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Chapter 225: (We're All) Born Screaming
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"I'm sorry I didn't really talk to you guys about this beforehand," said Danny, rubbing the back of his neck, "but I feel like you'd be really good at it. Being Ancients, that it. I mean, you already have experience," said Danny, gesturing at Sojourn.
Sojourn made a face. "Whether or not I was a good Ancient is… debatable, but I accept."
"You can't possibly be worse than Undergrowth," said Sam.
"Or Vortex," said Jazz.
"Thank goodness," said Nephthys, "I can split portal duty with you again."
Once again, the Ancients plus Team Phantom found themselves squeezed into Danny's assigned room. Dan was also there, but he was sulking in the corner with a book he was pretending not to enjoy.
Danny shyly looked up at Frostbite, who had yet to speak, and jumped when he realized he was crying.
"I—" said Danny, horrified. "You don't have to if you don't want to. I didn't mean to upset you or anything. Is there – Is something wrong?"
"Great one," said Frostbite, tears streaming down his face, "I would be honored."
Oh. Tears of joy. That was a thing. Right.
Danny nodded, still taken aback, and turned to the other Ancients. "So, do you guys have any initiation or orientation stuff you have to do, or is that it?"
"Oh, sure," said Nephthys, "tons. But it's ninety percent hazing, so we won't trouble you with it."
"That sounds concerning," said Danny. "I'm troubled."
"People die from hazing," said Jazz.
"Not an issue with us," said Nephthys. "Don't worry, I'm in charge of initiation, since joining a group is a kind of change."
"Somehow," said Danny, "I'm even more troubled."
"Do not worry, great one! I am not one to quail before a challenge."
"Eh, I have survived Nephthys's initiation once already. I am sure I'll be fine."
"If you say so," said Danny doubtfully. "Um, Fright Knight, are you okay?"
"My lord, I do not understand why you have dismissed Undergrowth and Vortex but not myself."
"Because they're crazy and you're sane?"
"I have also fought against you, even briefly allying myself with Plasmius."
"I didn't know about that. Did he tell you any of his evil plans?"
"… Define evil."
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"Wait, do you think Vlad thinks you're still working for him?"
"I do not know, my lord. I suppose it is possible."
"Okay, I don't want to make you do anything you aren't comfortable with, but how do you feel about being a double agent?"
"Ooh," said Ellie, "I can help with that. I'm a great double agent."
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Danny laid on the bed, half curled around the core of his sibling, the one he had been focused on. Ellie laid across from him in the opposite direction, their bodies forming a rough yin-yang symbol. Nocturne was hogging the rest of the bed, and everyone else was celebrating Frostbite and Sojourn's new status, and Fright Knight's 'long awaited corruption.'
Danny wondered. Had Fright Knight not been considered 'corrupted' before? Despite willingly working for Pariah Dark and randomly attacking people on Halloween? What were Nephthys's standards for corruption? Should Danny be concerned that Dan was with her? Was she just making things up or was this part of the hazing? Although, Frostbite and Sojourn were the ones who should be getting hazed…
… Was that a keg?
"Aunt Nephthys," he said, sitting up, "why is there a keg in my room?"
"Drinking changes people," said Nephthys, very seriously, patting the keg under her arm.
"Can ghosts even get drunk?"
"Not usually, no."
"It isn't a keg of beer," said an exasperated-sounding Dan.
"Oh, Ancients," said Danny, fearing the worst. Was it ghost nip? Liquified ghost nip? He could only imagine that ending in disaster and embarrassing pictures.
"Yes, we are here," said Nephthys.
"Hm? What?" said Nocturne, rousing slightly.
"It isn't other drugs either!" snapped Dan.
"I don't know," said Nephthys, "under certain circumstances it could be very drug-like."
"Oh, gingerbread," said Dan.
Sam made a sort of choking sound, like she was trying to swallow a laugh. Danny empathized. Gingerbread? Of all the things for Dan to pick up from Vlad, he went with the weird food-related swears?
"It's purified ectoplasm. You know, like you wanted?" He grumbled, under his breath. "Everyone in this room is a freak."
"Oh, yes," said Nephthys, nodding sagely, "everyone."
Dan threw his book at Nephthys's head. Surprisingly, it actually hit her, causing her to jolt forward a few inches. The keg of ectoplasm hit the corner of the desk and exploded, covering the entire room with a thin layer of bright green ectoplasm.
"Ah," said Nephthys. "Oops."
Dan pointed an accusing finger at Nephthys. "There's no way I threw that hard enough to make you move! You did that on purpose!"
"Well, yes," admitted Nephthys, ruefully. "Not covering all you with ectoplasm, though. I forgot the desk was there."
"It happens, I guess," said Danny, licking some of the ectoplasm off his lips.
Jazz sighed. Parts of her hair had gone blue where the ectoplasm had hit her. "I guess the universe decided that we'd gone too long without getting slimed."
"Yeah," agreed Danny. "I didn't really think about it, what with everything else going on, but this has to be some kind of record, doesn't it?"
"The longest time gone without the Fenton children being accidentally drenched in ectoplasm," said Jazz. "It's too bad. I sort of liked this sweater."
"It shouldn't stain," said Clockwork. "You're wearing ghost made clothing."
"Oh," said Jazz, brightening. "True."
"Saying it like that gives this a real fantasy vibe," said Tucker. "Kind of like saying elf made clothing."
"Oh, yes. The elves make some interesting clothes," agreed Clockwork.
"Man," said Tucker, "you can't just say stuff like that."
"Why not?"
"This is still going to be really hard to clean up, though," said Danny, scraping a handful of goo from his shirt. His skin started to absorb it, but it would take forever before such passive absorption made a dent. Even with all the ghosts in the room.
Maybe they could eat it? It was just purified ectoplasm.
Oh, Ancients, Tucker was right. Danny did have a problem with eating things that should not be eaten. Next thing he knew, he'd be munching on Fright Knight's sword.
"Here, my lord, allow me," said Fright Knight, pulling a string of embroidered handkerchiefs out of his armor. Because why not?
Fright Knight must have noticed Danny's incredulous stare, because he, too, tipped his helmet down to look at the handkerchiefs.
"Ah," he said. "I used to be given a lot of these. At tournaments."
"Oh, as favors?" asked Danny, still not quite sure why they were tied together like a stage magician's prop.
"Yes. 'Tis easier to keep track of them tied together like this."
An explanation that made sense. How novel.
Wait. Did it actually make sense, or was Danny's bar for explanations currently set so low that it sounded reasonable?
"Can't you just phase it off?" asked Tucker. Tucker, who was clean. (Or at least ectoplasm-goo-free).
"Oh, yeah," said Sam. "I keep forgetting we can do that, here."
"Shoot, you're right," said Danny.
"Liminality is so fascinating," said Frostbite, grinning and trying to rake globs of ectoplasm out of his fur.
Fright Knight sagged almost imperceptibly, handkerchief still held out.
Danny had yet to truly understand what Fright Knight's deal was. Initially, he'd thought that his Obsession was a simple, straightforward, 'cause chaos and fear,' or even 'Halloween,' but that was back when he was still ignorant about ghostly matters. Later, he'd amended his theories to include stuff like 'chivalry,' 'knighthood,' and 'service.' Of course, he didn't know, and it would be rude to ask.
Anyway, Danny didn't know why he seemed so… discouraged. Did he not have enough knightly things to do? Was he just not feeling useful? Heck. Danny hated not feeling useful. But could Danny give him something to do that wouldn't be insulting? Fright Knight was, well, a knight.
But he had been coming over to help Danny clean up, so…
"You could… clean the outside of the jar? If you'd like?" offered Danny, holding up his sibling's current housing.
Inside the helmet, Fright Knight's eyes blinked twice. "… Yes, my lord," he said, reaching out.
As soon as he touched it, several things happened in quick succession.
The jar broke.
All the free ectoplasm in the room flared a blinding white.
The ectoplasm was sucked towards where the jar had been.
A loud 'pop' sounded.
Something of medium weight fell on top of Danny.
This something was revealed to be a young and rather skeletal ghost.
Said ghost started screaming.
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Screaming when one is born is a relatively normal thing, even if one has been born already, and waking up in a room full of strangers is probably pretty startling all on its own, but the new ghost, Danny's sibling, wasn't screaming for any of those very good reasons. He was screaming at Danny. Because he was scared of Danny. And Danny knew it and deserved it, because Danny was, ultimately, the reasons that the clones were melted in the first place. In fact, in most cases Danny had been the one to deliver the final destabilizing blow.
Why wouldn't they be scared of him?
(Was this the reason it had taken so long for him to form? So long to recover a body? Because Danny scared him too much?)
Danny was in one corner of the room, trying to be small and harmless-looking and wondering if he should leave, and his two awake clone siblings were in the opposite corner. Ellie was comforting the new ghost, who had also, for some reason, decided to latch on to Fright Knight. More specifically, Fright Knight's gauntlet and (still comical) string of handkerchiefs.
Part of Danny was sort of miffed. Fright Knight was supposed to be scary, not Danny. The rest of Danny was wondering if he should leave the room entirely, so that the other ghost could calm down.
But whatever Ellie and Fright Knight were saying seemed to be working, the screams no longer had the same volume or pitch. Danny risked looking up.
The newly re-formed ghost was gray-skinned and wrapped in a long, white shroud. There were faint touches of blue-green on his cheeks and ears, and his hair was a green so pale it was almost white. Other than that, well, the ghost was so skinny it looked like his skin had been shrink-wrapped to his skeleton.
Maybe he really had been the bedsheet skeleton ghost, before.
He looked away again before the ghost's frightened red eyes could catch him. Of course, that's when the ghost saw Dan and started shrieking again.
Alright. That was entirely valid. It also indicated that it was time for both of them to go.
Danny got up, grabbed Dan's arm, and dragged him out of the room. Whereupon Danny realized what he had just done and dropped Dan's arm like it had burned him. Which Dan hadn't done. Wow it was weird to be interacting with Dan like this.
Dan floated a few feet away and slouched down against a wall. "What?" he snarled.
"Nothing, nothing," said Danny, raising his hands in surrender. Surrender that would rapidly turn into not-surrender if Dan decided to make things physical.
"Hmf." Dan looked away. "Doesn't even know me," he muttered under his breath, "and still screams. Whatever."
Hold up. Did Dan have hurt feelings? Is that what this was? Is that what Danny was seeing here with his own two eyes?
Yes. Yes, it was.
Question: How the heck should he handle this?
"If it helps," he offered, "he probably has our memories. I mean, yours, mine, and Ellie's. So, he maybe sort of does know you? A little?"
Dan crossed his arms and glared.
This was awkward. At least the hallway was empty.
"At least, at least he's awake, now, right? I know you were looking forward to it." Strangely enough, Danny did know that. He hadn't realized it consciously, but Dan had been interested the whole time, had been there, had kept some attention on the box and the cores even when they weren't the main focus of what was going on.
Dan did not deign to acknowledge Danny.
"Once, you know, he calms down a bit, we'll probably be able to talk to him."
More silence.
"He's probably mostly afraid of me, anyway."
"What are you talking about?"
"Well, it's my fault they were melted."
Dan looked sideways at Danny. "I can see your memories, too, you idiot."
"So?"
Dan rolled his eyes.
"Anyway, they were fighting me when they melted—and Ellie, too, I suppose, but they knew Ellie, so…"
The door opened. Clockwork peered out. "We seem to have rectified the issue somewhat," he said. "You two can come back in."
