Growing Pains
Rating: T+ [Some heavy petting]
Pairings: DannyxSam
Ages: Danny, Sam, and Tucker are 18.
Summary: Changes are on the horizon. Going through Puberty twice, sucks, having to go through Super-powered Puberty one of those times sucks the most.
Extra Note: Trance State - Trance state is a ghostly equivalent to sleep.
He felt something brush against his lips and another sensation glide past his thigh to his stomach, lighting his nerves on fire. His fingers rubbed against black silk hair and curved into the small of her back.
-BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP!
Danny jolted to consciousness at the first beep, being instantly torn from whatever dreamworld he'd been within moments before. He groaned slightly at the prospect of going to school, smothering his own face with a spare pillow of his.
It had been nearly four years since Danny had suffered the accident that had changed his life forever. Since then many things had changed, he and his peers grew older and taller, more mature in their appearance and thoughts, Danny's powers had steadily grown over time, there were actually few ghosts that visited Amity Park with mal-intent anymore; even fewer of the citizens held onto the belief that all ghosts were evil, though there were still a decent amount, and the last important note was that he and Sam had finally become an item sophomore year.
With a mere thought, his blankets were lifted from his body within a film of ectoplasmic glow. The young man slipped out and made his way to the restroom to get ready and make sure no stray facial hairs had budded out. If his parents were to walk in on him, Danny would have a hard time of explaining why nearly all his hygiene supplies were glowing and floating all around his body, ready for their turn to be used.
After breakfast alone, since his parents had practically holed themselves up in their lab the last few days and Jazz was at college, Danny jogged out of the house, backpack in hand.
Sam and Tucker were waiting by the entrance to the school parking lot, just like they always were.
"Hey dude!"
"Hey Danny!"
Danny went to open his mouth, only for nothing to come out. He paused from walking and cocked his head, before trying one more time, with no luck.
Sam and Tucker looked at each other and walked forward to meet their friend halfway. Sam furrowed her brows. "Are you okay, Danny?"
Danny looked up and shrugged before using telepathy. I don't know. My voice is just gone.
"Did you fight a ghost and wail recently or something?" Tucker asked before Sam cuffed him.
"I think we would've known if Danny had fought a ghost that even required the wail. It's kinda hard to miss, Tuck."
Yeah, I haven't used the wail in a while, save our training trips into the middle of nowhere for me to practice it.
"I guess we'll figure it out after school," Tucker expressed.
"Yeah, but what about the teachers? What do we do when they try to talk to Danny?" Sam asked.
"I guess just tell them he lost his voice," Tucker replied with a shrug.
Sam turned to look at Danny, who was raising one eyebrow. "Neither of us are in your AP Physics class."
We're doing an independent lab project today. No lecture, so no questions or discussion. Danny smirked, pleased at that little bit of saving grace.
"Well that's good. Let's go," Sam spoke and then smiled. She squeaked when her boyfriend leaned down and made a grab for her mouth with his own.
I'd think I'd die if I needed a voice to do this. Danny quipped in their minds.
Tucker grimaced when Sam let out a sigh. "Yeesh guys! Wait until I'm not present."
"You can leave," Sam snarked, parting from Danny to give Tucker a sly look.
"Thank you captain obvious," Tucker bantered back.
The three friends then headed towards the school's doors together as students crowded up the steps and through the doors.
zz
Sam watched nervously as Danny slipped back into his seat five minutes before English class ended. The halfa had fled the room to fight a ghost and had come back looking a bit pale. She happened to notice a bit of pink-stained bandage peeking out from the end of his dark blue t-shirt's sleeve.
Danny felt Sam's emotions flare slightly and he started up a mental conversation with her. Don't worry it was just Skulker.
Skulker doesn't normally land hits anymore and I thought he wasn't trying to murder you anymore either?
He isn't. He was almost as surprised as I was that I got hit.
What happened?
I started having cramps in my legs. I couldn't do aerial battle as well without an easy way to turn myself mid-flight. I couldn't even turn my legs into a tail.
Sam was about to speak again when Lancer beat her to it. "Mr. Fenton, I assume that you're comfortable enough with chapter three of the Great Gatsby to leave class for the bathroom for over thirty minutes?"
Danny opened his mouth instinctually just as he remembered his voice was gone. He snapped his mouth closed.
"Well, Mr. Fenton?"
"He's lost his voice, Mr. Lancer," Sam spoke up.
"Did you put a spell on him or something, Gothica?" Paulina sneered. "Didn't want him to tell people what you do to him?"
Danny gave the girl a dark glare while Sam snorted. "That's the best you've got? Please, at least I can hold onto a guy for longer than two weeks."
"Ooooooooooooh!" Most of the other students in the class Oooh'd.
Danny's face looked like his was laughing silently.
"Witch! I can have any guy I want! You two are stuck with each other!" Paulina snapped back.
Danny wanted so badly to speak, but knew nothing would happen.
"Enough!" Lancer shouted, cutting off Sam a second time that day. He looked at Danny. "Mr. Fenton, I would suggest going to the doctor to see about that. It isn't often that one's voice completely fades unless one is getting some type of illness and as far as I know you aren't in the Casper choir."
Danny flushed slightly in embarrassment and nodded.
Lancer gave a pleased nod and turned back to his board.
zz
Hey Fentina! What's up!"
Danny flinched in slight annoyance when he heard Dash's voice from across the lunchroom. Tucker rolled his eyes and Sam folded her arms in ready defiance as Dash and a couple of his lackeys approached.
"What do you want, Dash?" Sam asked, coldly.
Dash grinned, trying to look semi-innocent. "Oh nothing, just wanted to talk with Fenton."
"Buzz off Dash," Sam growled.
Dash ignored her and leaned over Danny's shoulder further, making Danny instinctually curl a bit inward. "You know the best thing about you not being able to speak? I don't have to listen to your annoying voice when we wail on you."
Unfortunately, even though Danny had grown a good deal and was nearly an inch taller than Dash if you straightened them against each other, Danny had more of a swimmers build, so when Dash's two buddies looped their arms under his, Danny was whisked right out of his seat, kicking.
"How about you wash down your lunch with a swirly, Fen-tons-o-fun!" Dash grinned, watching Danny struggle silently.
"Leave him alone you jerks!" Sam bellowed before getting up and nailing one of the jocks in the shin all in one fell swoop. Danny was able to pull himself away from the remaining jock while Dash steamed and the lunchroom drank in the drama excitedly. Dash moved to swing a punch at Danny, who caught the fist and moved to dodge to the side just as Sam got fed up and swung her boot between Dash's legs with hardly any restraint.
The boy gasped and fell suddenly, grasping at his manhood.
"I'm sick and tired of watching you pick on my friends! If you touch Danny or Tucker ever again, I'll repeat this little process until something gives!" Sam yelled.
Tucker's jaw had dropped open as the red blinking light on his camera continued flashing. Danny's eyes had dilated. 'Note to self, never ever ever get on Sam's bad side.'
Okay, gotta be completely honest. That's super hot. Danny blanched inwardly. 'Oh no… I'm starting to sound like my dad. Bad thoughts bad thoughts…'
Sam looked over at Danny and beamed, pink dusting her cheeks and Danny gave her a cute boyish grin in return.
"And the three musketeers strike again!" Tucker cheered.
Sam whipped her head around and snorted, unimpressed. "Will you stop calling us that? It's dumb."
"Am I allowed to say, 'All good things come in threes?'"
"No, we'd make Jazz sad."
"Golden trio?"
"Taken."
"You're no fun."
"I know."
"Care to explain what happened here?" Everyone looked up and saw Mr. Lancer and Principle Ishiyama glaring at practically the whole student body.
zz
A week and a half later…
"Still got nothing to say, dipstick!?"
Danny mentally growled in annoyance at the taunt Ember was giving him. The day after Lancer had asked him to see a doctor, Danny's parents had taken him for a quick look and after a brief and non-intrusive exam, the doctor had said that there didn't seem to be anything wrong. Danny wasn't faking because he couldn't even grunt or make other noises at all, so the doctor said it might be a sign that Danny was finishing up puberty since he was a late bloomer of sorts. Danny's voice hadn't been cracking and had only deepened a marginal amount in three years. Perhaps it was some small abnormality. The doctor said to give it time and come back if it persisted for too long.
The ghosts had found it humorous or hilarious in one way or another. Ember was currently having a spar with the halfa since he'd stopped her from having a party in the park and she hadn't keep the deal about not trying to hypnotize people. Danny was still having a bit of trouble with strange cramps all over his body, but they hadn't bothered him today yet.
The crowd watched in confusion as, for the nearly second week in a row, Phantom didn't use any of his fairly famous witty banter.
"Did you consider it was a ghost thing?" Ember asked suddenly, causing the duel to halt. Suddenly more interested in thinking about this trivial problem than fighting, Ember tapped her lips with her finger as she thought.
Danny tipped his head. What do you mean?
Ember grumbled. "No telepathy, ghost boy. Get out of my thoughts."
Fine geez. Pick on the mute kid. Danny teased before not using the power anymore.
"I think it might be ghost puberty."
Danny face deadpanned.
"It's totally a thing! Usually it has more to do with upgrading one's powers rather than age though. Maybe it's different for ghosts like you." Ember was careful to be vague as to not to hint at the boy being a hybrid in front of the crowd. "Maybe Plasmius could help you."
Danny folded his arms.
"At the very least he could direct you to someone that can teach you how to sign," Ember barked teasingly.
Danny fumed slightly as pink burned his cheeks. "You do realize-" Danny didn't get any further before he froze and everyone below as well as Ember looked at him with wide eyes. Danny felt like his heart was going to run right out of his chest.
"Hot damn! Now that is a sexy voice. Aren't you lucky, dipstick?" Ember called out. She looked down at the humans with a smirk. "Look at our little Phantom! They grow up so fast…"
Danny was panicking, not because his voice sounded rich, deep, smooth and somewhat intimidating, but because it sounded painfully familiar. In a flash he'd sucked Ember into the thermos and vanished from everyone's sights. The rocker ghost would be pissed at him later for being rude and not taking a seemingly harmless joke well, but she didn't understand.
It was his voice. "I sound like him…" Danny rumbled with his baritone voice, an ache starting to build in his heart and core.
zz
"Hey listen to me… Are you listening? Danny?" Sam prodded, noticing that Danny was twitching one of his eyes and bouncing one of his legs as he sat as Phantom on her bed. The sun had set by the time that Danny had made it over to her house and became nearly catatonic after rambling to her about his new voice.
His voice. Sam felt herself shutter. It brought mixed emotions to hear it, slight fear from those bad memories of facing Danny's darker self but also attraction. His voice really was nice to hear, especially when he was still speaking like Danny. She'd never heard Dark Phantom's voice grow soft with frantic whispers or his eyes to grow wide with ache for her comfort. It was hard to explain, but hearing Danny speak that way, her Danny and not the dark future Danny, made the voice not feel evil.
Sam narrowed her eyes at the unresponsive boy. She just didn't know how to get it through his thick head that she really didn't believe this was a bad thing or some omen, Clockwork would've said something.
Then, it hit her. "Damn it, Danny. You're lucky I love you." She turned to face the phantom on her bed, smirking slightly at the craziness of it all. If anyone else saw Amity Park's hero acting catatonic on her bed… A dark grin came to her face as she couldn't help but think a somewhat mean thought. Paulina wishes she could do this.
In two quick strides, Sam was right in Danny's face and kissing him, harshly. She felt him inhale, try to take in a gasp of air as though he just had snapped to attention, but she didn't give him the chance to recover. Sam slid onto her bed and into her boyfriend's lap, continuing to kiss him, wrapping an arm around the back of his neck in the process.
"Sa-" Another quick breath. "S-m. Mmmmm…" Finally he started trying to attack just as fiercely and Sam tensed in anticipation when one of his arms wrapped around her back.
"Fenton, change back."
"Mmmhmm." And just like that, a brief light show changed Phantom into Fenton and her crush's true face was presented to her.
"Repeat after me, 'I am not Dark Phantom.'"
"I ammm n-"
Sam pulled away a bit and she chuckled when he whined a bit. "Say it."
"I'm not Dark Phantom."
"Again."
"I'm not Dark Phantom."
"Once more." Sam rose a brow when Danny's face changed and a face of love and deep want flickered across his features. He straightened himself a bit more and looked at her closely.
"I love Sam Manson. I love Sam Manson." He slowly twisted until she was more under him, switching their places. He kept his lips centimeters from hers and his voice hummed smoothly and sensually. "I love Sam-" And then they were kissing again and their hands were going on their own journeys as if finally freed from the programming of the mind, they could feel their hearts in each other's chests, and they knew they were reacting to each other as they continued.
Then Danny froze. Sam froze with him instinctually, knowing he didn't stop without reason.
"Someone's coming up the stairs," Danny whispered. Sam swallowed thickly, trying to focus and not think about Danny speaking softly in her ear.
"It's okay, go."
Danny gave her a smile and kissed her on the forehead. "Thank you." Sam watched as he vanished from sight. He would most likely make it to a nearby alleyway before transforming to head home. She flopped over and crawled up to the head of her bed and slipped under the covers right before her door opened.
"Sammykins?"
zz
The next day, Danny and Sam could hardly look at each other. They'd been somewhat intimate before, but that had been the closest they'd ever gotten to well, taking the next step. Tucker of course was positive they'd done something they hadn't and kept pestering them about it. He wanted to know whether or not he should expect to be an uncle any time soon.
"Just drop it, Tucker."
"No way! I think you should name him Tucker Jr."
"Even if that ever happened, I would not name my son that," Sam hissed and then blushed at the very sentence she'd spoken. Danny merely looked away, trying on his own to cool off. 'Thank goodness for ice powers.'
"Let's try to get to school on time," Sam grumbled, ignoring Tucker's cheeky grin.
Danny nodded and tried to give Sam a smile, which she returned briefly. They entered the bustling school and headed for their lockers. Danny was busy trying to close his when he heard some sort of commotion.
"Come on Dash, give it back! I need it!"
"Then take it back, nerd."
Danny and his friends walked up to see a crowd around Dash, his posse, and Mikey, who was trying and failing to get his inhaler back.
"Don't you have anything better to do, Dash!?" Sam snapped out first, drawing everyone's attention to the trio.
"So what, Manson? You going to stop me?" Dash taunted.
"Give his inhaler back, Dash."
Everyone in the hallway, except for Sam and Tucker froze at the sound of Danny's voice, both because it had been gone for a week plus and two because, Good God, that voice. It sounded like it belonged to a professional actor.
"Fenton?" Kwan balked slightly.
Danny rose a brow. "What? Apparently my voice wasn't done changing. That's why my voice quit on me last week."
"So unfair, you never had to listen to your voice crack," Tucker muttered.
Danny's attention went back to the inhaler in Dash's hand. "Give it back Dash, he does need it. I don't think you want to be accused of man slaughter or something."
Dash growled. "Pssht. Make me Fenturd."
Danny took a couple of strides forward and backhanded the hand Dash was using to hold the plastic device. It flew off and slid across the ground, giving Mikey the chance to dive for it, give Danny a look of gratitude, and then bolt.
"You little ass-wiping!" Dash hissed and swung his arm to pin Danny harshly against the lockers.
"Hey, at least I don't get a high picking on people, am I right?" Danny grunted when Dash slammed him against the lockers again for emphasis.
"Shut-up, Fenton."
"I don't want to," Danny shot back. He then shoved Dash back a bit and straightened his shirt. "Just buzz off will ya? Find something else to occupy your time with."
"Or am I going to have to rearrange your nether regions again?" Sam hissed out suddenly and started to march towards the boy. Dash paled a bit before Danny gently grabbed Sam's shoulder.
"I think he gets it, Sammy." Sam flushed against her will at Danny suddenly using his pet name for her in public.
"Fine, I'll be generous this time."
Danny gave a pleased smirk before turning Sam and Tucker away to make their escape.
zz
It was a few days later that something else happened. Sam and Tucker had both gone out of town for the weekend and Danny was left bored, doing homework, and fighting ghosts when they would cause any real trouble. That weekend was busy with tons of ghosts visiting, wanting to make a spectacle of Danny's new and intimidating voice. Most of the time, Danny found even being barely irritated, made the inflection of his voice's tone sound menacing.
"Hey, hello. Excuse me." Danny as Phantom, grumbled to himself as the old man ghost kept looking through the supermarket shelves for something. All the humans had backed up and were watching the admittedly hilarious interaction from afar. Danny groaned slightly. "Hello!?"
"Not this one… no no… maybe it's the next isle… I remember when there weren't any isles in a store like this. They make them so big now a days…"
Danny finally lost his cool and let some irritation creep into his voice. "Okay, look. You need to either get what you want and I'll pay for it or you need to leave."
Normally, if the general populous had learned how non-violent a particular ghost tended to be, they'd ignore such ghosts and not be afraid. Some ghosts could even purchase things or use other services like humans at times, though it was rare. The Guys in White were the only ones that didn't like this arrangement, but after a few blunders on their part, they'd been forced out of Amity until further notice. Amity Park had become not only the most haunted city in the world, but also the only one that coexisted with ghosts, even if it was a very pre-mature sort of coexistence for the time being.
For this instance however, the old man was a new-comer and no one knew how violent he may or may not be.
At the sound of Danny's deeper voice, the old man finally looked over his shoulder and make a voice of surprise. "Oh heavens above!"
Danny's eyebrows shot up in alarm as the man started to tremble. "Hey, whoa, easy. You just need to leave the supermarket."
The old man bolted, a blue ghost tail whipping behind him and knocking over several goods from the shelves on his way out. Danny frowned.
"Thanks, Phantom."
A quiet wave of similar thanks rose up from the crowd that had been watching. Danny looked at them over his shoulder and smiled as one of his hands reached to rub his neck. "Didn't mean to scare him. From what I could tell he was barely a level two, just above a shade or apparition."
"Humph. He's just like my husband, can't hear a darned thing!"
Danny chuckled a bit before waving and heading for the sliding doors. He used his telekinesis on the way to place most of the goods from the floor back onto the shelves.
As soon as he was met with the sun's rays outside, something felt wrong. His core suddenly clenched inside of him and with a small groan, he felt ice coat his hip and left arm. Then another and his chest had a spider-webbing of ice explode out. Danny took to the air to get away from the city. He had to let the ice out like Frostbite had taught hi-
Over a lake he tried and it hurt like his body was on fire. Something licked his face that was warm and had come from his throat, he could hear nearby trees being uprooted, coated in a layer of green light, He started to scream in agony and he knew he was letting out a wail.
And then it just stopped. The trees crashed into the ground or the lake and a wave of water drenched the shore before Danny slammed into the sod.
He lay panting on the damp ground, trying to pull himself together after his body had felt so much intense pain. He was sweating bullets and his body felt like jello. Then he hiccuped and everything came back just as powerful, untamed, and painful as before.
It could've been hours that he laid there outside of Amity, in agonizing pain. It was the same pattern, hiccup, pain, rest, hiccup, pain, rest.
He hardly knew was was happening around him when he heard soft voices.
"He looks like hell. Do you two know what's wrong with him?"
"I can't be certain, but I think he's ended the Main Sequence stage and is experiencing Bifurcation."
"Ooh! ooh! You think so Mads!? This is exciting. Do you think he'll enter Neutralization or Second Sequence?"
"Hmmm… It's hard to say."
"I'm not sure what either of you are talking about."
"Well it's the development of ghost cores. We can talk more about it once we help Phantom… Usually ghosts just rest… I've never seen one go through any kind of discomfort."
"You think someone messed with his obsession? He could be entering Neutralization and have a fast progression into Evanesce stage if someone or something harmed his obsession."
"Except they just recently saw him helping some people in a supermarket. There's no event we can pin-point that would indicate a loss of obsession."
"Hey, I've got to go home. You two going to be okay with him?"
"You bet, Red Huntress! He hasn't gone nuts like some people thought, so we can handle it from here. Phantom just needs some help."
Danny felt like his ears were full of cotton and his voice wouldn't work. What was all this they were talking about. Ember had just joked about something called ghost puberty… there were actual stages?
Before he could try to even think more clearly, now that the pain had left him temporarily, the blissfulness of unconsciousness took him.
zz
"I wonder why he breathes when in trance state."
"Maybe part of his obsession is to be as human-like as possible. Maybe something happened to break his mental allusion that he was still somehow human."
"Perhaps… His obsession is so complex though. I doubt something that simple would cause Neutralization…" There was a pause as if something serious and awe-inspiring was taking place. "I really think he's entering Second Sequence, Jack."
"The only Second Sequence ghosts we've seen were that Ghost King, the plant and weather ghosts, the Wisconsin Ghost, and that ghost that made us sleep. They aren't common and we've definitely never watched the Second Sequence half of Bifurcation take place in person before."
Danny slowly opened his eyes. His head was pounding and his body felt like lead.
"Look Mads, his suit…"
Danny leaned up quickly at that, regretting it immediately as he was hit with a wave of nausea and aches.
"Whoa, easy Phantom. You don't want to move too much." His green glowing eyes looked down and around to notice he was in his parents' lab. His body was resting on an examination table and there was a tray of injections ready nearby. He wasn't afraid though, he'd had a truce with his parents for the last few months.
"Ugh… what happened and-" He froze mid-sentence when he notice movement and saw the colors of his suit changing slowly, starting from a point near his chest. It was like something growing over him, changing at the pace of grass spreading or fungus growing, but it was simply his hazmat suit changing color, slowly, as if someone was using photoshop on him. "My suit…"
"Sometimes ghosts entering Second Sequence will have their appearance change," Maddie explained simply, laying a hand on Danny's arm. "Your form is under-going several changes right now."
Danny cocked his head as he looked at them, before giving his chest another look. "What's Second Sequence?"
Jack blurted something out as Maddie's brows furrowed. "You don't know!?"
Danny flinched slightly. "Uh… no?"
Maddie hummed but went along with it. "Ghost cores go through a type of development. Actually their development cycle isn't too different in some ways to how stars transform through their existence. Ghost cores also have the same branching cycle. For cores though, it's not often a cycle." Maddie walked over to a cabinet in the lab and sifted through some papers and large posters before pulling out one and tacking it to a board. It showed a cycle of circles as well as a couple places were the cycle branched off. Maddie pointed to the top circle within the cycle part. "This is the point called the Proto-stablization stage. It's when a person's soul or a manifested ghost's core is stabilized after condensing enough ectoplasm in the Zone." And with that, Maddie started to give Phantom a lesson on ghost cores. They went into the Main Sequence stage after being formed. This was the state most ghosts were at during most of their existence. After a period of time, Bifurcation occurred in which two different outcomes could result. First was Neutralization, the stage in which a ghost starts to fade away if their obsession was something fairly simple to achieve or if their obsession is removed from their grasp completely. After Neutralization began, Evanesce came next, where a ghost either lost it's connection to its core and faded from the mortal realm or became stuck in a shade-like state until their obsession was restored. If a ghost had neither achieved their obsession or have lost it, then Bifurcation resulted in Second Sequence.
Maddie seemed to pause and look at Jack as though deciding whether or not to continue, though it only lasted a moment before she began again. Second Sequence stage was a second development path for ghost cores. A great increase of power occurred when a ghost reached this state. For benevolent ghosts to go through the process, their obsession must be complex and they must be following it in a healthy way. For malevolent ghosts, they must simply follow their obsession aggressively and somewhat similarly to how addiction is continued. Most ghost weapons or ghost rays don't work for ghosts in Second Sequence; at least, they aren't nearly as effective seeing as their cores have become more dense and harder to damage.
Danny wondered if Vlad had gone through this process. It explained his vastly different outfit from what he was wearing at death as well as the skin tone and growth of fangs. The young man hoped at the very least he kept his nice healthy tanned tone. He then had a moment of panic and seemed to become nervous about whether or not he would never find peace. Maddie expressed that it was possible for ghosts in Second Sequence to find peace like Neutralization stage ghosts, in fact they most often do before Nova stage. Nova stage, she explained, was an even rarer process for only the most powerful of all ghosts. Nova stage is a point in which a ghost core in Second Sequence has become super powerful. It is the point in which a core can no longer gain any more energy or power and starts to collapse. She finished explaining that Nova stage can result in two things. Truly and purely evil ghosts go through Obfuscation, in which the ghost is drawn into their own core.
"We aren't really sure what happens at that point. We've never observed it and there aren't many ghosts that go through such a process. Really, it's somewhat hypothetical among the spectrologists in the scientific community. Lastly, benevolent ghosts go through Ascendency, where they theoretically condense their cores enough that they no longer require ectoplasm to exist. Supposedly the ectoplasm let out by both processes returns to the Ghost Zone as ether to help other ghosts be born, but we haven't really had any further development on that process either…"
Danny listened closely and wondered if his parents had considered the afterlife into these theories. He'd never believed in much after the Zone perhaps, once his parents had discovered it, but Clockwork had told him many times that there was something else after this. Was it possible that Clockwork had gone through Ascendency? Danny would have to ask the next time he saw the timekeeper. He shivered slightly wondering if Obfuscation drew evil beings into Oblivion. That was a place he knew existed, since the Observants had taken great pleasure in showing him a well guarded pit leading to the place. He knew most of them were just waiting for him to step out of line and give them a reason to toss him in there, but at least Clockwork seemed to be mostly on his side.
"So… I'm entering, Second Sequence?" Danny asked.
"That's what appears to be the case. You're changing physically and your core's powers were fluctuating."
"Isn't it dangerous for me to be anywhere near Amity while I'm going through this? I know I was using my Wail."
"We've developed the lab to be able to handle such fluctuations. If you start to show signs of another attack, we can lock down the lab and let it sort itself out. We don't really want you to destroy the countryside either, after all."
Danny cringed slightly at that. "Sorry." He wasn't sure if their lab being Phantom proof was a relief or something that freaked him out, but for now…
Maddie gave him a pleasant smile. "Don't be. It was amazing that you were aware enough to fly away from Amity in the first place."
Danny gave them both a smile at the praise. "Thanks… both of you."
Jack grinned and marched forward. "If you need any ectoplasm while you stay at Casa Fenton, let us know."
Danny swallowed. "Do you know how long this will last?"
Maddie frowned. "Could be several days…"
Danny gulped slightly, he could technically survive without eating for several days, but he'd need water before then and his parents would also notice Fenton missing before then. He was in a bind. "Um… Maddie, Jack?"
"Yes?" Maddie asked, intrigued by Phantom's sudden nervousness. His suit had changed down to his elbows, neck, and waist by this point.
"There's something I-" Danny felt his voice leave him as terrible pain shot through his head. "Ah!" he cried out and bent at the waist, trying to bury his head in anything to get away from the pain.
"What's wrong?" Maddie asked quietly. Phantom didn't respond as eery quiet fell over the lab. Then after a few minutes.
Drip. Drip. Drip.
Maddie narrowed her eyes and carefully lifted a drowsy Phantom's head with her palm. Streams of bright green ectoplasm were streaming down his face from his lips. He coughed and sent a spray of green into Maddie's face. Phantom didn't even seem to notice, because he normally would've apologized multiple times for even such a small thing. "Phantom?"
She only got a confused moan in response. Carefully, with Jack's help, she laid the ghost boy down and opened his mouth. She let out a sign of relief.
"He's growing fangs!" Jack exclaimed, giddy.
"How odd though, ghosts generally don't leak ectoplasm when their own form changes. That only happens with actual wounds caused from rays or weapons." Maddie hummed slightly, before a growling echoed in the lab.
"Ooops."
Maddie smiled. "Let's go get something to eat and let Phantom rest some more."
"I'll get the fudge!"
The two scientists left the lab after leaving behind a ghost-proof version of a baby monitor, which would've embarrassed Danny to no end if he'd been awake. If the two had stayed behind a bit longer, they would've seen Phantom groan as his brilliant white hair started to float gently and then seemingly turn to flames.
So what did you all think about my version of Ghost Puberty? It took forever to come up with my own version, since I've seen things and names like Incandescence for other stories used. I wanted to make my own original version, however. I based it loosely on a star's life cycle. Stars condense gas and go through Main Sequence before, depending on their mass, become either white dwarfs or eventually reach supernova state and become either neutron stars or black holes.
Also sorry if the explanation of the core cycle was a bit heavy. I couldn't figure out any other way to easily explain in 'in-story'. I don't like having paragraphs that are too long in stories, but this turned out to be one of the rare moments those blocks seemed semi-necessary. Tips would be nice so I can try to prevent the blocks of text next time!
Oh and technically speaking he's not turning into Dan fully. He's just developing the aspects of Dan that were from Danny's half of the fusion and growth, the voice, the hair, the hazmat suit merely changing some, and NO CAPES!
