Hey, everyone! I was going through some files and stuff in my computer the other day, and there are A LOT of files in here. And that's just in MY folder. Ah, but, besides the fact that the amount of memory left in my computer was probably hit by the Fenton Crammer at some point, I rediscovered this little thing. I reread it, and, well… I decided that the time was ripe for some work. Plus, it's a three day weekend, and I was kind of bored.
A little bit of work needs to be done on the first chapter. I altered a few things that I didn't like so much, but the ending to the chapter kind of contradicts the rest of the fanfiction. Well, you'll see what I mean.
So, now I'm gonna waste my time on this. Well, at least I'm having fun, so I guess that's what matters. Right?
II
Repercussions
It was a long time before life went back to normal, though.
Although Danny's short speech had apparently satisfied everyone, his sister found fault with it immediately.
"Danny!" she chided. "What were you thinking?"
Danny pulled his head out of the refrigerator. "Thinking about what?"
"What do you mean, 'thinking about what'? Making a scene in front of the entire town, that's what, and if I haven't seen anything as-"
Danny pulled a soda from the fridge and tapped the door shut with his foot, opening the can with a fizzy click. "Oh. That. What else was I supposed to do, Jazz? If I hadn't, the whole town would have followed me around for weeks! I wouldn't have been able to go ghost anywhere without risking being caught on camera!"
Jazz shook her head as Danny gulped his soda.
"Danny, that's not how it works!" the over-protective sister argued. "You just made them more curious as to what your identity is, not less!"
The ghost boy choked on his soda. "What?" he gasped.
"Exactly. Now everyone's going to want to know why you're hiding."
"Just why I said!" he cried, indignant. "Why else would I be trying to keep a secret identity?"
"'I want to keep at least half of my life to be as normal as possible,'" Jazz quoted. "Danny, no one's going to believe that's all you really want. It's called reverse psychology. All you did was make them more curious, not less!"
Danny sat down at the kitchen table and buried his face in his hands. "What happened to my life? It used to be nice, quiet and peaceful, and all that ever happened was the Box Ghost randomly appearing, or Technus trying to rule the technological world, or Desiree granting wishes that didn't turn out too well, or Ember popping up and hypnotizing people. Life used to be simple."
Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Ember? As in, Ember McLean? Wait, she was a ghost, too?"
Danny looked up at his sister. "Yeah, Ember was a ghost. Really annoying ghost, too," he added under his breath, eyes flickering momentarily green.
"Anyway, you'll get through this, little brother," Jazz said, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know you will."
Danny smiled at his sister. "Thanks, Jazz."
"Don't mention it." Jazz tousled his hair playfully.
"Hey, Jazz, you know I don't like that!" Danny cried, shoving her hand away and attempting to smooth his hair.
"I know," Jazz smiled, ruffling his hair one last time before leaving the kitchen.
Valerie Gray watched the taped news broadcast for what was, by her count, the fourteenth straight time. She clutched the remote control in one hand, and paused right after the armored ghost—Skulker, if she remembered correctly—shocked the ghost boy. Those two odd, blue-white rings of energy that had appeared around her foe...
"What were those, anyway?" she asked herself.
Valerie glared at the screen, concentrating on the ghost boy's torso, the part of his body that differed from his typical black-and-white jumpsuit. Instead, he wore what looked like normal blue jeans from the knees up and a white tee shirt, the lower half of some curved red shape visible just across his chest. The upper half of the shape was breached by one of those odd blue rings, and was replaced by that weird symbol he'd taken to wearing lately, some sort of jagged-edged D.
"Where have I seen that before?" she asked herself aloud. But, as it had the other thirteen times, no brilliant answer appeared in her head. The girl gave a long sigh and clicked play, letting the tape run through the rest of the clip.
"Wh-what was that?" Valerie watched herself ask as she lowered the gun she had had trained on the ghost boy's heart—or, at least, where a ghost's heart should have been.
The other ghost, Skulker, grinned. "Why, didn't you know? The ghost boy, Danny Phantom, is half ghost!"
Valerie watched as she fumbled with the bazooka, and mentally rebuked herself for the mistake. 'Never let your guard down' was the lesson that she had trained herself in, and in those brief moments, she had failed.
"How can anyone be half ghost?" her television self gasped.
"Ask him," Skulker replied. The ghost boy was thrust to her and she grabbed him by the arms, ignoring the gun she had been holding altogether. The Skulker ghost flew to the very edge of the screen before the ghost boy called back, "Tell Plasmius he's going to pay for this!"
"Oh, don't worry, I will," was the hunter's response before he vanished altogether.
Valerie watched herself readjust her grip on the ghost boy's arm and return the weapon to her grasp. "Explain or I'll shoot!"
She watched as the ghost boy replied—rather weakly, it seemed, "Now, do you really want to do that? If I really am...half-unh-half ghost, then that could be considered-unh-murder."
Then the television ghost boy wrenched himself free from her hands and made himself invisible.
Valerie clicked the power button and turned her head away. She looked at the picture that she had printed, one of the ghost boy and how he had looked with those two rings around him and half-transformed into whatever his human self looked like.
Valerie had always thought that the ghost boy looked familiar, that she had seen him before. This odd feeling of déjà vu had only increased by the incident of earlier that day. She knew she had seen the ghost boy before.
And nothing would stop Valerie Gray from finding out where she had, and who the ghost boy was.
Tiffany Snow fiddled with the cord trailing from the end of her microphone. She half-heartedly glanced over the report for the evening news that sat upon the desk at the station.
"I'd better get a raise for all this extra work," she mumbled.
"That's what I've been saying all this time," an irate Lance Thunder replied, the weatherman overhearing the station broadcaster by chance. "Knew I should've taken that job in Chicago."
"It's not as bad for you, you're just the weather man!" Tiffany retorted. "I'm the one who has to do extra work on this thing, not you. I even have to work with those ghost-hunting idiots! But do I ever get any sympathy?"
"You'll get as much sympathy from me as I got from you during that skeleton disaster," Lance muttered.
"Hey, you got sympathy!"
"Yeah, but you were sitting nicely in this station while I was out there in that creepy dome."
"Miss Snow? We're going on the air in five," a man with headphones warned as he poked his head out from the glass control room.
"Oh! Yes, right!" Tiffany said, straightening up immediately and running her hands over her hair in a last minute grooming to make herself presentable on television. She shuffled the papers on the desk and donned a smile as Lance took his place before the blank, green weather report screen.
The camera flashed into life with ablinking redlight.
"Hello, I'm Tiffany Snow, and this is your six o'clock broadcast! Today's hot topic: the ghost boy, Danny Phantom, and what his real identity is."
Tiffany took a deep breath before continuing with the broadcast.
"Ah, good evening, Miss Chin. I take it that you're interested in the position?" the head of the Amity Park Angle, Robert Hanson, said brightly, leaning over the desk to shake the woman's hand.
Harriet Chin beamed as she accepted the handshake. "Good evening, sir. Yes, I'm very interested. Journalism is my life."
"Excellent, excellent. Now, let's get down to business," the man said, leaning back in his chair and thumbing through a folder. "It says here that you were fired from your last position for the Milwaukee Journal for attempting to publish a story on ghosts?"
"That's right. I came here because I've heard of the recent happenings in Amity Park. I had hoped that you'd be more...understanding," Harriet responded pleasantly.
"Ah, yes. Well, if it's ghosts you want, you've come to the right place, Miss Chin. Now, what do you know about a ghost named Danny Phantom?"
Harriet bit her lip. "I'm afraid I don't recognize the name, Mr. Hanson."
"Then perhaps you know him as his other alias, Inviso-Bill?"
"No, I don't."
Robert opened a drawer in his desk and extracted a folder.
"Now," he said, opening it and handing her a series of pictures, "do you recognize any of these ghosts?"
Harried shook her head as she looked at the pictures. Most contained Danny, fighting various ghostly enemies. But she stopped at the last one.
It was a picture taken around the time of the Pariah Dark incident. She nodded and pointed to a vampiric figure floating beside the picture.
"That's the one," she said, narrowing her eyes. "The Wisconsin Ghost."
"He's from Wisconsin?" Robert asked. Harriet replied with a nod.
"Oh, yes. He's the one with a grudge against Jack Fenton."
"Jack Fenton? You don't mean the crazy ghost hunter who runs around in an orange jumpsuit, do you?"
"That's the one. Don't tell me he's involved in this, too?" Harriet said.
"He and his family live here. Why? Did you know him?" Robert asked.
"We went to college together."
"Ah." Robert paused. "So, when did you learn about this Wisconsin Ghost?"
"At a college reunion in Wisconsin a few months back. That was the last time I saw Jack, too," Harriet replied.
"Very interesting," Robert mused. "Well, any more ghostly input to this?"
"No, Mr. Hanson."
"Very well, then." He sighed. "I suppose I should just go right out and tell you this. All the recent ghost attacks have caused quite an uproar. More than one of our employees have quit, and more will. It's a dangerous business anymore, Harriet. I'll be honest; we're desperate for help. If you're willing to join, you're in."
Harriet paused. Then, a smile grew over her face. "Oh, I'm willing, alright."
"Excellent," Robert replied. "Congratulations, Miss Chin. You're in."
Vlad Masters paced anxiously around his study.
"I did what you asked, sir. May I inquire, why are you so nervous?" Skulker asked—or as he had put it, 'inquired'.
Vlad glared at the employee. "I've given you what you wanted, upgrades and Daniel humiliated. Must you stick around here as yet another thorn in my side?"
"Well, actually, yes," Skulker answered. "It's much nicer here than in the Ghost Zone. Besides, you have food. Real food, not that inedible ghost food that Lunch Lady makes."
"Mm-hm," Vlad said skeptically. "And the real reason?"
Skulker sighed. "It keeps me out of Walker's prison. Now, where's the kitchen again?"
"Downstairs, three doors to the left, make another right and don't upset my jersey display like you did last time!"
"Don't worry, sir, I won't," Skulker promised. Vlad glared as the ghostly hunter phased through the floor.
"Perhaps a ghost prison is a good place for him, after all," he mused. He turned his eyes to the ceiling, where a football scene was painted in the style of Michelangelo.
"So, Daniel guessed that it was me. Either he's getting smarter, or it was a lucky guess." Vlad paused. "It was a lucky guess," he confirmed.
"Still, I suppose I must guard my own secret more carefully from now on. I wouldn't put it past the boy to reveal it wholly in revenge. But that would mean revealing his own secret as well, and I don't think he wants to do that just yet. Either way, at least I've forced him into the position of being more cautious."
A crash was heard from downstairs, followed by a loud "Oops!" from Skulker.
"I TOLD you not to upset the jersey display!" Vlad bellowed.
"And now, here's Lance Thunder, with the weather."
Danny groaned and turned the television off, letting the remote fall from his hand and collapsing on the couch.
"So, how'd Mom and Dad's interview go?" Jazz asked from the kitchen.
"Amazing," Danny grunted. Jazz frowned and poked her head into the living room.
"Okay, fine," Danny sighed. "You know how it goes, Jazz. Dad accepts all praise on behalf of him, Jack Fenton, and Mom answers all the questions. I think she palmed Dad a few cookies, too."
Jazz grinned. "That's Mom and Dad for you."
"Yeah." Danny looked up from the couch and sniffed the air. "Jazz? Is something burning?"
"Oh my gosh!" she cried, vanishing through the entrance to the kitchen. "The salad!"
Danny settled back into the couch and turned the television back on, flipping through channels until he found one that satisfied him.
"Only Jazz could burn a salad," he chuckled.
"Hey! I heard that!" his sister's voice called from the kitchen.
Danny smirked and continued to watch the show.
Oh, I'm proud of myself. I spelled 'Milwaukee' right on the first try. Yes, that's my big accomplishment for today.
So, this chapter was a bit shorter than I had intended, but it got the job done, and really, that's all that matters. So, short, but eventful. And more humorous, too, because I love throwing in little jokes like that. And references to other episodes. Those are fun, too!
Hm, this is also the first time I think I've ever done that much with Valerie. Weird. It seems like I've used her more before, but, no, I don't think I have. Although, for once, I'm confident that these guys are all in character! Well, except for that Robert guy I had to invent, but sometimes an author has to do that. Ah well.
So, next chapter will be longer, will be called 'Close Calls' unless I decide to change that title any time between now and then, and will be up whenever because I'm never specific about these dates. Heh, but this is fun. It does my heart good to write in the omniscient perspective again.
Ta!
-E.P.