Well? What'd I tell ya? Two extra-long chapters in one night. While this can't possibly totallymake up for such a long break, I hope it helps
Disclaimer:I do not own Danny Phantom!
"All right, let's see those ghost forms!" Harry and Jaime got into fighting stances and stood, concentrating, for about ten seconds. All of a sudden, a green ring of light appeared around Harry's waist, just as an amethyst halo formed around that of Jaime. The kids rings of light traveled up and down, and in their place stood two ghost children.
"Nice," Danny commented. Both of them had white hair, but Jaime's had black streaks. Harry's eyes became green dotted with violet, and Jaime's shifted to purple spotted with green. The gloves, boots, belt, and collar of their jumpsuits accentuated both of their eyes; Harry's were green and Jaime's were amethyst. The costumes were as yet empty of any sort of symbol.
"So, do you want to start working on your powers now, or should we wait until tomorrow?"
"Let's start now!" both of them chorused.
"Fine by me. Lesson #1: Intangibility. This is the second-easiest power for a ghost to use, next to flight. And before you ask, the reason why I'm not teaching you how to fly first is because intangibility is also the hardest power to control. Now that your powers have manifested themselves, you'll probably lose tangibility in parts or all of your bodies temporarily if you lose concentration, even while in human form. I had my powers for more than two months before I finally stopped phasing through objects unintentionally."
"Did it ever come in handy for you?" Jaime asked.
"Well, it did get me a date to the dance back in freshman year…" He replied, his eyes misting over in reminiscence. Sam snorted.
"His pants turned intangible when he tried asking the most popular girl in school and they fell down. You got, what, a week's worth of detentions?"
"And a parent-teacher conference," Danny confessed, his ears turning red. His kids were clutching their sides, they were laughing so hard. At least, Harry was until he accidentally phased into the ground. Danny sighed, flew down into the earth, and dragged him back up again by the wrist.
"That was weird…."
"See what I mean? If you lose control, you'll start phasing unintentionally. Okay, in order to make yourself intangible, picture a part of your body as not existing in either space or time. Don't think that it's there but unseen, because that'll make it turn invisible. Think totally nonexistent. Imagine that you've just had your arm amputated just below the elbow."
"Nice mental image, Dad," Jaime said. She closed her eyes in concentration for a minute, and when she reopened them, she looked down to find that her amethyst glove was visible but very transparent.
"Great, Jaime, now stick it into the table over there." The girl walked over and thrust her hand downward over the table. It sank into the wooden material.
"Whoa…it's as though my arm is totally encased in wood, like a sarcophagus."
"And you thought that Dad had a nasty mental image," Harry muttered.
"What'd you say?"
"I said 'see, isn't it a weird feeling?'"
"Okay, Harry, now you try." Harry examined his arm for a second and made the gloved portion intangible. He stuck the arm into his stomach.
"Eew!" Jaime shrieked. Danny just laughed.
"Kudos, Harry. By the way, that trick comes in really handy if by accident you're eating so quickly that you swallow a spork, fork, spoon, or any other utensil."
"Do I wanna know?"
"Nah, probably not. Now, both of you stand on top of the table." They jumped on. "I want you to try and make your whole bodies intangible this time, and try to regain tangibility before you begin falling into the ground." His kids effortlessly phased through the table and walked out through it.
"Awesome, you're getting this really quickly, although I don't really know whether it's due to your level of competence or lack of control over making yourselves intangible."
"Well, we managed to undo it, right?"
"True. Now, we'll try invisibility, but you'll probably get it relatively quickly since the feeling isn't too different from intangibility, and nothing too awkward will happen if you mess it up. Like I said before, think of your arm as being there, just in the realm of the unseen." The ghost kids got it without too much trouble. He continued on.
"Lesson #4: Using your powers while in the Ghost Zone. In case you hadn't picked this up from my parents yet, the Ghost Zone is the dimension that ghosts come from. The only way that they can get into our world is through the Fenton Portal, or a second portal that's in Wisconsin. Don't ask about that just yet-I'll elaborate later if you want. Anyway, you'll probably have no reason to ever have to go into the Ghost Zone, but if you do you're to tell me so that I can accompany you, at least early on. FYI, I'm public enemy #1 in the Ghost Zone, and the other ghosts are bound to see the resemblance between us. I can fight them off without too much of an effort, but I'm afraid that they'll easily take advantage of you by either attacking you outright or manipulating you into working against me. While I'm sure that neither of you would do that intentionally, there are ghosts out there that are really good at mind control, not to mention 'forceful coercion,' and you might not end up having a choice. But I digress. The point is that while you're in the Ghost Zone, you can't use intangibility or invisibility. Those powers only work while ghosts are on the human plane. However, as humans, you'll automatically phase through everything in the Ghost Zone, except for other real-world items. Summary: in the Ghost Zone, ghosts can get hurt, but humans are home-free."
"How many enemies do you have, Dad?"
"You're the avid Phantom Phan, you tell me."
"Well, there's the Box Ghost, Skuker, Technus, the Fright Knight, Johnny 13 and Kitty…"
"I was being rhetorical, you don't need to list them all. Trust me, if I started to list all of my enemies to you, both of you would be so bored by the end of it that you'd have phased halfway to the center of the earth." His kids chuckled.
"Now, lesson #4: flight. This is the easiest power to do, and most ghosts fly, or at the very least float, practically subconsciously. That's how naturally it comes to us. Now, as you may or may not have noticed, your ghost forms are practically weightless. That's because ghosts are really manifestations of energy and lack actual substance, and therefore mass. While this energy technically has no weight, it allows you to shift what little mass you have relative to your center of gravity. Do you get what I'm saying?"
"Somewhat."
"Good enough; it's better than what explanations I had at your age."
"Why, what did you have?"
"Think up, you go up. Think down, you go down."
"So you basically had to start from scratch?"
"I gleaned a little info from what my parents were researching, but nowhere near as much as what you're getting this evening. Anyway, you're standing right now because you've experienced having all of your mass over your center of gravity when in that position for twelve or fourteen years. I want you to try shifting your weight up about an inch above where it normally sits. You'll start to ascend. To stay still in the air, just bring your weight back down to your center of gravity." Harry and Jaime concentrated, and began to slowly rise. Harry stopped after a couple of feet, but Jaime kept on going up.
"Dad, I can't stop it!" She shouted down from her constantly elevating height of ten feet. Danny blinked and held out his arm. He easily overpowered her with his telekinesis and brought her back down to the ground, where she transformed. He turned to Harry.
"Just put your weight slightly below your center of gravity and come down, then change back." He did so. "Well, what do you think so far?"
"I liked it," Jaime mused. "Flying's fun."
"You're truly your mother's daughter, Jaime."
"What are you talking about, Danny?" Sam asked.
"Just because Ember had me under a love spell, doesn't mean I forgot everything that happened while I was under it." She blushed.
"Huh?" Both of their children asked, confused.
"The first year I had my powers, this rocker ghost named Ember Mclain used her powers to put me under a spell that made me fall madly in love with your mother."
"Wait a minute, Ember Mclain? My science teacher, Mr. Dwyer, said that she was one of the greatest rock stars of the early twenty-first century. She was a ghost? Cool!"
"Didn't you always love mom?" Harry inquired. Danny blushed.
"Yeah, but it was different when we were in high school. Your mom and I knew each other since, like, first grade, but we were just really good friends back then. We never started seriously dating until senior year, and we got married right after graduating college."
"How did you two meet?"
"He was trying to hang on his knees from the monkey bars while I happened to be walking right below him and he fell on me," Sam replied.
"Was he much of a klutz when you were kids?"
"Are you kidding? In our freshman year he broke thirty-four beakers inside of a month. And that was before he even got his ghost powers."
"Actually Sam, that was the first month that I had my powers."
"Oh…but you didn't have them when you spilled that plate of chili on Dash's head in eighth grade."
"True."
"How did you get your powers anyway, Dad?" Harry asked. Danny led everyone inside and sat them down around the kitchen table, saying that they might be there for a while. He took a deep breath and began to tell his tale:
"Well, when I was fourteen my parents were just finishing work on the Fenton Portal. They were so excited about it, they had woken up your aunt Jazz and I at some ridiculous hour in the morning to watch when they plugged it in. Now this was unusual for them; usually when they had come up with a new invention they would just wait and show it to us over breakfast. But this was their life's work, and they just couldn't wait to start it up. So they dragged us down into the lab and plugged in the last two wires. The hole in the wall sparked a few times and then died. Your grandparents were really distraught that their huge project had failed, and they just held each other quietly while they went upstairs. Jazz and I felt really badly about the whole affair, but we didn't know what to do about it.
"The next day, I told my two best friends-your mom and your godfather Tucker-about it. We went over to my place that afternoon, and your mom suggested that I go in and get the portal to start working. I took one of their HAZMAT suits out of the closet; it was white and had black gloves, boots, belt and collar. I zipped it up and Sam ripped off my dad's picture that was on the front. I went into the portal. Just for fun, I decided to press the green 'on' button, just before I realized that the thing was still plugged in. Everything turned blinding white, then black.
"I woke up on the floor of the lab, and the whole place had this eerie green glow. I turned around and saw that the portal was working. I started cheering, but stopped when I saw the facial expressions on Sam and Tucker. Your mom held up a mirror, and I gasped at what I had become-my black hair had turned snow-white, and my electric-blue eyes had turned all green and glowing. I was really pale and cold, and had this odd aura around me. I also noticed that my suit had reversed the colors so that it was now black with white gloves, boots, belt and collar. All of a sudden, a pair of white rings appeared around my waist and changed me back into how I looked before the accident. I was shocked, and after a couple of weeks speculating, the three of us determined that I had become half ghost.
"About a month into getting my powers, ghosts started to come out of the portal. The first ones were mercifully easy, but they began getting tougher and tougher as time went on. Early on, I made the decision that I was graced with these paranormal powers and so it was my responsibility to protect Amity Park from these ghosts. I took on the mantle of town protector, and thus Danny Phantom was born." Everyone around the table was silent.
"That sounds painful," Jamie finally said.
"It was," her father admitted. "And it felt like an eternity even though your mom and Tucker both say it was only about ten seconds."
"Yeah, definitely more painful than being born with powers." Harry agreed.
"Speak for yourself," Sam interrupted. "You try having to push yourself out through-"
"Okay, Sam, I think they get the idea."
"So will you be able to teach us all of your powers?" Harry asked.
"Yeah, but not all at once. I'm sure that both of you know about almost all of my different types of powers; they've appeared on the news and in newspapers more than enough." They nodded. They already knew about his ability to launch ectoblasts, summon ghost shields, duplicate, move things with his mind…he had so many different powers it was almost tough to keep track of them all. He continued.
"Although I won't be able to teach you anything beyond what you already know how to do so far-intangibility, invisibility, and flight. Don't think that I'm holding you back or anything, it's just that you won't be able to do anything else just yet."
"Why not?"
"Every other type of attack requires you to input some of your own spectral energy. While I can teach you how to do that, there's no point just yet. You both just virtually became ghosts; your energy is practically at zero, and spending so much time practicing lowered it even further. In order to perform even the most basic spectral attacks such as ghost rays, you'll need to build up your power. Some of that is done naturally; over time you'll find that you'll be able to hold your ghost forms for longer than before. But the rest is from practice using your powers. The more you practice, the more your energy will grow and the sooner you'll be able to take on more advanced powers."
"How often are we going to train?"
"As much or as little as you want. I remember how fighting ghosts always got in the way of having a personal life; the last thing I want is for the same thing happening to you. But just remember, the more we train, the more your powers will grow. Now, like I said before, your energies are really low right now; even if I couldn't sense it using my own powers I can tell by the way you're both nodding off. You need to get to bed so that you can both regain some of the energy you've spent and also let your body acclimate to your ghost halves." Harry and Jaime looked at the clock. It was only about 8:45 but their dad was right; they were practically dead on their feet (no pun intended). They slowly made their way up to their individual rooms. Jaime stopped her brother just before they separated.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot-happy birthday, Harry."
"Thanks. See you in the morning."
"Yeah, right, I feel as though I could sleep 'till noon."
"Same. Well, I won't keep us from those nice, warm beds. 'Night."
"Goodnight," They went into their rooms and crashed onto their beds, falling asleep as soon as they landed. Downstairs, Danny and Sam were cuddled together on the couch, talking.
"I think you handled that really well, Danny" Sam said as she rested her head in the crook of his neck.
"You're certainly taking the knowledge that your whole family is partially dead pretty well." He marveled at her figure for a moment. "How on earth did you stay so sexy after having two kids?" she giggled and placed her lips on his neck. When she pulled away there was a rather large hicky where her mouth had been.
"We're such teenagers," he said.
"I realize that I don't look a day older than sixteen, but you could only get away with twenty-five." He laughed at that. Suddenly, he became serious.
"Sam, how could I have been such an idiot? First Paulina, then Valerie? I should be shot with an ectogun repeatedly just for breaking your heart all those times. I don't deserve to be here with you, not after the way I treated you back in high school." She put a finger on his lips, shushing him.
"It doesn't matter what happened back then, Danny. We're here now, together, and that's what's important. Besides, if you really didn't want to start going out in senior year because you thought that you didn't deserve to be with me, then we'd each be with somebody else, and neither couple would be truly happy. Better that there's one happy couple than two unhappy ones, right?"
"After I figured out how I truly felt, then I wouldn't even try to start a relationship with anyone else."
"You're sweet,"
"I know," he said as he kissed her deeply. He caught her by surprise, so she had to stop and get some air. Once that was accomplished, she pulled him into another, longer kiss. After a good minute or so he broke away and whispered roughly into her ear:
"No matter what happened before, no matter how much of a clueless idiot I was in the past, I love you and I always will. Nothing on earth or the Ghost Zone can ever, ever change that. Not even death itself."
"I know," she whispered back. "You're too darn stubborn to allow something stupid like death get in the way of what you want."
"I want you,"
"And I want you." She leaned into him and he lifted her up bridal style and carried her into their bedroom.