Thanks to HiddenAuthor, Linkmaste, Quacked Lurker, Snickerer, YumeTakato, Shadow Crystal Mage, and Ember518 for their continued interest.
This chapter is dedicated to Snickerer, who suffered through my science-blondeness for at least a month while we were trying to get a working theory for everything. I owe her big, and if you like the theory, tell her. She deserves praise too, probably even more than I do in this case.
Chapter 9: Explanation
I do not own Danny Phantom.
As Jack was getting their things set up on stage, Maddie stepped up to the microphone and the audience quieted immediately in anticipation.
"Hello." The woman's voice rang out in the silent hall. "As Will said, Jack and I are going to explain why everyone has been getting ghost powers and what is going to happen now that Cyclone has been defeated. Jack and I have developed a solid theory of how ectoplasm interacts with humans over the past few weeks, and we are also going to be sharing that with you today." Behind her, Maddie's paunchy husband dragged a large easel onto the stage and left again.
"Now," Maddie went on, "Jack and I have discovered that there are two kinds of ectoplasm, each with different properties. The first kind, possessing ectoplasm, is by far the most common, since it forms the bodies of full ghosts as well as the structural elements of the Ghost Zone. This is the kind of ectoplasm that normally creates possessed objects and which ghosts use when overshadowing people. When it is in a human, it coats or overlaps our own molecules, but won't mix with them.
"The second kind, which Cyclone was using and which we all have inside us at the moment, is replacing ectoplasm. This kind will actually replace rather than coat molecules, and it is created from the other kind through the application of very strong electromagnetic energy of a certain frequency. It is the source of ghost powers in non-possessed people, halfas included. Danny and Will got it forced into their DNA during their accidents; it's what allows them to switch forms." Jack wrestled a large rectangular board onstage and placed it on the easel. He left the stage again. The audience remained focused on Maddie.
"Cyclone was able to send out replacing ectoplasm that was attracted to the organic molecules in our bodies," his wife continued. "It was filling the space between them and slowly crowding them out, meaning that our bodies were slowly turning into ectoplasm and if it had continued, we would have become full ghosts. Danny and Will were close to this point yesterday, when they became stuck in their ghost forms.
"The molecules we were losing were slowly returning to Cyclone and beginning to form a human body for him. Jack and I believe that this movement was due to a high concentration of replacing ectoplasm in his own ectoplasmic makeup, which our detached molecules were attracted to. Cyclone's goal was to become a halfa and get the resulting stronger powers, but the molecular migration was slow since it relied on the freed molecules being in the air to begin with. While he'd nearly achieved halfa status by the time he was defeated, most of the molecules leeched from us had not made it to him."
The audience relaxed as one. Phantom and Spirit hadn't been going up against an equal, then. And there was hope for everyone if Cyclone hadn't taken their humanity with him.Behind Maddie, Jack returned, carrying a rolled-up poster and started putting it up on the easel. He dropped a tack and bumped into the easel as he bent down to pick it up. The board fell on top of him and several members of the audience laughed, easing the tension further.
"Once there is ectoplasm in a person's body," Maddie went on, after being assured by Jack that he meant to do that, "it begins to work its way inward to the body's energy centers, the mitochondria, which will work to amplify the ectoplasmic vibrations. This is what allows humans to exhibit ghost powers in general; someone whose powers come from possessing ectoplasm won't have even moderate powers, because that sort of ectoplasm doesn't interact with Real World biology. The transformation ability of the halfas is due to their DNA itself being a mixture of ectoplasm and normal atoms, and that is only possible if a massive electric shock accompanies possessing ectoplasm into the body. Because our molecules were being replaced wholesale over time, none of us would have gotten this ability." A rash of whispers started up in the auditorium and Maddie quickly cut over the noise as Jack got the board back into place and starting tacking the poster up again.
"Now, I'd like to point out that appearances are deceptive. There is more ectoplasm within us than you would expect by the physical signs. Ectoplasm is much more flexible and malleable than regular matter, so it's able to fill the spaces between our molecules. However, we would need a lot of ectoplasm in us to become true halfas. The opposite would have gone for Cyclone, who needed to feed off the entire town just to get powers approximating Danny's or Will's."
Jack finished with the poster, which showed a blown-up version of a human cell, with insets showing the organelles. Maddie took the microphone off its stand and took a pointer that was apparently drifting onstage of its own accord.
"The mechanism which amplifies the ghost powers is based in cellular biology. This," Maddie said firmly, tapping a red ovoid on the screen, "is a mitochondrion. It is where the reactions that give organisms energy take place. Every one of our cells has several of these structures. Now, when ectoplasm finds its way into the mitochondria and attaches itself to the molecule responsible for the reaction, it increases the molecule's reactivity. In other words, the molecule will produce twice to three times as much power than it normally would, and this is what magnifies ghost powers to human levels. Also, the more ectoplasm someone has in their body, the stronger the powers will be, but this is likely to do with the fact that more of these energy molecules would be affected.
"The amplification mechanism works better if the ectoplasm is organized rather than scattered randomly throughout the body. Since true halfas have ectoplasm in predictable places, such as their DNA and their cell walls, and generally have it more integrated than the rest of us, who have globs of it in our blood and lungs, and replacing every possible part of our cells..." Maddie tapped the screen in several places. "... it's only to be expected that we won't be as powerful as they are, and frankly, I wouldn't want to be. This also means that they were more organized than Cyclone, who was just simply collecting our molecules without giving them any structure, which gave our side the advantage.
"However," Maddie said loudly to quiet the again noisy audience, "Jack and I theorize that when the halfas started out, they were more like you and me and not in control of their powers due to the fact that their ectoplasm was scattered randomly. Naturally, it would have become more organized once proteins started being built based on their new DNA code and these proteins moved to every part of their bodies. This won't happen to us though, since we don't have ectoplasm in our DNA, to the best of our knowledge."
"After extensive research, Jack and I have concluded that replacing ectoplasm is basically an electromagnetically altered form of possessing ectoplasm, and as such is unstable. When it is about to disintegrate, it gains even more energy, which will allow it to either decay, if it's surrounded only by ectoplasm, or revert to and remain replacing ectoplasm if it is in contact with regular molecules. If it decays, it will release a large amount of electromagnetic energy as it does so. We believe this may be the power source behind ectoblasts, and possibly other powers as well. Also, Jack and I have found evidence that there needs to be a specific amount of normal molecules for the body to remain stabilize. We don't know what that ratio is yet, but we would predict that something made mostly of replacing ectoplasm would be highly unstable. In other words, if we'd continued absorbing ectoplasm, we would likely have disintegrated about the same time we became full ghosts."
Everybody in the room turned to each other frantically and the noise level shot up higher than it had been earlier. The journalists in the corner began calling out questions over top of everything, and the onslaught continued for about a minute before Maddie held up a hand to quiet everyone down again.
"Questions after, please," she said gently before continuing. "At this point, we would like to announce some good and bad news. We're not going to say which is which, because everyone is going to take this differently. For those of us with ghost powers above average in some way, these powers might regress slightly but they won't ever disappear naturally. Too much ectoplasm has permeated the body to allow that, and yes, it appears to be within the limits of stability. Those of us with weaker or more basic powers will lose these over time, however, since the ectoplasm level must also be above a certain threshold to be self-sustaining, or its levels will drop. Since the amount of ectoplasm is proportional to the strength of our powers, the ghostly abilities will diminish.Of course, Jack and I can remove the ectoplasm thoroughly and painlessly with the Fenton Ghost Catcher. We'll have that set up in the parking lot after the conference if anyone's interested."
Her speech finished, Maddie turned the floor over to the audience and the reporters, and she and Jack fielded questions about their theory and its implications for the townsfolk for nearly an hour. Then Lancer, still looking shy and nervous, came out to offer a few slightly pat words of encouragement and promise to close the press conference off. The auditorium emptied slowly and people filed out, talking amongst themselves, and Jack and Maddie headed off to the Ghost Assault Vehicle to set up the Ghost Catcher for a surprisingly small number of people. Lancer returned backstage where the rest of Team Phantom still was, and after making sure that everyone was doing all right emotionally, started organizing the cleanup. He and Danny were forced by their girlfriends not to help out, so they ended up standing on the side looking lost and uncomfortable while everyone tidied up around them.
---
Team Phantom sequestered itself at FentonWorks for the rest of the afternoon, trying to work through everything they hadn't discussed yet, including GEIST, school, public appearances, and the national media, as well as exactly how they were going to deal with the ghosts Vlad had rounded up. It became very obvious very quickly that everyone in the Team was going to be busy for at least half a year before things settled down to normal again and that the repercussions of the morning were going to stay with them for years, as would the lingering ghost powers of the former full humans. It took Aster's mid-afternoon reappearance with a gigantic Christmas tree and several large shopping bags to get everyone to stop working and relax.
At the moment, Lancer was standing in the Op Center looking out over the city. It was the only place where he could get a bit of peace and quiet just to think right now. Maddie and Valerie had gone into the kitchen to start on the Christmas baking. Cathy and Sam had covered the coffee table with fashion catalogues and seemed to be planning wardrobes to accentuate their boyfriends' attractiveness, now that there wasn't need to hide their heroic muscle tone. Lancer was staying far away from that.
Jack, Tucker, and Damon, who everyone had agreed might as well be made a part of things, were tinkering with something in the lab, and Danny had taken Jazz, Sam, and Writer into the Ghost Zone with the Speeder to pick up a few of the former ghost's things. Aster and Dani had rushed into the backyard and Lancer could see them holding a snowball fight around a large snowman with four arms and fangs. He rolled his eyes fondly and moved to the opposite window where he could see the downtown core. His mind wandered to the conversations he'd had backstage that morning at press conference.
He'd been forced into attending Sam's parents' Halfa Ball, which apparently had existed for about ten minutes by that point. Danny and Dani would have to come as well, but they didn't appear to mind as much because they'd immediately formed a huddle with Sam. The word "Aster" had drifted over at several points. The Mansons had also told Lancer how thrilled they were that Sam was dating Phantom and seemed perfectly willing for their daughter to continue the relationship. Sam had later told everyone at FentonWorks that this was probably the only time she'd every be glad they were shallow, and that she planned to use "Phantom" as leverage against them in the future.
Mr. and Mrs. Foley had come backstage after the conference was finished to tell the Team they'd allow Tucker to remain a part of it, provided he wasn't actually fighting ghosts and remained on the technology side of things. They'd also had a few worries about the safety of ghost hunting even then, and had been reassured about things by everyone involved. Tucker had pointed out that despite being involved in a ghost attack at least twice a week for the last two years, he'd only come home injured five times, and 'those had only been because he'd saved Phantom's life.' He assured them he usually played the part of researcher and repairman, and that calmed his parents down a lot. They'd insisted on being kept in the loop about things, and Tucker had agreed to keep them informed as often as possible.
Casper High's staff had been as stunned as Ishiyama had been. Most seemed awed to be in his presence and highly supportive of him in general, and Lancer (and Cathy) had taken pleasure in watching Ms. Testlaff, the gym and health teacher and Lancer's rival while he'd been teaching, all but grovel at his feet. Everyone had promised to ease up on Danny and the other teenaged Team members in class, and someone had suggested working on alternate education strategies for the four of them. Spears had been so embarrassed and nervous that Lancer had had to corner him during the pack-up and mention aliens, of all things, to get him to relax a little.
Lancer sighed as he leaned against the glass of the Op Center. Things definitely weren't normal anymore, but they were looking up for the Team. The kids would be able to lead lives of acceptance, the Fentons would have access to an entire city of people with ghost powers, Cathy would get to hold her boyfriend over her ex-husband's head, Writer and Aster no longer had to feel a lack of humanity, and Lancer didn't have to worry about lying any longer. He smiled softly to himself.
A woman's call brought him out of his reverie and, noting that the laughter in the back yard had turned to shouts, Lancer crossed the floor again to just catch Dani and Aster reentering the house. Night had fallen while he'd been thinking, and now it was time for dinner. Lancer said a quick "Ghost World" and phased himself down into the kitchen, where everyone else was doing last minute preparations or milling around. He pitched in immediately, moving the heavy casserole dish onto the table with his mind, much to Maddie's pleased surprise, then turned human and joined everyone in sitting down. Christmas was in the air and after Lancer's reflection, he felt at complete peace with the world. He lifted his glass with a grin.
"To the future."
The End
Stay tuned for the epilogue, which should answer most, if not all, of the questions I've left you with right now. My Christmas vacation technically starts tomorrow, so any reviews, PMs, etc. that get sent my way after about midnight tonight probably won't be answered until I get back to normal internet access mid next week. My parents still have dial-up, sadly, and besides, I want to visit with them a litttle.