Hey guys Thanks for the awesome reviews! You guys rock! Sorry about the long wait!
-DP-
The humans stood there dumbly as they watched all hell break lose between Phantom and Clockwork. The moment that Danny's brain had finally processed the fact that the reporters were there, IN HIS HOUSE, WITHOUT WARNING! He had immediately jumped the gun and started spewing what seemed like gibberish to the Time Ghost, and Phantoms lisp wasn't helping things either. Clockwork responded to the yelling with a calm voice, using the same langue. It seemed like the older ghost was trying to defuse the situation.
Lance sent a confused glance towards Maddie and Jack.
"What's going on?" He whispered. "What are they saying?"
"Uh," Maddie paused trying to figure out how to best word her answer. "I don't think Phantoms all that happy you're here…."
Lance raised his eyebrows in surprise.
"Is that seriously what they're arguing about?" He whispered back.
"I don't know for sure, I don't speak ghost Mr. Thunder, but that's my best guess." Maddie replied hoping that the reporter wouldn't be to insulted.
"Hey Madd's," Jack interrupted, "Maybe this is a good time to test out the updated version of the ghost gabber?"
Queue dramatic eye roll, Maddie hated that infernal thing. They could never get it to work! All it did was repeat whatever the ghost, and annoyingly enough their son, would say and add "Fear me" to the end of it.
"No I don't think that's a very good idea honey. It's still got too many bugs that need to be worked out."
Jazz vividly relaxed at that statement, mumbling an almost silent "Thank God" under her breath.
Lance wanted to know what a 'ghost gabber' was, but when he saw the two female Fenton's reaction to the mentioned device he figured it was probably in his best interest that he didn't know.
Finally Phantom let out a annoyed huff of defeat, it seemed like Clockwork had won the argument out. The time ghost turned his attention to the humans.
"I apologize for that, but do you mind waiting for us upstairs. Daniel and I need to finish having a talk…"
Maddie took in Clockworks less than neutral expression and Phantom's scowl and immediately decided that it was probably a good Idea to give them some room….
-DP-
Danny let out a sigh of relief as he watched his family members and Lance's crew head back up stairs. Leavening only him and a slightly irritated Clockwork behind.
Danny shot his ghostly mentor another death glare, but his look softened when he glanced at the scorch marks and holes on Clockworks back. He busily sucked on his new teeth. Clockwork had been right about them healing up fast. It only took 15min and now the bleeding had stopped and he was talking normally… Well….for the most part anyway. His mouth would still give off a lisp or whistle on occasion.
"You should let me look at your back." Danny stated, his forehead creasing with worry.
Clockwork half smiled and ran his hand threw Danny's white locks.
"I appreciate the concern, but I'm just fine."
Danny frowned and raised a knowing eyebrow, before grabbing clockworks hand and gently yanking him forward. The time ghost let out a slight hiss of pain.
"You know I may just be an ordinary being who can't see into the future, but I'm not stupid… I've been burned by anti-ectoplasm before. I know it burns strait through the clothes and the first layer of skin." Danny said as he watched clockwork's red orbs avoid his gaze. "Let me bandage you up. There's a first aid kit tucked away underneath the computer desk down here. I've had plenty of practice with it…"
Clockwork's heart clinched at the last part of the sentence, he knew Danny had gotten used to bandaging up worse wounds then the ones that were currently ailing him now. Those battles were forcing the boy to grow up way too fast.
Danny got up from the experiment table and hobbled over to the computer desk. He then bent down and removed the first aid kit from a secret compartment, before he made his way back to clockwork.
The young halfa motioned for Clockwork to go ahead and sit on the table, which Clockwork was very hesitant about.
Danny frowned at the Time Master.
"Dude, don't make me anymore annoyed with you then I already am…." He dead panned
Clockwork let out an exasperated sigh and removed his cloak and shirt before taking a seat on the experiment table that Danny had gotten so used to over the last few days, His blistered back was facing the young half breed, partly covered by the ghost's long hair.
Danny did a double take.
"You have white hair?"
"Well it used to be blue but my job is pretty stressful." Clockwork replied, a half smile tugging on his face. "Why what color were you expecting it to be?"
Danny blinked.
"Well honestly, for the longest time I didn't even think you had hair…"
Clockwork chuckled lightly.
"Sorry to disappoint you."
Danny huffed in amusement as he poured some homemade disinfectant (A product of Sam's large green house garden) on to a cotton ball and began swabbing the afflicted areas.
Clockwork let out a low hiss.
"That burns…"
Danny shot him a sympathetic glance as he finished his work.
"Do me a favor and tell Sam that the next time you see her. I'm starting to get sick of her calling me a baby anytime I go over to her house to get bandaged up." Danny muttered.
"You let her bandage you?" The Time ghost asked, "I thought you said that you did that yourself?"
Danny cleared his throat.
"Well, I—Heh, Um…" He swallowed nervously as a light green ting dusted over his cheeks. "It's nice to have some help every once in a while."
"Uh huh," Clockwork responded, a knowing smirk tugging at his lips.
"I'd shut up you know, I'm still annoyed with you and I'm the one holding the disinfectant bottle."
-DP-
Maddie shut the heavy door to the basement behind her before turning to face the rest of the group.
"Well… That was unexpected…." She blurted out. "But at least we can get a start on breakfast while we're waiting, Lance would you and your crew like to join us?"
Lance eyed the pancakes that were sitting in the middle of the dining room table before shrugging.
"Why not…."
They all took a seat as Jazz finished setting the table, placing the butter, syrup, and OJ out before sitting down herself and passing her plate to her mother to be served. The camera was set up on a tri-pad that way the live interview could continue, if needed, while they were eating.
Once everyone had food they all dug in, well, except for Maddie. She seemed to be zoneing, staring off into space.
"Mom?" Jazz asked as she forked another piece of her pancake. "You alright?"
Maddie jumped in surprise, before letting out a lose laugh.
"Oh I'm just fine." She smiled. "I was just thinking that we forgot to offer some food to Phantom. I mean I don't know if he'll eat it but it's worth a try."
Lance raised an eyebrow.
"I thought ghosts didn't eat?"
Maddie went rigged at the question. Whoops.
"Well you see…"
Jazz rolled her eyes, Clockwork had told them that Amity need to know that her brother was a hybrid and she could understand why her mother was hesitating. After all they didn't know much about halfa's yet, but honestly she was thinking that it was probably better that they treated this situation like ripping off a band aid, quick and as painless as possible.
"He's a hybrid." Jazz blurted out over her mother. "He's half human and half ghost."
The piece of food Lance was about eat slipped off his fork, He blinked in surprise and shook his head.
"I'm sorry, but what?"
Maddie chuckled nervously.
"Yeah we were just as surprised as you are."
"How….." Lance questioned, he was too dumbfounded to even complete a full sentence.
"We don't know." Maddie replied. "Clockwork said the only reason he was even telling us about Phantom's….status?... was because his incandescence could possibly have a…negative effect on his human half…"
"W-what kind of effect?"
Maddie glanced up at Lance with sad eyes.
"He—If one half of him dies the other half shares the same fate. In all technical terms he'll die…" She explained softly.
The room went quite…
"But he's alright now though right? I mean did you examine his human half to make sure everything was working all right?" Lance asked.
Maddie and Jack shared a look.
"Actually we haven't, but that's a great idea!" Jack boomed.
Jazz winced at the idea, but she knew that clockwork had a plan and it involved some temporary brown hair dye, purple contacts and ratty street clothes. Danny was not going to be happy….
-DP-
Danny gave Clockwork a dubious expression as he finished wrapping the ghost upper torso in medical tape and gauze.
"You want to do what to my human half!" he practically shrieked, only to be shushed by his mentor.
"Daniel both half's of you needed to be monitored during this and unless you want the rest of the world to know who you really are then this is your only option." Clockwork explained as he hopped off the table and slipped his shirt and cloak back on.
Danny just grumbled and unwillingly switched from his ghost to human form as Clockwork covered the labs cameras.
Danny watched as the time ghost then phased his arm through a cabinet and pulled out the items he had hidden there.
The now human Danny raised his eyebrows.
"When did you even get all of that?" he asked.
Clockwork picked up a gold satchel and opened it, scooping out some type of red-ish dust.
"I got it while you and your family were sleeping last night. A few ghosts owed me a couple of favors…" He answered simply.
"Of course… What's that?" Danny asked pointing to the dust in the ghost's hands as Clockwork sprinkled it into his hair.
"This is your hair dye, it's special though. It's has a spell on it that will allow you to switch from your natural hair to the dyed color at will, I figured that might be convenient?" Clockwork explained as he watched Danny's black locks effortlessly turn brown.
Danny blinked in surprise.
"You really thought this through…"
"I am the ghost of time, Daniel." Clockwork responded with a smug grin. Once the powder had done it's work the time ghost threw Danny the contacts and a ratty looking gray tang top with black cargo pants. Danny didn't need to be told twice, he went to go change in the bathroom and when he emerged he looked like a totally different person.
His now brown hair was disheveled and slightly greasy thanks to the fact that he hadn't showered in a few days. The tang top hung loosely on his thin shoulders exposing the long running scars that littered the top half of his back and chest. His left shoulder was still sporting a healing bruise, and the bottom part of the shirt had a few holes in it, as did the sagging cargo pants. All in all Danny looked like a kid that spent his life on the street.
Danny uneasily glanced up at Clockwork with his now purple eyes.
"I don't know about the shirt… It exposes my scars…" Danny said as he shifted uncomfortably before changing back into his ghost half.
"I know that your self-conscious of them Daniel, but we are trying to make the least connections between this new you and Fenton."
Danny sighed and nodded in agreement.
"Alright then, I'll just go upstairs now. I'll give you a few moments to collect your-self and then you can come up to join me and we'll continue with this act of ours."
-DP-
When clockwork entered the dining room the people at the table where alive with questions and theories, so much so that they didn't notice his presence at first, but when they did they all seemed to have calmed down.
Lance was the first to speak.
"Where's phantom?"
"He's cooling off a bit." Clockwork replied.
"Sounds like your talk didn't go to well…." Maddie said with a wince. After all she is a mother of two, she knows how fights like that go.
"Yes, he's not happy with what I had told you." Clockwork said as he eyed the reporters. "And what you told them. I don't blame the boy either, with his past experience…. Though I think he got over it."
Lance frowned.
"What do you mean past experience?"
"In the ghost zone, hybrids such as Daniel are called Halfa's, the very word is considered slander. It's an insult and that's how he's always been treated by most of the residence there, an insult, even by his birth parents. He's ashamed of what he is…." Clockwork answered in uneven tone, sadness seeping through his words. "That's one of the reasons he put up such a fight in the basement, though it was originally sparked by you and your crew Mr. Thunder. He's not big on being in the spot light."
The reporter fell silent as he took in what he was being told. Phantom had been amity's hero for a while now and to hear that he had been treated so horribly really upset him.
"You said Halfa's," Maddie repeated "As in there is more than one?"
"There's only three in existence. One is older and more experienced than Daniel, and the other is younger than he is and often looks to him for guidance."
Maddie let that sink in before she asked another question.
"Does he get along with the older one?" She asked
Clockwork was about to answer but someone else had already beat him to it.
"No, He's a pompous jackass. I hate the guy."
Everyone looked to the door to find phantom uneasily floating there. He fidgeted uncomfortably under everyone's gaze. He had no Idea how this was going to go…
"Well don't just stand there son!" Jack boomed, with a hearty laugh. "Come on and join us for breakfast! You like pancakes right?"
Danny nodded slowly before walking over to sit next to his actual father, though Jack didn't know that at the moment. A plate of pancakes was passed to the boy. Danny stared at the food for a few moments before make up his mind. He needed to be in his human form to eat.
The occupants of the room, with the exception of clockwork and Jazz, Jumped when a ring of light erupted from Danny's midsection, they watched as it split into two and changed him from a ghost to a human.
Maddie sat there, taking in the boys ratty clothes and disheveled appearance. Her eyes traced over the scars and a different colored bruises along with the bags underneath his purple eyes. Not to mention the fact that the boy looked like he hadn't eaten day's—Wait he really hadn't eaten in days, he had been stuck in their lab for the last two and no one had been feeding him!
Danny shrunk under the scrutiny of everyone's calculating gaze. They must all think I'm a freak….
The half breed jumped slightly when a gloved hand griped his uninjured shoulder. He looked up to see clockwork smile at him, Reminding him that he was there and that everything was going to be alright. Danny grinned faintly in return, before rolling up on of his pancakes and dunking it in the pool of syrup that occupied the other half of his plate and took a large bite. He was pretty sure he looked like some sort of heathen, but he didn't care, he was starving!
"So uh, Mr. Phantom… I mean should I call you that now? Does your…. Well I mean.. Um….Do you have another name?" Lanced stuttered, mentally kicking himself. He sounded like a moron.
Danny shook his head.
"Not even a different last name?" Lanced asked. "I mean didn't you ever adopted your mothers human last name?"
Danny inwardly groaned. Great, time to start acting…
Lance watched as the young hybrid tensed at his question, his purple gaze fell to the fork in his hand.
"My parents abandoned me…" Danny said, trying his best to fake the emotional strain that was laced in his voice. "Clockwork found me, he took me in and took care of me… gave me a name…."
Danny looked back up to see if his performance was working. Everyone at the table was tearing up, even Jazz and she knew the truth. Damn I'm good..
"I'm sorry to hear that… Mr. Phantom….." lance replied as he wiped a few stray tears from his eyes before clearing his throat.
"So then you haven't spent a lot time in our world, or with other humans?" Maddie asked.
Danny shook his head yes.
"That's the reason I was so panicky when it came to you and your family Maddie, you're the first few human friends I've ever had."
Maddie's heart clenched.
"Well Hey then, maybe we should enroll you in Casper high with Danny boy and Jazzy pants!" Jack boomed. "That way you could make some new friends and learn a little more about humans!"
Danny went wide eyed.
"What I—I don't-." Danny began, only to be cut off by his mentor.
"Actually that is a good Idea…You do need to start looking for a mate, Daniel. This sounds like a perfect opportunity."
Danny immediately flushed; his entire face turned an embarrassed red.
Lance looked appalled.
"M-ma-mate?"
"Choosing a mate is the ghost zone equivalent of getting married. And apparently the process is done during incandescence." Maddie explained. "For them this is normal."
"Oh…." Lance said. He still looked slightly uncomfortable, His daughter, Star, was Phantoms age and he didn't want her tying the knot so early.
The reporter looked back at Danny to find him with his head on the table his arms covering his face. He let out a sigh of relief to see such an innocent gesture coming from the boy who is now, no doubt, going to be the most eligible bachelor in Amity Park.
-DP-
Alrighty guys that chapter was 14 pages long and clocked out at 3,077 words! Hopefully that makes up for the long wait! So what do you guys think of Danny's new temporary look? Did you like the chapter? Please leave a review! You guys are awesome!
Oh and just a reminder, if you haven't already please go to my authors page and vote for Danny's mate! That poll will be closing soon!