Chapter 9
"But surely there must be a way that you can at least give off the illusion of your human self?" Jazz asks desperately from her cross-legged position on my bed, "Dan could! I saw it myself, before you interrupted. Thanks again for that by the way."
"Anytime," I curl my lip as I pace in front of her, "I guess so. I have no idea how to do it, but I definitely can't walk around looking like this." I gesture at my overdeveloped body.
"I have to say, it is kinda growing on me," my sister smirks, "You're actually handsome, in a bad boy way – I wonder how that happened."
I glower at my sister, as if challenging her to say something else about my usual, admittedly scrawny teenaged frame. She snorts with laugher at my irritated expression and I can't keep a small smile from creeping onto my face.
"Fine. I'll work on it," I say, "Maybe I can use the same principle as duplicating myself. I dunno, it'll have to be a trial and error thing." I wave my hand in the air, dismissively. Jazz nods.
"Maybe start small," she suggests, "try making your voice sound like it usually does." She looks up at me encouragingly and gives me a cheesy thumbs-up.
I smack my hand to my forehead and laugh softly.
"You're such a dweeb, you know that?" I say. She just pulls a face at me, this doesn't bother her. But I could tell that she still hated herself a little for what happened in our basement the day before and was still quite sad and confused inside. I don't even know what happened for sure, myself. I found the gloves, but beyond that I don't remember anything. The next memory I have is of waking up, full ghost, and seeing the used gloves on my sister's hands. It was definitely not an experience I would like to remember now at any rate.
I shake my head to clear these thoughts and focus on what my voice sounded like pre-Dan. Focussing a little of my excess energy, I direct its flow towards my vocal chords. I hum softly, to hear if anything changed. It hadn't. My voice is still as dark and rich as newly melted chocolate. I sigh, but I wasn't really expecting anything to happen.
"Try again," Jazz says comfortingly.
I look at her and nod. I concentrate more energy on my vocal chords, willing it to work in the way I want it to. My throat warms up slightly, and gets increasingly hotter. It feels good, almost familiar, within my now freezing cold frame.
"Jazz?" I say tentatively, "I think it's work -," I don't finish my sentence because on that last syllable, my voice jack-knifes to a ridiculous pitch.
My sister and I just stare at each other in astonishment, before bursting into shocked laughter at the same time. My guffaws echo those of a boy just hitting puberty before settling down into my own teenaged voice.
"Well, that was not embarrassing at all," I say sarcastically, but in my own voice at least. Man, was it good to sound like myself again. It was a bit weird though, I mean I'd grown to like my new voice. Ah well, at least now I know I can change between the two.
"It's good to hear you sounding like yourself again little brother," Jazz grins, "I had complete and utter faith in you the whole time." She gives me a conspiratorial wink.
"Sure you did," I roll my eyes but then I realise what I was just able to do, "Maybe I can actually extend this to my whole body!"
Jazz laughs with joy and springs up from the bed. She teeters a little and I zoom forward to catch her, but she recovers by herself. She must still be a little groggy from – whatever it was – that happened in the basement.
Jazz holds a hand to her head and blinks a few times at the carpet. Then she looks up and beams at me. I see the thought running through her mind and hold out my arms with a good natured sigh.
"Alright," I groan as she leaps into my arms for a big bear hug.
She shivers a little, and I shake my head.
"You asked for it!" I said, "Full ghost now, remember?"
"How could I forget," she says through chattering teeth.
I feel an odd heat spreading through my chest and I look downwards.
I wrench out of the hug in surprise, because what I do see, I'd never expected to see again.
The familiar white rings had formed at my chest, and had begun slowly moving along me. Jazz stares at them, her face looking as shocked as I felt.
I close my eyes again, revelling in the warmth that has now almost reached my head and toes respectively. After a while, it fades away and I am left feeling as cold as I had been before the transformation started.
"Did it work?" I clench my eyes tighter, afraid to open them.
Jazz makes a weird strangled sound and I squint one eye open to see her gaping like a fish. I realise that she's tilting her head downwards at me, and not craning her neck up like she had been only a few seconds ago.
I open both eyes fully now and look at my torso again.
My heart leaps as I realise that I now look like me. Normal me. Pre-ghost powers or Dan Phantom me. Just plain old, Danny Fenton.
Jazz puts her hand on top of my knee under the dinner table and forces me back down onto my seat. I hadn't even realised I'd been floating. She glares at me purposefully and then gestures across the table at mom and dad, who were in a heated conversation about their latest ghost-catching gadget.
I gulp. I still have full access to my full-ghost powers when I look human. The human, teenaged me is just an illusion, a nifty party trick. This thought depresses me slightly and Jazz, sensing my sadness, squeezes my knee reassuringly. I look at her, forcing a determined look onto my face, I have to get used to this. I have no choice.
I'm fine, my expression says, and she nods and goes back to picking at her food.
"Well, sweetie?" My mother asks, "What do you think?"
"Uh, sounds great mom!" I smile weakly, I have no idea what she was just talking about.
"Fantastic! Did you hear that Jack? Danny's going to test out the new Spector-Deflector!"
"That's my Danny-boy! Growing up to be a great ghost-hunter, just like his dad!" He wipes away an imaginary tear from his eye and bursts out into booming laughter. I feel my heart sink into my stomach and Jazz chokes on a piece of broccoli she'd just put into her mouth.
"Actually mom I think I might be coming down with something," I say with an unconvincing cough.
"Oh, Danny! Come over here, let me take your temperature," she says, her maternal instinct kicking in. I sigh and reluctantly stand up from the table, taking extra care in making sure that my feet actually touch the floor, before I walk over to where my mother seems to have pulled out a thermometer from thin air.
She shoves it into my mouth, simultaneously laying a gloved hand on my head.
"Why Danny!" She gasps, "You're freezing cold!" I can almost see her mental cogs whirring, her inventor's brain thinking of something that can help her sick son.
"Yeah, mom" I say sheepishly, "Maybe I'll just go to bed early, with an electric blanket?"
"I know son!" My father interjects, "Why don't you just go to bed early, and lie down with an electric blanket?"
Mom glowers at him, "Good idea Jack," she says in a voice dripping with sarcasm. Then she looks at me, her blue eyes filled with concern again, "Are you sure that's all you need, sweetie?" I nod and give her my best smile.
"I'll be fine, don't worry about me mom," I give her a kiss on the cheek at which she gives an involuntary shiver.
"Night dad, night Jazz," I say with a little wave before I head up the stairs.
As I reach about halfway I turn back and see my mom staring after me, one hand to the cheek I'd pecked. She sees me looking at her and turns away, but doesn't remove her hand from her face.
I won't be able to hide my secret from her much longer. I'll have to tell her the truth myself, before she finds out in another, much worse way.
I head to my room and lie down on, or rather float just above, my bed. I put my hands behind my head and change back into my true form. Maintaining the "me" illusion is actually tiring, this feels much better actually. Free.
"Danny, honey?" My mom's voice comes from the stairs. Ugh, I forgot to close the door. Forgetting myself, I quickly zip over to the entrance to my bedroom and am about to slam the door closed, when I come face-to-face with Maddie Fenton.