Danny awoke, his head pounding. He didn't remember what happened last night. He just knew that his head hurt.
A lot.
Danny groaned and tried to stretch out his cramped muscles but found that his foot hit a wall. His eyes snapped open, taking in the area around him.
He was in his parents lab, in a containment unit he didn't recognize. When had they constructed it?
Danny sat up. There was enough room for him to sit without banging his head on the roof of the box, but it was pretty darn close. Looking around he saw that the lab was empty. His parents were nowhere to be found. Wouldn't they have been gushing all over him, talking excitedly about all the experiments they would do?
Right as Danny said that, the door just happened to bang open. Two figures walked down the stairs carrying overflowing boxes with them. They looked as if they were filled with all types of inventions and scrap pieces of metal.
Danny knocked on the wall of the box he was in, trying to get their attention. "Hello?"
They didn't even blink at him. They just kept sifting through their boxes.
"Um… Hello?" Danny tried again. Still, nothing.
He groaned. He didn't know if his parents were ignoring him on purpose or if they were that engrossed in what they were doing.
"Mr. and Mrs. Fenton!" Danny yelled. Suddenly, his mom stomped her foot on the ground in response to his outburst.
"Will you quiet down ghost! We're busy."
"Busy doing what?" What was more important to them than dissecting public enemy number one?
Maddie turned her nose up into the air. "That does not concern you."
Danny huffed, crossing his arms as he leaned back against the box. "I mean, you have me trapped in your basement with the intentions of ripping me apart 'molecule by molecule'. So I believe it does concern me."
His mom squinted her eyes at him, suspicion clouding her gaze. "And why do you care if we rip you apart, molecule by molecule?"
Danny rolled her eyes at her. "Because ow? It would hurt? A lot?"
"Ghosts are beings made up of ectoplasm and post human consciousness. You feel no pain."
"How would you know? Are you a ghost?"
His mom scoffed, offended by the suggestion. "Why of course not! How could I be a ghost? I am alive and well and breathing with no malicious obsession to torture civilians with."
Danny snorted, thinking about the irony. "You've dedicated your life's work to researching something most people didn't even believe in with the intention of destroying them. Even before the ghost portal was created you had already invented the thermos, blasters, guns. The works."
Her eyes widened. "How would you know when we created our inventions?"
Danny noticed his slip up. This made it sound like he knew too much about them for having only come out of the portal two years ago.
"I… uh… News! News travels fast between ghosts. Yep. Some took their time to get to know who they would be fighting."
His mom continued staring at him wide eyed, like there was a piece missing from a puzzle. It was beginning to nerve him, especially with his slip up. He'd never actually had a conversation this long with his parent's before as Phantom and he was sure his mannerisms were showing like an elephant in the room.
"Who were you?" She whispered.
Danny didn't know how to answer this. He knew she was asking about him before his "death", but who he was didn't change.
"I'm me. I'm still me." Danny whispered.
His mom looked at him, searching his gaze. In the blink of an eye, she pressed a button and the box he was in opened.
He sprung, prepared to make a run for it, but his mom's gaze stopped him. A look of understanding colored her features. He nodded at her before flying through the ceiling to the front door.
He turned into his human form and opened the door, shouting to his parents that he was home. He could hear his dad say hi, and then immediately began asking his mom where the ghost boy went. Danny shook his head, chuckling at his father.
Some things never change.