Hey there, just want to clear up a bit of confusion. In general, the people of Harmony aren't any more liminal than the people of Amity. They have just had more opportunity to learn how to deal with ectoplasm, because, in the short term, they're more exposed to it. Amity Park people, on the other hand, have had longer term but lower levels of exposure. Only a few of the younger Harmony kids have actually been born liminal. The lair has only existed for as long as Danny has been a ghost, so the oldest child born there would only be two. I'm sorry for not being more clear in the actual story, I wasn't sure I could work all of this in.

Great: The Harmony kids aren't really ghosts, and Danny isn't really in charge of them. Their parents are still around and Danny only just found out that they exist. But to answer your question, I'd have to say no, not as a parent. They aren't physiologically equipped for the strain. They can act as older siblings, or as ringleaders, though.

Guest: I've never actually watched Merlin, unfortunately. The Fisher king bit is more a reference to Arthurian legend than anything else. I thought that would be a reasonable story for the kids to have. I'm glad you liked it, though.

Guest: To be honest, I forgot that that's what I named the cat from the one shot. I guess I'm bad at naming cats... I'm going to pretend I did it on purpose from now on.

Over 200 followers? I'm dead. But in a good way.

Chapter 61:

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Danny was surprised, until he wasn't. Until he realized that this was just like him. This was a thing that he would do. Definitely. He had known for ages and ages that humans sometimes fell into the Zone. He had never seen one, but he supposed that they had to go somewhere. Then he just sort of... wilted a bit. He didn't know how to deal with this. This was one explanation too many, especially when he didn't know the explanation. He couldn't tell his parents about these people, couldn't tell them why they were here. He didn't know those people. He felt like he did. But he didn't.

(He did, however, have a responsibility to them. They were his. They were more people to worry about it.)

One of the kids on the other balcony waved. "Hallo!" she shouted.

There was panic.

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Sam was surprised at first, when she saw the people on the other balcony, but, honestly, once she thought about it, this was such a fundamentally Danny situation that she had to laugh, despite how just about everyone else was freaking out. Of course he'd help anyone who showed up at his door! Or, as the case might be, his Door. Sam had thought that the wisps were as far as that particular impulse extended, but, apparently, that was not the case.

Poor Danny. Judging by his expression, all of this was going through his head, too, and he was panicking. There really wasn't any reason to, but Sam supposed that this was just one surprise too many. Or maybe the issue was that his shadows hadn't told him.

That could be it.

Or it could be that this would be hard to explain to his parents.

"It's okay, Danny," she said quietly, knowing that he would hear her despite the cacophony the rest of the class was raising. "We'll figure this out."

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Jazz was... Not surprised. Not really. She had been sort of expecting this. Well, not humans, or apparent humans, but someone other than the wisps. Other ghosts. Maybe the newly dead, or people needing sanctuary. Danny was just... hospitable. One of the nicest, most caring people that she had ever met. It was reasonable to assume that his lair would be as well.

Just as predictably, Danny was freaking out. Not as obviously as the rest of his classmates, but still. Most likely, he was worried that their parents were going to take this badly. Danny had been sneaking worried glances at Jack and Maddie all day.

She put a hand on his shoulder. This much stress was not good for him. "Breathe, Danny," she said. "This isn't something that Mom and Dad will be upset about. This is okay."

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Tucker wasn't surprised at all. Well, he was surprised that they had actually run into someone other than the wisps, but he wasn't surprised that there was someone in the lair other than the wisps. And themselves, of course, but whatever. Helping people was Danny's thing. Once he saw all those guest rooms, he had known. Not, like, actually known, known, but he had gotten a feeling.

Yeah.

So.

He didn't entirely get why Danny was freaking out about it, though. Those kids up there looked fine, and there wasn't any way that they could get here from there, as far as Tucker could see.

But the thing was, Danny was freaking out about it. So Tucker had to do something. He couldn't exactly do anything about the people on the other balcony, so...

"They look friendly, right?" he said. Danny, staring up at the other balcony nodded imperceptibly.

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Danny was lucky to have friends who knew him so well, who could calm him down so easily. Ancients, he just wanted to go home and sleep for a week, maybe take a few days without worrying about ghost attacks and other chaos. A few days to heal would be... He wanted to say necessary, but he doubted that he would get the time to heal before the next thing went wrong. He would have to work through it.

(Or he could just hide and pretend that none of it was happening.)

His parents were heading his his way.

(Oh, Ancients, what was he going to say?)

"Danny? Do you know what's going on?" asked Maddie, quietly.

"Not really, no," said Danny, shaking his head in case she couldn't hear him. He finally tore his gaze away from the people on the other balcony to look up at his parents. They didn't seem angry. Not yet, anyway. They would be, though. They'd think that he was lying, and then they would be angry. Or they'd think that Phantom and the shadows were manipulating him, and then they'd be angry. Or they'd use this to 'prove' that Phantom wasn't to be trusted, which... Yeah.

"Okay," said Maddie. "Danny..."

Danny tried to fade behind Jazz, but Jazz moved. Traitor.

The smile Maddie gave Danny was strained, but clearly intended to be comforting. "We'll figure this out, it'll be okay."

"Could everyone calm down please?" called Fractal. "Excuse me?" He bit his lip.

"Here," said Mr Lancer. "Class! Attention, please!" It took Mr Lancer a few tries to get everyone under control, but, eventually, they calmed down enough for Mr Lancer to turn to Fractal and say, "You were saying?"

"Right," said Fractal. "So, I guess we forgot to tell you about our other guests?"

"You guess?" exclaimed Danny. Then he clapped his hands over his mouth.

"Um," said Fractal, nervously. "Yes? I'm sorry."

"Parlez-vous francais ou anglais?" called one of the people on the other balcony. The girl was blonde, with a long blue skirt and dark jacket.

"We speak English!" Maddie called back. "Who are you?"

"Oh, sweet!" said one of the boys. Danny couldn't place his accent. "I'm Byron! We're from Harmony. You aren't."

"Where?"

"Harmony! Where are you from?"

Maddie turned her gaze to Fractal. "Harmony?"

Fractal shifted. "Lots of people get lost in the Ghost Zone. Some of them find their way here."

"You- You've been imprisoning people here?"

"What? No!"

"Imprisoned?" shouted one of the other people. "No way. We just live here!"

"Harmony is in here," explained Fractal. "It's built around the Door."

"Where are you from?" asked Byron again.

Maddie licked her lips. "We're from Amity Park!" she yelled. "Why are you here?"

The other people conferred with one another for a few minutes. Maddie looked expectantly at Fractal. Fractal shrugged. "We were... There's something nasty sitting outside our Door. We were evacuating the town."

"What were you going to do with us, then?" demanded Ricky.

"Well," said Fractal, somewhat evasively, "our contract doesn't have a time limit. It just says safely..."

"You were going to lead us around in circles, weren't you?" accused Maddie.

"Wouldn't you?" asked Fractal sharply,

"And then- We would never have seen them! They're children. They deserve a life! They deserve to be around other people! Other humans!"

"Excuse me! I'm eighteen!" shouted one of the girls.

"And I'm seventeen!"

"I'm not a kid!"

"Who're you calling short?!"

"We have lives!"

"Don't be a jerk!"

"Our parents are just over- Well, somewhere back there!"

Danny looked back up at the other people. Mirage had popped over there at some point, and was now having an intense discussion with some of the people up there. Two of them looked up, and met Danny's eyes as he stared at them. Their eyes flashed with red and gold light. His own eyes were brighter when he was excited, but theirs were, at least, noticeable. To him, in any case. He didn't know if someone without enhanced vision could see the lights inside their eyes.

Danny bit his lip. They were liminal.

(The remnants of a conversation he hadn't been anywhere near echoed in his head. They were liminal, and they knew how to use it. They were liminal, and they were looking for him. They were like him. They were like Jazz, Sam, and Tucker. They were like the people of Amity Park.)

It would be nice if they could all sit down together and talk. If they could show Jazz, Sam, and Tucker how they used their liminality. If they could all be friends. He liked having friends. Sam and Tucker would still be his best friends, of course. They always would be. They were the best. The best.

But, the way these things were going, he didn't think that talk would be soon.

Soon all of the teens on the other balcony were staring up at Danny, their eyes twinkling like faint stars. His eyes flashed back at them. One of them squeaked, and they all started to talk excitedly to each other and Mirage in French.

(Hopefully, no one noticed that they were all looking at Danny. There was enough distance for there to be some ambiguity.)

"Maybe we'll cross paths again," shouted Byron, cheerfully. "But we've got to go back soon, or we'll get in trouble with our parents. Travel safe!"

The liminal children scurried back down a walkway, chattering. Mirage sent a last glance up towards Danny before disappearing himself.

Danny sighed. That hadn't been so bad, except for restarting the fight between his parents and his shadows. He sighed again.

Then a searing pain shot through his head. The shadows all winced. Not good. Bad.

And he knew exactly what had been waiting outside his Door.

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Shade hissed, glaring at the men, the human men, coming through the Door. This was not good. His weapons weren't designed for humans. They were equivalent to rubber bullets at best, paintball guns at worst. He wasn't prepared for humans. There were limits to what he could do. To what the lair could do.

He vanished from the roof, and shut his eyes, making conscious contact with the other shadows. They all needed to know.

Now, to find out who these men were, and why they were here.