Danny sneezed.
He blinked his eyes open, startled to find himself whole and… safe? He looked down and saw thick cords between his ankles, the whispers of ectoplasm raising hairs on the back of his neck.
"You alright in there?"
He turned back, surprise jolting through him at the young faces of his friends, watching him curiously from the end of a long tunnel.
His palm itched something fierce, and the whispers only grew louder as he realized how empty he felt.
Was this what death was, then? Would he repeat all of his past mistakes for all the afterlife to see?
Danny turned away from salvation, fate snapping at his heels as he considered the on/off buttons ahead of him.
In his original life, he tripped.
Danny reached out, the itching of his palm matching perfectly with a curved green button.
Green light engulfed him, the whispers roaring in excitement.
"Hey, are you okay?"
Danny looked up from the sheet of equations, abandoning the intricate whorls of lines he had been crafting in the margins.
Tucker was giving him quite the side-eye, pretending to do his own assignment while a thumb played absently with an outdated PDA.
No- it was new, here. (now)
Proper touchscreens wouldn't be invented for a few years yet. Tucker would be so excited…
He nodded, glancing up at the clock. Ah- five minutes left. No more to waste.
Danny leaned forward, numbers filling in the blanks and rough words scribbled into empty spaces.
Pre-algebra was so boring when he already knew the answers. It's not like he actually remembered the problems per se, but struggling through classes all the way up through Trig ground at least this much maths into his skull.
Maybe he'd be able to get his grades up enough that when Ghosts finally did start pouring through the portal, the teachers would let him slack a little.
He finished the last word right as Lancer set his hand atop his sheet, having called for 'Time up' a few seconds earlier.
Danny laid down his pencil, satisfied that it would be enough.
Tucker was still giving him an odd look, and Danny tried to give him a reassuring smile.
From the concerned frown, it probably came off as a grimace. He probably needed to work on that.
When he got home that afternoon, he was shocked to find the portal already mostly disassembled. His father hugged him tightly, and murmured some sort of apology.
Oh….
He had hidden the accident them from them before, hadn't he…
Danny pushed away the urge to flicker intangible to pull away from his tight hug, trying to think of something to reassure his Dad.
His mom approached shortly thereafter, and he sighed before leaning into the embrace.
Hugs were nicer than getting shot at, after all.
The whispers hadn't quieted, though. The central focus at the very back of the portal still had a rippling green sheen. He wasn't sure if his parents could see it.
If humans could see it.
That was it, then. The humans couldn't see it.
Danny eyed the green sheen on his locker, practically rolling his eyes when he found the mirror inside.
Of course. He had almost forgotten about the poor nerd.
(Bulliessss)
Danny sighed at the whisper, picking up the mirror and wrapping it in a few layers of notebook paper before stuffing it in his backpack. He'd deal with it at home, where there weren't random bystanders to hold hostage.
(Bullies?) The whisper hesitated, and Danny stared down at it, practically feeling the other ghost quail under his intent.
He nodded.
Paper would be good enough for now.
The lamp he found in an old garage sale was another issue altogether.
The taste was familiar in a way he couldn't quite describe. The best comparison perhaps, was the smell of someone's clothes after they've forgotten a shirt at your house after a sleepover. The whole tent smells faintly of them.
Or rather - her
Danny was careful not to touch the lamp until the old lady wrapped up his purchase, warning him about some sort of ancient indian curse.
A frustrated spirit stirred behind fragile ceramic curves, snarling at him in a way that was so deseree that he almost smashed it open just to see her angry face again.
He longed for a good fight, but wasn't quite ready to open up the whole 'ghost' can of worms just yet.
Danny placed her gingerly beside a vintage mirror, tucked snugly between sheetrock and insulation. Unless someone literally punched through the wall, they'd be safe for now.
Without the portal or the Thermos, he wasn't quite sure what to do with any ghosts he found.
Vlad didn't expect the cool, calculating eyes of the child before him.
"You don't happen to know a ghost named skulker, do you?
A small blink was the only reaction of surprise he allowed himself to give.
"Ghost?" He demurred softly. "I can't say I believe in them, I'm afraid."
The child didn't seem dissuaded, following him casually as he turned to return to the party.
"Strange, then. Because… he seemed to know you."
He glanced to the side, catching the boy's reflection in an ornate mirror on the other side of his library. The boy seemed unconcerned, picking at the corner of a fingernail with his teeth.
"I'm surprised you still believe in them, considering your father seems over the excitement."
Blue eyes flicked up to meet his own in the reflection, and Vlad wondered if he was imagining the quirk of amusement. But- no, he wasn't imagining it.
And he certainly wasn't imagining the little flickers of green sparking in the boy's irises.
He turned on his heel, looking sharply down at the boy, mind awhirl at what this could possibly imply, hackles raising as the pressure of ghostly energy raised.
The child's smile widened, and Vlad realized too late that he had allowed his own energy to bleed into his eyes, flashing red. He was so used to intimidating other ghosts, he was out of practice reining himself in around non-humans.
"Well… I guess I might be overthinking things." Green eyes closed with a sharp burst of (clearly forced) laughter, and when they reopened, bored blue eyes slid away from him.
The pressure quickly drained away, and he watched with no small amount of wariness as the boy stuffed his hands in his pockets and slouched toward the rest of the party.
"Of course there's no such thing as ghosts…" he muttered, leaving Vlad standing stiffly in the middle of his own house, heart racing.
How had…
Surely, he would have known if the Fentons had successfully created another portal. Jack loved to brag, after all.
Even so-
Was the boy… like him?
He practically bolted out of the room, breath catching in his throat with a hollow sort of desperation as he tried to find the youngest Fenton. He ignored the few guests trying to catch his attention,
Please, lord.
Please don't let this be a dream.
"No, Go ahead without me - I think I saw someone I recognized. I'll catch up with you!"
Sam nodded, eager to get to her favorite store before the poetry slam began, dragging a nervous Tucker behind her.
Danny made sure to wave cheerfully to him, feeling like he was getting the hang of 'acting natural' around those two. His hand fell as they rounded a corner, and he shuffled back a few steps before turning around and jogging back to the little alley.
That chord was familiar, her voice even moreso.
What wasn't familiar was the faded - almost staticky appearance of her form, lounging beside trash in an alleyway. He glanced back at the street, sliding into invisibility and sitting down across from her. The hair was new. He didn't realize how much of an effect such short-cropped hair would have on her face.
She didn't seem to notice him, still strumming her purple guitar and crooning the familiar words. He hummed along, the old song just old enough that he couldn't quite remember how it went, until - ah.
"-you will remember my name…."
The chords stuttered to a clanging stop, green eyes snapping up to meet his.
"Oh. It's you."
Danny blinked in surprise.
"What do you mean 'Its me'?"
Ember had gone back to fiddling with her strings, plucking one after the other with a sullen expression on her face.
"The other halfa sent a couple of us out to try and drag you back to him, but by the time we got here, it's obvious you're a lost cause."
Danny stood up, brushing off his knees and shoving his hands in his pockets. This was news to him.
"I'm surprised you even hang around here." she complained, apparently not noticing his lack of response. "There's not enough energy in the air for me to even be noticed by people, let alone get them to hear my song."
He watched her scuff at a stone, the little pebble sliding right through her foot. Ember groaned, laying her head back on the brick wall and drumming out a quick cord and letting the notes hang in the air.
Danny barely felt a trickle of presence from the sounds, and wondered how much the lack of a solid portal was actually changing things. How much of his future knowledge would still apply, here?
He looked down at her.
How much of his past would..?
Danny reached out a hand, unsurprised that she ignored it.
"Ember."
She jerked her head upright, sparks dancing across short spikes of cotton candy hair.
"Your name is Ember McLain, right?"
He watched with interest as her hair lengthened before his eyes, a breathless 'yes' on her lips. Her staticky edges seemed to solidify, colors brightening. Interesting.
"You know Ember, you have a pretty unique name. It goes well with your whole flame motif." At this point he was just saying it to see what would happen.
"But, I think it's about time you headed back to the ghost zone. Right? Ember?"
She finally reached out and took his hand, looking a bit dizzy as shoulder-length hair licked and curled around her neck in delighted little blue flames.
"That… sounds good, yeah."
He let his invisibility spread over her, lifting them both into the air. Lifting himself, mostly. She weighed less than a feather.
"You should send me a CD of your other songs." he suggested, wondering if he'd be able to cobble together some knock-off fenton phones to listen to her voice without the suggestive little whispers trying to influence him.
He felt her nod, and slipped them into his room.
So strange, not having to worry about a shield - even after so many weeks of this being the 'norm'
Almost as strange as not needing to patrol for ghost attacks, because there simply weren't enough strong ghosts to worry about it.
Danny let her float over his bed, unworried about the way she peered around at his decor and dirty laundry. A hand phased through the wall, and he pulled out the concave disc out from behind the sheetrock. From the way her head snapped to him, she could feel the whispers too.
Or maybe she could just feel the way they jumped and squirmed as soon as he touched it, energies aligning and waiting.
"Tell Vlad to kindly bug off, please." Ember gave him a wane smile, hugging her guitar close to her stomach. She jumped a little when he squeezed the disc a little tighter between his fingers, green swirls erupting into a shield in front of him. It twisted and collapsed into a small portal - just enough for the young woman to slither through.
Danny lifted it for her, but she seemed distracted.
"What's your name?"
He hummed at the question, shrugging. No point in hiding it this time around, or they'd all give him silly nicknames.
"Phantom is good enough."
She nodded, raking fingers through her flickering hair, diving toward the ilttle portal in his arms.
A tongue of flame twisted happily down her spine as he whispered "Goodbye, Ember."
The portal hummed quietly for a while longer before he shut it down, peeling his cramping fingers from heavy metal and letting the green shimmer suck back into the curved surface.
He missed the Thermos.
He wondered what happened to the 'Others' that Vlad had sent his way.
(If they had lasted as long as the punk rocker)