Danny stared up at Sam's window. He tried to reach into himself and find that orb of cold that represented his ghost powers but there was nothing there, just the odd violent rush of blood through his veins. Danny hesitated then threw a rock at Sam's window. There was no answer. Danny threw another one glad that her window wasn't at the side of the building with the door so he could try and escape should her parents come out to get him. Sam's hand opened the window her eyes peering out.
"Sam!" Danny called. Sam yawned.
"What?" She asked irritated as she looked down at him obviously annoyed.
"I need your help." Danny whispered up at her.
"Just fly up then." Sam growled angry at being woken.
"I… Sam… Sam I can't." Danny said sounding scared. At this Sam changed her tone.
"I'll be right there." Sam disappeared inside her bedroom rummaging around and soon a ladder was thrown out of the window. Danny gripped the side and began climbing up the wobbly rope ladder before collapsing in Sam's room breathing heavily.
"Ow." Danny said before rolling over and standing up. He faced the wall away from Sam who put a hand on his shoulder.
"Danny, you're scaring me." Sam said. Danny's frame stiffened and he slowly turned. Sam saw green eyes and nearly punched Danny in the face for they weren't Phantom's glowing green eyes they were a very human green. A deep human green. However, upon seeing Danny's snow-white hair, though lacking in its usual glow Sam's fist stopped. Danny turned to face her full on pressing Sam's hand into his chest.
"I… I'm human." Danny said. Sam fell backward onto her bed staring at Danny as she stared.
"Shit." Sam said, "Shit." She repeated. Danny sat on the bed with her and stared at his human hands.
"What am I going to do?" Danny asked. Sam opened her mouth to speak then closed it before opening it again then sighing.
"I don't know." Sam said, "Did you tell Tucker?" Sam asked. Danny shook his head.
"No… not yet. I came here first… I… I don't know what I can do." Danny started breathing quickly, "Will I be stuck like this forever… oh god…" Danny buried his head in his hands his white hair poking out of the blue sweatshirt.
"I'm sure we'll figure something out." Sam said trying to be reassuring, "we always do right?" Sam asked. Danny nodded.
"I guess." He said dejectedly. Sam sighed.
"You guess…" Sam lay back down on the bed. Danny looked over at her.
"You know if this weren't so serious I would be laughing at your footie pajamas." Danny commented green eyes hinting a smile. Sam kicked him lightly with the stuffed face on her footie pajamas.
"Shut up, Jack rocks." Sam glared; the plush faced Jack Skellington grinning up at the two of them. Danny coughed a little then lay down next to Sam.
"I might not see you guys for a while." Danny said.
"I assumed." Sam answered sadly. Danny sighed heavily before standing up. He heard the roar of the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle going past then looked toward the window.
"I should go." He said softly. Sam nodded. Then Danny slunk toward the window white hair catching the moonlight giving it an almost ghostly glow before Danny proceeded down the ladder. His humanly green eyes and his white hair the last thing Sam would see of her friend for a long time.
On the ground Danny was hastily running through back alleys and cutting through yards till he got to Tucker's house. Tucker being on the first floor it was much easier to break in and wake up his best friend.
Danny jiggled the window open till the lock broke free, a technical flaw Tucker's parents always said they'd fix but they never had. Danny crawled through the window and into Tucker's room before shaking the African teen awake.
"But that's my bacon!" Tucker said steadily becoming conscious.
"Tucker, it's me… its Danny." Danny said Tucker opened his eyes then blinked.
"Yes Phantom those pickles do look withered." Tucker stated then rolled over. Danny his hand still out stretched in shock stared at Tucker before shaking him awake deciding laughing wouldn't be the best move.
"Tucker!" Danny said trying to get Tucker to wake up. Tucker groaned then tried waving Danny off.
"This is my bed, it's only for hot girls and cyber chicks." Tucker said. Danny getting frustrated grabbed the glass of water off Tucker bed stand and poured it on Tucker's head. Tucker got up water streaming from his face as he looked at Danny.
"You should have just shaken me awa- dude." Tucker said looking at Danny's human eyes to the absence of the eerie glow he usually carried as Phantom.
"Tucker… I need to be quick; I think my parents are out looking for me." Danny said, "I…" Danny scrambled for the right words; "I don't think I'll be seeing much of you for a while." Danny said softly. Tucker stared at him.
"This is because of the human thing right." Tucker asked. Danny nodded.
"I'm sure I'll be staying with my mom and dad as usual but I don't think that we'll be able to hang out." Danny rubbed his neck, "I… I'm probably… not going to see you guys for quite a while." Danny admitted.
"Please take care of Sam." Danny asked. Tucker frowned trying not to get emotional.
"Ok… and dude… take care of yourself." Tucker said. Danny nodded.
"I promise." Danny said creeping back out the window.
"Me too." Tucker said. Danny nodded then closed the window ghosting across the lawn and into the dark. Tucker laid down wondering if it would take long till he saw Danny again.
Danny sat down on the park bench rubbing his hands together wondering why it was so cold. He blew warm air into his palms and shivered before bringing his legs up to his chest to conserve heat. Danny hadn't felt so cold since he got his ice powers, it wasn't the unnatural cold either, it was a distinctly human cold and that scared him. Danny shut his eyes tight against the rest of the world hoping that would warm him up as he shivered.
"It isn't that cold, it isn't that cold." He told himself over and over. But his body knew differently as he shivered in the cold night. Danny felt a warm hand on his shoulder and looked up to see a policeman.
"Hey, you can't sleep here, its past curfew. Where are your parents?" the man asked. Danny blinked then shivered and sat up.
"I…" Danny shivered again. "I don't know." Danny looked up at the policeman his eyes wide and confused, "I'm… I'm human." He said. The policeman froze.
"Phantom?" he asked. Danny steadily looked down at his hands then grabbed a fist full of his own white hair still shivering.
"What is going to happen to me?" he wondered. The policeman put his hands on Danny's shoulders; Danny released his hair and looked up at the policeman.
"What happened?" The policeman asked looking at Danny intently.
"My… it… the Fentons they…" Danny blinked, "Oh wow I make no sense." Danny said shaking his head. He then looked at the policeman, "I must be a sight to see… oh god." Danny shivered again, "I… well the Fentons… they made me… human." Danny said, "So cold." Danny shivered. The policeman sighed.
"Come on you can warm up in my car." The man extended his hand, "My name is Pete by the way." Pete the policeman said. Danny nodded shivering and followed the man. Danny's stomach growled and he immediately grabbed him abdomen.
"Oh… uh… we can go to the Nasty Burger." The policeman said. Danny blushed.
"You really don't have to do all this." Danny said sounding more articulate now that he'd gathered his wits.
"No, it's ok. The way I see it is you've helped us out when we're in trouble so we might as well return the favor." Pete smiled opening the door to the side of the car and letting Danny get in. Danny sat down still shivering and waited as Pete got into the other side starting the engine and waiting a while for the car to heat up. The inside was strewn with garbage and various other things that Pete gathered up into a white Wal-Mart bag. Danny stared out the window waiting as Pete cleaned up the car a bit.
"We're a bit short on cruisers at the moment. A whole bunch of them got destroyed in that last big ghost invasion." Pete said, "We haven't been able to acquire the funding to replace them yet so a few of us just have to use our own cars." Pete explained. "Not quite the best thing for taking in criminals so we usually have to wait for a cruiser to come while we hold the perp. However, lately most criminals aren't the kind we can hold with cuffs." Pete smiled a bit.
"Yeah I suppose not." Danny said. Pete looked over at him.
"So… you're human?" Pete asked. Danny turned his emerald eyes onto the man and sighed.
"Yeah… no ghost powers, no goin' ghost, no nothing." Danny sighed.
"Well, who are you staying with?" Pete asked, "I mean do your parents know you're alive again." Pete said, "Not to be rude or anything." Pete explained.
"No. Don't worry about it. I guess you could say my parents think I'm still alive, that I was never a ghost in the first place. And I do look different from how I did when I was alive." Danny said, "That is probably a big factor as to why they never knew it was me." Danny said.
"I don't see how a family could not know their son was dead." Pete said angrily. Danny shrugged then stared at his hands once more. "Hey… you ok?" Pete asked the Nasty Burger's neon sign glowing in the distance.
"I'm fine… physically at least." Danny sighed, "I just don't know how… how I'm going to protect my town now." Danny said. Pete looked over at him.
"You're town?" he wondered. Danny laughed.
"Well I guess it's not really mine as I've put my name on it or marked it as territory… it's just the place I've grown up in since I was little. So in that way it's mine. I want to protect it, make sure it's safe. It wasn't something I thought of at first. I didn't want to be a ghost like any sane person would like to be a ghost right?" Danny chuckled, "But it was something I figured I might as well do after all. It… it's not really something I can explain… I guess it's more like noblesse oblige." Danny said.
"Noble what?" Pete asked.
"Oh… it's the only term I seem to remember from my government class. Basically its since I have power I'm obligated to use it for people who don't have the power I do. No, that's not exactly it. The original term was referring to nobles from England but I've adapted it for myself I guess." Danny said. Pete nodded.
"Who knew it was something so simple." Pete said. The car pulled to a stop in front of the menu with Nasty Nat and the speaker. Pete pulled out some bills.
"Welcome to Nasty Burger may I take your order." The bored voice said. Pete rolled down the window.
"Give us a minute." Pete said; he then turned to Danny, "what do you want."
"Just a Nasty Burger and fries with a Pepsi." Danny said. Pete nodded and repeated the order.
"You're total is $6.95 please proceed to the first window." The voice said. Pete pulled around the side of the building and stopped at the window. Valerie was working at the window.
"Six dollars and ninety five cents." She said with a fake smile. Pete handed her a ten and she returned the change " three o' five is your change, you're order will be out in a- YOU!" Valerie said looking over at Danny who was sitting in the passenger seat.
"Great, what do you want… and what are you wearing?" Valerie asked. Pete knew there were people who bore ill will toward Phantom but the killer aura coming off Valerie made him shiver.
"I just want to eat, am I not allowed?" Danny replied snarkily.
"Sure, if ghosts could eat." Valerie said, "I don't know what you're up to ghost, but I'm going to find out." Valerie glared.
"That would be all fine and dandy, that is if I were a ghost at the moment." Danny said sarcastically. Valerie looked closer at him then frowned.
"You like Danielle?" She asked. Danny shook his head.
"No… not right now. I'm fully and completely human." Danny said. Valerie glared. Pete coughed.
"Um… our order." He wondered. Valerie glanced at Pete then seemed to realize for the first time that he was a police officer.
"Oh… right away." Valerie picked up the bag with the Nasty burger logo then handed it through the window.
"Thank you for eating at Nasty Burger. Phantom I'm going to have a long talk with you later." Valerie glared.
"Will it be painful?" Danny asked taking the bag from Pete. Valerie glared.
"Just get out of here." She said closing the window. Danny chuckled. Pete looked over at him.
"What was that about?" Pete asked, "Do you know her?"
"Yeah, because of a ghost dog when I was still staring out her life was ruined… and she blames me for it." Danny shrugged taking out the Nasty Burger and fries then biting ravenously into the burger whimpering in delight. Pete smiled even if he was a superhero… or former superhero; he was still a teenager Pete decided. Danny looked up at Pete.
"What?" he asked.
"You have ketchup on your face." Pete said turning the corner and parking down the street by one of the smaller neighborhood parks.
"Oh." Danny said grabbing a napkin. Danny smiled up at Pete, "Thanks." He said.
"No problem." Pete smiled.
"I'll pay you back somehow." Danny promised.
"Don't worry about it." Pete said.
"Of course I'll worry about it or I'll just feel like a mooch… I'm a bit short on cash though so…" Danny frowned then took a handful of fried.
"Hey, how about you just come sign my daughter's Danny Phantom poster and we call it even." Pete said. Danny laughed.
"You got a deal… though I'm not sure how much it would me with me like this." Danny frowned. Pete shrugged.
"You have a place to stay?" Pete asked.
"No… not really. The Fentons had me… but… I don't know if I want to go back there." Danny sighed.
"Stay the night with me and you can decide tomorrow." Pete said. Danny smiled.
"Thanks."
Maddie frowned she couldn't find Phantom anywhere. It wasn't so easy looking for a human; he was harder to track now. Jack was raging about how he must have had help from a ghost or he wouldn't have been able to get so far. Maddie wasn't sure. Most of the other ghosts didn't like Phantom because he was a threat and he needed to be taken care of, they weren't likely to help him, they'd take advantage of the situation though and try and take him out. Though killing him would only result in what Maddie figured would be him turning into a ghost once more, so if anything they had captured him to keep him from gaining the control he once had over Amity which had dissolved due to his current homo-sapien status. There wasn't much else to do but find him hopefully before he fell into the hands of the ghosts.
As much as she hated to admit it Phantom while a ghost was helpful at time. If the other ghosts got a hold of him while he was human they could rewire him before killing him and then they would have more issues than just Phantom being a ghost.