trusted. The sooner they're all gone, the better." said Maddie.
Greatly annoyed, Danny said, "Sorry I asked.", and when he left, he slammed the door a lot harder than he wanted to.
As Danny walked to school, he thought about his mom's words and thought to himself, "Of course, she wouldn't listen. Why would she? Ghosts are forever bad in her and Dad's minds. And to think that telling them that I liked boys and girls would be the end of me. Nope, they were cool with that. But telling them I'm part ghost? I'd take that to the grave at this point. Ha, grave. Because I'm part ghost. I should write some jokes down. I'd be the best at morbid humor."
Hope you enjoyed the chapter. I know, it's been 3 months since I last updated this story. Really sorry about that. School, other stories, and burnout were the culprits. Thankfully, I'm graduating college in 3 weeks, so once that's out of the way, I'll have way more time to write stories and the gaps between updates won't be as extreme. The next chapter I'm really excited about because it's all about Vlad and what he's been up to. Other than that, I hope you all have a wonderful day. Bye for now and stay safe.
