Chapter 3: Not Half-Ghost

Soon Danny had recovered enough (to his family's satisfaction) to return to school. Nothing had changed there, except the date and the amount of backlogged homework. Tucker and Sam had been helping him catch up with his classes. What surprised him, however, was the lack of ghost activity; he hadn't sensed a single ghost at all since his accident. Finally, Danny could focus on being a regular teenager, and do regular teenaged things, if only for a little while.

When he had first called his best friends, they were overjoyed to hear from him and questioned him over every single detail. He couldn't say what had knocked him senseless enough to put him in a coma, but they were more concerned about his well-being. The intensity of it touched his heart.

For a few days after he returned to school, the students would whisper about him, calling him 'the coma kid'. Even the teachers went out of their way to be extra nice to him. Danny was relieved when things settled down into the normal routine...which unfortunately included daily bullying from Dash.

"Hey Fentina," Dash taunted; cornering Danny by his locker. "My buddies and I decided to give you a few days off considering you were a vegetable for the past month." He grabbed the poor boy by his shoulders. "We've missed 'playing' with you." Dash said, as he shoved him into Danny's own locker, slamming the door behind him. Danny sighed. It would've been great if Dash had forgotten about him.

"Now that you're back," came Tucker's voice. "Dash has been letting up on me. It's like you're his favourite chew toy."

"No one's watching, Danny," came Sam's voice. Nodding, Danny gathered his concentration and willed himself to become intangible. Then he pushed against his locker door, fully expecting to phase right through it. Much to his confusion, nothing happened.

"Um, can you open it?" he asked, embarrassed. There was a pause, then Danny tumbled out onto the floor. Picking himself up, he thanked them, only to be thrown back to the ground again by Sam. A loud clang echoed throughout the hall. Hurt, he glared at her to find she wasn't even looking at him, but behind him instead.

"I am the BOX Ghost! You will bow before my power of all things square!" wailed the Box Ghost. "BEWARE! That this is but a taste." Now Danny could see the large dent where he had been standing before and the metal First Aid box that caused it. How did a ghost sneak up on him without him sensing it?

"I'm going ghost," Danny said, ready to transform. However, this time was different. There were no glowing rings, and the power he would feel, like a cool breeze, just wasn't there. "Going ghost!" Nope. "Go-go ghost. Ghosting! Why isn't it working?" he cried in frustration. The Box Ghost grinned as he floated several boxes.

"You cannot stop ME, puny human. Face the wrath of," he paused to read the closest box. "Various school supplies from Office Depot!" The contents burst forth. Packaged paper, erasers, paper clips and unsharpened pencils assailed the trio. Tucker rolled out of the way and whipped out the Fenton Thermos. Sam yelled at the ghost, distracting it for a moment. That was all Tucker needed. A blue beam caught the pudgy ghost, and he quickly disappeared into the thermos. The two friends flashed each other a grin and turned to face Danny's quizzical look.

"We've been kicking ghost butt lately," Tucker explained. "It's easy. It's only been that Box Ghost." He then did a poor imitation of the ghost's voice while twirling the thermos on one finger. Sam crossed her arms.

"If you would be more careful with the thermos and not drop it, we wouldn't have had to catch him over and over again." She snatched the thermos from him before turning her attention to her other best friend. "What happened, Danny?" A distressed Danny raked his fingers through his hair.

"I don't know, but..."He glanced around to see if they were alone. "I can't go ghost. I can't use my powers!" He felt like a giant target. If any ghosts attacked, what could ordinary Danny Fenton do?

"Maybe it's a fluke?" Tucker suggested.

"Danny, your ghost self needs to rest just like you did. You have been through a lot," Sam said, worried for him.

"You think so?" Hope trickled into his voice. "Yeah, maybe that's it." His powers would come back soon. Danny tried to push away his fears and concentrate on doing well on that history test he missed.

Days passed. Danny still couldn't do anything related with his ghost side. Fortunately, he didn't need to. The ghosts that used to keep him busy before were non-existent now, or they could've been there the whole time; he had no way to tell now without the chill of his ghost sense.

Instead of getting depressed, Danny was happy. His parents were happy too. His grades were getting steadily higher, and he had enough spare time to be bored. It was great, though he missed flying. The only thing that bothered him now were his headaches. He didn't know what was causing them but they alternated between sharp, stabbing jolts, and low, dull throbs. They got so bad once that the school sent him home.

He hadn't been doing anything stressful, just trying to stay awake through one of Mr. Lancer's exciting lectures on various dead poets. Danny's head had been bothering him all day. Then, about halfway through the period, it intensified into a full-blown migraine. Everything went black and he felt as if he were falling. He woke up on his back on the floor by his desk. The entire class had gathered around him with scared and shocked expressions.

Danny sighed. He was getting sick of people being worried about him. So what if he blacked out and lay twitching on the floor for 10 seconds? Everyone, except Dash, treated him like he was made of glass. 'I wish I had my ghost powers, then I could fly and clear my head...'he thought wistfully.

"Ahhhh!" cried Danny. He had taken a shower when he got home, hoping it would help 'wash away' his headache. On his way out of the bathroom, his eye had caught his reflection in the foggy mirror. Wiping it down, his face paled in horror. His hair was pure white.

"Danny! Are you alright?" his mother called.

"Yeah mom, just... uh, testing my voice!" Danny replied, thinking how lame that excuse was.

"This can't be good," he said to his reflection.

~ phantom130 5 (September 2013)