Chpater 4: The Explaination
November 28, 2010, 8:03 CST
The five humans stared in disbelief as the two half ghosts stuffed their mouths with more and more of the holiday leftovers without so much as a pause. The men watched as Danielle seemed to be keeping up with Danny's pace despite the fact that she was literally half his size, bringing to question where she was putting it all away. The women were more concerned at the pace that the two seemed to have set for fear that one of them was going to choke.
"More!" The two cried in unison, startling everyone. Jazz placed the bowl of mashed potatoes in front of them, and quickly pulled her hand away as the two attacked the dish with vigor. Jazz looked back her hand to be sure that she still had all her fingers, which, thankfully, she did.
"My word. Did you two eat anything at all while you were in the Ghost Zone?" Maddie asked. Danny swallowed hard before downing a glass of water and addressing his mother.
"We did, but it wasn't nearly enough to sustain us," he said.
"Yeah!" Danielle agreed with her mouth full of food. "And not only that, but everything taste like ectoplasm! It was gross!"
"Danielle, swallow your food, please," Danny said, shaking his head. "Anyway, like I was saying, we did eat, but because we're only half ghost, the food only had enough effect to sustain our ghost halfs. If we were full ghosts, it would have been completely different. That being said, since there was no human food, we never turned back to our human forms."
"So you mean that you two have been burning off all of your energy for the last month without resting?" Jazz asked in a stunned manner.
"Yep. All the energy we got from the food we ate only sustained us for a little while."
"Kinda like a normal human diet," Danielle said. "We learned that Ghost apparently don't have to eat as often as humans do to sustain their energy."
"But it's also because we were constantly in our ghost forms and using energy just to stay that way. Not to mention that we were beaten up so badly," Danny said with a sigh. "Our body's had to pull triple duty with trying to sustain us from whatever energy we had, heal us from whatever injuries we had and keeping us in ghost form."
"No wonder you guys were so wiped when you shot out of that portal," Tucker said. "It also explains why you're healing so slowly. You bodies must be getting used to not having to keep your powers running 24/7."
"No kidding. To be honest, we were in ghost form for so long, I almost forgot what it was like to be fully human," Danny said, looking at his reflection in his silverware. "I honestly thought that that was it for us. Especially after what happened at-" Danny paused as a sad look crossed his face.
"Danny?" Sam asked in concern. "What happened where?" Danny remained silent as he continued to look at the table. Danielle turned to him, seeing the guilt that was written all over his face, and though she too felt it, she could tell that it was tougher for Danny. Turning to the others, Danielle answered the question that Sam had posed.
"After what happened at the Far Frozen and the Kingdom of Aragon," she said, receiving a gasp from Sam and Tucker and confused looks from the rest of the Fenton family.
"The Far Frozen!? What happened to the Far Frozen!?" Tucker asked as he got to his feet and leaned forward on the table in both anticipation and nervous anxiousness. "Danielle, what's happened to Frostbite and the Yeti Ghosts?"
"And what about Dora!?" Sam as she stepped forward. "Are she and her people ok? Did Aragon have something to do with it!?"
Danielle looked at both of them as guilt washed over her face, and the two knew that whatever they were going to tell them, it wasn't pleasant in the slightest. The wide eyed looks on the two teenager's faces spoke volumes to the Fentons, but they were still confused as to who or what they were talking about.
"Guys, calm down, and tell us who this Frostbite and Dora are," Jazz said. Before Danielle could respond, Danny spoke up, though his gaze remained turned to the table.
"Frostbite is the leader of a part of the Ghost Zone known as the Far Frozen," he said. "It's a frozen wasteland of ice and snow, but also holds an advanced society of Yeti ghosts that are known for their history and medical expertise. Sam, Tuck and I crashed landed the Specter Speeder there once when we had gotten lost, and Frostbite had helped up to repair it as well as loaned us the Infi-map to help us get back home. They were also the ones that helped me to learn to control my ice powers so I could defeat Undergrowth."
"What's an Infi-map?" Jack asked.
"It's a map of the Ghost Zone that shows you were any and all portals are, manmade and natural. It has the ability to transport the user to any location desired, including portals that lead to other times."
"Wait, there are portals that lead to other time periods!?" Maddie asked in scientific fascination.
"Mom! We can get to that later. Right now we need to know what happened," Jazz said in desperation.
"You're right, dear. Continue, Danny."
"Like I was saying, the people of the Far Frozen are known far and wide, and always seem to have a vast amount of knowledge. When we first got there, they knew who I was all because I had defeated Pariah Dark. They called me the Great One and the Savior of the Ghost Zone. Though I wasn't keen on the name, it was good to know that I had allies like them when I needed them. And I definitely needed them more than ever after the accident."
"My god…were your injuries that server?" Maddie asked as guilt and horror covered her face as she recalled the screams of agony from both Danny and Danielle before they were launched into the Ghost Zone.
"No. It wasn't because of that, though that definitely had a bigger effect on us then we had hoped. After the explosion, we were shot straight into the Ghost Zone before the portal completely vanished. We were going so fast, we had hardly any way to try to slow ourselves down. Though it wouldn't have mattered with how much pain we were in or the number of injuries we had. To be honest, I couldn't feel anything below my neck until I crashed landed.
"At first, I didn't move. My body just hurt so bad," Danny said, shaking his head. "Everywhere over my body it just felt like someone was stabbing me with a bunch of needles. Even breathing hurt so bad that I just couldn't find the will to move. Then I heard it."
"Heard what?" Jazzed asked.
"Crying," Danny said, folding his arms and resting them on the table slowly so as not to agitate his ribs which he had been informed had been broken though that didn't surprise him. "I heard soft crying and someone calling out for me." Danielle, who had turned her head down, looked away from him as her face flushed with embarrassment and eyes teared up.
"You big, dumb jerk," she mumbled while the others looked at her with a bit of sympathy, forgetting that she could feel their emotions. "Enough already. I don't need the sympathy, ok? Yes, it was me. I had crash landed not too far from Danny. I guess after we got shocked, it brought me back into consciousness because I had no idea where I was or why I hurt so badly. I had never been in the Ghost Zone before and if you throw in the fact that I couldn't move without feeling pain, it was pretty obvious. I was scared." Danielle rubbed her eyes, ridding them of the tears that had begun to build. "I mean, as much as I hate to admit it, I'm just a little girl. I not even a whole year old, and I find myself in pain and in some weird place with a green sky and the eerie feeling in the air. I was sure that I had finally died all the way."
Danielle stared into the sky in fright as the echoes of the dead rang out around her, even from her spot in the small crater that she was in. She had no idea where she was or why she was in so much pain, but if she had to guess, she figured she was probably in Hell. She had heard stories about a place where people who were evil went when they died, a place where the dead cried out all day and night. A place where you feel immense pain that never seemed to stop. A place where no one was ever going to come to save you and you live out your worst nightmare for all eternity.
For once in her short life, Danielle didn't try to stop the tears that came to her eyes as the reality of her situation weighed on her. To her, it all made sense. She was paying for all the bad things she had done. She had been killed in Danny's parent's lab, and paying for what she had done, whatever it was. The worst part was that she never got to truly live life. She wasn't even a year old and here she was, doomed to an eternity of pain and despair. Danielle didn't hide the emotional pain as she opened her mouth and cried like the little girl she really was at heart.
"Why!? Why me!?" she cried as the tears rolled down her face and into the ground. "Danny! Danny help me!" She didn't know why she was calling out to him. She had heard many times that no one could save you once you were banished to the depths of Hell. But deep down, Danielle held hope that Danny would come and save her like he always did because that's just what Danny did. He saved people, and he saved her when she needed him the most. Why would this be any different?
But as she continued to wail, she never saw him, the heroic look in his eye, or the smile on his face whenever she met up with him that always made her feel so safe. Nothing. He wasn't coming this time, and that was a fact that Danielle was going to have to face. He was never going to save her again. She was never going to feel his strong embrace again as he hugged her. He was never to going to reassure her that it was all going to be alright ever again because it wasn't going to be.
Danielle closed her eyes and just cried and cried. It was the only thing she could do. It still hurt, but this pain wasn't physical, it was emotional, and that just seemed to hurt so much more.
"Shhh. It's going to be alright, Dani," A voice said. Danielle felt someone, or something, touch her face, wiping the tears from her closed eyes, but she refused to open her eyes. She didn't think she could handle it if somehow her hero was really here, like always, only to see him vanish in some type of torturous illusion to break her mind of what little sanity she had left. "I am so sorry about all of this. I swear, I'm gonna protect you and I'm going to get us back to Earth and out of the Ghost Zone. And when I do, you're going to stay with me so you'll never be alone again."
Danielle's eyes shot up, and, as if by some miracle, there, hovering over her, was Danny. He had her head in his lap with a protective hand around her as she gazed up at him in disbelief as he smiled at her, though the smile was tired. Danielle could see that he was covered in various burns and looked as if he as struggling just to sit up right like he was, but none of that matter as she looked up at him, more tears in her eye, but this time, of joy. Danielle groaned as she slowly raised her hand, pain firing from every nerve, and placed it softly on Danny's face. The boy winced slightly, but continued to smile at her.
"Danny…you're really here…" she whispered. "You came to save me…just like always…"
"I'll always be there to save you, Danielle. I promise."
Everyone in the room was crying as they listened to Danielle's recollection of how she had woken up.
"The big idiot crawled out of the hole he landed in and made his way over to me while I was crying," Danielle said with a smile as she turned back to Danny who was smiling, and punched him lightly in the arm. "He probably hurt himself even more doing that, the big dope."
"Yeah, probably," he said, rubbing the back of his head with a laugh that everyone joined him in. "But I had to get to her. I couldn't stand to listen to her crying. She was so scared and hurt."
"You couldn't stand at all," Danielle said with a grin. Danny rolled his eyes and continued where he left off.
"Anyway, after I had finally convinced Dani that we weren't in Hell and that she hadn't doomed me and gotten me sent there with her, I carried her into a nearby cave to rest while I tried to figure out where we had landed. I don't know how long we were in there, but I figured it out pretty quickly. We had landed on Skulker's Island."
Sam, Tucker and Jazz gasped. If there was one thing that they knew about Skulker, it was that he enjoyed the hunt, whether his prey could fight back or not. Danny wasn't surprised by their reactions as they knew exactly what kind of danger they had been in.
"Of course the second that I figured this out, the tin can had to show up. And he wasn't alone. Ember was with him because apparently they're dating."
"Yikes," the trio said.
"Yeah, no kidding. I didn't want Dani fighting, especially since she wasn't in any condition to-"
"And trust me, he wasn't any better either," the young girl said.
"But we didn't have much of a choice. So we tried to fight them, only to find out that we couldn't use our powers to their full extent. We found out later that the shock had shorted them out a little because it was so close to what had actually happened when I got my powers. If we had been in there any longer, we either would have died or completely lost our powers," Danny said, keeping his gaze away from his parents, though he knew that they were probably feeling beyond guilty for what happened. "So we did the only thing we could, and we ran way as fast as we could, but the two of them just wouldn't let up."
"Danny took on Skulker and I took Ember," Danielle said. "Too bad it wasn't much of a battle. I was barely able to dodge her attacks, and when she hit me, my body shut down from the pain, especially when she hit me with her guitar."
"And I'll tell you, getting punched by Skulker hurts, but try having a metal fist hit you when you can feel nothing but pain. It sucks, big time."
"So how did you two get away?" Jazzed asked.
"As luck would have it, that giant lizard ghost that Dad and I caught when we went fishing happened to show up and distracted Skulker and Ember long enough for Dani and me to beat it out of there and head toward the Far Frozen. On the way there, Danielle started to tell me about her power, and how she was super pissed off because neither Ember nor Skulker knew who she was and that it was rude not to say someone's name. It took me a while, but I finally figured out that she had been influenced by Ember, leaving her with what I liked to call, Ember Syndrome," Danny grinned while Danielle glared at him. "So we finally arrive at the Far Frozen, and got a bit or relief once we touched the snow because it was easing the burns a bit."
"After that, we made our way to the medical center where Danny introduced me to Frostbite and the rest o his people. Apparently the Great One here is pretty infamous in the Ghost Zone," she said with a smirk at his dislike for the nickname.
"They took us in and gave us food, explaining what had happened with our powers after a quick scan, and they had advised that we not turn human until we were healed up and back to full strength. From there, they gave us a room and medical treatment. It was all going so smoothly…"
"And then, it happened…" Danielle said as both looked back at the table as their memories consumed their thoughts.
"What do you mean it?" Tucker asked.
"The invasion," Danny said, looking at his best friend, shocking everyone in the room.
"We were resting up in our room. We had only been there for a couple of hours, and had finally gotten to sleep when we heard an explosion," Danielle said. "Naturally, we both got to our feet, battle ready, when the entire room started to shake. We darted out into the hallway to see everyone was in a state of hurry and chaos which we knew couldn't be good."
"We ran to find Frostbite in the control center," Danny continued. "He was barking out orders to prepare for battle, and as soon as we heard that, we went to prepare too, but he wouldn't let us. He told us that a large surplus of ghost had arrived and that they were looking for us. Apparently Skulker and Ember had gotten the word out that we were not only in the Zone, but that the only dependable portal was closed."
"But why would that provoke them to attack you or the Far Frozen?" Sam asked.
"Because they thought that we took away their number one access portal to the real world. And not only that, but we closed the portal and stayed in the Ghost Zone. By that logic, we had to be up to something."
"With Danny's battle record, and the rumor of him defeating Pariah Dark single handedly, it's pretty easy to see what they were thinking," Danielle said.
"They thought it was an invasion!? They thought that you were trying to take control of the Ghost Zone!?" Jazz screeched, receiving a nod from her brother.
"At least that what some of the weaker ghosts probably thought. But all of my enemies thought different. They thought I was trying to be one of them or something stupid like that. They knew I'd never close the portal without a legitimate reason to do so, and they wanted to know why. Of course in my weakened state, there was no way I could take them all on, even with Dani's help, which meant we were sitting ducks. And Skulker knew that, which is why he called up everyone to come after me at the same time."
"They only attacked the Far Frozen because they refused to turn us over," Danielle said with a shake of her head. "To be honest, I wish that they had."
"Are you nuts, why would you wish that!?" Tucker asked in angered disbelief.
Danielle rounded on him, her anger flaring up, striking out at him unexpectedly. "You don't know what it was like! You don't know what we saw! What we heard! What I felt! Do you have any idea what it feels like to feel the rage, the desperation, the pain of loss, from hundreds of beings at once!? It fucking hurts, Tucker!" Danielle screamed as she slammed her fist on the table, a crater the size of her fist on the impact spot as her body began to glow red.
"Danielle!" Danny yelled, grabbing her by the arm, and dragging her toward him, his eyes shining green as were hers. "What did I tell you? Remember, you have to stay calm and control the power or else it'll control you!"
"Let me go, Danny!" she shouted.
"Then calm down, now," he said in a low, dangerous tone as he narrowed his eyes.
"But Danny-"
"But nothing! I know it's frustrating, but you have to calm the hell down now!" he shouted back at her. Danielle growled and glared at him, a feral snarl crawling from her mouth and Danny breathed in and out heavily and forced his gaze into hers. Everyone stared on in stunned silence at the exchange between the two glowing hybrids as their eyes flared with green energy in a ghostly standoff of power. The tension was so thick in the air that it was beginning to become hard to breath. Finally, Danielle's aura returned to normal as she stopped growling and her glare softened into a look of slight remorse.
"Sorry," she whispered, turning away from Danny who gazed at her a bit longer before letting her arm go and turning back to his stunned family. Everyone was too shocked to actually ask about what they had just witnessed, but eventually Jazz spoke up.
"Danny…are you guys ok?" she asked. Her brother ran a hand through his hair with a frustrated sigh.
"Yeah, we're fine, Jazz. Turns out that ghost in the same family or group have rankings in them that are similar to wolf packs. Whoever is strongest is the Alpha ghost and there for is the leader of the group. Generally with ghosts, since they get stronger with age, the ranks usually just fall into order via age. Well with Danielle and I being in the same family, I'm technically the Alpha, and she," he said, giving her an apologetic look, "is a Beta ghost."
"Oookay," Sam said slowly, still a bit confused. "But what does that have to do with what just happened?"
"Since she's a lower rank then I am, she has to follow my commands. However, when she gets too over taken by emotion, especially anger, she tends to have difficultly following what I'm telling her, and so I...have to force my will on her and control her to calm her down and bring her back to normal. It's really uncomfortable for both her and me, and so I don't do it unless absolutely necessary. It's the same way that Walker controls the guards in the prison, how Aragon controlled his kingdom until we helped Dora to overthrow him, and the same way that Frostbite controls the people of the Far Frozen, but he doesn't do it often because they respect him. He only does it when absolutely crucial. With me…it's like dealing with a temperamental puppy." Danny her a small smile to try and lighten the mood.
"It sucks," Danielle said. "I mean, it's bad enough that I can't control my power, but then to have Danny force me to follow his orders and do what he says just piles on the fact that I can't control it. I can see why so many ghosts decide to be loners. Every time he has to do it, I feel like I have no free will, like I'm mindless. Like before."
It didn't need to be said out loud what she meant. All the teens knew of Danielle's previous life before Danny had shown her just how evil Vlad really was, and it was because of these thought that Danny didn't like using the power on her, though he had to admit that it as useful, regardless of their discomfort.
"I understand, but I won't lie; whenever I do use it and you challenge me like you did, I can feel your mind fighting back, trying to be dominant. But I also know that if I let that happen, you'll be consumed by your emotions, and I won't let that happen."
"I know. And thanks for looking out for me, Danny," she said with a sad smile before turning to Tucker. "Sorry about that. It's just…when I think about how much emotion was going on and what we saw…I just lose it."
"It's cool. It must have been pretty intense for you to freak out like that," he said nodding his head though in his gut he could feel the uneasiness tightening.
"You have no idea, Tuck," Danny said shaking his head. "Soon, the explosions where getting closer and closer until we felt the building shake and the roof began to fall in. Frostbite grabbed us and commanded everyone to stall until he returned. He carried us to a room where he activated some type of secret opening in the floor, and dropped Dani and I in, telling us good luck, and may good fortune shine on us and that he had faith in us. I reached out toward him just as a weapon was jammed into his back, causing him to roar in pain and his blood to splatter. But even as he as being attacked, his first priority was us. The door closed and everything around us was dark until a glowing light shined in front of us. It was then that I realized that he were in a shuttle. I helped Dani into a seat just as the shuttle ejected down a long tunnel, shooting us out into the rest of the Zone. We looked back and watched helplessly as the Far Frozen was attacked."
"We tried to figure out how to get the shuttle to go back, but couldn't, and we still couldn't use all of our powers," Danielle said as she gripped her pajama pants. "We couldn't do anything but drift and let the shuttle take us where ever Frostbite had programmed it to take us while he and his people were attacked because of us."
Tucker and Sam looked on, speechless as the information sunk in. It was hard to imagine a being as powerful, resourceful and kind as Frostbite being attacked and sacrificing himself like he had for Danny and Danielle. The thought that he could no longer exist made Tucker sick to his stomach as he stared at the two in disbelief, unsure of what to say.
"Danny…" Sam voice came, hoarse as she tried to hold herself together. "You mentioned Dora earlier. What happened to Dora and her kingdom?"
Danny looked at Sam with shame and guilt on his face as her lip quivered. Danny could only shake his head as the words tumbled out of his mouth.
"It…I…I don't know…" he said with a pained look. "The shuttle, it was headed there, and just when we were on the perimeter…"
"The entire place was complete rubble…" Danielle mumbled as she curled up on her seat, being careful of her bandages, though they were honestly the least of her worries. "All the homes were burning down, the castle was in ruins…and this huge black dragon was commanding a bunch of ghosts."
"No! You mean-" Sam cried, tears falling from her eyes.
"Aragon. He somehow got free and got his amulet back," Danny said, shaking with fury as he clenched his fists. "We have no clue what happened to Dora or any of the others. I can only imagine what he would do to her, regardless of the fact that she's his sister. He would give her the worst punishment possible."
"Death," Tucker said while Jazz and her parents all gasped. "He would kill his own sister to ensure this never happened again."
"No! NO! He couldn't have gotten her!" Sam cried in protest. "Dora is tough! She wouldn't let him get her like that! She's got to be alive! She's got to be!"
"Sam!" Danny cried, hating to see her like this, especially since it was his fault it all happened. "We don't know what happened to her, but we have to be realistic…Dora might be gone. For good. I'm sorry."
"But, how is that possible?" Jazz asked, her body visibly shaking. Maddie slowly guided her daughter into an empty chair before doing the same with Sam. "How can a ghost be gone for good?"
"It is possible for a ghost to die again if their core is destroyed," Danny said. "Without their core, they have no form, no way to stay connected to the world…no soul. If that gets destroyed, the ghost will fade into oblivion, never to return."
Jazz was speechless at the new information that was both interesting and terrifying at the same time. The fact that a ghost could die was beyond scary. For someone who held onto logic like she did, the thought that once you were a ghost you were beyond the reach of death was a skeptical practice she didn't believe in. Even once she had discovered that ghosts were real did she find it hard to believe. Yet, it gave her some comfort knowing that, god forbid, something ever happened to Danny, that he would come back a ghost and would never actually be gone. But now, hearing that there was something even after death that ghosts could experience, Jazz had never felt more scared for her brother's life then she did now.
"After what we had seen, we risked it and escaped the shuttle just as it made way toward the kingdom and crashed. Aragon had almost spotted us, but we had escaped. From there, we wondered around the Ghost Zone, apparently for a month, fighting, hunting…surviving. We tried to get to Clockwork's Tower, but we got too lost to find it and I didn't have any form of the maps we had created to help up. We found a few random natural portals that we checked, but none ever led back here to Amity Park."
"The fights started to come more frequently," Danielle said as she stared off into space. "The ghosts started to get more ruthless. Like how they broke my wrist and twisted Danny's ankle. It was so bad…I was sure we were never going to make it back to Earth…I thought we were going to die. But Danny never lost hope."
"No. I did," he admitted. "I'm pathetic. Here I was, supposed to be the hero, and I let my friends down, couldn't protect Danielle like I was supposed to, and couldn't think of a way to get home," Danny shook his head furiously as he slammed his fists on the table. "The last straw was when we were captured by some giant squid ghost. We were too tired from lack of sleep and still hurt and hungry…I didn't know what to do. Dani was lying on the ground and she wasn't moving…I could see the blood pooling from her head…"
Danielle moved her hand to the bandages around her head. She remembered the feeling as everything started to go dark around her as Danny stood his ground, bloodied, bruised and on his last leg, literally. She remembered the various scars on his back from his missing jacket that was wrapped around her, the blood that stained his white hair and the shaking of his form as the creature approached them. But the one thing she remembered the best were his words as she closed her eyes.
"I won't let you touch her," she repeated out loud. "I promised that I'd get us home, damn it.' And then you did it. You used your wail, knowing that it could have failed and that you could have lost all your remaining power and died."
"I know," Danny said, still shaking as he looked to the floor. "I was…so desperate…I didn't know what else to do…all I wanted was to get us home…"
Everyone was silent as they let the hero fall apart and cry. It was rare to see Danny let his guard down for the soul fact that when you were a hero, you never got the chance too. If you showed weakness, your enemies would destroy you. Your doubts in yourself would consume you. The people you protect would lose faith in you. But he was only a teenage boy who had been handed the responsibility of protecting so many people, many of whom didn't even like him and who didn't deserve him in his family and friend's eyes. And yet, every day and night, he would drop whatever it was that he was doing to protect them all. But Danny was still human, and he was entitled to have him moments of letting his guard down without being judged. And if that meant crying like a baby in front of the people who were closest to him, then he would take it.
As Danny pulled himself together, he looked up at his family. "After I used my wail, the squid shrieked and disappeared into the Zone. I was surprised that I had any energy left, but it left me so weak, that I knew that I wasn't going to be able to stay ghost much longer. I remember crying as I picked Danielle up after bandaging her head. She just kept saying "I want to go home. Danny, I want to go home." And all I could say was "Me too, Dani." I just stared at my hand, and willed as much energy as I could to come, and just kept imagining that we were home.
"I didn't know what I was doing other than just a desperate attempt to get home. Maybe I was hoping to master teleportation right then. But instead, a portal opened up. I was skeptical at first because I had barely any energy left, and knew we could get stuck. But something was drawing me toward it, telling me to go through, like an instinct, and so I did, and ended up getting shot out of the portal into the basement."
"So you mastered portal creation?" Sam asked.
"No. I don't think I mastered it, but I know that I can do it now which means I'll have to learn to. But for now, I don't want to go anywhere near the Ghost Zone until things have calmed down. After that, I'm going looking for Frostbite and Dora," he said, determination in his eyes. Nobody argued with him. They knew that he was right and that time away from the Zone was probably best for both him and Danielle, who groaned as her wrist ached.
"Ouch. I think we're gonna need to speed up the healing here," she said, looking at Danny. "My body aches a lot."
"Mine too. We should be able to heal quicker in ghost form," he said with a nod. Both called up their power and activated the rings that transformed them, but were stunned to find that their clothes were not their usual uniforms, but the remnants of them. Danny's jacket, boots and gloves were missing as he stood in shredded pants. Danielle's uniform wasn't any better. Her top was shredded with the right shoulder hanging limply, leaving the left side to hold it together. Both her sleeves were missing as was her right glove and left boot. Her pants had been torn at the knees, leaving her a pair of shorts that were filled with holes.
"What happened to our uniforms?" Danielle cried in distress as she looked at Danny. "They should have repaired themselves after we changed back."
"I think its cause we spent so much time in ghost form that our bodies didn't have time to repair them," Danny said.
"Maybe it's a side effect of the electrocution?" Sam said, walking up to them.
"But all of our other powers work," Danielle said as she put a hand on her hip. "Plus, the suits are a part of our DNA. It changes every time we transform, no matter what we're wearing."
"Yeah, but since you guys spent so much time and energy trying to sustain yourselves, your bodies may not remember what your costumes look like."
"You mean like muscle memory?" Jazz asked. At the confused looks she received, she rolled her eye. "You know, muscle memory? The more you do something, the more routine it becomes? Like the more Danny and Danielle transform, the easier it is for their cells to remember what their costumes are like."
"Oh, I get it," Tucker said. "It's like when hitting reset on a video game; every time you do, it goes back to the way it was before."
"Brilliant, Tucker," Danny said with sarcasm before turning back to his sister. "I guess that would make sense since we haven't transformed back to human for in almost two month. I guess that means we're gonna need new costumes."
"Ooh, ooh! I want something with spandex!" Danielle cheered in excitement at the thought of having a new suit. Danny looked at her in confusion, silently asking why and Danielle sighed before rolling her eyes. "Hello! It's light, flexible and it's cheap. Plus all the really big superheroes and sidekicks wear it!"
"So, what, you're my sidekick now?" Danny said with a smirk as she glared at him.
"No. Anyway, like I was saying, don't you think it would be a good idea for our new costumes?"
"No thanks. Tight suites might work for you, but I've had my fill. I need something loose and breathable. Maybe a bodysuit shirt at best, but definitely loose pants. And new gloves and boots with some padding would be nice."
"I think I can arrange all that," Sam said with a smile as she looked over the two halfas. "Give me a couple days, I'll have you're new costumes designed, ordered and in your hands in no time."
"Sounds good. And while Sam works on that, we'll get to designing Danielle's room," Maddie said.
"Wait, I get my own room!? I don't have to share with a slob like Danny or a neat freak like Jazz!?" Danielle asked in excitement.
"Hey!" The two teens cried in unison at the jab.
"Oh, whatever. I'm a clone of you, Danny. I know how you are, and I also know how your sister is always nagging you to clean up."
"Yeah, well get used to it because it's our sister now," Danny said with a smile as he ruffled her hair. "Well come to the family, squirt."
"Hey! Don't call me squirt, you moron!" Danielle cried.
"I have always wanted a little sister," Jazz said in amusement while Maddie shook her head at the two as they continued to jab back and forth at each other. Jack smiled as he placed a hand on her shoulder.
"As if this family wasn't crazy enough with one super powered child, now we have two. They haven't even been siblings for a whole 2 minutes and they're already fighting."
"It's just the Fenton way, honey," Jack said.
"Yeah. I guess it is," she said with a smile.