A/N: I'm aware that it's been ages since I'm trying to finish up the fic I've been writing in present tense (switching tenses for one story was a bad idea), but this update is for DP-Marvel94, in belated honour of them posting their own Portal AU fic (An Unconventional Way to Get a Cat).

Recap: Danny quickly realizes vomiting ghosts can be even worse that he'd initially thought; once a shapeshifter claws their way up his throat and decides Danny could be useful, it's only a matter of time before Danny ends up in a bad situation courtesy of said shifter—namely, a kidnapping made to look like he ran away. Danny is able to call on the aid of a couple new allies, though: Sidney Poindexter and Johnny 13 (and Shadow). Between these two, he learns more about what being a gatekeeper means and what he can actually do, and with practice, he's able to create a ghost portal outside of himself—which, conveniently for Johnny, allows his girlfriend Kitty to join him in Amity Park.

In the game of cat and mouse Danny finds himself playing with the shifter, Jazz discovers the truth and Danny gets more threats from the shifter than (in his opinion) help from his allies figuring out how to use the powers he supposedly has. With Johnny and Kitty currently helping Danny, Sidney goes with Jazz to watch her back—which seems great until Danny checks up on them and finds out that Valerie was apparently being held captive in his room. Jazz's startled scream did nothing for Danny's nerves, but she's able to give him an update on things afterwards and asks Danny where he is and if he can come home to help. Danny answers, so Johnny takes away his phone privileges before Johnny and Kitty decide on a new place to hide.

Danny couldn't see it properly until Kitty hit the lights, but the new place had a lot of boxes and filing cabinets and shelves full of books and papers stuffed into folders. There was aisle upon aisle of the same, tighter in space than the library with the shelves reaching higher. Johnny let them off in one of the wider areas that held a couple of tables and chairs before parking his bike and leaning against it.

Danny pulled out a chair for himself while Kitty sat on the table and crossed her ankles. She took a handful of popcorn from the bag she'd somehow managed to keep hold of for the entirety of the ride before offering it to Danny and Johnny. "Let the kid eat his fill; he'll need it," Johnny said, so Kitty shrugged and handed the rest of the bag to Danny.

Approximately three seconds later, Kitty's 'literal paper trail' comment came to fruition as Shadow slipped away from under the bike and tore down one of the aisles, leaving the place looking like a whirlwind had hit it. The light overhead flickered but stayed on. So much for Shadow not going off anywhere, but maybe it didn't matter as long as he stayed in this room? Danny wasn't sure, but Kitty wasn't complaining, and he had a feeling she would be if this wasn't okay with her.

Danny hadn't really been able to follow where they were going in the air, but he could guess now. "Please don't tell me you guys used to make out here."

Kitty smirked at him. "Of course we didn't. This is the least private place in the whole archives. We found ourselves a little privacy first."

Ugh, he had not needed to know that. "What part of please don't tell me did you think meant please tell me?"

"This was a good spot to break into when Kitty's old man was trying to keep tabs on her and cramping our style," Johnny added, as if Danny had asked for any kind of detail. "It was way more satisfying to get into here ourselves than if Kitty had swiped his keys, and if we did a little something to blow off steam, that's our business."

"You can stop talking about that now," Danny said, and Kitty laughed, sharing a look with Johnny that had a smile tugging at the corner of his lips, too.

At least someone found this entire mess amusing.

"Can you check the phone and see if Jazz sent an update on Valerie?" Danny asked as he ate a handful of popcorn. "Or about anything?"

"You don't think you should be focusing on getting your abilities under control?" Johnny countered, making no move to reach for the pocket that Danny knew held the cell phone.

"Pretty sure it's going to be easier to do that if I'm not worried about what's going on with them. I mean, the shifter must've been the one to kidnap Valerie, so if we know what they did, maybe we can guess how far they'll go."

"You don't need to guess," Kitty said. "They're a shifter. They'll do what they threatened to do."

"But Jazz is fine! So if the shifter is starting with Valerie—"

"Then they're starting with the other chick to get your attention," interrupted Johnny, "and are moving on to your sister as leverage. It's working, isn't it? They've got your attention and they know it. You don't think they'd be monitoring whatever went down at your place if that's where they hid the girl? You'll be lucky if electronics aren't in their wheelhouse and they don't already know whatever you blabbed to your sis."

Danny frowned, but it wasn't like he could deny it. He couldn't begin to guess the extent of the shifter's abilities. "Can you at least check to see if she's texted back yet?"

Johnny glanced at Kitty again before digging the phone out of his pocket. "How do you tell?"

Danny set the popcorn onto the table beside Kitty and jumped to his feet. "Let me see."

Johnny wouldn't relinquish the phone—no real surprise there—but he did open it and navigate through it under Danny's direction.

Nothing from Jazz.

Hopefully that didn't mean Valerie was in such rough shape she didn't feel she had time to text back. Jazz wouldn't forget, but she also wouldn't do it if their parents were hanging around, so….

He'd think about that later. Glancing at both Johnny and Kitty so they'd know he was addressing both of them, he asked, "What did you mean when you said there might be more to me unlocking my powers? Beyond, I dunno, positive thinking and stress and stuff? Is there a way to tell if I'm just too new at this to do something yet?"

Kitty pursed her lips. "Short of taking you to an expert or having you call one through, no. But if it's not a matter of trying to develop something that's simply not settled enough to materialize, then there is something I could try."

"Kitten, are you sure? You don't know what he could do to you."

"No," Kitty corrected, "he doesn't know what he could do to me. I have a pretty good idea. Which is why I'd be careful. I can handle being weak for a few weeks if it goes south."

"It could be worse than that."

The amount of concern in Johnny's voice was worrisome. Danny had been through a lot of concerning things recently, and Johnny had not sounded that way except when he was worried about his girlfriend. Despite how Johnny was talking, he surely knew that Danny wouldn't intentionally hurt Kitty, but that didn't mean he'd necessarily be so understanding if it happened. And even if that came out as anger that had Johnny storming off and leaving Danny alone, alone was not high on the list of things Danny wanted to be right now.

Especially since he wasn't convinced he could get out of here on his own.

If there were alarms, Shadow must've taken care of those, and maybe the cameras, too, but Danny didn't even know how common security cameras and alarm systems would've been when these two had been alive.

Should he ask? It seemed like it would be weird to ask. Or rude.

Then again, if he didn't bring it to their attention, and they didn't know about it, and then it did turn out to be a thing that mattered….

"I know what I'm doing," repeated Kitty, knife-like sharpness in her tone as she narrowed her eyes at Johnny. "If I weren't willing to risk it, I wouldn't mention it."

"Okay, hold on a sec," Danny said. "What exactly are you trying to mention?" That had to be a safe question. It was definitely a relevant question.

"You wouldn't like it," Johnny said, and Danny made a face.

"I don't like any of this."

"You wouldn't like this more," Johnny added, as if saying that made a difference. "If you want a tiny taste of what it'll be like, I'll overshadow you."

Danny shook his head. "No thanks. Been there, done that with Sidney. Don't need to go through that again."

"I'm not talking about overshadowing," Kitty said slowly. "This is more permanent if it's not reversed in time. Poindexter can do it, too, but his method is pretty crude, more along the lines of pushing your essence right out of your body. I'm a little more subtle. You wouldn't feel me right away unless you knew what to look for."

Danny glanced back at Johnny, hoping for a translation.

Thankfully, he understood. "Think possession to the point of replacement, not suppression."

"I wouldn't have to go that far with you," Kitty said, "and I'd pull back because, gatekeeper or not, I don't want to be stuck as you—"

"Is that assurance or an insult?"

"—but I'd need to go far enough to get into your head." Kitty stared at him without blinking. Did ghosts even need to blink? He hadn't been paying enough attention before. "You're new enough at this that I think I could pull it off even if part of you were still trying to guard against me, but it'll be a lot faster if you let me in."

Okay, Johnny had been right about Danny not liking this.

"So you just, what?" Danny held up his hands and wiggled his fingers. "Mind-whammy me and change my brain?"

"Simplest way is to infuse my essence into something you're wearing." She tugged off the black leather bracelet from her left wrist and held it up. "I'm not keen on getting close to anything you're wearing right now, so how opposed are you to an improvement in fashion sense?"

"Am I going to regret this if I agree? Because I'm kinda getting the feeling this is something I'd regret."

Kitty shrugged and dropped the hand holding the bracelet back into her lap. "Your choice. It might not work in terms of unlocking your abilities, but it'll give me a better idea of your whole situation than whatever you can tell me even if it doesn't." With a nod at Johnny, she added, "But he's right. If you fight me, it's not going to be pleasant."

"For either of us?"

"It'll be more painful for you. More draining for me."

"Great." Danny scrunched up his nose. "Just what I wanted to hear."

"Look," said Johnny, "I don't like any idea that puts my Kitty in danger, but I trust her judgement with this kind of thing, and the shifter has already made a move. We don't have time for you to sit on your hands and think right now. You either do this or we move on to the next plan."

"Is there a next plan?"

"If you keep shooting down every option we give you for training, the next plan might just be to attack with everything you've got."

Right, and everything he had at the moment was almost certainly not enough.

Ugh.

Who would have thought he'd miss having Sidney around for advice?

Danny held out his hand towards Kitty. "Fine. Accessorize me or whatever."

Kitty's lips quirked into a smile, and the bracelet began to glow white in her hands. Danny wasn't sure if it was simply because the bracelet looked brighter than the rest of her when she did that or if her glow actually dimmed in response, but she looked a little more human when she handed over the bracelet than she had the moment before.

Danny took it and slipped it onto his left wrist before he could think about this long enough to regret his life choices. Kitty lay down on the table and closed her eyes like she was going to try to fall asleep, and Danny shifted on his feet and glanced at Johnny. "Um, how is this supposed to work?"

"Don't fight her," Johnny said quietly.

Fight what? There wasn't anything to fight. As far as he could tell, the bracelet—and by extension, Kitty—wasn't doing anything.

"Right." Danny tugged the chair farther away from the table and sat back down. "How long before we know if any of this is going to work? Or if the bracelet on its own is enough?" He might not be trying to fight Kitty, but if instinctive natural defences were a thing he had, and if he was lucky for once and they were actually strong, maybe the bracelet wouldn't be enough for Kitty to do whatever she needed.

"Just don't think about it and let her do her thing."

"Okay, do you seriously not realize that's going to make me think about it more or are you just saying that to annoy me?"

Johnny smirked, and Danny had his answer.

Honestly, he shouldn't be surprised by this point.

He couldn't ask Johnny for a distraction, though. His idea of a distraction would undoubtedly be something Danny hated, like all the terrible things the shifter would want to do to him once they found him or all the things that Johnny wanted to do to Kitty that probably should be considered unspeakable, except Johnny might very well go into detail just to make Danny squirm in the guise of it being a 'proper distraction'.

If Kitty wasn't out of it, she'd help.

No thanks.

Danny would rather take his distraction in the form of answers to his ever-growing pile of questions. The other gatekeeper would be ideal if pretty much everyone Danny met wasn't set on warning him away from the idea of seeking him out. To be fair, chances were good Danny would show up on the guy's doorstep anyway if he were nearby, since the guidance of someone who'd apparently already gone through this would be invaluable and beggars couldn't be choosers, but that was a moot point if Danny couldn't find him in the first place.

He still needed help, though.

Kitty had mentioned experts. Danny still didn't know what kind of experts they were supposed to be, exactly. Maybe Johnny would tell him about that? That would be a suitable distraction, wouldn't it? Because it was clear to Danny that he needed help, so if there was some expert out there who could help, he'd take whoever it was. Gladly. Sooner rather than later, preferably, since yesterday wasn't an option.

His stomach flipped.

No.

That wasn't what he'd meant, but the sick feeling inside him and a tickle of coolness at the back of his throat were only steadily growing stronger.

No, no, no, he was not doing this again. He just had to focus, had to push it out through his fingers, had to—

Danny plastered both hands across his mouth as he heaved and shot to his feet, desperately looking for a garbage can. Johnny wasn't looking at him, only having eyes for Kitty, but— There. Danny stumbled forward to grab the receptacle even as he tried to fight back the nausea and—

Danny blinked and straightened up, only now realizing how hunched over he'd become.

He felt fine.

Nothing had crawled up his throat, but nothing had helpfully materialized anywhere else, either, so he didn't have an explanation for the sudden lack of nausea. "Huh. That's weird." Pressing a tentative hand to his stomach didn't bring it back, thankfully, so hopefully that meant it was really gone. Maybe it meant he was getting a hang of his powers? He'd wanted it to stop. So it was a good thing that it had stopped, right?

Now, predictably, Johnny was looking at him. "See, that's why you don't wanna think about it."

"What, ghosts?" Danny asked as he idly started to play with the bracelet. He'd been assuming that if Kitty knew some experts who might be able to help him that weren't other gatekeepers, they'd be ghosts. His parents were technically experts, but not in this kind of thing. He wasn't sure they'd know anything about this that wasn't wild extrapolations from things that were more hypothesis than theory, and he knew they were among the best in their field. If they didn't know, no one else studying similar stuff would be able to help him with this. "Kinda hard to keep my thoughts away from them. Though if this is how you're going to start a lecture about how I need to focus more, I can stop you now and tell you that won't help me."

"I'm not talking about you trying to master your powers." Johnny stretched, pushing his linked hands away from him and doing what Danny hoped was simply a really good impression of someone pretending not to care about this conversation—mostly because, if Johnny genuinely didn't care about this conversation, Danny was almost certainly in more trouble than he currently realized.

Ghosts couldn't overshadow other ghosts, could they? He didn't think so. They didn't have bodies, just essences. As far as Danny knew, ectoplasm could exist as any state of matter, but the power behind it came from the essence of the ghost, the thing that held them together and kept them as themselves. He'd heard his parents hypothesizing about the ghosts that had appeared recently—and, okay, yeah, some of that hypothesizing was about how and why they were appearing, but Danny was definitely not ready to admit his hand in all of this. Point was, unless Danny was barking up the wrong tree completely, ghosts needed something physical to possess.

Which meant this was still Johnny, wholly Johnny, and not any part the shifter trying to mess with him. Unless Johnny had managed to get mugged and replaced without Danny noticing, but he kinda doubted that. As much as Johnny was keen on avoiding a fight with the shifter, Danny was confident Johnny would still put up a good fight.

For Kitty's sake, not Danny's, but Danny would reap the benefits of that, so who was he to complain?

None of that explained why Johnny was suddenly less worried about this whole thing Kitty was doing—or pretending to be less worried, anyway. Johnny was still Johnny, Kitty was still lying down and not moving so was presumably also still herself, and Danny was still Danny, so….

Maybe it would be easier to ask. Danny tilted his head, frowning a bit as he eyed Johnny, who was almost looking amused now. "Are you really not worried anymore or is this your way of distracting me?"

Oh, yeah, Johnny's smirk was definitely back now. "Relax, kid. I've got one less thing to worry about is all."

"Which is?"

Johnny reached over to snag a couple kernels of popcorn from the bag. He tossed one into his mouth, getting it in on the first try, and then looked over at Danny. Before Danny could do anything, Johnny had tossed the popcorn kernel in his direction.

It was lobbed too low for him to be able to catch it in his mouth. Some part of Danny recognized this, so he didn't bother trying to catch it that way; he didn't even try to catch it in his hands. He crossed his arms instead—he was getting chilly anyway—and fully intended to let the piece of popcorn bounce off his chest.

Predictably, it hit the floor.

Unpredictably, it hit the floor behind him.

Danny actually turned around to look at it, trying to figure out how Johnny's aim could be so good one second and so poor the next.

He had half a mind to flick the kernel of popcorn back at Johnny's head, but he settled for tossing it into the garbage instead. It missed, because of course it did. He let out a huff. "What was that for?"

"Proving a point."

"What point?"

"You can do the basics. My guess is more would come with time, but the simple stuff isn't beyond you." Maybe he could read the expression on Danny's face, because he added, "That's a good thing."

Danny rolled his eyes. "No kidding. But being capable of doing something and actually knowing how to do something and being able to do it when I want to are very different things. In case you forgot."

"I haven't." Johnny's expression shifted, but Danny couldn't decipher it fast enough to prepare before Johnny called out, "Shadow, get 'im!"

Danny was wrapped up before he could protest, suspended off the floor with his arms pinned to his sides and legs secured in shadow. Nothing was choking him, but he couldn't move anything lower than his neck besides his fingers or toes. "Hey!"

Johnny crossed his arms. "Shadow hates light," he said, as if Danny couldn't have figured that out by himself. "So let's see if you can lighten things up with a ghost ray."

"I can barely do portals and that's supposed to be my entire thing!"

"We've been over this. It's not. At this point, you can go intangible, which means flight and invisibility shouldn't be off the table."

Flight probably wasn't off the table, given the hovering, but Danny didn't want to get into that right now. It wasn't something he'd been able to replicate, and he was really questioning Johnny's and Kitty's methods when it came to teaching him stuff. That he'd had success on one thing felt more incidental than anything else, more luck than actual coaching when so much of it boiled down to 'I don't know; feel it out and you'll figure it out'.

"Except I can't go intangible," Danny pointed out, "and none of that has anything to do with whatever the heck ghost rays are."

Johnny held up a finger. "One, you just did." Before Danny could ask, the second finger rose. "Two, shooting ghost rays isn't a universal power, but it's a common one."

"But I don't even know what that's supposed to be!"

"Ectoplasm manipulation."

Danny just stared at him.

"Look, chances are good you can blast someone with ectoplasm. With shadows, a ghost ray doesn't need to be particularly strong; it's the light that banishes them as much as the raw energy you're throwing around."

"I'm as likely to figure out how to shoot laser beams out of my hands as I am to walk through a wall," deadpanned Danny.

"Then you're halfway there."

"Except I'm not."

Johnny huffed. "Look, I'm trying to level with you, so will you at least listen to what I'm saying? What you're doing right now is instinctual. Kitty can nudge it along, but she's not drawing on her own power right now because she doesn't want to overtake you completely. Which means this?" He waved a hand at Danny. "That's all you."

"Actually, it's all Shadow. So if you wouldn't mind letting me go—"

Danny was still being held a good foot above Johnny's head, but Johnny was suddenly in his face, nose inches from Danny's. His eyes sparked an unnatural green. "You can stop treating this like it's a game without consequences," he snarled, and Danny would have flinched back if he could have. The slight jerk of the head Shadow allowed him to give did not get him far enough away from Johnny's sudden fury. It radiated off of him like heat, scalding and unforgiving.

Only, Johnny was wrong.

Danny was very much not treating this like a game without consequences.

Everything he was doing was because he was perfectly aware there would be consequences, and he knew he'd like them about as much as he liked the rest of this.

Johnny kept going before Danny could get a word in of protest, though. "That shifter can do worse than they have. You're worried about your sis and your parents and all your friends. You're worried about yourself. But the living won't be the only ones affected if that shifter controls a gateway."

"I never said—"

"The other gatekeeper is bad enough. This? This would be worse. You have not seen a smidgeon of the damage a shifter can do when they put their mind to it, and this one will play with their friends if given half a chance."

"But—"

"Helping you isn't just risking their retribution." Johnny drew back a few more inches as he said this, but he was still uncomfortably close. His voice had gone from loud and furious to deathly quiet, which was not exactly an improvement in Danny's book. The sense of dread crawling up his spine didn't help. "Kitty has her claws in you right now, which means if you die, she gets torn apart, and it might take months for her to pull herself together—if she can even recover. So you can either stop denying everything and listen or we can leave you to try to save your sister from the shifter on your own. You understand me?"

Danny craned his neck to look at Kitty. He expected her to start looking more translucent, maybe even a little fuzzy around the edges. Instead, her soft glow was dimmer than before, to the point that she almost looked more like a human in costume than the ghost she was.

"Well?" Johnny hadn't turned around, his gaze fixed on Danny's. Even at the growl in Johnny's voice, Kitty didn't stir.

"Yeah." Danny flicked his eyes back to Johnny's. "I get it."

If something went wrong, he wouldn't only have to worry about the shifter and whatever they might decide to do. He wouldn't only have to worry that one or all of his friends might decide to step back to protect themselves rather than risk their necks for him.

He'd have to make sure someone he'd thought was an ally didn't stab him in the back, too.