Sorry about taking so long to update; there was school on top of SAT prep on top of other fics on top of not being able to upload new chapters until this evening. I'll try and be better next time, promise!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom!
"Happy fourteenth birthday, Harry!" everyone shouted.
"C'mon, son, blow out your candles," Danny said as he placed a massive chocolate cake in front of his eldest child. He, and everyone else around the table, was wearing a black-and-white party hat in addition to their regular clothing; Harry's childhood superhero had always been Danny Phantom, and his parents honored his wishes by theming the party after him. Both his hero and his father (though Harry didn't realize the presence of the former at the time) covered their muscular frame in a white dress shirt and suit pants, having just gotten home from work as security director at Axion Labs.
"Yeah, I wanna eat the cake already!" Jack wailed.
"Jack," Maddie admonished her husband, "How many times to I have to tell you, we only eat one piece of cake at a time." Although their hair was now significantly grayer than it was fourteen years ago, both were as active as ever, and still ran around hunting ghosts in their orange and blue HAZMAT suits.
"But Maddie," the large man pouted, "It's so chocolaty and delicious!"
"So am I but you don't see me whining about it," Tucker interrupted, just before his wife playfully punched him on the shoulder. Over the years, he had gotten contact lenses and finally dumped the beret. He also changed the yellow turtleneck into a T-shirt, but he still wore a green pair of cargo pants and toted the same PDA. Of course, by this time he was one of the top programmers at Google, and he and Valerie were the proud parents of Tamara Foley, who was twelve years old, looked just like her mother at that age, and always hung out with her best friend Jaime Fenton.
Danny and Sam's second child, a girl two years younger than Harry, was seated next to Tamara. She had black, shoulder-length hair and eyes of amethyst speckled with electric blue. She was wearing jeans and a dark purple top that her mother had bought her, since Sam absolutely refused to buy anything pink for her daughter.
"You're taking so long, Harry! Is everything alright?"
"Everything's fine, auntie Jazz. I just want to make my wish really count this time," Harry addressed his redheaded aunt who sat next to her husband Mitchell. Both of them were professors of psychology at Harvard, and had published multiple bestsellers offering insight into the complexities of the human psyche.
The young man quickly thought to himself, I wish I could be just like Danny Phantom! And quickly blew out his candles. Everyone cheered and his mother began cutting the cake and handing a slice out to everyone. After cake, Danny brought out the presents. The first one was from Harry's grandparents, and turned out to be a black HAZMAT suit with green gloves, boots, belt, and collar.
"And the manufacturers were offering a discount, so we had this one made for you, Jaime," Maddie explained as she tossed another jumpsuit to her granddaugher. Jaime caught the suit, which was also black except for the gloves, boots, belt, and collar, which were amethyst.
"Thanks, grandma! Thanks, grandpa!" Harry said as he dove into the next present, which was from Tucker. "Cool! An Xbox 1080! This hasn't even hit the shelves yet!"
"You're welcome," the techno-geek replied with a grin. His godson opened Jazz's present, which was a book. The teen rolled his eyes and went to open his last present, the one from his parents. It was kind of small and square, like a framed photograph. He slowly unwrapped it, and gasped when he saw what was inside. Harry removed the rest of the wrapping paper from a picture of none other than Danny Phantom. His hands glowed an intense ghostly green that matched the hue of his eyes. He still wore a black and white jumpsuit, though it had considerably filled out since puberty had hit. He had short spiky hair and an intense expression on his face. He floated in front of Harry's house in a fighting stance, facing an unknown foe behind the photographer. It was signed:
Dear Harry,
Best wishes on your special day!
I hope some ghost doesn't come and wreck it for you,
Because then I'll have to come and end up eating some of your birthday cake.
You know how much I love chocolate.
Sincerely,
Danny Phantom
"Wow…this is…how did you get this?" The awestruck boy finally managed to ask.
"Let's just say that Phantom and I are kind of close buddies," his father replied. Behind him, the empty boxes of presents began glowing with an eerie green light. They all levitated about five feet in the air and began swirling around in a small vortex. Since everyone was now concentrating on the boxes, nobody noticed that Danny had suddenly disappeared. The boxes slowed down and parted, and in their place floated a portly, blue ghost.
"I am the Box Ghost, master of all things corrugated and square!" the specter shouted.
"Attacking birthday parties, boxy? That's low, even for you," a deeper voice replied. It was followed by its owner as Danny rose up through the table in ghost mode. He raised a finger and shot a green ectoblast above the Box Ghost's head. He then curled his finger and the needle-thin blast made a U-turn and hit the ghost in the back of the head. The blue specter flew forward, right into Danny's waiting fist. The Halfa unclipped a thermos from a small metal belt around his waist and sucked the Box Ghost inside. He then turned around to face Harry. He reached down and stuck his gloved finger into Harry's father's slice of cake and licked it clean.
"I really do love chocolate, you know," he said, and then disappeared into thin air. Danny Fenton quietly and imperceptibly joined the group.
"That. Was. AWESOME!" Harry shouted. To the side, Tamara and Jaime were talking excitedly about what had happened.
"Did you see his jumpsuit?"
"Yeah, and the way he just floated up,"
"Uh-huh, and the green energy blast,"
"And how it just turned around, just like that,"
"Flew right into his fist,"
"And the thermos?"
"That ghost kid is a menace if I ever saw one," Jack growled. "He should leave the ghost hunting to us professionals!" he brandished a small ectogun, but pressed a button and the gun squirted a large amount of glowing green ectoplasmic goo at his face.
"Yes, honey, you're very professional, now go clean yourself off so that you don't contaminate your cake with ghost matter," Maddie said. Jack pressed a button on his jumpsuit and a Fenton Towel came out of the shoulder pocket. The large man quickly cleaned himself off and returned to his cake. Jazz checked her watch.
"Well, it's getting kind of late. We should all be getting back," she said. She and her husband were staying at FentonWorks for the night.
"Aww, but I just finished my first slice of birthday cake," Jack whined.
"Dad, if that one ghost came out of the Ghost Zone, then shouldn't you get the lab on lockdown until you make sure that the rest of the town is safe?" Danny suggested.
"You're right, Danny, we need to make sure the lab is safe! Come on, everybody!" He easily lifted Maddie, Jazz, and Mitchell, carried them into the Fenton Ghost Assault Vehicle, and drove off.
"We should be getting home too," Valerie agreed.
"Alright. Happy birthday, kid," Tucker said, giving his godson a high-five. He did the same to Danny, but muttered "Show-off" under his breath. Danny just laughed.
"Hang out at my place tomorrow?" Tamara asked.
"Sure thing," Jaime replied. The Foleys waved goodbye one more time and drove off. Danny and Sam began cleaning up the backyard, where they had held the party. Harry and Jaime sat at their seats and finished off their cake. Suddenly, Harry dropped his fork and began shivering violently.
"What's up?" Danny asked.
"I'm not sure…I feel…cold…all of a sudden."
"I feel it too," Jaime said as she began to shiver as well.
"Does it feel as though there's a presence inside of you that just woke up? Something that's always been lurking, cold as death, but is finally ready to come out?"
"Yeah, sort of. How did you know, Dad?" Danny grinned.
"I knew this day would come eventually. In fact, I was just around your age when it happened to me."
"But why am I getting it? I'm only twelve?" Jaime protested.
"Girls hit puberty before boys do, so it follows that this part of you would also mature at a younger age."
"What part of us? What's happening to us, Dad?"
"You're just beginning to realize your ghost halves. You see, you two are both half ghost."
"What?" Jaime shouted. "That's ridiculous! How can we be part ghost? It's not like you or Mom is a ghost! Right?"
"Actually, that's not entirely true. You see, Jaime, when I was fourteen your grandparents built a machine that was supposed to act as a portal between our world and the ghost's world. It didn't quite work, and your mom convinced me to go inside and look around."
"What about me?" Sam asked as she sat down next to Danny.
"Harry and Jaime's ghost halves just manifested, and I'm explaining how it all came to be."
"Ah…"she said, a slightly nervous look on her face.
"Anyway, I went inside and I leaned on the space of wall where there happened to be a switch. I accidentally pressed the green button, and I got shocked with a huge about of ghost energy. It altered my molecular structure and made me part ghost, an attribute which I then passed on to both of you."
"Oh…so are we, like, a quarter ghost or something like that?"
"Actually, no. When both of you were born I looked at blood samples and both of them indicated that your molecular structure was completely hybridized, so you're completely half ghost, if that makes sense."
"What does your ghost half look like, Dad?" Harry asked excitedly. Danny grinned for the third time that night.
"I thought you'd never ask," he said. He stood up from the table and jumped on top of it. "What was it I used to say? I don't even remember anymore," he addressed Sam.
"I'm going ghost." She reminded him.
"Right…I'm going ghost!" he shouted as twin white rings appeared around his waist. They traveled across his body and left a man with snow-white hair, glowing green eyes, and a black-and-white jumpsuit standing on the table. Harry looked on in awe.
"Y…you're Danny Phantom? But then…that means…whoa."
"Yeah, Dad. 'whoa' pretty much sums it up," Jaime added.
"Alright, enough about me. I want to see what your ghost forms look like. Here's what you should do-each of you go into a separate bathroom and think of yourselves as being more energized, more powerful. You should see two rings appear around your waist; it doesn't really matter what color they are. Once the transformation is complete, put on the jumpsuits my parents gave you and change back. Then come back out here."
"Why do we need to go into separate bathrooms?" Jaime asked.
"Because you were born as halfas so when you transform for the first time you'll probably be wearing your birthday suits."
"Separate bathrooms, then?" Harry asked.
"Separate bathrooms it is," Jaime responded, and the two of them went into the house.
"So how did you know their ghost halves were acting up?" Sam asked her husband.
"They started shivering uncontrollably."
"Yeah, but the sun is setting. It might just be an evening chill."
"The way they described it sounded a lot like the way my powers felt early on. Also, I sensed their spectral energy acting up." He changed back and wrapped her in a tight hug. "The next while is going to be very tough for you," he said.
"Danny, I've dealt with hanging out with a halfa before now. I survived your adolescence…barely…" he laughed at that, but then became serious.
"Sam, this time it's different. You're whole family is going to be fighting to keep our town safe. I'm sure that it must be extremely difficult for a mother to have to live with that kind of worry and responsibility."
"I trust you, Danny."
"I know you do, and that's what I'm worried about. I'll be training them in their powers, and I need you to let me know if I'm pushing them too hard or keeping them away from school or their social lives."
"You'll keep them safe, right?"
"Of course I will, Sam. Of course I will." He leaned in and kissed her deeply.
"a-HEM" Harry coughed loudly as he and Jaime left the back door of the house. Danny and Sam broke apart, blushing.
"I swear, he's just like his godfather sometimes," Sam muttered. Danny snorted.
"What's up, guys?"
"Nothing, nothing. Now, let's see those ghost forms."