Chapter 29
Cognition
Disclaimer: I own neither Danny Phantom nor Smallville
Danny smiled, slinging his backpack over his shoulder as he walked through the doors of Smallville High. It was Friday of the first week of term four, and that meant that he was graduating school in just a few short weeks. He felt genuinely buoyant, having told Chloe his secret and cleared a lot of the air between them he couldn't help but feel genuinely happy. Even a visit from the Corn Ghost hadn't bothered him, he'd just opened a portal to the Zone and pushed him in. He hadn't even needed to change into his ghost form to do it.
Still grinning he came to his locker, pulling out one of his textbooks before heading off for class. Passing by the door of the chemistry lab he could have sworn that he heard hushed whispers, but the loud ring of the bell interrupted him and he pressed his way on and into his history class. The only bad thing was that there was a round of post-vacation tests in the lead up to the final exams, and judging by the annoyed groans of his peers he was not the only one who had not prepared for it.
Still, as the paper slid in front of him Danny vowed to do his best. He'd been skipped ahead for a reason, and it would only be himself he was disappointing if he fell behind again. Besides, looking at the first question; 'Why did the US Army feel the need to contribute to the Vietnam War?' he couldn't help but feel it would be alright. This test was more about the politics behind the war than the specific events, and he was able to understand political disputes very well thanks to Clockwork's intense lessons. Smiling faintly he picked up his pen, confidently in his answers.
Danny finished well before the bell and took a moment to look around. Three other people finished within five minutes of him, but everyone else was scribbling right until the teacher called time. Murmuring softly the class filed out, handing their papers to the teacher as they left. Danny, as was his habit, was one of the last to leave but he quickly made his way to his next class. Mr Taylor smiled as Danny came in, and Danny smiled back.
For the last term they were studying the Romantic Poets, and Danny found himself actually looking forward to the unit. They were some of the best known poets for inspiring emotion with words, and Danny, being the half ghost that he was, found that an amazing skill. So Danny found himself smiling contentedly as Mr Taylor read through Wordsworth's 'Daffodils'. Even though only half the class was paying attention there was a happy buzz in the air that gave his ghost half a much appreciated stamina boost.
Lunchtime soon came, and Danny found himself wandering aimlessly around the school. The sun was warm today, bringing the soft scent of spring as the wind rustled through the trees. Eventually he got bored of walking and just decided to flop, sprawled out on the grass and letting the sun warm him up. His eyes closed as he let his mind wander.
"You know you really are strange." Danny heard a voice say as a shadow crossed his face, effectively blocking the sun.
"Hi Chloe." Danny said with half lidded eyes. "What brings you to Smallville High?"
"Curiosity." Chloe answered, taking a seat beside him. "I had time off and I've been meaning to visit the Torch here for a while. See how my successor has been holding the reins. That sort of thing."
"Really?" Danny asked, rolling onto his side. Peering through one eyelid he saw Chloe nod. "'cos last I checked the Torch was inside the school, not way out here in the sun."
"Okay, fine." Chloe admitted. "I wanted to come and see you."
Danny immediately sat up, ruffling his hair to clear the grass that had gotten caught. He knew what Chloe meant. While he had revealed his secret to her they hadn't really talked about it. She had said she needed a bit of time to process, and Danny was only too happy to give her that. He'd expected her to need a week. He had in a way betrayed her trust, and he knew he wasn't the first to do so. But for her to be here only the day after his revelation, well, he wasn't sure what to expect.
"When I found out," The blonde began before pausing "When I first found out about your powers, why didn't you tell me then?"
Danny sighed. "You're thinking about Clark, aren't you?" He asked, looking musingly back towards the school. "Chloe, Clark and I may be similar in some ways but we have very different pasts. I've made enemies, real enemies, who would stop at nothing to get at Phantom. It wasn't safe for you to know."
"The GIW?" Chloe pressed.
"Partially." Danny admitted with a sad shrug. He gulped, recounting his last experiences with the sole government officiated ghost hunting agency and his fingers automatically pressed to his abdomen. He wasn't sure if that scar would ever disappear. "They're ruthless. They don't see ghosts as people; to them we don't have feelings, we can't feel pain. They're... just beyond anything."
Danny paused, feeling his eyes stinging; whether from remembered pain or emotion he didn't know. "But if they were the only problem I would have told you about me right then. The GIW don't particularly care who gets in the way, but they do have some issues with abusing humans to get what they want. Given the right spin you'd be safe from them. But they're not my only enemies."
"Is this where Vlad comes in?" Chloe asked.
Danny sighed. "Yeah. He was, in a way, like me. Vlad Masters was Vlad Plasmius. He was technically the first half-ghost to exist. But he was always different, sorta like the meteor infected people here are different from Clark. The accident in college, it infected him with ectoplasm and that gave him a ghost half. But he was always different from me. He never died; he was only ever a human with ghost powers. And now he's just human."
"What do you mean?" Chloe prodded. Danny leaned back, staring up into the clouds.
"It's hard to explain. For me, my ghost half is as much a part of me as my blood is. It's possible to separate ghostly material from human material, so in theory half-ghosts can be separated from their human and ghost halves. That's what I did to Vlad; I took Plasmius out so now he's just plain Vlad Masters. But for me, I know that to try and separate my halves doesn't work. I've done it before, tried it before."
Chloe hummed curiously.
Danny frowned, truth was he'd done it twice, but Chloe probably wasn't ready to hear the darker story. So he decided to talk about the first time it had happened. "It was back when I first got seriously into the whole double life thing. I was getting sick of trying to be in two places at once, it was like every time I wanted to be a kid, hang with my friends, there'd be another ghost. Mom and dad had made this dream-catcher type thing that was able to separate ghosts and human things. So I went through it."
Danny paused, biting his lip. "You know that I can be in two places at once and can be in both forms at the same time." Danny said.
"Like Christmas?" Chloe interjected, "I was wondering how you managed that."
"Duplication. It's a useful power to have." Danny explained with a quick smile. "Well the thing is that when I do that, I'm still entirely me. It's sort of an overly complicated form of multitasking, but each of me is at least loosely aware of what each of the others is doing. Anyway, the dream-catcher was entirely different. I was able to separate myself, but not properly. Parts of my personality split between my two halves. So human me was a fun but casual slacker, and ghost me was courageous and heroic."
"So you can't go back to fully human?" Chloe asked.
"Nope." Danny replied. "To be honest, I've sort of forgotten what it's like. I mean, at first I completely rejected the idea; who wants to be a ghost? But now I don't think I could live without it."
"You know, Clark was given the chance to be human for a while last summer." Chloe mused.
"Yeah, and I know he loved it." Danny replied. "But it wasn't to be, not forever. I've had the same chance, you know." Danny commented. "Not that I knew it at the time."
"Really?" Chloe asked with genuine curiosity.
"Yeah." Danny smiled. "A couple of months after the accident Sam and I got into a really big fight, and she made a wish that she never met me. Unfortunately Desiree was around the time and thought it'd be fun to work with that wish. Desiree was able to lock away my powers and my memory of ever being Phantom, she couldn't change the genetics but she made me forget everything about how to be a ghost." A genuine smile crossed his lips. Those had been a chaotic few days filled with mayhem and Sam acting completely out of character.
"In retrospect it seems pretty funny, but at the time I just thought it was crazy. But I did learn my lesson, and since then I've appreciated the friends that I do have." Danny paused, his fingers brushing the ring on his necklace, his knuckles touching the silver DP symbol. "Sam created my symbol, you know. That's when it first became a part of my ghost form."
"You know you're the subject of a lot of speculation online because of your costume changes." Chloe commented, sending him a teasing smile.
"Yeah, most ghosts don't bother much." Danny said, hearing the bell for classes ringing in the distance. "And you try wearing latex half the time. It's uncomfortable." He stood up, turning around to offer Chloe a hand herself. "Talk later?" He asked, noting the other students milling back towards the school building.
"Later." Chloe nodded.
"Promise to tell you more about Phantom's powers then." Danny called back to her. "And about the 'Renaissance Fair'."
"I'll hold you to it." Chloe replied, sending him a smile. Danny beamed as he headed back into the halls of Smallville High. For the first time in months things genuinely seemed like they were running smoothly.
Line Break
Konan Sykes scowled as he surveyed the darkened chemistry lab. His friends Zack and Ash were both running late, and if they mixed their next dose then everything would go to waste. It had started the previous year as a simple project, little more than speculation. But amongst the research of the previous years' seniors he'd come across a paper about the way that meteor rocks effected the chemical phenylethylamine. He wasn't particularly interested in love, or teenage lust as that project was more directed at.
But it had gotten him thinking; if the meteor rocks could help some prissy cheerleaders score dates, then why couldn't he use the same principles to help himself get ahead in life. So he'd spoken it over with Zack and Ash who were both nearly as good at chemistry as him and they'd all agreed to try it out. It had taken a while, but they'd managed to successfully infuse piracetam with meteor rock. In the end it made a powerful nootropic and had made the world of difference to him and his friends.
They say that at any given point in time the average human only uses five percent of their brain. With the meteor rock infused piracetam they were able to access fifteen, and somehow it changed everything. Reading a textbook took next to no time, and the words just stuck. But more than that, their enhanced brainpower had the amusing side effect of giving each of them a form of telekinesis. It was an awesome feeling, to know that they were above anyone else in their year group, to know that they were superior to the other peons that they worked with. An experiment like this was groundbreaking; it gave them the mental agility to get ahead and the physical power to enforce it. And none of them were willing to share their success with anyone outside their group.
The chemistry lab door shut with a soft click, and Konan snapped around to face the other two. "You're late." He spat.
"Sorry, K." Ash replied with a shrug. "We got held up outside by some of the football team."
"They shouldn't be a problem anymore." Konan replied, his brown eyes flashing in anger.
"And they're not." Zack assured. "However, as the decision was against making the general public aware of our current experiment, it seemed unwise to persist in anything further than a verbal sparring."
Konan frowned, looking between his two old friends. Ash had always been the smallest of the group, and had often been the target of bullying. Even now his glasses were held together by a piece of Sellotape, rather than forking over the cash to have them repaired again. Zack on the other hand was tall and lean. His red hair was a feature uncommon in Smallville, and his naturally pale skin had kept him inside and away from a lot of sporting ventures.
That was part of why Konan had first become friends with the two; together the three of them were stronger than they were apart. While Konan wasn't as tall as Zack, he was the natural leader of their triad, having always had a confidence that neither of the others possessed. It was annoying that they had been late, but acceptable. Konan nodded. "Fine, we should get started then." He sighed, turning his attention to the locked cupboard where their version of piracetam was held.
Cocking his head to the side he made the door fly open, and he relished in the empowering feeling as the reinforced container flew out to land in his hands. He had adapted the quickest to the telekinesis, quickly understanding how their enhanced cognition was allowing them to reach out into the environment and to manipulate it to their will. Smiling he opened the box, slipping the key back into his pocket as he dished out three little green pills.
"This is the third last dose." He commented, watching the euphoric expressions on his friends' faces as they swallowed down the pills. "After the course is run, the effects should be permanent." The other two smiled at him, and Ash pulled a textbook from across the room over to him. That was the purpose in the whole thing; use the resources available to them now to ensure superior scores on their exit exams, and then ace through college. After all, all three of them agreed that high school didn't matter; it was only the first stepping stone to their future.
Konan looked at the little green pill. It was hard to believe how much such a simple thing could do, but he knew it inside and out. The rush they gave him just after taking it was beyond anything else, the way it accelerated the neurotransmitters in the brain to the point where reality almost slowed down around them. It was empowering. Konan grinned as he swallowed the little green pill, savouring the experience as the meteor rock amplified the effects of the nootropic.
Sending a secretive smile to his two friends he marched past them, leading them out of the lab and towards their next class. Those first few minutes after taking a dose were always exhilarating; it was like seeing the world through the eyes of a raptor. Every little thing jumped out in sharp detail, and information whirled through his mind, educating and enhancing it. But the most empowering thing was that it did not overload him. He remembered every instant of the buzz, and it had lasted longer with every dose.
He filed into their last class of the day; a simple physics lesson. But he had long since memorised the textbook. In fact the only reason that he or his friends bothered coming to any of their classes anymore was to be on the roll, although occasionally the teachers did have some insights that were not included in their textbooks. Konan took a moment to look around the room; most of his peers were still in a post-lunch daze and stared stupefied at the front of the room. He sighed; glad to be beyond that level of stupefaction. It was as though none of them cared for anything beyond their social lives, and that turned the class into a vacuous waste.
Just as the bell rang a dark haired teen walked in. Konan frowned; it was Danny Fenton. The dark haired boy was a variable that Konan neither understood nor appreciated. At the beginning of the year the sixteen year old had been enrolled in the junior class, but after the winter break he'd been skipped ahead into Konan's own year. He had thought little of it, but over time the boy had proven his own quiet academic achievement. The test that morning was further proof of it; Konan and his two friends had of course finished early, but Fenton had finished even before that.
It was even more puzzling given the boy's constant absences and frequent disappearances from the school premises. And yet somehow the dark haired sixteen-year-old was getting the top marks in their year. He would have assumed that Fenton was somehow cheating, but if he was ever asked a question in class his answers were always accurate. He watched with slitted eyes as the younger boy took a seat at the back of the room, but for a second he could have sworn that those blue eyes fixed piercingly on him.
Even still, the class began and Konan pulled out a book. He'd borrowed it from the library seeing as how the teacher wasn't able to go into detail on the principles. So he'd found a book that went further into quantum theory and passed the class between reading that and talking with Ash and Zack. However when the class bell rang the teacher requested that the three of them stayed back. He frowned as a note was pressed into his hands, requiring him to go to the history teacher's office promptly. He inwardly groaned, annoyed that he was being held back.
Frowning he knocked on the door, his two companions behind his shoulders as he stepped in. He had not anticipated the Fenton boy being in there too, but it would at least dissipate the pressure on his trio.
"Please sit." Mr Paige, the history teacher commanded sternly. Konan took a seat on one of the three spindly chairs left in the room.
"Mr Fenton," Mr Paige commented. "If it weren't for the fact that your academic performance has previously come into question you would not be here. However, as it is the four of you were the only ones to actually complete the recent in-class test." Mr Paige frowned, turning to face Konan and his friends. "As it is, I find it peculiar that you three were able to perfectly answer the questions word-for-word from your textbook."
"There's nothing wrong with rote memory." Ash objected.
"Not specifically." Mr Paige acknowledged. "However it is unusual, I have never seen three students have such faultless answers in my entire teaching career. As such you should be prepared to take an additional test. Until such a time as I am convinced that the three of you have answers of your own then you can consider yourself on academic probation."
"That's not fair!" Zack exclaimed. "How can doing well in a test possibly deserve us being put on probation."
"Because I am not convinced of your academic honesty." Mr Paige replied bluntly.
"Mr Paige," Konan said calmly, despite his inner turmoil. "Please be assured, we did not cheat or bring prohibited material into the test. Our answers were merely the result of intensive group study over the holiday break and last term."
"And I would believe that if the three of you had shown this sort of aptitude in history before now." Mr Paige countered. "Honestly Konan, I know that your strength is in the sciences. And you have demonstrated more than once your scorn for the more philosophical courses. You will be sitting an additional test, and this time I encourage you invest more thought into your study habits."
"Well what about Fenton?" Zack asked, clearly annoyed at this development.
"Mr Fenton is here for similar reasons. Daniel, please tell me that you did not look at the questions before you entered the test room this morning."
"No sir." Fenton replied vehemently, as though he were offended by the thought of cheating. "I have been receiving some tutoring in history, and my opinions of historical events have been influenced by those of my tutor."
"Mr Fenton, your responses were well articulated, but in too much detail for me to believe you made them up on the spot." Mr Paige pressed. "I would prefer if you too sat the additional test. All four of you will report to my classroom at lunchtime tomorrow, and be warned, I will not accept answers that show no deeper understanding. You are in your senior year, and much more is expected of you than simple rote learning."
Like that they were dismissed, and Konan groused as he left the room. Part of him wanted to talk to Fenton, to ask what the hell his story really was. But the dark haired boy was already gone. Konan scowled, the door to the chemistry room blowing open in his anger. Ash and Zack followed behind him, equally as annoyed by this turn of events.
"How it that fair?" Zack complained, mentally tugging a chair behind himself as he sat down.
"We did the work." Ash added. "It's not like he can complain that we don't know the stuff."
"I can't afford to be on academic probation." Zack bemoaned. "My only way outta here depends on the exit exams."
"Calm down you two." Konan instructed, his attention fixed on a distillation tube as a beaker floated beneath it. As he watched the colourful liquid drip into the green beaker he smiled, like the neutralisation reaction in his beaker a plan came to mind. "We won't need to worry about the test if Paige is out of the picture."
Line Break
Chloe sighed as she sat on the sofa in the barn loft. Since she was in Smallville she'd decided to wait for Danny to get home, although she hadn't expected the half hour whinge from Clark about Lois being around so often. Clark was currently heading into town to fetch some supplies for around the farm. And now Chloe was waiting for a very different dark-haired boy to arrive in the loft.
Chloe sighed, absently pulling open her laptop. She had accepted to a degree what she had seen last night. Her scientific mind wanted to reject the idea; it didn't make sense for Danny to claim to be both alive and dead simultaneously. But the proof before her eyes had been more than enough. She had felt his pulse just last night, but she had equally watched as the boy morphed into a green eyed ghost. 'Halfa' he had called himself, and perhaps that was the best way for her to deal with it. Instead of seeing him as an impossible being, if she treated him like Clark then maybe it would make sense.
Chloe distractedly pulled up the Hunter's Almanac online website. It had been nearly four months since she last looked at it, just after Jonathan Kent had died. But her curiosity got the better of her and she pulled up the page on Phantom. It had changed a bit since she last visited, but she wasn't sure how recent it was. There was a new power on the list, and Chloe was awed at the record of a sonic attack.
Inviso-Bill (aka Danny Phantom/Ghost Kid/Whelp)
Level 9 ectoplasmic entity
First observed 1.9 years ago; physical assault of citizens with ecto-blasts, observed as Level 4.
Rapidly accelerating power levels; cause unknown – hypothesised unstable power source
First sighted regularly in Amity Park, Colorado, usually in the company of additional ectoplasmic entities
Currently commonly observed in Smallville and Metropolis, Kansas, usually in the presence of ectoplasmic entities. Reasons for apparent location change, unknown
Appearance
Appears as a young teenage boy; White Hair, Pale Skin (Unusually human tone), Glowing Green Eyes.
Originally observed wearing a black Hazmat Suit, White Gloves and Boots
White "DP" Symbol on its chest appeared after 4th month of observation
Appearance changed again after 16th month of observation. White Cloak, Black Tunic and Trousers, White Fingerless Gloves, Silver Boots. Occasionally bearing Silver and Green Sword
Changed appearance hypothesised as related to power, also a potential ploy for sympathy, posing as a "white knight".
Has been observed as having black tipped hair and silver eyes, labelled as "Phantom Angel" by media.
Abilities
Basic Ectoplasm Manipulation (Energy Blasts) – Standard
Paranormal Strength, Speed, Agility, and Durability – Standard
Flight – Standard
Intangibility – Standard
Invisibility – Standard
Overshadowing – Standard
Regeneration – Standard
Advanced Ectoplasm Manipulation (Inc. Projection, Shielding etc) – Particular
Bodily Manipulation (Inc. Flexibility, Mist Like "Spectral Tail" and Reshaping Own Body) – Particular
Cyrokinesis – Particular
Duplication – Particular
Electrical Charge Generation – Particular
High Speed Flight (Observed at +250mph) – Particular
Sonic Attack (Recorded at 190dB) – Particular
Sword – Particular
Hypothesised Enhanced Senses – Standard
Hypothesised High Energy Manipulation (Pure Energy, not Ectoplasmic Energy) – Particular
Hypothesised Signature Concealment – Particular
Hypothesised High Intelligence (Comparable to Human IQ 145) – Particular
Hypothesised Precognition – Particular
Obsession (Confirmed)
Violence, Destruction, or Power; Confirmed
(After the destruction wrought over Metropolis on the 5th of April it has been confirmed that this entity's obsession is destructive, although unrelated to territorial disputes. However there s a minority that still suggests that the entity's obsession is Human Life, Living Relatives or Protection and that the destruction is a by-product)
Notes
Phantom is a highly dangerous entity; it causes great destruction with its obsession. Known to eliminate other ectoplasmic threats, it is unsafe to be near. Has been known to endanger civilians; reported to have released entities to endanger human life and property (see Axion Labs public data files 3976, 4601, 4837, 5003). Do not approach; ectoplasmic being cannot easily be contained and there are no known captures.
Sources
Spectators/Civilians
The Daily Planet; "Wild Weather over Metropolis" (6th Apr, 2006)
The Smallville Ledger; "The Phantom Angel" (1st Nov, 2005)
Hunters Alliance Members: ID B15, E16, F01, F02, G67, L08, Q12, R14, S12, Y01 (J92, R03)
Chloe jumped as she heard someone come up into the loft, but she smiled when she realised that it was just Danny. The halfa waved at her, and came to take a seat atop the large green trunk that served as a coffee table in the loft. "Hey," the halfa commented "Sorry I'm late."
"It's okay." Chloe replied semi-distractedly. "I guess you had to take care of a..." She trailed off unsure of whether she wanted to finish that statement.
"No, actually." Danny replied, shaking his head. "I got held back after school 'cos a couple of guys had suspicious answers on a test. But because I managed to finish where everyone else didn't I got lumped in with them." The half-ghost shrugged.
Chloe creased her eyebrow in concern. "You think something's going on?" She asked. It had been a while since she dealt with a meteor mystery at school, but something in Danny's tone made her wonder.
"I know something's going on." He replied sadly. "I just don't know exactly what. Nobody can recite their textbooks word perfect, but Mr Paige says that's what they've done."
"Want me to look into it?" Chloe asked.
Danny shook his head. "Maybe later" the blue eyed boy answered. "Actually I was hoping to talk. We didn't get much of a chance when you came to school at lunch."
Chloe flushed embarrassedly, but was able to focus again. "Right. Well, I had originally planned to try something like twenty questions but now..." She trailed off looking at the webpage displayed on her computer screen. "There's a couple of 'hypothesiseds' on here that I was hoping you could clear up." Chloe handed the laptop over and watched as he read the screen. After a minute he laughed, blue eyes twinkling in delight.
"Gotta love Ghost Hunters." He commented. "They're so terribly good at completely missing the truth. And I see I've gone from an 'approach with caution' to a 'do not approach'."
Chloe couldn't help but roll her eyes at him before she snatched the laptop back. "So..." she trailed hopefully. Danny instantly sobered up.
"Okay fine." He said "I'll start with the all the things they hypothesised and then run through some of the other stuff they messed up. Enhanced senses; confirmed. All us ghosts have better senses than humans in some form, but I'm not quite as good at Clark. And so far as I know, none of us can do x-ray vision like he can."
He frowned before continuing. "The energy manipulation thing, that's sorta true but at the same time not. I'm more aware of the energy around me than a lot of ghosts are; that's part of what allows me to be aware of auras. I can work with electricity a bit, in fact I think soon I'll need to practice with that a bit, but that's pretty much the extent of my ability to manipulate energy."
Chloe nodded, she was still struggling to understand but she felt like she was getting there, "And the signature concealment thing?"
Danny smiled. "Okay, when I first looked up that page I thought it was a joke." He commented. "They've been bashing on about that since they first found out I existed. But it's really something they'd never figure out."
"You're human too." Chloe guessed, smiling herself.
"Yep." The boy beamed with sparkling blue eyes. "They could never figure out where I'd gone when all I really had to do was switch back to human. Of course now I can control my ecto-signature to the point where it may as well be concealed, but that's beside the point. Actually, the only people who had trackers that could find me in both forms were my parents."
Chloe raised an eyebrow. She didn't want to push the topic of the Fenton parents since it was still a relatively raw issue, but she was admittedly curious as to how they had never figured him out if that was the case.
"As for high IQ..." The boy shrugged. "I'm not convinced of the institution. Strictly speaking I can only ever have an IQ of 100 since my brain is wired different to both humans and ghosts. I don't really fit on the standard bell curve."
Chloe decided not to prod into that one. She was partially curious as to Danny's intelligence, but that complete deflection told her that either he wasn't interested to know himself, or that he was trying to be humble in his answer. "Precognition?" Chloe asked instead, looking to the bottom of the list.
"Hecate, no." The boy replied. "I'm not a psychic and nor would I want to be. I have a ghost sense which tells me when ghosts are near, and a general... I guess you could call it a 'danger sense' that tells me if there's anyone nearby who needs help."
"Danger sense?" Chloe prodded curiously.
"Related to my obsession and no, I'm not telling you what it is." Danny replied shortly. There was a dangerous flare in his eyes, a silent warning. "If you can guess it I'm happy, but I'm not telling anyone else. But it isn't destruction like they say there."
Chloe frowned, and Danny seemed to understand her disappointment. "I'm not trying to block you out, but a ghost's obsession is a private thing. Vlad exploited mine and he used Clark to do it, probably it's a wounded pride thing, but I'm not ready to just say it anymore."
"Okay. Fine." Chloe replied. She wasn't entirely happy with that, but if Danny didn't want to share what his obsession was then she didn't have the right to force it out of him. "Then can I ask about the sonic attack. Last time I checked it was only hypothesised."
"Sonic... my Ghostly Wail." Danny realised. "Yeah, I was hoping that one wouldn't get out officially."
"Why not?" Chloe asked, her eyebrows creased in confusion. "Why wouldn't you want people to know about it?"
"Chloe, look at the decibel reading next to it." Danny instructed. And Chloe's eyes widened as she realised what 190Hz meant. "Exactly. The loudest possible sound is 194dB; that power has the potential to literally kill people. I don't want that, in fact I hate using that power at all. But it's sort of my trump card. I used it to face off against Vortex, but... well pretty much everything in that fight went wrong."
Chloe blinked. Hearing that brought something home. She'd seen Danny change into Phantom, but she hadn't really thought about what that meant. The boy in front of her was powerful, immensely powerful. "Oh my god, you're Phantom." She said as it finally caught up to her. All those fights, battles that nobody should be able to survive, and then there was the fact that Clark had rescued Phantom from a GIW lab. Chloe gulped at the awing thought that that was the same person as the blue-eyed boy who did farm chores alongside Clark. Danny however was just looking at her curiously.
"I thought we'd established that." The boy commented with a concerned frown.
"No," Chloe said. "It's just I think it finally hit me. You're really him, he's you... you're..."
"Chloe," He said, looking her in the eye. "You've met me as Fenton, and you've met me as Phantom. It doesn't matter to me which form I'm in." He huffed, blowing the dark locks out of his eyes. "Look, maybe that wasn't the best place to start. " Shaking his head the boy held out his hand. "Hello Chloe Sullivan, I'm Danny."
And the way he stressed his name, combined with the strange mixture of bemusement and irritation in his eyes made her pause. She spent a moment looking into those swirling blue eyes before cracking a smile. She unhesitatingly shook his hand. "Hello Danny, I'm pleased to meet you." She replied, still looking him in the eyes. A moment passed before she burst into laughter at ridiculousness of the whole situation. A second later he joined her, and Chloe couldn't help but smile inwardly in amusement. He was right; Fenton or Phantom he was still just Danny. And Chloe relaxed happily as she laughed alongside her blue eyed friend.
Line Break
Clark scowled as he eyed the figure on the far side of the field. He had been working out on the back quarter all morning, trying to get the field ploughed so that they could sow it for the next season. He'd only been halfway through when this guy had popped up and decided to try and clog up the tractor engines. Emphasis on try. As soon as the specter had tried he'd immediately jumped back as the engine sparked bright green. Clark had just smiled at Danny's forethought; apparently he'd ghost-proofed the tractor while he was going about improving the engine.
That had however enraged the ghost, and now Clark stood facing an irate Corn Ghost. Despite having never met the ghost in person, Clark recognised him from Danny's many sketches of him. "You!" The ghost cried, his dead blue eyes flashing angrily. "How Dare You Defy The Corn Ghost?!" Clark couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. He sounded exactly like the Box Ghost had all those months ago.
The ghost glared at him, but his gaze quickly became more intense as the specter surveyed him. "You look like the halfa." The ghost commented before breaking into a grin. "But you are not. I shall enjoy playing with you, man-who-looks-like-the-halfa-but-is-human." He clapped his hands together as a wicked flash sparked through his eyes.
The ghost smirked as he threw a thin hand out in front of him, and suddenly the grass around them was twisting itself around Clark's legs. But this time Clark knew what he was doing. After the debacle with the box ghost in Metropolis Danny had given Clark a quick rundown of how to handle ghosts like the Box Ghost and the Corn ghost. Instead of worrying Clark raised an eyebrow.
"I thought you were the Corn Ghost, not the grass Ghost." Clark commented.
"The Corn Ghost has dominion over all things agricultural. This field once grew corn, and I shall make sure you are the first to witness my deliverance of Sweet Corn Doom!" The ghost ranted and Clark couldn't help but wonder how Danny put up with the repetitive nature of ghosts like him.
Clark pulled free of the grass easily and walked over to stand in front of the ghost who was still shouting his plans to take over the world through corn. Clark just shook his head before hitting the ghost with a blast of his heat vision. Like the Box Ghost before him, the Corn Ghost was rendered harmless as he fell unconscious to the ground. Clark sighed as he pulled out his phone. While the ghost might be out for the count, Danny was still the only one who could contain them long term.
"Hey Clark." The boy answered on the second ring.
"Danny." Clark acknowledged. "I ran into the Corn Ghost this morning. He's out cold for the moment, but..."
"But you were wondering if I could come and send him home?" Danny surmised. There was a hint of distraction in his voice that made Clark worried. He heard a sigh from the other end of the phone before the boy continued. "I've got a duplicate coming your way, but I really gotta go. Class is gonna start and I really can't afford to get into the black books more than I already am."
"Then I'll see you when the duplicate gets here." Clark replied before pulling the phone away. He was about to disconnect the phone when he heard Danny speak in an almost panicked rush.
"Wait Clark?" The younger boy's voice came. "Can you pull a favour with Chloe and get her to look into something called piracetam? Thanks, gotta go, bye." And the line cut out. Clark frowned, looking between the ghost and the phone. Sighing he dialled Chloe's number, hoping that she wasn't too busy herself to oblige to Danny's strange request.
Line Break
Danny frowned as he slipped into the school. It was nearly an hour before classes started but he hadn't really been bothered to head back home after a rogue cow ghost had ended up near the school. It wasn't causing much harm, in fact it was probably just lost and had wandered through a portal accidentally. Danny had just sent it back to the Zone towards one of the farming areas there. His feet tapped loudly in the empty corridor as Danny made his way towards his locker, but Danny had decided to use the extra hour to try and get ahead on his English Lit work before he got bogged down with other work.
He was still very much mindful of the fact that he had to take a history test at lunch, but he figured that that sort of complication was just a part of his life. What did confuse him was the other three students who had been held back after school. Going into the holidays they'd been normal, if a little on the nerdy side. But now that they were back for the final term the three of them seemed to have picked up an attitude problem and... Danny frowned. It actually felt like the three of them were meteor infected.
Danny changed course, veering off towards the chem. Lab where the three of them spent most of their time. He didn't know what he was looking for, but the chances of all three of them becoming meteor infected separately over the break seemed unlikely, even to Danny. Absently he phased through the door, his eyes surveying the darkened room. He frowned once more, trying to figure out a good place to start.
Danny walked across to the bookshelf, noting which ones had more dust on them than others. Unfortunately that didn't tell him much other than that someone had been frequenting the books on the molecular structure of different drugs. That wasn't the most useful piece of information since those could have been pursued by any students, not just Konan, Zack and Ash. He shoved the book back on the shelf and moved over to the files of reports that students had written.
Here he had more success. Before the break the three of them had been looking into stimulants, specifically the field of nootropics. Danny wasn't particularly well versed in human medicine and what he did know was closer to trench medicine. But that did ring a vague bell. Danny half remembered Jazz going on about drugs in the nootropic family being used to treat things like dementia or concussions, basically neurological problems. But that didn't tell him much other than that they were looking at brain functioning.
Danny huffed, blowing long black strands out of his eyes as he put that file back. However he paused when he saw the file behind it. It was a research paper from a girl called Mandy Walsh to do with phenylethylamine. But Danny had heard about this one; the previous year some of the smarter cheerleaders had hashed onto the fact that kryptonite could affect and amplify the effects of the so called 'love drug'. It those three guys had seen that then it wasn't too much of a leap to guess that they were trying to replicate the effects with another drug.
Danny went back to the first paper, searching through it more thoroughly this time. He settled on a single product name; piracetam, and determined to do his own bit of investigation. Noting how close it was to the bell Danny slipped out of the classroom and made his way invisibly to a storage closet. Just as he was leaving his phone vibrated, and clanking at the caller he figured that it was probably something important.
"Hey Clark." He said, slipping through the crowd and back towards his locker.
"Danny." Clark replied "I ran into the Corn Ghost this morning. He's out cold for the moment, but..."
"But you were wondering if I could come and send him home?" Danny surmised, careful not to let anyone overhear him. He sighed, and slipped into an empty bathroom before duplicating. "I've got a duplicate coming your way, but I really gotta go." He told Clark. He was a bit distracted by the mystery of the chemistry boys, but couldn't do much about it just now. "Class is gonna start and I really can't afford to get into the black books more than I already am."
"Then I'll see you when the duplicate gets here." Clark replied. Danny frowned before he realised that maybe getting someone else in on this could help.
"Wait Clark?" Danny rushed, hopeful to catch Clark before his cousin hung up. "Can you pull a favour with Chloe and get her to look into something called piracetam?" He asked just as the bell rang. Hoping that it wouldn't come off as too rude, he rushed a goodbye before slipping out of the bathroom and off to math.
As usual he took his seat at the back of the room, but this time he felt the clear presence of three sets of eyes from across the room. Feigning nonchalance Danny focused on the teacher's steady drone, but he was highly aware that the gaze of those three boys did not leave him throughout the whole period. When the bell rand Danny deliberately waited; fully aware that those three were going to tail him until their test at lunch otherwise.
"Can I help you?" Danny asked, turning to face the self appointed ringleader Konan.
"Depends." The brown eyed boy replied. "What'd you do on the test yesterday?"
Danny raised an eyebrow. "I answered the questions."
"And yet you're stuck taking a retest with us at lunch." Zack added in.
"Seems so." Danny replied warily. He was certain of it now; all three of them were meteor infected. Danny just didn't know the exact specifics of their infection. "But I don't really care. They want to see we understand the stuff; it shouldn't matter if there's a retest. I'd prefer that to having Mr Paige thinking I cheated."
"See we have a different approach." Konan replied.
"We took the test, like everyone else." Ash supplemented. "It shouldn't matter that we know the textbook so well, only that we answered the question at all."
Danny shook his head disbelievingly. "So what? You can quote the textbook. The point of being here at all is to prove that you can learn, take deeper meaning from what we're being taught. If they want to test me again, that's fine. It doesn't hurt me to prove that I can meet their challenges."
"We're on academic probation." Zack hissed. "That's not a challenge, it's a mark of condemnation."
Danny sighed and turned to leave. "See it your way then." Danny commented. "I'll catch you all at lunch." He was halfway through the door when it slammed shut in front of him with a loud bang. Danny spun around to face the three chemistry boys once more. However he wasn't overly surprised by this development.
"Telekinesis, huh?" He commented mildly, meeting the three of them in the eyes. He grinned, flashing the three of them a bemused smile. "Intentional or side-effect?" But he didn't give them a chance to answer. Instead he pulled the door open and moved off to his next class.
He was halfway through his Lit class when his phone vibrated saying that he had a message. It was a simple request to give her a call in his next break which he was only too happy to oblige. The class ended quickly enough, and as soon as Danny was through the door he called his friend.
"Hey Chloe." He said upon hearing the blonde's cheerful answer. "Find anything?"
"A little." Chloe replied shortly. "You know it's sort of hard when you don't give me a direction to look in."
"I have my suspicions," Danny replied frowning. "I just hope I'm not right."
Chloe sighed audibly over the phone. "You're gonna have to catch me up later, Phantom, but I guess you wouldn't ask if it wasn't important."
"You happen to be fantastic at finding information in the Real World." Danny replied wryly. "Why would I pass up such a valuable resource?"
"Flattery will get you nowhere." The blonde flatly replied. "You owe me."
"So piracetam?" Danny pressed, shaking his head absently as he got back to the topic at hand.
"Piracetam is a common name for one of the most accessible drugs in the racetam family of nootropics." Chloe replied. "Chemical name 2-oxo-1-pyrrolidineacetamide, it's mostly used for the treatment of cognitive impairments and disorders."
"Anything about the effects on healthy people?" Danny pressed.
Chloe hummed once before replying. "The whole family is useful for helping memory. Recall, short term and long term memory, they can basically boost mental functioning."
"That's what I was afraid of." Danny frowned.
"What's going on, Danny?" Chloe's worried voice came over the phone.
Danny rubbed his eyes tiredly. "I think some of the people in my year have been playing with chemicals." He replied, shaking his head as he got to his locker. "Meteor rock and piracetam. At least now I know how the three of them quoted the textbook in history."
"They're using it to cheat?" Chloe demanded incredulously. "And they got away with it?"
"No actually." Danny replied, pulling out his next textbook and stuffing it in his bag. "Mr Paige is suspicious of them. All four of us are taking a retest at lunch."
"Why are you being included?" Chloe pushed. And Danny could almost hear an echo of Sam in her sceptical disbelief.
"'Cos apparently the answers I gave were too well thought out. I don't really care, it's just extra practice." Danny shrugged, slinging his backpack over his shoulder.
"Alright Danny" Chloe replied, and Danny could tell she was rolling her eyes from wherever she was currently working. "Just be careful."
"When am I not?" Danny retorted, grinning. "See you later Chloe." He said before hanging up and sliding into his third period class. He wasn't late yet, but the glare the teacher gave him told Danny that he was cutting it a bit fine. Danny shook his head as he pulled out the textbook, sighing heavily as he stared blankly at the projector. Now he pretty much knew what Konan and his friends were up to. He just hoped that they would take this advantage for what it was, not abuse what they'd done to themselves.
However, as the bell signalling the beginning of lunch rung he froze; a deep chill running down his spine and telling him that someone nearby was in danger. Danny gulped, racing to follow the trace, but there were too many eyes and the hallways were too crowded for him to use any of his powers. So he ran, pushing through the crowd with barely present touches of intangibility. Absently he noted that the pull was drawing him towards Mr Paige's office, and his eyes widened in realisation. With a final burst of speed he pushed his way through the last vestiges of the lunch crowd and sent Mr Paige's office door flying open.
Mr Paige was pressed back against the far wall, his eyes wide in fear as he met Danny's gaze. Konan Zack and Ash were standing aggressively in front of Mr Paige, Konan's hand stretched menacingly as a sharp shard of metal floated dangerously close to the teacher's neck. As he watched the sharp tip pressed in, drawing a thin line of blood.
"Fenton!" Ash exclaimed, spinning around abruptly at the sound of the door slamming against the wall. Konan however seemed unaffected by Danny's entrance.
"So nice of you to join us, Danny-boy." The brown eyed boy said coldly, turning to face Danny with his hand still stretched towards Mr Paige's throat. The look of menace in the teen's eyes mounted and Danny stepped forward just as the office door slammed closed behind him.
"What do you want, Konan." Danny replied, carefully edging his way towards the teacher. However the wasn't expecting a quick gesture from Zack which sent a chair crashing into him. Danny's back slammed hard against the wall, but he was beside Mr Paige now.
"Not much." Konan replied, cocking his neck dangerously to the side. "Just the academic respect for the effort we have put in. This is our final year, Fenton, and everything in our future comes from what happens now."
Danny slid up the wall until he was standing beside his teacher. He hated this, at the moment there was very little he could do. His core was screaming for him to protect his teacher, but nearly everything he could think of would involve seriously hurting his human peers.
"You should have tried to earn it, not take shortcuts." Danny replied hotly.
"What would you know Fenton? You come here and manage to get yourself skipped ahead." Zack retorted angrily.
Danny felt his eyes darken as the memory of an aborted dark future crossed his mind. The blackened skeleton of the Nasty Burger and a world laid to waste in unrepentant vengeance. "I know plenty." Danny replied darkly. "Enough to know that what you want won't get you anywhere."
"And whose gonna stop us?" Konan asked. "You?" Suddenly there was a broken chair leg floating before his eyes, the splintered end jutting out towards him menacingly. Danny frowned and knocked the chair leg out of the way. And suddenly things were happening very quickly.
Ash threw his arm up and the desk wobbled as it pulled up from the floor. A strained look crossed the boy's eyes as he pushed the limits of his telekinetic power. Zack saw what he was trying to do and joined in, the desk hovering over the floor. Danny saw a silent signal pass between them and all he got was an intense demand from his core to PROTECT. And suddenly the desk was slamming into his back as Danny protected his teacher with his body.
He felt the desk splinter around him, pushing him further into the wall as his arms braced protectively around the middle-aged teacher. Sensing that the danger was gone Danny pushed back, stumbling slightly on the debris as he backed up. He offered a hand to his dazed teacher, helping the man stand up.
"What just happened?" Mr Paige asked, staring blankly at his destroyed office.
"You're safe." Danny replied. "I'm gonna take you to the nurse, okay?" Mr Paige just nodded blankly and let Danny half carry him towards the nurse's office. Mercifully the hallways were clear, most of the students seemed to have determined that it was nicer outside today so there was no one to ask questions about why Danny was carrying a limping teacher through the school.
Danny left Mr Paige in the nurse's office with a quick explanation that some of the students had gotten aggressive about a retest and had started throwing furniture around. Mr Paige still looked out of it, and Danny was starting to wonder if he had been hit on the head before Danny arrived. Danny frowned, focusing on the next task at hand. He needed to find Konan and his friends before they took things any further than they already had.
He sped through the deserted corridors of Smallville high, trying to pick up on where the three of them could have gone. He skidded to an abrupt stop when he sensed them; three meteor infected people close together, and all mentally unstable and borderline psychopathic. He turned around and raced towards them, shaking his head when he realised that they were in the chemistry lab. He pushed the door open, startling the three of them away from a lab table, a single green pill left in between them.
"How...?" Ash began, staring confusedly at him, but he was quickly cut off by Konan.
"You just don't know when to quit, do you Fenton?" The brown eyed boy hissed, jerking his neck sideways. A glass beaker filled with bubbling blue liquid came flying towards Danny, but Danny wasn't taking any chances. He ducked and heard the glass shatter behind him, and the scent of burning paint leapt into the air.
"Never have." Danny replied, as though that hadn't just happened. "You should stop this, Konan." Danny reasoned. "It's not gonna help you get ahead. That's why you wanted this, isn't it?" Konan paused, staring at Danny. But Danny couldn't figure out what was going through the senior's mind. "I promise you that this isn't gonna work. People won't respect you, they'll fear you, hate you for being different."
"What makes you think that?" Zack hissed. "We're smarter, than them, better."
"Humans are predictable." Danny replied sadly. "If they can't understand something they either destroy it or try to overcome it."
"Enough!" Konan interrupted. "We are superior to them, and nothing is gonna stop us from taking the future we want!" He flicked his wrist and another beaker suddenly flew towards Danny, shattering loudly as he dodged it. What he hadn't expected was the second beaker which crashed right into his chest, eating away at the fabric of his shirt and scorching at his flesh as the acid bit into him.
There was a shocked silence from the three chemistry boys as his shirt disappeared, revealing the still healing scar from his vivisection. Three sets of eyes widened in simultaneous horror as they recognised it for what it was. Ash gasped, his glasses crashing to the floor as he backed away in revulsion.
Danny however chose to use this, ignoring the pain as the acid still burned at his skin. "Superior gets you nowhere if you get caught."
"Christ, Fenton. What happened?" Zack murmured in dumbfounded horror.
"Eventful holidays" Danny replied. He didn't think he could handle the mental scars from what had happened, and at the moment he had other things to worry about.
"We won't get caught." Konan spat, coming out of his shock. "I don't know what you did to yourself, but if you're stupid enough to end up like that then you don't deserve any sort of power." Konan smirked darkly, his arm held out towards a rack of chemicals. Suddenly large tubs of acid were flying towards Danny who only turned intangible to avoid them. What he hadn't expected was for the acid to hit a store of bases behind him. Suddenly there was a loud explosion as the opposing chemicals attempted to neutralise each other, and Danny found himself defending the three boys with an ectoplasmic shield as an explosion rocked out from the epicentre of their carelessness.
The green shield dropped, but Danny gasped as a shard of glass stabbed into his back. He turned around and saw the wide eyed stare of Ask and Zack as they glanced between Konan and Danny. They backed away, retreating to the far corner of the room and leaving Danny facing a seething Konan. The brown eyed boy was panting heavily, and beads of sweat laced his forehead. But undeterred he jerked his head, and Danny was assaulted by an onslaught of Lab equipment.
Danny closed his eyes, trying very hard not to lose his temper. Konan was human, and using ghost powers on a human was not something Danny was ready to do. Danny turned intangible, allowing the equipment to phase through him and crash harmlessly against the wall. The shard of glass still lodged deeply in his back fell to the floor with a loud clamour. Konan's eyes seethed with rage, and suddenly the air was filled with a whirling vortex of debris. It whirled around the two of them as Konan circled Danny almost predatorily.
"I've had enough." Danny said coldly. Danny felt his eyes flare into a dark shade of silver as everything in the room froze. Konan's eyes widened as he tried to force his telekinesis to work, Danny felt the tug as the debris strained against his control, but he was in power now. Konan grunted, his eyebrow creased in concentration.
"I have tried negotiating with you, but you will not listen." Danny continued, lowering everything down to the ground. "If you continue down this path you will only hurt yourself so I'm gonna give you one last chance."
"Never, freak!" Konan hissed and with one last burst of concentration the entire storage cabinet came away from the wall, flying solidly towards the two of them. There was an almighty crash as it slammed into the two of them. Danny tried to phase through, but cried out in agony as he felt like he was being assaulted with vicious electricity. A small shower of kryptonite pebbles flew out over the two of them, and Danny felt reality blur as the pain overwhelmed him.
Danny gasped, his eyes forced shut in agony but he somehow gained enough sentience to pull himself away from the cabinet. The kryptonite fell off him; landing with soft plinks on the floor. Danny stepped away, warily eyeing the far corner of the room where Ash and Zack were huddled fearfully in the corner. Danny took in a deep breath before turning back to the cabinet. Carefully he pushed it off Konan who was now unconscious, a large gash on his head.
Danny pulled the unconscious boy away from the debris before carefully going over his injuries. Danny frowned before looking over at Ash and Zack. "In my backpack is a first aid kit." Danny commented, indicating the part of the room near the door where his backpack had been thrown free. His own wounds were already healing to the point where they were superficial at worst, but Konan was in pretty bad shape. Zack raced over to get it, but Ash hesitantly stepped over towards Danny.
"Why?" Ash asked, his eyes were slightly unfocused as the short-sighted boy watched Danny strip off Konan's shirt. There was a large bruise blossoming on his chest, probably indicative of cracked ribs, and the boy's left arm had a greenstick fracture.
"Because it's the right thing to do." Danny replied softly, taking the first aid kit off of Zack. Danny did the best he could in patching the battered boy up, but he would still need a visit to Smallville Medical Centre. The two conscious meteor infected boys watched him silently as he worked over their friend. However without Konan there to lead them they weren't quite so volatile.
"I still don't get it." Zack said. "I mean, I saw that shield, and the way you just stopped Konan's telekinesis. If you have that sort of power, why don't you use it to your advantage? Why help Konan after what he did to you?"
"Look," Danny said eventually. "To me it doesn't matter what he's done; only that he needs help and I can give it. There's no point in revenge since it only hurts you worse in the end." Danny sighed and shifted mental gears. "I get what you wanted to achieve, but toying with meteor rocks is never a good idea. They have a negative impact on human psychology, and I'm sorry to say but the more you rely on a meteor power, the more it changes you."
Danny turned his attention fully towards Ash and Zack who both seemed to have been disillusioned by Konan's display. "What do you... what do you mean?" Zack gulped, eyeing his fallen comrade.
"The short answer is that the meteor rocks push people towards the psychopathic end of the personality scale." Danny replied.
"Then how are you not affected?" Ash asked. "I mean, you clearly use your power all the time."
Danny chose not to answer as he pulled his spare shirt from his backpack. Instead he shook his head as he dialled 911. Konan would need serious medical attention soon, and Danny wasn't able to give it to him. Unfortunately the three of them would probably wind up in Belle Reve. And the sad thing was that in talking to Zack and Ash Danny could see that they were more level headed than Konan was.
Danny looked between them sadly. "The three of you attacked a teacher." He said despondently. "And unfortunately that means that you're gonna have to deal with the consequences."
Zack frowned and nodded. "I don't really even know why we thought it would be a good idea." He said, his red hair flopping into his eyes. Both he and Ash were covered in shallow cuts from the flying debris, and Danny carefully pulled a bit of glass out from some of the cuts. It seemed like all three of them would end up in Smallville Medical, but maybe Danny could change what happened from there.
"Do you mean that?" Danny asked, looking Zack in the eyes. The red haired boy nodded determinedly, and Ash did the same. Danny sighed, running a hand through his hair. "What exactly did you do to get your powers?" He asked.
"We combined 2-oxo-1-pyrrolidineacetamide with a powder made from refined meteor rocks." Ash supplied. "Condensed the two together and then made them into a pill that would deliver a small dose equally over twelve daily instalments. Konan said that would make it permanent."
"And how many have you had?" Danny asked.
"We suspect that Konan started two days before us, but we were all close to the end." Zack answered, eyeing Konan sadly.
"I don't know what I can do for Konan." Danny commented sadly. It wasn't an idea that he liked, but he had to accept that Konan was too far gone. "And the meteor rocks are probably integrated into your system now. I don't think I can change that. But you're not the first people to become meteor infected and need help for it, there're a lot of people in Belle Reve that are in the same situation."
Danny rubbed his eyes tiredly, trying to come up with a viable solution. "I don't know how you can escape some form of psycho-evaluation. That'd happen regardless of your powers." They both nodded in saddened understanding, it was a harsh reality but there was little any of them could do as things were. "The best I can recommend is to keep a level head. You can still use your powers, but don't rely on them. If you do that then it's possible the effects of your piracetam usage will fade, and hopefully you can come back to school."
"Thanks, Fenton." Zack said with a sad smile. "We'll try that."
"Thanks for..." Ash trailed, but it was clear that he didn't know how to finish. And Danny felt a guilty twinge that he wasn't able to do more. He opened his mouth to say anything, but was unable to continue the paramedics arrived, pushing the lab door open with a loud bang and moving Konan's limp form onto a stretcher.
Danny followed them out of the building and watched as Ash and Zack took a seat beside Konan in the ambulance. The two conscious boys waved at him as the ambulance pulled away, disappearing through the small confused crowd that had gathered around at the sight of the emergency vehicle. Danny turned away slowly, making his way back towards his locker. His secret was still largely safe, and Mr Paige was in good health. Ash and Zack would get treatment that could really help them and they'd probably even be able to come back to school. So why did it feel so much like he'd failed?
Line Break
Clark sighed as he padded up to the barn loft. Chloe had driven around as soon as she finished work at the Planet and they had decided to meet up in the barn. Clark had been working all day, ever since Danny's duplicate had appeared to send the Corn Ghost back into the Zone. It was still weird to think that Danny could be in two places at once, but the fact that the duplicate disappeared as soon as the ghost was gone reminded Clark of the high cognitive load that doing that must take.
Clark shook his head as he reached the top of the stairs, surprised to see Danny and Chloe talking together side by side on the sofa. Danny looked tired, as though the day had been more exhausting than usual. That in itself was unusual since the boy seemed to have a near endless reserve of energy unless he was facing a major ghost.
"Mr Paige is fine now," Danny said with a small shrug as he answered Chloe. "And Konan is probably gonna wind up in Belle Reve. It's Zack and Ash I'm worried about."
"What happened?" Clark asked, pulling out the desk chair so he could sit facing them. He was a bit lost since really the last he'd heard from either of them had been that morning when Danny had asked him to call Chloe about piracetam.
"A couple of the kids at the school infected themselves with kryptonite and then went psychotic on one of the teachers." Chloe explained.
"The sad thing is that two of them seemed to have been duped into it." Danny added on.
"They'll be okay." Chloe consoled. "You did your best and now they're in professional care."
"That's usually the best you can hope for when it comes to meteor freaks." Clark added on.
Danny sighed heavily. "I know." He admitted. "It's just a different reality to Amity Park used to be."
"You don't get to choose who you save." Chloe commented sagely. "That's just a part of the hero business. But sometimes you need to be ready to let other people do the saving."
Clark nodded in agreement. "Sometimes I hate that I can't do more." He admitted. "But I know it's better to let people get the help they really need than for me to do it myself and end up doing more damage."
"Clark's right." Chloe said, laying a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder. "You've kept them safe from themselves for now, and it sounds like you showed Ash and Zack where they were wrong. Now it has to be up to them to make the choice for themself."
Danny smiled. "I guess they did deserve a second chance."
Clark smiled at his cousin, glad to see that he was okay. "Right, and you've given that to them."
Chloe smiled. "Now, I think that yesterday you promised to tell me about taking Ember to a renaissance fair?"
Chloe creased his eyebrow at the non-sequitur, but understood when Danny's face immediately brightened. Clark was aware that Danny had told Chloe his secret, and he was glad that Danny had finally decided to trust them enough to do it. It seemed to have taken a large weight off his shoulders, and despite what had happened earlier in the day, there was a new sparkle in his eyes. He seemed more relaxed, and Clark was happy that his younger cousin was letting himself be himself around them.
"Well..." Danny trailed. "It's not precisely a renaissance fair so much as a medieval kingdom located in the Zone."
Clark understood immediately and latched onto what Danny was saying. "It's called Aragon, and apparently Danny is a knight there." Clark added, happy to be able to embarrass his cousin a little. Predictably the boy blushed and Clark couldn't help but laugh a little at his discomfort.
"You're a knight?" Chloe asked. "I thought the costume change was just for looks."
Danny shook his head. "Not entirely." He explained. "A few months before the meteor strike Tuck made a comment that the Hazmat suit was... not really appropriate... anymore." His ears reddened as he admitted it. "So Sam, Tuck and I tried a couple of things out, but stuff from the human world didn't want to stick to my ghost form. Sam suggested we look in the Zone, and so I went to Aragon."
Danny shifted into his ghost form almost absently. "Dora and Sam had a lot of fun designing the new costume, although I think Sam wanted it to be a bit more contemporary looking, but Dora won that argument. That said; Sam was the one who designed my cloak and that's probably my favourite part of this outfit."
"It actually suits you." Chloe commented.
"That's what Sam said when Dora was finished with me." Danny replies, cocking his head curiously to the side. Clark was intrigued, it seemed like maybe there was more to the relationship between the two of them was strictly platonic if Danny was drawing parallels between Chloe and Sam. Danny shook his head, absently touching his hand to his necklace. It was visible now, pulled out from beneath where it usually hid under his shirt.
"Where'd the ring go?" Chloe asked, looking at the necklace. Danny blinked.
"It's a real world object." Danny replied. "The sword and the symbol were both made in the Zone, but the ring was made here. When I shift forms the necklace stays because it was designed to, but the ring was a later addition. It was Sam's."
Clark already knew that, having asked some months before. Chloe nodded, hearing the undertone in Danny's slightly sad voice. It may have been over nine months since they had died, but it still affected him to live without his childhood friends and his family.
"And you said that Ember was probably went along to 'see-how-badly-Danny-goes-when-he-tries-to-show-off'." Chloe pressed as a seeming distraction, but Clark saw the clear interest as well as perhaps a slight twinge of jealousy in her voice.
"Well, it was a spur of the moment contest." Danny said, rubbing the back of his neck. "Dora wanted to celebrate and there weren't many people around."
"So you beat what, fifteen people?" Clark asked.
"There were only ten of us." Danny defended. "It wasn't like I had much competition."
Clark grinned at Danny's embarrassment. "Months ago I ended up in the Zone when he was learning a new power." Clark explained, looking more at Chloe and ignoring Danny's discomfort. "While he was training he ended up having a sword fight with his teacher. It was... pretty amazing." Clark admitted.
"I think Frostbite was just going easy on me." Danny groused.
"You've been into the Ghost Zone?" Chloe pressed, immediately latching onto Clark's comment.
Clark nodded. "But only once." He conceded after a moment.
"And only under extraneous circumstances" Danny added. "For the most part humans, or well, anything from the Real World isn't allowed in the Zone. In a ghost's private lair there are exceptions, and the rulers of various principalities can make their own rules, but it's a huge transgression to allow living people free access to the Zone in general."
"Do you have a lair?" Chloe asked. "Wait; how do you even get into the Ghost Zone? Is it like Clark's Fortress where you can only get in by a special access like the keyhole in the cave?"
"I can get into the Zone whenever I want; I know how to make portals between the two worlds." Danny answered. "And no, I don't have a lair. I actually haven't been a ghost for all that long and with the amount of time I spend in the Real World there's a lot about ghost culture and rules that I'm behind on."
"Really?" Chloe pressed. "'cos you seem to know a lot. I mean, you had that book all that time ago, and you get on well with ghosts like Ember."
Danny laughed. "I didn't used to. Back in Amity she hated my guts. A lot of my earliest problems with the ghosts were down to me accidentally treading on peoples' toes."
Clark and Chloe shared a look before the two of them laughed. It was so different from the Danny they knew, but at the same time Clark could see that in him. For all the power that he had as a half ghost, there were times where he was a bit clueless. So his saying that he offended people just for not knowing the rules was not much of a surprise.
Danny just shook his head at the two of them before slipping off the couch. "I'm gonna go make dinner." He said, shifting back to his human form. "Chloe, you're welcome to stay, but can you ask Clark to stop being such a jerk."
Chloe shook his head as the two of them watched him leave. "I'm glad he told me." Chloe admitted after a minute. "I mean, not just because I prefer not being kept in the dark, but because it means that he's ready to trust again."
"I know what you mean." Clark replied, staring down the stairs where his cousin had just passed. "I'm glad he did too. I never realised how much he was bottling up until it was too late."
"He wanted to handle things alone." Chloe said. "You've done the same thing."
"Yeah, but now he has us. He doesn't have to do things alone." Clark replied.
"You're right." Chloe agreed, stepping up from the sofa and heading across towards the stairs. "He does have us. And now it's our turn to prove that he was right to put his trust in us."
Clark smiled before following after her. It was clear to Clark now that Danny did the right thing in telling Chloe. Clark had been worried that all she'd see was the hero 'Phantom', and that the human side of Danny would be lost in that huge shadow. But it was clear that not only did Chloe accept Danny for whom and what he was; she saw that for all his heroics he was still Danny. He was still the boy who had come to their home all those months ago when his family was gone, still the boy who had helped her on Christmas eve and had helped out when Simone was hypnotising people. And for all his own worries, for himself, his cousin and the rest of Smallville, Clark was glad to know that despite everything he could always rely on Chloe.
Clark smiled at that thought. His blonde friend, who had kissed him all those years ago in this very loft, was one of the most remarkable people he had ever known. And every day he was glad to have her in his life. Clark smiled as he heard Danny call out to say that dinner was ready. Few people could learn what Chloe had about both him and his cousin and see through it to the people they were belief. For him and Danny, trust was one of the most sacred aspects of their lives. To have someone as amazing as Chloe, who could know about them and accept them as the people they were, it was one of the most wonderful feelings in the world.
Clark smiled as he came into the house; watching the way seamless Danny and Chloe seemed to work around each other in setting up and serving the meal. Danny was special, unique to the world as the only halfa in existence. But Chloe was amazing just for being the kind and accepting person that she was. And as they sat down for a meal together Clark couldn't help the warm sensation of contentment that rose in his chest, a feeling telling him that, for the first time in a long time, everything was somehow going to work out alright.
AN; I wanted a break from the real serious stuff that we've been having so far and this is sorta what happened...
Anyway, nootropics are a type of performance enhancing drug specifically designed to enhance brain function. Lots of stimulants fall under the same category, but there are some that are genuinely designed to help people remember things faster and more reliably.
I acknowledge that this plot is not up to my usual standard, but I am supposed to be studying for exams so was a little distracted.
Thank you all for reading,
Bluerose