"Hey, kids! Jazz is home!" Maddie called up the stairs.
Danny, Mabel and Dipper thundered down the stairs. "Hey, Jazz!" Danny said.
"Hey little brother!" Jazz said, hugging him. "Who's this?" She asked, pulling away.
"This is Dipper and Mabel," Danny said, gesturing to them. "They're the ones I told you about!"
"Oh, cool!" Jazz said. "The Mystery Twins!"
Mabel laughed, looking proud. Dipper, however, only smiled in a dazed sort of way. He looked a little out of it.
"Well, I've gotta go unpack," Jazz said, heading up the stairs with her bags. "But I want to get to know you guys later!"
"She seems pretty cool," Mabel said happily.
"Yeah, she's actually really sweet," Danny said, a little reluctantly. "She was really supportive when the accident happened. She didn't even tell me when she found out, she waited until I was ready to tell her. I'm pretty lucky to have a sister like her." Then he laughed, lightening the mood a bit. "Even if she is meddlesome, and a lousy ghost hunter."
Mabel laughed too, glancing at Dipper. "Uh, Dipper?" He was still staring up the stairs, where Jazz had gone. "Dipper?" She waved a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Dipper!" She half-shouted.
He started. "Huh? What?" He reddened slightly. "What, Mabel?"
Mabel looked at him slyly. "Were you staring at Jazz?" She asked, a mischievous tone in her voice.
"What? No!" Dipper said, going redder.
"No way!" Mabel said, laughing. "What, do you have a thing for tall redheads who are way too old for you?"
"Mabel, it's nothing! She's just… kinda cute, that's all."
"Oh, gross, man! That's my sister!" Danny said, pretending to gag. He laughed. "Come on, let's head back to my room. It's time you guys told me all about the apocalypse."
"...Wow. That's just… wow." Danny said in amazement, running a hand through his hair.
"Yeah. It was a crazy ride." Dipper laughed resignedly. "I'd kind of like to forget about it, actually. But enough about Weirdmaggedon, what about you?"
"Me?" Danny asked.
"Yeah! You've hardly told us anything! What kind of enemies do you deal with? Have there been any major crises you've prevented? How did you even get your powers?" Dipper pulled out his journal and started clicking a pen excitedly.
"Woah, slow down, man." Danny said, holding up his hands. "I already told you most of that stuff last summer, didn't I?"
"I want all the details! So I can fill out my new journal accurately." He flipped open to the page on Phantom.
Mabel giggled at Dipper's enthusiasm. "I'd like to know more about it too, Danny. Please?"
Danny sighed, chuckling. He rubbed the back of his neck. "Alright, but let me go grab something really quick."
Danny jumped off his bed and ran to Jazz's room, bringing back a large scrapbook. "Jazz has been keeping a record of all my adventures as Phantom. It's probably got more detail than I can remember."
He laid it on the bed and opened to the first page, with Mabel and Dipper crowding around to see. "I guess we'll start at the accident." He pointed to a picture of him standing in front of the deactivated ghost portal. "See, Sam challenged me to go into the ghost portal, just to see if I could get it to work. My parents had been working on it for years, but the thing wouldn't turn on. The problem was, my dad had put the "on" button on the inside of the portal and forgotten about it.
"It was just a joke, really… I mean, we were fourteen and just weren't thinking about the dangers of playing around in the lab. And anyway, I had always wanted to go in there. I mean, who knew what kind of awesome, supercool things existed on the other side? So I put on the jumpsuit my dad had made for me, just to be safe, and went in. I was trying to see what was down at the end of the tunnel, and accidentally hit the button.
"The portal activated, and…" Danny paused, looking down at the picture, but not as though he really saw it. He seemed a million miles away. "It hurt so much," He said quietly. "I was being electrocuted, but worse… I didn't know what it was at the time, but I could feel the ectoplasm fusing with my DNA. Like being pricked with a million needles while getting struck by lightning." He shuddered. "I don't think I've ever been in so much pain. It felt like forever, but after a few seconds it stopped. And I was… different." He looked down, deep in thought. "I felt really light, and full of energy, but at the same time I was so tired I thought I was dying. My entire body was… flickering. And then I sort of stabilized, and changed back. Sam and Tucker had seen, though, and then we were all freaking out. It took me a long time to figure out what I was doing and get used to my powers."
Mabel and Dipper were staring at him in awe. "Woah…" Mabel said softly.
"That's incredible!" Dipper said. "I guess it makes sense, though. I mean, if you were caught in between the dimensions when the portal was activated, you would have been infused with energy from both worlds. The electricity running through you probably helped the ectoplasm meld itself to your DNA."
"I'm just glad I survived!" Danny said. "It was terrifying, especially since I didn't know what was going on." He looked at Dipper. "You're not going to put all that in your journal, are you? It's really important that we keep my secret identity… well, secret."
"I'll encode it so only I can read it." Dipper said with a shrug, already writing in an unfamiliar runic language.
Danny still looked a bit uneasy, but continued. "It was a month before I had my first big ghost battle, and even then I didn't have a good handle on my powers. It was weird trying to get used to it, I suddenly had a whole new side to me."
"Hmm…" Dipper paused in his writing, looking thoughtful. "I'm just thinking, Danny, by the nature of the accident, I mean..." He thought for a moment, then said, "Is there anyone else like you?"
"Yeah," Danny replied. "My archenemy, Vlad Masters, is a half-ghost too. He got in the way of my parents' prototype portal when they were in college."
"Really?" Mabel asked, eyes wide. "Anyone else?"
"No one." Danny shook his head firmly. "Luckily, very few people have access to ghost portals. As far as I know, there are only two functional man-made portals that exist- ours, and Vlad's. It would be disastrous if the general public found out about all this. Heck, most people don't believe that ghosts exist at all!" He laughed. "Anyway, there's not a lot risk there."
Mabel laughed too. "Tell us more about the ghosts that you've fought!" She said.
Danny turned a page in the scrapbook. "Well, the first major fight was with a ghost called the Lunch Lady." He pointed to a picture. "She was mad because Sam took all the meat off the school menu."
"She attacked because of that?" Mabel asked incredulously.
Danny chuckled. "Yeah, seems pretty silly in retrospect. I haven't had to deal with her in a while. She's not a very formidable enemy, anyway." He glanced at Dipper, who was still writing furiously in his journal. Danny continued, turning another page. "And this is the Box Ghost. I met him pretty early on too-"
"I'm sorry," Mabel interrupted, "The Box Ghost? What does he do, haunt warehouses?"
"Um, pretty much." Danny said.
Mabel snorted, looking disbelieving.
Danny laughed again. "Yeah, it's pretty lame. He wants to prove that he's intimidating, but the scariest thing he can do is tie you up in bubble wrap."
Mabel exploded into laughter. Danny grinned, looking at Dipper. He was still looking down at his journal, apparently deep in thought.
"What's up?" Danny asked.
Dipper didn't respond.
"Uh, Dipper?" Danny said, shaking him.
Dipper started. "Oh, what? Sorry, I was just thinking…" He looked back down at his journal while Mabel's laughter subsided.
"About what?" Danny asked. "I didn't think the Box Ghost could be so interesting," He nudged Dipper playfully.
"No, it's just… I just had an idea."
"About what?" Mabel asked curiously.
"Nothing, it's… It's not important." Dipper shook his head. "Forget it. Keep going, Danny."
Danny looked at Dipper in slight concern, but continued to elaborate on his early adventures as Phantom. Dipper asked occasional clarifying questions, always taking notes in the journal. Still, Danny thought he seemed a little distracted.
About an hour into the interview, Dipper became very quiet again. Mabel, however, was still enthusiastic, so Danny began to focus on her instead.
"So, did you manage to get off Skulker's island?" Mabel asked, enthralled with Danny's current story.
"Yeah, I managed to convince Valerie to work with me. She still doesn't trust Phantom, but at least she buried the hatchet long enough for us to get out of there. We finally lured Skulker into one of his own traps and escaped." He laughed. "We almost failed the Home Ec assignment too, but Tucker messed up so badly that we looked good in comparison."
Mabel laughed too as Dipper stood up. "Where are you going, bro?"
"Uh, bathroom," Dipper said, not meeting their eyes and walking out of the room.
"Why'd he take his journal with him?" Danny asked after Dipper had shut the door.
Mabel shrugged. "He probably wants to reread it in there. He's weird like that."
Danny frowned slightly, but decided to let it slide. Who knew what was going on in that kid's head?
Danny kept talking until his throat was dry. Mabel pressed him for every detail, eager to learn more.
"Alright, give me a break, Mabel! I need a drink." Danny stood up to grab his water bottle from his dresser. "Hmm, I wonder what's taking Dipper so long?" He looked towards the door.
"I bet he was rereading his journal and forgot where he was." Mabel said casually. "Once he gets focused on something he doesn't stop."
"I don't know," Danny said slowly, "He's been gone for a long time." He looked out the window, noticing how dark it was. It must have been later than he thought. "I hope he's okay."
"He'll be fine," Mabel said, though starting to look a bit worried herself.
"We should get to bed, in any case," Danny said, closing the scrapbook. "We can keep talking tomorrow. It's getting late."
"Okay…" Mabel said, glancing at the door herself now. "Let's just wait for Dipper to come back.
Danny nodded, wondering what could be taking so long.