Fenton and Phantom--both different yet the same--so how can they win over the new girl without killing each other first? Did I mention they shared the same body with another personality that had plans of death for the whole world?

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Deceitful Appearances—

Danny Fenton sat in the back of the cafeteria with his friend Tucker Foley. The rather allusive boy poked at his food, not caring for it at all. At least it didn't have teeth this time. He was listening to Tucker talk about some sort of gismo he really didn't care for either, but it was better than doing nothing.

"It's got, like, tegabytes more room than any other system in the world!"

"There's no such thing as a tegabyte," Danny interrupted softly.

"There is in my world," Tucker said loudly and proudly. "Come on boy, you need to get out more."

"You know I can't do that," Danny said, glaring at his food, when really it was directed at Tucker.

"Then take your medication," Tucker shrugged.

"You know I can't, it… messes with me."

Tucker nodded, but he still saw the simplicity in his own plan.

Danny wasn't shy, contrary to belief by the students that hadn't grown up with him, he had a mental anxiety problem which left him helpless to others. He couldn't look people in the eye, and he couldn't speak to hardly anybody except for Tucker, Jazz, his parents, one teacher, and his therapist—who was the lucky one out of all of them. Danny would only utter a total of maybe twenty words a day towards the chosen few in his life. He didn't know why he was so scared to talk to people—especially girls besides his sister and mother—but he just couldn't help it. Even with medication, it was a hard time just trying to look at anyone in the face, much less utter a word to them. He refused to take the pills—not only because he thought it was useless—but he also had a huge secret that was altered by the medication, and he couldn't afford that.

Speaking of said secret…

Screaming came from outside the hall, the students trying to claw their way into the larger room by trampling over each other and pushing on the doors when the pull sign was big and clear on each entrance.

Tucker looked towards Danny, but he knew Danny wasn't there anymore. The once shy boy's eyes were glowing an acid green as he scanned the room.

"Where is it dude?" he asked under his breath.

"Out in the hall," Danny's voice had changed from soft and resigned to strong and determined. "I've got to go."

"Be careful man," Tucker whispered to him as Danny slipped under the table.

There was a bright flash of light and the teen was gone in the next second. Tucker got up and pushed the table over, using it as a barrier like he had been shown in all of those ghost-drills here at school.

Eventually, the other students figured out how to open the doors in their blind panic and doing the same as Tucker had done. A few other guys saw his barrier already in position and hid with him, shaking in fear. Tucker had a little fear, but it wasn't from the ghost just outside, it was for his friend who was now fighting it.

Phantom growled as another ecto-blast from the shadow ghost slid past him as he tried to get the students out of the hall. Spectra had picked a rather bad time to show up. Phantom got cranky when he had to wake up from his nap and the only thing he could take his rage on was the one who woke him up.

"I'm not in the mood for you Spectra," Phantom yelled at his foe. "Go back under the rock you crawled from."

Spectra laughed at her young enemy's obvious grumpy attitude and decided to bait him with it.

"My my, do we need to put you down for a nap?" the shadow ghost toyed with him.

Phantom's eyes grew brighter in his anger and he took a shot at Spectra. The ghost dodged it, but only by a hair's breath. She put her hand to her stinging side, the heat from Phantom's beam had burned her form badly. Now that she was angered, both ghosts fought with nothing on their minds except for wanting to win.

Phantom punched Spectra into a row of lockers and the shadow fell to the floor in a daze. Phantom growled again when he saw that she was still conscious, but he guessed that it would have to do. He grabbed the thermos from his back and sucked Spectra in, her cries echoing around the halls.

The teen looked around for Bertrand—Spectra's right hand and loyal dog—but he didn't see the blobby form of the assistant anywhere. Taking a mental note to look for the troublesome ghost later, Phantom changed back into Fenton and put the thermos in his dented locker. He then took out a pad of paper and started to write on it.

--Sorry for taking over so quickly, but it had to be done. Spectra was by herself. We have to search for Bertrand to night. I smell something and it smells like a ghost rat. I left Tuck in the cafeteria.

Fenton's eyes returned to their normal blue, but the teen quickly blinked and shook his head. He looked around, confused as to why his lunch wasn't in front of him. He saw the note in his locker door and read it quickly.

"Oh joy," the boy groaned. "Spectra woke him up."

Phantom had always been a part of Fenton: a personality so strong and so polar opposite of the shy boy that he had become something else entirely. Phantom was almost a different person, but that wasn't true. Phantom was Fenton—just as Fenton was Phantom. The only change was how they acted and how they looked. After the portal incident—Danny had come half-ghost. Phantom had always been the braver side so he took the form as his own. Danny didn't mind since he really didn't care for it, but he had no choice but to let Phantom use it for his freedom. The two might have shared the same body, but they were not of the same mind.

Danny shut his locker door, crumpling the note and using ecto-plasum to burn it away. No one could know that Danny had a multiple personality disorder, no one could know about Phantom and he took extreme caution to make sure that it stayed secret.

He and Phantom were equal when it came to control, but there was another—one too dangerous to even think about—that it had to stay under control or else it would be disastrous for everyone. They had already seen the future and what would happen if they let him take over.

"Danny!"

The teen looked over his shoulder to see Tucker come into the hall with the other students.

"You are still Danny, right?" Tucker asked, looking carefully at Danny's eyes.

Danny just nodded and grabbed his bag from Tucker's hands.

"I bet he was annoyed," Tucker said as they walked to class. "He was about to bite my head off when he transformed."

"Long night," was Danny's hushed reply.

Tucker had known about Phantom since second grade. Danny would constantly shift between shy to aggressive at some points and he eventually had to tell his best friend. Tucker had figured out how to tell who he was speaking with by the way Danny—or Phantom—would act and hold himself. He was good friends with both sides and he helped out when he could with the ghost hunting. He had been there when the portal activated with his best buddy inside it and was the one that proposed to let Phantom have the ghostly side as his appearance.

"You going on patrol tonight?" Tucker asked.

"Does it look like I'm going on patrol?" his friend snapped.

Tucker knew that Phantom was in control again. His back became a little straighter and his face a bit more animated.

"Sorry, just wanted to know what I was doing tonight."

"You're helping us with homework," Phantom said shoving the door to Mr. Lancer's class open. "We're failing again and we need your notes while we doze."

"I thought Danny was fine," Tucker said.

"The mind is one thing, but we share one body. It's not long before it gets wasted without rest," Phantom took a seat in the back and sat down. "Sometimes I wished I had my own body, but I don't think that's happening any time soon."

"There is the Fenton Ghost Catcher," Tucker said, sitting next to him.

"I'd rather not take chances with our parents' inventions," Phantom mumbled. "I'm going to—"

Phantom cut himself off as his gaze returned to the front of the room. By now more students had trickled in and were taking their own seats, but Phantom was looking at the girl in the front. Her black hair pulled back in a pig tail in the back with the rest of her hair hanging at shoulder length. She wore combat boots, lavender and lots of black, even her makeup was black. Her skin was pale like new paper and her lilac eyes scanned the room for a place to sit.

Phantom faded without meaning too to leave Danny also staring at her. The young man was captivated by her, but the problem was, so was Phantom.