When the oven door blew off, Maddie jumped so high that her head brushed the ceiling.
Phantom cackled from where he sat, a shield protecting him from the ectoplasmic lasagne that was now coating a good portion of the kitchen. The huntress shot him a playful glare, turning intangible to phase the stuff off herself. "You'll have to teach me how to make those shields," she grumbled.
"Shields are hard." Phantom was still grinning, and he allowed his barrier to dissipate into little flakes of glowing green that dissolved as they sank towards the floor. "Turning intangible is much more convenient – it's easier, and takes up less energy."
"Then why are you using shields?" she snapped, retrieving the mop from where it was tucked behind the pantry door.
"Training," the kid announced, running a finger through the goo that covered the table. "By the way, this isn't edible for anyone."
The huntress sighed, tucking a plastic bucket beneath the faucet and turning on the hot water. In the past three weeks, Phantom had taught her something about ghosts nearly every day, whether it be a scientific fact, a titbit concerning their culture, or information regarding her powers. They trained together most evenings, and had set a date next week for her first real fight in ghost form. Maddie would start with the Box Ghost, and then work her way through defeating each of Amity Park's regular spectral terrorists.
She was looking forwards to the practical application of her new powers. As she scrubbed stubbornly at the goo, Maddie sighed as it refused to budge.
It seemed that everything she did lately needed ghost powers to fix.
Phantom grinned, getting off his seat and hovering about a foot above the filthy floor. "Join me," he invited.
Maddie dropped the mop and morphed into her ghost form, floating beside her young mentor. "What are we going to do?"
Phantom pressed the palms of his hands together, inhaling deeply. "It's all in the breath," he explained. "You can use a basic type of telekinesis to control ectoplasm – that's how you control your energy blasts. If you see the goo as spectral energy, you can manipulate it to your will. But you have to control your breathing to control the energy, so it's all to do with breath."
Settling into a stance that she had learned in her days at the dojo, Maddie closed her eyes and took a deep breath. Letting it out in a whoosh, she forced as much air as possible from her lungs before breathing deeply once again.
Focusing on the energy that throbbed within her core, the woman swept her hands up and out, snapping glowing golden eyes open.
The ectoplasm that covered the room lifted into the air with her movement. Following Phantom's quiet instruction, the huntress brought her hands together and lowered them to the level of her chest.
The hovering goo coalesced into a ball, moving through the air to position itself over the sink.
"Now, absorb that energy," Phantom instructed, his hands gently guiding hers to touch the massive gelatinous blob.
The glowing was sucked away as it was absorbed into the huntress' body, and Maddie gave a shaky laugh as the now perfectly normal blob of lasagne lost its ability to fly and collapsed into the sink with a sad squelch.
"Why couldn't I make that keep floating?" Maddie queried, settling her feet on the floor and switching into human form.
Phantom tipped the water from the bucket into the sink, washing away the ruined meal. "You're not ready yet," he responded. "In fact, you'll probably feel really tired in a moment, since your core will drain your body of as much energy as it can. The stuff you absorbed is like a cup in comparison to the lake of energy you just used."
True to his words, a wave of exhaustion settled over the woman like a heavy blanket. She staggered, leaning against the teen and gasping for air.
Phantom smiled fondly, leading her to a seat. "I'll go tell Jack that he needs to deal with dinner tonight," he announced.
"But we were going to train once dinner was done!"
"I think training's over for the day," the boy insisted, heading for the lab door. "You stay there, and Jack'll be up to give you a hand in a moment."
He disappeared through the heavy metal door, and Maddie stared absently at its yellow biohazard sticker as it clicked shut behind him.
It had been stressful at first, learning how to use her powers. Accepting that she was half ghost had proven more difficult than Maddie thought it would be, and hiding her powers from the kids was almost impossible. Jazz she wasn't so sure about, but Danny obviously knew, and had even gone so far as to yank his sinking mother out of the floor when passing her in the hallway. As soon as her feet were once again planted firmly on solid carpet, he had released her arm and continued on his way out the front door.
The worst thing about it all was that Danny didn't mention anything, and acted like nothing was amiss. It would have been better if he confronted her – at least if the boy broached the subject, Maddie wouldn't feel so guilty whenever she caught his eye.
She couldn't even figure out how he was feeling about it, since his emotions were fairly calm for the majority of the time. This bothered Maddie, but not as much as Phantom's comment the other day – he had mentioned whilst answering her questions about duplicating that one duplicate can be in human form while another one is in ghost form.
Everything was so confusing, and whenever Maddie felt like she was finally getting to the bottom of the mystery shrouding her son and his friends, things would blow up in her face and prove every theory she had wrong.
When Phantom trained with her, Danny often walked in on them. The two boys were so similar, but Maddie only ever noticed those similarities when dealing with the boys separately. It was as though when both Phantom and Daniel were in the same room, it became difficult to scrutinise one for too long without your thoughts becoming jumbled.
It was exceedingly frustrating.
The lab door slammed open as footsteps hurried down the stairs, Danny and Jack both bursting into the kitchen at the same time.
"Mads!" Jack shouted, rushing forwards to press the back of a hand against her face. "Phantom said that you over-exerted yourself."
Maddie shrugged, trying to look around her husband at the teen that stood in the doorway. Her son's thoughtful expression morphed into a strained smile when he caught her looking, and Danny sniffed the air. "It smells like dinner's going to explode," he remarked casually.
"It already did," Maddie announced, smirking when Jack wilted.
"I was looking forwards to the lasagne," the large man whined.
There was a momentary flash of irritation as Maddie wrestled with the thought that he had no right to complain when she was going through such difficulty. She pushed the thought away, taking a deep breath and trying to focus on something more positive – Phantom had said that ghost powers worked best when the user had a level head and calm spirit.
Maddie had taken that information to heart, trying her best to be calm and polite. On occasion she had to pause to clear her head, but it got easier as time went wrong. Jack had caught on fairly quickly, and agreed wholeheartedly to give this new attitude a go once it was explained to him.
This new outlook on her emotions also appeared to positively affect relationships within the family, with everyone being much more polite to each other.
"How about we order something?" Maddie suggested. "Since Jazz has her final big assignment due tomorrow, could you go ask her what she'd like us to order, Danny?"
The boy nodded, slipping out of sight. A moment later, the stairs creaked, and Maddie relaxed.
"Phantom said he's been doing some research about turning people into halfas," she told Jack as he began to rub her shoulders.
"Hmm?"
Tilting her head back, the woman moaned in appreciation. "He said that your suggestion about using a ghost portal is too risky, because there's an extremely high chance that it will kill you outright. A transplant is the only way to go, and apparently it needs to be a major organ that helps transport substances around the body. So far, we're thinking either a kidney or the liver, but even those will still have risks involved."
"Was that what he came to talk to you about?"
"Not really," she admitted, "although he did mention that. He really came to warn me that the Wisconsin ghost is actually a really dangerous halfa called Plasmius, and that he's started hanging out in town for the first time in a few months. Phantom said that we should stay away, since as soon as Plasmius finds out I'm a halfa he'll try to kill you and kidnap me because he's been after an immortal mate ever since he found out about his own eternal life. Plasmius is also the guy who made Danielle."
The thought filled her with terror. Then she thought about Phantom, and that fear was replaced with sorrow.
The kid shied away from the topic of immortality, leading Maddie to suspect that he wasn't yet comfortable with the notion. Besides the sweet little girl who had ducked into Fentonworks one day to briefly meet with Phantom's new allies, there were no other halfas. At first, Maddie had consoled herself with the thought that this girl and Phantom might eventually grow fond enough of each other to fall in love – they were already very close, after all – but that was before he had revealed that Danielle was actually his clone.
The thought of a clone both appalled and fascinated Maddie, but she knew better than to ask any questions right now. Maybe given a few years of friendship, but for now, Phantom appeared to be fiercely protective of the girl. In addition, he had admitted that Danielle's core was not stable enough for her to ever be immortal, and she would age and die like any human.
No matter how much Maddie puzzled over a way to make the girl's core stabilise fully, no solution was even slightly feasible.
That still left the issue of an eternal companion for the boy, and Maddie had lost several hours of sleep over the past week trying to think up a solution.
Jack's fingers tightened around his wife's shoulders. "I need ghost powers," he breathed.
"We agreed to wait."
"Mads, I can't protect you against powerful ghosts!" the man shouted, moving to face his love. He cupped her face in his hands, a tear slipping down a ruddy cheek. "What if Phantom somehow can't save you? As a human, I can barely do anything!"
"Just wait until the end of the school year," Maddie begged, standing and pulling her husband into an embrace. "We'll be extra careful until then. Jazz'll be going off to college, so she won't have to get involved."
"But that's-"
"Only six weeks from now." Stroking away that water that streaked her husband's cheeks, Maddie captured his mouth in a gentle kiss. "I promise that everything will be okay," she whispered when they paused to breathe.
"Only six weeks," Jack murmured, his lips brushing hers with feather-light touches as they formed each word.
"I promise."
They kissed once again, just as Danny slammed open the door. "Jazz said she wants that Chinese chicken stuff…" He trailed off, glancing from one parent to the other before backing out of the kitchen.
Both adults chuckled as he slammed the door, footsteps thumping up the stairs as Danny made his getaway.
Maddie knew that she would find out the exact nature between Danny and Phantom soon enough – she just had to be patient, and wait until they were ready to tell her the truth. For now, all Maddie could do was sit quietly, and hope that her suspicions were wrong.