Jump Into the Fire
Based on a prompt by wastefulreverie
With his secret revealed, Danny has to wear inhibitors to school. Most days they're fine if not irritating, but when they get damaged in a chemistry lab everyone's desperate to see his powers before the inhibitors are repaired. Even teachers make a point to ask for "favors" while Danny's allowed to go all out.
"This is bull," Danny thought out loud, "As if they don't trust me!"
Now that his parents knew his secret, they made his safety (and academic success) their top priority–moreso than hunting nasty ghosts and ripping them open. So they made him Fenton Inhibitors™—two big, dark grey bracelet-type things that go on the wrists—designed to keep Danny's powers at bay so he can focus on his studies. Should he try to go ghost, the inhibitors would give him a strong, but otherwise harmless, electric zap. At least, that was the intention.
"Do they hurt?" Sam asked,
"A bit," Danny understated.
"So…a lot."
"They're trying, I'll give 'em that."
"C'mon," Sam stood up, "It's Chemistry next."
Though uncomfortable as they were, the inhibitors did their job well. To Danny's relief, no longer was lab equipment falling through his hand involuntarily.
"I could get used to these things!" Danny mused as he held a test tube at a tilt.
A drip of the liquid in the test tube dripped free, and fell down…missing its target (the beaker below) entirely, splashing onto one of Danny's inhibitors.
"Uh-oh…"
The thing crackled with electricity, zapped Danny's arm like never before, and shorted out–a stream of smoke steadily rising out of it. The inhibitors only worked if both of them were functioning, so the one that didn't get hit was also useless now.
"Dammit, Danny!" Sam scolded, "That's what tongs are for!"
"Well that's just great," Danny groaned, "Just as I was beginning to like 'em, they break. I can imagine the lecture I'm gonna get from my parents."
"I'm sure they can fix them,"
"Not the inhibitors, Sam, this."
As if on cue, the test tube fell through his hand. Fortunately he caught it with his other hand.
"If they get a phone call, saying I've been once again disrupting school by getting involved in whatever ghostly shenanigans are happening at the moment, they're gonna put me on the table soon as I get home, and next thing you know…"
"Molecule by molecule?" Sam guessed.
"No, too traumatizing. The agreed-upon threat is the Fenton Ghost Catcher™. Now with these inhibitors out of wack, I'm as good as split!"
"Well you do have another inhibitor," Sam pointed to the top of her noggin, "It's up here."
Danny looked at her, confused at first, but eventually realized she was right. The only thing Danny had left to prohibit him from using his ghost powers in school was sheer will power.
"Grandma always said 'there's a time and place for everything', and school is not a time for fighting ghosts, no matter how much of a distraction they are."
Danny turned on the sinks to wash the test tubes and beakers as class came to a close.
"Okay, so it's settled," he said, "I'll just stop thinking about my ghost powers."
"What about the ghosts?"
"We'll just ignore them—maybe they'll go away. You'd be surprised how many ghosts here have 'attention' as their obsession!"
As the bell rang, Danny stuffed the now-useless inhibitors into a side pocket of his backpack. To his dismay, the lack of inhibitors on his wrists did not go unnoticed.
"HEY, FENTO BOX!" A familiar voice sounded.
"That's a new one," Danny mused as he turned to face Dash in front of his locker.
"I got a surprise for ya!" Dash declared, opening the locker.
Out stepped a student wearing a white bedsheet with eyeholes.
"Boo!" said the student underneath, "I'm a ghost and I've come to scare the bejeebers outta somebody!"
"Hey, Kwan," Danny nodded and moved on.
Dash's jaw dropped. His plan to get a simple rise out of Danny exploded in his face.
It was much worse in homeroom, where all the students' eyes were affixed to Danny.
"I can't believe I'm saying this," he gulped, "But shouldn't we be learning something?"
"Do the thing, Danny!" said one of the lesser-known students.
"No," Danny blinked, "I gotta prove to my parents that I'm capable of going to school like a normal student."
"Parents schmarents," said another student, "We wanna see Phantom!"
Danny looked to the teacher.
"Mr. Lancer, do something," he complained.
Unfortunately for him, Mr. Lancer had other ideas.
"Actually," he said, "I could use some help dusting the tops of the cabinets, adjusting the clock for Daylight Savings and getting my WORLD'S BEST TEACHER mug from inside the ceiling…"
"Please, I need this!" Danny begged.
"Okay, if that's how you're gonna play then…GREAT GATSBY!" Lancer pointed out the window, "Isn't that Elvis?"
All the students looked where the teacher was pointing. But Danny didn't budge.
"Nice try," he smirked.
Now the students were restless.
"WE WANT PHANTOM! WE WANT PHANTOM!" they chanted.
Danny groaned, and slammed his hands over his ears. Inhibitors or no inhibitors, he was not going to go ghost any time soon. But even he couldn't take anymore of this.
Fortunately for him, it was just about the end of the day. Danny went home to have a serious talk with his parents over the agreement they had made, and how they could change it to allow appeasing his classmates…and Mr. Lancer.
