Opening Ceremonies 2: Reunions

To start off with, Danny had kept a pretty low profile. He'd worn a large hat and shades, which had kept the other students from recognizing him. The ride on the bus had been blissfully uneventful. The badge his parents had given him to allow him to pass through the Ghost Shield had even worked.

And then he'd met his parents outside the front doors.

"Danny!" Jack called his son over, bursting with pride, "Don't be shy son, look at all the people who want to meet you!"

"Uh…" the teen murmured, glancing at the small group of parents. Obviously, his own parents had been talking to them about him.

Maddie pulled him over to talk before he could protest, and Danny spent the next few minutes dutifully answering the same questions people had asked him again and again since the Disasteroid incident. The ceremony couldn't start soon enough.

Unfortunately, that was still a few minutes off, an Jack was now introducing his son to a tall man in a white suit and a luchador mask.

"Danny, this is White Pantera, he's going to be one of your teachers!"

"It is an honor to meet a talented, young, upstanding hero such as yourself!" The teacher shook his hand excitedly. "Isn't that right?" he turned happily to his family.

"Eh?" An old man in a sombrero hurriedly tried to hide a small ectogun he had clearly pinched off Jack. "Jes, jes, quite an honor."

"So, you're Danny Phantom?" White Pantera's son shook his hand next. He was a short teenager in a brown tiger-themed costume. "That's cool, man. I'm El Tigre."

"Uh, thanks El Tigre." Danny replied.

"So, your ghost powers helped you save the world, huh?"

The halfa sighed and prepared for yet another explanation of how he'd turned the earth intangible. "Yeah, well, you see I—"

"But can they do this?" Tigre asked, suddenly jumping into the air. One of his gloves sprang from his arm, grabbing an overhanging support beam. He grappled up by the attached chain, and pulled himself up and over the beam, using the momentum to sail over into the nearest bus, where he expertly bounced off and landed back in front of Danny, finishing off with a loud tiger's roar.

Danny stood stunned for a second before laughing. "Nope, can't do that."

"Manuel Pablo Gutierrez O'Brian Equihua Rivera!" White Pantera scolded his son. "This is not the time or place to be showing off."

"No, it's ok. That was cool!" Danny assured the teacher.

"Yeah, well, I have been training since I was eight." Manny dusted himself off smugly.

Unfortunately, there were still plenty of people who wanted a turn to talk to Danny Phantom. But Danny decided to look this El Tigre up after the ceremony. He seemed like an exciting guy, if a bit of a show off.

The ghost boy was about to start another round of introductions when something collided with his upper back.

"Danny!" A familiar young girl's voice chirruped in his ear as he was toppled to the ground, "You are here!"

"Danielle?" the older halfa gasped. He turned over to see his cross-gender clone crouching over him… and his parents giving her an odd look. Oh boy. This was going to be awkward.

"Huh. That uniform looks kinda familiar…" Jack observed, scratching his chin thoughtfully.

"Danny, who is this?" Maddie asked, "And why does she bare more than a passing resemblance to your ghost form?"

"Oh, I'm his second-cousin's aunt's daughter." Danielle lied, not realizing his parents would see right through it.

"Danny doesn't have a second cousin's aunt's daughter." Mrs. Fenton said, looking to her son for an explanation.

He glanced around at the curious crowd. "Not here, not in front of all these people."

At that moment, Danny was momentarily saved from the awkward situation of explaining his clone to his parents when the opening ceremony started.

"Hello, my name is Mineral Man, and it's my great honor to welcome you to the inaugural ceremony of this institution.

"About a year ago, I, like many of the other teachers here," He turned and gestured to the row of teachers sitting behind him, where Danny could see White Pantera from before. "was asked if I would be interested in teaching at a school for children and young adults with super powers. My old 'day job' was as a science teacher at a high school, so I was more than happy to come. It's taken many people many hours of work to get this school ready, and to select you students from the hundreds of applicants across North America. You should all be proud to have made it this far.

"You can all rest assured, that even though this is the first time most of us have done anything like this, you'll be getting the best education we can provide. It's now my honor to introduce the one responsible for ensuring this, your principal, Miss Carmen Seingado!"

Everyone applauded as a woman with dark brown hair stood up to the podium. "Welcome, you lucky, talented few, to the school with no name, the first super-school in North America. I know that you all have special talents and abilities that set you apart from the world, and that some of you may feel like outcasts because of it. The goal of this school is to teach you to use your powers for the betterment of mankind."

Danny found himself paying less and less attention to the speech after that. Not that it wasn't inspiring or anything, he just had other things on his mind. Like the fact that his parents kept on glancing at the twelve-year-old ghost girl sitting beside him. After the speech there was more applause, and finally everyone got up to take part in the refreshments before leaving on a tour of the campus in half an hour.

The Fentons gave their son a stern look as they stood up. The ghost boy sighed and led them to a corner of the hangar that was far enough from the crowds that no one would overhear them.

"Ok, mom, dad… Dani… Danielle is… my cross-gender clone."

"What!?" Jack and Maddie both exclaimed in shock.

Danny began to explain, as delicately as he could, how Vlad had been trying to clone him, and how Danielle had been the only one to exhibit an appreciable amount of free-will. Dani just sat and watched the Fentons reactions as he told the story. She apparently had nothing to add.

The older halfa also watched his parents closely once he finished. How were they going to react? Anger? Fear? Disgust? He was surprised when Maddie's first reaction was to grasp Danielle in a hug.

"Oh, you poor, poor girl!" She choked back tears, "I can only imagine what you had to go through!"

"Oh, uh…" Danielle didn't know what to make of her embrace. "Well, it was bad… but I can take care of myself."

Danny continued to watch Jack, who still had a rather dumbfounded look on his face.

"Uh… Dad?" The ghost boy asked worriedly, "Are you ok? This isn't freaking you out too much is it?"

"I have another kid." His father replied hoarsely after a few seconds.

"What?"

"Sufferin' Spooks! I have another daughter!" Jack pulled Dani into another hug (she had only just squirmed out of Maddie's grasp).

"Uh, sir, I'm not sure that's how it works." She said breathlessly.

"You're made from Danny's DNA, which came from Maddie and me, it's close enough." Jack reasoned. "Haha! Wait 'til Jazzy-pants hears about this!"