EPISODE 56—DUPLICITY CITY
Sam and Tucker were sitting in Danny's house, listening to their best friend explain a critical event of which they had no memory.
"Some of it just randomly came to me," Danny said. "When I read about Luster and his ghost powers, suddenly, I remembered a little bit of what happened before my blackout. I remember going back to my house and getting the Spooktacles and the Fenton Phones… I found those in my backpack afterwards. And I remember finding him. Luster, I mean."
"I'm still completely blank on everything," Sam said, and Tucker nodded. "But go on."
"I remember talking to him, before he got really angry, then I blacked out and the next thing I knew, I woke up in the hall holding a thermos, which I'm assuming contains him." He scratched the top of his head, trying to think exactly how Luster had phrased the sentences he remembered. "Luster said… I don't remember much but I remember a few things. I remember Luster said… he had been sulking… and then he said, to the best of my memory: 'I vowed only to emerge when someone with true love beset me. That person didn't show up, unfortunately. Someone with false love did, wanting to use me for his own purposes.' That may not be exact, but you get it."
"What do you think that means?" Tucker asked.
"I think I know what Danny's getting at," Sam said. "The Fenton Ghost Portal has had its security tightened—it wouldn't have been easy for a ghost to escape through there. And Luster showed up first in Amity Park, so he must have come through a portal here—and the only other one that we know of is Vlad's. You think Vlad tried to control Luster to get your mom?" Her eye twitched. "That's so weird."
"It is," Danny sighed, "but that's what I'm thinking. Although it sickens me intensely, I have to think that's what happened. And it makes sense."
"That dude's got issues," Tucker said.
"I was asking myself why he'd been quiet lately. Figures he was looking for some method of controlling my mom's mind. And remember when I came across him breeding Blood Blossoms? I wonder if he was trying to find something that could harm Luster, since he's apparently not easily battled." He frowned. "I wonder how I got him. If he really is in the thermos, that is. But he hasn't shown his face anywhere else… I'm pretty sure he's in here, because there wasn't anything in here before, but I can feel it rattling sometimes."
There was a brief silence as Danny took the Fenton Thermos out of his backpack and placed it on the living room table between them. Tucker and Sam looked at it with curiosity; almost on cue, it wiggled slightly and then spun in small circles to a stop.
"Where do you think I should dump him?" Danny asked. "Behind the Zoan Wall? I don't know if that will even stop him…"
As Danny was finishing his sentence, there was a knock on the door. Danny stowed the thermos back in his backpack in case it was Vlad—he didn't want Vlad to know Danny had Luster in containment.
"You expecting anyone at your house at 8:45 on a Sunday night?" Sam asked, glancing at the hallway behind her. The knocks came again, louder and longer this time; it was either urgency or impatience.
"No," Danny said. "I'll go see who it is." More knocks followed even louder.
He strolled down to the door; Jazz was the first there, but he and his parents followed shortly. Jazz opened the door and almost got hit as the person's fist, which was still trying to knock, swung inwards; whoever it was almost fell into the house. Jazz smiled with some warmth but mostly confusion. "Hello, Mr. Lancer!" she said.
"Hello, Jasmine," came Mr. Lancer's voice.
"What's wrong?" Maddie asked, glancing at Danny. "You sounded urgent. Is it something about Danny's grade?"
"Of course not," Mr. Lancer said. He sounded almost nervous. "This is something else. More important."
Danny paled. What had he done this time? Was there destruction of school property that he was being blamed for? Or worse… had one of the teachers seen something? Seen him transform, or guessed his secret?
Sam and Tucker ran in behind him just as Mr. Lancer started to speak again.
"You know that Amity Park is the vista of a lot of ghost activity, yes?"
The Fentons all stared at him blankly. Firstly, the word "vista" didn't seem to fit that sentence very well, and Lancer was an English teacher. Secondly, there were CONSTANT ghost attacks in Amity Park. It was probably the thing their town was best known for. So why would he have asked the biggest ghost fanatics in Amity Park if they knew that their town was known for its ghost activity?
And thirdly, for the kids in the household, Mr. Lancer had just described that this was something extremely important, most likely having to do with Danny, and then started the conversation by talking about ghosts. Danny was beginning to get very scared that Lancer knew his secret and was about to tell Danny's parents. Readying himself for this possible scenario, Danny prepared to duck out of sight if necessary to go ghost and overshadow Lancer.
"Yes, of course. That was obvious. I apologize. Well, I'd like to ask you two something."
"Us?" Maddie and Jack said together.
"Yes. A favor, if you would…"
Danny relaxed a little bit. It didn't seem like Lancer knew about his ghost powers. He was asking them a favor. Maybe to chaperone a field trip? In case there were ghost attacks? But his parents—well, his dad—usually caused more damage than good.
"We have an exchange student coming from England," Mr. Lancer said. "He wanted to come to Casper High as a freshman. His parents are very well-versed in ghost studies, and he would like to study in the most famous town in the world for ghost activity. He's requested to stay with a family that is also active in ghost studies. Would you be willing to take him in for the rest of the school year, starting tomorrow?"
"A ghost hunting prodigy? Absolutely!" Jack bellowed.
"Now, wait a minute, Jack," Maddie said, putting her hands on his arm to calm him down. "This is very sudden and unexpected. And it's a very long-term deal, isn't it? I don't know if we should accept so immediately."
Lancer bit his bottom lip. "Well… you see… he is arriving tomorrow morning in time for the first class of the day, and, well… he'll have nowhere to go after school… And—oh, of course! I don't understand how I could have neglected to mention this bit of information. He has studied his family tree extensively and has discovered that his great-great-great-great…" He frowned. "Well, I forget how many greats. But one of his ancestors had two children, one of which sailed to America in the 1600s. That man's name was John Fenton Nightingale. The boy I am referring to is named Noah Nightingale. He believes he's a long-lost cousin of this family."
"Really?" Danny said.
Mr. Lancer peered through the door and caught sight of Danny. "Yes, really. Isn't that neat?"
"Related to us?" Jack roared. "Maddie, he's kin! No wonder he's going for his PhD in ghosts! He'll fit right into the family!"
"I'd like to see this family lineage," Maddie said, nodding curiously.
Mr. Lancer opened his mouth to say something, but Danny interrupted when he paused. "Mom? I looked up our family tree once. I remember seeing John Fenton Nightingale."
"Really?" Maddie said, smiling. "How interesting!"
"Noah has his own money for groceries and entertainment," Mr. Lancer added. "If you were worried he'd be a financial burden, don't worry about that."
Maddie turned to Danny. "What do you think, sweetie? This is your decision, too. Would you be willing to share your room with this Noah boy?"
Danny grinned wildly—this had him really happy. "Of course!" Danny said. "I've kind of always wanted a brother!"
Sam and Tucker looked at him a little nervously. "Danny, what if you need to… you know…" Sam whispered. "Aren't you taking a risk that he'd find out?"
"I can deal," Danny whispered back. "My parents haven't found out yet, have they?"
Maddie turned to Mr. Lancer and nodded once again. "All right," she said. "We'll take Noah in for the school year. If he's really into ghost studies, he can help us in the lab, I suppose."
"I'm certain he'd be exhilarated to get that opportunity," Mr. Lancer said. "Thank you for accepting this request. I'm very sorry to have troubled you so late with this news—if I had gotten it earlier, I certainly would have let you know earlier."
His parents smiled and waved as Mr. Lancer left, and then Maddie grimaced as the door closed. Jack, however, was beaming.
"Think!" he said, putting his hands to his hips; his elbows almost hit the walls on either side. "Another little ectophile! Studying ghosts beside his long-lost uncle eight times removed!"
"I think that's very remarkable," Maddie said. "I wonder if he discovered his relation to us before or after his decision to come here. You'll have to remember to ask him in school tomorrow, Danny. Or we could ask him when you bring him home."
"I hope he has a really thick British accent," Tucker said. "I love British accents."
"I wonder what he'll like to do in his free time," Danny said.
"Danny," Sam said, putting a hand on her forehead like she had a headache. She walked back into the living room with them, and when they sat down, she started talking again. "This is really cool that you're going to get to meet a long-lost cousin or whatever relation he is to you. But you have to think long-term. What if he starts getting used to our company, and wants to hang out with us a lot? We can't exactly tell him that we hunt ghosts. We'll be so restricted from our usual rounds if he's hanging around with us. Our whole mojo is going to get thrown way out of whack!"
"I'd be taking this a lot more seriously if that last sentence wasn't so funny-sounding," Tucker laughed.
Sam wasn't laughing, she looked deadly serious. "Danny," she said calmly. "I don't know if we're going to keep being able to do this with you. When Jazz didn't know, it was hard enough. When she found out and started trying to help, it was even more of a disaster. Your parents still don't know and it's hard around them. Now you've got another ghost hunter coming who is probably going to be gunning for the ghost blood of Danny Phantom in an hour after meeting your parents. And with someone living in your room with you, like a brother, it is going to be so, so hard for you to get out of the way and transform when you're needed. I don't know how this is going to work."
"Sam," Danny said, placing a hand on her shoulder. She threw it off, and his face fell. "Relax. It'll be fine; we'll find some way around everything. We always do."
Sam shook her head and curled her hands into fists.
"And we can't exactly refuse him," Danny said. "He's family, and we already said we'd take him in. What do you expect me to do?"
"I expected you to have thought about us for a little bit, Danny!" Sam shouted.
Danny and Tucker were stunned; she did not raise her voice often at them. Almost never, in fact, except when Tucker set up a protest rally against her vegetarian menu and when Danny broke his promise to see the movie with her. Now, she looked like she was about to tear off a large chunk of the wall and devour it. She snorted through her nose like a bull and stomped out of the room, out the door, and slammed it, not looking back.
"What just happened?" Danny asked, a little dazed.
"Sam just blew up," Tucker responded, just as stupefied.
"She never blows up, though," Danny said. "Why was she so angry this time?"
Tucker patted his shoulder and muttered, "Might be that time of month."
"Tucker!" Danny shouted as his friend laughed. "There were a lot of things you could have said that would have made me feel better. That wasn't one of them."
"I'm sure she'll be over it by school tomorrow," Tucker said, rising up and walking towards the door. "Have a good night, dude."
As it turns out, Sam was not over it the next morning. She trudged into class a little late, and was not happy to notice that the only open seats were within five feet of Danny. She took the seat that was two desks to the left of him, with an empty desk between them, and she didn't look at him while she got out her textbooks.
Danny was so focused on her for a while that he didn't even notice the boy standing in the front, talking to Mr. Lancer. He only noticed when Mr. Lancer rose up and cleared his throat to talk to the rest of the class. Tucker looked up expectantly and raised an eyebrow. Sam looked up grouchily, but when she saw the highly attractive boy being introduced, her jaw dropped and all cloudiness faded from her expression.
"Hello, class," Mr. Lancer said. "We have a new student coming in today for the rest of the school year. He's an exchange student from England, and his name is Noah—I'm sorry, what was it again?"
"Noah Nightingale," the boy said softly but in a heavy British accent. Sam swooned instantly.
Noah's eyes were an intense neon green, unlike anything Danny had ever seen. They looked even brighter than Danny's eyes when he was in ghost form. His hair was intensely blond, almost white, and it fell neatly along his brow and halfway down his neck. He had a look that made him seem like he'd be the type of guy who looks sixteen when he's twenty and twenty when he's thirty. He clenched a brown baseball cap in his hand, and crumpled it in his hands nervously as he tucked his bottom lip under his top.
Some people's skin was uneven on their face, or looked slightly loose along the jaw line, or was pocked with acne or uneven color. Noah's skin was perfectly smooth, very fair, and was filling Sam's eyes as she continuously drank in his figure.
Looking around, Danny noted that every girl in the room was mesmerized by Noah's incredibly attractive boyish looks; some were digging their nails into the desk and some were just plain staring with open mouths. Even the guys were mostly staring, likely due to jealousy from the attention he was getting from the ladies. Dash seemed impressed and then looked around at all the girls staring at Noah, his eyes eventually settling on Sam—or was it Danny he was staring at?
Danny looked back at Noah as Mr. Lancer began speaking again. "I trust you will all be very welcoming and civil to Noah," he said almost threateningly, staring at Dash and Kwan, "as you are representing not just our school, but our entire country. I will not hesitate to come to Noah's defense if anyone comes to him on offense. That being said, Noah, enjoy your stay. It seems that the only open desk is next to Danny Fenton, who you'll be staying with anyway; why don't you sit there."
Paulina leaned to her left and shoved Star with both arms out of Star's desk, and then shouted, "Oh Noah, there's a desk here too!"
Noah smiled sheepishly as Star leapt up and tackled Paulina out of her desk. "No, there's one here!" Star shouted.
Noah edged away sideways from the cat-fighting popular girls and then walked to the open desk between Danny and Sam. He looked over to his right and smiled. "Hello, Danny," he said, holding out his hand. "I'm your long-lost relative, Noah Nightingale!" He flashed an easy grin that showed a little bit of both rows of very white and very straight teeth.
Danny took his hand and shook it. "Hey," he said. "I'm your long-lost relative, Danny Phan—FENTON. Danny Fenton." His eye twitched, and then so did his body. "But you knew that already ah-ha-ha!" He clenched his mouth shut, and smiled shakily.
Noah smiled back, then turned and tapped on the shoulder of the boy in front of him; it was Eric, one of the members of the football team. "Hello," he said in his amazing British accent, introducing himself again. "I'm Noah Nightingale. What's your name?"
"Eric Westing," the guy said, shaking his hand and smiling. "Nice to meet you!"
Noah introduced himself to the girl behind him, again shaking hands. She just about melted when he made eye contact with her, and when he turned, she raised the hand that had shaken Noah's up to her face and stared at it.
Then Noah turned to his left and held out his hand to Sam. "Hi," he said. "What's your name?"
Sam fought back a shiver and shook his hand. "I'm… Wes," she said dreamily.
"Wes?" Noah said, blinking. "That's a nice name. Is it short for something?"
"I meant Sam!" she blurted, laughing. "Sorry. I'm Sam Manson. And you're Noah. Noah Nightingale! Um… Right?"
"Yeah," Noah said. "You're Danny's friend, right?"
Sam looked a little taken aback. "Um… Why'd you ask that?"
"Well, you were at his house," Noah said. He blinked again. "Mr. Lancer told me I'd probably be seeing a lot of you if I was hanging around with Danny."
"Yeah," Sam said. "I'm totally Danny's friend. I hang out with him all the time so I guess we will be seeing each other a lot!"
"Problem solved," Tucker whispered to Danny.
Danny was amazed at the way the girls absolutely dissolved over Noah. He did have to admit, Noah probably was very attractive to girls.
Noah had been looking nervous before Sam said she was Danny's friend. Danny had been wondering why, but now it was clear—Noah gave Sam a smile with his eyes half-closed and then turned away, his pale skin turning the slightest shade darker at the cheeks. If Noah was flattered by every girl in the room staring at him, he didn't show it. But he certainly reacted to Sam's longing looks… Danny was beginning to suspect that, if Noah was taking to anyone in the room already, he was taking to Sam. If he was taking to her because he liked her… then Danny had a bit of a problem with him already.
But Noah was way too likable to find anything wrong with. Danny had initially worried that if Noah started getting closer to Sam, it would mean Danny would start acting angrily towards the new kid; but for some reason, watching Sam and Noah flirt in the desks next to him was sort of fun, and he felt… happy… for Sam. And if it wasn't for Noah, Sam wouldn't be on Danny's good side anyway.
Sam and Danny had been really good friends for a really long time. And that was what they were—really good friends. If Sam liked Noah, and Noah liked Sam, good for them. He cheered it on, actually, to keep Sam happy.
In addition, he didn't even know if Noah liked her—maybe he just wanted to be really good friends with her, in part because Danny was friends with her.
He didn't even notice the class going by very much; it was a surprise when the bell rang what seemed like a short time later. He packed up his stuff and moved to his next class. As it turned out, Noah was in all of his classes; he seemed to have based his schedule off of Danny's.
Apparently, he was a math nerd. And a science geek. And an English freak. And a star athlete. Danny had never seen Ms. Tetzlaff so happy as when Noah ran a half mile in under two and a half minutes.
She clamped a meaty hand down on Noah's shoulder and smiled. "Kid, you just ran a half mile in two minutes and twenty-seven seconds, and you're not even choking and dying," she said. "Multiply that time by two and you'd have been at a mile in four minutes fifty-four. The world record is three minutes and forty-three seconds or so for the mile run. You need to keep running, kid; you could be in the Olympics one day!"
Noah smiled back nervously at the monstrous woman in front of him, probably hoping she wouldn't eat him. "Thanks, Ms. Tetzlaff."
Sam finished a little bit later with a three and a half minute half-mile. She brushed her hair aside slightly and smiled at him. "Is there anything you're not good at?" she asked, sitting down next to him on the bench to watch everyone else finish.
Noah wrinkled his nose. "History," he said, nodding. "History and reading maps."
Danny expected an uneventful lunch period, asking Noah about English schools and discussing how Noah was enjoying his stay. Boy, was he wrong.
Noah twirled his spoon around in the porridge, looking at it with a funny face. "Ick," he said, sticking his tongue slightly out. "I don't know how they managed these aesthetics, but this stuff looks like it should be eating us."
Danny turned to Sam and Tucker with a smile, remembering the monster he'd faced which—actually—looked a lot like today's lunch, and did indeed eat him. Only Tucker returned the knowing smile; Sam was too busy staring at the bit of tongue peeking out of Noah's mouth.
Danny jerked slightly on the lunch bench as a little bit of blue breath escaped his lips and a shiver ran through him, informing him of a ghost's presence. Sam suddenly gasped and shot upright as she continued to stare at Noah, who blinked and said, "What?"
"I gotta go to the bathroom," Danny muttered, and got out of his seat quickly.
"Wait!" Noah shouted, getting up with him. "I've been meaning to ask you to show me where the bathroom was. Can I go with you?"
Danny froze for a moment, but relief came from the most unlikely source.
Dash seemed to have been watching Danny and Noah, and unbeknownst to Danny, he'd noticed Danny's hurry to get out of the room and knew that Danny needed to get rid of Noah somehow. He walked over to the two boys and yelled, "Hey, Noah!"
"Oh, hey," Noah said. "You're Dash, right?"
"That's right," Dash said. "So, I saw you in gym today, and I was thinking something. Would you mind coming over to my table and talking with me for a minute? Preferably right now, 'cause I gotta go before lunch is over for something."
"Oh, yeah, sure!" Noah said, and walked with Dash over to the popular table, where Paulina waved brightly at him and moved over to make room. Sam stood up, still watching Noah, and slammed her hands to the table, upending all four lunch trays. Tucker nervously edged away.
Danny breathed a sigh of relief and laughed at how polite Dash seemed to be able to transform himself when necessary. He was probably going to ask Noah to join the school football team; the state tournament was coming up.
He ducked into the bathroom and transformed quickly; he slipped the Spooktacles on as well. He'd learned to carry those with him at all times; it was pretty convenient, since his ghost sense didn't tell him where the ghost was. The glasses brought down his search time by a lot, because the ghost often let off a tell-tale glow that he could see from a distance through the Spooktacles.
This time, he didn't have to look far. He went back into the lunch room first, since that was where his ghost sense had gone off; he passed through the wall and ended up in the kitchen where the food was made. He found the ghostly Lunch Lady hovering above the line in the cafeteria.
The Lunch Lady made herself visible to everyone in the room and roared a mighty roar. People everywhere scattered and made themselves scarce; the majority of kids were out of the room within ten seconds, having been practiced in the art of getting the heck out of the range of ghostly fire.
Sam and Tucker stayed, of course; that was normal. But Dash and Noah stayed, too. Noah was squinting and grinning wildly. "You see that?" he shouted. "Wow! That's totally a ghost!"
"Yeah, dude," Dash said. "You want to… like… get out of here?"
Noah shook his head. "Oh, heck no! I want to see what's gonna happen!"
Tucker and Sam ran over to Noah. "You have to get out of here!" Tucker shouted at Noah. "Those ghosts seriously will attack you for no reason. We're all in danger right now!"
Noah again shook his head. "This is so bloody awesome," he said softly.
"What a brave guy," Sam whispered. Tucker threw a hand to his face.
"YOU!" bellowed the Lunch Lady, pointing at Sam. "YOU'RE THE ONE WHO CHANGED THE MENU!"
Sam turned, taking her eyes off of Noah for what seemed like the first time that day. "Seriously?" she said. "You still haven't gotten over that?"
"WHAT IS THIS GARBAGE YOU ARE SERVING?" the Lunch Lady screamed at the old lady who served their food, who backed away in terror. Then the old lunch woman grabbed what looked like a bowl of boiling hot porridge and flung it at her attacker. The ghost was struck and covered in red-hot tasteless food substitute and roared fiercely in pain. She chased the elderly woman far into the kitchen until Danny showed up between them, making himself visible and pocketing the Spooktacles.
"AND YOU!" the Lunch lady howled.
"Do you ever use your inside voice?" Danny asked. He shot a blast of ice at the Lunch Lady, crashing her into the floor and freezing her there.
"IT'S DANNY PHANTOM!" Noah shouted.
Danny looked around and spotted his new friend jumping up and down in delight. Danny gave a wave hello but was smashed upside the head by a slab of meat; the Lunch Lady had defrosted.
She pounced on top of him as he fell, but he was quick with the thermos and she got too close to him. Danny uncapped the device and the Lunch Lady returned, shrieking, to the container that had encased her in Danny's first ever fight.
People were watching from the hall, and when the fight was over, they returned, chattering; the lunchroom was full again within two minutes of being emptied. Danny returned with the crowd and sat down with Sam, Tucker, and Noah; Noah was bouncing up and down with excitement from the ghost fight he'd just witnessed.
"That was wicked!" he said, making the sentence infinitely better with his British accent. "It was Danny Phantom! I've been studying him since he was Inviso-Bill, and I finally saw him in person! I'm hoping to meet him for real one day!"
"Really?" Danny asked, smiling a little bit. "I'm sure you'll get that chance."
"You think so?" Noah was downright giddy.
Sam nodded fiercely. "I know a couple spots where he likes to hang out," she offered. "Maybe we could go one time to try and find him."
"Really?" Noah asked, turning to her with a wide smile.
Sam was floating. "Absolutely! Just tell me whenever."
"That's so cool," Noah said.
"Just don't tell Danny's parents that you love him," Tucker informed the newbie. "They think Danny Phantom's evil just because he's a ghost."
"That's ridiculous," Noah said. "Anyone with half a brain could have seen that the whole mayor thing was a setup by the Sheriff of the Ghost Zone."
Danny was impressed now. "How'd you know that?" he asked.
"I told you, I study ghosts a ton," he said. "I know a lot about most of the ghosts that appear regularly in Amity Park, and the Wisconsin Ghost."
"The Wisconsin Ghost?" Danny asked, now very interested.
"Yeah," Noah said, smiling. "I assumed you wouldn't really know too much about it; it's in Wisconsin, after all. But there are four ghosts that have made multiple appearances in Wisconsin. There's the Lake Michigan Ghost, a water-controlling ghost self-named Riptide, who terrorized the coast for a few weeks several years ago before government agents captured him and tried as best they could to cover it up. There's the Racine Wraith, who appeared in one of the largest Wisconsin cities fifteen years ago and vanished mysteriously after a month of random havoc; some people still claim it's a myth. There's the Dairy King's ghost, said to haunt the halls of the Wisconsin Dairy mansion, and then there's the Wisconsin Ghost. I think the last one is the most interesting. He's an evil ghost, no doubt about it, but his appearances have been so scarce, unpredictable, and unsystematic… Most ghosts have some greater goal in mind, but this one just doesn't seem to have any reason for his actions."
"I'm… sure there's something," Danny said.
"I'd like to find that out, too," Noah said. "My sources say the Wisconsin Ghost moved to Amity Park shortly after it became known for its ghost inhabitants; or perhaps it's just the appearance a ghost who looks like the description of the Wisconsin Ghost, and perhaps the Wisconsin Ghost doesn't even exist." He glanced at the clock. "Oh, snap, is it almost the end of lunch already? I haven't even eaten yet. Well… that's all right. I'll snack at your house if that's all right with you."
"Of course it is!"
"I'm so thrilled, I'm not even hungry," Noah said, a twinkle in his eye.
Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Noah all went to Danny's house after school, to introduce Noah to the Fentons. Noah got along well with them—he seemed to get along well with everyone, even Dash—and he explained to them his passion for hunting ghosts.
"I was adopted," he said. "But both of my adoptive parents… died in a terrible car accident when I was six." Maddie put her hands to her mouth and looked at him with motherly pity. "I was taken in by one of my adoptive parents' relatives. But they were really uncaring after the first few months. I only found happiness in studying, in learning things. I guess that's why I do so well in school. But when I got fed up with my parents' horrible neglect, I ran away. The police got involved, and I became friends with one of the officers. He found my birth parents for me, who were willing to take me back.
"It turned out that they had me, but didn't have the means to support a child," he went on. "They were into ghost studies, and that didn't pick up steam until recently. So they had no funding and no work for a long time. But then they had their research sponsored by the government, and they were able to take me back—my real parents."
Jazz and Maddie wiped tears from their eyes at the story. Jack got up and invited Noah to have a look at the ghost lab, an offer which Noah accepted immediately.
"So, this whole thing is looking well," Danny said.
"Yeah," Sam said, staring down at the basement.
"You can go downstairs with Noah if you want," Tucker said, noting Sam's longing looks at where Noah had disappeared.
"What? No!" Sam laughed. "No, that's fine, I'll stay up here."
"You sure you won't miss him too much?" Danny teased.
"Oh, come on," Sam said. She mocked Noah's British accent. "Don't be daft."
"You really like him, though," Tucker said.
Sam turned red. "Well, yeah, I really enjoy his company," she said. "And I'll admit, his looks are clearly unrivaled… but he's also a genuinely nice guy. Who wouldn't want to hang around with this kid?"
They passed the time discussing more about the incident of the mass black-out at the school while Noah was exploring the lab. It was a while before they heard anything from anyone who had gone downstairs; when they did, it was a loud boom that rattled the walls of the house and knocked three or four picture frames off their shelves. Danny's ghost sense went off, and he looked around nervously.
Sam stood up immediately, concerned, but looked relieved when Noah came running up the stairs. "I wouldn't go down there if I were you," he said, laughing.
"Hey," Sam said. "You want to go visit that spot where I said Danny Phantom might be hanging out?"
"Danny Phantom?" Noah sneered at her—a look that none of them expected Noah's face could display—and chuckled. "Who cares about him? You're such an idiot. Why don't you shut up and go home? Nobody wants you here, anyway."
Sam stared at him, hurt. Her eyes watered. "Why would you say something like that?" she asked.
"Oh, I don't know," Noah said. "Maybe because I meant it?" He walked over to Tucker and knocked his beret off, then kicked over a small table with a glass vase; the vase shattered when it struck the floor.
"What are you doing?" Danny shouted, leaping up.
"What're you going to do about it?" Noah said back nasally. He turned and walked out of the room. "What a dump heap this place is! I think I'll suffocate if I stay here any longer from the stench coming from the fat old guy down there. See ya!" The door slammed a few seconds later.
Danny stared; Tucker gawked; Sam's eyes watered. "What the heck was that?" Danny asked. "And what happened in the lab?"
"Go after him and see what's up," Tucker said. "Sam, come here." He hugged Sam tight as Sam just stammered that she didn't understand.
Danny transformed into his ghostly half and sailed out of the room. "Calm down, Juliet," he muttered, "you just met him yesterday. Now, what the heck happened, and where the heck is he…?"
He spied a figure skipping down the street joyfully, and he followed; sure enough, it was Noah. He stayed high in the sky to avoid detection, but as he approached, Noah suddenly turned around.
"Wow!" he shouted, putting a hand over his eyes to shade them so that he could see Danny better. "It's that Phantom Ghost Kid!" And he whipped out an ecto-blaster.
Before Danny could react, the blast caught him in the chest and he spiraled away through the sky. He caught his balance to see Noah running after him, laughing and aiming the weapon again. He dodged the next array of shots and then flew behind a building—but Noah kept shooting even when he was behind the building. Windows were blown out and chairs were blasted across the room as Noah continued firing; the people in the building screamed and ran everywhere. Noah finally stopped firing when the walls started to crack, and he laughed and ran back into Fenton Works.
Sam! Tucker! Danny thought with a jolt, then shot as if out of a cannon back into his home. If his friends were hurt at all…
He flew into the room and didn't see any sign of Noah. He transformed back and opened his mouth to say something to Sam right as Noah walked back into the room.
Danny grabbed the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick from behind the couch and held it in a threatening pose; Sam flinched and Tucker stared at him angrily.
Noah looked at them with a genuine air of surprise. "What the bloody hell are you readying a baseball bat for inside your own house?"
Sam stood up and jabbed a finger at him. "What the 'bloody hell' did you call me an idiot for?"
Noah was taken aback. "What do you mean?"
"Hello, kids!" Jack Fenton yelled, bounding into the room. "Just wanted to let you all know how much I love having this new little kid here! And when I say love…" He grabbed Noah's arm and pulled him close, tousling his hair, then massaging his shoulders, then he leaned down and licked Noah's ear. Noah shouted and leapt back in absolute terror.
"If you want to come down to the lab when no one else is awake tonight, I won't stop you," Jack yelled, grinning proudly. He turned to Danny. "You can come too, Billy!" He ran down the hallway again and disappeared.
"…Billy?" Danny asked himself, then he gasped. "Oh!"
"I really, really don't feel comfortable staying here anymore," Noah said, trembling.
"No, wait, this is awesome," Danny said. "Quick! Run down to the lab with me." He brought the Anti-Creep Stick with him, grabbed Noah's arm and rushed down the stairs, against Noah's struggles.
Danny put a finger to his lips when they reached the bottom stair, and did the same for Tucker and Sam when they followed. He watched as his dad used the Fenton Ghost Weasel to clear the lab of smoke that had resulted from some explosion; his mom walked up to his dad and tapped him on the shoulder.
"Hey, sweetie," she said. "I just wanted to let you know that I'm leaving you."
"Eh?" Jack said, turning off the vacuum and turning towards her for a kiss. She slapped him across the face. "What in the—" Jack staggered backwards.
"Thought so," Danny said. He rushed into the room, wielding the bat, and smashed his mother in the back of the head. She fell to the ground and her form flickered, then distorted and became the shape-shifting ghost known as Amorpho. Danny's real mother came into view through the smoke in the lab.
"Whoa, Danny!" Jack yelled. "Excellent job! How'd you know?" He grabbed an ecto-blaster and raised it to aim it at the imposter; Maddie noticed and did the same.
"That's… a shape-shifting ghost?" Noah asked, delighted at both the fact that it was another ghost attack in the same day, and that Jack Fenton didn't actually lick him. "Wow! This is so exciting! Two ghost appearances in the same day! Three if you count the first one as being two ghosts!" He wandered over around the different parts of the lab, looking for the ghost again in case it appeared.
"Two ghosts? In the school?" Jack said. He and Maddie turned his gaze away from Amorpho for a moment, who used the opportunity to phase through the floor and escape laughing.
"I thought I told him never to come back here," Danny said softly to Tucker and Sam. Tucker shrugged; Sam wasn't paying attention, just being relieved that it hadn't been Noah who'd yelled at her. "And how did he get the ecto-blaster? Must've been in the confusion after the explosion."
"An ecto-blaster?" Tucker asked. "He shot at you when you followed him?"
Noah wandered back over, so Danny just nodded instead of answering. Noah was once again ecstatic about the whole experience, and he bounced on his heels. "I don't know how I'm going to be able to get to sleep tonight with all this excitement!"
Noah appeared, however, to fall asleep immediately when his head hit the pillow. He remained completely still and breathed rhythmically. Danny had wanted to ask him some more information about ghosts, but Noah was out cold as soon as his head hit the temporary air mattress that Danny's mother had put in until they could get another real bed in Danny's room. Danny smiled and let his head fall, too, closing his eyes and falling asleep almost instantly. Excitement could keep you awake, but the aftermath of excitement had a way of just knocking you out. He drifted off to sleep.
He woke up in the middle of the night, though, from a sore throat. He got up to go to the bathroom for some water, somehow remembering even in his delirious state not to fly, because Noah was sleeping next to him.
But when he turned to see Noah sleeping there, the bed was empty.
That was strange. He stopped in the bathroom and got himself a drink, then went downstairs to see if Noah went down for a midnight snack. The lights weren't on in the kitchen, but there was a soft glow coming from what must have been the lab.
Danny walked down the stairs to the lab. There were fizzling and popping sounds, almost like when his father was working on an invention. Noah was working on one of the lab tables, with materials spread out on the table that Danny had never seen before; he assumed Noah had brought them. Or purchased them when he arrived.
He was using a blowtorch to weld some sort of thin, rectangular metal; he had on a welding mask with a little window for his eyes. He had some wires laid out in front of him and seemed to have just started working.
Whether or not this was a good intention, it aroused Danny's suspicions that Noah was wandering around his house at night, without telling anyone. He waited until Noah was done welding and lifted up the mask, then he stepped into the open and cleared his throat, folding his arms.
Noah whipped around and gulped. "Oh. Um… Hi, Danny."
"Hi, Noah. What're you doing down here so late at night?"
Noah looked down at the device he was inventing. "I like to invent stuff."
"At one o'clock in the morning?" Danny asked. "I'm sure my parents would love you to exercise your talents at normal times. It's all right."
Noah shook his head. "I like working alone. And this is something… pretty big that I'm working on, and I don't really want anyone to know about it yet. In case it fails."
Danny didn't know why, but he was a little unnerved.
"Sorry for getting you out of bed," Noah said. "I think you should go back. I'll be here for another couple of hours."
"Don't you need to sleep?" Danny asked.
"I get by with very little sleep," Noah said. "I'll be fine; don't worry about me."
Danny wasn't very comforted by this. He decided to do a little invisible spying for a while, and as soon as he was around the bend, he turned invisible and floated quietly back down.
For the next thirty minutes or so, Noah continued to work diligently while standing in place. Danny had trouble keeping his eyes open for long, and so decided to leave Noah alone for now; he flew up to his room and went back to sleep.
Noah wasn't in bed when Danny woke up, either; Danny walked downstairs, intending to check the lab again, but saw Noah frying bacon in the kitchen.
Jack Fenton was sitting with a plate in front of him, eagerly devouring most of what Noah set down before Jazz or Maddie had a chance at it. Jazz was reading a book Danny had never seen before, entitled Ghosts: They Just Wanna Have Fun. She twirled her spoon around in an empty bowl of cereal and ate one strip of bacon when Noah set out more. Maddie took two, and Jack had seven.
"This is a really interesting read, Noah," Jazz said, waving the book at him. "Through my experience, I've seen a lot more ghosts who want to take over the city than ghosts who are neutral towards human actions. But the author here is right—most ghosts just do what amuses them, and want to see if there's anyone who can stop them."
"I'm glad you like it," Noah said. "Mrs. Fenton, I cleaned up the lab because I woke up early today; I hope that's okay with you."
Maddie clasped her hands and her eyes shone. "That's wonderful, dear! You didn't need to do that, but thank you so much! I was going to spend my afternoon cleaning up down there!"
Danny smiled, because he knew that Noah hadn't woken up early. In fact, it seemed like he hadn't slept all night; there was a good chance that Danny would have woken up if Noah had come back in and gotten back in bed.
Noah was on everyone's good side already. He was a bright student who loved hearing Jazz's college thesis on ghost envy, and lent her books; Jazz loved him. He helped around the house and cleaned up after everyone; Maddie loved him. He hunted ghosts and cooked bacon; Jack loved him. He was really into technology; Tucker loved him. And he was sensitive and good-looking; Sam loved him.
But there seemed to be a dark and foreboding secret over a lot of good things that happened to them. Danny was just waiting for this kid to break his accent and admit that his name was Elliot and he was from Michigan, not England.
He didn't tell Sam or Tucker that, of course. However, he definitely noticed that since stumbling upon Noah in the lab, Noah kept to himself a lot more around Danny. He didn't talk about ghosts when Danny was around, and he became quiet and reclusive whenever the subject was brought up around Danny. Sam actually cornered him in gym class to talk about it.
"What's happened?" Sam asked him quietly as Tetzlaff cheered on Noah in a game of handball. "Noah doesn't seem as comfortable around you anymore."
"I caught him sneaking around in the lab last night," Danny said. "He was inventing something down there at one o'clock in the morning."
Sam didn't know whether to be angry at Noah for sneaking around, or at Danny for spying on Noah. "Are you sure it was him? Not Amorpho?"
"Oh, right, Amorpho," Danny said. "But no, I'm confident it was him. He wasn't in his bed, and I watched him invisibly for about a half hour after I talked to him. I don't know if he ever went to sleep last night."
"Never went to sleep?" Sam asked. "But he seems fine."
"I know," Danny said. "I was wondering about that, too."
"And you're sure it wasn't Amorpho?"
"Sam, if it was Amorpho, my ghost sense would have gone off."
"Right," Sam said. "Forgot." She watched Noah leap into the air and score a goal, and her eyes softened again; Danny knew the conversation was over. But that still didn't answer his questions.
He walked over to Tucker. "Hey, can I ask you a favor?"
"Sure," Tucker said. "Well… I mean, depends on what it is."
Ms. Tetzlaff blew her whistle loudly. "Foley! Manson! Fenton! Your team is up. Go back on the court!"
Danny jogged alongside Tucker and whispered to him, "I need you to hang out with Noah tonight without me. Bring Sam if she wants to go… which probably means yes. Anyway, I'll say I'm getting a little sick. Bring him to the alley behind the movie theater tonight, and say that's the spot where Danny Phantom likes to hide out. I'll show up and we'll see how he reacts."
"Sounds fine," Tucker said; Ms. Tetzlaff blew her whistle again and the game began.
Danny saw Noah approached by Tucker after class. Danny pretended to sniffle and cough so that when Tucker asked if he wanted to go, he would say he thinks he's coming down with something.
Noah looked out the window after Tucker was finished talking, and Danny heard Noah' response. "Oh… I don't know about going out tonight."
"Why not?" Tucker asked.
"Looks like rain," Noah responded.
Tucker frowned and glanced out the window. "Um… Not really…"
Noah patted his shoulder. "I live in England. I know rain when I see it. That's okay; we can go out tomorrow if the weather gets better."
"Well… All right." Tucker nodded and jogged away.
Noah walked up to Danny, initiating conversation with him for the first time that day. "Are you all right?" he asked, looking concerned. "You look like you might be coming down with something."
"I was thinking that, too," Danny said, and coughed. "I don't know… If this doesn't get much better, I might stay home tomorrow."
"Oh," Noah said, looking a little upset. "Well, Tucker and Sam and I were going to go out tomorrow to see a movie and then see if we can spot Danny Phantom. I hope you're better. We can postpone it if you're not."
"Which movie?" Danny asked.
"Day of the Dead Living 2: Activity Paranormal."
"Oh, I've seen that one already. It's all right."
"But we could see Danny Phantom!"
"Really, it's okay. Don't change your plans on my account."
Noah smiled. "You're such a nice guy," he said. "Well, I'll make sure it's fine. with Sam and Tucker, but if you really want us to go…"
"I do."
"Then maybe. We'll see how you feel tomorrow."
Danny nodded and led him to their next class.
Dash came up to Noah again at lunch, having been interrupted last time by the appearance of the Lunch Lady, and asked Noah to go to football practice with them for the playoffs this coming weekend. Noah sympathized with the football team for having just lost their best punt returner from a broken leg, and he agreed. Dash said that from the way Noah ran, he'd make a perfect returner and a valuable part of the offense.
The rest of the day was normal... no ghost attacks. Noah was slightly disappointed. It did end up raining, though, pretty heavily. Danny and Noah returned home again, had a chat, and Danny pretended to be getting sicker. Maddie prescribed him with an early bedtime and some cold medicine, which Danny stored in his cheek and later sneakily spat it out down the sink drain. He went to sleep pretty quickly, since he'd woken up last night for a while. He didn't hear Noah come in the entire night.
He woke up a little early the next morning, having gone to sleep so early. It was still a half hour before anyone else would be up. Noah's bed was again empty.
He stretched and cracked his back and neck, then transformed into his ghost half and phased through the floor all the way to the laboratory. Sure enough, Noah was there again, working on his miniature invention again. It had taken shape now—it was some sort of metal V-shaped device hanging off of a black strap, like some sort of high-tech necklace. He floated nearer to see what it was.
There was suddenly a red glow from the area around the device, and Noah turned around, looking about nervously, grabbing a small ecto-ray-gun from under the lab table. Danny flew away to the bottom of the stairs, waited about ten minutes until he was sure Noah was perfectly calm, and then turned visible again, transformed back into Danny Fenton, and cleared his throat.
Noah turned around again. "Oh. Good morning, Danny." He held up the device. "I think it's about done. I might paint it later so it looks nicer, but…" He held up the device and pressed a button in the center; the prongs on the V-shaped device retracted until it was an even smaller diamond shape. "It seems to be completed otherwise."
"What is it?" Danny asked, very curious.
"It's a secret," Noah said. "I'll show you if Danny Phantom or any ghost ever shows up. I don't think we'll have to worry about ghost attacks as much anymore!"
That sounded… a little ominous. I'll show you if Danny Phantom shows up? We don't have to worry about ghosts anymore? What does that mean?
Noah sighed. "Well… massive ghost invasions, we might need more than one of these things. But it's finally done." He was definitely showing signs of fatigue now. "I hope two all-nighters was worth it. This thing better do what it's supposed to do."
"Which is…?" Danny prodded.
"Not telling," Noah said. "Are you feeling better?"
Suddenly remembering his "ailment," Danny faked a cough, then another. "Not really."
"Well, you seem to be able to function fairly well," Noah said. "I bet you could go to school, but don't feel like you have to join us on our movie trip tonight; we'll hold off on that, too, if you want."
"No need," Danny said. "You should go." He coughed again.
"If you say so," Noah said. "Come on upstairs; I'll get some more bacon going."
When the school day ended, Noah had a football practice with the team. He promised to meet Sam and Tucker at the Nasty Burger at 6, and from there, hit the movie. Danny went home and got caught up on his studies for a full six hours, actually spending time to perfect an essay for Lancer. He figured that would get him a really good grade, which he needed right now, and he was sure to ace the test tomorrow too with the preparation he'd gotten. Which was nice—he didn't especially like getting his grades beaten so badly by Noah on the three quizzes they'd had together so far.
At 9:30, about the time when the movie ended, Danny transformed and flew out of his room, asking Jazz to cover for him if their parents discovered his absence. He turned invisible and streaked across the sky, landing in the alley behind the movies.
His timing was perfect; he heard Sam talking to Noah, explaining what they knew about Danny Phantom.
"He seems to like hanging around in the school during school hours," Sam said. "Maybe he likes getting a free education by turning invisible."
"Maybe," came Noah's voice.
Tucker spoke next. "So, we've been to the movies a lot, and we often see Danny Phantom floating outside the movie theatre. We think he likes to watch—WHAA!"
Danny still couldn't see them, but he got ready to lunge into action at the sound of Tucker's shout.
"Um… What?" he heard Noah ask.
"Your… That puff of—was your—was that your necklace…?"
Danny was about ready to reveal himself, but he was a little spooked by Tucker's mention of the necklace Noah was wearing. He hadn't been wearing it in school, but he was wearing it now. Why? What was that necklace, and what were his intentions?
Suddenly, the best possible coincidence happened.
His ghost sense went off as he turned around, having seen movement. He was still invisible, but he watched himself, Danny Phantom, descend from the sky, snickering, and float towards where his friends' voices were coming from.
This is… So incredibly excellent, Danny thought to himself. He followed behind what he assumed was Amorpho, and watched how the exchange would play out. He would blast Amorpho from behind if Amorpho got to talking, but by letting the unwitting dummy go first, he could see if Noah was on the attack.
Amorpho drifted into view and struck a pose; Danny stuck his invisible head around a corner.
"Look!" Sam said, feigning surprise. "Oh my gosh, look! It's Danny Phantom!"
"Whoa!" Noah said, turning around.
He unhooked the necklace in a flash, and pressed the button on it, expanding it into its slightly larger V-form; he whipped it through the air and it curved like a boomerang, slicing a banana-shaped path in the air until it made direct contact with the fake Danny's head.
The boomerang then glowed with a blue light like that of the Fenton Thermos, and Amorpho was suddenly broken down—it was hard to explain, it looked like he just shattered—and his pieces flew into the glowing blue diamond on the tip of the V-shaped boomerang necklace; once this was over, the necklace returned to its metallic gray color and flew back to Noah, who caught it and shouted, "AWESOME!"
Sam and Tucker gasped. "Wait!" Sam shouted. "What the heck are you planning to do with—STOP!"
Noah was running the other way. "Don't think badly of me!" he yelled. "I'm bringing him back to the Fentons' laboratory. I promise I'll set him free soon! Don't follow me, I'm sealing the lab entrance when I get there!" His voice faded as he drifted away.
Sam grabbed Tucker's arm, and she began sprinting after Noah. Danny emerged from the shadows and became visible again, and he yelled, "Guys, don't bother! He's too fast for you to follow him."
Sam and Tucker jerked around and Sam screamed and almost fainted.
"Dude, what the heck?" Tucker shouted, shaking. "We just saw you go into—What the heck just happened?"
"That was Amorpho," Danny responded, laughing. "I saw him flying in, and I figured, hey, why not? I'll see what he's up to with that necklace."
"Danny, you have to beat him there," Tucker said. "Even if Amorpho is a trouble-maker, what is Noah going to do to him?"
"I can't believe Noah would do something like that," Sam whispered. Then she raised her voice. "Oh—Danny. Fly quickly, but I need to mention one thing—right before you… Amorpho… showed up, this little burst of orange flame popped out of… well, it he was in front of us and it was hard to tell. It looked like his necklace shot a wisp of fire. I don't know for sure, but it might be the mechanical equivalent of your ghost sense."
Danny nodded. "I'll be careful," he said. "He won't know I'm there until I make myself known."
Sam hugged him, and then she and Tucker raced on foot while Danny flew ahead.
He stayed invisible, to make sure Noah wouldn't see him, and got to the lab in no time; no matter how fast Noah ran a half-mile, there was no way he had made it the mile trip to the lab before Danny. He turned himself intangible and flew down into the lab, and got electrocuted before he made it all the way in.
He flew back out, and stared inside—it couldn't be. Noah was here already! Had Danny spent more time than he thought talking to Sam and Tucker? Noah must have already had a ride set up; maybe with Danny's parents. But his parents weren't there. It was just Noah, holding his boomerang-like necklace out in front of him with the lab door sealed and a ghost shield cast over most of the lab. Danny was floating just inside the lab, outside of the ghost shield's reach.
If Danny was going to get inside, he had to become human. He'd only do it if it were necessary. For now, he watched and listened.
Noah pressed the button on his necklace, and out poured a mass of smoke that swirled and formed into Danny Phantom's image, clutching his head. "What… What was that? What happened?" Amorpho asked.
"Danny Phantom," Noah said breathlessly. "My name's Noah Nightingale. Well… That's what I've told everybody my name was, so I could live with the Fentons and move to Amity Park to meet you. My real name's Noah Fontaine."
Noah Fontaine… Danny struggled with his memory. He'd heard that name before… but when? Where?
"I'm very pleased to meet you, too… Could you let me out?" Amorpho was looking at the ghost shield with panic.
"I'm sorry I had to capture you like that," Noah said. "I needed to make sure you would stay here throughout my entire explanation. And I needed to talk to you alone. I'm… I know you're only half-ghost, and I know that at most times, you're just a normal high-school kid."
Danny shivered. Noah knew?
"You don't understand—" Amorpho started, but Noah cut him off.
"I do understand," he said. "I know you're half-ghost. I don't know who you really are, and you don't have to tell me. But I want you to train me, because…"
He gulped, and then he took a step back and thrust his arms out on either side. Some sort of unnatural shimmering came over him. His arms looked like there were infinitely many little panels instead of skin, flipping over themselves, changing the color of his arms and traveling across his body. Starting from his arms and radiating outwards, his entire body looked like there were little audience members doing the "wave" across his skin.
Where the effect left, his skin changed color and became darker, as if suddenly tanned. His shirt turned green and his pants and shoes turned black; his eyes turned glowing red and so did his hair. He stood in his transformed state, and rose slightly into the air, with the signature soft white glow of a ghost around his entire body.
"Because I'm half-ghost too!" he said.
Danny was absolutely stunned. But it explained everything. Why he'd wanted to come to Amity Park and meet Danny Phantom so badly; why Mr. Lancer told them with such short notice—Noah must have been overshadowing him—how he had managed to sneak out without waking up Danny; how he'd gotten to the lab so quickly; why he'd wanted to come to the house with the ghost lab and ghost technology.
"I've made sure no one knows about me," Noah pleaded. "You can take me as your sidekick! Just mention to Sam Manson and Tucker Foley that I didn't actually kidnap you; make up some story—"
Finally, Amorpho spoke up and held his arms out in front of him. "Look, Joey. I really couldn't care less. I'm not Billy Phantom… If you hadn't cut me off so much, you would have known that by now! I was just trying to scare you and have a little fun!" His body twisted and morphed and changed color until it was back to his original state.
Noah nearly fell out of the sky with shock, and his dark face drained of its color. "What—you're not…?" His shoulders slumped, his mouth opened slightly, and he squinted. "That… that can't be… How did…" His eyes watered, and he lowered himself onto the ground in a sitting position. He put his hands in his knees and hugged them close.
It was a moment before anything was said. "Could you perhaps… deactivate the ghost shield or something?" Amorpho asked, tapping him on the shoulder.
Without looking up, Noah reached into his pocket and pulled out a remote; he pressed a button on it. The shield disappeared, and the wall blocking the entrance to the lab retracted. Tucker and Sam had been behind it, but Danny put a finger to his lips and waved at them to get out. They took a look inside the room and their eyes bugged out at the strange new ghost there, but they take heeded Danny's request and backed out of the room silently.
Amorpho had noticed Danny and was floating still. Danny took this opportunity, where Noah could see them both and know that the real Danny Phantom was here. He swooped down and tapped Noah on the shoulder.
"You're still here?" Noah grumbled, and looked up. His eyes widened a bit when he saw Danny Phantom. "Why are you teasing me like this? Get out of here!"
Danny jabbed a thumb to his side; Noah turned and saw Amorpho there, who then turned and flew out of the laboratory. He gasped and looked at Danny with his enormous, now glowing red eyes.
"It's…" He broke into a smile and jumped up into the air next to Danny Phantom; but he wobbled a little bit from overexcitement. "It's you! It's Danny Phantom! Were you watching that whole thing?"
Danny nodded. "I saw everything," he said. "From the moment you let Amorpho out of that necklace you have there."
Noah grinned and rubbed the back of his head. "Well… When Jack Fenton told me he had a device for capturing ghosts, I studied the technology and just made it a bit smaller, that's all…" He looked up. "How did you know I was going to be here?"
Danny smiled. "Because I know you a little better than you think I do."
"What does that mean?" Noah asked, confused, with his signature rapid blinking.
"It means you were right," Danny said. "That Danny Phantom is a half-ghost. But I can fill in the blanks for you from here." He lowered himself to the ground, and Noah followed.
Danny straightened his stance, and then focused; a ghostly white ring appeared around his midsection, spreading across his body, and transforming him back into Danny Fenton. Noah gasped delightedly and clapped a hand over his mouth.
"You're kidding!" Noah laughed. "All this time? We never knew each other was…"
"My parents still don't know," Danny said, "and I'd like to keep it that way. At least for now."
Noah nodded vigorously. "That was such a cool transformation—those rings of light!" He transformed back, too, with his skin rippling and changing color.
"I was about to say that about yours," Danny said.
"This explains why Sam and Tucker thought they could introduce me to Danny Phantom," Noah said. "So… Danny… I know this was a bit of a weird three days, and I didn't get to ask you in the way that I planned. But…" He smiled meekly. "Will you train me in using my ghost powers?"
"Of course!" Danny said. "Wait until you see the sweet training course we can get set up down here."
Noah bounced up and down on his heels again. "This is so awesome," he said "Thank you, Danny. Thank you so much!"
"I think we're going to have a fine couple of months together," Danny said, walking upstairs.
"Did you see that ghost down there?" Sam asked, firing the question at Tucker as soon as they were alone. "Was that—Noah? I mean… It makes sense, but… That's crazy!"
"Remember that book Danny had, that talked about half-ghosts?" Tucker said. "Wasn't there someone named Noah listed there?"
Sam nodded with a dropped jaw. "Holy cow," she said. "That's amazing."
Jack Fenton walked into the room and put his hands on his hips. "Well?"
Sam looked around; Tucker looked up. "Well what, Mr. Fenton?"
Jack huffed. "Well, what do you have to say about the security footage from the lab, showing my son turning into the Ghost Kid?"
Tucker had a spasm and Sam nearly fell off the couch. "W-What?" she stammered.
Jack spun around in the air and his form distorted, shape-shifting into Amorpho. "Just teasing you," he said. "I'm getting out of this town for good this time. I keep getting in far over my head. Give Billy the message for me."
"His name's Danny, by the way," Tucker said.
Amorpho nodded. "My apologies. Give Tammy the message for me."
With that, he rose through the ceiling and vanished, waving, leaving only two ghosts left in the house. The two half-ghosts went back up to Danny's room after Sam and Tucker had departed, and they talked long into the night.
-THE END-