It's me again! 2 updates in one calendar year! I meant to finish a couple more chapters before I posted again, but thought that I should post anyway.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed or put a story alert/favourite for the last chapter. It's great to see some folks from 10 years ago coming back to it =)
Italics - Fenton
Bold Italics - Phantom
Enjoy!
MATW
It was an hour later before Danny, Sam and Tucker walked through the doors of FentonWorks. "I'm home!" Danny called out to no response. "Weird, I thought they'd be back by now." He made his way towards the kitchen, Sam and Tucker at his heels.
"Yeah, who would expect ghost hunting to every go as planned," Sam replied sarcastically. Danny made a face but continued into the kitchen. The teens grabbed some snacks and went upstairs to Danny's room to hunker down for the afternoon.
As he watched his friends bicker over what movie to watch – Danny found himself thinking back to his ghost half. Is this just a new ghost power?
Something like that. Danny jumped at the voice in his head. Phantom? He asked tentatively.
Yep. You're not going crazy. Or rather we're not going crazy. Ugh, I'm still referring to us as a 'we.' So obnoxious.
"Dude, can you help settle this?" Tucker's voice broke through the conversation. Danny turned to his friends, confused and dazed. "Vampires or Zombies?
"Um… Zombies," the ghost boy replied, walking towards his bed and sitting on the edge. Sam gave him a look of concern, but said nothing as Tucker put in the DVD into the laptop.
Danny turned his attention back to the voice in his head. This is strange. When have we ever been able to talk to each other?
I don't think it's quite us talking to each other. We're not separate people. I don't influence you and you don't influence me.
I guess. Still weird.
Agreed.
So… is there a particular reason you showed up today?
My guess? Balance.
Balance?
Yeah, the Ecto-storm drains power from both your human side and your ghost side, right? Maybe it puts less of a toll on you… us… me? Let's go with us. Maybe, it puts less of a toll on us if we manage to use equal amounts of Fenton and Phantom in the attack.
That… makes sense.
"Hello! Earth to Danny! Come in if you read us!" Danny let out a strangled yelp as he was startled out of his thoughts. Sam's face was inches away from his own, concern hidden behind her violet eyes. Danny let out another yell as he jumped a foot in the air backwards onto the bed.
"Geez, what's with you Sam!"
"What's with me? What's with you! Tucker and I have been talking to you for like a straight minute and a half and you just completely ignored us," Sam accused, pointing her finger at him. "What's going on with you? You're clearly not okay; else you wouldn't have had 2 different coloured eyes."
The last sentence surprised Danny. "What? What colors? When did that happen?"
Tucker answered in Sam's place. "It was only for a minute or two. Your left eye was green like when you are in ghost mode. Right one was the same as ever."
Danny looked down in thought. "Weird. I was talking to Phantom." Tucker and Sam looked at him in stunned, confused silence before replying.
"Talking… to Phantom?" Tucker asked slowly.
Danny shrugged. "It's a new thing for me too. No idea where it came from. We were trying to figure out why this happened." Danny wrinkled his nose in disgust. "Ugh, now I'm referring to myself as a 'we'"
Get used to it.
Shut up.
Sam was about to retort, before she was cut off.
"DANIEL JAMES FENTON COME DOWN HERE THIS INSTANT!" All three teens jumped a foot in the air after hearing Maddie's yell. The boy in question flinched.
"This… is not going to be good."
:-=-:
Danny found his parents in the kitchen, both staring at him expectantly with an official looking paper in his father's hand. Danny barely made out the Casper High logo in the upper left corner before his heart sank.
"You… uh…called?"
"Danny, do you care to explain this?" Jack asked, handing him the paper. Danny looked at it gingerly, hoping he managed to scrape together enough homework to pass all of his courses. He let out a small sigh of relief when he saw a C average in all of his classes. He managed to pull a B in Science. "I passed… even Math!" he exclaimed softly, forgetting for a moment his parents were in front of him and relished in the small victory.
Maddie and Jack exchanged a concerned glance with each other before returning to their stony demeanour. "Yes, with 80 lates and 30 absences. And that's just in math," Maddie told him sternly.
Danny's shoulders dropped at that. He didn't like where this was heading.
"Danny, what did we tell you about Fenton's getting A's?" Maddie asked.
"Or even B-'s?" Jack added in, standing slightly behind his wife in an effort to look serious.
"And all of these absences Danny? The lates? What's going on with you?" Maddie continued, not missing a beat.
Danny, to his parents' dismay, just closed his eyes with a tired sigh. "I'm sorry," he started, "I've just been so busy-" Danny cut off abruptly, realizing he's only sparked the fire.
"Busy doing what Danny? I know you're capable of much more than this. I mean, you were getting A's until you started Casper. What can a fourteen year old be so busy with that tit takes you out of school so much, and have your grades drop so drastically? What aren't you telling us? What aren't you telling me?" Maddie asked desperately into her son's blue eyes.
Danny stared back at her. He couldn't answer, the drain of the ecto-storm was still taking a toll, and there had been so many lies to protect his secret until now. It was killing him not come clean. He frantically racked his brain to come up with a way out of this. "I…I…I…"
"He has a job."
Danny's head shot up and whirled around to look at Tucker and Sam, looking sheepish and apologetic. "Sorry Mr. and Mrs. Fenton, we were just about to leave and overheard that," Tucker said, sending an apologetic glance to his best friend. "I know this isn't the best time, but could you undo the security on the door so we can head out? The door is stuck."
Both Maddie and Jack gave each confused looks. "We don't have that designed in our security system," Jack said in confusion.
Suddenly, the temperature dropped. Danny gasped as he felt a hand grab his ankle and dragged him through the floor with a startled yelp. The hand threw him onto the floor of his parents' lab as Danny skidded into various parts and machines, scattering away. Dazed, he looked up to the smug face of Vlad Plasmius. "Vlad," he growled, getting onto his hands and knees, summoning the ring of light to change into his ghost half.
"Not today little badger," Vlad scolded condescendingly, floating down to the lab floor. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. Whatever will your parents think when they see that wretched Danny Phantom here instead of you."
Danny, realizing the older hybrid was right, let go of his powers as he heard the frantic steps of his loved ones on the stairs. He pushed himself into a kneeling position as he eyed Vlad's movements towards him. "What do you want Vlad?" he asked with a glare, knowing he had little time to figure out why the man was there.
"Oh that? Well, that's a surprise Daniel. Especially since there is a much bigger drama happening that I can have fun with." Vlad smirked, finally reaching the teen. "Now then, play along, else things will get a tad more complicated for you." Vlad grabbed a hold of the teen's arm just as Maddie, Jack, Sam and Tucker got downstairs.
"Danny!" Jack cried, weapon raised and charging. "Let go of my son, Ghost!" Maddie didn't hesitate, and aimed a shot at the Wisconsin Ghost. Vlad lazily put up a shield.
"Is this the best you got hunters?" he asked, pulling Danny's arm behind his back and forcing him to kneel in front of him. Danny yelped. "Do you really want to risk his life?" Danny looked back at him with a glare of hatred.
Maddie, seeing this, lowered her weapon slightly and asked with a hard voice. "What do you want?"
Vlad, acknowledging the invitation, smiled at this. "Me? Oh nothing; just came to talk to young Daniel here about a business deal." Vlad's hand lit up with pink ecto energy and Danny let out a small scream. Both Fenton's called out to their son in fear. Vlad let the power fade as Danny sunk into the ground, panting slightly. "One that I think he won't refuse."
Danny's mind was reeling; he couldn't do anything the help without risking his secret. He looked to his parents helplessly, and then to his friends who were clearly trying to figure a way out of this. I can't even fight as Fenton! He thought bitterly, eyes darting around him.
"Now then Daniel," Vlad started. "If you come with me willingly, then your family and friends don't have to suffer needlessly. Refuse… well, I guess then your family will find out what you do in your spare time now." Vlad lowered his sneering face to the intense glare Danny was giving him. "Well son?"
"Danny!" His mom called out. "Don't listen to him sweetie, he's trying to trick you."
"We can hold our own, son, we can get you out of this!" His father pleaded.
Danny looked into the pleading faces of his parents, saw his friends signal him out of the corner of his eye and his resolve hardened. Looking back into Vlad's face with a spark of determination, Danny pushed himself off the ground suddenly, twisted his arm out of the ghost's grip and kicked Vlad in the abdomen. Surprised, the older hybrid flew backwards before steadying himself. "No chance Fruitloop!" he cried.
"Danny!" Sam called out, he turned to see a Jack-o-nine tails being thrown towards him. With more grace than he should show, Danny caught it in the air, released it and grabbed a hold of Vlad. He threw the older ghost into the wall with a crash. Panting, Danny fell onto his knees, remembering his fatigue from earlier.
"Danny!" He heard, as his parents and friends up to him. Danny's heart sank as he saw the confusion on his parents face; there would be questions later. "Sweetheart, are you okay?" His mom asked, reaching him first and checking him over.
Danny swallowed heavily before answering. "Yeah, I'm-" a huge explosion from the other side of the room cut him off. Vlad, breaking free of the Jack-o-nine tails looked angrily of the group. Jack raised the ecto-gun as Maddie shielded the children from view. Plasmius duplicated himself into 4, dodging attacks with ease as Jack fired his weapon.
"Kids, you run. We'll hold him off," Maddie ordered, gun out and turning to help her husband. Danny made a move to protest, but felt himself being pulled away by Tucker and Sam.
"You are not going ghost right now," Sam told him harshly as they ran up the stairs, "I know this is your fight, but at least let's get you out of your parents' sight."
Danny dug his heels in once they got to the top of the stairs. "I'm not leaving them behind!" Danny felt the familiar sense of his ghost powers stir inside him, and just as he was about to summon it, he felt an ecto-blast him into the wall behind him as the world went black.
:-=-:
Jack and Maddie dodged a flurry of ecto-blasts coming from the two enraged ghosts, hoping that their son was far away from here. "Why do you want our son?!" Jack yelled, firing the Fenton bazooka over the lab table.
"He's much more than just your son, you worthless ape," Plasmius scoffed, his duplicate avoiding the attack. "It's all there, just in front of your nose and you're too dumb to see it."
Maddie hid behind the lab bench and fired off 3 more shots. "What do you mean?"
"Haven't you wondered why he struggles with gym, but can throw a ghost across the room with barely a sweat?" Plasmius dodged. "Or how nervous he is around ghosts but clearly not frightened of me? He's already working for me, a ghost, and you never even noticed."
Maddie faltered for a second, before raising her weapon once again. "Liar! Don't move!"
Plasmius chuckled again. "Guilty, but it was such an excellent distraction." The ghost took flight and merged with the other duplicate. "Again, you missed what was right in front of you. I split into four my dear…. You both have only been fighting two."
The ghost hunters looked in horror as two other Plasmius' came down, one holding a struggling Sam and Tucker, the other holding an unconscious Danny over his shoulder.
"Danny! Sam! Tucker!" Jack yelled, taking a step towards them, only to be met with an ecto-beam to the ground in front of him.
"I wouldn't do that if I were you Jack," Plasmius said smugly. He took out a small device, pressed the button and a large plasma cube appeared. The duplicates threw both Sam and Tucker into the cube, both landing with a yelp. "These two are pretty good pawns, but I think you're both decent rooks." The now free duplicate floated over to the pair of stunned parents. "I can only imagine Daniel's excitement to see you two experience his secret world."