The ghost zone was a lonely existence for the only human that lived there.
Flynn was nearing his early twenties, he thinks? And he's never seen another human in the ghost zone. He doesn't remember much about where he came from, and he's sure as heck that he wasn't born in the zone. Everything else is dead here, he's the only thing that's alive, aside from the plants in his garden. That's gotta mean he came from somewhere else. That he wasn't meant to be here.
He's been prepping stuff to leave for awhile now. He wants to explore more of the ghost zone, find that infamous portal to the human world and see what's on the other side. His friends talk about it every time they visit him and when he asks if he can go with them, they always tell him it'd be a drag for him. What is he gonna do? He can't terrorize or mess with people like the ghosts do. They've also told him about the halfa, how he's ruining their fun all the time. But he didn't really think he'd like it if they came to where he lived and wrecked the place either. So one day when he sees him in the ghost zone, he flags him down.
"Hey!" He shouts, waving his hands in the air. "Hey! Down here!"
Flynn sees Danny shoot him an initial look of annoyance but it soon turns into confusion when he sees that it's a human waving up at him and not a ghost. He flies down and lands next to Flynn.
"What are you doing in the ghost zone?" Danny asks.
"You're the halfa, right?"
"Yes?" Danny says before frowning. "Did one of the ghosts kidnap you from Amity Park?"
"No? Is that the town all the ghosts go hang out in?"
"If by 'hang out'." Danny does some air quotes. "You mean terrorize people and destroy property, then yes."
"Can you take me there?"
Danny gives him a look. "You didn't even know what it was, wouldn't you rather go back to the town you're from?"
"I want to see where you come from. Where I might come from."
"Where you might come from?"
Flynn sighs and looks at the ground. "I can barely remember anything from before I got stuck in the ghost zone. I don't remember anything about where I came from. I was really young when it happened."
"How have you even survived here for all this time?" Danny asked.
"You'd be surprised how much fresh water exists in the ghost zone." Flynn shrugs. "And some of the ghosts who found me had some old seeds stashed away that they were collecting. They figured they would get put to good use if it meant keeping me alive."
"And the ghosts didn't just take you back to the human world?" Danny threw his hands up in the air. "All that time? Especially now? When there's a working ghost portal that's open almost all of the time?"
"I don't know! Go ask Ember or Johnny why they won't take me." Flynn throws his arms up into the air back at Danny while Danny mumbles something about how would do just that. "Besides, before that portal opened there were no other constant portals. I would have still been stuck here until a couple of months ago anyways."
"Okay. I'll take you back to Amity Park but you'll have to talk to my parents about this. I can't imagine being stuck in a place made of ectoplasm for the majority of your life is healthy."
Flynn walked back to his little hut and grabbed one of his bags. "Do you know why none of the ghosts have told your parents about you being a halfa? They talk about it all the time but none of them have given me a clear answer."
Danny shrugs. "I have no clue but I'm not complaining." He picks Flynn up and starts flying towards the portal. "I always figured it had to do with some sort of ghost camaraderie even though it's clear they all hate my guts."
Flynn hummed. "I guess."
They fly all the way through the ghost zone and through the portal. Danny phases through the house and out onto the street, dropping Flynn off in an alley before he transforms to his human form.
"So." Danny says, peeking his head out from between the two buildings. "What do you want to do first?"
Flynn thinks about it for a second. "I want to try a burger."
"You've never had a burger before?"
"Nope." Flynn shakes his head. "You can't grow burgers out of the ground off a plant so it's not something I could have in the ghost zone. I've been told they're really good though."
"Oh you have no idea. The Nasty Burger has the best burgers."
Flynn's brows furrow. "That doesn't make sense."
Danny wraps his arm around Flynn's shoulders. "Ignore the name. It'll be the best burger you'll ever have."
"If you say so." Flynn shrugs.
They walk to the Nasty Burger together. As they walk inside, Danny waves at two people standing in line.
"Hey Sam! Tucker!" He runs over to them and gestures at Flynn. "This is Flynn. I found him in the ghost zone. Flynn, these are my friends Sam and Tucker."
"What do you mean you found him in the ghost zone?" Sam asked. "Does he live here?"
Danny shakes his head. "No. He was living in the ghost zone when I found him. We're gonna hang out and do some human stuff around town before having my mom check him out."
Tucker's been squinting between Danny and Flynn since they walked up to them.
"Sam, do you see the family resemblance?"
Sam looked between Danny and Flynn a couple times before her eyes widened. "Oh my god, you're right."
"What?" Danny asks. "How could there be family resemblance? I just found this guy in the zone like half an hour ago."
Tucker shrugged. "I don't know, but he looks a lot like you."
Danny rolled his eyes. "I think you're imagining stuff. Come on, let's go order our food already."
The four of them walk up to the counter and they order. Flynn doesn't know what most of it means or why there's so many meaties in one sandwich name, but soon they're taking their food to a table and sitting down. Flynn unwraps his burger and when he takes the first bite, his eyes open wide.
"This is delicious!" Flynn exclaimed. "This is so much better than eating carrots and potatoes every day for months!"
Flynn's burger is gone in just a few bites. He picks up a second one that was sitting on his tray and starts digging into that one too.
"If you think burgers are good, wait until you try bacon." Tucker says.
"Or ice cream." Sam adds on.
"Or deep fried oreos." Danny says.
Flynn's looking between the three of them. "Can we try all those things?"
The three friends look between each other before looking back at Flynn.
"Why not?" Danny says. "We should go all out on your first day back in the human world, right?"
QQQQQ
"That was great!" Flynn says, swinging around a plastic sword he got from the amusement park they went to. "The ghosts told me I'd be so bored here because I had no ghost powers! I don't know what they're talking about!"
"Ha." Danny laughed. "Betrayed by one of their own. I can't wait to mock them for it."
They walk up to the front door of Danny's house. Danny turns around to face Flynn with a serious expression on his face.
"Okay. Just remember, no mention of me being Phantom. Got it?"
"Got it." Flynn nods.
Danny nods his head back at Flynn and turns around and opens the door.
"Mom!" He calls. "I have someone you need to meet! Phantom found a human that's been living in the ghost zone for the past fifteen years or so and so he dropped him off here. We think you should check him out just in case!"
"We're down in the lab sweetie! We can take a look at him in a few minutes. We're in the middle of a conversation right now!"
"This way." Danny waves Flynn towards a set of stairs that lead down into the ground. Flynn could feel it get colder the further down they go and he's looking at his feet as his foot hits the bottom step. He looks back up at the sudden sound of broken glass.
There's two women staring at him, as if they'd seen a ghost. One of them has a shattered glass sitting on the ground in front of her.
"What's going on-"
A man walks up to them and when his eyes land on him, he stops mid sentence, just staring at him.
Danny mumbles something about forgetting someone was visiting when the older of the two women walks up to him.
"Where did you find him?" She whispers.
Danny points a thumb over his shoulder. "Phantom found him in the ghost zone. He just dropped him off at the front door a few minutes ago, Aunt Alicia."
"Fifteen years ago I lost my son." She whispers, staring at Flynn. "I watched him walk into a swirling green portal that appeared in the two minutes I had my back turned. By the time I saw what was happening, he had already walked in and the portal disappeared." She choked back a sob. "I thought he was gone forever."
"Wait, we're actually related?" Danny asked.
Danny's mom nodded. "Yes. This is your cousin, Flynn Walker."
"Woah." Danny said quietly.
Alicia walked up to Flynn slowly, her arms coming up.
"Can I hug you?"
After a moment, Flynn nods.
He doesn't remember much about his life before the ghost zone, but he did remember someone with warm red hair who sang him songs about bears and trees.
