Chapter 22:

Third Person:

When Danny woke up, the first thing he did was try to rip out the IV. He hated needles. He hated anything related to anything surgical. Thankfully, Danielle grabbed his arm in time and managed to get him to calm down. Taking a deep breath, he took in his surroundings. His friends were all standing around him with concerned looks. Danielle was back in human form, looking like she was alright, but she was also visibly concerned.

He visibly relaxed, seeing no threat. As soon as he calmed down, he sat back down on the bed just as the League members walked in, Gear leading them. She plopped down on the bed beside him and wrapped an arm around him cheerfully,

"Glad to see you're alright, dude! How are you feeling?"

Danny groaned and peeled Gear off of him.

"I feel worse than the time you told me to lick that swing set when I was six."

"Uhh no," Gear pointed out, "I said 'don't lick the swing set because I will get in trouble since I'm older' and then you said 'don't tell me what to do' and licked it."

Danny waved her off unconcerned as he laid down in the bed. Danielle poked his arm slightly to get his attention and when he looked at her, she pointed to the League. Batman stood charge with Superman at his side with Martian Manhunter, Black Canary and Green Arrow following suit as Aquaman was dealing with situations back in Atlantis. Each member of the League looked briefly at their protégés before turning their attention to Danny, Dani, and Gear- the two girls were grinning innocently while Danny just sat up in his bed with a groan.

"I guess… I have some explaining to do then?"

"Ghosts aren't supposed to turn human," Batman pointed out.

"They are if they're halfas," Danny answered, "Half-ghost, half-human. Not like mommy and daddy half ghosts, but… we're created through accidents. Lab accidents to be exact…Best to start at the beginning…"

Gear backed away from the bed to go tinker on her tech since she has heard the back story many times as well as lived some of it. The team listened intently, as did the League.

"My real name isn't Daniel Jefferson to begin with, even if it is the one I signed up for school with."

He would have apologized to M'gann and Superboy if he realized that they were his friends from school, but instead he tried to keep a straight face. Gear gave a rough coughing noise. He glared momentarily,

"Even though it's the one Gear signed me up for school with… My real name is Daniel Jack Fenton. I used to live in Amity Park with my parents, Madeline and Jack Fenton, my older sister Jasmine, my two best friends Tucker and Sam, and Gear. My parents were ghost hunters. Their whole scientific careers, they worked on building a portal to what they believed was the Ghost Zone. It wasn't proven it even exisited, yet they were sure of their theories so they tried their hand at building one. Their prototype was a small portal, built in their college days, it exploded in their college friend's face, Vladimir Masters. That was how he became half ghost. He was put in the hospital for months and claimed that if he was never put in the hospital by Jack- who fired the portal- then he would have gotten Maddie. So he hated Jack and loved Maddie. Years later, when I was fourteen, they built another portal- a larger scale one that could fit even vehicles through it. It didn't work."

Danny took a deep breath,

"I ventured down there with Tucker and Sam when I shouldn't have and went inside. I ended up turning the portal on by pressing a button on the inside- yeah they were smart, but dumb too. So, that caused the scar on my hand as I was burned with volts of electricity and ectoplasm, causing me to be half ghost."

"What about Danielle," Robin asked.

"Dani with an I," Dani corrected.

"Well… after Vlad found out about me, he was obsessed. He thought I could be his apprentice and his son, which was so not going to happen," Danny shook his head, "But Danielle…. Vlad tried to create clones. He did- in a way. The other clones destabilized too fast to be of any use to him. Dani, however, was one of the more stable ones."

"Vlad tricked me," Danielle put in, "I thought he was the good guy and a father. I thought that he wanted Danny captured to stabilize me. In reality, he needed Danny to create the perfect clone. I didn't find out the truth till I heard him call me an absolute failure and waist of life."

Dani's fists tightened briefly. Superboy listened and felt a sting of familiarity. Danielle was a lot like him. They were both clones. Yet Danielle thought of her 'creator' as a father only for him to reject her. Superboy thought of Superman, not as a father, but more of a role model, only to be rejected. Yet, Danny accepted his clone and that thought made him a tinge jealous of them and how well it worked out.

"So I beat his butt," Dani smiled, "And teamed up with Danny."

"I offered her a place to stay, but she refuse," Danny chimed in, "In the end, that was better. Gear still kept an eye on her and I still kept in touch. She's my little sister after all."

Despite her protests, he ruffled her hair. Gear looked over briefly with a fond smile.

"If she's your clone, how is she a girl," Kid Flash scratched as his head in confusion.

"I can answer that," Gear pitched in, but she didn't bother looking up as she continued to tinker with the tech on her arm, "So, obviously she shouldn't be a girl since she's a clone, right? Wrong. She, technically speaking, is a clone due to about like 99 percent of her DNA being from Danny. However, Vlad got the DNA from a brush- a hair brush that Danny's girlfriend Sam used all the time so about 1 percent, maybe even a bit less than that, got mixed in the DNA process. The small percent was enough, however, to get that chromosome needed to make little D into the girl we all know and love."

Gear looked up briefly to give a smile to Danielle, who gave her a thumbs up. Danny nodded in agreement,

"That sounds about right… Now as to why I got here and everything is a different story. So, the portal had a tendency to open- a lot. Ghosts got free. I decided to use my new powers to help protect the town and its people from ghosts. I took down lots of different ghosts- Skulker and Walker were just the easy ones. I took down Undergrowth, who turned the whole town into a jungle and used everyone as mind puppets, Vortex who controlled the weather, a villain I'd rather not talk about, Pariah Dark, and Fright Knight. Pariah Dark was the old King of the Ghost Zone who wanted to destroy the Earth, or at least take over it, and he had the power to do so. Most of the town thought I was evil because of what I was though- a ghost."

Danny continued,

"But my parents hated Phantom- that was the name I called myself as a hero. So when I told them I was Phantom- a ghost- they didn't take it well…"

Danny took a shaky breath and Gear stood up,

"Dude, you continue, I'm gonna take Danielle out for ice cream."

"But I wanna hear this," Danielle protested, not hearing that much about the fire or what happened before it.

"Let me rephrase," Gear corrected herself, "I'm gonna take Danielle out to see that new Disney movie, get some new clothes for her and stuff her room at the house since I know she'll be staying with us, and to go get ice cream- triple scoop."

Danielle practically dragged Gear out of the room, determined to get what was promised (she wasn't too thrilled about shopping, and neither was Gear, but she was excited about the movie and ice cream- maybe if she gave Gear the puppy dog look, they could go visit the arcade too). Danny let out a small sigh of relief. He didn't want Danielle to hear about what happened, or worse, see him break down and ruin the image of him being the big protector she thought of him as.

"The ones I once knew as parents," Danny finally continued, "They… They locked me up. Experimented on me. They said that I was no son of theirs since I was a ghost and that ghosts couldn't feel pain… I was down there for two weeks before a fire broke out. The fire allowed Sam, Tucker, and Jazz to get inside to save me… Jazz couldn't have saved me earlier- our parents had locked her in her room with such heavy duty locks that she couldn't get free. Gear wasn't even in Amity so she didn't even know about the torture… But during the fire…. Tucker got stuck…. Jazz went back to save him and I was so weak and distraught trying to save all of them that… Sam didn't make it either… A piece of wood went straight through her chest right in front of me and killed her… Jazz and Tucker died too and eventually, half of the town was destroyed… Everyone blamed the fire on Phantom because he was a ghost so I left. I found Gear and she helped me become the Poltergeist. I became the menace everyone thought I was…"

Danny was taking quick breaths and his fists were gripping the sheets. Kaldur finally laid a hand on his friend's shoulder,

"My friend, I wish you didn't have to go through that, none of us are thrilled about what they did to you… But from what we have seen, you are a strong, loyal friend so you shouldn't let their actions destroy you…"

Danny nodded and gave a thankful smile that Kaldur returned.

"Yeah," Robin said with a large grin, "And since you'll be here for at least a day or two before you can go home, it gives us plenty of time to beat you at video games!"

Danny and the rest laughed, the tension leaving the room. The adults, however, weren't so easily relaxed. All of them were a bit distraught of what happened and Superman gave a brief look to Superboy- wondering if he had failed him and was hurting him like Vlad hurt Danielle. He would have to think about it and talk to Bruce about it, he had realized. Black Canary was thrilled that Danny was opening up and Green Arrow was just relived to get everything in the open.

Batman was the first of them to speak.

"Don't think you're off the hook, Poltergeist. Canary is hosting another training session in two days."

Danny looked up at Batman and noticed the small smirk on the Dark Knight's face. Danny gave a large grin,

"If you don't mind, call me Phantom."