Disclaimer: I do not own the Danny Phantom or the Nintendo universes. Only the original characters and the lucid dream that is the plot is mine.

Chapter 2

Alex closed his eyes and waited for something to indicate that he was about to be transported to another reality. After a few seconds without Seraphina saying anything, he opened his eyes to ask her what the holdup was only to be met with a pair of ruby red eyes staring at from inches away.

"BOO!"

"Wah!" Alex flailed in shock as he found himself lying in a bed wrapped in red silk sheets.

"Ahahaha!" A pale white ghostly woman floated above him rolling in the air with laughter as she clutched at her stomach as she laughed.

"Your face was so funny." (She said in delight.) "I love when I can cause such a fright."

(Alex freed himself from his silken cocoon,) "I'm hearing strange voices, I've become such loon."

(The ghost girl looked at with a face of confusion assuming the boy was trapped in delusion.)

Alex took the opportunity to take stock of his situation. He was dressed in a casual outfit of black button-up shirt and black slacks. He felt great, better than he had in years and looking at his hand he could see that they were unmarred by either callouses or scars he had picked up over the years. Movement in an ornate gilded mirror on the wall caught his attention. Looking within he could see himself looking much as he designed in the body mod creation though younger than he had expected as he looked approximately fourteen.

(He had pale skin and shaggy black hair and his eye almost glowed a luminous green.)

Again, there was the sound of that voice unseen, he thought to himself.

(Alex jumped once again when behind his reflection, appeared the pale form of ghostly perfection.)

"Are you ok? I know I like scaring people but they don't usually go silently introspective." (She asked with concern.) "It usually with more of the 'Ahhh ghost don't kill me AHRRHHH!' or 'kill it with fire! Burn demon BURN!'"

Alex could already feel a headache coming on from the rhyming narrator drawback but more that that was the years of foreign memories that he could feel within his mind. Seraphina had done well. Here he was Alexander Blake, an orphan who had been born to loving parents who had died in a car accident on the way home from the hospital after his birth. He had ended up in an orphanage in Amity Park, a small city in central USA and spent the next fourteen years in care. Despite the depressing nature of his fake life, Alex could appreciate that while grim his life had been uneventful and without strong emotional attachments that would overly affect him now that he had regained his own memories. More pressing though were his more recent memories.

He remembered attending Casper Highschool and the strange ghostly events that happened there. The Meat-Monster attack during some kind of spontaneous event by the National Meat Society and the counter protest by an Ultra-Recyclo-Vegetarian hippy commune had only happened two weeks ago and stood out prominently in his mind. More importantly he remembered becoming increasingly interested in the paranormal events that plagued Amity Park and in an act of gross stupidity he had broken into a supposedly haunted abandoned mansion to get a glimpse of the paranormal. He had bitten off more than he could chew when he had found a powerful ghost who titled himself 'King Boo.' The entity had claimed that Alex had the trespassed into his trap for the interfering Mario Brothers and attempted to kill Alex but had only managed to… half kill him?

He had become a ghost but also not a ghost. Confused King Boo had instead trapped Alex in a room within the mansion. Weak and confused Alex had fallen into a conveniently placed bed and fallen asleep only to awake minutes ago.

Remembering also his conversation with Seraphina, Alex felt around his neck for Time Medallion he purchased. Finding the gear-like gold medal engraved with a combined C and W, Alex concentrated on the idea of fusing with the enchanted medallion. A wave of ecto-energy passed over him as two circles of silver ghostly light passed over his from the waist outwards. His hair become ghostly black flames and his eyes became a solid glowing silver. The medal against his chest become wrapped in green energy and sunk beneath his skin.

"Eep!" (His ignored companion exclaimed in surprise, shocked by his change, his new hair and his eyes!)

"Sorry, I didn't expect to go ghost." Alex said turning to his companion.

"I-i-t's fine." The Boo murmured from where she had ducked behind the bed. "I'm just not good with surprises."

Alex waited for the narrative voice to make a rhyming intrusion. (The narrator took delight in his obvious confusion.)

"I'm not going to get used to that." Alex muttered.

Looking around Alex took stock of an opulent guest room. The bed was large and canopied in burgundy velvets, the headboard and wardrobes were a solid polished dark wood. The room had a lit fireplace and a comfortable set of chairs and a couch around it. A fully stocked drinks trolly stood to the side and a black laboured grand piano dominated the remaining space. The wall on either side of the fireplace held tall gothic windows looking out to a spooky garden and the other walls were taken up with cabinetry and bookshelves filled with old leather-bound tomes broken only by two solid wood doors. Alex assumed that the closed door on one of the walls opened to the hall as the other was slightly open showing a gleaming bathroom within.

"Well, this place certainly looks cosy." Alex announced.

(The room is a prison, a cage, no matter how gild. Should he cross with the king; he'll surely be killed.)

That was awful, Alex thought.

"Are you also a Spirit?"

"Kinda, I'm Alex. I'm both human and ghost at this point of time." (Alex answered her query.)

"I'm… well I don't have a name." The girl looked down. (Her eyes became teary.)

Alex gave the matter some thought. 'Boo' was too obvious and 'Casper' was a little on the nose.

"Well, you're wearing a crown and you're a ghost, how about Morrigan? It's the name of an Irish deity of death and the name translates to 'Phantom Queen.'"

"Morrigan… Mo-rah-gn" she said, tasting the words. "I like it. My name is Morrigan"

Alex's eyes widened as with those words Morrigan's features shifted slightly. Where before she looked very similar to a ghostly princess Peach now, she looked like a darker cousin. Her hair darkened from bright silver white to a tarnished silver grey with hints of light purple shadowing. Her face became a little narrower and her nose sharper. Her eyes darkened from bright red to purplish-burgundy. Lastly her clothes shifted from a puffy princess dress to a form fitting outfit of black leather pants, a burgundy blouse and a tight black corset that pushed her small breasts upwards creating a decent cleavage. Altogether her appearance changed to one that could be the phantasmal love child of Princess Peach and Morrigan of Dragon Age.

Alex wasn't sure what exactly caused the sudden change but could make a guess that the malleable nature of ectoplasm, his magical presence from purchasing the Ghost King, his perception of what 'Morrigan' looked like and the fact that the name tied to an actual goddess may have had something to do with it.

"Note to self: Be careful when naming un-named entities composed of ectoplasm."

(Else the consequences could be more than you could fathom.)

"Sooo…" Morrigan purred, her voice having dropped an octave. "What are we going to do for fun."

Alex swallowed. The ghost's new look was hitting a lot of his personal boxes.

Channelling a confidence, he wasn't sure he had, Alex stepped forward and pulled the sexy ghost towards himself, marvelling how she felt both warm and cool, like a solidified summers breeze. "I'm sure we can think of something."

Ghosts, at least this one, were strange when it came to colour. Sometimes they appeared monochrome, others they appeared washed out and still other times they were bright and colourful. Morrigan was mostly darker shades of grey with touches of startling colour in her eyes and hair. This close though, Alex could see the blush that spread rapidly across her face.

"Bwah~" steam almost appeared to come out of Morrigan's ears as she overheated and passed out, falling limply into Alex's arms.

(The dark ghostly maiden was surprisingly shy; she'd never been so close to another: especially a guy.)

Despite her new looks, Morrigan was still based off of a 'Boo' ghost that were famous for being shy when confronted head on, Alex thought to himself; really, he only had himself to blame.

Picking her up gently, he laid her down on the bed and backed away. He was nowhere near degenerate enough to take advantage of a sleeping girl.

Deciding instead to try out his new power, Alex cleared some free space in the lounge area. Marvelling at how easy it was to move the heavy furniture.

"Alright. Fusion was easy enough, let's try the other Danny Phantom abilities."

(He murmured alone, like a crazy-daft hobo bereft of facilities.)

The fuck-? Alex's eye twitched at the rude narration.

Taking a breath to centre himself, Alex reached internally towards what he could feel as his ghost powers. It was a huge source of energy that fluctuated in his mind's eye, altinating between glowing green, white or blue. Occasionally it felt like it was growing deformed spooky faces which quickly melted back into the whole. Touching the energy, Alex willed himself to levitate.

Nothing happened.

(The young lad stood there in focused anticipation, his face all scrunched up like he had constipation.)

NOT HELPING!

Alex took another breath and concentrated. He was fairly sure that these powers were supposed to be instinctual. He had simply wished to fuse with the medallion and it happened. Maybe he was wishing for the wrong thing?

UP! FLY! To infinity and BEYOND! He found himself pushing and prodding the energy within trying to get a response. Come on! Just let go! He thought angrily at it.

Instantly felt the pull of gravity disappear as he floated up of the ground awkwardly flailing his arms to maintain balance. With a minor effort of will he found himself easily adjusting, his power of flight reacting to the simple desire to be here or there or adjust this way or that. In fact, it felt less like flight and more as if he simply ignored the world around him and moved how he wished.

Could it be that simple? Ghosts in Danny Phantom didn't really seem to obey any rules. They simply manifested their wants and ignored reality. Maybe because they were removed from reality? They chose to be affected or unaffected by it?

Floating forward Alex chose to ignore the fact that the couch in front of him existed and he glided through it with little effort, just a mild tingling.

(The strange ghost boy with the flaming black hair, discovered that he could pass through a commonplace chair.)

Nice! Flying? Check. Phasing? Check. Up next Invisibility!

⦖⋄⦕

Morrigan woke slowly which was a novelty for her as, having always been a ghost, she rarely ever 'slept.' She was also surprised that she was in an actually bed and not just floating randomly in a corner of the room as had happened before. It was cosy and she decided at that moment that sleeping in a bed was the way to go should she find herself unconscious in the future.

Movement caught her attention. Alex floated in the centre of the room, around him floated a dozen books, eight cushions and a lamp. Each one enclosed in a silver limbed aura of ecto-energy, the items circled him in defined arcs and loops. Occasionally one would dive towards him only for Alex to shift translucent and the item to pass harmlessly through him. It wasn't a great display of power but it was a good display of control. Each item help needing a sliver of concentration coupled with the mental energy needed to ignore reality and become intangible meant that Alex was both focusing his attention on lifting things with telekinesis and ignoring them at the same time.

"Good morning." (Morrigan called from the bed.)

Alex started at her voice. "Oh, um yeah good mor-Thwack!" (Alex's response was cut short by a book to the head.)

"How long have I been out?" Morrigan asked.

"Only a few hours." Alex rubbed the side of his head.

Bending over he picked up the offending novel — The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy — and with a gesture the rest of the books floated themselves back to the bookshelves and the room put itself to rights.

"You worked out how to do all that in just a few hours?" (Said Morrigan shocked at his use of his powers.)

"That and more." Alex floated, turned invisible and back, split in two and tied himself into a knot of stretched ecto-form before simply merging back together and reverting to human with a wave of silver energy.

"Wow. That's amazing!" Morrigan exclaimed. She Phased out of the bedcovers and floated towards him. "All I can do is turn invisible," Morrigan proceeded to do just that. "Hide in objects," her voice came from a nearby lamp which rattled as she spoke. "And jump out at people to scare them!" Alex jumped a little as she popped out of a couch instead of the lamp.

"You like scaring people, don't you?"

Morrigan looked at him strangely. "Of course! What else am I supposed to do for fun?"

"You could always read." Alex held up the book from he still had in his hand.

Morrigan's eyes went wide. "You can read?" she said with such innocence that it was almost painful to hear.

Alex took a moment to really think about what life must have been like for this ghost girl. The jumpdoc said that she was a former Boo that had been turned to into girl via the super crown but that didn't really explain the enormity of what that meant in reality. To the best of his knowledge, Boos don't have an origin. They're not ghosts of people who had died but ghosts that came into existence as themselves. He had selected the Boo Lady companion because he didn't want to be completely alone in his first jump but he never gave any thought to the existence that would have had to have been created to meet that desire. She had been alone here for who knew how long, unnamed, in a human form and with human-like desires that would have been unknown and unattainable to a regular Boo.

He must have stared too long because Morrigan had ducked her head bashfully, a blush on her cheeks. He had already, on his first jump, been thinking of this world as a game filled with non-player characters. Alex decided then that he would try and actually remember that Jump-Realities were filled with actual people with their own wants and needs.

"Why don't we read it together?" he asked as he sat down on the couch and patted the seat next to him.

Morrigan's smile could have lit the room. She nodded and jumped into the seat next to him leaning in close to see the pages.

Alex Smiled and started reading.

"Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun…"

⦖⋄⦕

Alex read to Morrigan for a few hours.

It was nice. Morrigan was a warm and soft presence as she leant in close and listened to him read. She followed the words on the page as he spoke, slowly getting a grasp on the writing. Nowhere close to instantly becoming literate but able to pick out a few words such as 'towel' and 'tea.'

(The couple enjoy their time together reading, unprepared for the guest who's at the door bleeding.)

…Wait, what?

The door slammed open as a dark-skinned teen in a red beret shouldered through it dragging an unresponsive, attractive, goth girl.

"Tucker! Get the door! Sam's hurt! I'll hold this wack-off, I mean WACK-JOB OFF! Not wack— you know never mind!"

"WAWAWA-WA-WA-WA MUMMA-MIA! OH YEAH!"

The sounds of an intense fight followed the teen, interspersed with the smash of things being thrown around was a high-pitched Italian shouting nonsense, an American male trying to crack wise, an echoing voice that sounded more like a DJ disk jockey going nuts with a recording of maniacal laughter and a loud whine of a vacuum.

The teen, the presumed Tucker, hip checked the door shut cutting off the sounds from outside instantly and lurched awkwardly to the bed.

"Come on Sam, hang in there, Danny will work something out." He said as he lowered the unconscious girl to the bed.

"Are you alright?" Alex asked getting to his feet.

"Whoah!"

Alex dodged the PDA that went flying at his head, catching it with his telekinesis and floating it back over the teen before it smashed into the wall.

"Are you Ghost?! Stay back! I know kung-fu!" Tucker cried while miming a karate-chop.

"Umm… kinda a ghost, kinda not a ghost. Tucker; it's me Alex, we have Algebra together." Alex said drawing on his memories of his life in Amity Park.

"Alex?" Tucker Foley questioned as he remembers the quite kid who sat in the back of his math class. "Dude, where have you been? You've been missing for months."

"Months? I was at school yesterday." Alex exclaimed.

(Their conversation was cut short, the answers they lack, as they're interrupted by a groan from girl dressed in black.)

"Sam!" Tucker turned back to the goth girl and grabbed at her hand. "Hang in there."

Alex stepped closer was able to get a better look at Sam. Her signature black top was torn by a large splinter of wood that had pierced deeply into her side. With each laboured breath bright red blood bubbled around the splinter indicating that it had pierced one of her lungs.

"Shit! What happened?" Alex asked.

Tucker looked up from when he knelt next to the bed holding Sam's hand. "Danny felt that something was up with this strange mansion that popped up overnight so we came to investigate. Everything was fine at first, if a little creepy, but though Danny kept saying that he could feel ghosts around we couldn't find anything."

If Tucker wasn't so concerned over Sam, he likely wouldn't have been so straightforward with his answers.

"We decided to leave and try again tomorrow but the door out just brought us back into the foyer. We were trapped in here. Danny couldn't even phase out the walls without being turned around back the way he came. Then we heard a commotion from upstairs so we went to have a look. Some crazy Italian guy was going at it with a huge ghost… um I mean ah not that ghosts are real or anything and did I say phase? I mean Danny couldn't get through the window."

"Don't worry about that, I know that Danny is a half-ghost." Alex tried to console the teen who seemed to be in one of the stages of shock.

"You know!? Of course, you know, why wouldn't the kid the town has been searching for for months not know? Why wouldn't you know? You've been trapped in here too or something." Tucker laughed without any humour.

"What happened then? How did Sam get hurt?" Alex pressed.

"The Italian guy was using something like the Fenton Ghost Weasel to suck up furniture and things to throw at the ghost. He sucked up a bookshelf and threw at the ghost. Sam got hit as the thing shattered against the wall. Danny went ghost and tried to stop the fight and I dragged Sam here."

Tucker looked up at Alex with tears in his eyes. "I don't know what to do, she's really hurt and we're trapped here."

(The teen said with in great fear.)

Alex thought back over his new powers. Neither jump had any dedicated healing abilities and he likely wouldn't have purchased it if there had been. His Dark-Danny powerpack had included a self-healing factor and he hadn't expected to need to heal anyone in his first jump. Especially since it was only supposed to last twelve hours. He was also confined to the mansion for the jump so it wasn't like he could take Sam to a hospital… he really was an idiot sometimes.

"I know where we can take her to get her healed." Alex said as he clasped a hand on Tuckers shoulder reassuringly.

(With a wave of his hand a portal was revealed.)

Alex waved his hand at one of the walls and square portal appeared leading to the Warehouse. The entrance was covered in a hazy white film of energy which faded as Alex mentally allowed entrance to Tucker, Sam and Morrigan.

"What-?" Tucker started.

"No questions, first we help Sam." Alex said as he carefully picked up the unconscious goth. "Morrigan, if a teen boy comes in here either with snow white hair and green eyes or with black hair and blue eyes can you send him our way?"

Morrigan peeked out from where she was hiding behind the couch and gave a thumbs up.

"Where did she come from?" asked a confused Tucker.

"She's shy around new people… or maybe just people. We haven't known each other that long." Alex said striding into the Warehouse.

The Warehouse was huge. The portal opened on one wall of cavernous space. The space was illuminated by fluorescent lights handing overhead, the walls were a prefabricated aluminium and the floor a solid concrete slab. The majority of the room was a clear empty space in the middle; the rest was taken up by empty shelving and a large box shaped structure on the far side of the Warehouse. The temperature was pleasant, neither too hot or cold. Next to the boxy building that Alex assumed was the built-in housing was a brighter area lit by medical lamps. A large metal table stood in that space with a series of shiny metal machines next to it.

Alex quickly made his way to the table and lay Sam on the cold metal surface. His guess that this was the Medbay was proven right as the machines hummed to life and a scanner above the table ran a serious of lights over the unconscious girl. A white holographic image of Sam appeared above her with her injuries highlighted in red.

-Fatal injury detected: Proceeding with emergency treatment-

A hollow mechanical voice accompanied the text that appeared below Sam's holographic representation.

"Fatal?" Tucker gasped as he caught up to them.

As he spoke a series of green laser-lights shot down on Sam. With deft strokes the lights deconstructed the wooden splinter while simultaneously healing the wound. The hologram showed the internal damage also being repaired as the red area quickly shrunk until it disappeared entirely.

-Emergency treatment complete-

-Patient detected. Would you like to commence medical examination? Y/N-

Alex ignored the prompt that followed the completion of the emergency treatment and checked on Sam. She was still unconscious and while the area around the wound site was still covered in blood, the site of the injury itself was both clean and miraculously unmarred. Healthy skin indistinguishable from her regular skin peeked through the hole in her shirt.

"Is she going to be OK?" Tucker asked, "Why is she still unconscious?"

"I think she'll be fine; this thing is supposed to cure anything short of death." Alex responded. "Maybe she's just asleep now? This should tell us if anything else is wrong."

Alex selected 'Yes' to the prompt from the machine.

-Commencing medical examination-

Again the machine scanned the girl causing the hologram to light up with light orange areas around her body.

-Mild bruising detected.

Minor abrasions detected.

Mild scaring detected.

No diseases detected.

No genetic abnormalities detected.

Patient Status: Unconscious.

Would you like to proceed with treatment? Y/N-

Alex affirmed that he would like to proceed and again green lasers shot down at Sam. They ran over her arms, legs and torso and as they passed bruises faded and small cuts disappeared. The lasers spent a little extra time on her face and her left hand and under the green light small blemishes were removed. As the lights winked off, Sam opened her eyes.

"Where am I? Danny?" she looked around and noticed the two standing by her. "Hey Tuck and umm… Alex?"

"SAM!" Tucker cried and threw himself at her, wrapping her in a tight hug. "You're OK!"

"Oof! I'm OK. I'm OK. Well at least until you squeeze me to death. Get'off will ya?" Sam complained while pushing Tucker off her.

Tucker backed off and rubbed the tears out of his eyes with the heel of his palm. "I thought you wouldn't make it." Tucker confessed. "You were hurt pretty badly."

"Wait, that really happened? I thought that was a dream." Sam sat up quickly and pulled her shirt up to check where she had been stabbed.

Alex turned around and pulled Tucker around with him as he didn't expect Sam to appreciate them seeing her flash them her purple bra. Teenage girls were touchy about such things, Alex pondered remembering back to his own youth.

"If there wasn't dried blood on me, I would think you were having me on." Sam looked up at the two facing away and realised she was flashing the room.

At least Tucker and Alex see her as a girl, now she just had to get Danny to realise she was a chick, she thought as she pulled her top back down with a blush.

"I'm decent now, thanks guys."

Tucker turned back with a blush while Alex just smirked.

"So," began Sam, "where are we? Where's Danny? And hasn't Alex been missing for months?"

"First: you're in my Cosmic Warehouse. Second: Danny is outside fighting a ghost and a plumber and Third: I didn't know I was missing; it's only been a day for me." Alex explained while raising a finger for each point.

"And fourth!" A voice exclaimed from the portal. "What have you done with my friends!?" Danny Phantom burst into the Warehouse with a visibly agitated aura of ghostly energy.

"Hi Danny." Sam waved from the medical table.

"SAM! Oh, thank Ghost you're ok!" Danny literally flew into Sam and wrapped her in a hug.

"Thank ghost?" Alex looked Tucker.

"Our parents are strict about swearing and well, we've collectively decided to not talk about religion given the whole ghosts are real thing." Tucker answered.

The two simply stood for a long minute while Danny and Sam held each other.

"So they're...?"

"Nope" Tucker drawled.

"You're sure?"

"Yep" he said popping the 'p.'

"Huh… do they know?"

"They'll work it out eventually. I've got twenty dollars on Christmas. You'll have to talk to Jazz about getting in on the betting pool."

Danny finally released Sam.

"I was so worried," he said checking her over for injuries, "how are you not hurt?"

"I'm not exactly sure. I think Alex did something." Sam drew Danny's attention to Alex.

"Hi." Alex waved at them.

"Aren't you in my English class?" Danny asked.

"I don't know why you all define me by what classes we share. But yes, we both attend Casper high."

"Except Alex is that kid that's been missing for like months." Tucker interposed.

"Except I've apparently been missing for months. Though to me I was at school yesterday and put the whole missing time thing down to haunted mansion ghost weirdness." Alex shrugged.

Danny awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "Ghosts? What ghosts? Haha ghosts aren't real."

Alex, Tucker and Sam all stared at the teen with ghostly white hair and glowing green eyes.

"Dude…" Tucker shook her head.

"Yeah, you're still in ghost mode." Alex said. "Also, how do people not recognise you? Your hair and eyes are different but your face stays the exact same?"

"I've wondered the same thing." Sam added. "I think the town may be influenced by all the ghost activity."

"Right." Alex nodded, thinking she may have the right of it. "Also. This."

Alex took a step back and activated his own ghost form. Silver energy swept up and down over him as his black shirt gained silver flame patterns, his shaggy black hair turned into dancing black shadow flames and his eyes turned a bright silver.

"Woah!" Danny instantly leapt into a defence position in front of his friend, green ecto-energy glowing in his raised palms. "I'm not going to let another crazy Halfa hurt my friends!"

"You're not one for situational awareness, are you? I'm the one that saved your friend."

Danny lowered his fists. "So, you're not working with Vlad?"

"I'm not working with Vlad."

"Then how did you become all ghost-tastic?" Tucker asked peeping around Danny.

"And how did you heal me?" Sam asked peeping form the other side.

"What does that have to do with Ghosts?" Tucker queried Sam.

"What? I personally think it's extremely relevant to my current good health." Sam shot back.

"Guys? Can we stay focused here?" Danny said resignedly.

Alex chuckled at their antics. "Put simply answers are one and the same. I'm Alexander Blake, your fellow high school student but I'm also Alex Blake: Nascent Extradimensional Traveller!" Alex proclaimed.

Sam shook her head sadly. "Becoming a ghost had driven him insane."

"The ghost world is nuts; I'm honestly surprise we're still right in the head." Danny shrugged.

"Are we?" Tucker asked.

The trio looked between each other and shrugged.

"You guys are hilarious; you know that right?" Alex deadpanned. "Do you sell tickets?"

"We're a spontaneous production." Danny waved Alex off.

"Right, well I'm neither insane or lying." Alex reaffirmed. "I'm just starting out on an interdimensional adventure between realities and this is my first stop to pick up ghost-powers."

"Why on earth would you want ghost powers? Don't you want to be normal?" asked Danny.

"Oh, I don't know? Flight, intangibility, super-strength…" Alex ticked each one off with a finger.

"How about being normal? Not being a freak? Or not having to hide what you are from everyone?" Danny countered.

"… Super endurance, super durability, shapeshifting…" Alex continued.

"That… that's a lot of abilities."

"… Healing, Invisibility, ghost rays, ghost blasts, pyromancy, overshadowing, duplication…"

"Wait, I can't do all that, can I?"

"… and let's not forget possible immorality." Alex finished.

"I can't die?" asked a stunned and pale Danny.

Alex sighed at Danny despondent appearance. "Maybe, it's not like it's been tested; I know that we should be reform if our ghost body gets splattered but not about our human half. We're partly made of ectoplasm now; our bodies are malleable to our will or maybe our perception of ourselves. So… theoretically we should be able to live forever by shapeshifting ourselves into a younger form."

Tucker and Sam both clasped a hand on each of Danny's shoulders lending him support.

"Forever alone…" Danny whispered to himself.

"Well maybe no alone." Alex shrugged.

Danny raised his head to look at Alex. "What do you mean?"

"I'm saying you don't have to go through this alone."

"You mean you'll be here too because you're also part ghost."

"No, I'm saying that I have the ability to safely and reliably turn other people into half-ghosts."

"""What?!""" The three chorused.

Alex gestured to the rectangular building within the warehouse. "Let's take this somewhere more comfortable and see if Morrigan wants to join us."

Alex turned on the spot and walked to the portal, sticking his head through he found Morrigan leaning over the couch looking at the book that had been left here. She slowly read through the page, silently mouthing the words to herself.

"Hey Morrigan."

"EEEP!" Morrigan jumped and spun towards Alex, blushing in embarrassment.

"Heh, sorry. I wanted to ask if you wanted to join us in here."

(He said to the freighted maiden from within his safe-haven.)

Huh, I was wondering where that went, Alex thought to himself.

Morrigan nodded and glided through the portal after Alex.

"What is this place?" Morrigan asked.

"This is my Cosmic Warehouse. It's a place I can put all my stuff and it comes with a house to live in. There should be access to the Companions Housing somewhere, you'll find your room there."

"My room?"

"Yeah, that is, your room if you want to join me on adventure to new places and such."

Morrigan smiled. "I think I would like that; I've seen and done more with you in just a few hours than I've experienced in years floating around as a Boo."

"It might be dangerous." Alex warned as he joined the Phantom Team at the door to the housing building.

Morrigan tiled her head as she considered Alex's warning. "What I had before was not living. Living is worth some danger I would think."

"I'm glad to have you then." Alex said as he opened the door and ushered everyone in.

The provided housing was nice. The lounge was nice, the kitchen was nice, the dining and entertainment areas were nice. It was disgustingly nice. Overall, it looked like the entire place had been designed by an uninspired hotel chain with an excess of Ikea vouchers. That's not to say the place was uncomfortable or bad or anything; only that it lacked soul. Alex was already looking around and making plans to replace certain things and introduce some colour other than white, off-white, beige and beach.

Alex noticed the others watching him. "Sorry, it's new. I haven't actually seen the place before now."

Deciding to play host, Alex gestured for them to take a seat in the lounge while he checked the kitchen for drinks or something. Noticing a cabinet emblazoned with the red and white logo of the 'Nasty Burger' chain from the Danny Phantom universe as out of place; Alex decided to look inside. Within was bag after bag of Nasty Burgers and fries, rows of sodas and shakes, and stacks of tofu-alternatives all of which were still piping hot and greasy fresh. Grabbing enough for everyone, and making sure to grab something for the ultra-recyclo-vegetarian, Alex returned to the lounge laden down with junk food.

"Alright, Nasty Burger!" Tucker jumped up to help Alex pass out the food.

"We're still trapped in the Mansion; how did you get this?" Danny asked as he took the Tofu-riffic burger with extra Nasty sauce and passed on to Sam.

"Technically, we're not in the Mansion at the moment we're in a pocket-reality but I can say that becoming a Jumper can have some strange perks — such as unlimited Nasty Burger take-out on tap."

"Tha's aw'some." Tucker said around a mouthful of Mighty Meaty burger.

"It is." Alex agreed as he passed Morrigan a vanilla shake. She looked at for a moment before copying Danny and taking a sip. Her eyes widened comically large as she sunk back into the couch while taking small sips and savouring the flavour and temperature.

For almost ten minutes they all simply enjoyed the food. While not the best meal any of them had ever had —excluding Morrigan as it was also her first— it was hot and fresh and made to fast-food perfection.

Danny scrunched up the empty wrapper of his burger. "Now. You mentioned something about immortality, a life alone forever fighting ghosts and the ability to give ghost powers to others."

"I think I only mentioned two of them but yes; I can turn others into half ghosts like ourselves."

"Wicked! Count me in." exclaimed Tucker.

"Don't you think that's a bad idea given what happened last time?" Danny frowned.

"Last time, what last time? I don't remember a last time." Sam interrupted as Tucker simply grimaced.

"Tucker gained ghost-powers from the ghost-genie Desiree and kinda went nuts."

"Why don't I remember this?" Sam frowned.

"You were sick with that awful cold at the time and it's not something I was going to brag about." Tucker explained with a shrug. "But! This is different. Last time I was affected by that crazy ghost chick, this time I'll be all the Tuck-man, right?"

Alex nodded. "Yes, there should be no personality warping components other than any that normally occur from the process."

"Wait, what personality what-now?"

"It'll be the first time I change others and as I've said before we are now made, at least partly, of ectoplasm. That stuff seems to be affected by thought and emotion; it's how I assume ghosts naturally come into existence." Alex theorised. "A sample of ectoplasm reacts to heightened emotions and consciousness especially during someone's last moments and ghost is born with an abnormal obsession with a related thing, person, emotion or situation." He explained.

Well… that's the theory he subscribed to when it was discussed on various blogs.

"That would explain why a lot of the ghosts we've encountered seem both strangely human and oddly obsessed at the same time." Sam added.

"It's still a theory, I'll likely experiment with it at a later point. What I can guarantee is that the process will work and will be safe… -ish."

"-ish? I don't like -ish." Danny said with his arms crossed.

"Look, give me and hour and I should be able to make that a guarantee. But this is the first time I'm using this ability."

"I would feel a lot safer if I had some ghost abilities." Sam said as she rested a hand on Danny's arm. "I came a little too close to becoming a full ghost for comfort tonight."

Danny deflated. "Can you really make my friends half-ghosts?"

"I can."

"Then if they want to, I would ask you to help them."

"Alright. You guys relax here and I'll experiment a bit and then we should be good to go." Alex said as he stood. Nodding to them all again Alex left the room and returned to the Warehouse proper.

Alex was fairly certain that he could pull this off as CP based powers were supposed to be fiat guaranteed. Ghost Creation allowed for the creation of ghost minions and half-ghosts though it did say that study and practice was needed to create more than simple skeleton ghosts. It also suggested that without the perk one wouldn't be able to create half ghosts without a lot of technical and genetic knowledge. Conversely this suggested that with the perk such details were not needed. Add to that that the perk guaranteed test subjects would survive meant the with a little practice basic half-ghost powerups should be achievable.

Alex was also about to heavily abuse another perk, this one from the Luigi's Mansion selection. Field Research gave a significant bonus to testing and study done in related environments. So, studying ghosts in a haunted mansion; as opposed to a laboratory, should increase the understanding gained. Alex decided that performing some experiments both in the mansion and in the ghost-zone would cover any gaps and allow him to successfully convert Tucker and Sam into half-ghosts.

With than in mind, Alex confidently walked out of the Warehouse back into the mansion, glancing back at the still open portal Alex's confidence stuttered. He sighed in relief that his guests weren't forcibly removed from the warehouse. He wouldn't test it now but they should be safe in there unless he willed the portal closed.

Alright, Alex thought to himself. First things first: I need ectoplasm.

Alex used shapeshifting and elongated one finger into a wickedly sharp claw which he then used to cut his other arm. Instead of blood: glowing green ectoplasm oozed from the wound which quickly healed over due to his self-healing. Holding some of the strange goo in his palm Alex concentrated on giving the substance life — or at least a semblance of life.

(With a flick of wrist and a twisting of power, the ghostly young man called forth ghost-life to flower.)

It was going to be a long few hours.

⦖⋄⦕

A.N.

Well, that was an adventure.

First, I would like to thank everyone whose read my fic so far and to thank those few people who have taken the time to comment. It means a lot, thankyou!

Second: Why?

I'm writing this fic because if I don't write something, then I never will.

I've started a dozen fics and then never posted them because I've always nit-picked and ruminated on them for ages to make them perfect. But here's the thing. I'm not perfect and my writing isn't perfect and the only way I'm ever going to actually improve is to KEEP WRITING. So that's what i'm doing here. I'm trying to have fun and just keep writing, and I sincerely hope you all have fun with me.

Lastly: I also have a Pa-t-reon. It's not required nor expected to donate to. But if you want to support my continued writing that way then you can do that.

I've got it set up that it should only charge per chapter release and you have the ability to set a limit on how much you would pay so that I can't spam awful chapters and expect money. This mean's that you would only be charged IF I release content. (My biggest fear against setting one up was somehow taking money and not delivering.)

It's new but eventually I want to get it to the point where I'll be a few chapters ahead there. Eventually everything will be realease to the public and i expect you all to call me out if I ever try and make a pay-wall.

pa_tr_on . c_m / locknkey (wow the cencoring here is nuts)