So, here's chapter 2! I got this one up pretty quick because, honestly, I had chapter 1 ready and waiting until I had this done. The first chapter really doesn't reflect the intended tone of the story, and was only meant to set the stage. So everything else should be pretty light, or at least not so... messy.
Wes couldn't sleep.
It wasn't just that he was thinking about what Danny had said about sinking through the floor, though that was definitely up there. If he was going to be doing stuff like that from now on, he didn't want it to happen in a house full of ghost hunters. It wasn't even the sharp ache in his chest that he swore went as deep as his lungs that kept him up.
No, what he was thinking about was the fact that he was half ghost, and all that might entail. For all those months he had tried to expose Danny, he'd never thought of the consequences. He was just so irritated by the accusations, when the truth was so blatantly obvious. Outing Danny as Phantom would have made it all stop. But he hadn't thought about the implications. How he might become a target to his own parents. How the government could take him away, and who knew what would become of him then. He just couldn't believe it took almost dying, becoming afflicted himself, to make him see just how awful that would be.
But more than that, Wes thought about what this meant for himself. He had ectoplasm running through his veins. He could glow, and become intangible, and he assumed he would be able to fly or turn invisible, if he really tried. Most ghosts seemed to be able to do that. Would he be able to fire lasers, too? Control ice? Shout loud enough to shatter concrete? As terrifying as the possibilities could be, he couldn't deny that it was cool. Like he had actual superpowers.
Suddenly, he was feeling rather curious. He'd seen what his jersey looked like, seen the light blue haze surrounding him like some sort of halo. But he had no idea what he actually looked like, in his ghost form. He knew there was a vanity in the room, he'd seen it when Danny showed him around. He wondered, would anyone notice if he were to transform? He imagined that he would light up much like Danny did, but surely it was late enough that everyone was asleep? And even if someone was awake, Danny's parents' room was at the far end of the hall, and his sister's room was next door to that. He didn't think anyone would notice a little light coming out from under the door for a couple seconds.
Though, all of this was assuming he could transform. Danny had said it was harder to be a ghost than a human, after all.
Still, he supposed it wouldn't hurt to try. He rose from the bed, hissing quietly as the movement tugged at his scabs. Getting to his feet, he placed himself in front of the vanity. The room was dark, but not so dark that he couldn't see his reflection, washed in blue-gray light from the window. As an afterthought, he went to close the blinds, not wanting to risk drawing too much attention. It took a few seconds to adjust after that, but then he gave his reflection a steely glare. "Well, here goes nothing," he whispered.
At first, nothing happened. Wes figured it was a long-shot, but he couldn't deny being a bit disappointed. But then, he was blinking away stars as he suddenly flashed. Cyan light pierced his eyelids, then gradually faded until it rested close to his skin, leaving behind a faint outline of his form. That... was definitely different from Danny. Maybe he needed to be wearing shades if he planned on doing that again.
The good news was, it was a lot easier to see when he was acting as his own light source. The jock focused on the vanity mirror, gasping quietly at what he saw.
His hair was lighter. A lot lighter. It was normally a brick red, but like this, it was as bright as a freaking traffic cone. And his eyes... His eyes had seemingly inverted. His irises had darkened, looking almost black, while his pupils were as green as the plasma rays Fenton was so fond of. Luckily the whites of his eyes were still white. It would have been really unsettling if they weren't. But his freckles. They glowed too, the same shade of neon green as his eyes. It was almost mesmerizing to look at, but it was... it was weird. He barely recognized the teen in his reflection. He leaned forwards, bracing himself with one arm as he used his free hand to pull down his lower eyelid for a better look.
And then his arm fell through.
To Wes's credit, he didn't cry out as his cheek smacked the counter-top, arm buried all the way to the shoulder. He quickly withdrew it, watching as his arm, blurry and indistinct, solidified once more. "Whew..." He straightened back out, then did a double take at his reflection. This time, he wasn't able to stifle the yelp that escaped his lips, hands quickly coming up to cover his mouth.
They were purple. His eyes, his freckles. They'd turned a pale shade of lavender. Could Danny's eyes do that? He'd never observed it himself. Outside of a couple of instances where his irises were red, he couldn't recall Danny's eyes ever being anything other than blue or green. That meant it was possible though, right? As his nerves began to settle, the lavender slowly shifted back into that vivid shade of green that seemed to be a ghost's default. "Huh..."
Nobody had heard him shout, had they? A few seconds of tense silence told him that he was in the clear. Wiping the nervous sweat from his brow, Wes focused on the vanity once more. He wondered, could he change colors on purpose?
It took some effort, but it turned out that he could. He pushed his features back to lavender, and then he tried blue. Then red, and orange, and white, and back to green. Rainbow seemed to be beyond him. Still, he was elated by this discovery, turning a rather sunny yellow at the revelation.
What else should he try? Did he dare? He didn't want to attempt phasing through anything, not trusting that he wouldn't pass through the floor to a place he shouldn't be. No way was he about to try lasers in the house, either. Maybe invisibility? No doubt that would come in handy. Or flight? How awesome would it be to zip around as fast as a car? Faster? What about super strength? And couldn't ghosts grow tails, too? There were so many possibilities, and he only had all night to explore them.
Or so he thought. Something tingled on his spine, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He couldn't explain why, but every fiber of his being told him he needed to turn around, right now. And so he did, whirling to face the door, ignoring the sudden wave of vertigo as his healing body protested the motion. His brows furrowed, and his fingers twitched, not knowing what to expect, or if he should expect anything at all. It occurred to him that he should probably change back, but he didn't. This somehow felt... safer. Less vulnerable.
Danny burst through the door like the house was on fire, teeth clenched and hands balled into fists. But when he only saw Wes, he relaxed, pinching the bridge of his nose and closing the door behind him. "...Wes, what are you doing?"
The new Halfa flushed in embarrassment, having been caught red-handed. "Um... I... I couldn't sleep."
"You can't be going ghost in the house, Wes. What if my parents woke up and saw you? Or what if..." Danny paused, quirking a brow. "...Weren't your eyes green before?"
"Huh?" The jock turned to his reflection, seeing that his eyes were a deep fuchsia. "Oh. They... They uh, change color."
"They change color?" Danny parroted.
"Yeah," replied Wes. "Turns out I can make them all kinds of colors, if I want. My freckles, too. Can't you do it too?"
"...I don't know. I've never tried," the Halfa admitted. "But it can wait. You need to go to bed, we can get your ghost stuff figured out in the morning."
"Ghost stuff? In the morning?" Wes asked.
"Uh, yeah. It's gonna be Saturday, and ideally you'd want to have a handle on your powers before you accidentally set one off at school. I don't know how I was lucky enough that no one noticed, but we can't count on that happening a second time. And unless you know any other Halfas, I'm gonna have to be the one to help you out."
"What's a Halfa?" questioned Wes.
"Halfa human, halfa ghost," Danny replied. Wes stared at him. "...Don't look at me like that, I didn't come up with the name! Just go to bed, and no more ghost business until we're out of the house, got it?"
Wes rolled his eyes. "Ugh, fine. You're no fun." Still, he made no protest, taking a moment to focus so he could change back, this time having the presence of mind to close his eyes first. He crawled into bed, then glared as if to say, "happy?"
Danny let out an exasperated sigh, turning back to the door. "I mean it, get some sleep. You need the energy to heal, and your powers won't last too long if you don't get whatever rest you can."
"I already said I was gonna sleep, dad," Wes hissed at him. Danny rolled his entire head, opening the door and leaving the room. True to his word, Wes really did do his best to get some sleep.
He only hoped nobody noticed when he woke up on the dining room table that morning.
Wes is a bright and colorful boy. I kind of have his concept based on camera flashes, which led to light, and all that good stuff. He's got a smidge of cryptid thrown in for good measure too. You'll see.
Chapter lengths are probably going to vary, but they'll all most likely be 1k minimum. I also have no idea how many of these there will be, or even if a plot is going to develop. But I have a funny habit of taking a plot bunny, and having it evolve into this big thing that snowballs until it's dozens of thousands of words long. So I guess we'll just see where this goes.