A/N: Hello, and welcome to my newest fic: Heart of a Hero. I'll try and let the work speak for itself, but I'll let you know about the current plans. This should update every other Friday, alternating with my other story: Harry Potter and the Sphinx Club. You'll get chapter 2 next week while I get that schedule going. Currently Chapters 1-3 are finished, and the hope is by the time you see Chapter 2, I'll have 4-5 finished as well. As it stands, on with the fic!
"Now Danny, you're in high school now, so you can help your folks with hunting ghosts! You're ready for the responsibility." Jack Fenton said, clapping his massive gloved hand over his teenage son's back. Danny Fenton, alongside his friends Tucker Foley and Sam Manson, were listening to his father's speech about ghost hunting for what felt like the hundredth time. They might have been able to muster up some fake interest if they hadn't, in fact, already seen several ghosts. More if you included Danny, at least whenever he happened to feel like it. They'd have laughed about having more experience fighting ghosts than Jack and Maddie had if the irony hadn't already lost its appeal.
"Dad, there are no such things as ghosts! You've never found any proof of them!" Danny's older sister Jazz said, walking down the stairs. "Stop trying to corrupt Danny anymore than you already have. He deserves to have a normal high school experience, and doesn't need to be ostracized because you and Mom have this obsession."
Danny nods before taking an obvious look at his watch. "I'd really love to hear more, Dad, but we're gonna be late for school if we don't get a move on." Danny said, grabbing his backpack from the floor next to him.
"Alright. Take this with you just in case. I call it the Fenton Thermos! It should trap ghosts if you see one, just point and shoot, it'll do the rest." Jack said, excited at the new invention. The cylindrical tube he handed Danny did just seem mostly like any other Thermos, barring its high tech look, alongside its silver and green color scheme that every Fenton gadget had.
"Does it work as a normal Thermos? Also, how are you getting around the trademark on the name Thermos?" Danny asked. While he was skeptical about the device's ability to catch ghosts, a regular thermos would be a cakewalk for his supergenius parents.
"Ugh… I don't know… about either of those actually. Don't pour anything into it until I do some tests! Otherwise, since we're not selling them yet, there shouldn't be any trademark issues… I'll need to call your Uncle Richie again, see if he knows if that would be a problem." Jack said, preparing to call his brother. Uncle Richie was a lawyer who specialized in contract law, and was decidedly normal when compared to the other side of the Fenton family. There had been a few times that Danny had wished he had been Richie's child instead, but they had never lasted long. Being the child of ghost hunters Jack and Maddie Fenton was odd and occasionally dangerous, but it was never boring.
Such was the case on the walk to school, as normal kids would talk about the weather, or sports teams they might try out for during their freshman year of High School, Danny, Tucker, and Sam got to talk about how one of them had a horrible lab accident that may or may not have technically killed him.
"I feel like I should probably tell my folks what happened in the lab last month. They were really worried when you guys grabbed them and they saw the burns. They're still not sure what happened. I think Mom's been doting more than usual hoping I'll talk about it." Danny said, rubbing his arms in nervousness. The decision to not tell his parents had initially come about for fear of getting in trouble, since the severity of the accident hadn't set in yet. It wasn't until he had been in the hospital for a day that he realized how close he had been to dying, then it had really hit him. Unfortunately, it had been immediately followed by his arm disappearing, and Danny wanted to make sure he wasn't going to fully die before he told them. A month on, and some understanding that he had ghost powers, and some minor experience using them had alleviated his immediate death concerns.
"Are you sure man? We'll support you with whatever, but let's be real and think about what the consequences of that might be. They'll definitely want to study you, and there's a non-zero chance they might also think you're a ghost who is possessing yourself and try to rip you out." Tucker said, his usual brash tone coming out.
Danny sighed. Tucker wasn't gentle, but he was right. Danny was fairly certain his parents would support him, there was no question that they both loved him and his sister immensely, Ghost Hunting, though, had been their love since before they came into the picture, there was the chance, however small, that it might take priority. Danny wasn't sure if he was willing to roll those dice.
"There's also the worry that the government might find out and experiment on you. Like they supposedly did to those kids from Go City when we were little." Sam said, concern in her voice.
That had been something he hadn't even thought about. There were other people with superpowers in the world, some of whom operated publicly, some of whom had secret identities. Danny would be far from the first of them, but he didn't think any of them shared his circumstances quite as well. Team GO had claimed their powers came from a meteorite from space, and that all of its energy had escaped into their bodies. That incident had been one of the reasons Danny wanted to become an astronaut, to see if maybe he could find another similar meteor and gain powers. That had been his reason as a child, but it had later morphed into a general desire to see the stars and the cosmos. He couldn't do that if he were rotting in a government laboratory somewhere.
"You're right, but how long can I keep this from them? It takes one time that I am half-asleep and phase through the table or something that they notice and rip me apart before I can tell them I'm not possessed. At least if I tell them I have the chance to explain before they start blasting." Danny said. He was about to continue when a chill ran down his spine, and he watched as his breath condensed into a blue mist in front of him. This had happened a few times since his accident, and he had come to recognize the sign. Ghosts.
Two semi-transparent green octopi were flying through the air, likely on their way to cause some kind of mayhem. Danny had encountered a few similar ghosts before, and any attempt to reason with them had been met with violence, so he had stopped trying. Maybe someday a ghost would talk to him, but Danny didn't expect today to be it.
Running into an alleyway, Danny screamed "I'm Going Ghost!" as two bars of light engulfed his form. His jet black hair giving way to platinum white, and his blue eyes turning a bright fluorescent green. His clothes, typical streetwear, became overwritten by a black jumpsuit with white gloves and boots, and thankfully, no symbol of Jack Fenton's face as had been originally present.
Danny flew up and grabbed the two ghost octopi by their tentacles, before quipping "Hey, Calamari! Seafood's not on the menu today!" before flinging them onto a nearby roof. They landed with a satisfying thud, as Danny descended on them. The two ectopusses, as Danny just decided to name them, began to wrap their tentacles around Danny's limbs, trying to constrict him. Had this been pre-accident Danny, they probably would have been strong enough to contain him, but the accident had done more than simply give Danny the ability to fly and turn invisible and intangible. His strength had been drastically increased, even without transforming, and with this newfound strength, Danny slammed the two creatures heads together, using their own limbs as additional leverage. The two ghosts lost consciousness as they laid on the roof, and Danny dropped down to the ground below before transforming back, white hair giving way to black.
"Shouldn't you try and catch them in that Thermos thing your dad gave you? Normally we just shove them back in the portal, but with your dad down there today we can't do that." Tucker said, glancing up at the roof.
"I'm not convinced it'll work, Tuck. Mom and Dad's inventions are pretty hit or miss. I think the Portal might just be a fluke." Danny said. "I'll hope they learned their lesson, if not they're just octopi, they can't do too much damage right?"
"Let's hope." Tucker said, still wary. "To get off of this topic, you guys heard that we got combined with Middleton High right, that school from one suburb over?"
"Yeah, apparently there was some massive explosion in the science wing. The school was wrecked." Sam said. "No injuries, they had evacuated once they realized something was wrong, but the school board is undecided if they'll even attempt to repair the damages."
"Why is this the first time I'm hearing about it?" Danny asked, a little shocked. This seems like something he would have been told about beforehand.
"The day after your accident was the day the explosion happened. You were preoccupied with staying alive at the time. I found out while sitting in your room while you napped. Hospital TV is never any good." Tucker said.
"Well, do we know anything about any of the newcomers?" Danny asked.
"Not really, we've been tainted by that 'loser squad' reputation since elementary school, no one from any school was exactly rushing to be friends with us." Sam said, rolling her eyes a bit. "It'll be the same as it always is, the A-List, the nerds, the preps, the nobodies. Just like every high school, the names are different but the faces are all the same."
"You're just not thinking with the right mindset Sam, there's a whole new class of ladies for the TF to get to know. That's Tucker Foley, TF for Too Fine." Tucker said, shooting finger guns at the imaginary girl he was introducing himself to.
"Tuck, you're my best friend, and I mean this in the nicest way possible. That pick-up line is never going to work." Danny said, putting his hand on his best male friend's shoulder.
"You just don't trust the process. It's a confidence game Danny." Tucker said, changing his walk to exude more "swagger" as he would put it.
"Well, we can't say you lack for that." Danny said, deciding to ignore his friend's bravado. He'll get rejected a few times and then tone it down, at least for a while.
At school, they had been given the first period to get acquainted with the space, as well as find their lockers and home rooms. Danny, Tucker, and Sam were relieved to find that while they weren't exactly locker neighbors, they were within easy eyeshot of the other two, with Danny and Tucker being directly across from each other in the hallway, and Sam being in the next grouping of lockers past the door to the Home Economics room. Tucker mentioned that would frustrate him to no end during this year, being able to smell whatever Home Ec had cooked, but likely not being able to taste any of it.
Danny had put in his locker combination to make sure it worked properly, and it had, when a familiar, though not friendly face showed up.
"Hey their Fenturd. See you got your new locker. Ready to see if you fit in it as well as you did your last one?" Dash Baxter said, his large meaty hand already grabbing Danny by the back of his shirt. Dash was Captain of the Football team, an anomaly given his status as a freshman, but apparently he was proving to be some kind of prodigy. This likely came from the fact that Casper High's prior football team had been so terribly bad, that the new crop of students from the undefeated Casper Middle Jaguars had completely overtaken them. Of the 50 players in this year's team, 35 of them were incoming Freshman, including 3/4s of the starters.
"Dash, this is your chance to turn over a new leaf and leave this stuff in middle school. You aren't going to take that chance?" Danny asked. He knew the answer inherently, Dash had been doing some variation of this since he had hit the initial growth spurt that had allowed him to play Pee-Wee Football in Elementary School. While Dash had matured physically, his bullying habits had not left him.
"Yeah, I thought long and hard about it, and I decided to give you better quality bullying this year! Now let's get cramming." Dash said, getting ready to shove Danny into his locker.
"Leave him alone." A voice came from behind Dash, causing him to turn around. Standing there was a girl with red hair that went down to her mid back, and green eyes that were glaring at Dash with some pretty serious anger.
"What's it to you? He's just a loser." Dash said, still holding Danny by his shirt. Danny considered just phasing himself through Dash's grip, but figured that might be a little obvious, even if Dash and the other girl's attention were away from him at this moment.
"I don't care who he is, that's not acceptable behavior. Now put him down." The girl said, putting her hands on her hips.
"Fine. Fenturd's not worth my time anyway." Dash said, letting go of Danny and walking off.
"You alright?" The girl asked, walking over to Danny, who was readjusting his shirt.
"Yeah, I'm fine. It's far from the first time Dash has tried to shove me in a locker, probably won't be the last either. Thanks for the assist though, I appreciate it." Danny said, before holding out his hand. "Danny Fenton, Dash's favorite punching bag."
"Kim Possible, pleased to meet you." Kim said, shaking Danny's hand, a bit of a smile at his statement.
"Wait, you're the Kim Possible? Like the superhero?" Tucker asked, shocked.
"So not the drama, but yeah, that's me. I just do what I can." Kim said, trying to wave it off.
"I dunno, that's pretty cool. What's that like?" Danny asked, but before she could answer, the bell rang for them to get to class.
"If you want to know more we can talk later, don't want to be late for my first class!" Kim said, as she walked off briskly towards her class.
At lunch, Danny had invited Kim and her friend Ron over to join them for lunch, they had accepted and the group had sat down at the table.
"So… does anyone have any idea what this is?" Danny asked, poking a glob of meat on his tray with a fork. It jiggled in a way he didn't find particularly appetizing.
"The menu said mystery meat, so I guess it's a mystery." Tucker said, digging into the questionable food on his plate. "It's not bad."
"It's horrible is what it is! Not only is it meat, which is murder, it's also completely disgusting beyond regular meat!" Sam said, angrily staring at the meat on her tray.
"So you don't want yours?" Ron asked, happily eating his beside Tucker. Danny rolled his eyes, it looks like Tucker might make a new friend after all.
"Oh God, there's two of them," Sam muttered as she pushed the tray towards him and he happily combined the two masses of 'meat' together.
A few moments later, another girl came over to their table. She was an incredibly beautiful girl, with nearly perfect skin only blemished by a single mole just below her eye, that actually only added to her beauty. Her long black hair was silky and shiny, and contrasted her mocha colored skin nicely. Danny knew this girl well, having had some kind of a crush on her for many years, this was Paulina.
"Hello Kim, I was just letting you know that you don't have to sit with these losers here. You can come join the rest of us at the A-List table. You're a cheerleader like Star, Bonnie, and I after all. You shouldn't be associating with these losers." Paulina said, smug superiority obviously present in her voice.
Sam was outraged and was about to speak up, when Kim beat her to it. "No thanks Paulina. Bonnie and I aren't exactly friends, and I'd like to try and make some new ones. I'll see you and Star at cheer practice anyway."
Danny's eyes widened a bit in surprise at her statement. Turning down the A-List for them wasn't something anyone did. They'd lost a couple friends over the years because of their 'loser' status bestowed on them by the A-List, so having someone stick up for them, and want to be friends even when a better option presented itself was noteworthy.
"Fine, enjoy your losers then." Paulina said, anger creasing her forehead a bit, as she walked back over to the A-List table.
"You sure you want to just turn her down like that? Most people dream about getting to be an A-Lister." Danny said, worried a bit for Kim. Cheerleader or not, hanging out with Danny and company didn't exactly improve your social standing in school.
"Yeah, if she's anything like Bonnie, and she seems exactly the type, then I really don't want anything to do with her. I've dealt with Bonnie for years, I don't need a second. Even beyond that, there's no chance they'd let Ron come with me, and he's my best friend. I wouldn't abandon him to hang out with some snooty rich girl." Kim said, before taking a drink of the water she had.
"Hey, what makes you think I can't be popular?" Ron said, and Kim just gave him a look. "Alright fine, I get it."
"Ron, you're great. You're not the A-List type, and trust me, that's a good thing." Kim said, patting her friend on the back.
"Sure sure. Rufus, you want some of this buddy?" Ron asked, and a small hairless rodent popped out of his pocket, stretching his arms as though he had been taking a nap. Making his way up Ron's sleeves, and onto the table, Rufus used a spoon to section off some of the mystery meat and began eating it.
"First off, it's probably inhumane for you to be feeding your pet food like that. Secondly, why on earth do you have a naked mole rat at school?" Sam said, her gaze focused on the animal.
"Oh cool! No one's ever gotten what Rufus was without me telling them. As for everything else, Rufus is capable of making his own decisions about what he eats, so if he's digging in he's enjoying it. Rufus is also an emotional support animal. Doc said I had extreme anxiety, and recommended I find something to help me cope. He recommended an emotional support animal, but my dad's allergic to pretty much everything. Rufus here is allergen free though, and fits in my pocket easily." Ron said, and Rufus took a bow. The bell rang after that, signaling the end of lunch.
The school day ended, with Danny, Tucker, Sam, Kim, and Ron walking out of Casper High, emotionally exhausted from their first day. Danny stretched, happy to finally no longer be confined to the dreary building that was their high school.
"Well, that's our first day as high schoolers done and dusted. Feel like heading to Nasty Burger to celebrate?" Danny asked. "That includes you and Ron, as well, Kim."
"It can't be Bueno Nacho?" Ron asked, seemingly saddened.
"Bueno Nacho doesn't have any vegan options, and also destroys Tucker's stomach. It's not pretty, so we've avoided it." Sam said, rolling her eyes. The last time they ate there, Tucker had needed to have his stomach pumped.
"Sure, it sounds like fun." Kim said, before a series of beeps interrupted her. "One second. Hey Wade, what's the sitch?"
"Hey Kim, hope your first day wasn't too bad. You've got a job, a tech company operating out of the Amazon. I'll send you the details, but you'll need to head out pretty quick. Already got a ride ready." The boy on the device, apparently named Wade said.
"Alright, Ron and I will be there ASAP." Kim said, before ending the call and turning to the others. "Sorry, duty calls. Rain check?"
"No biggie, go save the world Super Hero." Danny said, laughing a bit.
"So not the drama, probably just some thief looking to make some money. Come on Ron, we're heading to the Amazon." Kim said, before checking her Kimmunicator again and grabbing Ron, having them run towards some location.
"You're not upset that she just blew us off?" Sam asked, seemingly a little annoyed herself.
"It'd be pretty hypocritical of me to be upset for someone running off to try and do some hero work. Honestly, she doesn't even have powers and puts me to shame. I might need to step up my game." Danny said.
"Well, you're pretty much the only person who can handle ghosts, since I'm sure she'd just punch right through them without doing anything. Maybe your focus is where it should be. Besides, isn't it kinda cool she's trying to be friends with us?" Tucker said, excitement pretty evident in his eyes. "I wonder if she can put me in contact with that Wade guy. It'd be sweet to have someone to talk tech with, maybe I can get some tips to be your man in the chair."
"I think she's got some agenda or something. Why would she blow off the A-List to hang out with us? She's a superhero, a cheerleader, and from what I know about her parents pretty well off. She's got every reason to be an A-List, but isn't. There's some angle." Sam said, crossing her arms.
"I say we give her a chance. You saw Ron, he's not exactly 'popular guy' material. Maybe being friends with him for so long made her disinterested in that kind of thing." Danny said, shrugging a bit.
"Then why is she still a cheerleader? That's pretty much reserved just for popular girls." Sam said.
"She likes the sport? Neither Casper High or Middleton Middle have a gymnastics team, so if she wanted some of that kind of thing, she'd effectively be forced into cheerleading." Danny said.
"How do you know that?" Tucker asked, his eyebrow raised.
"Jazz wanted to do gymnastics, so we looked for places that had it. Even though she attended Casper Middle like we did, if Middleton had a gymnastics squad we could probably ask the school board for her to be allowed in it. Didn't happen though, so Jazz just took some lessons at the local center before deciding that it wasn't really what she was into." Danny said. "She and I just ended up doing martial arts with Mom instead."
"Fair enough, Nasty Burger then?" Tucker asked.
"Nasty Burger." The pair replied.
The next day at lunch, the meal was the opposite of yesterday in terms of composition, but roughly equal in how appetizing it looked. Gone was the gelatinous mound of unknown meat substance, and in was what appeared to be a slice of white bread with grass growing on it.
"While I can appreciate some good vegetarian food as much as the next girl… What is this?" Kim asked, eyeing the dish with uncertainty.
"This is the Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian option that I petitioned the School Board to include, since they didn't have any options available for them. No more unethical mystery meat." Sam said smugly, proud of her accomplishment as she took a bite of the open-faced grass sandwich.
"Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian?" Kim asked, her eyebrow raised.
"Sam thinks the word Vegan is too mainstream, so she calls herself that instead. I think it may also mean she allows herself honey since it can be ethically harvested." Danny said.
"Only if it's certified! And it has to be from wildflowers." Sam said.
"Right, and you expect us to eat this? It looks more like it's suitable for cows than humans." Kim asked, somewhat concerned by how… lawn-like her bread looked.
"It's crabgrass on whole wheat bread. Completely consumable and bioavailable for humans, it's even high in many of the daily nutrients you need." Sam said.
"Crabgrass…. Like the thing my dad tries to remove from our lawn?" Kim said, even more concerned.
"Local crabgrass is technically a different species than the traditionally harvested edible variety, but yes." Sam replied, a look of smug satisfaction on her face.
"Sam, I understand what you've done here, and I can say I would support the addition of a vegetarian or vegan, yes I will use the word, don't look at me like that, option to the standard school menu, but… no other option at all? Come on, you can't seriously want to take away everyone's choice?" Danny said, pleading with his friend.
"Yeah, I need meat! I'm a growing boy!" Came from the mouths of both Tucker and Ron simultaneously.
"Jinx, you owe me a soda." Ron said, smirking at Tucker. "And Sam I get your desire for extra menu options, I have to eat Kosher, and it took my family a while to petition the school district to offer Kosher options." Ron said.
"Wait, you're Jewish too?" Sam asked, somewhat shocked. "You said yesterday you love eating at Bueno Nacho, how do you do it?"
"Bueno Nacho certifies that all chicken and beef products served are kosher, as brought on by their founder José Garcia Hernández in 1962, Who went on to later sit on the board of the Organization of Latin American Jews in 1970." Ron said, as though he was stating a fact on a history test.
"He knows all that but can't remember who Christopher Columbus is." Kim said, rolling her eyes.
"Yeah I do! He's the guy who directed the first Harry Potter movie." Ron said, sticking his tongue out. That got a laugh from the table. "Regardless, Rufus, you wanna try this bread thing buddy?"
Rufus popped out of Ron's pocket and nibbled at the bread. When asked how it was, he shrugged and replied "Fine." before continuing to eat.
Dash angrily stomped over a few moments later, grabbing Danny by the shirt collar and lifting him up. "Hey Fenturd. Your girlfriend replaced the lunch menu with this garbage, so I'm going to make you eat all of it." Dash threatened, shoving Danny to the floor and holding a slice of the crabgrass bread in the air.
"He's/She's not my Boy/Girlfriend!" Came the simultaneous reply from Sam and Danny.
"Don't care, the loser's getting fed." Dash said, before being interrupted by a slam coming from the door to the kitchen.
"WHO CHANGED THE MENU?" Came the angry shill voice of an older woman, dressed in a frock and apron, with a hair net on. Danny wouldn't pretend to recognise everyone who worked at Casper High, but he'd never seen her before, and he was pretty sure he'd remember if he had. She had some kind of… presence he couldn't quite figure out. Before he could wonder about that, Dash did the cowardly thing.
"She did!" Dash said, pointing at Sam.
The Lunch Lady screamed, before launching herself at Sam, who thankfully managed to dodge out of the way. This unfortunately meant the large woman slammed bodily into the table they were sitting at, sending it flying.
"Woah Ma'am. Are you crazy?" Kim asked, dropping low as the table flew by.
"I dunno, but I'm not sticking around to find out!" Dash said, as he ran away.
Seeing that she missed her target, the Lunch Lady's eyes began to glow an ominous red, and she began to rise into the air cackling maniacally.
"She's a ghost!" Came from Danny, Sam, and Tucker, who now noticed her skin was significantly green tinted, which they had initially assumed was from the poor lighting of the school.
"There's no such thing as ghosts guys." Kim said, dropping into a battle stance, muscles tight and ready to pounce like a wildcat.
"Do you have another explanation Kim?" Danny asked, managing to get up from his place on the floor.
"I'll let you know when I think of one!" Kim said, before launching herself up off the ground and sending a flying kick to the Lunch Lady. This would have connected, had the Lunch Lady not simply grabbed her ankle, and threw her away.
"Kim!" Danny said, before running, and in quick hops flying towards where she would land, catching her in midair.
"Alright, say I believe she's a ghost. What do we do about it?" Kim asked, watching as the Lunch Lady held her arms out, and began summoning meat from within the kitchen and all throughout the school towards her.
"Honestly, that part I'm not too sure about. I'll go try and call my parents, they're ghost hunters, maybe they'll know what to do." Danny said, trying to give him a cover story to run away and transform.
"Best hope we got! You go do that and I'll see if I can keep her busy." Kim said, patting him on the shoulder as she quickly ran towards the meat monster that the Lunch Lady had become.
Danny ran outside quickly, hiding in a small corner behind a nearby dumpster and transformed, two disks of light appearing and altering his body into his ghostly form. Flying back in, Danny noticed that Kim and the Lunch Lady had moved their fight out the other doors to near where the parking lot was. Kim was attempting to damage the monster, using well executed punches and kicks, but wasn't making any headway due to the less than cohesive form the meat monster had taken. Tucker and Ron had elected to try and help by eating the monster, which while Danny appreciated the help, seemed both gross and unlikely to provide results.
"Hey! Big and Meaty! Don't you know you're not supposed to play with your food?" Danny quipped, before flying as fast as he could into the creature, landing a solid punch to the creature that sent him straight through it. Briefly going intangible to get the small chunks of meat off of him that had stuck to him during his flight, Danny turned to see his handiwork, a gaping hole in the chest of the monster that he felt very proud of making… until it closed up, more meat filling the hole he had made. "Oh come on!"
Danny threw more punches at the creature, knocking off more and more chunks, but it seemed to just be able to pull itself back together no matter how much physical damage he did. "I swear, can't I just put you in a lunch box and forget about you?" Danny quipped in frustration, trying to calm his nerves with humor. This fight wasn't getting anywhere, and she was way stronger than any of the ghosts he had fought so far. That's when it hit him. Lunch box. The Fenton Thermos! He had no idea if it would work, but it was worth a try. Danny flew back into the school and grabbed it from his backpack, no one else thankfully around to see him do so. Emerging back from the cafeteria, he aimed it towards the giant creature. "Go!" Danny commanded, trying to get the Thermos to… do whatever it was supposed to do. Danny shook it for a moment. "Come on! Work!" Danny thought, subconsciously pouring his energy into the device. With a mechanical whine, it powered on, and Danny pointed it towards the towering meat monster, who turned to begin throwing a massive meaty haymaker towards him. From deep within the thermos, a blue light shone, before turning into a massive blue vortex that began to suck up the meat monster. Soon, the spectral form of the Lunch Lady was pulled into the Thermos, which Danny quickly put the cap on. The massive mound of meat, now lacking animation, began to slump into the ground, motionless. Danny landed near the others.
"Everyone okay?" He asked, looking to the four gathered individuals. Ron and Tucker had their hands over their stomachs, obviously overstuffed from attempting to eat the meat monster, and Kim was breathing heavily and sweating, her hands and shoes covered in meat.
"Beyond the fact that I smell like the bathroom at a Bueno Nacho? I'm good." Kim said, as Danny reached out and briefly turned her intangible, letting the meat slide off of her body. "Thanks. Who are you?"
"Oh, ugh, I'm…" Danny started to say, but was quickly interrupted.
"Kim Possible! Give me back my tick micro drone!" Came a voice from atop a floating platform. Riding atop it was a man with blue skin, black hair, a scar underneath one of his eyes, and a blue lab coat. Next to him was an admittedly rather fetching woman with Black hair, green tinted skin, and a black and green two-toned jumpsuit, Danny recognized her immediately. She had been one of his heroes growing up.
"Friends of yours?" Danny asked, eyeing Kim.
"Mad scientist named Dr. Drakken. Trying to take over the world. His assistant is Shego. Super-powered martial artist." Kim said, dropping back down into a battle stance.
"Alright, Let's get up there and mess with them. Hang on!" Danny said, grabbing Kim's arm and flying her up to the platform. Danny quickly began trying to knock Drakken out, but he was surprisingly agile, and able to dodge his attacks pretty well.
"Oh no you don't fly boy!" Came the voice of Shego, who had lunged at his head with her hand covered in some kind of green energy. Danny didn't need to be told that it was probably a bad idea to let her touch him with it. Kim however, had his back, and tripped Shego with a low leg sweep, forcing her to reposition lest she fall off the platform.
The two continue swatting at their respective enemies, as Kim's superior martial arts manages to keep Shego from making any real connecting blows with her enhanced fists. Danny had managed to land a few hits on Drakken, but he was forced to hold back more than he was used to to make sure he didn't kill the man. Ghosts he fought were pretty durable, regular flesh people not so much. The few hits he had managed to connect on Drakken, were glancing blows that largely bounced off of the reinforced lab coat he realized Drakken was wearing. Danny turned, looking to Kim. "Switch Dance partners? I can probably take a hit from her better than you can, and you can probably hit this guy without breaking his jaw."
"Alright! Switch!" Kim said, running and landing a jump kick on Drakken while Danny flew over and landed a solid blow to Shego's stomach.
"Ugh! You're making me mad, Flyboy!" Shego said, starting to throw a barrage of punches his way, that Danny thankfully was able to use his less than solid physiology to dodge.
"You're one to talk! I used to look up to you! You were Shego of Team GO weren't you?" Danny said, "You were the first girl I ever had a crush on! I wanted to fight bad guys like you and your brothers."
"Ugh! Don't talk to me about those idiots!" Shego said, her attacks starting to come faster and harder. She was MAD.
"Fine, maybe they'll be nice and visit you when we lock you up in jail then." Danny said, sending another punch to her stomach. Shego was a metahuman, she should be able to take these hits better than a normal person, but Danny was still holding back. He really didn't want to see what a full power attack of his would do to a human.
Drakken's eyes widened as he noticed something crawl along Kim Possible's face. "Shego! Leave the boy alone and throw Kim Possible off the edge!"
"On it Dr. D!" Shego said, landing a solid punch to Danny's stomach while he was distracted by the call out. Shego then ran behind Kim and launched her off the edge of the platform with a solid kick.
"Kim!" Danny said, as he took off of the platform and flew to catch her, thankfully doing so before she hit the ground. "Ugh, what's that on your nose?"
Kim pulled out her compact and took a look. "It's the tick they're after! He's rigged them to explode!"
"That's right Kim Possible, and in 30 seconds the one on your face will turn you into a bloody mess on the ground! Boo hoo for little miss wonder teen." Dr. Drakken said, gloating in his victory. "There's no way for you to detach it either! It's covered in a slick coating that prevents anything short of a laser from removing them!"
Danny thought for a second, before turning Kim intangible, and sure enough, the tick fell straight through her body and into his awaiting hand. "Well, you did say you wanted this back, Drakken. Here you go!" Danny said, as he flew up and phased the tick into the bottom of the floating platform. With speed, Danny flew himself and Kim away from the oncoming explosion, and had been looking away when a loud BOOM was heard behind him.
The platform, badly damaged, began to slowly fly away, with Drakken and Shego holding on to the railings, having barely caught themselves from falling off. "You might think you are all that Kim Possible and weird Super Powered Flying Boy, but you're not! You're not!"
Danny set Kim down on the ground, flushing a bit at how long he had held her. "So, should I go catch them?" He asked.
"No, they'll get their comeuppance. Now, you were saying earlier, but I'll ask again. Who are you?" Kim asked, looking at her savior.
"I'm… huh… guess I hadn't thought of a name yet…. Phantom. You can call me Phantom." Danny said. "I'll be around if something like this happens again. I believe your tagline is 'call me, beep me, if you want to reach me?' I don't exactly have a phone line, ghost and all, but I'll be here, to deal with whatever ghost problems are necessary." Danny gave a small salute before flying off down the street. Invisibly, he circled back around, phasing into the building and coming out of the cafeteria doors.
"I saw that weird guy come and trap that Lunch Lady, is everyone okay?" Danny said, trying to play dumb.
"Yeah, we're fine. I guess Phantom saved us." Kim said, looking off in the direction he had flown. "Guess I'm not the only superhero in town."
"You never were Kim! The Ron was here too!" Ron said, pointing back at himself with his thumbs.
"You're right Ron. Sorry." Kim apologized.
"No biggie, I know I'm the sidekick. It's a good role." Ron said, ever proud of his status as sidekick. "Think he'd want to join the team? It'd be cool having someone with superpowers around. No offense Kim."
"None taken, it would be handy. We'll have to ask him next time we see him, assuming he's even able to." Kim said.
Danny would have to think of a reason why he couldn't join regularly. Kim was able to Hero publicly, even if that was by accident. Danny didn't have that luxury at this moment, so wouldn't be able to get off school or talk to his parents about going on missions like she did. Honestly, she wondered how her parents let her get away with it.
Later, at Fenton Works, Danny was recounting the incident today to his parents. "Ha! I knew ghosts would show up sooner or later. Although I wonder why that Phantom ghost was fighting the other one." Jack said excitedly, before thinking a moment on the second part.
"Maybe he just wants to stop other ghosts from hurting people? Surely if there are good and bad people, there are good and bad ghosts?" Danny said, trying to steer them away from thinking that Phantom, and unknowingly by extension Danny, were bad guys.
"I suppose it's possible. If our obsession theory is true, then maybe whoever this Phantom was when he was alive was obsessed with being a hero? We'd need to review some of our theories." Maddie said, idly picking at her salad. "Why didn't you call us though Danny?"
"By the time I found a phone I could use, that Phantom guy had shown up and seemed to be handling it. I know you would have appreciated the chance to catch them both, but since Phantom was helping us I hadn't really wanted you guys to trap him for doing a good deed." Danny said.
"I suppose that's fair, although he did steal one of our Thermoses." Jack pointed out.
"I probably dropped mine in the panic after the Lunch Lady attacked, so he probably just grabbed it thinking it would help. I'm certainly not going to be mad at him for saving my life." Danny said, trying to lead his parents down a path of thinking. He wanted to tell them, he really did, but he needed to reinforce the idea that there could be good ghosts first. Just so that way they would give him a chance before just assuming he was being possessed or something.
That did separately make Danny think, was that a power he had? Ghosts in movies and stuff were able to do that.