Disclaimer- If you got this far, I'm not even gonna BOTHER... All kudos to NeutrinoBunny for one of the ideas in this bit! And I do make references to Danny Shadow...

Session 5: Danny Phantom

Age??

Thunk

"OW!"

One eyebrow raised, Cade looked up from his paperwork. That sounded... well, not particularly threatening, but it WASN'T something he expected to hear in the hall outside his office, especially at seven at night. Then again, he wasn't usually THERE at seven at night... but reports waited for no one, and the school brass got kind of tetchy if he was late.

"You know, it IS open," he called, setting his pen down. There was no reply for a moment, then the door swung inwards slowly, a white head peeking in.

"I'm... not interrupting anything, am I?" Amity Park's resident ghost hero asked nervously.

Cade looked down at the form in front of him, then tossed it over his shoulder. "Nothing that I haven't been looking for an excuse to avoid. Come on in and have a seat... Danny Phantom, right?"

The spirit nodded, shutting the door behind him. "That's me. Uh... just out of curiosity, why can't I phase through your door?"

"Take a look." The psychiatrist pointed, and Phantom twisted to follow the line of the man's finger. On the back of the door, in a frame, hung a sheet of rice paper, Japanese characters painted onto it.

"What is that?"

"Ofuda. Friend of mine knows a miko-- Shinto priestess-- and had it made up for me. Keeps spirits out of my office. Nice to know it works."

Phantom smiled. "Unless you invite them in, apparently."

"Well, that holds true for pretty much any type of defense against the supernatural. But I don't think you came to ask about my security... what's on your mind?"

"I... Well, Danny Fenton's kind of... a friend of mine. He said you were a good person to talk to... that you listen."

He what? Cade hadn't honestly thought Danny Fenton trusted him any farther than he could throw a tank... this was a shock, though not an unwelcome one.

"Well, that is my job. And I gotta admit... I'd think you could probably use someone to talk to, if everything I've heard is right."

The green-eyed ghost sighed, looking down at his hands. "You have no idea," he mumbled. Louder, he continued, "You were here when the city was invaded by all those ghosts... right?"

"Hiding under my bed like most of the city, yeah," Cade confirmed. That wasn't exactly true. He hadn't been under the bed, but he'd been smart enough not to leave his apartment. There was a line between bravery and stupidity, and his mother hadn't raised any stupid children.

"Well... See, the whole thing started because this one ghost... Plasmius... he stole a ring from a really strong ghost, Pariah Dark... Dark came here... I beat him, but it darn near kill-- er, destroyed me. And... In the end, it was all a setup. Plasmius has the Crown of Fire that was Pariah Dark's source of power, he has the experimental ecto-suit I wound up stealing from the Fentons, and he has the Fright Knight, Dark's main goon, working for him. I'm supposed to protect this town, and not only did I BLOW it, but I played right into Plasmius' hands!" Phantom's aura was flaring green, obviously in response to his anger.

Cade nodded as calmly as he could. "He played you. Danny... how old are you? I mean, how long have you been... in existence?" He had this hunch...

"Uh... About eight months, I think... it's kind of hazy back at the beginning... why?"

"And how old is this Plasmius?"

"Twenty YEARS," he replied bitterly. "Believe me, I know all about his experience and power, he shoves it down my throat every time we meet."

"And you're patterned off a fourteen year-old boy... right? I'm guessing you and Danny Fenton must be connected... that would explain all the questions he was asking me a while back about Multiple Personality. You don't know how to think tactically yet. But that's something you can learn, you know. In fact, that's the only way anybody gets any good at it, is to learn."

Sighing, the ghost boy folded his arms against his chest. "I just... He keeps outthinking me at every turn... anything I do, he's planned for it... and he keeps telling me I'm going to turn out like him. Turn INTO him. And I don't want to, I'd shove myself in a Fenton Thermos first, but... what if he's right? I keep finding things we have in common, and the angrier he makes me, the more I act like him and..."

Green eyes locked with dark ones, and Cade knew what the boy in front of him couldn't say. "And you're scared."

"Terrified," Phantom laughed bitterly. "And I'M the ghost..."

"'Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.'" Cade quoted. "Friedrich Nietzsche. You're far from the first person to be afraid of something like this, Danny. But as long as you care about other people as much as you do... as long as the idea of being something like Plasmius scares you... you won't turn into him."

Danny nodded slowly. "I... guess that makes sense. Doesn't much help that he's always one step ahead of me, though."

"Well... I might have a solution for that, too." Reaching into a desk drawer, he pulled out a cardboard box. "Up for learning to play chess?"