How about this, Danny?" Phoenix asked, holding up a striped t-shirt. It would have been nice, yes, if it wasn't blue-and-orange combination. She broke out into a hysterical fit of laughter upon seeing my reaction.
"Yeah, no. That's not my color."
Phoenix shrugged, and held the shirt up to her. "I dunno. What about it on me?"
"What?" I asked in shock; we were in the men's section. I didn't want to be sexist but that would be weird nonetheless.
"Most cities have gender-neutral clothings stores. Haven't you noticed?" Phoenix motioned for me to look around, and I stole a glance across the store. There was no place labeled "men" or "women" or "children"- just sizes.
Amazing, I thought. Tucker always ranted about things he had heard on Tumblr to us, and after a few weeks of this Sam joined, too. It was one of the few qualities they had in common- Tumblr. Sam was an activist for equal rights and Tucker was in random fandoms on it. I had a blog, but I never used it.
This was a dream come true to the activists she befriended.
I dug through a couple more clothes racks, before finding a perfect outfit for Phantom. It was a black t-shirt with a slight turtleneck and a neon green stripe across the chest, along with white pants, black boots (Sam would be proud) and a white vest with a hood that concealed my face.
Phoenix cocked her head in confusion at the choice of that, but it was the only one that stood out. The rest were just t-shirts and jeans.
She pulled out a card from her pocket at the cash register and the robot- I'm still not used to that idea- and the clothes were neatly folded and placed in a bag. I had wandered off to a section which was just full of hats. I don't understand why, but some of them were so outrageous they looked like someone had pulled them out of The Hunger Games.
"Danny?" Phoenix soon joined me again. "Looking at hats, huh?"
"I dunno. I kinda wandered." I shrugged. I picked up one that resembled a singular deer antler on a baseball cap. "What is this?"
"Fashion, I guess." Phoenix grabbed a random one and put it on her head- it reminded me of a Flapper's hat, from the 1920's- it was a bright red feather on a regular cap. "How do I look?"
I laughed, and put the antler-cap on. "Mighty dandy, m'lady. How do I?"
Phoenix couldn't hold it back, and we soon collapsed into a fit of giggling. We set the hats back before trying on different ones, admiring the beauty- or complete stupidity- in the mirrors around us. It ranged from pirate hats to caps with horns and other things on them to feathers and frills and everything. I managed to get a look around the store, too, and I finally understood why the whole store felt off.
The fashion was so different from what I was used to. No t-shirts and jeans, no crop tops and skirts, only in a section with more casual clothes. The fancy clothes were made of ridiculous things- there was a plastic jacket, a vest made of forks, and even shoes made of glass.
"The future is different," I said to Phoenix as we left that store and into the shopping center, which was huge and had bright, neon lights and glass buildings, just like you would expect in the future.
She laughed. "Right. You're from twenty years ago."
Even though her tone was joking, it still held disbelief in it, and it hurt like a needle through the heart. She didn't mean it that way, but it still couldn't stop the hurt. My mouth clamped shut before I quietly uttered, "I did."
Phoenix's eyes suddenly fell somber, and she didn't know how to respond. She probably thought I was in a delusion and couldn't remember anything, so my mind made up fake memories for it. Even the thought of that made my head hurt. It was what Tucker would call a Paradox, I think.
Speaking of time, what happened to Clockwork? He wasn't in any of the photos of my funeral (even thinking of that gave me chills), but he said he was my guardian, always watching over me. Why did he let me die? Why did I come back? Everything happens for a reason, Daniel, he always said.
That ghost can be so cryptic sometimes it's infuriating.
"Uh, Danny, I think I should tell you something-" Phoenix's voice was interrupted by a loud, childish gasp that made me jump. It was familiar, and I knew it from somewhere. As if an omen, a chill ran up my spine and a wisp of blue air flew from my mouth.
Ghost. I thought, but I stopped. What if ghosts had changed, too? I didn't know anything about this world, and I shouldn't be changing into my ghost form, especially with the condition my jumpsuit was in. I turned before looking up, and finding a familiar ghost, dressed up like a pirate. Again.
Youngblood floated above us, his mouth wide open in shock. I wondered why, until I realized I was the reason. There was enough zombie portrayal in media back when I lived before to creep the average person out into thinking a zombie apocalypse would happen.
"Danny?!" He asked, his eyes wide. Although he seemed just the same as before, there was a slight change in his voice...a little older, a little mature, perhaps. "You're...what?" His pale face held a bewildered expression- in all honesty, it was actually quite funny to see him in such a face.
Phoenix looked at me, the same shock but in different levels on her face. "You know this ghost?"
"Sorta?"
Youngblood, still full of shock, flew off in fear. Someone watched The Walking Dead, I commented in my head snidely before turning back to Phoenix.
"You were going to tell me?" I inquired, hoping to catch the rest of what she was going to say.
Phoenix shook her head. "Nothing. It was...Just…" She paused, her amber eyes glancing into mine. "Wow, your eyes are really blue."
"I get that. A lot."
"Obviously."
In a tower in Amity Park, a woman overlooked the city she ruled. It was perfect, she thought to herself in glee. Her people were safe, and the scum, the halfas, were overworking in the factories. She needed manual labor, and didn't want any of her people getting hurt.
Halfas were not her people. They were not meant to walk this realm, or the next. Ever since Danny Phantom came out to be a halfa, more of them began appearing. It was a sense of...What's the word, she mused in her mind.
Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon, she finally remembered. More of a real-life version than words, but it could be substituted. She turned on her heel and looked around her room. It was just a regular mayor's office, at the top of the city.
After all her hard work, she deserved this.
The phone on her desk beeped, making her jump a bit. Curious, she strode over and picked it up. "Yes?"
"There's a problem at Phantom's grave."
"What happened?" Worry and concern laced her words and thoughts. "Damn it, you said it was secure, Rodger!"
"It was broken into, and the body...He's gone."
"I want the culprits found and brought to me. Find the body and return him." She ordered, slamming the phone down, before turning back to her city. There was a rebellion group, hiding somewhere. They have a few people she knew back then with them. Although they were working hard to find the rebels, they had to find his body.
Phantom's body. It was kept under a ceremonial gravestone. Nobody had the audacity to even walk by it. People thought it was haunted.
And the mayor of Amity Park believed the rebels had something to do with this.