#danny is the one true halfa theory

[phantoms-world-and-more]

Vlad is Ra al ghul

After jack and maddies death danny and vlad had one final brawl which resulted in the both of them having breakdowns and eventually having a heart to heart so their on better terms now

By the time danny ghost king coronation was coming up vlad was conflicted a part of him wanted to follow in dani's footsteps, leave to explore and no longer live for someone else

But another part of him didnt want to leave his obssession(danny) alone and just cut contact

In the end danny gave vlad a fenton-phone with the ability to teleport vlad to danny and danny to vlad, danny also had one so he could do the same to vlad

So vlad traveled between the infinite realms and eventually setteled in a little universe where he relaxed for a while

Until he started aging again, danny, vlad and frost bite did some experimenting and discovered that because vlad wasent a true halfa if he was removed from ectoplasm for certain amounts of time he'd age again and eventually die

So vlad asked danny to create a pool of ectoplasm in the mountains.

More years passed and eventually vlad created the LOA, danny knowes about it but dosent aprove, vlad never stopped contact with danny he just stopped teleporting him there every month

He had a daughter and a grandson, created a fake name so only a few people knew him real name and was currently being harassed by a group of furries

Yes, danny dose repeatedly, make fun of vlads life

Now where this takes a turn is when during a fight with batman at the LoA

The batfam were all there and watching as Ra al ghul fight bruce to see the fate of their lives

However during the fight Ra dropped something that looked like a phone which bruce picked up

The way Ra reacted to bruce having it told everyone it was important, so bruce was planning to trade it for the batfams lives when he pushed a button on the thing

A *beep* and a flash of light was all the warning anyone got before a white teenager in regal attire was floating there holding the devise

The being looked breefly suprised before turning to Ra

:really fruitloop, you teleport me now

: apologies little badger, but it was the bat that teleport led you

[starwrighter]

surprise! I'm alive :D

Chucking out one of my prompts anyone can take this.

Prompt starts with the whole idea that everyone believes that ghost are malevolent, non sentient beings that aren't capable of feeling pain. Amity parkers believe that, the Fenton's and the GIW "proved" that and the ghosts that escape the portal have caused so much mindless damage that it just further cements the idea that ghosts aren't sentient.

But during one of Phantom's ghost fights The Fenton parents realize Phantom is a bit different than the ghosts he fights. They finally decide to observe Phantom more carefully after this (they're still shooting at him just watching him a bit first)

During this observation period they notice it's not just phantom's rapid power growth that's different about him. It's everything he does! He's proven to be more intelligent than the other ghosts, having managed to steal and operate Fenton tech despite the fact he doesn't appear to have powers like technus.

He has body language?! Subtle body language that isn't destructive or angry! He fidgets when he's nervous, smiles and is more talkative and expressive when he's excited or happy. He shows emotion more humanly than any of the other ghosts showing emotion that wouldn't benefit him in the moment. Now the Fenton's wanted to brush this off as clear ghost manipulation at it's finest but in the most recent ghost attack gave a preposterous theory a leg to stand on.

They had been shouting their usual threat's of tearing the ecto scum apart molocule by molecule. Most of the ghost ignored them, fixated on the destruction they were causing but Phantom hesitated, the GAV cameras catching a look on Phantom's face that would be game changing.

Fear.

Genuine fear. It was not the robotic mimicry of human emotion they were used to. The emotion they got was that of a being that fully understood what was going to happen to it and had the capability to be afraid.

They compile all the footage of past ghost fights and ghost sightings and come to the horrifying conclusion that phantom is a sentient ghost who could feel pain.

They're horrified that they've been hurting this little boy (because that's what phantom is) who's just trying to help and didn't understand why the other ghosts lacked the empathy he had. As for Phantom's crimes they finally had a reason for them. He's a scared child , loney and confused with everyone around him trying to hurt him even though he was trying to protect people; of course he would act out!

The Fenton's show their undeniable proof to the GIW and within a week a law is passed stating that phantom is the only sentient ghost and it's illegal to harm him.

Danny is very confused to say the least, especially when everyone starts treating him like a little kid (Danny either looks young for his age or the accident happened earlier whatever causes more angst) The worst part is they don't believe him when he tells them some other ghosts are sentient no matter what he says! They just give him this sad look and nod or try to comfort him by telling him he wasn't evil like the other ghosts. The other ghosts like the thought of being able to get away with crimes without being charged so they don't even try to prove their sentience if anything they try to disprove theirs and prove Danny's.

Bonus Dp x Dc crossover:

The justice league is called about Phantom's situation Amity Parker's demanding that phantom be taken somewhere safe where he can be a regular (but spooky) child. Double points if the heroes don't believe any ghost but Phantom are sentient.

Tldr

Regular ghosts are too spooky for humans to believe they're sentient but Danny's halfa status makes him look more human and genuine (Vlad is not a true halfa you can fight me on that >:c) the other ghosts ramp up their acting skills so they can crime without consequence as "non sentient beings"

[little-pondhead]

“Hey, Danny.” Sam twisted her upper body as much as she could from the trio’s puppy pile on the floor. It was mid-afternoon on a Saturday, and the trio had nothing to do except comb through old occult books and internet records for more information on the supernatural. Danny was on the bottom of the pile, laying on his stomach with both a laptop and a old red journal splayed out in front of him. Sam and Tucker were piled on top of him with their own reading materials.

Sam couldn’t see his face, but she wasn’t all surprised when Danny solved this issue by simply turning his head around all the way like an owl to look back at her. Perks of being dead. He blinked. “Yeah?”

“You know how your parents have that working theory on ghosts and obsessions?” Sam asked. Tucker peeked over the edge of the laptop, interested.

Danny nodded slowly, which was odd to see when his head was backwards.

She continued, “Well we already know that some of that is true-ghosts do have obsessions but it’s not the sole reason of their existence. Right?”

“Right.”

“So would it make sense for halfas to have an obsession?”

Danny opened his mouth, then closed it as a thought occurred to him. They all thought on it for a moment.

Tucker clicked his laptop a few times. Probably pulling up their old ‘case’ files and notes for reference. “I don’t see why they wouldn’t, but maybe it’s more subdued than a full ghost’s due to their half human nature?”

“That’s a good theory.” Sam agreed. “But what if halfas are the only one with a true obsession-something that would cause them to come back to life because of it?”

“But that defeats the purpose of the ectoplasm research.” Tucker argued. “Danny was exposed to two different elements during the accident. The thing that killed him and the thing that brought him back to life. That’s what caused the halfa evolution. Besides, if a true obsession alone managed to bring someone back to life, there’s be a lot more halfas in the world.”

Sam set down her heavy occult book, dog-earring the page. (Ghost Writer won’t like that.) “Well what about Vlad?” She countered. “That fruit loop obviously has some sort of obsession going on-maybe even more that one!”

“Guys.” Danny interrupted. “I think you’re both right and wrong.” His face was still thoughtful, staring up at the ceiling that held little paper bats on string. Which, again, was a bit unsettling since his head was still turned around. “I think I do have an obsession, maybe even more than one. But it’s not because I’m part ghost.”

“Then what’s if from?” Tucker exclaimed. “What did we miss??”

Danny gave them a tiny, fanged smirk. “You forget, I have ADHD.”

[ghostiiiee]

Lately I've been thinking about a dc x dp au

Which I know those are popular lately but I haven't seen any like what I have ideas for

Mainly the plot bunnies follow an old post theory of mine, the Steven universe inspired split.

I really like the idea of a 'true' halfa danny escaping to Gotham with jazz under the names Nightingale and danny being legally dead due to his parents.

But it doesn't even start rhere

I adore the idea of Jason and danny being friends from before everything.

The idea that Jason met danny at a gala when they were both 12 or 13 and hitting it off extremely well and staying in touch. Danny could have gone with Sam bc she compromised with her parents. Wear a certain dress in neutral colors and bring a friend or she would make a scene ya know

Either way things go on and one of the key points I have written is Danny and Jason either died on the same day at the same time. Or Jason was revived at the same time Danny was in the portal. Something that would make them a GZ equivalent of twins. Kinda like that tinker bell movie with the wings.

Another idea I had was danny stops going by phantom in Gotham and goes by Crow and has a whole new outfit which I'm trying to sketch up.

And like yeah there's a no metas in Gotham rule. But Bruce has no idea there's a new hero for months until some bs happens and danny has to haul Jason to the cave for something

I could see Tim and Barbs knowing but never mentioning it bc "no one asked."

I just want to half dead idiots who are the same age and bust into raids with music blasting.

(I'm also partial to the hc that Jason's malnutrition didn't get magically fixed by the Lazarus pit. So two similar looking gangly limbed 17 year Olds with more strength than it looks like seems fucking hysterical.)

[aikoiya]

DP - Valerie's Powers

I think that slowly over time, she’d become something along the lines of an ecto-liminal or even a pseudo-halfa, but a unique one. She might be able to gain a pseudo-core & ecto-signature, but instead of an Obsession, she'd have a Fixation due to not being a true Halfa. Also, I feel like most of her powers would be bound to her armor. (There’s this ‘race’ in DnD 5e called Animated Armor which is a soul bound to a set of armor. There’s also this homebrew somewhere that allows a character to wear said armor. So, I think of it like Valerie’s wearing one of these armors. The only difference here is that the soul possessing the armor is her own living one.)

Like, when not wearing her armor, she'd just have the typical ecto-liminal powers. Things like enhanced physicality, better senses, ability to see in the dark, able to see & touch non-ectoplasmic spiritual entities, a sort of feather fall ability, & the ability to affect people's sense of object permanence in regards to herself.

Just small, easy to dismiss things.

However, due to not being a true Halfa, she wouldn't become more powerful naturally. Instead, that'd require actually upgrading her suit as it has a sort of osmosis function that allows it to integrate technology into itself.

Taking advantage of this function, she can eventually obtain full ghost powers, but it's done by proxy of working technology enhanced with ecto-energy. So, invisibility would work using a camouflage function, intangibility would work based on molecular phasing via high-speed vibration (think the Flash), ghost rays would work by just using guns that are built into the suit, & flight is obtained via her hoverboard which would move based on the theory of acoustic levitation.

Now, normally, this sort of technology works very differently to ghost powers. Such as camouflage being when you bend the light around you to reflect away from you & molecular phasing via vibration being when molecules vibrate at such a high speed that you can pass through matter, not to mention that acoustic levitation is the use of soundwaves to keep objects suspended in the air. Whereas ghostly invisibility & intangibility are actually the ghost literally leaving the physical plain & entering the spiritual plain & flight is, again, full control of one's gravity. Or at least, that's how Halfa flight works.

However, due to Valerie's suit being powered by ectoplasm, it sort of bridges the gap between the 2. However, it would still require the technology to be sound. Like, invisibility would actually require the tech to actually successfully camouflage even without ectoplasm in order for full ghostly invisibility to work with ectoplasm. The ectoplasm just sort of… increases the tech's effectiveness, I suppose?

It would also allow her to have a unique way of becoming a better hunter that is separate from how Danny does.

It could also create interesting irony & internal conflict for her character if she were to begin to exhibit more & more ghostly features.

Though, she wouldn't ever have the same potential for raw power that Danny does.

DP Character Masterlist

[fullofpossibilities]

NEW IDEA

OK SO I have a theory on why Pariah Dark was only sealed away instead of killed, and no it’s not because he was too powerful too kill, and no it wasn’t because Danny is too merciful (although that last part be true). 

It’s the same reason other ghosts are never said to die in their ghost form, they can’t.

Ghosts literally are the dead, there is nothing after this, they are already in their afterlives. Get a life-threatening wound? They’ve got no life to threaten. Chop their head off? It might take a while, but it’ll grow back onto their neck so long as the stitches don’t tear. 

Tear them apart molecule by molecule? That might take longer to heal, but they’ll have to make do with floating around in pieces until it does. 

Reinforcing this idea is the fact that Danny has canonically punched through an ectopus before (the specific episode escapes me). Why would he do such a thing unless he knew they would heal? He doesn’t strike me as the kind of person that would kill, not even his worst enemy. 

Ghosts cannot die, but that doesn’t mean they cannot suffer. Every second they spend healing these terrible wounds they are in terrible agony, as they can feel the pain of a dying wound without the release of death to free them. This is why, despite their inability to die, ghosts still don’t want to be injured. 

So get this then....what about halfas? 

The show has canonically mentioned multiple times threats to end Danny’s life, by both ghosts and humans. Never has it mentioned that he will come back. I’ve heard a lot of people theorizing that when Danny dies again, he will simply turn into a full ghost. 

But what if that’s not how it works? 

Danny stands in the balance between life and death, a connection that has grown so strong that to separate one side of himself would kill the other. Separating the ghost will kill the human, but the REVERSE is also true. When the human dies...the spirit fades along with it. Since both of his forms are so connected, they cannot survive without the other. 

Ever wonder why there are no other halfas? Because the very few times they happened in history besides the three in the show is because they died in both forms at the end of their human lifespans. 

Halfas are proven to be much stronger than ghosts, demonstrated when Danny improves so quickly and beats ghosts HUNDREDS of years older than him. The price given for this power is a shortened lifespan, in both forms. 

They will have it all in life, but lost it all in the end. 

I’M SORRY BTW I JUST HAD TO GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD PLEASE DON’T KILL ME I LOVE ANGST IT’S ALL MY BRAIN GIVES ME.

Credit to @tathartiel for helping me think of this :)

[benvoliotheorphan]

Thinking about The Ultimate Enemy again, gonna ramble some under the cut.

So like I know the show states that Dan is a fusion of Danny’s and Vlad’s ghost halves and it was “Vlad’s evil side” that turned Dan all murderous but like… if he’s a fusion between Danny and Vlad, why does the narrative not put more focus on the Vlad half? Up until the scene with Vlad, the narrative makes it clear that he is Danny but evil, and even after the revelation it is still primarily focused on him being a future Danny with little mention of Vlad’s influence.

Well I’m thinking (and feel free to disagree, this is just my rambling headcanon lol) that maybe that’s because he… essentially is just Danny. Like Phantom didn’t actually fuse with Plasmius, but rather… consumed him? Because okay, it’s a fairly popular headcanon that Vlad isn’t a true halfa like Danny, that he didn’t die to get his ghost powers so he’s more akin to a human with ghost-like abilities rather than actually half dead like Danny. Like the only reason he has power over Danny is because he’s been at it longer, but give Danny enough time and he’ll eventually outclass Vlad.

So maybe, when Phantom separated Vlad’s ghost form from his human form, it severely weakened Plasmius because Plasmius isn’t a fully form ghost. And since Phantom is essentially a fully formed ghost, he was able to overpower Plasmius and absorb him.

But… why? What did Phantom have to gain from that? Even if you disregard all of my headcanon talk, I was always confused by why Phantom would fuse with Plasmius, why he would separate Vlad’s human and ghost forms and do all that. Clearly there is something missing here, like it feels like Vlad was leaving out key elements of the story when he was explaining it to Danny.

My explanation/headcanon is that Phantom/Dan/Dark Danny did it for power. He wanted to become stronger and the best way to do that would be to consume the power of another ghost. And who better than one of his most bitter rivals? And that’s also why he ended up killing his human half, because what is a ghost but a soul wrapped up in an ectoplasm body? If his human half lives then he would always be missing half of his soul, so the human half had to go.

(This also ties into why Plasmius was so easy to overcome: Plasmius didn’t have half of Vlad’s soul, more like a quarter.)

The process of tricking Vlad into splitting his ghost half from his human half, turning around and doing the same to Vlad, absorbing Plasmius, and killing his human half, that all corrupted Dan and made his appearance change. Vlad’s evil half didn’t overwhelm Danny (either Vlad didn’t understand what was happening or in the decade after the incident his guilt and affection for Danny twisted his view on things), Danny very willing walked down that path himself. He planned it all out, because the world tore his family and friends away from him. They were gone, and he was going to make sure everyone suffered for it.

(And if you subscribe to the headcanon/theory that Clockwork purposefully made the TUE timeline as a way to scare Danny straight, then perhaps Dan’s ultimate goal was to become powerful enough to take Clockwork down.)

So, essentially, my headcanon on the TUE timeline is this: Vlad’s story was not the truth at all, and he was acting as a very unreliable narrator. The truth of it was that Danny, drowning in grief and rage at what had happened, planned it all out so he could become a full ghost powerful enough to make the world burn and feel his pain. He gave Vlad the sob story of wanting to make the pain go away, and the instant his ghost half was free he ripped Plasmius from Vlad and absorbed him. And instead of human Danny cowering in the corner, he either was still asleep or calmly accepted his fate as Dan killed him to ensure he was full ghost. And then, well, he destroys the world.

[dp-marvel94]

Hi Marvel! :3

I was wondering if you had any headcanons about ghost or halfa genetics? (Like about how Vlad was able to clone Danny) or any misc headcanons or theories about cryptid/ghost/werewolf evolution and genetics?

I asked Floral the same/a similar question because I wanna know both your headcanons on the idea if you're up for it! 🤗

Time to put my biologist hate on!😎

So first, I headcanon that ghosts are made of matter that's completely foreign to this universe and aren't related to any living things on Earth. As in, they didn't evolve from the common ancestor of all living things on this planet. They evolved completely separately from material plane life and don't even have DNA. I mainly say this because fics talking about Danny's "ghost DNA" drive me up that wall. It's up there with Dani being a "clone" of both Danny and Vlad. Because that's not how cloning works at all and if you actually think about it, the implications of that are kinda icky. Neither of those make any sense from a biology stand point. (And I say this as someone with a literal Masters Degree in Biology).

Anyway, that's not to say ghosts don't have some type of genetic material. If they're able to have offspring, there has to be something to determine different traits and pass those on. As for what that actually is... 🤷‍♀️ I don't have a specific headcanon, only a vague idea that is has something to do with different energy wavelengths and electrical patterns.

And halfas... I have not idea how that works. They basically break reality. Or, if we're going with the "ghosts aren't actually the souls of the dead but copies" idea, then halfas are both the original and the copy. The human form's biology isn't significantly different from a normal human and the same's true for the ghost. And the two could be separated permanently with little physical consequence.

I don't normally use the idea for stories though. I like both of Danny's halves being more intertwined and maybe there's some metaphysical element here that cant' be measured.

Plus the above theory throws a wrench in figuring out how Vlad was able to clone Danny. If the two halves aren't that connected, then Vlad would have at functionally clone both the ghost and the human side and then combine them. (Or stage another accident like Danny's). That doesn't explain why all the clones melted. Plus, there's the problem of, how do you clone a fourteen year old in a matter of months. If the clone was a literal baby, that's one thing but a teen? For that, Vlad would have to bio-print them, a la The Fifth Element or Blade Runner. Unlike the actual cloning and using a surrogate to carry the baby to term, bio printing a person isn't something that could theoretically be done now. I'm not sure it's even possible at all, considering things like brain development, not to mention the ethical problems.

So making a functional human body would be a big problem, unless he's using some ghostly technology or knowledge to either bio-print or majorly speed up the development in the artificial womb (Oh, and that's another wrench, though more realistic than bio-printing). A work around for all this would be, if the full blueprint for Danny's human body is in his core/ectosignature. As in, if his human body was destroyed, he could actually make a new one, because his core has the full instructions. If Vlad could replicate Danny's core, then that cloned core would also have the instructions for a human body. And bam! He doesn't have to figure out bio-printing

[redrobin-detective]

📂

I have been waiting weeks to talk about this and I'm finally taking the chance. There's lots of debates on Danny and Vlad's conflicting abilities and status as hybrids so here I am throwing my two cents into the ring: Danny is a human inhuman being whilst Vlad is a inhuman human being. I will thus elaborate.

Let's start with Vlad. I see people claim that he didn't 'die' as Danny did and thus isn't a true hybrid which is valid but I think he had to have had some form of death for a core to form. I like to think near the end of his stay in the hospital, the contamination finally killed him but also brought him back to life as a hybrid. That said, his exposure was weaker and it took him decades to access then control his powers. He had to really work at improving them so he IS a halfa just a weak one on an imaginary spectrum. As a flipside of this, he is a lot more stable than Danny and at decreased risk of destabilization.

So physically, he's not as powerful as Danny but let's talk about his nature. We can't say how Vlad was in his earlier years but by the time we meet him, Vlad is more ghost than human in his demeaner. He is not alive in anyway that matters. It's my theory on why ghosts leave Plasmius alone compared to Phantom, to them, Plasmius is one of them, nothing special. We see other ghosts who impersonate humans (Spectra, Johnny 13, Ember). He lives for his obsession for control, has little meaningful interactions in the living world, spends most of his time doing ghostly things. Whether they know about his human half or not is irrelevant, to them, Vlad is a ghost.

Now onto Danny, kid has an accident and gets massively shocked with ecto energy becoming another hybrid. Only he unlocks his powers super fast compared to Vlad. While more inexperienced at first, at his baseline, Danny is a much stronger hybrid on the scale. His rate of power growth is frigging terrifying to normal ghosts bc its completely out of line for what is normal to them. But that's not what stands out to them. Phantom in absolutely, undeniably alive. He has these incredible ghostly abilities but he acts like a human, does human things, has human connections. He is someone who crossed over the other side of the veil and returned, not unchanged, but with his humanity intact. And that is why he is so fascinating/scary/infuriating to most of his enemies. He was able to escape death in a way no one, not even Vlad, could.

TLDR: Danny and Vlad are both hybrids, both experienced a death of sorts but what really separates them (aside from baseline power levels from their respective accidents) is their retention of their humanity. Vlad's is all but gone acting like a ghost in human skin while Danny is undeniably human while also being a ghost.

[lucifer-is-a-bag-of-dicks]

You complaining about Memory Blank’s continuity made me remember Sam’s wish at the end & hope w she specified to keep the costume the same ‘cause she liked it. I checked the transcript and lo & behold: “I wish-- [Zoom out to show Desiree with her sledgehammer arm floating over Danny.] --Danny and I never had that fight! [Cut to Sam, adding in a l quick addition.] And I wish Danny, Tucker and I remembered everything and his costume stays the way it is because I really, really like it!”

oh shit I forgot about that

you know what that means tho, fuckin' YEET the alternate reality bubble theory out the window because that's just straight up genuine reality warping

which just... makes this whole continuity issue so much worse, fix one problem create another hnnnnnngggg, this makes Desiree SO fucking op like jesus christ, she can permanently warp reality, but I don't get why this isn't the case every time? because in a previous episode when she grants a wish she often does it by leaving an ectoplasmic entity behind to keep the wish powered

eg; Tucker Phantom, he and Paulina were both like infected with ectoplasmic entities to give them powers that make their wishes come true, (almost a little bit like what Spectra did in Doctor's Disorders) if Desiree can change time and reality then why does she need to leave pieces of mildly sentient ectoplasm behind in people? her powers didn't work like that with Danny, she straight up just changed his entire timeline

also Sam wishing they remembered everything definitely implies that nobody else would remember the reality weirdness that just happened so that's a thing, also wishing they never had that fight would just immediately negate everything that happened afterwards, hence once again changing the timeline, but changing the timeline without wiping their memories of what happened... but if the fight didn't happen then what reality filled the space?

if they didn't fight then Danny never lost his powers which meant the last few days where Sam was trying to convince him of what's going on just didn't happen, making it a big old hole in reality

what SHOULD have happened was after making that wish, they were transported back in time to before any of this happened, to the moment that they had that fight, it would have undone everything without making the continuity so confusing

anyway, we've got the answer for the logo sticking around, but now we are left with Desiree having super op and inconsistent reality warping powers and a hole in the timeline

if I could rewrite this episode I wouldn't JUST have made time shoot back to that fight when Sam wished it hadn't happened, I would also take full advantage of the fact that we'd have an entire episode that would be retconned by the end, which means you could do some super fun stuff

I'll expand on that under the cut

instead of Sam being just... The Worst and intentionally pushing Danny back into being a halfa without ever even acknowledging how kinda fucked up that is, we could have had Sam step into the portal herself

Desiree needs to be stopped, Sam is the only one who knows what needs to be done, Sam would feel guilty for being responsible for putting Danny into this stressful life in the first place, we could have had a very moving moment where Sam talks to Danny (who doesn't even know her) and asks him if he could be a ghost fighting superhero, would he?

and he says no, he has goals, he has dreams, he wouldn't throw them away to fight ghosts, that's his parents' dream, not his

and then Sam would have to make the decision to put that burden on herself, because she couldn't bear to force this life on her friend who finally has a chance to be normal again, and he just seems so happy

she would do this not knowing whether or not she would have a chance to go back to how it was, not for sure at least, she knows she could be sacrificing her ordinary life forever, she loves to be different and unique, but this isn't like being goth or going vegan, this is her whole life, literally half of it even

she would have to pull Danny and Tuck into the story in order to get to the portal, and she'd have to explain what's going on when she's the one who comes out as a half ghost

and could you imagine the scene where she has to unwish the wish? looking back at Danny like 'I could undo everything but it'll go back to how it was, and that's not fair to you, you never chose this'

and Danny would be like, he would feel responsible because he's seeing Sam get her ass kicked by monsters and he knows that this wasn't supposed to have happened to her, it was supposed to be him

so he's the one who makes the final wish to undo everything

becoming Phantom again, in the end, is his choice, and he chooses it because he doesn't want this girl to get hurt, a girl he doesn't know who apparently cared about him enough to sacrifice her normal ordinary life so that he could have one, and he makes this decision for himself because at his core he is a god damn hero and he cares

and he wouldn't forgive himself if he just let this girl take that responsibility for him, he wants to be the Danny that she knows, the Danny she cares about so much that she would make this sacrifice for him

it just HUUUGGHHHH it could have been so beautiful but instead we got Sam shoving her friend into a portal that she knew was going to kill him, and forcing him back into a half-life of stress and responsibility that he never wanted, but hey he has a cool new logo now! isn't that just neato!

[grimgrinningghoul]

Been a bit, gonna put some random Underdog AU headcanons under the cut

Ghost sense is not a halfa ability, but an ability that comes with the territory of extended exposure to liminality. Ergo, anyone who’s born in or spends a significant amount of time (several years, potentially decades) in a liminal space will be more in tune with the paranormal. Amity Park is a prime example of this.

People often clear out preemptively as a result, giving Danny better opportunities to transform before and during ghost attacks.

Sam’s family moved to Amity Park roughly 2 years before the Accident took place, so she doesn’t have a ghost sense.

Natural portals are constantly forming in and around Amity Park, most of which are small and temporary. Rumor has it that there’s a large one that never closes somewhere in the trees, near the cemetery.

If you go into the woods, stick to the paths, and watch your step.

Ghosts are imperceptible by default in the human world, and have to choose to be perceived otherwise. For an average ghost, it takes about as much effort as holding your hand in a fist.

Due to the in-between state of halfas, their default fluctuates, resulting in Danny’s random power malfunctions. It can be honed over time, but takes more effort than a full ghost.

Alongside intangibility and invisibility, this also includes inaudibility. Both Danny and Vlad have gone seemingly mute in the past as a result.

Some classic ghost “hunting” methods can be used to detect the imperceptible, such as night vision cameras and spirit boxes.

Tucker coined the name “Ghost Zone” when the Fentons were explaining their theory and goals prior to building the portal. They liked how straight forward it was and ran with it.

The Ghost Zone doesn’t have a true name.

Lots of ghosts have their own personal name for it, but the general consensus is to refer to it as The Realms.

There are two general entity types: Ghosts and Specters.

Ghosts are the standard postmortem soul, fueled by Passion. Often very similar, if not identical to their previous lives in terms of identity. The term “afterlife” can be pretty literally applied to ghosts, as it’s simply life after death for many.

Specters are Something Else.

[geekgirles]

Your Heart

Chapter 5 -- Research

Word Count: 12429

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“Remind me again why we’re doing this?” Tucker complained for the umpteenth time. 

After realising the only way to end his regular meetings with Lady Arcana once and for all would be finding information on the portals she could use to help him close them, Danny took a very-Jazz-like decision; to immerse himself in countless moldy, old books in search for answers. 

Only he dragged Tucker and his sister along to put an end to the torture sooner. A decision which, whereas Jazz encouraged wholeheartedly, Tucker was none too pleased with. 

“Oh, quit your whining, Tucker.” Jazz admonished from the floor, a few volumes piled up around her. “Every time you complain, it’s precious time we’re wasting. Maybe I don’t mind being holed up here reading with you, but something tells me you’d much rather be tinkering with your PDA than doing this.”

Annoyed by Jazz’s accurate observation, Tucker, who was lying down on his bed, set the book he was reading down on his lap. “I’m just saying, a quick Internet search would give us many more results in a matter of seconds. If you’re worried about wasting time, then I think spending hours scanning for even the smallest piece of witch-related trivia is ten times more time-consuming.”

But Jazz wasn’t going to relent any time soon. “We already tried things your way, Tucker. Remind me again how much useful information we found online?” When her question was met by silence, she smirked, focusing again on the book she had open on the floor in front of her. “Thought so.”

“Okay, so the first few results were all about conspiratorial nutcases claiming the witches are actually aliens from a faraway galaxy and that what we call ‘magic’ is really superior technology our tiny, human minds can’t understand,” he paused to breathe, “but those were just the first few articles! I’m sure if we keep on looking, we’ll find something useful.”

“Do I really have to remind you that the most useful thing we found was a Satanist group’s website? I don’t know about you, but I’m not exactly looking forward to joining them anytime soon.”

Leaning back against his bed’s headboard, the techno geek crossed his arms, feeling defensive. “You’re never going to let that go, are you?”

“Will you two just stop?” Danny finally had enough. He slammed the book he’d been reading shut before setting it down on his desk, where his own pile of books lay. Leaning back on his chair, one leg over his knee, he crossed his arms as he sent a stern look at his sister and best friend; the kind of look a father would give when scolding his misbehaving children. 

Even though they had legitimate reasons to be cranky at each other, a selfish part of him thought the only one who could really act out of line was him. Tucker and Jazz tended to forget what really was on the line. True; if they didn’t find a solution to the random ghost portals soon, that could lead to severe repercussions on both dimensions, and dealing with Lady Arcana was both dangerous and nerve-racking in every sense of the word. 

But the real danger came from within. 

Although Danny had tried to limit their use as much as possible, the Witch Queen’s presence demanded he wore the Ring of Wrath and the Crown of Fire in hopes of forcing the sorceress to think twice before double-crossing them. But the mere use of the two mystical items was far more terrifying than anything the entire witch clan could have thrown at him. 

There was something inherently...evil encased in the ring and crown. Danny was sure of it. Damn, he could feel it with every fiber of his being. Even before donning the all-powerful objects for the first time during his coronation, the moment he held them after stripping them off of Pariah Dark’s form, they were already calling out to him. 

And the most horrifying thing was that he wanted to heed their call. The relics promised infinite power to whoever was in possession of them. When, ironically, the dreaded things took possession of their wearer! After a brief moment of doubt where he almost fell into temptation and gave in, Danny understood wearing the ring and crown meant the total enslavement of his soul. 

Ever since then, he lived in fear of succumbing to temptation and letting their sinister energy consume him. Whenever he had no choice but to wear the Ring of Wrath and the Crown of Fire, Danny found himself fighting an uphill battle against the hypnotising pull of power emanating from them. It was more tempting than using his powers to get back at Dash for all the wedgies. It was more inviting than dating Valerie, regardless of the very real possibility of dying by her hand. It was more dangerous than accepting to work with Vlad, who foolishly coveted the very same torture he endured every time he put those two horrid artefacts on. 

Because it was a literal deal with the devil; power in exchange of his soul. 

And to think he had to endure all that every time he met up with the queen of the two-faced creatures responsible for such evil in the first place, just to convince her against doing anything foolish...It was irony at its finest. 

With gentle spins of his chair, Danny kept looking alternatively at Tucker and Jazz, who were blissfully unaware of his inner musings, as he talked to each of them. First was Tucker. “Tuck, I know you’ve considered books a waste of time ever since we plugged you into the Cramtastic Mark 5 to break Ember’s spell, and I’m sorry for dragging you into this, but Jazz’s brought all these books from the library and we need as much information as possible.”

He then turned to his sister, who was laid facing down on the floor. “Jazz, same thing goes for you. Except the ‘book-hating' part,” he hastily added, “you know as well as I do that if there’s someone who can find anything on the Internet, it's Tucker. Just, give him time.”

His two teammates exchanged glances before giving up with an eye roll. “Whatever,” they said in unison before getting back to reading. 

Danny wasn’t quite finished, though. “There’s also the fact that I’m not even sure we’ll find anything useful in the first place. I mean, what Lady Arcana needs is either an explanation on what’s causing the portals to manifest, or a spell that can counter it. And I highly doubt we’ll find that sort of information in books from the public library.”

“Maybe if they were from Hogwarts…” Tucker snickered at his own joke. When he noticed the twin glare the siblings were sending him, he sobered up. “Sorry.”

Jazz rolled her eyes as she changed her position from lying down to sitting up, cross-legged. “That doesn’t mean we won’t find anything useful, Danny. If anything, just learning more about the witches should be of help when dealing with them, right?”

The halfa sighed. “In theory. But Tucker’s right; we’ve been reading for hours and we haven’t found anything useful, or even that we didn’t already know of.”

“Thank you!” Tucker deadpanned as he clapped his hands sarcastically.

Danny ignored him in favour of continuing. “I mean, what’s to learn about them? Their background is completely irrelevant to the issue at hand. Knowing of the Salem trials isn’t going to help me prevent disaster from happening!”

“And don’t forget we don’t even know how to tell true facts apart from naysay.”  Tucker pointed out, a finger raised in the air as if that’d give more credibility to his point.

But Jazz insisted. “All the more reason to find out more about them! For instance, Danny, what did you know about witches before meeting this Lady Arcana?”

Her brother gave a noncommittal shrug. “Only what Frostbite told me and what I read in the pages I found from Sojourn’s missing journalーand no, I’m not going to let you read them, Jazz; it’s too dangerous. Besides, I don’t even have them anymore,” he was quick to add, recognising the inquisitive look on his sister’s face all too well.

Annoyed at how well her brother knew her, and at Tucker’s ill-concealed snickers, the aspiring psychologist turned her head away in a huff. “Fine, keep your sister away from fascinating topics. It’s not like I’ve been keeping your secret for years; even from you.” She punctuated with a meaningful look.

If the look on Danny’s face was any indication, they’d had that same conversation too many times before. “Jazz, careful; you know emotionally blackmailing me will get you nowhere. It’ll make me want to keep more things away from you.”

The redhead stood up and got closer to him. With her arms crossed, she used her brother’s seated position to tower over him for once, since she had long lost the ability to look over his shoulder once Danny finally hit his growth spurt. “And you know trying to play hero and keep me away is going to solve nothing. If anything, it’s only going to make me want to help you even more.”

Watching the siblings from the comfortable distance his bed provided him, Tucker knew things would only get nasty if he let the tension escalate from there. He let out a wolf whistle, effectively capturing the Fenton kids' attention. “Wow. You know you two spend too much time together when you start using the other’s methods to get what you want.”

Danny and Jazz furrowed their brow in confusion. “What do you mean?” They asked in unison. 

Changing his position so his back was resting against his wall rather than his bed, which also allowed him to easily look them both in the eye, their friend just shrugged nonchalantly. He wasn’t going to say anything else; their attention was no longer directed at each other and that was enough. “Nothing. Hey, how about a break?”

“A break?” Danny echoed, incredulous. “Didn’t we just argue about wasting time? Tuck, we can’t take a break now!”

Seeing where Tucker was getting at, and that he had a very good point, Jazz sighed. Turning to Danny, she put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. “Tucker is right. We’ve been at it for a few hours now. We’d better take a breather and continue later, when our minds are sharper.”

Danny was about to protest when he noticed their matching expressions. They were both tired after doing nothing but searching for clues for hours and bickering with each other. If anyone deserved a break, it was them. And as his own exhaustion finally kicked in, he realised, so did he. 

Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair. “Yeah, you’re right. Let’s stop for a while.”

Satisfied, Jazz gave her little brother some space as she flopped down on his bed. “So, Tuck.” When his head snapped at the sound of her voice calling his name, she continued. “How’s your latest lady friend doing?”

It took the African American young man a moment to understand who she was talking about. “You mean Camille?”

“If that’s her name, then yes.”

“Oh, we don’t hang out anymore.”

“What?” Jazz gasped. “Why?”

Tucker looked at her uneasily. Danny, on his part, remained quiet, just listening to their conversation. “Uh, no offence, Jazz but...I don’t feel comfortable talking about this with my best friend’s sister; close as we may be.”

That made her frown. “What is that supposed to mean?”

“It’s just...there’s things you don’t talk about with just anyone. And what happens between you and the people you choose to fool around with is one of them. I mean, how would you feel if my mum tried meddling into your love life?”

She just made a derisive sound at the back of her throat. “Excuse me? That is completely different!”

“It is not!”

“Oh, really?” Jazz put her hands on her hips, an eyebrow raised. “Please. Tucker, I’m Danny’s older sister, not our mother! Moreso, I’m the eldest by two years,” she put two fingers up to stress her point, “it’s not like I babysat you or cleaned your diapers. It can’t be that embarrassing!”

Refusing to say any more, Tucker just fell backwards on his bed, arms crossed. From his chair, Danny could only roll his eyes good-naturedly at their banter. 

After a beat of silence, Jazz tried again. “Was it your issues with commitment? Did she want more but you got scared?”

Exasperated, he pinched the bridge of his nose. Then, he turned to his best friend. “You can intervene whenever you like, you know?”

Danny just leaned back on his chair, his arms folded behind his head and an easy grin on his face. “Nah, I’m good.”

Abruptly getting up from his bed, unamused, Tucker walked over to his desk and turned his computer on. His back turned to the Fenton siblings, he started fidgeting with a program he’d just opened. He had no idea what to do with it, but he figured it’d be better than Jazz butting in on his love life. 

“So...is that it?” she ventured hopefully. 

Groaning loudly, he rubbed his eyes before fully facing the current thorn in his side. “Has it ever crossed your mind that the reason why I don’t feel comfortable talking about this with you is because you’re going to try and psychoanalyse me?” Seeing as there was no reply, Tucker took it as a sign that she’d finally let it go, so he turned to face the screen. 

...only to hear her whisper to Danny. “How much on them having trouble in bed?”

His face burning hot in embarrassment, Tucker slammed his head against the desk, startling the two other people in the room. At least Danny would never betray him, would he? No, he wouldn’t. It totally went against, like, fifty rules in the Bro Code. 

Unfortunately, Danny was having far too much fun seeing Tucker squirm under Jazz’s scrutinising, psychological curiosity. “Well, from what I’ve heard…”

Oh, no! No way in Hell was that traitor selling him out like that! If Danny wanted war, he’d give him war, Bro Code be damned! Getting up with startling speed, Tucker yelled loud enough to drown Danny’s voice out. “Danny’s met a girl!”

Both siblings blinked slowly at him before simultaneously screeching, “What!?” Although it was impossible to tell which of the two was more bewildered by the revelation.

In an instant, Jazz was on her brother like a vulpture on an animal carcass. “Danny, is that true? You have a girlfriend?” Suddenly, she looked much more offended than dumbfounded. “And you didn’t tell me?!”

“No!” he quickly denied, before all but flying from his chair and going over to his so-called best friend to smack him on the arm. Hard. “Tucker, what the fuck?!”

“Language!” Jazz admonished. 

“Where did you get the idea that I got a girlfriend? What, you’ve listened to me talking about how I fear for my life whenever I’m in the same room as the short-tempered, curse-inducing, infuriating Queen of the Witches of Amity Park and you obviously thought, Oh, man. That’s true love right there and then?!”

“Well, that definitely didn’t stop you from crushing on Valerie back in high school…” Jazz pointed out meekly. 

Seeing Danny’s eyes glow green for a fraction of a second was enough to make Tucker sweat bullets. “Jazz, you’re not helping!” He squeaked. “And, dude, you’re freaking me out a little with the way you’re burning holes in my skull. At this point, I really wouldn’t put it past you to have suddenly developed heat-vision or something…”

Forcing himself to take a deep breath, Danny finally got out of his best friend’s personal space. He was still pissed, though. “Talk.”

Straightening his clothes, Tucker rolled his eyes. “My, aren’t you sensitive today.”

“Well, duh! You just said I have a girlfriend! Could you be so kind as to tell me who so I don’t forget our anniversary or, I don’t know, her face!?”

The techno geek made a ‘pfft’ sound with his mouth, shrugging the notion off with a motion of his hand. “I never said you had a girlfriend. My exact words were ‘Danny’s met a girl.’ If you two are too obsessed with your love life to pay close attention to what other people say, that’s not my problem.”

“Okay, so who’s this girl?” Jazz asked, still curious.

“Yes, please, enlighten us, oh, King Tuck.” Danny quipped sarcastically. 

Tucker frowned, not appreciating the quip at his past mistake, but he spoke nonetheless. “Dude, it 's Sam.”

There was a beat of silence where brother and sister just stared at him before Danny whispered, shell-shocked, “Sam?”

Jazz, on her part, was both shocked and confused. “Wait, who’s Sam?”

He would’ve smacked him right then and there if it weren’t for his best friend having ghost powers he could blast him with. “Well, duh! Dude, have you or have you not met a girl named Sam recently? Because, I’m warning you, if you thought she was a guy, I’m telling on you. I don’t care if she beats your ass; you’d deserve it.”

“Ooh! A girl capable of kicking my baby brother's butt? Now I gotta know who she is! Also, Tucker, language.” The aqua-eyed girl half-heartedly scolded him, before her expression turned into a pensive one as she redirected her gaze to Danny “...are you sure you don’t have a type, though?”

“Sam and Valerie are nothing alike!” Danny exclaimed, throwing his arms up at his sides. Then he turned to Tucker, his hands now curled into fists out of sheer annoyance. “And of course I know she’s a girl. I just don’t understand how on Earth you’d come to the conclusion that I’m into her or something.”

Not for the first time, Tucker rolled his eyes before getting up from his chair and draping his arm around Danny’s shoulders. “And, again, I never said you were. I just said you’d met a girl…” Danny didn’t like that mischievous glint in his eyes one bit. “It just so happens I know you two enough to know you’d immediately assume I was talking about a lady friend, which would then make you forget all about moi.” Tucker explained with a cheeky grin. “And, lo and behold, it worked!”

Danny narrowed his eyes on him. He hated it when Tucker used their everlasting friendship to play him like a violin. Jazz, on the other hand, hated having her queries ignored. Taking a deep breath, she raised her voice to deafening levels. “Hello? Can anyone tell me who this ‘Sam’ is?”

“Agh!” Both halfa and techno geek exclaimed, taken aback. Nursing his ear, the youngest Fenton glared at his sister. “You're louder than my Ghostly Wail, you know that?”

“I can attest to that.” Tucker muttered, equally annoyed. 

Both sighed in defeat when Jazz limited herself to arching an eyebrow at them with her hands, curled into fists at her sides, stubborn as ever to get her answers. “Jazz, it’s no big deal. Sam is just a friend of Tucker’s who knows an awful lot about the occult and such. He thinks she might be able to help me with you-know-who.” He explained as he sat down on his bed next to her, Tucker following suit.

“Wait, Tucker is friends with a girl that’s not me?”

The aforementioned boy took offence at that. “Is it really that weird to see me hanging out with a girl because we’re friends and nothing more?”

The Fenton kids just stared at him blankly. “Dude, you literally hit on anything with a skirt. Remember the drag queen?”

The techno geek spluttered at that, while Jazz couldn’t help but chortle. “Dude, you promised to never bring that up again!”

Danny only chuckled at his best friend’s flushed face. “I don’t think you’re in any position to complain, Tuck. After all, you did break that poor queen’s heart...”

“Why, you!” Face burning hot in embarrassment, Tucker threw himself at Danny, ready to strangle him, ability to blast him to smithereens be damned! His own body reacting instinctively, Danny lay down on his back as he grabbed his best friend’s wrists. The two would’ve started roughhousing hadn’t it been for Jazz getting caught in between. 

“Hey! Stop it you two!” With a superhuman strength that could only be attributed to an older sibling separating her little brothers, Jazz shoved Tucker off of Danny, while she kept the latter down with a hand on his chest. A few minutes passed before the two calmed down. Taking a deep breath to steady herself, she turned to Tucker, trying to keep the original conversation going. “So this Sam could be of help?”

Willing his own breath to steady, Tucker nodded. “Yeah. Sam’s a Goth, so she’s very interested in all that. In fact, she’s been of help before.”

Danny’s interest perked at that. “What do you mean?”

“Remember when I’d come up with a solution to defeat certain ghosts this past year? Like Medusa, or that giant Hydra, and such? That was all Sam!”

“Now that you mention it, it did take me by surprise that you’d suddenly know what a hydra even is…”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence…” he quipped, before shaking his head to keep himself focused. “Anyway, whenever those ghosts appeared, I’d remember Sam talking about her latest mythology-related acquisition she bought from her favourite bookstore. So I just called her up, used the very convenient ghost in case to ask about its weakness and, ta-da! You’d have your way to beat them!” He exclaimed, proudly puffing up his chest. After a moment, he deflated, another thought in his mind. “The only creature she never told me about are unicorns, though. I don’t know why.”

“Maybe it throws off her entire dark, cynical persona.” Jazz guessed. Becoming Goth was a common coping mechanism for when people lost someone dear. For all she knew, this Sam could’ve lost a loved one and abandoned all things traditionally cute and girly as a way to put up a strong, undaunted façade, constantly exposing herself to the darker side of life in an attempt to grow desensitised to such things. 

“Maybe,” the bespectacled young man shrugged, “but if you ever meet her, don’t go around saying things like that. Somehow, I doubt she’d appreciate having her entire identity picked out and analysed.”

As Tucker and Jazz kept on bantering with each other, Danny’s thoughts were elsewhere. If what Tucker was saying was true and Sam had indeed marked the difference between victory and defeat during those ghost attacks, then it really would be better to have her by his side. 

Despite his years fighting ghosts and what he’d learned from Frostbite, his knowledge was limited to the Ghost Zone, which was why the presence of mythological or legendary ghosts tended to demand more of him than, say, facing off against Technus, or Johnny 13. Magical artefacts and abilities fell under that category, as well.

Aside from the lack of portal-creating and visits to the Ghost Zone, the witches, on the contrary, seemed to be knowledgeable of ghosts. And that put him at a clear disadvantage he couldn’t afford. But if Sam also happened to know about witches, maybe even partake in rituals for the sake of it, then having her near would be for the best. He would only have to make sure to keep a close eye on her in case the witches found out and went after her in retaliation. 

And also, deep down, he was sort of looking forward to meeting her again. 

...............

The seemingly never ending corridors were doing nothing to alleviate her already suffering nerves. Despite the velvet-carpeted floor that would other times muffle her heavy steps, she now felt as if every step she took resonated throughout the manor like the screeching tiles of a wooden floor. From the rich, maroon walls were hanging the portraits of every astounding witch their clan had ever witnessed; from queens and Council members, to especially adept sorceresses or even heroines who had saved their sisters one way or another. All those women she usually looked up to for guidance in difficult times now seemed to be silently judging her with their cold, unforgiving eyes. 

She walked in complete silence, afraid to disturb the peace if she were to utter a word. After discovering the grimoire she used to travel to the Ghost Zone wouldn’t be of any help in her mission, Sam was blindly following the beginning of a hunch; the spark of an idea whose outcome she still knew nothing of. But, even if she wasn’t sure what she was looking for, it was all she had. 

Sam had no choice but to follow that inkling. 

Hurriedly trying to keep up with her, Star and Paulina were close behind. Once again, their position within their Queen’s inner circle allowed them to understand Sam’s thought process better than most. Only they knew the true reason behind the Queen’s unprompted visit to their clan’s archives. 

“Your Majesty, what do you expect to find inside thー?” Before Star could so much as finish her question, Sam interrupted her.

“Indeed, Star. I would appreciate a warm bubble bath with deadly nightshade leaves.” The queen said, not even stopping to look back at her ladies-in-waiting.

To any other person, that cryptic message would have meant nothing but the typical request one would expect a queen to ask her personal maids of. But Paulina and Star knew better. Asking for deadly nightshade was Sam’s way of telling them to keep whatever she was up to a secret. By asking Star for a deadly nightshade bubble bath, she was instructing them that absolutely no one should find out about the true reason behind her visit to the archives. 

Exchanging knowing glances with Paulina, the blonde lowered her head slightly, fully aware that her Queen was watching her from the corner of her eye. “Yes, your Majesty.”

And with that everything that had to be said was shared between them. 

Time was of the essence.

Aside from the evident danger she faced every time she travelled to the Infinite Realms, there was the added possibility of being spotted by humans, regardless of how far away from civilization their meeting spot was. If anyone ever took notice of the three mysterious figures fraternising with ghosts, Amity Park’s greatest known threat, questions would soon arise. 

And whenever humans had questions, they turned to the so-called experts on the matter for help. While Sam wasn’t sure those incompetent Guys In White even suspected their existence, she still wouldn’t put it past them to investigate for the sake of burning tax money in some new toys. Those greedy, government puppets… Worst of all, if they took a genuine interest in her kind, they might as well be done for, and not necessarily because the GIW were good at their job…

If word got out that witches were real and living among them, the citizens could get scared. And whenever humans got scared, especially if it was of things they couldn’t quite explain or understand, that fear turned into aggression. If they kept wasting any more time, one day she’d open her door to find herself face to face with an angry mob. 

And to think it’d all be because of a group of incompentent ghost hunters who couldn’t even drive away the very same treacherous creatures responsible for her people’s need for secrecy in the first place...it was irony at its finest. 

However, despite the spike of anxiety in her chest, Sam couldn’t help but go back to her last visit to the Ghost Zone. Phantom’s attempts at dissipating the tension had been, as much as she hated to admit it, a welcomed thing. And yet, it was a little unnerving to learn the Ghost King shared her views on formality and the power of intimacy, because it made him look more human than she would ever be comfortable with. 

In all fairness, it was difficult to imagine Phantom talking like anything but his usual, cocky self in the first place. From what little exchanges the news broadcasts had been able to catch on camera during the years, the white-haired spirit tended to get overly familiar with his opponents, getting under their skin with puns or witty comebacks thrown at their expense. Still, as unusual as it was, Sam couldn’t help but feel that, perhaps, it would’ve been better to keep on using their respective honorifics. Because Phantom addressing her like he would any other misbehaving ghost, like she’d seen him do dozens of times over the years, somehow made it all the more...real. She truly was talking to the infamous Ghost King on her own volition. 

That thought alone scared her more than she’d ever be willing to admit. 

Before Sam could dwell on the matter any longer, a grating, shrill voice snapped her out of her thoughts. A voice she knew all too well and would do just about anything to never hear again unless it was absolutely necessary. 

“Sammy-kins!”

Stopping in her tracks, eye twitching in annoyance, the lavender-eyed girl forced a smile to materialise on her face as she slowly turned around to face the mother of all monsters. Her own. “Hello, Mother.” She forced out.

Pamela Manson was an average witch; the only thing stellar about her was her ability to distract humans with her lavish parties and over-the-top socialite persona. A woman obsessed with social status and appearances, Sam’s mother constantly got on her case due to her own disregard for the very things Pamela lived for. 

Mother and daughter were opposites in almost every aspect. 

Whereas Sam prided herself in her individuality and ability to go unnoticed unless she truly wished to make her presence known, Pamela was obsessed with blending in a way that would always draw all eyes to her.

Sam believed in standing up for a change, without fear of taking big steps as long as they led her to a better world. Pamela considered things to be fine as they were, and that the only changes that should be implemented were small, insignificant ones; such as her daughter’s fashion sense.

While Sam was a rather cynical individual who still cared about everyone deep down, her mother was preppy and optimistic, but her aspirations were limited to what could benefit her and her family.

But what truly set them apart was Sam’s insistence on being inconspicuous to the human eye; her coven’s anonymity her top priority. As opposed to Pamela who, had she been queen, would’ve accidentally exposed their secrets in her first week after being crowned; tops. 

In all fairness, it wasn’t that Pamela didn’t care for their clan; it was just that she couldn’t resist flaunting what, she believed, made her better than everyone else. 

And, right now, she believed her daughter’s manners could be much better. “What’s with the cold greeting, Sammy-kins? We haven’t seen much of each other in over a week and that’s how you treat me?”

On second thought, Sam much preferred her chances against an angry mob over spending five minutes in the same room as her mother. “Sorry, Mother, but you caught me in the middle of something important and…”

“What could possibly be more important than what I’m about to tell you?” Pamela questioned, her hands on her hips. 

“Perhaps finding a way to save two dimensions or, at the very least, our people, but you’re right, Mum, what was it that you wanted to tell me?”, was what the raven-haired witch wished she could’ve said, but instead she opted for, “And what is it that you have to tell me?”

Instead of answering her daughter, however, Pamela directed an expectant look at her two ladies-in-waiting who, upon noticing her steely glare on them, immediately straightened up before lowering their heads in submission. “Greetings, your Ladyship.” Paulina and Star droned, their heads low.

Although Pamela was never queen herself, as mother of the current leader of the clan she was to be regarded with respect. A fact the woman would constantly revel in and fully take advantage of. Smiling in contentment, she sighed. “Ah, much better. Now, Sammy-kins, I was thinking we could take some time away from your schedule to have a little chat on your wardrobe choices?”

Ugh, not that again. Ignoring her mother’s offended gasp, Sam turned on her heel to make her way, once again, to her original destination. Star and Paulina hurrying up to leave ‘her Ladyship’ behind and keep up with their queen after flashing her mother a pair of matching sheepish smiles

Unfortunately, the one thing Sam seemed to have inherited from her mother was her stubbornness. Quickening her own pace, the clicking of her high heels behind her haunting Sam even in her dreams, Pamela caught up with them in a surprisingly short amount of time. Having no choice but to breathlessly talk to her daughter at the same time as she tried keeping up with her would not be enough to get her to give up on her pursuit. 

“Seeing as we have much more important matters to discuss, I shall gracefully ignore your previous insolence.” Luckily for Sam, her mother missed the way she rolled her eyes at her. “I know this...Gore style of yoursー.”

“It’s ‘Goth’, Mother…” Sam corrected her, but her efforts fell on deaf ears. 

“ーis just your way of rebelling against the world because things don’t go your way, but don’t you think enough is enough? You’ve been dressing like a mortician since you were twelve!”

“If you’re done patronising me and the way I choose to present myself to the worldーwhich, not only have you insulted in every possible way but, allow me to remind you, is not just a phaseー, I really do have more important matters to attend to.” 

And with that, she sped up past her mother. It should’ve been the end of that conversation, but Pamela always had to have the last word. “But what about the clan? Don’t you think it’s selfish to compromise us like that?”

That stopped the Witch Queen dead in her tracks, the unexpected stop causing Paulina and Star to tumble back a few steps. Once they registered what Pamela had said, their blood ran cold; the stiffness in Sam’s posture only confirmed their unspoken fears:

Sam’s mother had just crossed a line. 

Fists clenched so tightly at her sides she could’ve drawn blood, her teeth gritting in aggravation, Sam hissed, not even turning around to face her mother. “What did you just say?”

Brushing her daughter’s anger off as just another tantrum, Pamela calmly walked over to where she stood, looking over her handmaidens’ shoulders. Resting a palm on Sam’s shoulder, a hand that, although meant as comforting, came out as condescending, mocking; the older witch spoke up. “I’m just saying, you’re always advocating for our anonymity, yet you seem to ignore that people will immediately associate your obvious, stereotypically witchy outfits with real-life witchcraft. All that black and those dark colours, the ripped fabric, the metal ornaments… Sammy, don’t you see? That’s like wearing a sign saying ‘I’m a witch! Come and lynch me!’”

Taking advantage of her turned face, Sam narrowed her eyes on her mother. She dressed like a WASP housewife from the 50’s when she was a Jewish woman living in the 21st centuryーshe was in absolutely no position to criticise her looks! 

How dare she? How dare she?! Using her duty to protect her people against her just to get her to wear some frilly abomination because she couldn’t fathom the idea that her daughter would want to be her own person?

It was moments like these that Sam missed Grandma Ida the most. Her grandma would’ve guided her in her darkest hours, giving her useful advice to approach the situation, but never making decisions for her, letting her live and learn instead! Grandma Ida would’ve never tried to use her to push some personal agenda on the clan. 

But Grandma Ida was gone, and Pamela was there to stay.

As insulted and, although she’d never let it show, hurt as Sam was, going to the archives took priority. Stowing her conversation with her mother for another time as she resumed her march down the hallsーpreferably when she’d be alone in her roomーSam shrugged her off the best way she knew; through biting sarcasm. “Oh, please. If I were nearly as ‘obvious’ or ‘stereotypically witchy’ as you say, Mother, I’d decorate this place after the Sedlec Ossuary.”

Pamela furrowed her brow in confusion as she, too, resumed her walk. “What does that even mean?” 

“She’s talking about a Czech chapel fully decorated with bones and skulls.” Star helpfully supplied. 

Paulina, on the contrary, shuddered in disgust. “Ugh, I’d rather not. I’d feel like I’m always being watched…”

Star tilted her head to the side. “How? Skulls don’t have eyes.”

Ignoring the handmaidens, Pamela opened up her mouth to speak when a raised hand from her daughter, who had abruptly halted, stopped her from even getting a word in. “As lovely as catching up with you has been, Mother,” Sam started, voice laced with sarcasm, “I’m afraid I must go. I have important matters to attend to, as I already told you, that I must take care of, in private.” She stressed before turning the doorknob of the large door before her and walking inside, swiftly letting her bewildered mother out after she all but slammed the door shut in her face. 

Leaning  her back against the door, Sam let out the breath she didn’t know she was holding. No matter how much time passed, her mother would always be a she-demon worse than any ghost. God forbid Phantom ever met her; if he were to take a page out of her book, Sam would personally burn herself at the stake.

“Is Pamela too much for you?” A sultry voice coaxed her out of her thoughts.

Opening up her eyes, Sam could feel the relieved smile forming on her face at the sight of the witch she most wanted to see at the moment. “Delilah.” She breathed out as she separated herself from the door, walking over to her friend to grab her hands in hers. “You have no idea.” Sighing dramatically, she let her head fall on the crook of the shapeshifter’s shoulder, eliciting a chuckle from her. 

“Oh, I don’t need to.” She said, gently patting her queen’s head. “Just by looking at you I can tell; you look like you’ve suddenly lost ten years of your life!”

“Make that twenty,” Sam grumbled. 

Separating herself from her leader, their hands still holding each other, the turquoise-eyed sorceress got to the point. “Well, what brings you here? As much as I love your visits, I thought you’d be busy with your little escapes to the Ghost Zone?”

Sam averted her gaze, the wooden floor suddenly much more interesting than a few seconds ago. “It’s precisely because of that that I’m here.”

“Oh?” Delilah tilted her head, slightly. “Okay...So, what are you here for, then?”

To her bewilderment, her queen’s eyes continuously darted from one place to another, as if expecting to be ambushed any minute now. “Are we alone?”

An odd question, but not necessarily a bad one. Putting her fingers on her chin in thought, the Council member tried to remember if she’d seen anyone that day. “Hm, I think Stephanie might be somewhere around here, engrossed in a book. But you know her, it’d be easier to get me to leave the archives than not seeing that girl with her nose deep in a book.”

Stephanie was probably with them. That was not a bad thing. Stephanie ought to find out sooner or later. Wringing her hands nervously, Sam willed her eyes to look at Delilah’s own curious turquoise ones. “I need your help with something.”

That caught her attention. “My help?” Sam nodded. “My, Sam, you’re starting to worry me.” Delilah admitted as she got closer to the Goth, her hand hovering over her shoulder but never close enough to actually rest atop of it, afraid that the sudden contact would startle her. It was unusual to see her so suspicious of everything around her. Maybe… “Did the ghosts do anything? Are we going to war?”

That seemed to snap the younger witch out of whatever she was going through. She didn’t lower her guard, though. “No, no. We’re not going to war.” She shook her head as she let Delilah gently guide her to another section of the archives. “But in order to avoid just that I might need to do something crazy…”

Delilah wrinkled her nose at that. “Something crazy? You’re not going to marry that Ghost Punk, are you?”

Startled, Sam jerked away from her touch, shuddering in discomfort. Where would she get such a ridiculous idea? She and Danny Phantom? She almost wanted to laugh. Instead, she let out a derisive sound from the back of her throat. “Don’t even joke about that.”

“So, what is it then? I’m sorry, Sam, but you’re not making any sense right now.” The shapeshifter insisted. “If we’re not going to war, and you’re not going to marry the Ghost King, what do you need me for?” Taking a few steps, she got closer to the young monarch, their faces mere inches apart as she tried looking for answers in her amethyst orbs. “What could be so serious that you’re so unnerved, Sam?”

Delilah’s intense gaze made her squirm, but she had a point. She couldn’t expect her to help her, no questions asked. For instance, she wasn’t just the best shapeshifter of the clan, she was also a Council member, and the archives guardian. She was the one tasked with keeping their people’s most precious treasure, their history and knowledge, safe. And considering what she was gonna ask of her, Delilah was in her right to know exactly what was going through her head. 

Steeling herself for what was to come, Sam straightened her spine, returning the intensity of the older witch’s gaze in earnest. “I need you to grant me access to a certain type of book.”

Delilah’s posture relaxed. “Is that it? Why didn’t you say so sooner? Sure, just tell me what you’re looking for and I’ll let you take a lookー.”

“I mean,” Sam cut her off, “I need you to grant me permission to take the book with me, outside of the manor...and into the Ghost Zone.” Her voice wavered when she muttered the last part. 

“Oh...I see...” The guardian’s expression immediately sobered up. She cleared her throat, awkwardly. “And, what type of book are you looking for?”

Now things were going to get really ugly. “I need a spellbook detailing everything we know about the Ghost Zone, specifically, its portals.”

For a while, Delilah just stared at her, almost unblinkingly. The good news was she didn’t appear angry or outraged as Sam had predicted, the bad news, however, was that her empty, unreadable expression was much worse. At least she’d have known what she was thinking had she been yelling at her for her idiocy; questioning her mental health. But as it was, Sam was almost as lost as her.

After what felt like an eternity, Delilah finally found her voice. “So you…” she quieted down, trying to find the words. “You want to take one of our most sacred texts to the Ghost Zone?”

Sam winced. Somehow, it sounded way worse when she said it like that. “I know it’s asking for too much…”

“Saying that’s an understatement wouldn’t even begin to cover it.” The Council member scoffed. “Seriously, Margaret would have a cow! And don’t get me started on Wilhelmina…”

“I know!” Sam was quick to reassure her. She was perfectly aware what she was asking of her might be a little excessive, but she wasn’t completely delusional! She knew just what kind of reaction their fellow Council members would have... “I know, but...the only way to ensure our people’s safety is helping Phantom. And he needs help closing numerous unstable portals that are suddenly opening. I thought the book I’d been using to get to the Infinite Realms would have the answers, but its contents were thoroughly underwhelming.”

Just like she did in Phantom’s lair, Sam got the spellbook out of her skirt before handing it to the guardian. In turn, she inspected its pages, concluding that, indeed, the book hadn’t much to offer. “Please, Delilah, you know I would never ask this of you if I didn’t think it’s our only hope.”

Sam wasn’t one to plead. The young Council member knew this better than anyone. She was headstrong and determined; the entire clan knew there wasn’t much that could be done to dissuade her once her mind was made up. Margaret herself found it to be both a blessing and a curse, while Wilhelmina thought it was a curse. Period. And Delilah...

Delilah prayed to all things above her that she wasn’t about to make a mistake. Sighing in defeat, she flashed Sam a small grin, earning herself a triumphant smile in return. Rolling her eyes good-naturedly, she motioned for her queen to follow her with a slight jerk of her index finger. “Come with me, your Majesty. I know just the thing.”

Sighing in relief, Sam allowed her eyes to wander around the manor’s archives. She really couldn’t blame Stephanie for loving the place to the point of practically making it her second homeーthe sight was breathtaking. 

The circular room, surrounded by large panel windows, located right below the Council Room, which put it in the three-story manor’s second story, was one of the best examples of a Pocket Dimension Spell put to good use. Countless shelves filled to the brim with colourful, leather-bound books went on as far as reached the eye; hanging proudly from the ceiling, the arrow-shaped banners with her clan’s signature colour and emblemーa black rose over a royal purple backgroundーadorned the room; leaning against the shelves, golden ladders could be seen moving on their own accord; which was almost as impressive as the floating books that flew from one place to another by flapping their two covers like an eagle would flap its wings. 

Walking through the numerous aisles, letting herself be, one again, amazed by the sight, Sam caught a familiar figure from the corner of her eye. Turning her head to the source, she found Stephanie Baker, sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back against a shelf’s lateral plank, an incredibly dense book perched on her lap. 

Sensing someone’s eyes on her, no doubt, Stephanie lifted her head up and away from her book, before a grin was plastered on her face at the sight of her queen. Her enthusiastic wave was answered by Sam’s much more subdued one, alongside a small chuckle. “She’ll never change; she’s at her happiest when surrounded by books,” Sam mused to herself. 

She and Delilah kept walking in silence, but with each step she took, the Goth couldn’t help but furrow her brow, anxiously. They were getting further and further away from the archives’ hot spot, the zone with the most activity disappearing in the distance until she almost couldn’t make it out anymore. Just where was she taking her?

Her question was answered when her guide halted abruptly in front of the wall. An empty space that, unlike the other walls encasing the archives, wasn’t even decorated by a portrait of one of the previous guardians. Not sure what to expect, Sam tilted her head to the side, speechless. “Uh...Delilah?”

But Delilah didn’t answer. Instead, she turned her back on her and extended her hands, palms open, in front of her. “Clavis mysteria!”, she chanted, her carefully coiffed onyx braid dancing around her, as if swayed by a sudden strong breeze. From her palms emanated a green fog that, as Sam could only look on in awe, speechless for an entirely different reason; seemed to open the wall in half, the resulting, uneven, wooden dents making way for it. 

An eternity or a few minutes could’ve passed, and Sam would be willing to believe anything she was told, when the green fog manifested again, carrying a rather large object with it. When the Witch Queen realised what it was, she could only gasp in astonishment.

Levitating before them was a royal blue, leather-bound book. Intricate designs were scattered throughout its back cover, engraved in gold. Two such designs, a pair of golden, twin swirls, flanked an equally golden fleur de lis on its spine. But the most amazing thing, what truly showed the book’s importance, were the golden letters, glinting under the light, on its cover: 

Arcana’s Grimoire

Mouth hanging open, the young witch could only gape at her friend, completely blown away by the revelation, as the grimoire landed safely on her hands. With a small chuckle, Delilah pushed some loose, black locks obscuring the right side of her face aside. “Sorry. No matter how tightly I tie my braid, spellcasting always messes my hair up.”

Her throat suddenly very dry, Sam swallowed before managing to speak, a finger pointing at the manuscript. “Is...is that…?”

With a knowing smile, Delilah nodded. “Arcana's Grimoire. If you want to find answers on what’s causing those ghost portals to open at random, this baby is your best bet.” Stretching her arms towards the queen, she handed the book to her, who held it with as much care as one held a newborn for the first time, almost reverently. “The grimoire holds the answers to all those questions time made sure to erase.”

“I-I…you...t-the book...” Sam stuttered, not sure what to say. “A-are you sure you want to entrust the g-grimoire, Arcana’s Grimoire, to me?”

“It’s risky, I know. But you said it yourself, you wouldn’t ask me to grant you permission to take a spellbook out of the manor if you weren’t convinced it’s our only hope.” Those few loose strands falling on her face, a stark contrast to her dark mane, she lay a comforting hand on Sam’s shoulder, a soft smile on her face. “And I wouldn’t hand the grimoire to you if I didn’t think it’d be safe with you.”

Eyes widening at the Council member’s words, Sam couldn’t do anything but send her a grateful smile in return. Clutching the grimoire close to her chest, she promised, “I’ll guard it with my life.”

Internally, she made another promise, only this time, it was much more violent than solemn. “And I swear, if Phantom so much as looks at it wrong, I’ll ask Danny to lend me some of his parents’ weapons and hunt him down myself.”

................

“You’re lucky this place sells some of the best pastrami sandwiches I’ve ever had, dude. Otherwise, you’d be on your own.” Tucker said in between bites of his heavenly pastrami with honey mustard sandwich. Wiping some sauce from the corner of his mouth with his sleeve, earning himself disgusted looks from the two other people present, he wagged a finger at his best friend. “Seriously, though. Who would’ve thought Sam would have good taste in restaurants?”

He winced when the Goth in question elbowed him on his side. “I have excellent taste in food in general, thank you very much. It’s not my fault only 9% of the global population can appreciate it.”

Once again, they were meeting up at the You Mocha Me Crazy, which, at this rate, was going to become their new favourite hanging spot. Unless Sam was willing to forego her vegetarian ways and ask for a Double Meaty Nasty Burger with extra bacon with them. Somehow, that seemed unlikely. Luckily, during their first visit Sam had introduced Tucker to their selection of sandwiches and cold cuts, making it easier for the techno geek to warm up to the café. 

After that successful first meeting, the trio decided to hang out whenever Danny needed Sam's help to write his ‘paper.’ All they had to do was ring or text Sam, and she’d tell them when she was free to meet.

Today was one of those days she was free and the guys were in need of her help. The three were lounging around a small coffee table Sam named ‘her spot’, for it was where she usually had her coffee or worked on her assignments in peace. The fact that she was good friends with one of the baristas also helped keep the space free of any ‘spot-stealing-squads,’ as she lovingly referred to ‘those vultures.’

Nursing his aching side, Tucker rolled his eyes. He’d already lost count on how many times they’d had that same conversation. “Is there anyone free from your vegan wrath?”

“For the last time, I’m ultra-recyclo-vegetarian, not vegan.”

“What’s the difference?” Danny intervened, an eyebrow raised in confusion. 

“Vegans tend to waste almost as much food as non-vegetarians. Ultra-recyclo-vegetarians make the most of every single meal.” Sam explained, forking a piece of tomato from her salad. “That’s where the ‘recyclo’ part comes from.”

“I thought that was freegans.” Tucker frowned, still munching his sandwich. 

“I’m surprised you even know what that is.”

“You and me both.” Danny said, turning to look at Tucker with a curious expression on his face. 

Rolling his eyes, the techno geek shrugged them off. “You meet the craziest people on Tinder.” He explained offhandedly. When he took notice of his two companions’ horrified expressions, he almost doubled over in laughter. Clearing his throat, he turned to Sam. “And you still haven’t answered my question.”

Shaking her head to erase the traumatising image that was Tucker’s love life, Sam started. “What? Uh...oh! Right. Ehem! As a matter of fact, there are people excluded from my ‘ultra-recyclo-vegetarian wrath.’” She corrected. “I’d never force people without enough resources to go vegan. Such as the Inuit community. Besides, those guys barely hunt anything compared to rich jerks with questionable hobbies, and they use everything of what little they do hunt.”

“Handy people.” Danny mused, before returning his attention to his laptop, resting on top of his lap, one leg crossed over his other knee. “Now, I don’t mean to be a buzzkill, but we’re here to help me with my...with my homework, remember?”

If Sam thought the way he seemed to overthink his words was weird, she didn’t let it show. “Yeah, you’re right.” She said as she turned her torso around, reaching for her notes inside her spider backpack. “Okay, you two. Lay it on me; what do you want to know?”

Tucker and Danny exchanged a glance, before the blue-eyed boy ventured. “Well...Sam, you’re the expert. What can you tell us of...um...of the witches.”

Scanning through her notepad’s pages, Sam froze at Danny’s words. Could her people’s secret have been discovered already? Before risking compromising her sisters, she had to test the waters first. “Why are you doing your paper on witches in the first place?” Her voice came out a little colder than she intended. 

Tucker furrowed his brow, taken aback by her sudden guarded posture, while Danny just rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Uh...why not? The seminar I signed up for is on mythological creatures and folklore, and witches are one of the most legendary myths ever...right?”

Alright, that made sense. But she couldn’t be reckless, she had to make sure Danny didn’t pose a threat to her coven. “Yeah, they definitely are. I’m sorry, it’s just...with all the ghosts constantly attacking Amity Park, I thought, ‘why witches?’, you know? I mean, your parents are experts! If you just asked them for a little bit of help, your assignment would immediately turn into an easy A, wouldn’t it?”

Taking a gulp from his espresso, Danny carefully thought what to say next. He couldn’t let Sam think he had some sort of ulterior motive for asking about the mystical group of women; he’d promised Lady Arcana her people’s secret would be safe, after all. So he did the only thing he could; he expertly lied. “Well, I don’t really like having things handed to me, you see. What’s the point in signing up for a seminar if I’m just going to get an easy A thanks to my parents, you know what I mean?”

Tucker had to fight the urge to laugh at the irony of the situation. Oh, what Danny wouldn’t have given just to get easy A’s during high school... When his two friends turned to him, Sam looking at him in confusion and Danny quietly begging him to keep his mouth shut, he played it cool by taking a sip from his drink. 

“Anyway,” Danny continued, “I just thought ghosts would be...I dunno...too mainstream? The assignment is supposed to make me do research on mythological creatures, and nowadays it’s pretty obvious ghosts are anything but mythological.”

“Witches aren’t far behind, either…” Sam internally mused, sipping from her macchiato. Holding the carton cup with both hands, she decided sharing some information with Danny and Tucker would be safe. She’d just tell them the basics, debunk some Hollywood myths...the usual. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Danny echoed, hopefully.

“Okay.” Sam repeated with a smile. “Anything in particular you want to know about?”

“Just...anything you can tell us, really.” Tucker said, leaning forward with his hands between his legs. 

“You’re gonna have to be a tad more specific than that, guys.”

Crossing his arms, the Astrophysics student thought long and hard. What was it that he really wanted to know about them? Well, the answer to that was obvious. His only real question was why? Why did they do what they did? If only he could figure that out, then maybe he’d know how to approach Lady Arcana. But there was no way he could ask that without exposing who he was. And it wasn’t like Sam, of all people, would have the answer anyway. 

So instead he asked, “What’s their origin?”

That startled Sam, who almost choked on her lettuce, Tucker quickly coming to her assistance and patting her back. After massaging her throat and swallowing her food, she looked at Danny with an inquisitive eye. “Come again?” She croaked out.

“What’s their origin?” He repeated. “And...and I don’t mean this as in...as in a history lesson. Like, when did witches first appear or anything. If I wanted to know that, I’d just read a book or watch a National Geographic documentary. I-I mean, how is a witch even born?”

“Do I have to explain the birds and the bees to you guys, too?” She asked with a coy smile, having recovered from her coughing fit. Despite the seriousness of his query, the violet-eyed girl couldn’t help but tease him.

Danny flushed in embarrassment. He had to admit, he’d handed her that one. Shaking his head, he chuckled. “I’m good, thanks. You might need to talk to Tuck, though.” He joked, earning himself an offended gasp from his best friend, who punched him lightly on his arm in protest. “But, nah. I guess a better question would be, what makes a witch...well, a witch?”

Sam had to admit, it was a good question. Even if it may risk her people’s secrets, such depth earned the blue-eyed boy some respect from her. Not many people went beyond the basics when looking for information. Most would be content with reading the first few paragraphs of a Wikipedia article. But Danny… Something about the intensity of his ocean blue eyes made Sam feel he was more similar to his parents than he’d originally thought; despite having no interest in ghosts himself. Somehow, he shared their inquisitive and curious mind, albeit from a less scientific approach. Just by that question alone, she immediately understood Danny Fenton was much smarter than people gave him credit for. 

Exhaling, she began to explain. “Believe it or not, the one who got closer to the truth was Harry Potter.”

“You mean the children’s book with the extra creepy white dude?” The bespectacled young man raised an eyebrow, before exchanging disbelieving glances with his best friend beside him. 

She just chuckled. “Yeah. Witches are human women who were born with the innate ability to do magic, setting them apart from the rest.”

“So...this is witches vs muggles that we’re talking about.” Tucker insisted. 

“Yes, Tucker.” Sam said with a bit more bite than she intended. “Point is, being born different tends to alienate people, and considering we’re talking about magical-powers kind of different…”

“The witches were alienated and persecuted by society.” Danny finished for her. 

“Bingo.” The raven-haired girl picked up some photocopies with different articles printed on them and handed a few copies to both of them. “Although nowadays most people bel-know witches aren’t real,” she caught herself before her subconscious could rat her out, “some cryptology experts theorise they just eventually flocked together to keep whatever magical gene they had inside the coven. You know, as a precaution to avoid further persecution.” To this day, she still couldn’t believe a group of nutjobs would be right on the money. The sole idea was ludicrous, and yet…

“So, that’s it?” Tucker asked, looking up from his own set of photocopies, incredulous. “Witches are just humans who, inexplicably, won the superpower lottery?”

The Goth just smiled sheepishly at him. What could she say, anyway? Though witches weren’t against scientific discoveries or careers (Star herself was studying to become a mathematician), magic sort of was their thing; literally. So nobody had ever really delved on why or how they’re different from other humans.

Scratching his chin in thought, Danny tried reconciling what Sam said to his own encounters with the spellcasters. When he thought about it, Lady Arcana and her witches really weren’t any different from any other citizen of Amity Park; the only surprising thing about them was their Queen’s unique eye colourーher being breathtakingly beautiful didn’t matter since her personality needed an awful lot of workーand their characteristic ability to do magic...and maybe their questionable taste in pets. 

But that was it. 

Other than that they were as human as his own family. Even their hatred of ghosts was in synchrony with the town’s general opinion of him. Perhaps if he treated the Witch Queen as any other girl, things would smoothen between them. It made sense that part of her prickly personality was a result of him consciously treating her differently than he would treat others. Deep down, she knew they were unwelcomed, and therefore, built walls around her to avoid getting hurt. 

“Look at you, worrying over making the Witch Queen feel comfortable around you...You’re a lost cause, Fenton.” Danny resisted the urge to roll his eyes at himself, having more important matters to take care of. “Sam,” he called out to her, startling her and Tucker out of their own conversation, “is there a way you could tell us about their spells or something?”

It was a risky question, he knew. But, as useful as learning to deal with the witches was, what they really needed was a way to put an end to the crisis threatening both dimensions. And the only way to do it was by finding a portal-related spell. 

Eyes widening at his question, Sam could feel her stomach churning ominously. That question was a bit too specific for her liking. Depending on how she handled the situation, she could either masterfully take care of it or put her subjects in danger over a potential misunderstanding. “Their spells? What do you mean?”

Danny pretended to look through his own set of copies, trying to appear nonchalant, as if his question were born from mere curiosity, rather than a sense of impending doom. “Nothing, really. I was just curious. I mean, would witches even cast spells, or would they voluntarily just manifest their powers like ghosts do?” As he spoke, his mind raced back to the floating book Lady Arcana had, without any kind of warning, shoved in his face during her last visit. 

The Goth had to resist the urge to spit in disgust at the notion of being compared to those disembodied remains of human consciousness. She took a subtle breath to ease away her repulsion. “It’s hard to say.” She lied. “Since there’s no clear evidence that true, real-life witches ever existed, ーand I’m sure they don’t, obviouslyー.”

“Obviously.” The two men seated with her echoed.

“ーthere’s no definite hypothesis explaining if they truly casted spells or not. For all we know, their famous rites and ceremonies could just be that; ceremonies belonging to pagan religions that were thought to be witchcraft by Christians.” 

“Any chance we might be able to find any spell on the Internet?” Tucker wondered, readily taking his trusty PDA out of his pocket, causing Danny to sigh tiredly upon noticing the device in his hands. While Tucker used his tablet and computer when doing assignments or playing video games, that was solely because the screens were bigger. He’d actually been in a loving, committed relationship with his PDA since he first got it when he was 14. As time went by and technology evolved, instead of adjusting with the times, he put all his engineering knowledge to use with the sole intention of updating his baby and never having to part ways from her. 

It was both kinda cool and a little disturbing, to be honest.

Leaning back on her chair and crossing her legs at her knee, mirroring Danny’s own stance, Sam propped her face on her hand, a bored expression plastered on her face. “Although I do find your commitment to recycling that old thing of yours instead of falling for the capitalistic trap that is technology consumption commendable,” she said, and Danny was sure his eyes must’ve popped open at seeing her utter that long-ass speech without so much as pausing to breathe, “sometimes I worry about you.”

Offended, Tucker frowned at her, only clutching his PDA tighter in his hands. “I’m mercifully going to choose to ignore everything you just said except for the part when you call me ‘commendable.’ Now, can I look for information on the Internet or not?”

Leaning forward, this time resting her chin on her knuckles at the same time as she propped her elbow on her bent knee, Sam shrugged, not really caring. “You can try, but chances are you’re only going to find Halloween articles from children’s magazines, or weird Satanist websites asking you to offer a sacrifice in exchange for joining them.”

As Tucker flopped back down on his chair with his arms crossed, pouting and grumbling something along the lines of, “Damn it, Jazz…”, Danny tried fishing for more information. “So they don’t really cast spells?”

The discomfort came back. She knew Danny was only trying to be thorough with his assignment, but that didn’t change the fact that his questions hit a little too close to the mark. “The only way to find out for sure would be meeting one in real life.” She said in a voice so low, even with his enhanced senses Danny almost didn’t hear her. 

Noticing the tension suddenly coming off of Sam, her previously laid-back and even playful posture changing to a much more tense one: legs crossed tightly, her shoulders stiff, both hands clutching at the fabric of her shorts…; Tucker decided it’d be best if they let the topic go for a while. And so, he did what he did best:

He abruptly changed the topic. 

“So Sam,” he called out to her, quickly getting both her and Danny’s heads to snap to him, “I don’t think you’ve ever told me.”

“Tell you what?” What was he doing?

“What’s your deal?”

Sam blinked. “My deal?”

The teal-eyed young man just nodded. “Yeah, what’s your type?” He asked as he leaned forward, mindlessly toying with his PDA. “Because in all the time I’ve known you, I’ve not seen you once with a boyfriend, not even a fling.”

“Tucker, you’ve known me for a year.” She reminded him. “Not necessarily as much time as you make it out to be.”

“Hey, a lot can happen in a year!” He defended. 

“Tucker himself has had three different girlfriends in the last three months.” Danny added. 

“See?” Then, he turned to his best friend with an unamused expression on his face. “But, dude, don’t say it like that; you make me sound like a player.”

“I’m just saying,” the black-haired youth put his palms up in surrender, a lazy grin on his face, “it’s not bad for a guy who was rejected by every single girl back in high school.” 

Tucker just glowered at him, before turning his attention back to Sam. “So...back to the question; what’s your type of guy?”

She could not believe this was happening. Back when she was a teenager, a tinsy bitsy part of her she tried very hard to suppress secretly longed for talking about girl stuff with the other girls her age from her clan. Something as silly as talking boys, makeup, or any other teenaged-girl nonsense with other people would’ve made her lonely childhood all the more bearable, and now…

...now she was being offered to talk about boys...by other boys...at twenty-one. And the worst part was that she was actually considering it. Her life could not get any more complicated than that. Sighing through her nose, unable to believe how low she’d stooped, she gave in. 

Her type...that was a good question. Back when she was still in her early to late teens, she would’ve said she was looking for a unique guy. The type of guy who valued his individuality and who was above all the pointless trends dominating the public with their pre-fabricated, market-targeted predictability. A guy who didn’t fall into any of the classical high school cliques: someone who wasn’t a brainless jock, or a geeky kid, or one of those posers who hid behind a fake dark persona to get people to pay attention to him.

Someone who embraced being different rather than exploited it. 

Someone like her. 

But all those fantasies turned out to be nothing more than that; fantasies. Delusions. Sooner or later she’d have to open her eyes to the world. She just wished Gregor hadn’t been the one to open them up for her… After that fiasco, Sam finally learned what she was truly looking for in a partner. “...a good guy.” She practically whispered in the end. 

Tucker and Danny exchanged a confused glance once their initial surprise at Sam’s sudden reply, after several minutes of silence, had worn off. It was the former who spoke up, “...I’m not sure that qualifies as ‘a type.’”

“Of course it does!”, she protested. “Just like girls stereotypically fall for ‘bad boys’, we can also fall for ‘good guys.’ And I’ve had my fair share of bad boys, thank you…” she muttered before looking away from them. 

Something about the way Sam said those words hinted at a lot more going on than just a teenage girl crushing over a guy with a motorcycleーand hopefully not a ghost one who only wanted her as a vessel for his real girlfriendー, but she seemed to have closed herself off completely. Danny wanted to ask her about it, but something in the way her position stiffened changed his mind. No way would Sam open up to someone she'd just met over something so personal.

Instead he asked, "And how about looks?"

She flashed him a small smile and that alone made his entire week worth it. "I'll admit, I do have a soft spot for guys that aren't exactly average."

Tucker scoffed. "Well, duh! I'd also pick a supermodel over a plain-looking chick any day of the week..."

"That's not what I meant and you know it."

Despite the seriousness in her voice, she eventually broke down laughing, the other two joining in on the fun soon after. As her giggles quieted down, Sam stole a furtive glance at Danny. The way he seemed to sense her discomfort despite barely knowing each other and making an effort to keep her mind away from unpleasant thoughts was enough to make her heart flutter, making her blush slightly at the realisation. 

She shook the feeling off, though. Danny was sweet, and maybe a little cute despite his, apparently, natural awkwardness, but she wasn’t looking for romance, having much more important things to take care of. Besides, he really wasn’t her type, cute as he may be. Still, that didn’t change the fact that she wanted to thank him for his help in some way. And, against her better judgement, she knew just what to do. 

An hour passed by until Tucker had to bid them goodbye, saying he was going to be late for class if he stayed with them any longerーalthough he really, really wanted to skip that lectureー, and so, he left his two friends to their own devices. Another forty minutes or so later, it was finally time for them to go to their respective classes, too. 

Rolling her eyes at Danny as he opened the door for her, but thanking him nonetheless, Sam stepped out of the café, her companion close behind her. “About the spell thing you asked me about earlier…” she started, her words coming out of the blue and tearing Danny away from his own thoughts, “I guess, if witches are actually just humans with magical powers, then it’d make sense if they’d need some sort of way to activate said powers…”

Mouth slightly agape, he finally found the words, “You mean like a password or something?”

She looked over at him from the corner of her eyes, a cryptic smirk on her lovely face. “Maybe.” 

Turning to face him, her smile widening but never losing its mystery, she waved before walking past him, “See ya, Danny.”

Danny slowly waved at her in return, unbidden, too gobsmacked to form a coherent sentence. Because just like that, she was gone. 

[13th-hour-reverie]

So I wrote a DP fan-fiction when I was like 12

It will never see the light of day again-

BUT.

I had some weirdly fun ideas, as a kid?? And I’m not even sure if they’d translate to the teen/kid-audiences of today. (But I know there will be people here to appreciate it.)

I think it was all the 90s buzz around how, “TV and your computer screen will radioactively melt your brain,” or whatever. There was this massive campaign for scare-ads that went out, to keep parents from letting their teens use electronics.

The entire plot revolved around Vlad coming back to Earth (I said I had good ideas, not that I was clever) and wanting to take over the world through the use of...an army of mildly brainwashed teen-halfas that were bribed to do his bidding. He had to hide his identity, and lived underground or in the ‘net in some way. (Better than being left to wander the solar system?)

At the time, I think I knew that kids could be given the power to do whatever they wanted, and if threatened with losing that freedom, would work pretty hard to keep it. Not to mention...how much havoc a couple super-powered teens could actually wreak.

So...if you wanted to “offer” kids world-wide a fleeting taste of power, and then use that to bribe them into doing your bidding (in exchange for being given the power again)...how do you deliver “temporary” ghost-powers to the post-pubescent masses?

Simple.

You just use some weird bullshit ghost-virus to make their chunky 1990s/2000s home computer monitors to deliver a blast of ghost-radiation right into their faces! (Ecto-Acne style, but more refined. With powers reminiscent of what we saw in the hospital episode, when everyone caught the “ghost-flu?”)

Being true to the vibe of the late 90s and early 2000s, I think I had it where this ghost would crawl smaller Geocities circles and forums for “obvious” teenagers to spam. They’d send pop-ups directly to the kid’s computer, directly mirroring all the stuff we were told at the time (Don’t put out your personal information, ever! Never click pop-ups! Never download anything!) until a kid got curious enough to click on it.

The result was a beam of green ectoplasm-laced energy to the face, and a kid waking up with a new, bleached ‘do. I barely knew how radiation worked, but in my head, “ghost essence” or whatever had a pretty short half-life. (geddit??) The kid would be allowed to roam around freely for the first few days, their powers would begin to burn out, and then they’d be back to a normal kid after about a week or two.

To get their powers back, they had to start completing weird, but initially-benign looking tasks. Things like...show up at [x] time at [y] place, or deliver a benign package to a specific person. Eventually, once they proved “trustworthy,” they would get stronger and longer blasts of this ‘virus’ to keep their powers for steadily longer periods of time, until they were finally asked to do things that involved breaking the law.

Having this network of halfas was supposed to allow Vlad to make himself known to the public again. Nobody is going to trust him, but if a tenth of the teenagers in every tech-laden city in the world were under his direct control...he may have a shot at taking over the world. And in theory, these kids could be living anywhere. (A revolutionary concept, at the time.)

Needless to say, the main character was a self-insert. But after realizing the families of these ‘influenced’ teens would need to be kept busy, I started having them all collecting in one place under the guise of a mysterious “Summer Camp.” This particular family gets stuck in a storm, lo and behold, they end up in Amity Park, Guess Who, yadda yadda yadda.

The rest was meeting the canon cast, and a handful of kids trickling through town eventually realizing ‘The Kid Who Saved The World’ lived in town. And that, in order to actually stop what was going on, he was gonna need some equally super-powered help, that wasn’t dependent on following directions received via spam e-mail. Because I always thought it was really stupid, how small and under-powered his team felt.

Mind you, if anybody is SOMEHOW magically one of the few who found/read the original one I posted to FF.net way the fuck back when, you’ll probably notice I never actually got that far in what I’d written/posted. But it was the first story I ever re-wrote, did a story skeleton for, and actually tried to “plan out” with “proper writing techniques.” So little ever actually got written/posted.

I think the “moral” in my kid-brain was actually that, if given the choice, someone given PERMANENT ghost-powers would probably not be choosing to help some evil dude take over the world. But that so many people want to feel strong, or special, or do be able to do things that are ‘amazing’...power corrupts. Especially when your powers are dependent on a megalomaniac fruit loop. (Cuz like, c’mon. We all know he’d try again.)

Someone else has probably done this, and probably did it better, but I’ve so missed the DP canon. It didn’t even hit me how outdated some of these concepts were, until I went back through my (15+ year-) old writing. Yikes. If anybody wants to use it/write it better, have at. I’d be really curious to see how this would translate to the current generation of people Danny’s age, or how it would look re-written for 2020 post-Phantom-Planet canon. (Or however else you’d re-write it!)

My early contribution to Ectober, I guess. May participate with some art this year, if I’m able.

[serenawitchwriter]

Hi! For the wip game, can I ask about

-the ouran host club haunting

-you can only be betrayed by the ones you trust

-teenagers scare rhe living shit out of me (big mood)

-and the addam's family one!

:)

the ouran host club haunting- danny phantom and ouran crossover. after the death of his parents, danny and jazz are adopted by vlad and seperated from their home and friends. they're forced to attend ouran high school because they're rich kids now. but naturally danny's ghostly secret can't stay buried, espescially when the ouran host club are sniffing around.

---

And suddenly all Kyouya easy charm and tact was gone. He was still smiling but it was twisted and dark. Sharp like a tangible threat. In that moment Kyouya looked more evil and dangerous than any villain Danny had ever faced. Worse than Pariah Dark or Niorscape or even Dan.

Kyouya Ootori was the shadow king.

Danny Fenton was terrified.

“Are you saying I was wrong?” Kyouya said in a silky voice, drawing out each syllables.

Danny would have given anything to have a good lie right then, at the same time he knew that if he tried to lie, Kyouya would see through him and he’s be punished. So he stuttered out a “yes, I’m actually a human ghost hybrid. Danny Phantom is my alter ego. I’m a ghost.”

“you’re danny phantom?” shadows played across Kyouya’s face casting him in a dangerous light. Danny had at this point backed himself against a wall and knew he could turn intangible and escape but somehow doubted that would save him.

“yeah,” Danny said transforming right then and there. His ghost form glowed slightly in the uneasy air.

If possible Kyouya’s leer only stretched further, contorting his face into something ugly and malevolent. “so you’re telling me, that some crackpot theory, that some internet stalker posted, that I dismissed months ago, is true?”

“are you talking about Wes? Yeah, oh yeah. A lot of people dismissed the whole Phantom is Fenton thing because of him. that’s why I called him harmless before, his conspiracy theory spin actually made people less likely to believe it. he’s kinda the victim in this whole thing and I’d have explained things to him if he weren’t too paranoid to approach. But yeah he was right. I’m Phantom, I’m a halfa.”

Danny was looking sheepish thinking of his stalker, but Kyouya started to laugh. his laugh grew and grew until it filled the room with its unpleasant sound. “How elegant,” he gasped between breaths. “How clever!”

Danny had instinctively turned invisible and was really wishing he was somewhere else right then.

As Kyouya’s laugh died down his expression had relaxed into something softer. He looked almost amused? and fond? “You are just full of surprises aren’t you, Mr. Fenton.”

Danny returned to the visible plane, tense and unsure. Despite the fact that it meant he was making a deal with the devil, Danny was glad that Kyouya was on his side, rather than against him.

“I’m sure there are only more surprises to come,” Danny said in a shaky voice.

Kyoya folded his hands on the desk. “I’m more than glad to help.”

After all, he thought, with things like ghosts and hybrids running around, the world just kept getting bigger.

[damianwaynerocks]

Ghosts in Gotham

Danny Phantom / DC Comics fanfic

Dedicated to: @dannyphantom-justiceleauge

Summary: The Batfamily has been through their fair share of the supernatural. That’s why they originally weren’t worried whenever ghosts started showing up in Gotham City. Until one day, something happens; Batman is captured and taken into the Ghost Zone. With no way to go in there themselves, the no way to fight the ghosts inside, the bats decide to call the person who can; Danny Phantom. Together, Danny takes Tim Drake, Stephanie Brown and Damian Wayne into the Ghost Zone before the Batman is lost forever.

Words: 2032

ch 2 Masterlist

Chapter 1:

-

Every city had its hero.

Gotham City? Batman. Metropolis? Superman. Central City? The Flash.

Amity Park? Danny Phantom.

Amity Park had mixed feelings about Phantom. Some said he was a helper, a true hero, keeping the town safe. Others said he was a criminal, doing nothing but wreaking havoc on the town. Either way, Phantom was known for one specific thing; fighting ghosts.

Which is what he was doing at the moment.

"I am!! The Box Ghost!!" a short, stocky ghost shouted. His eyes glowed blue and an aura of the same color surrounded the boxes crowding the back of a movie theater. "Beware!" he raised his arms and hurled three boxes at a figure who easily dodged.

"Come on, Box Ghost," a teenage boy with white hair and green eyes floating above the ground groaned. "I don't have time for this! I have to order the new Cheese Viking game before it sells out!"

"Beware!" The Box Ghost shouted again, throwing more boxes at the boy.

Danny Phantom rolled his eyes as his body became intangible, the boxes easily passing through it. He raised his arm, and a blast of bright green energy shot from his palm, hitting the Box Ghost square in the chest. The Box Ghost, with a grunt, was blown back into the brick wall of the movie theater.

Not wasting any time, Danny grabbed the thermos that he had strapped to his back and pointed it at the other ghost. In a flash of light, the Box Ghost was sucked into the thermos.

"Finally," Danny muttered as he took off into the sky.

Danny Phantom, his real name being Danny Fenton, was a sixteen-year-old halfa, or a ghost-human hybrid. He could switch between ghost and human form at will. He'd gotten his powers from an accident with the Ghost Portal, a portal in his home that was a bridge between the human world and the Ghost Zone, where every ghost resides.

Ghosts repeatedly escaped the Ghost Zone through this portal for one of three reasons; to wreak havoc on the human world, to kill Danny or both. Usually, it was the latter.

Danny returned to his house, passing through the walls of the building with intangibility and landing in the lab. He switched back to his human form in a flash of light, changing his hair color from white to black and his eyes from green to blue.

His family was made up of ghost hunters- aside from his sister -so they had an entire lab dedicated to ghost technology.

"Back you go, Boxy," Danny said as he released the Box Ghost into the portal. "Finally," he sighed, "Time to get Cheese Viking."

"No!" he shouted five minutes later at his computer. The new Cheese Viking, Danny's favorite game, had sold out.

"Danny!" a large man in an orange jumpsuit burst into the boy's room. "Are you okay!? Are you hurt!?"

"No, Dad, I'm fine," Danny replied to his father, Jack Fenton. "Except for that stupid Box Ghost making me too late to get Cheese Viking!"

He hadn't told his parents about his life as Phantom until he was fifteen. Well, it wasn't Danny who told them. His sister found him in his room passed out with a gaping hole in his side, and she had to tell their parents so they could help him.

Jack paused. "But.. you got him?" he asked cheerily. Danny smiled.

"Yeah. I got him." Jack slapped him on the back.

"Thatta boy!" he said with a grin. "Come on, Jazz got a letter from Wayne Enterprises and your mom wants the whole family to watch her open it!"

Jazz, Danny's sister, had just graduated high school and had applied for an internship at Wayne Enterprises, one of the largest businesses in the world. An internship there would kick-start her career in marketing. That was the reason she claimed, but Danny was sure that part of the reason was that Bruce Wayne, the billionaire who owned Wayne Enterprises, was cute.

"Finally!" Jazz, a girl with long red hair and a blue headband huffed. "I haven't been able to look for three hours! What were you out doing?"

"Uh, my job?" Danny smirked as he hopped over the back of the couch to sit on it. Jazz rolled her eyes.

"Open it, dear!" Their mom, Maddie Fenton, urged. Jazz grinned widely, opening the letter. Her smile grew, and she jumped up and down.

"I got it!" she squealed. "I got it!! I got the internship!!"

"That's great, Jazz!" the other three Fentons exclaimed at once. Jazz seemed to get even more excited as she continued reading the letter.

"And," she continued excitedly, "All the interns are expected to attend the next Wayne Gala with their families! All expenses paid!"

"Yes!" Jack cried. "We're going to New Jersey, baby!" As the entire family celebrated, Danny couldn't help but be suspicious. Jazz had applied late and while she was smart, she wouldn't have been anything special next to the other applicants.

Something was up. _

"So what, you think she only got accepted because of you?" A girl with short black hair raised an eyebrow as they walked through the halls of their high school. "Why, exactly?"

"Because, Sam," Danny responded to his girlfriend. "It's weird. I was looking at the Infi-map, and there's a portal to the Ghost Zone in Gotham that wasn't there a month ago. And get this? It's five miles away from Wayne Manor.”

"You think Bruce Wayne wants you out of the way for some plan?

"It wouldn't be the first time somebody did."

"But how would he even know who you are?" Sam Manson asked, "I mean, there's no way he knows that you're Phantom."

"Um, because he's Batman?" An African American boy walking beside them scoffed as though it was obvious. "Batman knows everything."

Danny and Sam laughed. "Tucker, seriously?" Danny shook his head in disbelief. "That conspiracy? Batman and Bruce Wayne have been seen at the same time in the same place multiple times.”

"Okay, well, you can clone yourself! Who's to say Batman can't? Or maybe it's a hologram! Or maybe it's one of his thousand children in the suit!" Tucker Foley counted on his fingers as he rattled off the various theories. His eyes widened, and he grabbed Danny's shoulders. "Dude, you have to get proof."

"There's no way I'd be able to get close enough to Bruce Wayne to prove anything."

"Then trick him!" Tucker said, his eyes bright. "Most of Bruce's adopted kids are boys with black hair and blue eyes! Just say you're an orphan and I bet he'll be like 'Of course you can stay, I am always down for more children."

"Okay, first of all," Danny began, adjusting his backpack on his shoulder and prying his friends arms off of him. “His son Damian? That kid scares me, he gives off Dash vibes. Did you see how he made that interviewer cry?"

A few months prior, a video had surfaced that showed Damian Wayne insulting a girl who was trying to give him an interview. The two-minute video ended with the girl crying.

"And second of all-" Danny was cut off as he was shoved to the ground. He looked up to see Dash Baxter, a muscular boy with blonde hair.

"Watch where you're going, Fen-freak," Dash sneered, "Before I shove your puny face into a locker!"

Danny gritted his teeth as he sat up. Dash had been picking on him from the beginning of high school. Two years later, he hadn't stopped.

On any other occasion, Danny would have said something in response, but Dash had already continued down the hall.

"Why can't you just zap him or something?" Tucker grumbled. "He's the worst!"

"Yeah, I know," Danny stood up, wiping dust off of his shirt. "But I can't. It isn't right."

"Your moral code is dumb," his friend snapped back.

"If you're going to Gotham," said Sam with a pointed look at Tucker. "Who's gonna be here to help with the ghosts?"

"I've got it covered," Danny replied swiftly, looking up. "Dani's coming down.  It'll be fine. I have to keep Jazz safe, and figure out what Brucie Wayne is up to."

__

"I am sure Father would have a better plan than to invite some under-qualified intern to the Manor."

A seventeen-year-old boy with spiky black hair rolled his eyes. "Damian, she isn't under-qualified. She meets all of the qualifications for the internship."

The first boy, an Arab thirteen-year-old with the same spiky hair and bright green eyes, scoffed. "There is no way a person from some backwater town would have received the internship if we hadn't needed her brother."

Tim Drake and Damian Wayne, the youngest children of Bruce Wayne. Damian currently held the Robin mantle, while Tim used Red Robin. The brothers were in a large cave decked out with a plethora of high-tech equipment.

"Okay, but you think every place outside of Gotham is a backwater town." Tim pointed out as he swiveled his chair to face a massive computer.

"Amity Park is a backwater town. The citizens there are animals," Damian retorted, crossing his arms. "You just cannot see that because you are also a backwater type."

Tim laughed as he realized what the younger boy was basing his opinion on. "Damian, please tell me you haven't generalized an entire city just because of one tourist from Amity Park ran into you and spilled soda on your shirt."

"It was my favorite shirt! And that cretin did not even apologize!" Damian spat. "The nerve!"

"Okay, well, put aside your dumb grudge and think about the objective," Tim responded. "I think, if you look within that thing you call a soul, you can see that letting one intern that you think is under-qualified is worth getting Bruce back."

"Tt. I suppose," Damian admitted begrudgingly. "If this Danny Phantom character truly has the potential to save Father."

"He's the only one who can." Tim reminded him. "We can't get into the Ghost Zone without a ghost, and I don't think any of the ones we've seen so far would be willing to help," He paused. "Plus, don't the Fentons make ghost hunting gear? Who knows, maybe they have a ghost sword."

After a sudden wave of ghost attacks in Gotham, Bruce had poured in countless hours of research to find out as much as he could about ghosts. He had discovered that they came from another dimension and that there was one person who was an expert at fighting them; Danny Phantom of Amity Park. It didn't take very long for him to uncover Phantom's true identity.

"Tim! Dames!" a voice shouted. "My boys!" Tim and Damian looked towards the stairs and saw a taller man with black hair and blue eyes jump the railing of said stairs, landing in the Bat Cave.This was their oldest brother, Dick Grayson, also known as Nightwing. He grinned brightly. "How's it going?"

"Making sure that we have every possible outcome of this mission prepared for." Tim replied as he continued typing on the Bat Computer. Damian nodded.

“Yes, and so I have decided that I shall accompany them on this journey."

"Damian, no." his older brothers said at the same time. Damian scowled.

"Why not? I am plenty capable of-

"Because people would get suspicious if Batman suddenly didn't have a Robin," Dick answered, strolling towards the younger boy. "That's why Jason, Tim, and Stephanie are going. They won't be missed," He gave Tim a nervous look. "No offense."

"None taken," Tim replied, waving his hand. "Sorry Damian, you'd just get in the way."

"But I have died before!" Damian huffed, his hands clenching into fists. "That combined with my skills- which are far greater than yours, Drake, I might add -makes me much more qualified than you."

"Little D, dude, I just told you," Dick ruffled his younger brother's hair. "It'll be suspicious if you're gone. And besides, I need you. We're a great team."

"But my father is in there-"

"Master Damian-" their butler, Alfred Pennyworth, interrupted the trio's squabbling. "You won't be going anywhere until your homework is done."

"Homework? Finding my father is much more important than an essay on why the Roman empire fe-"

"Master Damian." Alfred repeated in a low tone. "Now."

Damian scowled as he trudged up the stairs. It didn't matter how tough the person was. When Alfred told you to do something, you do it. "I will be going with you, Drake!" he called behind his shoulder. "I promise you that!"

Dick and Tim exchanged a glance and rolled their eyes.

"Children."

[ghostsray]

Wes Fucking Dies

[originally i wrote this fic for phandom bingo week (using the prompts Someone dies + Wes Weston + Identity Reveal) but then i spent so long on it that the week ended so uh...here, just take it]

word count: 4,655

____

Skulker had a new toy, and of course, Danny had to find out the hard way. Why couldn't Skulker ever invite him to his lair, show him his gadgets, and say "look, I made a new invention!" instead of using it on him on the field?

He narrowly avoided a missile which hit the floor, missing him by inches. The half-ghost grinned up at Skulker, who was looking down at him from the sky. "Really, Skulker," he chided, "you could have sent a letter instead of missing me so much."

Skulker scowled and aimed another shot at Danny. As cocky as he sounded, Danny could feel his body getting exhausted. He had been dodging Skulker's attacks for the past half hour, and if he kept this up much longer, he might run out of energy and turn back into his human form. Here's to hoping that didn't happen.

He flew away just in time to avoid another missile, and this time, it hit a building behind him. The impact sent debris crumbling down toward...oh shit is that a person?

Danny sprinted toward the citizen and picked him up before the rubble could crush him. He let out a sigh of relief as they both made it out unharmed. Well, until he looked down and saw who he was carrying.

"I could have saved myself, Fenton," Wes Weston grumbled in his arms.

Danny's eye twitched, and he considered dropping Wes right then and there. He had to remind himself that he was supposed to be a hero, and heroes didn't drop citizens out of the sky. So, he waited until they reached the ground before setting the redhead down.

"Wes," he began, "what were you doing standing under that building? You know that areas where ghost fights happen are dangerous to be in."

"You just say that because you don't want anyone to see you," Wes spat back. "I know your energy is depleting. I know you'll transform into a human when it's gone. And I'll get the evidence when you do."

Deep breaths, Danny. After taking a deep inhale then letting it out, the hero glared at Wes and spoke, "I'm serious. I know you're obsessed with exposing me or something, but you really need to stay away or you'll get hurt." He looked down at Wes's hand and saw him holding a camera, so he snatched it from him and added, "I'll take this, thank you very much."

Wes simply reached into his pocket and pulled out another camera. Of course he had a backup. Danny rolled his eyes and, after destroying the camera he took, sprang back into the air. He headed back toward Skulker, but not before shouting to Wes, "Seriously, stay back!"

Danny flew into battle, his fists ablaze with ectoplasm. Ectoblasts were shot from his hands at Skulker, but it seemed that the ghost had built a new shield into his metallic suit because all of them were deflected. Once Danny got too close, the robotic hunter punched him, and the halfa slammed against the concrete wall of a building.

He groaned and peeled himself off the cracked wall. When he looked up, he saw Skulker smirking at him. Danny bit his lip. He knew continuing to fight this way won't work... He had to pull out his emergencies attack.

His eyes made a quick scan across the street, but he wasn't that attentive about it. After all, he had already made sure that everyone left the scene when the brawl started. Hopefully, Wes listened to him and did too. There was no one around but him and Skulker.

He floated down to the road and planted his feet firmly on the asphalt. He faced Skulker, took a deep breath, and let out a bloodcurdling scream. That scream transformed into ectoplasmic energy that tore down everything in its path. Skulker was caught in the attack, his body thrown against a building before he could become intanngible. As the wail died down, Danny swiftly whipped out a thermos and trapped the ghost in.

As soon as the lid was on the thermos, he fell to his knees. The exertion finally reached him, and he felt all the energy being sucked from his body. He let the transformation rings run through him as his body went from ghost to human. The wind blew against his human skin--but not before he heard a click.

He turned around and saw...goddamnit. "Wes?"

Wes lowered the camera from his face to reveal a smug grin. Before Danny could say anything, he turned and sprinted.

Danny tried to get up and cursed when he fell back down. Why did fighting ghosts have to be so draining? He glared as the other boy fled from him--and then his eyes widened.

"Watch out!" Danny shouted.

Wes paused just long enough to look at him. The only problem was that he stopped right under the building Skulker had earlier been slammed against. The building that was severely cracked and about to collapse.

Danny pushed himself to his feet despite his body's complaints. He summoned the last vestiges of ghost energy he had to transform himself into a ghost and kicked into flight. He reached out, going as fast as he could to reach Wes before the rubble could crush him.

He was too late.

The last thing he saw was Wes's green eyes staring into his own before he was buried under the building.

"No!" he screamed. He reached the pile of crushed concrete where Wes once stood. It didnt matter if his body screamed at him to rest; he gathered all his supernatural strength and lifted the rubble out of the way. Wes can't be dead. He can't be. If he moved all this rubble away, then surely he'd find him injured but alive, and then he can take him to a hospital and--

His body froze at the sight he had unburied. If he weren't in ghost form at that moment, he was certain he would have vomited. He clamped a hand over his mouth and sunk to the ground, unable to take his eyes away.

There was no way Wes survived, and Danny didn't need to check his pulse to know. After all, the boy was nothing more than a pie of blood on the ground. Danny's form shook, and he couldnt stop the tears leaking out of his eyes. If only he made sure that Wes had left before he used his wail. If only he didn't make him stop underneath the falling building. If only he hadn't reverted to human before he could save him.

If only, if only. None of that changed what really happened.

Wes was dead. And it was Danny's fault.

____

Walter closed the door behind him as he entered the apartment. It was late at night; he had to stay at work to do some extra accounting. He was about to take off his coat, but an unusual cold that permeated the room made him keep it on.

He thought he heard someone in the living room, and his muscles tensed. "Wes?" he called out. No reply came.

He cautiously stepped into the room, and the person came into view. A glowing person sitting on air. He recognized those white hair and green eyes...wasn't he the ghost Wes was obsessed with?

Something was wrong. The ghost looked terrible, both physically and emotionally. But the physical injuries weren't unusual; he did fight enemies daily, after all. No--what made Walter's blood freeze was the intense grief on the phantom's face, evident in puffy eyebags and glossy eyes. And he was looking directly at Walter.

Before Walter could ask what was wrong, he said in a voice so soft he almost didn't hear him, "Your son died."

It felt like the whole world dropped beneath his feet. "What?" he asked, because he had to have heard that wrong, right?

"Wes died," the ghost repeated, his voice one decibel away from a sob. "I couldn't save him."

This couldn't be real. It had to be a dream. It certainly felt like one.

Phantom gave him one last, sad gaze and said, "I'm sorry." Then he vanished.

For a long moment, Walter stood there, trying to process what has been said to him. Once he did, he scrambled to grab his phone and quickly dialed Wes. The phone rang. No one picked up. He tried again, and again and again. But Wes never answered.

Wes was...

No. It couldn't be true. He didn't want to believe it...but he knew Phantom was telling the truth.

He let the phone slip through his fingers, then he buried his face in his hands and mourned his only family.

____

Everyone was shocked when they learned about Wes's passing. The pain was made more apparent when they went to school and realized just how much difference his absence made. The halls were too quiet, the classrooms too peaceful without Wes's crazy blabbering. No one thought they would miss hearing him ramble about conspiracy theories, but then again, you never know when you'd miss something until after it's gone.

Danny's enhanced senses let him pick up whispers around him, and everywhere he went in the school, people were talking to each other in hushed whispers, asking Is it true? Is that Weston kid really dead?

He wished he could shut his ears and forget all about Wes. But everytime he closed his eyes, he saw Wes's bloody, squashed remains, and he had to swallow down bile that rose in his throat.

"It's not your fault."

Danny opened his eyes to see Tucker standing in front of him. He held a look in his eyes that seemed an awful lot like pity. Danny looked down and clenched his hands into fists. "I could have saved him," he insisted.

"You did what you could," Sam said, walking from behind him to stand next to Tucker. "He was the one who stayed around despite your warnings." She tried to say it with confidence, but Danny heard the falter in her voice. Not even she could accept Wes's death without shock.

Danny was quiet. He closed his eyes, but then that sickening image appeared again, so he opened them and sighed. "I just...need some time alone."

He waited for them to leave. A part of him expected them to stay and argue, but it seemed they could tell that he needed space. Sam reminded him that they were there for him, Tucker agreed and added that he could talk to them whenever, and Danny simply nodded wordlessly until his friends turned and left.

He stood in the hallway, leaning against the lockers, until everyone else was gone and he was alone. No matter how much he told himself to go to class, he felt a weight dragging him down and preventing him from doing anything productive. He just wished he could curl on the floor and stay there until the day was done.

Eventually, though, he managed to get his body to walk. He dragged his feet step after step down the hallway, trying to remember which class he was supposed to attend this hour. He made it past a few lockers when his ghost sense was triggered.

As soon as the mist escaped his mouth, his body tensed, and he whipped around in place, trying to spot whichever ghost he was alerted to. He couldn't find anything. While his eyes scanned the hallway, he suddenly heard a click. He turned around and didn't spot anything unusual at first--but then he looked down and found a polaroid photograph on the floor which wasn't there before.

Danny narrowed his eys. He bent down to pick up the photo and studied it. It was...a picture of him. Caught in the middle of a transformation between ghost and human. He was kneeling on the ground, looking tired and haggard in his ghost form. Two rings of light surrounded his midriff, revealing the human clothes underneath his ghost jumpsuit.

Danny's blood turned to ice. He recognized the background of this photo. It was the same street he fought in yesterday. The same one where Wes--

The lights flickered. Danny's eyes snapped away from the photo. He could sense the ghost nearby.

Danny focused the ectoplasm from his body into his eyes. They lit up green, and the world around him changed colors. Everything was blanketed in shades of teal and purple--the colors he saw as a ghost. There, in the middle of the hallway, he saw the outline of a humanoid specter.

The air left Danny's lungs. He recognized that outline. Paired with the photograph... it had to be him. "Wes?" he called out hesitantly.

The ghost came into view, and now it was unmistakable. Even though the eyes that were staring at him were red instead of green, and the skin green instead of pink, Danny was certain that it was him. He had the same messy hair and wore the same basketball shirt.

It was Wes, back as a ghost.

Danny's heart jump in elation. Wes was back! He had an apology on the tip of his tongue, ready to spill so many things he thought he would never get to say to him. But then he stopped at the sight of Wes's expression. He didn't appear to share the same joy Danny felt.

In fact, his face held what could only be described as rage.

"Phantom," Wes growled. Even though he had the same voice, it made Danny's blood run cold in a way it never had when he was alive. Before the boy could blink, Wes lunged at him.

Danny yelped as he was tackled through a wall. Screams rose around him as they emerged in a filled classroom. He tried to convince himself that he did not hear something crack when Wes slammed him against the teacher's desk.

"Hey, let's talk this out!" Danny wheezed out, holding an arm out placatingly. But Wes was not placated.

The ghost that was once his classmate hovered over Danny with a growl. His eyes were glaringly red, his hair burned like fire, and his entire form shined with angry intensity. His hands curled into fists, and Danny rolled out of the way just in time before Wes sent a punch that smashed the entire table.

Danny pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the wincing pain throughout his human body. Behind him, he could hear the students talking loudly amongst themselves, the words "Wes" and "holy shit" sticking out a lot. Wes didn't seem to pay any attention to them; his eyes were focused on Danny.

"Come on, what do you want from me?" Danny pleaded. "I'm sure I can give it to you without fighting."

Wes paused in the middle of a swing. Honestly, Danny wasn't sure the ghost would listen to him, but he hesitated. Then his mouth split into a grin, revealing fangs that looked out of place on Wes's face. "Then transform," he said.

Danny froze.

He understood, now, why Wes was attacking him. He wanted him to fight back...as a ghost. But in a filled classroom, the others will see his transformation. He could feel their eyes boring into his back.

It made sense. Of course the conspiracy theorist would refuse to pass on just so he could reveal Danny.

He gulped. Well, there was always one option besides fighting...

Danny ran.

But of course, the angry ghost fighting him wouldnt let him escape. Wes grabbed a piece of wood from the broken table and threw it at Danny. His first thought was to turn intangible, but then he remembered about the many humans watching them, and he couldn't dodge fast enough to avoid the sharp splinter from grazing his arm. He gasped and gripped at the wound on his limb.

Cold claws clasped around his neck, and Danny was turned around to face Wes's burning eyes. The ghost's claws dug into his skin, enough to draw blood. Danny couldn't breathe. Wes was squeezing his throat, and Danny could see blackness creep into his vision. The halfa knew he couldn't escape without revealing his ghost powers, but if he didn't, he would die.

Suddenly, there was a thump. Danny's vision cleared just enough for him to see a book bounced off Wes's back. Wes whipped his head around to face...Danny couldn't believe it. Dash was standing behind his desk, an arm outstretched. Who would have thought the jock would help Danny?

As Wes growled, another book was flung at him from a different spot in the room. Danny didn't see who threw it that time, but soon more and more students rose up to protect him. A flurry of books, notebooks, and pencil cases flew across the room...not that any of it hurt Wes, since he simply turned intangible and let the objects fly through. They hit the wall behind him, and quite a few hit Danny, but at least there was one good thing resulting from this: Wes was intangible. Now was Danny's chance to phase his way out without raising questions.

He slipped through Wes's grip while the ghost was distracted. As soon as his feet hit the floor, he ran through the classroom door, ignoring the sting on his arm and his throat. His shoes flew across the floor as he sped down the hallway, his lungs gasping for air. There! The janitor's closet. He jumped inside, closed the door behind him, and swiftly transformed. Black became white, blue became green, and blood became ectoplasm. The pain dulled as soon as he became a ghost, and he felt ready now to take on Wes...at least, he was pretty sure he was. Maybe. Probably?

He still couldn't believe it. Sure, Wes was obsessed with him, but he would never willingly hurt him...but of course, that was before he became a ghost. Ghosts were driven by their obsessions. It didn't matter if anyone got hurt or not as long as their goal was achieved.

He shut his eyes and leaned against a shelf, wincing at the slight pain that shot through his form. It was hard to accept, but it was the truth. Wes was a ghost.

For a while, Danny stood there in the silent darkness, taking deep, steady breaths. His moment of peace was interrupted when his ghost sense was triggered again, causing his eyes to fly open. Wes must be nearby.

He took one more gulp of air and steeled himself, then he pushed himself into a straight position and walked through the door, ready to face his former classmate.

Wes the ghost looked the same as he did a few minutes ago, except for the apparent increase of rage on his expression. He wasn't happy to see Danny in his ghost form. "Why do you always have to hide when you change?" he hissed.

Normally, Danny would have cracked a humorous reply, but today didn't feel like the right time. Instead, he calmly said, "This isn't you, Wes."

The ghost tilted his head. His sharp teeth were bared midway between a smirk and a snarl. "Really? And who else would I be, Mr. Fenton?"

Danny told himself that his hands werent shaking as he continued. "You don't have to do this."

Wes gnashed his teeth, and his eyes burned brighter. "Yes I do," he argued. "You'll never reveal yourself on your own, and I can't give up on something I've died for."

Even though those words weren't news, they stabbed through Danny's core. The images of Wes's death flashed across his eyes again. Wes had died in an effort to expose Danny, and now Danny was the one responsible for the existence of the aggressive ghost before him.

He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out. What was there to say? Wes had a point.

He heard murmurs and turned his head to see several students peeking out of their classrooms, ignoring their education in favor of their curiosity. This was far from the first time Phantom had fought a ghost in their school, but it was the first time that ghost was of someone they knew.

When he turned back to Wes, he didn't like the grin on the ghost's face at the sight of so many onlookers.

This time, Danny was prepared when Wes attacked. He called up a shield before the ghost's claws could scratch him. Wes didn't relent, and he continued to attack Danny from different angles.

Danny knew that this small hallway was not appropriate for a ghost fight. He also knew that Wes was only fighting him because of the onlookers surrounding them. He had to take the fight somewhere else.

As soon as the opportunity arose, Danny let down his shield just long enough to grab Wes, and he yanked them both through the floor. They landed in an empty cafeteria, where Wes promptly broke away from Danny's grip.

Wes hissed at him, clearly unhappy. Apparently, the ghost decided to take out his anger in the form of violence, because he began to shoot red ectoplasm at Danny. The room lit up with bursts of color as the ghosts exchanged attacks...okay, so maybe "exchanged" wasn't an entirely accurate description. Because no matter how much Wes fought him, Danny stayed on the defensive.

It was stupid, but he couldn't get himself to hurt his opponent back. Not when it was someone he knew in life.

He wasn't sure how long he spent blocking and dodging, but soon enough, the halfa was getting tired. His breaths came out in short puffs. Breathing automatically in ghost form...that wasn't a good sign. He paused for a second to lean against his knees--and that was long enough for Wes to make his move.

He blinked, and suddenly Wes was tackling them through a wall. Students and staff jumped out of the way as Danny was thrown against a row of lockers. So they were back in the hallway, and this time it was even fuller when everyone was going to their next class. (In the back of Danny's brain, he absently noted that he had missed another class. Mr. Lancer would not be happy.)

He barely finished that thought when Wes suddenly appeared in front of him. Before Danny knew what was happening, the ghost had plunged his claws into his chest.

It hurt. Pain flared from his chest and throughout his entire body. It felt like Wes was squeezing his very core. Danny couldn't help it--he screamed. He was paralyzed with pain, and Wes appeared to be enjoying it.

"Let him go!" someone shouted, and Danny blinked through the tears in his eyes to see Sam pushing her way in front of the crowd to face Wes. Wes turned his glaring eyes at her with a snarl. He straightened up and let his scarlet eyes flash with intensity, daring Sam to take another step. The girl kept her back straight, but it was apparent from how pale her face became that she wasnt as fearless as she was pretending to be.

Somehow, seeing Sam gave Danny more clarity. He forced himself through the thick waves of pain, and--ignoring his previous decision of holding back in his attacks--he sent the strongest ecto-blast he could muster at Wes. The ghost was shoved away and smashed into the opposite wall. As he went, his claws scraped at the wound on Danny's chest, making it bleed further. He winced. The damage had been done. Ectoplasm now leaked from a hole in his chest.

Danny could feel his energy gushing out from his wound. All of a sudden, the world tilted underneath his feet, and he staggered. His vision blurred into splotches of color, like a painting caught out in the rain.

Was it normal for him to taste ectoplasm leaking from his mouth? Danny was fairly certain that wasn't normal. He heard Sam calling his name and sluggishly lifted his head to see her standing before him, her hands hovering over his chest. When had she made her way to him? He followed her wide eyes to the spot on his chest. Right, the wound. The ectoplasm was gushing out at this point. He could feel the gravity increasing on him the more he bled. He blinked away the haziness in his eyes, and as he did, he saw something rise over her shoulder.

Danny had just enough alertness left over in his brain to recognize it as Wes. As fast as his exhausted mind would let him, he pushed Sam away and summoned a shield. He strained to keep the last wisps of ghostly energy he had to keep the shield up as Wes beamed ectoplasmic energy against it. How come Wes was so strong, anyway? His ghost just formed. It wasn't fair.

Not much time passed before Danny's energy completely drained away, and the shield cracked like a thin sheet of ice. The blast slammed against him, and he was shoved against the wall before collapsing onto the floor. He tried to stand up after that, but the task turned out to be as easy as walking on slippery oil. He immediately fell back down and stayed there. He was tired. Why was he so tired?

He waited for another attack, but none came. He forced himself to look up and saw several pairs of eyes. At first, he thought he was seeing double vision, but the eyes didn't belong to Wes. They belonged to the several students and teachers who were surrounding the two ghosts, wanting to help their hero but unsure how. In the center of the free space left by the crowd, Wes hovered.

His face was split into a grin. He was watching, waiting. For what? For Danny to die? That sounded fair. After all, Danny let Wes die. It made sense for him to return the favor.

Danny was about to surrender to the blackness creeping around his vision when a movement in the crowd caught his eye. A boy...Tucker?...pushed himself toward the scene, holding in his hand a familiar metallic cylinder. Wes's eyes widened at the object, but it was too late. With the press of a button, a beam of light shot at Wes and pulled him in.

"No!" Wes screamed. "No! I have to see it!" He tried to claw his way away from the thermos, but his effort was futile. He was captured inside the cylinder, which Tucker immediately put a cap on as soon as he was inside.

"Da--Phantom!" the geek cried out and ran toward him. He knelt next to his friend. Beside him, Sam did the same.

Danny's breath was ragged. It felt impossible to keep his eyes open anymore. He let his heavy eyelids fall over his eyes, and as he did, he felt a cold tingle travel across his body.

All around him, he heard gasps. He forced his eyes open again just to see what caused so much shock. Everyone was staring at him with wide eyes. When he looked down, he realized why.

The green leaking from him was turning red. His cotton shirt was wet and sticky from the blood. The hair drooping in front of his eyes was black. In his mouth, the lime taste was turning to copper.

Of course. How couldn't he have seen it earlier? All ghosts had some power related to their obsession. That was why Wes could beat his ass so easily--enough to revert him into his human form.

Normally, Danny would have been more alarmed at the reveal of his identity and the fact that he was maybe possibly dying. But now, he found that he didn't have enough energy to care. He was tired...maybe a small nap wouldnt hurt.

With his friends' voices lingering in his ears, he closed his eyes again and let himself surrender to the darkness.