Danny's POV.
I walked into the school with Sam and Tucker, a few people gave us weird looks. I was vaguely aware that my face was a sickly pale and I looked like I was facing death. Which I might be.
Sam glanced at me and asked that one terrible question "Are you okay?" No, I was definitely not okay. The Guys In White and my parents worked together for the week. Apparently, they've made this machine that will reveal large amounts of ectoplasm inside human bodies. Like residue of a ghost possessing or still inside someone.
My parents claim that it won't hurt humans, but well I doubt that will work with me, since I'm half ghost. Today them and some GIW are coming to the school to test all the students with it. It's supposed to be top-secret but with my dad's blabbing mom just manage to stop him before he explain how it worked. If he had I could probably avoid it, which would've been too nice for me apparently!
In the end my answer was to stare at her blankly. She shrugged, "Sorry, standard question."
Tucker laughed "Don't worry man, it's not like they're going to kidnap you, put you away in a secret government facility, and experiment on you." If it was even possible my face drained colour even more.
"TUCKER! Not helping!" she jabbed him in the ribs "Danny, you'll be fine. Just use the plan we made, which by the way, what you'd explain is mostly true. If anything goes wrong, we'll be here to protect you." Sam put a comforting arm around me and after a second Tucker did too.
It was halfway through English with Mr. Lancer, when they made the dreaded announcement for an assembly. Most of the class cheered but the dreaded feeling in my gut increased by tenfold. Mr. Lancer finally calmed the class and we all started heading towards the gym. Or everyone else was, I was being dragged along by Sam and Tucker.
When we arrived in the gym, they directed us to the top of the bleachers. I became more and more nervous as I looked around. At every exit there was an agent, and in the middle of the gym on top of a platform beside what looked like an advanced body scanner, my parents were talking to Agent L, the GIW leader.
Sam took my hand and squeezed it. I looked into her violet eyes and some of the colour returned to my face. Until they called for the assembly to start and my fear returned at full force. "Okay kids, it's time to start!" My mom called to the gym clearly excited, she then glanced at Agent L and he started.
"Today we will call you all up in alphabetical order. When you are called up you will walk up to the machine and step inside. It will not harm you as long as long and as you're human."
"SO ALL GHOSTS COME OUT NOW!" my dad finally ended up cutting in. It was only a matter of time, Agent L glared at him, clearly annoyed.
"Alright, let's get started" Mom said, trying to diffuse the situation, Agent L nodded.
My breathing started quickening despite my best efforts to stop it. "Okay then." Mr. Lancer stood up, walking towards the platform/stage with a clipboard in hand. "First up Adams, Julie." A girl near the bottom of the bleachers stood up and walked towards the machine hesitantly.
The rest of the school was watching the first of them to go up, with pity and worry. She finally stepped up to the machine and, with a little nudge from Agent L, went inside. The machine seemed to scan her until it beeped, and a robotic voice said "Clear."
Julie sighed, slightly more relaxed and walked towards the opposite bleachers that she was directed to. Mr. Lancer called out another name and they walked towards it. But I was no longer paying attention, I was hyperventilating. Sam held my hand tight and Tucker was trying to send me comforting glances.
Many other students were scanned with the same reaction from the machine, maybe it doesn't work, maybe everything will be fine. I'd managed to calm down my breathing, holding onto the hope that it didn't work. Until it was completely shattered when Dash went up.
He walked into the machine with all of his arrogant confidence, striding in, a cocky smirk on his face. But it was quickly turned into a look of horror when the machine beeped angrily and slammed the door shut. Basically everyone gasped but the clear machine voice rang out "Traces of ectoplasm detected, suggested cleansing."
Dash looked like he was on the verge of panicking, but Dad looked really excited. Mom made him stay still and she alone stepped up to Dash. "Have you ever been overshadowed? Do you remember waking up some where's and having no recollection of how you got there? Have any periods of time you can't remember?" he seemed to process this before responding reluctantly.
"Ugh-yeah, I think. I woke up and Phantom was there fighting off other ghosts and pulling them out of people." right the Walker incident, I still hate that he framed me and made me Public Enemy #1.
"Okay then. Jack!" Mom called out.
"On it!" Dad practically skipped over to the control panel and pressed a big green button.
Immediately red mist spread into the machine that was still closed. Dash squeaked but was otherwise fine and when the door opened, he quickly stepped out coughing. He rushed over to the other bleachers, still wide eyed. The teachers looked concerned and like they already wanted to kick them out, my mom realized this. "He'll be fine, all the gas did was eliminate the ectoplasm in his body. It doesn't harm humans, only ghosts."
The teachers relaxed a bit, but I definitely didn't. Did I forget to mention during this whole time I've been getting even more panicked? That mist remind me an awful lot of the fumes blood blossoms and that really, REALLY isn't good for me, or any ghost that may come in contact with it. Yep, I'm having a mini panic attack.
Full on gasping for air and I'm pretty sure I looked like I was about to faint. I think Sam was trying to send me comforting looks and other students around me were looking at me weird. I remember the pain blood blossoms caused me, but it wouldn't compare to if my parents and the whole school found out.
A GIW agent that was guarding the door looked, at me narrowing his eyes before looking back towards the middle. Again I managed to calm down my breathing slightly. I've got to stay calm, don't be suspicious. Maybe the Box Ghost would come and distract everyone, and I'd make my escape unnoticed. With my luck some ghost will come in when I'm captured and down and take that moment to end me.
More students went up and were scanned. Agent L seemed to look right at me once and that itself terrified me. I've managed to calm myself down more, but I still felt lightheaded. Can you guess what happened next? Yep, Lancer called out my name "Fenton, Daniel", time to die then.
I froze, again, my world seems to be crumbling around me, right then and there. In the end a student behind me nudged me, snapping me back into reality as I forced myself to stand up. I walked to the platform at what would normally be a good pace but to me was the slowest thing ever. A few of the agents looked suspiciously at me but didn't say anything. My dad was smiling broadly, completely oblivious.
When I sadly got to the platform my dad put his arm around me, I think Dash said to another jock something about me being a loser, but blood was pounding in my ears and I couldn't hear much. However, I could clearly hear my dad's loud voice "Danny-boy doesn't need to go in, he lives with us!"
I start to nod vigorously but Agent L doesn't have it. "You can never be too careful. Plus everyone needs to go in." saying that he looked straight into my eyes, smirking. This little-
"I guess. Okay Dann-o, in you go." With that he basically threw me in. I stumbled to stand up straight again and glared at Agent who was still smirking, but my fear was quickly taking over. Within five seconds the machine beeped and did nothing. I started to walk out, maybe it didn't work and I'll be fine! Then it slammed shut on my face and I fell onto my butt.
A few people gasped slightly, Sam raised from her seat Tucker close behind and I'm sure a few agents raised their guns slightly. Agent L's smirk seemed to widen, and my parents looked kind of distraught. Then that stupid robotic voice announced, "Large amount of ectoplasm found throughout body" You know what, I hate that voice.
My parents and Agent L walked over to the control panel, I heard Mom mumble, "The ectoplasm looks to be circulating through his body..." Agent L looked at me almost excitedly, I could practically see all the experiments he was planning spinning around his head. His smirk only widened as I struggled to stand.
A sharp pain meets me on my arm, I finally noticed I had caught some sort of sharp edge on the way down. There was a now gash that started to bleed, I hissed in pain. And that's when I remembered my blood has flecks of ectoplasm in it even while I'm in human form. You better believe I started panicking, oh Clockwork, this was all going terribly. I rush to cover up my gash and in extension the blood, but I'm pretty sure Agent L noticed my haste, he looked even more intrigued.
That's when my parents walked back over towards me. I waited for them to do something, still clutching my arm. In the stands I could see Tucker holding Sam from jumping down and interfering, I also noticed how everyone else was watching intently all previous conversations stopped so an eery silence had filled the gym.
If Mom was about to talk Dad cut her off "How long of you been in our son? Get out of him ghost! Or I'll rip you apart molecule by molecule!" Despite my efforts I flinched, and Mom looked at him slightly condemning for voicing it like that, but she was displaying her anger as well.
Before I could respond Agent L started again "Get out of him now ghost," he spit the word like venom "And maybe we won't completely obliterate you." Honestly, I highly doubt that would be true, I'm guessing if a ghost did come out of me they'd be laid on a dissection table before they could say boo.
After a few seconds of silence with me desperately trying to find my voice, I finally answered "I-I'm not a ghost." Wow Fenton, smooth, way to make them believe you. Though technically I was telling the truth, I'm not a full ghost. My panicking was mostly masked by my amazing sarcasm, even while talking to myself.
"LIAR!" My dad yelled out, thankfully Mom cut him off before he could continue.
"You have ten seconds to explain, ghost. Before I rip you out and destroy you." Okay... maybe I would have rathered Dad's blabbing on about destroying me. Dad started moving towards the control panel, I could tell he was itching to push the big button that would "cleanse" A.K.A. murder me completely.
"I'm not-" my mom glared at me "-argh. It was the portal incident Mom." She looked quite surprised, and unsurprisingly Agent L looked intrigued. Never a good thing, oh ancients here it goes. "The ectoplasm fused with me when it activated. That's why all your trackers target me when I'm in the room." Agent L, well, he looked like a kid (that isn't Danny) on Christmas, Mom looked to be deep in thought. Dad was slightly edging away from the control panel, looking curious as always.
After thinking more Mom responded "Danny had a minor shock from the portal but there wasn't enough to cause any of this. You're lying." Well I mean it's more of just bending the truth right now. But she was already clearly doubting herself even with her confident mask. How can I get this through their thick skulls?
"Mom. I-I was in the portal when it turned on. I thought if I told you, you would freak out or something, so I saw no reason to. Ask Sam and Tucker, they were there." Most of the room looked up at the two teenagers up in the stands, Tucker still looked like he was holding Sam down but she relaxed just a little more when my mom's look of defiance and disbelief slowly ebbed away. Maybe I have a chance, but when I look to see Agent L's shark smile, I realized I won't get out of this safely.
Mom looked steadily more confused and started mumbling under her breath, which I could here with my advanced hearing. "No, he would- Danny would have told me- that output from the portal would have killed him- did the ectoplasm stabilize him? Is my baby some type of ghost?" Dad looked completely lost, and in need of fudge. Agent L was looking me over, looking through my soul, and probably scheming.
"We should with the friends that were there at the time." Agent L's voice carried over the gym, snapping everyone out of their thoughts "He could just be a ghost trying to trick us." I'm pretty sure Sam and Tucker leaped from their seats and sprinted down to us.
"Pant- That's-pant- Danny!" Tucker looked really concerned for my safety right about now. Sam looked at me for a moment, I swear she was longing to shatter the glass and get me out of here, but she ruled it out.
She chose trying to get me out more passively, for now. "He was in the portal when it happened. The ectoplasm infused into him; it will kill him if you try to remove it. Or any anti-ghost weaponry for that matter." She was hinting to not try and cleanse me as some stupid minded people may say.
"How long has he been like this?" Mr. Lancer spoke up for the first time since he called my name, surprising everyone.
"Two Years." There was a long silence as people seemed to process this information, until I continued "Listen, I'm not a ghost or going to attack anyone. Can someone please let me out of here now?"
I think quite a lot of people just realized I was still trapped in the machine. Yah, you guys figure out what's going on and just leave me in here. Not going to work with me. "Oh- of course sweetie."
Mom moved to open the door, but the butt called Agent L stopped her "We need to cleanse him first."
"NO!" Four screams echoed around the room, a lot of people were startled, and everything seemed to happen at the same moment. In the stands Jazz completely jumped up and started sprinted towards us, I pushed myself against the back of the machine trying to get as far away from Agent L as possible. Sam spread out her out her arms trying to block me from view and protect me, Tucker sprinted up to the control panel trying to figure out how to release me. But around the gym some of the GIW agents stood more at attention.
Sam was the first to start talking "Have you listened to anything you idiot?! If you try to remove the ectoplasm it will cause him a lot of pain, or just straight up kill him! Any ghost weapon or purifier will! I've had to watch him in so much pain because of them! You're not touching him!" My parents now looked very concerned.
Jazz finally sprinted over to my parents and started frantically whispering to them. I think it was something about how not to let them take me and what terrible the agents have done, but Agent L started talking again completely unfazed by all of this, along with thoughts being shared through the stands. "Then we will need to do lots of experiments to make sure he's stable." Oh heck no. I'm stable enough thank you very much. "Then we will fix him." HECK NO. Bad, bad, bad, very bad!
I'm pretty sure a look of pure horror and panic crossed my face, like my thoughts. Now I think all the teachers didn't like where this was going at all. In the end my thoughts voiced themselves "HECK NO. NO. NO. NO. NO. I'm not going with them! NO!" I looked to Mom and Dad "Have you seen things they've done? They're terrible, once they literally attacked a transfer student because he had his hair dyed white. They've done so much shit. Jesus, you have to be blind not to see some of it." The last part was more of an afterthought "This is one of the reasons why I don't trust the damn government." Well... that all came out.
Screw it. I'm done. "Not to mention if they try to 'purify me' they will completely kill me!" As soon as I said that I got a feeling, it will all be downhill from here.
"We're taking him into custody." Agent L said ignoring me, called it.
"Now wait a minute L. You have no right-"
Mom was cut off by Tucker who had been hacking into the control panel. He basically screamed out "Got it!" and pressed a final code in.
I sighed in relief when the door started to open, I'm ready to get the heck out of this machine. But then of course, Agent L pressed something on his suit and the red, probably blood blossom, mist started coming out. A scream ripped from my mouth as the mist started burning my arm, especially the part with the wound. When the door opened, I tumbled out, falling into Sam's arms as the familiar burning sensation started to spread.
She started pulling me away from the mist, but the burning continued as my arm started to glow red. I held back more screams, but it was getting harder. The mist started to spread out further from the machine, I finally screamed again when it started seeping into my legs. All I feel is pain as it burns and burns into my skin. I know Sam's trying to drag me away from the evil stuff, but it proves to work better for the larger person who picks me up. All I can see as black spots cloud my vision is the blurry outline of my Dad's orange hazmat suit. The last thing I make out is the yelling of my friends and family towards the GIW agents, as a fade into darkness.
I woke up with something soft underneath me, in the distance I hear shouts. It's probably Mom trying to get me up, wait, I'm missing something here. I open my eyes, squinting at the harsh lighting, above me is the crisp blue sky mocking me with it's brightness. Instead of my bed underneath me there's the soft grass. Oh ghosts, what happened?
I manage to turn my head to the sky, immediately I see the outline of hundreds of people about 20 meters from me. Shakily I push myself off of the ground with my arms and blinked the fuzz away from my vision. The crowd of people seem to be all the students of the school, with teachers and staff littered through it. At the front of them I can see the bright hazmat suits of my parents, and I'm certain Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were up there with them.
In front of the group all the GIW agents stood facing them all, weapons raised. I slowly stood up, and at the same time noticed the outline of the school in the distance. I squinted and realized it's completely surrounded by a red mist. Ancients, that's the blood blossom mist. The more I think about it the more I smile, I know for a fact the government won't be happy with their little ghost hunting branch now.
I'm ready to take these idiots down. Me being me, went around the crowd of enraged people and up beside my family and friends. I look back at the crowd and see them all watching me and these actions intently a few were videotaping, perfect we can get this on tape. And here goes Agent L "He will be taken into custody. Give us the boy."
They still hadn't realized I was there over their bickering, Sam continued. "You have no reason or right to take him! You've already almost killed him once!"
I think they were going to continue so I announced my presence "So... do I get a say in this? Or.."
All those who hadn't realized I was there snapped their heads towards me, looking quite startled I may add. I guess continuing was the best option "I'd prefer not to be experimented on in some secret government facility. But you'd also need a warrant to take me into custody, and those require good reasons." My friends started to smile, seeing where I was going with this.
Agent L was clearly enraged. "You are an ectoplasmic entity, therefore have no rights."
Even better, "Actually I am very much human, so I definitely have human rights. Though don't get me started about how completely sentient beings don't have any rights, yet even animals do. Plus I've read up on your agencies rights and you can't arrest me." Let's ruin their reputation more why don't we? "Not to mention you threatened me, attempted to abduct me, purposefully hurt me, aimed weaponry at teenagers, and-shall I go on? Once you tried to obliterate the Ghost Zone which would have killed all of us, because it's literally our parallel dimension. You attacked, almost severely harmed a transfer student because he had white hair. Oh, or maybe we should talk about your property damage that costs more then almost all of Phantom's and other ghost hunters' fights combined. Or most importantly having a blatant ignorance and uncaring about all citizens around you and are putting them in harms way almost daily." Take that butts in white.
I heard quite a few oohhhs from the crowd, my parents looked ready to kill. Sam, Tucker, and Jazz moved closer smirking. Sam put her arm around me again. Agent L was trying to think of something to retaliate to that with but was definitely struggling. So I finished it off "Not to mention you just completely recked the school with blood blossom mist. Which could most likely suffocate someone, though I've never tried because when I even touch it, it causes me excruciating pain!"
This time some people flinched, and a lot of agents looked nervous as to where this was going. Yah I'm done, the other sensible people can deal with them. "You know what, bye." I quickly bowed to the audience, and cameras, and speed walked off dragging Sam and Tucker with me. Jazz and my parents stayed where they are, probably to fix this whole situation. As we were walking away, I gave them both a knowing look and we all smirked. That's when we executed our amazing plan.
We all shouted back simultaneously "NOT ALL GHOST ARE EVIL. PHANTOM'S BEEN FRAMED. DON'T TRUST THE GOUVERNEMENT. BYE!" we proceeded to sprint away laughing. People behind us probably thought we were crazy. But we like it that way.
In the end almost the entire experience was recorded and posted. I was right, the government wasn't happy. But now I'm seen as a badass from a lot of people who watched the videos, so that's nice. All in all the message here kids, don't trust the government.