Hi Peoples!
"The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life." Richard Bach
Now…
I own nothing you may recognize and some things you won't.
The Dark Phantom:: Book One: Growing Pains:: Chapter 9
20th Oct.
"DANNY! COME DOWN HERE!"
The black-haired child glances up from the letter he is copying, looks back down to place his pencil, and then walks down the stairs. He's greeted by a few piles of boxes that turn the living room into a maze.
"Danny, come help with Halloween decorations. We'll be setting up most of them. Jack, go get the projector from the fighting simulator and set it up, so it looks like spiders are infesting the house."
"On it, Mads!" The man-child booms before darting down to the lab.
"Danny, come help me get the decorations out of these boxes."
"Wha bout school?"
She gives the child a slight glare, "You never go. Therefore, you don't care." She goes back to digging around in the box. "Come help me."
He frowns at her. He cares. He enjoys learning his letters. He would just like to have at least one meal daily. It's not his fault that the school calls them when he's with Em in the mornings; also, engines are fun to take apart.
Cobwebs are everywhere, spiders too; the house looks to be infested with them. The headless pig hanging in the living room is a little strange, and so are the purple and orange lights outside, but somehow it works.
The small child grabs a baking book from the shelf of cookbooks and finds a Halloween cookie recipe. He looks at the recipe; c-u-p-s is a measuring amount, right? He looks in the drawer of colorful tools and finds some with labels that match what the book asks for. He then goes around grabbing ingredients that he manages to sound out.
He follows the instructions as well as he can but can't read half of them. When he goes to pour some flour into a measuring cup, it goes everywhere.
The flour-covered child glances around the white kitchen and sighs; he needs to clean up. He grabs a mop, broom, and tub. He fills the tub with water from the bathtub and rolls it outside the kitchen. He then takes the broom and sets to work cleaning the flour.
BRUSH, BRUSH, BRUS –
"GHOST!" Jack comes barreling up the lab stairs with an ecto-gun in hand and charges into the kitchen, ecto-gun aimed at the back wall. "EAT HOT ECTO-PLASM GHOST!"
He trips on the bucket, and an ecto-blast flies straight and true.
25th Oct.
THUD, THUD
The small child comes barreling into the room and dives into the pantry. He emerges with something clutched in his hand and then storms out of the room.
SLAM
"What?" The red-headed girl asks herself. "I wonder where he is going."
WEE WOO, WEE WOO
The child stops running and stares in the direction the loud car went. He looks at the wisp that just caught up. It flashes at him, letting out a trill; curious, hesitant.
"I know Em waiting. Wanna know." The child pouts.
He flickers invisible.
A dingy old black car zips down the street; a man hangs out the passenger window shooting at the cop cars in pursuit.
The car starts to slow down.
"WHAT THE FUCK?"
"WHY ARE WE SLOWING DOWN?"
"I DON'T KNOW!"
Danny sees Em sitting on a park bench, staring off into space, a book on her lap and a frown on her face. He plops next to her.
She startles. "OH! SHI – could you not suddenly turn visible while sitting next to me?"
He looks down. "Oops."
She stares, "Oops? I'm guessing you didn't mean to then." She sighs. "Where've you been anyways? I've been waiting fooooreeeever."
"Have not."
"Well, you're late, like really late." She looks at her watch. "Half an hour late!"
"I thou more?"
"Nope! Wait, what?"
"I thou – "
"No, no, I got that much, but why?"
"Waked late, avoid Jack, food, loud noise car and… chase?" He holds up a tube.
"Why do you have a fuel line? Also, why are you avoiding your dad?"
He violently shakes his head. "Not dad." He shrugs. "Shot me." Cocks his head to the side. "Car chase?"
"WHAT! Your dad should not be shooting you!" She yells as she bolts to her feet, staring down at the now glaring child.
"Not. Dad."
She relaxes slightly. "Explain, please."
He releases a sigh as his glare drops. "Not dad, not mom. No mom or dad. They no care. Jazz care more."
She sits back down. "You poor child. Did – did Jack hit you? Are you hurt?" She looks over him carefully, like she expects to find an injury.
"Ecto-weapons hurt like hell, but no injury."
She lets off a sigh, then lays a look at him. "Language."
"Not mom." Even as he crosses his arms, he has a slight grin.
"Well, someone will have to teach you not to speak like that. Guess it's going to have to be me."
He looks at her and cocks his head. "Learned from you?"
Her eyes widen. "Well, sh – you know what, don't repeat anything I say."
He grins and chirps back, "Repeat."
She huffs a laugh. "All right, you little sh – squirt, let's get going."
The sun is bright in the sky as the crisp chill bites right through light jackets. The three-year-old laughs as he bobs and weaves through the crowd making it difficult for the brown-eyed woman to follow.
"DANNY, SLOW DOWN!" She yells at the child. "WE DON'T HAVE TO RUSH!"
"NO!" The child shouts back, ducking to avoid hitting a man in front of him. "I WANNA BE THERE NOW!"
She huffs a laugh, glad the conversation from earlier didn't ruin the day. The little one pops up next to her. He's bouncing up and down.
"We'll be there soon."
"YAY!"
"EM! EM! WE'RE HERE! WE'RE HERE!" He's tugging on her arm, once again bouncing.
He takes off as soon as they hit City Center. He's over by the boxes of decorations set out for volunteers. She heads closer to the center of the crowd.
A volunteer notices her. "I'm guessing you're here to help with the city-wide decoration effort?"
"Yeah, I'm with the little one over in the boxes."
"All right, the woman in the brown dress has the sign-up sheet."
"Thanks." She glances towards the boxes and rolls her eyes when she doesn't see Danny. She looks back to where the volunteer had been. "Weird. DANNY, GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE!"
"I NO DONKEY!"
"When did he – never mind. NO? WELL, GET OVER HERE ANYWAY!"
She's looking around when she feels a tug on her shirt. Her smile widens. "Took you long enough."
He grins up at her, and she leads them over to the woman sitting at a table in a brown dress.
"Hi, we're here to help decorate?"
"Welcome, welcome!" The older woman smiles at Em. "Just put your names – Hi Danny!"
"Hi Mrs. Cleaverwood!" He gives a wave.
"Where is Jazz at?"
"At home. Reading."
"Ah." Mrs. Cleaverwood looks back at Em. "Just put your names next to a street or building, grab a box, and head to your location to get started."
Em jots down their names next to a street, then gets dragged away by the child.
"Thanks." Em throws over her shoulder.
"You're welcome."
"This one – no this one – no this one!"
Em is laughing, her whole body shaking. "M-maybe you s-should, haha, j-just pick o-one."
Icy blue eyes peek over a pile of boxes and blink at her. "Buuuut which ooooone?"
She picks up a random box. "H-how 'bout t-this one?"
He pops up next to her. "OKAY!"
"A-all right s-speedy, let's g-go."
He takes off into the boxes. She rolls her eyes and follows.
"DANNY, GET DOWN FROM THERE!"
"NO!"
"HOW DO YOU KEEP GETTING UP THERE?"
"NONEA YOUR!"
"Yes, yes, it is."
"NO!"
The sun is high in the sky when she sighs, puts a hand on her hip, and looks at the small child on top of the light post.
"Seriously, how do you keep getting up there?" She blinks. "Oh wait, you can fly. Wait… is that how you get in so many weird places?"
The child grins down at her.
"Things make sooooo much more sense. Anyway, you need to get down if you want to make cookies."
"NOOOOOO!"
"Yes."
"COOKIES!" Comes from right next to her as she starts to walk away.
She grins down at him. "Cookies are an excellent bribe against you. The quicker we decorate my house, the quicker you get cookies."
"YAY!"
"So, all the boxes are in the attic, and I'll go up there. I'll hand them down, and you put them in the living room. That okay with you?"
"Yep!"
He's making his way back to the ladder when he gasps, his breath visible for a moment.
Em is looking down, waiting for him. "What was that?"
"Do – "
"BEWARE, FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST! I WILL TAKE THESE BOXES OOOOOF, DOOOOOOM!"
"DON'T YOU DARE!"
The boxes are starting to levitate around the pudgy blue man. She drops down on top of the man, bringing him to the ground. He goes through her, down the hall, and into the living room. Boxes follow him. She takes off after him.
She enters the room and uses the wall to make a flying roundhouse kick to the back of the ghost's head.
"GET THE HELL OUT OF MY HOUSE, AND DON'T YOU DARE COME BACK!"
"BEEEEWARE, FOR I, THE BOX GHOST, HAVE ONLY TEMPORARILY BEEN DEFEATED BY A MERE MORTAL AND WILL BE BACK FOR THESE WONDERFUL BOXES OF DOOOOOM!"
"OH NO YOU WON'T!"
"MEEP!" He takes off through the ceiling, dropping the boxes.
"Weeeeelll, that happened." She looks around. "Hm, he actually helped."
Danny blinks at her from the hallway.
She shrugs. "It would've taken forever, and you know it."
"Em?"
"Yes?"
"That ghost."
"And?" She raises and eyebrow at him.
"Tried to take boxes. You kicked."
She smiles brightly at him. "Yep!"
He gives her a look.
"Hey! Don't give me that. You know he just gave us less work to do. Now come help me unpack these boxes."
"The incident this morning was found to have been partially resolved by a missing fuel line in the getaway car. No one seems to be able to figure out how the fuel line went missing. Th – "
BIZT
A powdery white hand reaches over and turns off the TV. The flour-covered ghost child looks at the flour-covered human.
She looks back at him. "So that's where the fuel line came from. Why?"
He tilts his head and frows his brows. "Loud noises. Fear?" He nods. "Lots 'o fear."
She blinks at him. "You can sense emotions?" He nods. "Right, of course. So you stopped the car chase by removing the fuel line. You –" She puts a hand to her face, covering it in cookie dough. "Do you know how dangerous that was?"
He blinks at her. "No? Cookie dough!" He gestures to his face flinging cookie dough off the whisk in his hand. He starts giggling.
"Shit."
He laughs.
"Right, let's get this batch into the oven. Then I'll help you over there. Then we'll clean up."
She turns back to splitting the cookie dough onto the cookie sheet.
"Can I?"
"Sure, Danny, sure."
The little ghostling sets the whisk into the bowl, floats over to her, and holds out his hands. She places one last cookie onto the tray and hands it to him. He slowly and carefully floats over to the oven. Em opens it. He puts the tray in, avoiding all parts of the oven. He zips back behind her. She chuckles as she closes the oven. She sets a timer as he floats in front of the oven window.
She snorts as she picks him up and carries him to the mess on the counter. They (she) finish the last of the cookie dough and plops globs on another cookie sheet.
"Come on, kiddo, let's get cleaned up."
"NO!"
"Oh. Come. On. If I get you into the bath, you won't come out."
"It hard change."
"You are not going home like this!"
"No bath!"
"Then I'm getting a squirt gun."
"Bath!" He takes off from the counter.
"He has a hard time changing? That's concerning."
She wanders into the bathroom and starts the bath with lukewarm water.
Beep beep, Beep beep
She gets up and rushes into the kitchen to take the cookies out. She sets them on the stovetop. Then the second batch goes in, and the timer gets reset. She goes back into the bathroom and turns off the water.
"If you don't get in here, I will get the squirt gun!"
"NO!"
"Three!"
"NO!"
"Two!"
He pokes his head from behind a pile of boxes. "NO!"
"One!"
He rushes into the bathroom, white hair bouncing. When he sees the bathtub full, he tries to run back out. Em, expecting it, grabs him and dumps him into the bath.
White scales emerge where the water hits. Green fins emerge from his forearms as he crosses his arms in front of his chest. Within moments his legs merge into a tail. He squirms as a fin forms from the base of his neck, curving outward, running down his spine, and tapering off just before the start of his tail.
The fins at the bottom of his tail opening and closing as the fins on his arms and back press against his skin. His ears stretch and lengthen, a pair of fins replacing each.
He ducks his head under the water, pouting. Em tries not to laugh at his pout.
"At least you don't have any flour on you."
He props himself on the edge of the tub. Rings form around his waist; green becomes blue, white becomes black, dead comes alive.
She blinks. "Would that get the flour off?"
He shrugs.
"Either way, you enjoy being in the water."
His pout comes back. "It itchy!"
His brows furrow. "Does it itch when you swim in your pool?"
"No?"
"What about the ocean?"
"Haven't swimmed."
"A lake?"
"Haven't."
"Maybe we should take you. Figure out what makes it itchy."
"Ye -" Gasp.
His breath becomes visible. He shudders, cold.
"Didn't that happen before the box thief showed up?" Her eyes narrow. "He better not've come back."
He gasps again, shuddering. Ice is starting to form at the edges of the bathtub. A desperate scream rings through the night.
"Wha?"
His eyes are wide, and both pairs of head fins are extended to their fullest.
She takes a breath. "Let's -"
His head fins snap closed, and he falls back into the water. Splash. She gasps. She reaches in, grabs hold of him, and shifts so he's held bridal style. Holding him close, she grabs a towel hanging nearby. She lays the towel and then the child on the couch.
"You okay?" She asks lowly.
Blue eyes open as his hands come off his fins. The fins open slightly.
"Loud, very loud." It comes so quietly that she leans in to hear.
"L-let's g-get you d-dry."
She gets out of her kneeling position; when'd she get like that? Walking over to the linen closet, she grabs a towel, then another one. She walks back to the merchild. She starts to carefully pat his tail down. He starts giggling and squirming.
"Hey, stay still."
He squirms harder, laughing now. "T-t-tickles."
Beep beep, Beep beep
"Oh shit! The cookies!"
He gasps, and the tail recedes. She bolts to the kitchen. "GO!"
Danny floats invisibly above the rooftops, following the fear. He sees a dark figure shrouded in purple flames, riding a black horse with a green mane and tail. As he gets closer, he notices the purple flames are around the figure's head and makes up its cape. The horse's hair is fire.
He floats closer and flickers into visibility. The figure, the knight, turns. It guides its horse to turn.
"FACE YOUR GREATEST FEAR! FOR I AM FRIGHT KNIGHT!" A voice booms from the entity as it lifts its sword.
"You scare. Stop pwease? Go home?"
"I understand you, not child."
Danny huffs and mumbles. "Of cowse."
The knight's eyes narrow. His sword drew back. Danny's eyes widen. The knight charges. Hoofs pounding against the air, its wings spreading wide. Its head lowered—the fire of the mane and tail, cape and head trailing behind.
"SHIT!" He dodges down and left. Sword swinging just above, horn to the right.
Slow stop. Clop clop. A turn, a glare. The child swallows and floats back a bit. They charge. Danny goes up and right.
"G-go h-home."
"I am the ghost of Halloween, and I will not leave because of a pitiful child."
A third charge. A soft meep. A drop of green slowly seeps down the child's arm. The knight's eyes narrow. The child's hands come up, aura pulsing and weaving. His eyes closed—an aura around his hands throbbing with silver and black.
The knight pauses. The seeping blood, the pulsing hands. "Impossible."
The horse rears back, and kickers as the knight stops the next charge.
"It seems you shall have your wish. We shall meet again." The knight fades out.
Danny lifts his hand and opens his eyes. He's alone.
He floats through the wall and almost through the other one had Em not grabbed him.
"As entertaining as hearing him scream due to small ghost would be, I believe this is your stop."
He looks at her and stares motionless.
"Kiddo? What happened?"
"TherewasaknightandhekeptchargingatmethenheleftIIthinkit'sbecauseofbloodandIdon'tknowwhatishappeningandIwanttonotbeaghostIwanttobeanormalandandand –"
"Okay. Okay, small child is freaking out."
He stops blabbering and blinks at her.
"And he's back. Think you can repeat that, slower this time?"
"There was a knight –"
"Aaaaaaaa what?"
"A knight on a horse. Horse had horn and wings and fangs."
She abruptly walks over and plops down onto the couch. Her mouth is hanging open. He giggles at her.
"Soooo, let's get this straight. We heard screaming. You left through the wall and met a knight, like a medieval knight?"
"Wha that?"
"Never mind, what did this knight look like?"
"Black."
"Danny!"
"Was too! Black armor, fire purple cape, purple fire head." He flips upside down and pouts.
"So, he wore black armor. Did it make him look like a storybook knight?"
Danny nods.
"Okay, what about his horse?"
"Black. With wings!"
"So, a Pegasus."
"Horn and fangs too! Feet on green fire, hair too."
"So, this horse had wings, a horn, and fangs? Its hooves were on fire, its mane and tail were also on fire, and the fire was green? Did I get that right?"
"Yep."
"Okay, I'm not even. What happened?"
"I think ecto happened? Then he left."
"Ecto?"
"Energy. Pew-pew."
"I was not expecting Star War's blaster noises. At. All. But you almost blasted him? Did you not talk to him first?"
"I did!"
"Okay, okay." Her hands come up in front of her chest. Palms out. "I'm guessing he didn't listen; what'd he do then?"
"Try killing."
"That's… okay. No, that's not okay, but. What. The. Hell. At this point, I think we need to teach you how to fight. Though I don't think any place will take a three-year-old." She sighs. "You should probably get home before… the adults? Notice you gone."
He hums. "Jazzy will. Cookies?"
"So, your sister is better than the adults." She nods at him. "Cookie first."
"JACK, THE SCANNERS ARE PICKING UP SOME KIND OF RESIDUE!"
"Awwww, we just missed it. I WILL GET YOU ONE DAY; YOU POST-HUMAN CONSCIOUSNESS!"
Chapter Stats: 13 pages 3251 words
This was a combination of chapter 12 and chapter 14.
Yes the combat was semi confusing, yes that is intentional.
Now Reviews…
Chapter 6 was probability the closest to chapter 13 now that I'm looking back at it.
Previous Chapter 13:
Spectre Kid
Is this a merdanny fic? I can't tell, but I like it anyway :D
Well I hope that if you are reading this you've figured it out, or I feel really bad for you. Cause I do say it point blank, more than once. *points up to chapter*
*Update*
That was rude of me apologies. It is both a halfa!Danny and Mer!Danny fic.
Peace and Pieces,
Sugar