Thanks to Pterodactyl, Snickerer, TheLegendaryManHimself, Coronadofwb, and wfea.

Chapter 3: Discovery

I do not own Danny Phantom, because if I did there would probably be a lot of crossovers with sci-fi shows. I also don't own The Day of the Jackal, The Little Prince, The Taming of the Shrew, Great Expectations, Hitchhiker's Guide, or Ghost World.

When Mr. Lancer got home that night, he was scraped, shaken, and badly bruised. He was also more exhausted than usual, and at a loss as to what was going on. He drifted off on the couch watching the six o'clock news over dinner, and woke up somewhat refreshed an hour or so later.

Lancer sat up and groaned, cradling his head in his hands. Whatever had happened today, whatever had been going on, it was completely unexplainable. His body had started doing things without his mind's consent, and as far as he knew, they'd been things human bodies shouldn't be doing. Lancer didn't want to go through another day like that. He'd lost a lot of his students' respect, and it would take work to regain it. To do that, he needed to regain control of his body.

Maybe if I concentrate on doing the sorts of things that had happened today, he mused, I can at least duplicate them to figure out what's happening.

Lancer held out his right hand and thought about how it had gone through the desk during third period. His hand felt like it had plunged into ice water. He gasped and stared at it in shock. The hand had gone translucent, and when he went to touch the arm of the sofa, he went straight through. The sofa felt like fine gauze on his skin. He concentrated again, and his hand went back to normal.

Half an hour later, Lancer had discovered that he could make any part of his body, and his entire body, intangible the same way, and could move through any size of object and any material. He could even walk through walls! This certainly explained most of the mishaps of the day, including how he had found himself in the subbasement after falling through the floor at lunchtime (mental note: ask cooking staff about meat). He thought back again to the events of the day. There had been that incident with the ceiling after second period. Could he fly?

An hour later, he knew the answer was yes, he could. And he could float and fly while intangible too. The next few hours yielded the knowledge that he could also become invisible at will, and shoot blue streams of energy from his hands. He flew back to the couch and sat down. All this was sounding awfully familiar. This was the sort of things the ghost boy, Danny Phantom, could do. But he wasn't a ghost like Phantom, because he'd never died. Could he have gotten these powers somehow while still alive? Some near-death experience? That accident with the Portal yesterday, maybe?

Okay, so if he was a sort-of ghost, shouldn't he be able to look it? It would definitely be easier to practice his powers if he had the alibi of his ghost-half. No one would look twice at a ghost doing ghostly things. But how did he go about looking ghostlike? He concentrated on it. Nothing. He tried harder. Still nothing. Maybe he needed some sort of starter code, something to say to trigger the transformation. Wait a minute, hadn't he yelled something when the Portal turned on again? What was it, now?

"The Day of the Jackal!" "The Little Prince!"

Nothing.

"Taming of the Shrew!" "Great Expectations!"

Still nothing. This was going to take forever.

Lancer slumped. "Ghost World, what do I have to do to transform?!"

Suddenly, he felt the ice-water sensation again, more intensely. It started at his waist and moved smoothly towards both ends of his body. He looked down, and saw two rings of white light. Something was happening between them. When the sensation ended and the rings had disappeared, he realized that he was wearing a blue jumpsuit, the mirror image of the Hazmat suit he had worn at the Fentons' yesterday. He also had white gloves and boots. And he was very cold.

This get-up probably looks quite dashing, thought Lancer, drifting over to his bedroom and the full-length mirror. As he hovered in front of it, he was able to take in the rest of his ghost-self's appearance. His skin had turned ivory white, and what has left of his hair was a pale cream. His eyes were a vibrant neon blue and the irises had expanded to fill most of his sockets. His nose had grown a little longer, and more pointed, as had his ears. He glowed softly.

Lancer raised his eyebrows in mild interest and amusement, and his face tugged into a smile briefly before fading back into a worried frown. Well, I certainly look like a ghost, so no one should recognize me. I can't imagine the consequences if anyone finds out. I'll lose my job, have to leave town, and will probably be hunted for research for the rest of my life. Half-life. And it probably gets even better than that, too.

Lancer chuckled and noted that his laugh sounded somewhat hollow and distant. And the trigger is Ghost World. How ironic. Now how do I turn back? I can't have said anything in the lab, so it's probably just a will thing again.

Lancer concentrated, and sure enough the suit and tie of the day reappeared and his feet met the floor. He glanced at his bedside table. Shakespeare told him it was one in the morning. He sighed, knowing he'd be too preoccupied to sleep much that night, but went through the motions and soon lay down in bed, trying to put his new abilities out of his mind. His fragmented dreams were of Danny Phantom and the Fentons.

---

Lancer arrived at school the next day bleary eyed. As he had predicted, he hadn't had a good night's sleep, and had spent a long time lying awake thinking about his newfound abilities. It was amazing how quickly a life could change. The Fentons were lucky none of their family had had a similar accident. Lancer tried to imagine Danny as part-ghost, and shuddered. He could just picture a ghost Danny destroying whole buildings with his clumsiness, instead of the single rooms he managed now.

As he walked into the school, Lancer felt very glad that he'd gotten his powers basically under control the previous night and wouldn't have to worry about them acting up in class like they had yesterday. Everything went smoothly until lunchtime, when his quiet lunch was disturbed by screams from the cafeteria. He shivered, dashed out of the staff room, and burst through the doors of the lunchroom.

"Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy! What is going on in here?" he roared. Then he froze in fear.

There was a giant lumpy mass of, was that vegetables? in the center of the cafeteria. As Lancer stood in panic with students running past him into the hallway, he saw a black and white shape zoom in through an open window.

I should know this ghost, thought Lancer, lots of food, cafeteria, from a B-movie... the Lunch Lady! And that other ghost is Danny Phantom, of course. That was fast. The attack only started a minute ago. He must have been nearby, or in on it.

"Oh, no, you don't!" The ghost boy yelled as he shot green rays at the creature in quick succession. It pelted him with carrots, but the boy simply turned intangible and the carrots bounced off the wall behind him. The kid had quick reflexes, Lancer would give him that. Then he watched in horror as the vegetable monster grabbed a distracted Phantom, who had just noticed Lancer's presence, and started to squeeze.

"EAT YOUR VEGETABLES! They're good for you. Cookie?" Phantom grimaced and shot a frightened look at Lancer.

"You, in the doorway!" he yelled. "Get out of here! Now! Ugh."

The Lunch Lady had tightened her grip again. The boy was in trouble, and even though he wasn't a student, Lancer felt obligated to help him. His powers had to be good for something.

Lancer turned and ran, looking for a safe place to transform. He reached a janitor's closest, ducked inside, and shut the door.

"Ghost World!"

He felt the change occur, then turned and soared down the hall back into the cafeteria. The moment he was inside he aimed a beam of energy at the mass of vegetables. It found its mark, and enough lettuce for twenty salads fell onto the floor, steaming slightly. The monster turned its whole attention to him, and Lancer noticed that the ghost boy was no longer in its hand. Before he had time to register where Phantom was, a hand made completely out of pickles and coleslaw smashed him against the glass covers of the warming trays. He groaned and slid to the floor, confused. Why was the ghost boy attacking the Lunch Lady? If he was evil, shouldn't he be helping her?

Well, what really mattered was that he help the kid. Lancer grabbed onto the metal railings that held the trays in front of the serving counter, and pulled himself upright. When he turned around, ready to fight again, Danny Phantom was there, blasting the monster again. Suddenly a deep pink ball of light came at them from the left.

"You're surrounded, ghost boy. Surrender!"

Phantom sagged. This clearly was not going well. Another blast of light, and this time Lancer saw a girl in a red costume running towards them from the direction of the cafeteria doors, gun raised. Phantom raised his arms above his head and brought them down in a smooth, quick motion that produced an ectoplasm dome around him and Lancer. The blast the girl had just fired bounced off and hit the vegetables in the stomach, as did the three subsequent blasts.

I'm going to have to learn that trick, thought Lancer admiringly.

Before the girl could fire another round for another round, the ghost boy brought his hands together in front of him, and fired a massive beam at her, catching her shoulder and knocking her to the ground. She rolled under a table and lay there motionless, stunned. The suit and weapons disappeared, leaving a young, chocolate-skinned girl. Lancer blinked.

Valerie Gray is the Red Hunter? How did she ge-...? I hope Phantom didn't hurt her too badly.

Lancer's eyes took in the full scene again and he realized he was being more of a liability than an asset. As the Lunch Lady was roaring from the pain of the blasts, he aimed rays from both hands at her knees. She toppled over, and the mass of vegetables lost their shape. A green woman wearing an apron and a hair net rose out of the heap, and cackled.

"So, you've found a friend, have you, ghost boy?"

"Yeah, and don't you forget it!" Phantom produced a Thermos and opened it quickly. A beam of blue-white light shot out and the boy trained it on the ghost in front of them, sucking her inside. Once the cap was back on, the boy turned around and helped Lancer to his feet sympathetically.

"You okay?" Phantom asked him. Lancer nodded and tried to look nonchalant. It mustn't have worked, though, because Phantom continued speaking. "Don't worry, it's toughest the first time. You were pretty good though. And thanks for the help."

The boy flew out the window, and Lancer took the opportunity to change back to human. His back was killing him, and he slumped against the warming trays. There was a bang to his left, and Lancer jumped. Principal Ishiyama and a few other teachers were standing in shock, just as he had a few minutes ago.

"Ghost attack," he wheezed, trying to make himself look like a victim. "Gone now."

He collapsed, and tried to look groggy as he was carried to the first aid room. He managed to convince everyone that he was well enough to teach Danny's English class that afternoon, but shivered as he passed Danny and his friends in the hall on his way to class.

"Loitering, Mr. Fenton?"

"No sir. I'm on my way."

Danny looked pretty beat up. He had probably been in the cafeteria when the attack started. Well, Lancer knew a little how that felt. He'd be a little easier on Danny this class, but not enough that he'd learn that "ghost attack" was an acceptable excuse.

As he walked away, he thought he heard Tucker ask, "Are you sure?"

---

"Are you sure?"

"Yes!" Danny exclaimed impatiently. "I was fighting the Lunch Lady, and he just flew through the door and started fighting her too. You know, she's gone on a whole vegetable craze this time. Tried to kill me with carrots."

"Well, at least she's going in for alternate diets now," Sam, an Ultra-Recyclo-Vegetarian, said. "How'd you know it was him?"

"C'mon. He had a goatee and a belly!"

"Does he know who you are?" Tucker asked, worried.

"I don't think so. I didn't tell him, if that's what you mean. He didn't mention anything. And just so you guys know, you didn't keep Valerie away very well. I had to fight off her and the Lunch Lady, and keep Lancer from getting too hurt."

"Well, if someone hadn't come up with the brilliant idea of kissing her..." Sam glared at Tucker, who feigned innocence.

"I thought that would work."

"Right." Sam opened the door of the classroom, and they made it to their seats just as the bell rang.

---

Later that evening, once he'd gotten everything done that needed doing around his place and had graded the latest assignments, Lancer felt himself at a loss for something to do. With everything that had happened over the last few days, he was too preoccupied to read or even to watch television and there wasn't much else that his apartment could offer him. His model train seemed too immature, as did the game of Doomed that he'd saved last weekend. Listless, Lancer found himself staring out his living room window, looking out at the hazy glow of downtown playing on the September clouds and thinking about the day.

It felt oddly good fighting today, even though I could be in a little less pain at the moment. I can finally protect the school like I want to with these powers. He sighed longingly. The view must be wonderful from up there. I wish I could... Wait a moment, I can... and maybe I could get some more practice in afterwards. Heaven knows I need it. I was very raw today.

Lancer turned and walked out of sight of the windows, then said his "catch phrase" quietly and transformed. He lifted himself higher off the floor than he was floating naturally, turned himself invisible, then flew back through the living room, through the wall, and up to the top of the apartment block to plan a flight path. Then he launched himself off the edge of the building and flew downtown, trying to push himself to a top speed.

Lancer tired of simply flying around after about half an hour and decided to head to the wooded island in Amity Lake for some isolated practice before he grew too tired. He landed in a clearing, scanned the area with eyes that had surprisingly good night vision, and relaxed his guard, becoming visible again. He thought for a moment then concentrated on becoming intangible.

Once he felt the power take hold, he began walking through the trees around the clearing, and then started running, which winded him quickly. He was forced to stop and catch his breath, at which point it hit him that even as a ghost he needed air. Lancer let out a short laugh at the thought.

I'm probably the only ghost who needs to breathe to survive. Makes you wonder how all the others manage.

It was obvious to Lancer that he was too out of shape to do much more physical activity, so he set himself to experimenting with the blasts of energy from his hands. He learned that he could control the strength of the ray, to a degree, and that he was able to shift the beam from his palms to any given finger. Then a chill autumn breeze picked up and Lancer looked up at the sky, where the moon indicated that it was close to midnight. Sighing, he rose up into the air again and flew home, regretting that he hadn't had time that night to learn any of Phantom's tricks, even though he'd gotten the energy rays well under control.

Maybe I should track down Danny Phantom this weekend. He looked like he was on my side, and he certainly knows how to use his powers well. I could learn a lot from him, if he'd teach me.

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