4/19/24-Minor rewrite for quality and continuity. Minor graphic novel spoilers, I'll try to make it vague!

Yep, still don't own Danny Phantom. Now, onto the story!

Chapter 5: Adrenaline

The duo was in the basement of Alex's house. The ghost book they had really taught you everything about ghosts, even how they use their powers. Judging from the book's info, the powers were likely here to stay. So, training it was. With the book as their only way to know what powers Heather likely had, it was all just trial and error. The book was a scientific approach to the powers, and while they didn't quite get ray measurements or most of the scientific terms, it was enough to figure out how the powers could be summoned.

Alex was acting as a coach. "Okay, we'll start with going to your ghost form. The book is oddly scarce about discussing half ghosts, but it sounds like this is the easiest thing for you to do. It's all willpower apparently, you just have to want to transform and you will."

Heather tried to stall. "I don't like this. What if I can't change back?"

"Changing back is the same thing, wanting to transform. Though it says you can focus on 'the warmth of your human self,' whatever that means."

Trying to stay confident, she did as the book said. She closed her eyes and focused on becoming ghost. When she focused, she could feel a coldness deep in her chest, and, even amazing herself, turned ghost. There was a rush of coldness as a bright white ring formed around her stomach, split into two, and traveled across her body. She felt the slight weightless feeling of her body appear, and the odd, indescribable feeling of not quite being there, like her insides were made of fog.

She opened her eyes and looked at her hands. They were a bit paler than usual. She took a quick look in her mini mirror. She had to get used to the ghostly white hair and her eyes that glowed bright green. The hoodie she was wearing during the activation of her powers reappeared, even though she took it off in human form. Plus, it was all black, unlike the white hoodie from before the incident. Her previously blue jeans were black. She looked down at her feet, and her previously black combat boots were now pure white.

"Ok, I'm sorta used to what I look like. Now, let's get training."

Danny was washing the dishes. Stupid dishwasher never works, he thought to himself. My only half-day of work for the month, and I'm stuck with the dishes. The job he worked gave occasional half-days, and he chose to take today off to greet Heather when she got off of school. But little did he know, she didn't even plan on coming home until later, making it irrelevant. At least he got to the dishes.

Danny worked in monitoring anti-ghost technology. He used to want to be an astronaut, but after the Disasteroid incident and the mess with his future self, he decided to go on a different path. He did his best to diminish the conflict between humans and ghosts. He tried and tried. Years went by, but he couldn't stop the hatred and animosity towards ghosts. He did what he could for the ghost world, but they wouldn't stop attacking. The world soon had it. He had Tucker, a ghost tech genius, join him in taking charge of the Anti-Portal project, thinking that if the world went on without ghosts, he would at least have some control over it. He didn't enjoy it. It was something that occupied his mind every day, and had been for the past twenty years, ever since the project began. But he stayed in it, hoping that one day, he'd have a way to finally shut them down.

He finished washing the dishes. I am never making pancakes when the dishwasher's broken ever again. He always hated scrubbing off old syrup. He frowned at how mundane it was, being another reminder of the problems he had to face. Two day shipping for the repair part. Two days of scrubbing dishes. This is what his life came to.

All of a sudden, his ghost sense went off. Ghost sense? Its been years since that happened. A loud thunk on the roof rang throughout the house, and convinced him it was no joke. He checked his watch. 4:30. Heather said she would be home around five, and Sam got off work around six, she was doing some overtime. It won't kill to go ghost and check this out. For the first time time in years, he had a real reason to go ghost. He always practiced in the basement when he was home alone, but that was only to make sure he didn't go out of practice. This time, the practice would pay off. He couldn't lie, he was excited.

He went right through the ceiling and flew up to the roof. A real ghost was there, laying unconscious. The first one he's seen in about thirteen years, since the final anti-portal facility went up. He could hardly believe it. He smiled, but then shook it off. He shouldn't smile at a clearly injured ghost.

The ghost was not much shorter than him. He had the standard bright green skin and the build of a ghost police grunt. He had a grey outfit on, it had a rubber-like material similar to Danny's own original ghostly outfit. Clearly, it was the makings of a hazmat suit. A node on the back of the suit's neck and on the attached tool belt made it clear: it was an auto-deploy hazmat suit. Clipped to the belt was an outdated but not incapable scanner device. This ghost wasn't here to cause harm. But a scientist ghost showing up in the human world was never a good sign.

He took the ghost to the couch and went back to human form. The ghost was completely limp. Because ghosts don't breathe or have a heartbeat, he put his hand on the direct center of the ghost's chest, directly above the core, to see if he was okay and not overheated. Luckily, it was ice cold. Normal for a ghost. Unless it was a fire core or electric core. But with the obvious chill, it appeared fine. He looked over the ghost. His glow is normal and he doesn't seem to have any external damage. I wonder what caused this, he thought. Ghosts almost never get knocked out. But it's not impossible. Some weaker ghosts can be susceptible to it, usually with a strike to the core, inducing core shock.

Suddenly, Danny had an idea. He stashed ecto-adrenaline inside the wall of the kitchen. Ecto-adrenaline is a form of condensed and purified ectoplasm enhancing the energy content, the perfect thing to give a boost to an unconscious ghost. He ran to the window in the kitchen and stuck his hand in the wall surrounding it until he found a tiny bottle of dark green transparent liquid: the ecto-adrenaline. Just a few drops of the liquid would wake up the ghost. He ran back to the ghost and opened its mouth. Its sharp teeth looked threatening, as if they would close and chop off his fingers any second.

Slowly, Danny unscrewed the bottle and let a little bit of the liquid into the cap. He poured it into the ghost's mouth and screwed the cap back on. I hope this wasn't a waste. This stuff's hard to come by, and I need this ghost awake. He had to wonder, why was this ghost here? And what were the chances of the ghost slamming right onto his roof?

Somewhere in the Ghost Zone...

"Hahahah! Bullseye!"

A shrouded figure stared into the screen with a toothy grin. The scientist ghost on the screen had a conveniently timed bout of curiosity at the portal with the conveniently existing ghost bursting out of it.

"What a convenient coincidence!" The ghost yelled in excitement to absolutely no one. "Take that, Danny Phantom! This is what you get!"

The ghost looked to the second screen, showing two kids in a basement with a book of ghosts. One normal. One ghostly. "I'll get my payback, Phantom. You'll see..."

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