"Dueling doppelgangers! Have you lost your half of our mind?!" -best quote from dp
Wow look at that, another chapter already! xD I bet you weren't expecting that... And the next chapter will definitely take a bit longer. But enjoy this anyway I guess.
Thanks to these people who followed/faved since last chap: Stevonnieandpercabeth, AngelicShade, and Cute Koneko Chan.
Thanks to everyone who commented: Guest, Invader Johnny, NATZUxERZA 123456, AndiKaneUnderwood, TheDragonLegend, jeanette9a, Kimera20, memmek10k, and Commander M2. Thank you for your feedback and ideas also! I'll definitely be able to use them in a future chapter somewhere! :)
And I think I got enough people wanting a Freakshow episode to make one. It may be a few chapters, though, but we'll see.
Anyway here's the chapter and I hope you enjoy! Its another original one... if you don't count the incredibly similar episode of Gravity Falls... Steven Unverse... Jake Long American Dragon... and probably many more... xD Oh well, I hope my version is at least a teeny bit entertaining...
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and its characters belong to Butch Hartman, plot belongs to me
When Vlad heard a very panicked voice scream "HELP!" from his lab, he knew right away that something had gone very wrong.
As quickly as he could, he transformed and sunk through the floor, emerging into the basement in mere seconds. "What happ-?"
"HIDE ME!" Danny Phantom dove behind Plasmius, cowering from the open portal. In shock, the older halfa stared at the gateway, instinctively shifting to a defensive position and wondering in horror what dangerous ghost could possibly be about to enter.
Just then, three identical glowing forms emerged into the room, all glaring with radioactive green eyes and sporting the same snow white hair and monochrome hazmat suits.
"There he is!" The middle Danny shouted with a pointed finger, and the three swiftly got into offensive attack positions.
Vlad got over his shock and shot an accusing look at the shaking boy behind him. "What in the world did you do?!"
"Nothing!" Danny protested, his voice rising to a higher pitch. His ghostly glow was pretty much nonexistent, compared to the usual brightness that surrounded him. Dark circles hung under his tired eyes, the green irises much dimmer than usual.
He looked the most defeated Vlad had ever seen him.
Plasmius raised an eyebrow, and turned his attention back to the angry ghosts, who glared with more malice then the younger halfa had ever shown before. "Everyone just calm down. What happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened." The rightmost Danny growled. "Danny is an incompetent, lazy, undeserving original and he needs to be brought to justice!"
"What?!" The 'original' Danny yelped. "But I-"
"Yeah!" The left duplicate agreed, lighting one fist with green energy. "He treated us like servants and he's terrible at managing his energy! I mean, just look at him!"
The original didn't even bother protesting again, and he flinched sorely at the accusation.
"So since I've been existing the longest, I'll be taking over Danny's position." The middle duplicate smirked, pointing one thumb at himself arrogantly.
"No one is taking over anyone's position." Vlad stated firmly, crossing his arms. "Stop being ridiculous and-"
"You can't tell us what to do!" One Danny shouted rudely.
"Yeah! This doesn't concern you, Fruitloop!"
"GET 'IM!" The lead ghost announced loudly, and the three duplicates shot forward simultaneously, the trembling original yelling in fright as his betrayers prepared to attack once more.
About a week before:
With a start, Danny was awoken by the familiar icy chill that signaled a ghost's presence. Groaning in annoyance, he tiredly blinked open his blue eyes. He was really hoping to get some actual sleep that night, since he had a test first thing the next morning.
His bed felt really comfortable all of the sudden...
Then a realization popped into his mind. Oh... what use is knowing how to duplicate if I never use it for anything? Feeling pleased with his solution, he let the rings of light pass by just long enough to form a duplicate right by his bed.
"Go fight the ghost, please." Danny commended sleepily, and his clone left through the ceiling without any hesitation. Sighing in bliss, he transformed back and shut his eyes once more, sleep overtaking his thoughts.
"And, pencils down." The class went from deadly silent to lively in half a second, the sound of pencils being dropped on desks and anxious muttering filling the room.
Danny yawned, briefly wondering how badly he failed that test, but at the same time not bringing himself to care. Despite his full night's sleep, he didn't feel as well-rested as he had expected.
Oh, well, at least he figured out that he could use duplicates more often without problems. Taking a test with constant imagery of flying around and patrolling the town forced into his vision wasn't exactly the best tactic to get an A, but whatever. That was a trade-off he had to make if he wanted to make use of his powers.
"-ello? Danny?"
"Sorry, what?" He blinked out of his thoughts and responded to his best friend Sam's voice.
"You were mega-spacing out there, dude." Tucker explained. "How do you think the test went?"
The halfa shrugged. "Probably bad. I dunno. I'm really tired..." The end of his sentence was interrupted by another yawn.
"Don't tell me you were up all night fighting ghosts, again?" Sam questioned, both in concern and disbelief. "We've told you to just call us, it's not fair that you have to-"
"No, it isn't that. I slept pretty well last night, but for some weird reason, I'm still really tired..."
"That sucks." Tucker said sympathetically, and their conversation was halted by the bell. All the high-schoolers in the room rose from their desks, loudly making their way to the door as they headed for their next class.
Three days later:
"So, do you have any ideas for the project?" Sam asked curiously, walking alongside her two best guy friends as they headed for the Nasty Burger. Unfortunately, they had been assigned a new group assignment, which had to be either a poster or PowerPoint with a required number of facts and pictures, like most useless high school group projects. Luckily, the students got the freedom to choose their groups and subject to research, so the trio had to admit that it could have been worse.
"Not really." Danny responded tiredly, slight dark rings present under his light blue eyes. "Whatever would be easiest, I guess."
He had maintained a duplicate without pause for days, now, and in that time the two Dannys had gotten a lot accomplished. Basically, one patrolled the city and played the part of Phantom, while the other went to school and slept as Fenton. That way, living the usual double life wasn't as big of a deal. Danny Phantom and Danny Fenton could be separate for once, without having to act as both personas with one body.
"I think we should do it on the historical importance of PDAs-"
"Tucker, we're not doing that." Sam said dryly, causing the techno-geek to pout in disappointment and the half-ghost on her other side to snicker. "How about we research why it's inhumane to torture, kill, and eat the flesh of innocent animals?"
"Sam, I think that's a bit too extreme for a ninth grade classroom." The black-haired boy answered uneasily and opened the door to the fast-food restaurant, letting his friends enter first. "Why can't we just pick an animal and call it a day?"
"I have an idea." Tucker interjected as they claimed an empty booth. "What if we did it on ghosts?" Both of the other teens looked over in surprise, then back at each other.
"How are we going to explain knowing so much, though?" Danny wondered aloud. "Say our excuse was that we interviewed my parents? Then the whole thing'd have to be explaining how every ghost is evil and deserves to be ripped apart 'molecule by molecule' in 'lots of painful experiments'." He rolled his eyes in annoyance and dropped his gaze to the table he had just sat down at.
"Plus, that might put us, and especially Danny, at risk." The goth added, motioning with one hand to the blue-eyed boy sitting next to her.
"It was just an idea." The brown-skinned teenager shrugged.
Just then, a loud crash sounded from outside, and the usual icy blue mist was exhaled into the air.
The two humans turned their concerned gazes to their half-ghost friend.
"Hey, don't worry, I can still help with brainstorming. I just have to go make another duplicate to take care of that." He stood up from the table. The Phantom duplicate was already dealing with another ghost at the moment, so making another copy seemed like the best solution.
"Are you sure?" Sam asked, not looking very convinced.
"Of course. I'll be back in a sec." The ghost boy walked past the table in the direction of the restroom, and returned less than a minute later, looking even more tired, if that was possible.
"It's taken care of." He muttered, collapsing back into his seat.
Sam and Tucker shared a look.
"Uh... dude, I'm starting to think that making all these duplicates isn't a good-"
"Tucker, it's fine, really." Danny interrupted. "I'm sure Vlad does this all the time! I have to get used to it at some point."
The goth girl's troubled expression didn't waver. "Well, if you're sure..." She returned her attention to the problem at hand, knowing that she wasn't exactly the most qualified to question her friend's ghostly abilities. "We don't need to decide about the project now, since we still have a few days. It's due Friday, right?"
"Yeah, I think so." The techno-geek answered. "Here, I'll use my trusty PDA to plan when we'll work on it. How does tomorrow evening sound?" A few quiet beeps sounded as he began setting the schedule.
San rolled her eyes, scoffing at her friend and his device.
"That's fine, I guess." Danny answered with a shrug, still sounding drowsy. Then he returned his eyes to the table. A drilling headache had started pounding in his head, from the constant flickers of sight from his other four eyes.
"How are your duplicates doing?" The girl wondered aloud, the worried tone returning to her voice.
"Fine... one's..." He squinted a little, "at the park, I think, and the other's... near the school."
"So you actually know where they are at any given moment?" Tucker asked in interest. "That's sick, dude!"
"Well, more like I can see what they're seeing." Danny answered, blinking again to clear his vision. "It's pretty cool, I guess. But it's super distracting."
"I bet." The geek responded, standing up to go order himself some delicious meat.
"Danny, you shouldn't burn yourself out like this." Sam suggested, once Tucker had walked off. "I can't be the only one who can see how this is affecting you. Maybe you should, I don't know, work up to it over time?"
"I'm fine, Sam!" He exclaimed after a few spaced-out seconds. "It's just... hard to get used to at first. But think of how useful this could be! I can literally be two, or three places at once!" He grinned. "Meaning I can study and sleep and fight ghosts at the same time! This will totally help!"
"Not if it makes you this distracted!" The goth countered. "And sleeping doesn't seem to be helping much at all." She added with an eye roll, referring to the fact that Danny looked as if he had pulled a week's worth of all-nighters in a row.
The boy blinked lazily before responding. "I'm not distracted!"
Sam quirked a skeptical eyebrow.
"Okay, maybe I'm a little distracted," He finally admitted, "but I'll get used to it."
The girl shot him another unconvinced look. "Whatever you say." She finally answered with a sigh, rolling her eyes again at her crush's stubbornness.
After all, he'd realize she was right, eventually.
Another day later:
Danny collapsed on his bed with a sigh, dropping his backpack carelessly on the floor. It was after dinner time, and he had just gotten home from working on the project from the day before (the trio had finally decided on a topic and gotten started, thankfully).
He hadn't gone ghost in quite a while, except to make the duplicates, of course. Why would he want to spend time doing the tedious job of fighting the usual ghosts, when he had copies of himself to do it for him?
Anyway, he had a mountain of unfinished homework, and only about ten hours of the night to finish it before school the next morning. He focused on calling back one of the duplicates. Two Dannys could finish homework faster than one, after all.
A Phantom copy phased through the wall, awaiting orders.
"Help me finish my homework. Here." The original Danny handed a stack of papers and a textbook to his other self.
Was it just his imagination, or did the duplicate shoot him an aggravated look?
Danny shrugged, taking the other half of the homework for himself, and barely noticing when the duplicate changed back into human form and sat down at the desk on the other side of the room.
"Oh, darn." He muttered a few minutes in, reaching for his backpack. "I totally forgot about that essay due tomorrow..."
Was his duplicate glaring at him, or was that just a respectful stare?
"Oh well. Another duplicate it is." The original decided, since the other existing copy was busy fighting a ghost.
Within a few seconds, yet another Phantom copy was floating in the room.
"Here. Write this essay." The original handed the newly made duplicate some lined paper and the essay instruction sheet.
And that made three Dannys simultaneously doing homework.
"Hey, Danny-" Jazz pushed open the door, staring in shock at the sight before her. "Uhhhhh..."
"Just using my power of duplication to finish my homework faster." The Danny on the bed explained tiredly.
"Oh wow, good for you!" The girl smiled proudly. "This is amazing!" She didn't seem to notice the annoyed looks that the two copies wore. "But you look exhausted. When's the last time you slept?"
"I've been sleeping every night, for your information." The original rolled his blue eyes at his sister's concern. "Keeping up these duplicates is just draining."
"Oh, okay then. Well, I'll leave you to it!" The older sibling left the room, sure to close the door to prevent her parents from looking in.
Only an hour later, the three finished what should have been hours of work.
"Good job, Danny! And also you, Danny." The original grinned at the hilarious conversations he could have with himself.
The duplicates didn't respond.
"Well, I'm going to bed now. You can go help Phantom-" he motioned to one of the copies, "and you can study for that test in a few days. Okay?" Silence. "Great! Goodnight."
One duplicate went ghost and phased out, shooting one last dirty look before leaving. The other grumbled to himself and picked up a study guide.
The next afternoon:
Danny Fenton tiredly entered his room once again after a day of school. His three copies, in ghost form, were already in the room, and looked around to glare at the sound of a door opening.
"Oh... hey, guys. Why aren't you, like, patrolling and stuff?" The original Danny asked, looking a little confused.
"Oh, Danny... You're just as clueless as usual." One of the duplicates said snidely, speaking for the first time directly to the original.
In a fluid motion, all three moved to stand in a line, all six green eyes glowering at the human boy.
"Uh... what's going on?" The original asked, a cold knot of fear in his stomach. He nervously stepped back, placing one foot outside of his doorway.
"Oh, I think you know, Danny." Another duplicate spat, just as angry as the other.
"We're tired of being treated like trash." The third exclaimed in rage. "We always do the dirty work, whatever you don't want to do yourself. And we're tired of it!"
"What?! But-" The original protested at a high pitch, backing out of the room and being closely followed by the three Phantoms. "We're the same person!"
"Exactly. So no one will notice when we get rid of you once and for all!"
Ice blue eyes widened, and with little hesitation the boy booked it down the stairs.
Jazz looked up from a book from her place on the couch, aqua eyes staring in shock as her brother was chased by three identical copies of himself.
She looked alarmed. "Danny, what-?"
The human Danny swiftly went ghost, frantically dodging the three attacking Phantoms.
"No time!" He squeaked, shooting up through the ceiling with the others closely behind.
It was literally three against one. And the original Danny was exhausted, and nowhere near full power. Even he could realize that those weren't good odds.
The original zoomed around above the city, the pursuing Dannys quickly catching up in their pursuit. He didn't have much time before he ran out of energy... and then he'd be toast.
In exasperation, Phantom shot back down towards his house, phasing into the dark lab and then straight into the Ghost Zone.
If he ever needed Vlad's help, this would be the time.
Back to the present:
A loud series of thumps were heard, and Danny blinked open his eyes to see a large pink sphere protecting him and the other halfa. The other three Phantoms shot enraged green beams at the translucent surface, but the ghost shield didn't let up.
He took a shaky, relieved breath. "Thank-"
"Didn't I warn you about this?" The man questioned forcefully. "If there was anything important for you to know, this is definitely what it would be..." He sighed guiltily, turning around to face the tired teenager. His black-gloved hands continued glowing pink, powering the shield.
The white-haired ghost shrugged, flinching when another round of attacks made the shield vibrate.
"So, you can't control them at all?"
"Don't you think I've tried?" The boy muttered, shakily standing up from his crouched position and leaning on the other ghost for support.
"Right... Well, I guess we'll have to do this the hard way."
Phantom shrugged. "I'd do anything at this point."
The two nervously got into position, and at Vlad's command the shield exploded outward, throwing back the three attackers roughly into the wall.
"We don't want to fight you, Vlad!" One of them growled.
"Our fight is with him!" Another added, lighting up a fist with energy once again.
"Am I always this annoying?" The original asked the other half-ghost floating beside him.
The man shrugged. "Sometimes. But this definitely takes the cake." He looked pointedly to the copies.
The head duplicate floated closer, green eyes glaring menacingly. "If we can't fight him, then there's another way to settle this." He smirked, and a duplicate of his own flashed into existence.
With a strangled gasp, the original fell out of the air, dropping to the ground like a sack of potatoes. The white rings of light dimly flickered to life and split, leaving a motionless human teenager lying on the floor. All of the sudden... he felt dizzy... and really, really tired...
"Hey!" Vlad shouted, red eyes lighting up with rage. "If your power source runs out, which is him," the man gestured furiously to the exhausted Danny on the ground, "then all of you will be dissolved, and there'll be no more Danny Phantom! So stop this nonsense already!" It was a bit of exaggeration, but the duplicates didn't know that.
The four ghosts looked at each other in confusion and worry at the new dilemma, believing their mentor's (somewhat) false warning.
While they were distracted, the older half-ghost sunk to the ground, concernedly kneeling beside the motionless figure.
The now human boy slowly blinked open his eyes and dizzily tried to sit up. "Ugh... Why do I feel so... lightheaded..." Black spots danced in his vision, causing him to blink several times in an effort to clear them.
"Because your energy is severely depleted." The man answered, keeping a watchful eye on the four floating duplicates. "And you need to get rid of them right now or you might pass out... and that would make things much more difficult."
"I'm trying..." He breathed, desperately trying to steal back the majority of his ghost energy that was being used up by the duplicates.
Vlad quickly made a duplicate of his own, which floated protectively overhead, and the original took hold of Danny's hand. "Do you trust me?"
"Uh... yeah?" The boy answered sleepily, letting his head drop back to the floor.
"I'm going to try and help, okay?"
The boy looked at him in confusion at his strange, almost nervous tone, but shifted his head in a nod anyway.
Vlad took a breath and turned intangible, letting his conscience take over Danny's. Dull green eyes faded to dark red. He blinked, feeling shorter, and younger, and cold.
Suddenly, the completely drained feeling hit him like a truck. Reeling from the dizziness, the ghost took a few moments to adjust, taking deep breaths to ward away the lightheadedness.
Once his control and senses had stabilized, Vlad let himself recede back a bit, giving Danny back his control and awareness of the situation.
A more uncommon form of overshadowing was a ghost or spirit simply being present in someone's mind, without forcing full control. With it, two beings were connected on a level of telepathy and even were aware each other's emotions. It was a less extreme, less commanding alternative to the more-often-used power of overshadowing, and it reached a more personal level then invasively controlling what was basically a human (or ghost) puppet.
Muddled confusion and panic were the first reactions Vlad sensed, once Danny had realized that another presence was there alongside his own. Then it evolved into more intense, overwhelming fear, and Vlad felt panic of his own rising. Had his instincts been wrong? Did he take a step too far?
Then he realized with dread... Dan. He had been created in a similar way.
Of course Danny was freaking out. Vlad cringed, silently cursing himself for being so stupid.
He sent waves of comfort through their temporary link, in a wordless apology and reassurance. After a few painstaking seconds the alarm died down, replaced by relief and faint fascination at the strange feeling of sensing emotions that weren't his own.
Once he was sure Danny was okay, Vlad slowly and steadily let his own power combine with the small amount the other halfa still had. The man felt surprise and gratitude directed to him as the dangerously low energy level was restored, at least momentarily.
After Danny had borrowed enough energy, the two ghosts witnessed the usual white rings that commenced the transformation. And one-by-one, each of the copies were forced out of existence. The energy returned in four rejuvenating bursts, and Vlad discretely took back his own power when it was no longer needed. The exhaustion gradually faded away, and it was soon replaced by buzzing alertness, creating a similar energetic, hyper feeling as caffeine would.
As soon as all the ecto-energy had successfully been restored, the overshadowing ghost turned intangible once more, retreating back to his own form and sighing in relief when the two hybrids were alone in the lab. The man concernedly noted that Danny was breathing a bit more rapidly than usual, but otherwise things were back to normal.
After a few seconds, green eyes dazedly blinked open, clearly glowing brighter than before. And further assuring Vlad, the supernatural white glow surrounding the younger half-ghost was back to its normal level of radiance.
"How do you feel?" The man questioned cautiously, ever so slightly fearing what Danny's response would be to what had just happened.
"Better." The boy answered while shakily sitting up, clearly relieved that he was no longer being attacked by his own duplicates. "Thank you... and sorry for causing all that..."
"It's not your fault." The man assured, laying a gentle hand on the Danny's shoulder as he began to explain what had gone wrong. "You see, duplicates are very useful and effective for many things, as you know. But when they're used for long periods of time, they start to develop a... conscience of sorts. Which basically means that they no longer want to follow orders, and it becomes much harder to control them. And also to get rid of them, as you probably realized."
"Oh..." Phantom replied sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck in a nervous habit. "That explains a lot."
"I'm surprised you even managed to make three duplicates in the first place..." The man muttered, shaking his head at what should have been impossible. "But at this point I shouldn't be surprised by anything you do anymore."
The boy grinned, amusement sparkling in his green eyes. "You say that like it's a bad thing."
Vlad chuckled tiredly, floating upright and holding out a gloved hand to help the other halfa up off the floor. The two instinctively floated in the direction of the training room.
"I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow, but I have nothing to do anyway if you'd like to stay for awhile."
"Yeah, sure. Healing Jazz of her heart attack can wait." Danny laughed a bit as he remembered his sister's expression, when she saw that three Phantoms had been trying to kill him.
The older halfa cringed. "I bet that was a shock, seeing you being chased around by... yourself."
"Yeah... I should probably let her know that I'm okay. Knowing her, she probably told Sam and Tucker an over-exaggerated version of what really happened and they're planning a massive rescue attempt or something by now." He pulled his phone out of his hazmat suit pocket, typing out a quick text in a matter of seconds.
The black-haired ghost smiled at the action, absently flipping up the light switch and bathing the white-walled training room and equipment in light. "I'm guessing you'd like to skip duplication today."
"Yes, please." The boy answered with a tired sounding laugh. "I'm done with that for a while, that's for sure."
"I guess some lessons just need to be learned the hard way."
"That's just your excuse for forgetting to warn me about my duplicates' secret desire to kill me."
"Possibly." The man shrugged. "But in retrospect, I'm fairly certain I did tell you that, back in the beginning. You probably just forgot."
"Uh huh, sure." Phantom rolled his eyes in a very teenager-esque way. But despite the craziness and stress from earlier that day, he couldn't help but shoot a genuine smile at the other half-ghost, who was always there no matter what Danny managed to get himself into.
Well I hope this met your expectations, and didn't get too weird at places... xD
ALSO I realized I dun goofed, the Christmas chapter was supposed to be before Secret Weapons... whoops. I'm planning to post it next... Please ignore the out-of-sequence-ness. xD
Anyway thanks for reading and see ya next chapter! :D