Due tothe uproar(and by'uproar' I mean 2 reviews) that I've received over my description of Sam's clothing, I decided to change it a bit so that it's a little more Goth. Okay?
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
A fourteen-year-old, raven-haired boy walked to school on a Tuesday morning with his two best friends in the world-a techno-geek and a Goth. He was wearing blue jeans and a white T-shirt with a red oval in the center. His technology-obsessed friend wore a yellow long-sleeved shirt and green cargo pants. He also had a red beret and thick glasses. His look was completed by a large PDA, which he always kept by his side. The boy's other friend, in accordance with her dark outlook on life, had on a black tank top with a purple oval in the center, a black-and-green plaid skirt, violet tights, and black combat boots. Her amethyst eyes looked worriedly over at her friend's tired, blue ones. "Danny, you look terrible."
Danny, for that was his name, replied, "I feel terrible, Sam. I haven't been getting any rest at all this week, what with all of the ghost attacks making an already difficult week at school unbearable. But the worst part of it is always having to fight my parents after every ghost. I hate how they try to dismember the ghost kid and then come home and harp at how I got injured so badly. I can't continue to fight my own flesh and blood like this. It's driving me insane!"
"Maybe you should just tell them your secret. Once they find out that you're Danny Phantom, they'll leave you alone. Who knows, maybe they'll even take on a few of your enemies while you're at school. That would lessen your workload on two fronts," Tucker, the third member of the trio, said.
"Either that, or, refuse to accept me as being half ghost and make my life a living hell as both Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom, bar me from living at my own house and communicating with anyone from the town I grew up in, and force me to run away. Either or," Danny shouted worriedly.
"Don't worry, Danny. Your parents will accept you, no matter what. I wonder what my parents would say if I told them that I was only half alive. I'd love to see their reaction. Why won't you let me become half ghost as well?" Sam pleaded with him.
"Because, Sam, while the shock from activating the Fenton Portal gave me my powers, it almost totally killed me, rather than just halfway. I would never consent to putting you through that kind of risk. Never." I care about you way too much to risk losing you, he thought silently. Almost as though Sam had heard the last bit of his argument, she turned away, blushing. "But you're right," He said, making her snap her head back up to look at him. "Telling my parents is the only way that I'll be able to alleviate all of the stress that fighting ghosts and them is adding to my schedule. I hope they take the news well."
Danny had mixed feelings throughout that day. He was happy because he had finally made the decision to stop hiding his secret from his family. He imagined them saying that they would accept him no matter what, and that they would take care of all of the ghosts that plagued Amity Park during school hours. These thoughts were usually interrupted by worse daydreams, ones involving his father brandishing the Jack-O'-nine-tails at him, while his mother refused to house her 'freak of a son.' He dispelled these thoughts with the realization that worrying about his parents reaction would do nothing except make him more nervous and jumpy, and make it harder to actually tell them. It would be easier and healthier to just relax and accept whichever decision his parents chose to take.
Sam and Tucker insisted on coming home with Danny that night. They felt that, since they had witnessed the accident that gave Danny his powers (and been partially responsible for it in the first place), and since they had fought ghosts (and three notable ghost hunters) alongside Danny since then, it was their responsibility to be present when Danny summoned the courage to approach his parents when they were working in the lab. "Danny, check this out," Jack Fenton said as he turned around to face the trio. "Your mother and I have just finished the Fenton Tazer. It shoots out little discs that attach to a ghosts skin and negate their powers for a period of two to five minutes, depending on the strength of the ghost in question. That should give us enough time to capture that ghost kid, eh?" Danny stepped back nervously, but then took a deep breath and advanced resolutely.
"Mom, Dad, there's something really important that I need to tell you."
"Is something wrong, sweetie?" His mother asked.
"Does it have something to do with ghosts?" His father inquired excitedly.
"Both," Danny said with a sigh. "I should have told you about this months ago, when it happened, but one thing led to another, and it became just impossible…anyway, that shock that I got when I fixed the Fenton Portal almost killed me, as you know. But by the term 'almost killed me,' I mean exactly that. Half of me died in that accident. I became half alive, half ghost. I transcended the boundaries of mortality to become not just Danny Fenton, but also Danny Phantom."
"But that's not possible," Maddie argued. "In order to be half ghost, you would actually have to half die. How can that be? A person can't be half alive, can they?" Danny rolled his eyes.
"I see that just telling you won't make the same impression as actually showing you what I mean. I'm just going to have to morph into my ghost form in order to prove to you that I know what I'm talking about. I'm going ghost!" With his familiar battle cry, the halo appeared around his waist. It split in two, each one moving in opposite directions. The twin halos transformed the teenager into the infamous Inviso-Bill. His parents stared at him, shocked. "I can understand your surprise. I realize that this must be a huge thing for you to try and comprehend. I'm just going to go up to my room and leave you in peace for a bit to give you some time to think and talk this over between yourselves." He took hold of his friends and flew through the ceiling. He phased them upwards into his room on the second story of FentonWorks, and set them down on his bed. He transformed back into his human form and fell down on the bed in between them.
"I'm really proud of you, Danny," Sam said. "Both because of the fact that you were able to find the courage to tell them in the first place, and also because you handled the situation really well."
"Yeah, man, I half expected you to walk in, transform, and fly out of there before they could get a chance to come to their senses and start shooting the Fenton-Bazooka at you."
"Real reassuring, Tuck," Danny said, his voice dripping with sarcasm. Suddenly, the entire building shook with a massive explosion, and Jazz ran into Danny's room.
"What did you do this time, little bro?"
"I told them about my powers."
"I don't believe it! I thought for sure that they would accept you no matter what. I bet that right now they're working on some kind of invention that will eradicate you once and for all!" She said, beginning to hyperventilate.
"Jazz, relax. The news must have come as a major shock to them. Working in the lab is probably their only way of dealing with that shock and relieving part of the tension on them."
"Wow," Jazz said, beginning to calm down. "After all these years spent reading psychology books, my own little brother comes out with a piece of insight that even I didn't see."
"Hey, it's not like I'm a walking idiot or anything! I do have a brain; it's just that I can never express myself in a way that is considered 'correct' by Mr. Lancer."
"Okay, little brother, but I hope that you're right. For all of our sakes."
Danny spent the rest of the evening deep in discussion with his friends and sister about the consequences of the events that had transpired that afternoon. By the time that Sam and Tucker were ready to go home, it was late at night. Once they had left Jazz chivvied Danny into bed, saying that there was school the next day and he needed to get his rest while he could; it wasn't every night that Danny could go to bed at a reasonable hour, since he was usually fighting ghosts until much later than this. Danny lay awake in bed for about half an hour, feeling a little apprehensive about what exactly was going on downstairs, as well as whether or not we would wake up to find that his secret was all over Amity Park the next morning. However, exhaustion finally took over, and he fell into a fitful sleep.
He was awakened by another large explosion that rocked his house. Thankfully, it was at approximately 7:00, his usual wake-up time, so his morning routine was pretty much on schedule. The only difference was that his parents weren't in the kitchen for breakfast. The only person there was Jazz, who was nursing a cup of strong coffee. As Danny poured himself a bowl of cereal, he noticed her slightly frizzy hair and shaking hands. "What happened to you? Did you find out that you only got a 2380 on your SAT's?"
"I haven't been able to sleep all night, Danny. I'm surprised that you were, what with all of the explosions that have been going on."
"Well, I kind of had a stressful day, sleep came pretty easily to me. Were there really explosions all night?"
"About once every half hour."
"I wonder what on earth they could possibly be working on that would consume their attention for so long. I mean, Dad hasn't missed even a snack in over twenty years and now he's going without dinner or breakfast? It doesn't seem right."
"I bet that they're working on some ghastly invention that you need to avoid at all costs. Come on, we'll be late for school, I'll drive you."
"No way you're getting behind a steering wheel," Danny said, noting her jumpiness and shaking hands. "I'll fly you today." Were it not for the fact that her usually neat hair was already disheveled that day, she would never consent to speeding several hundred feet above the ground at something like 150 miles per hour. Of course, she was so hyped up on caffeine by that time that she could probably run to school faster than that.
Danny spent the whole day worrying; even though he had no idea exactly what his parents were working on, it still scared him to think of the possibilities. They had never accepted him outright; they had just stayed in the lab all night. Even though they never rejected him either, the explosions that were occurring periodically were enough to convince him that their newest invention was downright sinister. However, his worries were unfounded. When he got home, his parents announced that they had spent the entire last 24 hours working on a new type of chemical. They said that it was raw ectoplasm, pure ghost energy. "Most of the spectral energy that we've harvested from the ghost zone is contaminated with congealed matter. It is extremely difficult to separate the energy from the manifestation of that energy. It took a while, but we were finally able to make a few vials of pure energy, not tainted with any sort of ghostly matter. The ectoplasm should enhance your own powers, but I wouldn't recommend that you use it immediately, because we're not sure of the side effects that it will have on your human half." His mother explained to him.
"So, you mean, you don't care that I'm half ghost?"
"Of course we care, Danny, but you're our son. We'll always love you no matter what." His father said. By this point, tears were streaming down Danny's face.
"I was so afraid…that you wouldn't love me anymore…that you would hunt me down, and not let me come back home…" he ran up to his parents and embraced them in a tight hug. He was so happy; happy that his family had finally accepted him; happy that he no longer had to hide who he was from them, happy that they would no longer hunt them, and that he could defend the town in peace. All in all, he was simply happy to be alive (well, half alive).