"Commander, receiving transmission."
"Oh hey, I got a text from Star."
Sam looks over her book at Tucker and rolls her eyes. "Oh yeah, Commander?" She says sarcastically. "What is it?"
"Hey, that text tone is cool as hell! Trimmed it out of an old sci-fi movie." He opens his phone and scans through the images.
"Sure, that's why you keep it on vibrate at literally every public place. What's the text?"
He hums. "Looks like she wasn't able to get the tracker-"
"Really. Didn't expect that." Sam flips a page in her book.
"Because it's behind a new security system." He turns his phone towards her, showing the images. "Top of the line too, made by a former military contractor. If we want that tech, it's going to be a whole deal."
Sam takes a longer look at the images. "Dang, they must be pretty cautious to use a security system that's not their own." She looks back up at Tucker. "Can you crack it?"
Tucker resumes scrolling through his phone. "I don't know, I'll have to ask for help, but I don't even know what model this is. This company uses the same exterior model for every one of their systems, so it's hard to figure out which series and gen it is without getting into the hardware."
"English, please?"
He waves his hand in the air. "It's- all of their security systems look the same, so I don't know which 'hacking style' to use." He sets his phone facedown. "It could be a new model, it could be one from 3 years ago- or it could be one that shocks you if you touch it, I don't know."
Sam huffs and lies her book on her stomach, sinking further into the bean bag chair she sits in. "That sucks. We'll probably have to wait until Danny's back to get ahold of the tracker then. Hopefully, that won't be too late."
"That'll probably be the case. I'll see what my online buddies think of this thing anyways, maybe they'll have a solution." He tosses his phone beside him and opens his book. "For now all we can do is scour through all these freaking books."
"Hey, at least it's not that bad, they're interesting enough." Sam takes a sip of her tea and continues reading.
They sit in silence for a while, the soft sound of music from one of Sam's records playing in the background gives the room a relaxing feel, but after Tucker reads and re-reads the same sentence in an inability to focus, he gives in to the nagging at the back of his mind.
"Hey, Sam, what do you have against Star, anyway?"
Sam rolls her head back and stares at the ceiling. "Ugh, I knew you were going to ask that sooner or later."
"Come on, it's obviously more than your goth nihilistic 'everyone sucks' vibe at this point." He raises an eyebrow. "What's up?"
Sam fidgets a little in her seat. "Well, what do you want me to say? I don't think we should just trust her that easily. Last year she was using you like a pack mule and calling Danny a loser. Now suddenly she's taken a 180?"
Tucker rests his head on his fist. "Well, near-death experiences do that to you, I mean look at Danny-"
"Tucker, you know what I mean."
Tucker groans. "I mean, yeah... I do. I get it, but I trust Danny on this one, especially due to the fact that he was literally inside of her mind for like two days. Not everyone's like Vlad and out to get people. Some just make mistakes."
"Ugh- I- I know she's not like Vlad, she's not nearly that bad-"
"You're talking about her sometimes like she is."
Sam sighs and spins her teacup around on its saucer. "Yeah, I know. It's probably just… it's more personal I guess. Not a fan of the popular girls, or anyone that enables their bullying really." She thinks back to middle school, and even grade school. Star and her troop made her, Danny, and Tucker's lives pretty miserable. It's probably half of why they were so tight-knit, even before the portal incident.
"While I usually don't care about your attitude of 'I don't have to be nice to anyone', I feel like in this situation it would save Danny a lot of stress if we all just got along and went with the flow for once." He looks to his book and scratches the back of his neck. "After all, it does seem like she wants to help. I don't think we should just… dump all of our secrets onto her or anything like that, but she could be another ally."
Sam sighs, thinking it over. "I know you're right, and I think I'll try, but it's- not going to be easy."
"Course it's not, just apologize when you screw up." He suggests, smiling. "Reasonable people understand."
Silence fills the room for a bit, and soon both of them continue their reading in peace.
"Um, thanks, Tuck. I knew I was being… harsh."
"No problem." He replies. "I'll text Star about maybe getting together tomorrow to check out that security system, I'll probably get some insight tonight from online that'll be useful." He holds his chin high. "The great Foley will probably be able to crack it within the hour."
TTTTTTTTTTTTTT
Danny's phone rings as soon as he gets back from the fish fry his parents brought him to. He ditches his parents (and Jazz) in their cabin's living room and answers.
"Thank god Tuck, you actually called at like, the perfect time."
"Oh really," Tucker chuckles and glances over at Star and Sam, who are sitting at the lab tables beside him. "did I get you out of another ghost argument or something?"
"No," He replies, whispering through the phone. "You got me out of karaoke."
Star perks up. "Aw, but karaoke's fun! There's a nice karaoke pop-up in Chicago that's… um..."
She notices the unamused glares from Tucker and Sam and trails off.
"Sorry Star, you can probably figure out that none of us are singers."
"Do you not remember the fiasco that the Ember concert was with Tucker on stage?" Sam jerks a thumb in his direction. "His singing was so bad that it literally canceled out ghost magic."
"Hey, it wasn't that bad!"
"I reiterate, canceled out ghost magic."
"You know, I think I do remember that-"
Danny allows them to argue a little more, happy that Tucker and, especially Sam, are getting along with Star well.
(Not that he thought otherwise. They just had to warm up to her is all.)
"So, Danny…" Tucker sighs out. "about that cabinet…"
"Tuck, I don't like the tone of voice you have there."
"Well…"
Star leans into the phone. "He can't get through it- not without breaking it at least."
"Really? Dang it."
"But-" Tucker counters. "Breaking it- attacking the software forcefully, is an option. I can make it so it won't raise the alarms, but I'm not sure if I'll leave anything behind for them to deduce something." Tucker scratches the back of his neck.
"So they might know it's been hacked?"
"I'd give it a… 70% chance of yeah, probably? If not them then the company will, if they bring it over."
A groan comes in through the other line and echoes across the lab.
"You sure you can't get through it? I don't think we can risk that much, they might figure out that it was a human that's been stealing all of their stuff then."
"I don't think so. We've been down here for- What… 3 hours now and it isn't looking any better. I even outsourced help too, but they only recommended the breaking idea."
"Well, maybe I can-"
A loud noise and muffled speech comes through the other line.
"Danny?" Sam calls. "You good?"
"Oh god-" his voice wavers. "They're- she's breaking in, they're gonna get me to do karaoke with- ah- no, Jazz!"
The phone shuffles again and then a more feminine voice can be heard on the line.
"Hey guys, don't worry about the tracker, we can swipe it from our parents when they work on it at some point- right now Danny has to join in the sibling pain of embarrassing parents, so he has to go."
"Wait Jazz, this is important-"
"We'll talk to you guys later, see ya!"
"Nooo!"
The phone abruptly hangs up, and the three of them stare at it before laughing at Danny's expense.
"Well, at least we know he's safe and sound." Sam says.
"Yeah…" Tucker mentions "Dang, well I guess we'll just be done then, there isn't much else we can do. Shutting down the software sounds too risky." He begins to pack up his things. "While it sounds like something we should be worried about, it is just a tracker, and these things usually ping on Danny anyway. Hopefully, it should just look like another bug."
"Hopefully…" Star ponders for a moment. "You guys deal with some… pretty risky stuff don't you?"
Sam shrugs and helps clean up as well. "Yeah, but it really isn't anything that Amity doesn't experience on the daily. A ghost attacks, Phantom comes and saves the day, etcetera." She lifts an unfinished ectogun into the air and smirks. "The only difference is, we shoot back."
Star chuckles. "Does that make you more, or less safe?"
Tucker and Sam exchange a look, and then shrug again.
She shakes her head. "You guys are so nonchalant about it, it's crazy." She stands up and picks up her backpack, stuffing her notebook and her laptop back into it.
She catches a glimpse of the Halfa packet and hastily zips it up.
"Well, we kind of have to be. If you start to think about it too long…" Sam gazes oddly out at nothing, and then smiles back at Star. "It's just… it helps to laugh at it. Lessens the stress."
"That's life!" Tucker shrugs his own giant backpack on. She can hear the clacking of all of his tech as he shifts it to lie comfortably against his back. "Or death, I- I guess."
Tucker and Sam both space out again and Star pauses, following their gaze to the portal.
She takes a risk. "You know, um… Danny told me a little about what happened to him. How he… um… you know."
"Yeah." Sam says solemnly.
"He- he said you were there. And it happened in here." She glances around the room again, at the machinery and technology that- seen in this context, make it feel much more dangerous.
She supposes that this feeling makes more sense. They are weapons, after all.
Tucker slides off his backpack, letting it hit the ground with a quiet thump. He walks around the table and leans against it to face the portal.
He jerks his chin towards it. "It was right here. We convinced him to go inside and check it out- it wasn't working at the time so we thought it was safe. It did look pretty cool, after all."
At this, Sam walks over to the portal's controls and presses some buttons, opening the blast doors to reveal the swirling green mass that serves as the entrance to the ghost zone.
It was strange to look at, it looked like a bottomless pool of viscous green liquid tipped on its side, the contents defying gravity. Looking directly into it gave Star a strange sense of vertigo, like she could fall into it at any moment.
"Couldn't ghosts come through, opening it?" She asks.
Sam shakes her head. "Not really, most ghosts use natural portals more than anything now. Amity's always been a hotspot for the supernatural, but once the portal turned on it let loose a bunch of ectoplasm into our world, enough to give the natural portals more stability and consistency." She crosses her arms and leans against the wall. "In the beginning, when there were a lot of ghosts, they were coming through this because there was no lock or anything, but now they've learned there are other ways, more difficult to get through, but less risky. After all, they could find either two ghost hunters or Danny Phantom on this side, and that doesn't sound pleasant."
"That portal though," Tucker mentions. "that's where he died. How he died. It was…" he rubs his arms, as if he got a chill. "our fault. He accidentally turned it on, but we told him to go in."
"In…? inside it?" She pales. "Electrocution…"
"Yeah." Sam says. "We took a look at the portal's blueprints and notes a few months after it happened. It was supposed to- how it worked was that it provided a huge surge of electricity, like a lightning strike, and then it provided ectoplasm for the portal to take shape with. Lightning and storms are seen as triggers for supernatural activity, so they tried to test that concept. Pretty simple, at least in theory.
"Well," Sam continues. "Seems they were right. That's how some natural portals form anyways. So that cavity became filled with active ectoplasm, and the surge ripped a hole for the portal- but…"
"They didn't think it would kill their kid." Tucker adds. "Danny was inside, and the same happened to him. Filled with ectoplasm and shocked. The good thing was, his spirit was so dang driven that instead of just dying, he half-turned into a ghost, and the ectoplasm kept his body alive."
"Did it… was he hurt?" Star asks, tearing her eyes away from the portal and looking at Danny's two friends. Their eyes were downcast, tired. Regretful. Sam was hugging herself now.
"He won't tell us. All we know is that we saw a huge flash and the whole room got hot. He… he was screaming. A lot. And then it stopped. The white flash turned into the green swirling pool." Sam presses a button, and the portal doors quietly slide shut.
"We thought he was dead." Tucker continues. "And then he stumbled out of the portal looking like a glowing old man." He laughs.
"Phantom." Star says.
"Yeah, only we were really freaked out. We thought we had killed Danny and he came back to haunt us. Everyone was crying, Danny was confused, we pushed him over by the computer monitor to look at his reflection, and then he freaked out even more. He thought he was dead, too.
"But then he changed back. It felt like a dream, and he ran upstairs to look in a proper mirror and sure enough, he looked exactly like the old Danny. It took us a long time to figure out what happened. Figure out about ghosts at all.
"But it all worked out!" He finishes. "If Danny wasn't in there when it turned on then there would be nobody to stop ghosts like Pariah Dark and Vlad and Overgrowth. We would be screwed."
Star furrows her brow. "Yeah but he's the one that turned it on."
Sam scoffs at that. "Listen, Danny's parents may be kind of clueless sometimes, but they are genius inventors. They, probably his mom, would have figured out how to fix the portal eventually. Danny likes to beat himself up for turning on the portal in the first place, but it was really only a matter of time."
"Well… then when did he develop- um… an obsession?" Star asks. "I know you're not supposed to ask ghosts about them, I read all the files you sent me, so I thought asking someone else might be better."
"Oh, you can ask Danny about that." Tucker says. "He only gets irritated when we tease him about it. He's way more human than ghost, he's only been part ghost for like, 2 or 3 years now."
"Also, that's not our thing to tell. We've told our side of the story, it's his job to tell his."
"I'm honestly surprised you told her this much, Sam." He gives her a knowing, yet appreciative look.
"Yeah, well." She tilts her head. "If Danny trusts her then I'm willing to give it a shot. Just try to lay off of the bullying and stuff- oh, and one other thing." Sam's eyes darken and she stalks up to Star, who takes a step back into the lab table. "I'll give you the same warning that I did Plasmius. If you harm one hair on his head, this truce is over, and don't think we won't come after you for it." She jabs a finger at Star's chest. "Danny might be surprisingly anti-violence, but I don't have anywhere near those reservations."
Star clenches the table behind her, swallows, and leans in towards Sam.
"I'm not afraid of you."
Sam scowls and grits her teeth, about to go off on a tirade before Sar holds up a hand to stop her.
"because, I wouldn't do anything to be on the wrong side of you."
Sam squints at Star before backing off and crossing her arms.
"Danny saved my life too, and I want to help people. I admit I was more concerned about popularity than anything for a long time, but as you grow up…" Star relaxes a bit. "It really isn't everything. Not even close to it. Seeing you guys, how close you are, it made me want that instead."
Sam backs off, and Star looks her in the eyes. "I'm sorry, for what I did. I really am. I'm ready to grow up."
The two stare at each other for a little bit before Sam runs a hand through her hair and looks away.
"Ahh, it's not like you needed to apologize or anything…" They both smile. "But thanks."
Tucker looks at the exchange fondly and pulls his backpack on once again.
"Hey, it's only like 7 o'clock, you guys up for some Nasty Burger?"
Star thinks for a moment. "I am hungry, but I actually know of a really good vegan place over by the Elmerton mall." She throws a knowing glance over to Sam. "Want to check it out?"
Sam's eyes widen and she breaks into a big smile. "Oh hell yeah! Let's go!"
"What? Vegan? Aw man, what the heck is a meat connoisseur gonna get there?"
Star laughs and starts to head outside. "Don't worry, we can stop at the food court nearby and grab you something too, they aren't super strict about bringing other food in or anything."
Tucker's smile grows to match Sam's "Aw yeah, they've got a Panda Express! Now, who's driving?"
TTTTTTTTTTTT
Star returns home that night in fairly good spirits. As soon as she opens her front door she cheerfully calls out to her parents.
"Mom, Dad, I'm back!"
She hangs her jacket up in the hall closet and drops her keys in the dish. She can hear the television running in the living room, so she heads that direction.
"Hi girlie, you're home this early already?" Her dad checks his watch as he meanders around the couch to give Star a hug.
She hugs him back and looks at her mom quizzically. "Why, what time is it?"
Her mom opens the menu on the TV. "Only around 9, and on a Friday, too. I'm impressed."
"You say that like it's an achievement." Star deadpans
"Well-"
"I'm more surprised about you two being up this late, honestly." She glances between them. "You're usually in bed by 8."
Her mom raises an eyebrow "Honey, we aren't getting that old-"
"Plus!" Her dad cuts in. "There's a Marvel marathon this weekend, and we don't have anything to do tomorrow."
"Your father is very excited, to say the least. He saw the first Iron Man in theatres." She passes him the remote as he sits beside her. "Wanna stay up?" She asks.
"Tempting," Star remarks. "But I've got some reading to finish up, so I'll be turning in early."
"Whaat? But it's only Friday!" Her dad complains.
"Yeah, and I've got a game tomorrow and some other plans."
Her dad attempts to complain some more, but her mom stops him. "Well," she says, "get a good night's sleep then honey, we'll come to your game tomorrow too, it's been a long time since we've seen you cheer."
"Really? That would be great!" Star leans over the back of the couch to give her parents a semi-awkward hug. "It's at 5 o'clock, but I'm leaving a few hours early to get lunch and go through our routine."
"Alright honey, have a nice night. There's leftover casserole and cornbread in the fridge if you need a midnight snack."
"I might take you up on that, goodnight!"
"Goodnight!"
Star ascends the steps to her bedroom happily, her parents haven't seen her cheer in ages, so she was really looking forward to it. She opens her door and plops her backpack on her desk before quickly changing into some pajamas and switching the settings on her ghost shield to cover her entire room. She digs through her backpack and removes her 'reading'.
The packet is more smoothed out now, the importance of its contents settled right after she spoke to Danny on the phone. She looks at the haphazard creases and folds on its sheets caused by her careless treatment of it before with a pang of guilt.
She laughs at the silliness of it, but the inanimate object in front of her does have meaning. She figures it's become more of a symbol to her than anything. She moves over to her bed and rests her back on the headboard.
She skims through the bulk of the packet to refresh her memory before moving on to the additional notes section. While the majority of the points before have graphs and statistics beside them to illustrate their points, these have few to none. Observed, but not tested. Maybe they can't be tested.
She begins to read once again, but this time with renewed interest.
Other notable features.
- A Halfa's body temperature is largely dependent on their core type.
- If their core is dormant or not a variant that produces heat or cold, the body will adopt a temperature typical of neutral ectoplasm, which is marginally below average human body temperature.
Star tries to think back to the last time she and Danny have touched, which was probably during the weekend she was attacked. She doesn't remember anything particularly unusual about his temperature, but she had a lot more on her mind at the time.
She idly wonders if anything she remembers during that time is actually credible. Her emotions were a mess, that's for sure.
- A Halfa's blood in human form is slightly thicker than standard human blood, but their ectoplasmic blood is much more viscous, as a ghost's.
- When a Halfa is injured, it's generally safer for them to remain or switch to ghost form to reduce the amount of blood loss, although ectoplasm does not clot as human blood does. This leads to other challenges, however.
- The ectoplasm in a Halfa's system seemingly supercharges the natural healing of their human system, leading to their healing factor to be faster than both humans and full ghosts.
- The specifics of this healing is not yet known, but its speed heavily relies on the ectoplasm produced and maintained by their core. Their repair process is thought to be fundamentally different from a ghost's.
And it can apparently apply that healing to an overshadowed subject, too. She supplies. She contemplates how that might work, but doesn't have the foggiest idea. Sounds like something to ask Danny about.
- A Halfa's heart is non-functioning. While the core typically exists in a similar spot as the heart, it does not work in tandem with it.
- Occasionally, something similar to a 'heartbeat' can be detected or faked, but any activity is done by the core. In addition, the core can act subconsciously to protect itself (not necessarily the body) during duress, manipulating visibility, tangibility, flight, and other basic powers.
Danny… doesn't have a heartbeat.
Star thinks back to the heartbeat monitors they occasionally wear in gym, and even the basic physical they go through before immunizations. How would he hide something like that? How many precautions, contingencies, plans, backups, how many did he need?
Star doesn't think she could ever handle that type of stress in her life, constantly planning ahead and looking over your shoulder at the same time.
- A Halfa's abilities seem to be stronger and have more variety than the average ghost, but otherwise, their traits are similar.
- This could be because of the large amounts of ectoplasm or electricity used in their rebirth, but this is pure speculation.
Anyone in Amity could probably tell you that Danny Phantom was the strongest ghosts around.
Well, at least, he beat all the others that showed up.
- Unlike a ghost, a Halfa retains all memories of their lifetime and death and also keeps their personality traits from when they were human.
Everything must've been so confusing in the beginning. If this started when the ghosts did then that would be… sometime in early high school. How he managed to hide it she'd never know.
- A Halfa, like a ghost, can easily absorb ectoplasm through various means.
- This includes exposing active ectoplasm to the bloodstream, absorbing other ghosts, absorbing ambient ectoplasm, feeding an obsession, or feeding on emotions.
- They can also maintain their human body through normal human consumption, although it seems like the amount to sustain their core is almost double what the average person would eat and without a supply of ectoplasm their core strength would shrink and stagnate at a manageable level. On the other hand, if there's a steady supply of ectoplasmic, emotional, or obsession-gained energy available, human consumption is entirely unneeded, similar to a ghost. However, normal feelings of hunger still persist. It is unknown what long-term effects relying on entirely ghostly energy might cause.
Absorbing other ghosts… can he just… meld into them? Or is it…
She pushes that thought out of her mind. Whatever it was it didn't have anything to do with her. Feeding on emotions isn't something she thought he could do, it seems like such a strictly ghost thing and not a halfa thing. Too ghostly.
But I guess, what does she know?
- Halfas have much less control over their cores and emotions than normal ghosts.
- Their human half's emotions can sometimes feed into the core of their ghost half if they're strong, essentially creating a feedback loop that can be hard to break, especially in younger Halfas. They do have an easier time 'hiding' their core, however, due to the human half they're able to bury it within. While it doesn't suppress the energy flowing through the halfa, it will reduce their aura and ectosignature.
That would explain what happened with Autumn, she thinks. I could feel the threatening aura bouncing around the room when he chased her. Hopefully, nobody else noticed that.
She flips the final page and turns the packet over to look back at the strangely empty cover with a new perspective, now that she's familiar with its contents. She leans her head back on the headboard and sighs.
"This is bizarre." She whispers to herself.
TTTTTTTTTTTTT
A few hours pass and Star continues to sit on her bed in silence. Despite her Dad's excitement, both of her parents ended up turning in just shy of 1 AM, and knowing them, they probably fell asleep minutes later.
She looks down at the packet in front of her again, she's reread it so many times she's lost count, memorizing various numbers and values that she feels might be important.
(Not that she had any idea what the important ones would be, really.)
She stands up in bed and takes a look outside. It's overcast, but she can still watch the moon peek through the clouds every once in a while, spilling white light into her backyard.
"Cold" she mumbles, and grabs a sweatshirt from her closet. Throwing it on along with some winter boots, she grabs the packet and quietly wanders out into the hallway, taking a glance towards her parents' bedroom before tiptoeing down the stairs.
Flicking on the lights in the kitchen, she rummages through drawers and cupboards before pulling out a box of matches. She pockets them and quickly disables the security system before opening the back door and taking a step outside.
It's definitely cold, but not as cold as it appeared to be. Star shuffles over to the firepit (which seemed to have been used recently, she's glad her parents are taking a break) and flips through the packet one last time before pulling each individual page from the staple and crumpling them into loose balls, tossing them into the large round bowl.
She gets on her knees to situate the collection into a neat pile and pulls the matches from her jacket. She lights one, and unceremoniously tosses it into the pit, watching it bounce through the cracks and fall to the base of the pile.
The flames quickly engulf the white of the paper, transforming it into a deep charcoal. Star warms her hands by the growing flames and stares up at the night sky, content to wait until every last bit of evidence is wiped away. Eventually, she has to shift the outer edges in, but after a few minutes pass there isn't anything left but ashes and the glowing embers dancing on the half-burnt logs her parents must've added earlier.
She uses a stick to flip over the burning logs, smothering the final seeds of flame under their weight. Once the smoke fades, she drops the stick into the wet grass and shoves her hands into the warm refuge of her pockets. She looks up, taking one last look at the moon before the oncoming clouds leave it as nothing but a glowing haze in the sky.