"Danny?" Jazz finally responded, thrown off. It was undeniable that this was her brother in front of her, but… how was he also a ghost? She was the one who had had an accident with the Ghost Portal, and there was no way he could've gone through the same, since the Portal had been turned on ever since. "How are you- What's going on?!"
"You're asking me?" he muttered, shifting to a more comfortable position. Jazz felt faintly jealous of how well he took to the skies, his ease up here. She could barely float in place, and here he was, moving about like he'd been doing it for years.
"Well, yeah!" She threw out her hands, dismayed. "I've been ruining my school record chasing ghosts all day long, and now I find out you could've helped! How long have you had ghost powers anyway?"
He blinked at her, clearly stunned. Then he offered her an awkward grin, raising one hand to start rubbing the back of his neck. Oh, of course, his characteristic display of nerves. "I, uh. Look, it's… complicated."
"Complicated how?" Jazz huffed, crossing her arms. Danny seemed genuine, sure, but maybe she didn't know him as well as she thought. If he had been hiding ghost powers from her, for who knows how long, without her realizing…
"Okay, so, uh," Danny said, snapping her out of her thoughts. He shifted again, his legs merging together in a ghostly tail, which twitched in… irritation, maybe? She wasn't very good at reading the emotional tells of ghost tails. Not yet, at least. "Do you, uh, know about parallel universes?"
She rolled her eyes, chagrined. "You know I do, Danny. Mom and Dad talk about that kind of stuff all the time. Not to mention the Ghost Zone, which we know is in a different dimension." Not that she understood why he brought it up. Unless… Unless he was implying-
"Right, right." He bit his lip, probably thinking over his words. "So, um. I'm… from another universe, I guess? I accidentally went through a Portal in the Ghost Zone and didn't try to go back because I thought this was home."
Jazz stared at him, unblinking. As she remained quiet, Danny started fidgeting more and more. Plucked at the edge of his glove, tugged on the collar of his suit, swept his tail through the air.
Finally she took mercy on him, and broke the silence. "So my brother isn't half ghost?"
"Probably not." Danny shrugged, his vivid green eyes coming up to meet hers again. "I know I got my powers two years ago, when I was fourteen. I'm guessing that you took my place in this universe—timeline—for whatever reason."
"I see…" She frowned at this new information. It did explain why he was so casual about his powers: he'd had them for far longer than her. But still… "So did our parents finish the Portal two years earlier, or something? If you got your powers when you were fourteen, your version of me must've been like… twelve."
"Uh, no?" Danny shook his head, then quirked one eyebrow at him. "My Jazz is two years older than me. She's eighteen now, but she was sixteen when I had the accident." Then his eyes widened as realization struck. "Wait, are you saying that your version of me is the older sibling?"
"I mean, yeah?" She scratched her cheek, feeling increasingly thrown off by the conversation. The little experience she had with ghosts hadn't prepared her for situations like this one at all. "So, what, we just swapped places? The younger sibling becomes the half-ghost?"
He shrugged. "Guess so… Wait, so then who was down with you when you had the accident?"
"Nobody?" she answered, tone questioning. "Why, did you have someone with you- No, never mind, of course you did. Sam and Tucker never would've let you do something like that without being there to watch."
"Heh, yeah." He grinned, a little sheepishly. "To be honest, they were the ones who convinced me to check out the Portal in the first place. I'm kind of surprised you checked it out, to be honest."
It had been pretty out of character for her, yeah, she could admit that. But… "Our- My parents were just so sad, when the Portal didn't work… Even if I didn't believe in ghosts, I just wanted to help, you know?"
He snorted, but his smile remained, soft. "Yeah, that's why my Jazz took them out of the house. Wanted them to get their minds off of the failed Portal. Which is also when Sam and Tucker convinced me to show it to them, and, well. I'm sure you can guess how that went."
Then his eyes widened, like he realized something. "Wait, so does anybody know about you being half-ghost?"
"No?" Oh, but of course. If Sam and Tucker had been there during his accident, then of course they knew about Danny being half-ghost. They would've helped him as much as they could, with his powers and his disappearances and everything else.
Danny eyed her speculatively. His tail twitched, but she still couldn't quite link an emotion to it. She doubted it was irritation, now. "And how long have you had your powers?"
"A little over a month." She narrowed her eyes at him, puffing out her chest a little. Her core whirled in her chest, in sync with her burst of annoyance. Just because he had two years of experience and friends that helped him didn't mean… whatever he was going for. "Why?"
"Assuming that everything else follows the same timeline… You've fought the Lunch Lady already?" He ignored her attempt at intimidation completely. Not entirely surprising, in hindsight. She probably wasn't terribly impressive compared to some of the ghosts he must've met.
"Well, I didn't fight her, but I did encounter her, yes. And Dora as well, if that means anything to you."
He huffed out a laugh. "And you probably weren't an idiot with Dora's amulet like I was, so you only had to fight one ghost dragon." Then he sobered up a little, his smile losing its humor. "But you got the Lunch Lady to leave without fighting her? That's pretty impressive."
Danny's tail split into legs again, and he took a seated position, one leg crossed over the other. Leaning forward, he placed one elbow on his upper leg. "But, sooner or later, you're gonna run into a ghost you'll need to fight."
"I've fought ghosts before!" she snapped back. Just because he had two years of experience didn't mean he could act all high and mighty! "Just because I talked it out with Dora and the Lunch Lady doesn't mean I can't fight! I had to beat Dora that first time, didn't I? And all the animal ghosts, those can't be reasoned with either."
"That's… fair," he allowed, uncrossing his legs again. Instead, he started to circle around her. "But how much control do you have? What kind of abilities?"
"I have plenty of control!" She bristled, her hair flickering more aggressively, like licking flames. Then she released a hissing breath, forcing herself to calm down again. Just because she was fourteen didn't mean she had to act like it. "And… Just the basics, I suppose. Invisibility, intangibility, flight. My ghost sense, of course."
He nodded, but his brow creased in a frown. At least he stopped circling her again, coming to a halt in front of her. "So it really is right after your accident." His voice was quiet; she wasn't sure if he had intended for her to hear it.
"So now what?" she asked instead, crossing her arms. Looking at this version of her brother that, somehow, came from a different universe. God, that sounded crazy.
Danny bit his lip, glancing away from her. Nodded to himself, like he'd made up his mind. Turning back, he looked her right in the eyes, expression determined. "How do you feel about me training you?"
She blinked, caught off-guard by the unexpected suggestion. "I- What?"
"Well…" He shifted, suddenly looking a little awkward. "It's just- I had some help figuring out my powers, and I still struggled. The only person who really could've helped was… asking for something I couldn't give him." Danny took a deep breath, looking more serious than she had ever seen her brother—or any variation of him. "But I can make sure you don't have to go through that. I have two years of experience. I can help."
It was… an alluring offer, she could admit. And genuine too—she knew her brother well enough to tell.
"Shouldn't you get back to your own universe, though?"
Danny grimaced. "Eh, probably. But natural portals like the one I went through are unpredictable; I have no real way of tracking them down. The Ghost Zone is called the Infinite Realms for a reason, y'know?"
"Well, I didn't know, because I haven't heard anyone call it that before." She cocked her head at him, trying to get a good read on him. It didn't quite make sense. Why wouldn't he be trying his hardest to get back, no matter how hard it was? What about his own family? "But if tracking down a portal is so hard, then what do you plan on doing? Isn't Amity Park in danger without you there? Or did the ghosts stop coming?"
He barked out a sudden laugh. "Oh lord, no. They're worse than ever." He grinned, widely and brightly, showing off his small fangs. "But Va- Red and Danielle can take care of them. They're both very competent ghost hunters."
Making sure to memorize the names, especially the aborted first name for Red, she watched as Danny's grin fell a little, his shoulders slumping down. "As for getting home… I'm assuming that Team Phantom will be able to find me. The Booo-merang tracked me down into the future, once, so…" He shrugged.
"The future?" slipped out before she could stop herself. If their worlds seemed to be following the same line, did that mean that she was going to travel to the future at some point? Dangit, now she got them distracted. She'd tried so hard to ignore the earlier names and 'Team Phantom', too!
Danny's expression fell the rest of the way, his mouth going flat. "I… Yeah. Don't worry too much about it, Jazz. It'll be fine."
"Uh huh." But she would let the topic drop for now. Whatever the context was, something had happened, and it wasn't good. Her core whirred in her chest, and she grimaced. "Ah, um. Any chance we could continue this conversation on the ground?"
"Oh, of course!" Danny grew wide-eyed, then nodded. "Lead the way, I'll be right behind you."
She dove, aiming for the forest a little further away. There was still a lot she needed to discuss with Danny—this Danny—and she couldn't risk bringing him to their home if her actual brother might be there.
Her landing was a little rough, as she stumbled over her own feet and transformed back to a human the moment she hit the ground, but at least she hadn't fallen. Danny came in easily, his white-booted feet touching down soundlessly.
Then bright light sparked from him, familiar white rings sweeping past him, leaving him perfectly human as well.
It was the ultimate proof that this really was a half-ghost version of her brother. Not that she had needed it, of course, but seeing it… Well, seeing was believing.
"Are you okay?" Danny asked, stepping closer to her with a worried expression on his face. "Sorry, I totally forgot how new you are to this stuff."
"I'm fine," she assured him, waving off his concern. "But- Team Phantom, really? Not a very creative name, is it?"
Rolling his eyes, Danny stopped trying to get closer. "It's what we decided to call ourselves, alright? We needed something better than 'Ghost Getters', which is what my Jazz came up with, and Sam and Tucker figured we might as well name ourselves after me. Since I'm, y'know, the actual face of the team."
"Nobody knows they help?" That made sense, she guessed. Just because they didn't have to worry about being recognized, because no one tries linking a ghost to a living human, didn't mean that human helpers were protected as well. "Wait, so did you pick Phantom as your ghost name?"
"I mean, yeah?" He shrugged. "It's a play on Fenton. Why, what did you pick?"
She grimaced. Okay, so maybe she shouldn't have criticized him. After all, she had also picked a synonym for ghost.
"…Specter," she finally admitted. "But at least mine doesn't sound exactly like my actual last name! How do people not catch on to that?!"
"Oh, Jazz, you and I both know that people wouldn't think of linking a ghost to a living person." Danny wrapped an arm around her shoulders, clicking his tongue. "Besides, our parents are dead certain that humans can't have ghost powers."
"Was that a pun?" she hissed at him, wondering why she was surprised in the first place.
He laughed, distancing himself from her again. "Yeah! Come on, you gotta work on your witty banter too. It's a critical part of battle!"
"No it's not," she snapped back, flaring her eyes at him. "And if you're actually going to help me train, I hope you plan on bringing more useful advice."
"Hey!" He pressed a hand to his chest, mock-offended. "I'm a great teacher, thank you very much. And you don't know how often banter has served to distract my enemy so I could catch them off-guard."
She sighed, but let it go. "Fine, as long as we'll focus on actual half-ghost stuff too."
"Of course we will." Danny dropped the pretense, falling back into serious. "I know how hard it can be to be half-ghost, Jazz, especially with our family."
"Speaking of our family… How are you planning on handling that?" She raised a brow at him. "Since I'm assuming you still need food, just like I do."
"Oh. Right…" He made a face like he had, in fact, totally forgotten about necessities. "Uh, I don't know. I'm not carrying a ton of money, and I can't go wandering around town all willy-nilly because people will think I'm this Danny."
"You hadn't thought of that at all, huh?" she asked, unimpressed. "Really, Danny?"
"Hey, it's not like I chose to come here!" he snapped back, his eyes flashing green briefly. "Even if I went into the Zone to look for a portal back, I still would've needed food or water. I can't live off of the ambient ectoplasm like ghosts can—and neither can you, by the way."
She sighed. "That's fair. Alright, let's see… How long can you stay in your ghost form?"
"Without shifting back?" Danny frowned, thoughtfully, then shrugged. "I'm not sure. Never had a reason to try, I guess. Several days, for sure, but I'll need to eat more to make up for the extra energy I'm burning through."
"Right. So then, how about this. Danny—my Danny—and I are both teenagers, so we're eating a lot. We can use that to play off the disappearing of leftovers and such. I'll make sure that there's enough food in the fridge, so you can grab some of those. I'll keep an eye on where my brother is, so you'll know when it's safe to go into the kitchen for food."
"And, what, spend most of my day haunting the town?" Danny shook his head dismissively. "I mean, most of that will work, but the moment your parents get a ghost scanner together I'll have to start shifting back. Otherwise I'm gonna be running away from them all day long, and I'm really not up for that."
A ghost scanner? Yes, that would throw off their plans… "Do you know what that'll look like? The ghost scanner, I mean?"
"Yeah? Unless they'll change its design in this world. Why?" He frowned at her.
"Well, why don't we just… sabotage it?" She shrugged at his incredulous look. "I'm not saying we destroy it completely! But if we can stop it from picking up on you—on us, both of us—that would make life a lot easier, right?"
Danny paused, as if considering it. Slowly, he nodded. "Yeah, no, you're right. That thing was always a pain, anyway, since it picked read me as a ghost even in human form."
"Okay, so that's food." She raised a fist, uncurling a single finger. "You can grab drinks the same way, and if you carry a bottle you can just have water with you…" A second finger joined the first. With her other hand, she started tapping on it as she thought.
"And sleep?" Danny asked, dryly. "I don't need as much sleep if I stay in my ghost form a lot, but I'll still need some. Unless you can me to lose consciousness and shift back mid-air."
"You can… nap in my room while I'm away?" She made a face. It wasn't a great option—she didn't like the idea of Danny being in her room without supervision—but she didn't know any better ideas. "It's not ideal, but my parents will be in the lab all day anyway."
"Ugh." He wiped a hand over his face, but nodded his approval anyway. "So I'm gonna be living a nocturnal life for the time being. Great. Brilliant."
Oh, that was right. Forcibly shifting him into a different sleeping pattern would probably cause trouble, wouldn't it? "Is that okay? We can build up to it slowly, if you want. That should make the transition easier on you, or on your body, at least?"
Danny flapped a hand. "It's fine, never mind. I barely sleep during the night, since the ghosts keep attacking. Most of my sleep I get while napping in class, anyway."
"I can't imagine that that does your grades any good." She narrowed her eyes at him. Danny's grades were never the greatest, anyway—he could coast on by without much effort, so he preferred to focus on other stuff—and she knew her grades had already taken a hit from the regular hunting.
"Doesn't matter," he said dismissively. "There's nothing I can do to change it, and definitely not now, while I'm here. No point in worrying about it."
"That's not a very good way of coping," she chastised. But, fine, she supposed she might as well drop the topic. "But alright. I gotta head home before anyone gets worried. What about you?"
He hummed, taking a moment to think it over. "I think that I'm gonna fly about a little, explore the city. See what kind of differences there are between our versions of Amity Park." He raised a hand when she opened her mouth. "I'll stay invisible, don't worry. I'm not gonna be the one to tip off Amity Park to the existence of ghosts."
"Okay," she said, slowly, "good. Make sure to drop by somewhere tonight, so I can help you grab leftovers."
"Yeah, alright." Light flashed in the clearing as Danny shifted back to his ghost form. He met her eyes again, and now that she was looking more closely, she realized his eyes were the exact color of ectoplasm. Eerie. "And Jazz… thanks. For going through the effort of arranging things for me behind your parents' backs."
"Of course." She smiled at him, trying to press as much warmth into the expression as she could. "Thank you, too, for helping me with the half-ghost stuff."
Danny huffed, shaking his head. "What else would I do? You're my sister, Jazz, even if you're not my Jazz. Stay out of trouble, and I'll see you tonight, yeah?"
"Only if you do the same." She watched as he floated up, smooth and effortlessly. "See you tonight, Danny!"
He raised one hand in a wave goodbye, then suddenly shot off.
Show-off.
I haven't done my customary read-through on this chapter, so if there are any spelling mistakes and such, please let me know so I can fix them! (at some point, hopefully later this week) My family moved today, so I've been hauling boxes and furniture and what-not for about 12 hours straight and I'm exhausted.
As for the chapter, tah-dah! Yes, the idea of Absurdism was to have (canon) Danny meet a Jazz right from the start of her half-ghost existence, so he could teach her. Danny's universe is somewhere post-canon, after D-Stabilized (and ignoring Phantom Planet), so he's got tons of experience. Jazz, on the other hand, is right from the start of the timeline, before episode 3 (One of a Kind).
Next week, chapter 3: Two of a Kind