So finally at least someone knows about Danny. Hope you guys enjoy it!
~CWA
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Danny Fenton
Wasabi still hasn't brought Jade by, but he claims it's because they haven't been on another date yet. I would probably be pressing him more about it if I weren't so absorbed into my own little world. Doubts about coming here and leaving Jazz, and Ellie for that matter, behind still linger in my mind making it harder to concentrate on the portal in front of me. I can't even seem to get anything done on this portal when every two seconds, I begin thinking about my little girl.
How is she doing? How much has she grown since the last time I've seen her? My heart longs to make sure that she's okay. That she knows how much I love her and how much I just want to spoil her rotten and buy her a bunch of new toys and cute little bows for her hair. She loves it when I do her hair up in bows. My hand twitches, causing the wrench I'm holding to fall to the ground with a loud thud that grabs everyone's attention.
I wince when I see that Wasabi, Honey Lemon, GoGo, and even Fred are watching me with wide, slightly startled eyes (thankfully Tadashi isn't here for this rather embarrassing slip up as he's out getting parts of his project). I've been a slightly clumsy person in the past and even now, I am occasionally clumsy. But I am never clumsy when I'm working. I'm precise. Determined. Focused.
Or at least, I usually am. Today I've been all over the place and distracted beyond words. I let out a small sigh as I run my hands through my hair with a pained expression,
"Sorry guys."
"Don't apologize," GoGo snaps, almost harshly, "You've been out of it all day. At this rate, I'm surprised you haven't burned off your own finger by now."
"She's right," Wasabi speaks up as he looks me over with concern, "Are you okay Danny? You're usually not like this."
At that point, Fred speaks up adding in that I'm usually like- followed by several strange gestures that I think is supposed to mean that I'm usually busy at work? It's hard to tell with Fred sometimes. At least he stops when Honey Lemon quietly puts her hand on his shoulder and shakes her head, causing him to stop as he calms himself down. I sheepishly rub the back of my neck as I take in their various faces of concern. Even GoGo looks concerned in her own way.
"I'm...fine," I force the words out, a bit strained, "Just a bit homesick, I guess. With the holidays coming up and all."
I see Honey Lemon, Wasabi and GoGo share a knowing look. No doubt they remember that I don't exactly have any parents to celebrate with. Just a sister. And a daughter, though they don't know about the later yet… Granted, Tadashi did invite me to celebrate with him and his family, but I really do want to go see Jazz and Ellie. Badly. I'm starting to rething about flying out to New York for the holidays. I still can't fly there on my own power because New York City is so high profile and I'm bound to get noticed in some way. I can't exactly ask Jazz for the money for a ticket (and I doubt she can afford it herself) and I certainly can't afford one myself. So I force myself to swallow down those thoughts of flying out there because that is not going to happen. Even if it pains me to think that way.
"Yeah, I get it," Fred chimes casually as he lazily tosses his arm over my shoulders, "After all, it's Christmas, which means presents."
I make a face at his words and very carefully detach myself from his arm,
"Yeah- no. As much as I love giving presents to other people, I'm not exactly a huge fan of Christmas."
I'm forced to at least act decent at Christmas, which isn't that hard when Ellie makes the holiday fun. But it's still not exactly my favorite holiday in the world. I'd take Halloween over Christmas anyway.
"Oh, do you not celebrate Christmas," Honey Lemon asks with her head titled curiously, "I know Wasabi celebrates Kwanzaa and GoGo doesn't actually celebrate anything, though she does at least take part in our holiday parties. What about you?"
"I celebrate Christmas," I clarify, "I just don't exactly have good Christmas memories. My parents spent the holidays fighting every single year and it got the best of them a lot so they never really noticed anything else going on. My first Christmas I got peed on by a dog. Another Christmas, my mm fried the turkey up with ectoplasm by accident and it came to life. She was too busy fighting with Dad to notice so Jazz just beat it off with a broom. Another Christmas, I pissed off this ghost and that didn't really go over well since it was like some sort of twisted version of The Night Before Christmas. I've gotten better with my Christmas funk, but it's still there."
I shrug my shoulders a bit carelessly, not really caring one way or the other. Yet I can see that most of my explanation has gone over their heads. I can almost see the question marks in their eyes… Well… Aside from Fred. His eyes have stars in them as he suddenly lets out a small excited cheer. In an instant, I'm 'attacked' by him as he grabs my shoulders and looks absolutely amazed.
"Dude," he drags the word out, "You're like some sort of superhero! Ghost turkey!? That sounds amazing."
I can't help it. I'll take any chance I can to mess with people so before I know it, I'm giving Fred a sly smirk with a wink as I whisper slyly to him,
"That's because I am a superhero."
Technically, I'm not lying and I know that no one (aside from Fred) will believe me. I can almost feel GoGo's eyes rolling into the back of her head as the others shake their heads with a bit of amusement. Fred, on the other hand….
It's a good thing I have good reflexes otherwise I don't think I'd be able to catch him in time as he faints. Honey Lemon rushes over to help me set him down into a nearby chair and despite her obvious concern, I can't help but laugh at the situation. In my defense, I didn't really expect him to faint. Scream, maybe, but not faint. Man, this is just too hilarious. If not for Honey Lemon and Wasabi's looks of disapproval, I would be busting a gut right about now.
"Danny," GoGo sighs as she drags her feet over to help us with Fred, "Can't you go just one day without freakin' breaking someone?"
"Nope."
Apparently, telling Fred that I'm a superhero warrants an automatic visit to his house. I had left him in the care of Honey Lemon after I checked him over myself and just deemed it to be fainting due to extreme fanboy overload. Man, I'm so not gonna forget this though. I guess it's a better reaction than Valerie's. Granted, she actually figured it out herself eventually and cornered me as Phantom and threatened me with a knife to tell her the truth and apparently that was her idea of a sick joke. A very sick joke.
I shake that memory out of my head as I try to keep an eye out for Fred. After he woke up, I had gotten a text from him saying to meet him outside the college campus so we can go to his house. A part of me almost regrets saying that I'm a superhero to him because I should have known that he was going to be a pain about it. Well, not so much a pain as a really overly excited puppy about it all.
"Danny! Danny! Danny! Over here!"
Fred's voice calls out to me and I easily spot him a bit away, waving ecclesiastically as he jumps up and down to get my attention. There's a large grin on his face and even from here I can see the stars in his eyes. I suppress the memories of the 'rabid Phantom fangirls' from back in Amity and grin and bare through it as I drag my feet over there.
"Hey Fred," I greet him a bit slowly and cautiously as he continues to just shake from excitement.
"Danny! This is so awesome! Who would have thought my own friend would be a," his voice drops down to a whisper as he leans in toward me, "superhero."
He lets out a small shriek at his own words before he starts to drag me down the sidewalk by my wrist. I'm pretty sure the dread shows on my face, but I try not to let Fred see it. Instead, I look to any and all passing people for help, most of which shake their heads or give sorry you're on your own smiles. Great. I'm doomed. Completely and utterly doomed.
As we walk, or rather Fred walks as I get dragged, Fred talks and talks and talks. He tells me that his parents aren't home because they're on vacation, which is strange to me because why wouldn't he join them? But I don't get the chance to question it since he just continues to talk. Most of it is about various superheroes, some of which I know about, some I don't.
Either way, my head's spinning by the time we finally come to a stop. It takes me a moment to get my balance back as my head tries to go back to normal. It takes me even a moment longer to realize that we're standing in front of a huge mansion. The sheer sight of it takes me off guard as I look to Fred, only to see him walking casually to the front door as if he owns the place.
"Uh Fred," I speak up cautiously, "Are you sure that this is the right house-"
He opens and closes his mouth for a moment, rubbing his head a bit sheepishly as he tries to get the words out. He's saved by speaking when the door opens and a butler steps out. Instantly, Fred turns his attention to the butler with a grin, giving him a fist bump in greeting,
"Heathcliff, my man! I brought over my friend, so it'd be nice if you can bring some sandwiches up for us later if you can. Come on, Danny, Heath can take your jacket, I guess."
He walks through the mansion and that's when it dawns on me that it's really his house, as strange as it seems. Well. I've seen weirder. Sucking it up, I make my way through the door, stopping briefly as the butler makes a move to take my jacket. I tsk a bit at him as I sidestep away from his hands,
"Nah, the jacket stays on, Alfred."
I wink at him as I make the Batman reference, but his face remains unchanged as he remains calm and composed.
"Absolutely hilarious, Mister Danny. I do believe that Master Fredrick has made his way to his room by now. Allow me to escort you."
He calmly begins to lead me toward the stairs, barely even glancing at me through the corners of his eyes. I walk behind him casually, occasionally pulling on my jacket collar before I put my hands in my pockets. I glance around at the many paints that line up on the wall. Most show Fred and who I assume is his parents. I smirk before I pull out my phone and snap a few pictures of some of the paintings of a younger Fred, knowing that I can get a laugh from it later. Or use it as blackmail, whichever comes first. For a moment, I think I see the butler smile at my actions but when I blink, the grin is gone.
"So have you worked here long, Heathcliff?"
"Very long, sir," Heathcliff answers me smoothly without faltering, "I saw his father grow from a young lad to the man he is today, and I hope to see Fred become a great man as well."
"I think that may be a while, Healthcliff," I retort dryly, causing the faintest smile to appear on his face as he stops in front of a door.
"Here we are, sir. Refreshments will be up shortly."
He doesn't say another word as he walks away. Glad to know that I actually got a smile from him though. With a grin on my face, I enter the room. At the point, I'm not even shocked to see the many pieces of superhero merchandise from action figures to costumes to masks to comics. The room's covered it in all, some of it even has sticky notes that even say things like Fred, don't touch -Fred. Now that has to be the most believable thing I've seen all day. If anyone needs sticky note reminders to not touch or do something from themselves, it's Fred.
"So, Danny, my man," Fred says from a place on a large bean chair, "You have got to tell me everything and I do mean everything. Including your origin story, powers, your nemesis, everything. I have just got to know."
He pleads me with me. I think about it for a minute. I could tell him lies, or that I was kidding about the superhero thing. But on the other hand, there's no one else who would believe me about all the stuff I've done aside from Fred. Despite everything, I know he's loyal so he's not going to be spewing it all to the media (if they would even listen) or to the others for that matter. Whether they would believe it or not, I don't exactly want them to know all the gritty details.
So making my decision, I take a seat beside Fred with a large drawn out groan. My hand, which is barely grazing the floor since it drapes over the edge of the chair, sends a small blast of ectoplasm through the floor and up the wall to attack any and all hidden cameras, recording devices and recorders. I'm sure Fred's phone may be a bit jacked up for a while too, but eventually it'll all return to normal after I get done with my little 'speech.'
"Okay, if we're going to do this, you have to promise a few things first."
He nods eagerly and motions for me to list the terms and conditions of this discussion.
"First," I continued, "No fainting or screaming. I can't explain everything if you're fainting or shrieking or screaming every five seconds, which I know that you will want to so just please at least try to hold it in. Secondly, if you really want to know all this, just know that it's pretty heavy stuff and like not many people know about it. Lastly, don't tell anyone and I mean anyone. My secret is a secret for a reason, got it?"
"Anyone," Fred repeats, his eyebrows furrowing, "...You don't want Tadashi know?"
"Not yet," I correct, "I'll tell him, and the others, on my own terms. Got it?"
He thinks it all over with a surprisingly deep expression before he finally nods.
"Yeah. Yeah I got it. Contrary to belief, I may be dumb, but I'm not stupid."
He… He says that with so much confidence that I falter a bit before deciding to not comment on his choice of words. As strange as it is, I think I know what he's trying to say. Maybe. With him, I really can never know for sure. I run my hands through my hair for a moment before I stand up and start to strip off my jacket and shirt,
"Look, I just want to make it clear that this story is not exactly a happy one. If you still want to hear it, after you see this, then I'll tell you."
I know that he's going to believe my words, but I don't want him to think that it's easy to be a superhero. I don't want him to just blindly believe in them or think so naively. He's an adult- sort of- and I just don't want to strip whatever innocence he has left because I decide to tell him my story. I glance at him just for a moment before I take off my shirt, seeing that he's a bit confused but nodding as if he's trying his hardest to understand.
I falter a bit on my shirt before I finally just let him see. All the scars that are on my chest from various things. The self-experimentation scars fade into the scars given to me from ghost fighting. There's very little of my skin that's even shown. The most noticeable one is likely to be the lightning-like scar that covers my arm and part of my hand due to the portal. Some are faint. Others aren't. Some are thin while others are thick and jagged. I rub briefly and absently at the scar near my heart that was given me to during the battle- a kill shot from Skulker that just barely even missed the heart.
The few breaths that I take are short and ragged as I try to not any emotion show. Fred just stares at me, taking it all in with wide eyes, but he doesn't seem disgusted or disturbed Concerned and a bit fascinated maybe, but not disturbed. His hand twitches as if he wants to just reach out and touch them but he stops himself.
"This is what happens when you become a hero," I gesture toward the many scars, "It's not easy. It sure as hell isn't painless. Are you sure you wanna hear my story now?"
He hesitates, but still nods. I'll take that as a yes. I run my fingers through my hair with a sigh before I start speaking.
"Okay… I guess I'll start at the beginning. As you know my parents were ghost hunters, the best in their field. Everyone thought they were crazy though, including me and my sister. Until one day, when I was fourteen… They built a portal. To the place they called the Ghost Zone."
I see his eyes widen in understanding. It's no secret that I'm working on a ghost portal myself so I imagine that the news my parents tried it first isn't too shocking, but still a bit surprising.
"At first, it didn't work. Disappointed, they left and my friends and I- me, Sam and Tucker I mean- we went to check it out. Somehow or another, Sam convinced me to go check it out so she can pictures. Which is fine by me, because I thought if I could get in there and find out what was wrong, my parents would finally have some more solid evidence to their findings…."
I hesitate in my story just enough to go for my jacket and grab my wallet. I flip it open and briefly hesitate since the first thing I see is pictures of Ellie before I shake my head. I reach into the back of it and pull out a few pictures of me and the gang and grab the one of the older ones. The one that Sam took when I went into the portal. I gulp a bit before I hand the picture to Fred, who gazes at it in amazement,
"That's what I used to look like," I point to the little fourteen-year-old in the picture, "Black hair, blue eyes. This white hair, well… It's natural. Because when I went into the portal, I hit a button that was on the inside. Suddenly, I find myself being blasted with roughly over 110 volts of electricity along with about 20 liters of pure ectoplasm."
I hold up my hand and put emphasis on the lightning scar as I flex slightly.
"You can guess just how much that hurt," my voice drops down for a moment before I continue louder, "I woke up and my hair was.. well basically white and my eyes were glowing green."
Fred looks up at me intensely and I flash my glowing green eyes in a blink. I hear his whispered whoa as he stares at me absolutely fascinated before I continue as my eyes flash back to 'normal.'
"It took a while, but eventually, I figured something out. The portal, which was completely functioning now, had turned me into what the ghosts call a halfa…. Fred, I'm half ghost. My heart beats slower, I'm cold as hell, and damn it, sometimes I wonder if I'm even considered human anymore."
I let out a groan and plop down onto the chair. With my shirt still off, my scars were still on display. Man this is a bit harder than I thought it would be. But before I know it, I'm telling Fred everything. Sam. Tucker. My parents. Jazz. Valerie. I go into depth on many of the stories of our adventures, some of the more lighter hearted ones from when I was younger come out first. I leave out Ellie, but aside from that, I'm spewing just about everything from my past. Eventually, I even talk about Sam and I's horrible breakup. My relationship with Dash…. I don't say his name, but I do talk about Vlad, calling him by his other name. Plasmius. I even talk about the Battle and just everything that's been haunting me to even how much I miss my family.
Huh.
Who knew that Fred would become my makeshift therapist before my sister?
