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friking-awsom-kitten · 5 years

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I'm too young for life IASA Chapter 5

Danny woke up with a start. He laid immobile on his bed and stared at the ceiling, his ears perked. It took a few moments before he relaxed slightly. He was grateful that he still remembered the day before. He was a seventeen? year old boy named Danny...Fenton, yes and...he had a mom and a dad and a big sister named after a music genre. Jazz, yeah it was Jazz. He's famous for something and...let's see. His parents are ghost scientists and he can cook.

That was about it.

Danny really hoped he could learn more about his life today. Hopefully it would explain... everything.

He sighed a bit and sat up. He hadn't gone to sleep until late, but he still felt well rested. He scrunched his nose. He really needed a shower asap.

Let's see, where was the shower. Ah yes.

Danny entered the bathroom but went right back out to get a new pair of clothes. His parents had given him clean clothes so he didn't have to leave the hospital in a hospital gown, but he just wanted a fresh start of the day.

The boy threw a pair of clothes from the closet and on the ground and started undressing. However, when he slipped off his shirt he froze.

Was that really weird skin or...

Why were there so many light patches of skin. Why did those patches have ridges. What-

He scrambled out of the bathroom and stood in front of the full body mirror in horror.

His body was a patchwork of skin and scars. Even with his limited knowledge of weapons, Danny could see he had stood on the business end of all of them at some point. Wait...were those claw marks?

What is this?

Danny's hands trembled as they touched his stomach. What had happened to him? Had he been caught by criminals and tortured? Was he a professional assassin? Was he part of a dangerous gang full of guns, knives and...bears? Wolves?

He was overcome by panic and struggled to get out of his pants. He hopped around and fell on the ground. He lay there, staring at his legs, which weren't much different from the rest of his body. Air escaped his mouth as he ran his fingers over his scars.

Was he a fireman? He had a lot of burnt parts. Isn't he too young to be a fireman? What was he? Sixteen? Too young.

Danny humphed and fell on the ground, staring at the ceiling intently. "What the fuck what the fuck what the fuck." He raised his arms to the ceiling and glared at them. What the fuck, he thought, how is scars the only thing that was left after whatever happened to him? How wasn't he dead? He grunted and slammed his hands on the ground. "Ok." The poor boy took a deep breath. He rubbed his eyes roughly. "Ok then. Whatever. I'm a mutilated human? Being? I- whatever." He stood up and made his way back to the bathroom. He paused and turned his head to look at the mirror once more. It showed his back, which looked like it had had pieces of concrete slammed into them. How didn't he have broken bones? Or missing limbs?

The boy huffed and turned back around. "All I wanted was a damn shower."

He took off his boxers and put the water to the coldest setting.

Some time later a slightly dripping but freshly washed and clothed boy walked carefully down the stairs to the kitchen. It was empty and he couldn't hear anyone moving in the living room, or in the house for that matter. It wasn't that early was it?

He looked around for a clock and the one he found said it was 8:30. That wasn't early... But apparently his family didn't do mornings because everyone's breathing was even and deep.

Danny, however, found himself to be very hungry so he set about opening every cabinet and searching for anything to eat. He barely remembered where everything was so it took a bit to find the bread. He skipped putting anything on it and ate three slices before he spread some peanut butter on the fourth.

He heard his...dad wake up and start dressing so he figured the rest would come soon and made the table with what he could find.

His thirst urged him to open the fridge, but he wondered if he would find anything drinkable in there because he sensed (smelled? He wasn't sure, but he knew) ectoplasm and other chemicals in there. The boy braced himself and opened the fridge. His other hand flung forward to hold back a small green blob that Danny figured was a ghost. He inclined his head. "Hello, little guy. It's not very nice to attack someone without even a greeting. I'm just here to drink something."

That just seemed to agitate the ghost more and Danny hurried to continue. "I won't hurt you! I-" he searched the fridge and found a pack of juice. "Can I have that?" He pointed at it and saw the blob ghost consider it. After a moment he sensed its affirmation and grabbed the pack, simultaneously letting go of the ghost, who curled back inside as he closed the door. Danny sat down to drink and wondered if his parents knew this house was haunted.

Soon enough Jack entered and lit up at the sight of Danny eating breakfast. "Good morning! Good to see you're here!"

Danny nodded, knowing he wasn't only talking about being downstairs but being here and out of the hospital in general. "Made breakfast."

"Thank you Danno. I'm starving."

They sat for a half hour, talking fast and jumping from one random topic to the next. Danny kind of enjoyed talking to this man. At some point he asked whether he knew about the ghost in their refrigerator and Jack admitted that he did, but no matter what kind of antighost powder they sprinkled around the machine those little guys kept showing up.

Danny was extremely amused that this family of ghost hunters couldn't get rid of the ghostly pests in their fridge. "Don't you hate ghosts?"

Jack appeared surprised and offended. "Of course not. I love ghosts. Why would I spend years studying and researching on something that I hate." The woman of the house walked in as he continued talking. "Ghosts are amazing!"

Danny frowned in confusion, looking between his dad and his mom, who was shuffling to the fridge in her pyamas. She grabbed a skillet, opened the fridge, let the blob ghost slam into the skillet as she grabbed something to drink and closed the fridge.

"Aren't you ghost hunters?" The boy continued.

"Ghost hunters is our official term," Maddie explained, "But it's not our official job."

"Huh?"

She plopped down next to him. "We do hunt ghosts, yes, but that's only a very small part of all we do. We study their anatomy, DNA (or what's left of it), mannerisms, lairs, obsessions and run through all theories on ghosts to give proof on which are true and which stereotypes should be eradicated." She brought some food to her mouth and spoke through half a mouth full. "Of course, we can't prove or disprove anything without a specimen."

Jack nodded. "Ghosts are fascinating. And the more we learn about them, the more complex they turn out to be," he stabbed his knife in his toast, "the more amazing they are."

Danny felt a bit uncomfortable, but also a bit relieved that their whole profession didn't revolve around the hunting and extinction of ghosts. "So why call yourself a Ghost Hunter?"

"Because of previous misconceptions of ghosts," Maddie explained a bit annoyed, "as soon as anyone found a ghost lair, they wanted it gone. I don't see them wanting to eradicate the birds building a nest in the trees."

Danny flinched.

Jack nodded, munching on the last of his bread. "It's for business purposes. Don't worry, Danno. Everyone knows more about ghosts now. Us Fentons don't keep our research a secret. We only keep calling ourselves ghost hunters because it catches other ghost organizations' eye. We need to get materials from somewhere."

Danny nodded, deep in thought. He wasn't quite sure what to think. So how did his parents stand on the idea of ghosts now? They loved them, they said. Loved to...inspect them? That's the general vibes he'd gotten. And he didn't really like them. But they did say that thanks to them, people had gotten more used to ghosts.

It was then that Jazz entered and greeted everyone. She smiled at him especially, but he was too out of it to respond.

She let him and quickly ate her breakfast. Jack had continued to talk about their work and recounting the types of things they had found out and how he'd always been fascinated by ghosts. Ever since he was eight and would swear he'd seen the glowing outline of their dead horse in the woods.

Danny looked down at his lap and his arms resting on his legs. His mind was brought back to the small panic he'd had back in his room. He was wearing a long sleeved shirt. He wasn't sure why, because he could have just as well worn a shirt since he wasn't very cold. He remembered the makeup kit he'd found behind the mirror after leaving the shower and seeing a ridge behind the glass.

The weirdest thing was that it only contained skin tones and the like cover-up cream. Did he use those to cover up his scars. It's the only thing he could think of right now. But why would he? Was Danny before embarrassed of them? Danny after didn't know why he should be. They were just scars. Why did he feel the need to hide them.

Although they were disconcerting.

Jack must've realized he hadn't heard Danny in some time and paused. "Danny?"

"Mmh?" The boy looked up.

His sister smiled through her bangs that hung in her face now that they weren't in her headband. "Penny for your thoughts?"

"I uh-" Danny cleared his throat a bit awkwardly before making up his mind. He brought his arms above the table and pushed a sleeve back. He pointed at the scars, a bit accusingly. "Where did these come from?"

It was quiet around the table as Danny looked at them steadily.

Maddie, who was sitting next to him, reached out and ran her thumb over a few of the scars. "Do you...have more?"

Danny blinked at her. She didn't seem too surprised to see them, although shaken. He stood up and held up his shirt. He figured they'd wanna see the back too and did a slow turn.

"Well, now's as good a time as any." Jazz was the one to break the silence.

Maddie still had her eyes glued on the burn mark on his side and Jack was speechless for once.

Danny was curious. "You didn't know about them?"

"I-" His father started, "I figured. I've seen the things you do. It's different seeing it in person."

Danny frowned. "What kind of things? What did I do?"

Jack stuffed some food in his mouth, showing that although he'd been exited to tell the boy, he wouldn't be the one to blow the news.

"This is gonna be weird so," Jazz but her lip and patted her hands on the table awkwardly, "maybe brace yourself."

Danny frowned in confusion. He was definitely suspecting something weird. Nothing normal could give him these types of marks. He didn't just trip at school and suddenly gain bullet wounds on his shoulder and a third degree burn on his side.

So he figured he was braced enough.

Jazz pursed her lips. "You um...have a dangerous life."

The boy rose an eyebrow. "You don't say."

She humpfed. "Let me finish."

"This is just a bit hard to explain." Maddie interrupted. "It's a very long story. A big part of which I don't know yet."

Danny didn't respond and Jazz cleared her throat. "You're half ghost."

Maddie straightened, offended. "He's not half ghost. He's got ectoplasm in his veins yes but you can't make it out as something as simple as half ghost."

"It's easier to explain it to him like that." Jazz defended herself. "We always referred to it as half ghost."

"Danny's smart. That term simplifies it unnecessarily and is severely incorrect."

"For goodness's sake. We're kids, mom. Not profesional scientists."

Danny's eyes were wide as he followed the exchange. He was a hybrid? How did that work? None of his parents were ghosts. "Is that how I got these scars?"

The two women turned back to look at the topic of conversation to see him scratching lightly at his arms scars.

Jazz frowned. "Well, I suppose indirectly? Being half ghost wasn't really the reason you got them...most of the time."

Now it was Danny who looked confused. "I meant- are the scars a product of becoming..." He struggled. "Did something happen to me that resulted in me getting these wounds and becoming half ghost or? Did. Did I die because of a mass shooting??" He was getting worked up now, and angry at how little everything made sense. "Did I die in a burning building? Was I stabbed because I really feel stabby right now."

"No! I uh-" Jazz wrung her hands, really hoping she wouldn't have to be the one to be telling him about this. But she was the one with the most knowledge of how it had all happened. "You remember the ghost portal we have in our basement right? It's- you were the one that made it work."

The boy's eyes widened. "I made that??"

"No! Our parents did the whole machinery and yeah. You kinda..were the one that turned it on and actually made it work."

"Wha- how?"

Jazz threw her hands up. "I don't know. You told me you went inside and touched something and it turned on and you." She paused. "Something happened to you. And you became half ghost."

Danny blinked down at his hands. His parents looked just as frustrated as Jazz about how Danny had become what he is. Danny remembered the feeling when he was down in the basement. It didn't quite feel like familiarity, but it was similar. Like he belonged there. Not necessarily in the good sense. He just belonged.

"So how." He continued, feeling very cross because none of his questions were really being answered. "Scars. And, you didn't know about this, did you? What happened?"

Maddie sighed loudly and leaned back in her chair. "No," she said ruefully, "we did not know. We only found out about you being...whatever you are, after the accident that resulted in your coma. You kept it a secret from everybody expect Sam and Tucker and Jazz."

"What." Danny hugged his torso. "What did I keep a secret."

Jack grinned wide at that, not even reading the tense and expectant atmosphere. "You being a superhero!"

Danny had fallen silent. He took a single breath and exhaled with an incredulous expression. "A what now?"

He watched for a few seconds as his mom and his sister struggled for words, when his father suddenly stood up and grabbed the beat up laptop that was resting on the small table next to theirs. He ignored the others' questions as he turned it on and typed a few things. Then the man spun it around and pushed the laptop towards Danny.

His eyes widened as he took in the screen. He didn't know whether he'd forgotten some things about the internet or whether his family just had different updates, but he didn't really fully recognize whatever the setup was except that a picture of the anime boy was on screen.

On top of the screen he read: Danny Phantom

"Click on one."

Danny did as his dad said and the picture started moving. Oh, this is a video. Danny blinked several times as his family briefly congratulated his dad on the idea and waited for Danny's reaction.

The boy watched as the anime man on screen was busy in a hand to fist scuffle with a ghost. There was a lot of static but Danny could hear them talking to each other. The fight didn't look very dangerous. And with that Danny means that they didn't look about to kill each other. It was certainly rough, but almost in the way siblings would fight, with a bit more bruises and shoving into trees involved.

What Danny couldn't understand was why they were showing him this. What did he have to do with him?

Danny paused. Unless...of course.

"Oh." He looked up to see his family staring expectantly. "It's me, isn't it?" He asked even as the puzzle pieces fell into place.

He wasn't a fireman, but he sure had been close.

Jazz nodded. "Like we said: you're half ghost. You protected Amity Park from ghosts who tried to take it over or destroy things."

Danny frowned at that description. Something seemed wrong with that summary, even ignoring the past tense. However, his eyes stayed glued on the screen. Past Danny had used his opponents grappling hook against them and pierced it through their armor. Current Danny wasn't very upset, though. He recognized the ghost from the character sheet that he had found in his dresser. He didn't remember the name, but knew the armor was just a robot.

Past Danny stomped and crushed the other's shoulder, making the head pop right out and revealing a small but intricate control panel and a simple ghost in it. The ghost scrambled away only to be caught by an amused Danny.

The boy stared at the screen as past him exchanged a slightly scolding conversation that the other returned with curses and an eye roll. Danny barely noticed as his family moved around him, finishing breakfast, cleaning the table and leaving him to scroll through the app.

He didn't know how long he stayed sitting there, so lost in the laptop and the app he slowly recognized as YouTube. He went from amateur videos to news channels about him. He saw a wide range of ghosts and his past self's apparent familiarity with a lot of them, along with many very hard battles that revealed some of the scars he had. His finger brushed over a sharp line on his shoulder as he stared at on screen Danny getting an arrow stuck in that place.

He frowned at a video from a youtuber discussing 'Danny Phantom's secret identity. He was really wondering how he had kept it a secret that he was a half ghost. And how he'd dealt with all the injuries. He must have been doing this for long if he could move around in a fight that easily. He remembered Sam and Tucker. They must have known. There was no way they didn't know. Oh wait Maddie had mentioned that Jazz, Sam and Tucker had known. But his parents. The rest of the town...

The youtuber finished their video and as they monologed the end notes he scrolled down for more videos. He paused by one showing his parents shooting at ghost him. His finger hovered over the mouse before he continued down, evading that topic completely. The comments for the video showed that the people didn't suspect his civilian self at all. There were a lot accusing some dude called Wes, but they seemed more teasing than the result of any sleuthing. Also a lot of comments mentioned Danny Phantom's...allure. He chuckled and decided to search for something else. He exited YouTube and looked up 'Danny Phantom' on Google. A wiki page showed him what he wanted to know, which was whatever he could.

It told him everything the public knew about him. Name, powers, ghosts he'd been seen fighting with, his apparent betrayal to the mayor and the public in general (he paused to look up what that crap was about and figured troubles with other ghosts), the public's obvious indecision of his honesty and theories of his obsession, where he came from and what he wanted.

They must've not yet updated this enough because all he saw of his human half was a short mention of Danny Fenton at the bottom of the webpage. He'd figured he would've been all other the place.

When he was done he leaned back in his stool with a huff. The boy stayed quiet, letting the information settle for a moment. He could hear talking in the living room. His sister was talking on the phone about her college and arranging so she could stay for a month at least and continue her studies here until she got back. His parents were in the OP center talking loudly. He guessed this house was never quiet. It wouldn't fit anyways.

He curled his fingers in his now dry hair and turned his eyes back to the laptop. He pursed his lips and hunched back over. Danny typed a quick 'Danny Phantom accident' on YouTube and clicked on the first promising video.

Breath was held as the video played. A lost looking ghost of his past self hovered in the sky, staring at a small, sparkly white jet right before being enveloped in a green light. Danny blinked as the amateur video finished and scrambled for another.

This one was more professional. It showed him moments before. Fighting a ghost, dodging his parents, not dodging his parents, defeating a jet, defeating a ghost, turning around to face the other jet. Danny paled at seeing a zoomed in picture of past Danny.

The boy was trembling, covered in scratches and bruises, dark bags under his eyes, and staring wide eyed at the giant weapon being aimed at him. Fear crossed his eyes right before he disappeared in light.

There was a flurry of movement as Danny pushed himself off the table and fell on the ground. He curled up on the ground, covering his face and sealing his eyes shut in preparation for...something.

"Danny?"

His breath hitched as Jazz's voice shook him from his fear. He heard her pause the conversation on the phone and call out again. "Are you ok?"

"Yeah yeah." He shouted. "Fine!"

He slowly uncurled and tried to control his heavy breathing. "I'm fine," he whispered reassuringly to himself and stood up, leaning on the table. He took a breath and looked back at the screen.

The video had ended and another was loading. He stared as the video from another news channel started. A woman presented the news and introduced the topic of Danny Phantom. It switched to the same event but from another angle. The woman spoke over the video, relenting the events and giving slight background information.

Danny slowly went back to his seat, not taking his eyes off the screen as the ghost boy (as a lot of people insisted on calling him) flew around until he was shot down. Danny didn't move this time as his ghost slammed on the ground. There was a hush in the crowd as a different bright light erupted around the ghost. A zoomed in image revealed a human lying unconscious on the crater.

The woman started talking again, explaining exactly who the shockingly alive body of Phantom is. Meanwhile a few shots of an ambulance coming in and Danny being wheeled in passed by. The camera crew rushing to keep up. They just barely got a shot of Maddie entering the ambulance and driving off. They'd tried to question Jack but he had ignored everything as he ran in his own car, or whatever that thing on hour wheels was.

The woman promised to come back if they had anymore news and the video ended.

Danny hesitated before reading the comments.

He wanted to know the public's reaction.

He wasn't disappointed when thousands of people expressed their surprise. It seemed most of them knew his human body and couldn't believe he was an actual ghost. Others were incredibly confused on the workings of a half ghost but some were shouting in captions as if their hypothesis had been confirmed.

Danny quirked a smirk. Did some people actually suspect him? Or were they just making it up? It was in any case a surprisingly low amount and Danny was impressed that he had been able to keep it a secret for so long.

He sighed and laid his head on his crossed arms.

His family and friends were hoping and almost certain he would get this memories back, but Danny didn't know.

There was a whole life he had lived, things he had done, people he had met, that he didn't know about. He...didn't know anything. It was depressing. And if he didn't remember, he'd never get that life back. He'd never know how it would be to be a part-time superhero (or full-time if you pushed it, which past him seemed to have done) and go to school without anyone knowing of it. Because his life now was, so very different.

He sighed.

Suddenly he lifted his head and turned around. There was the blob ghost, peeking through the ridge of the fridge's door. Danny stared at it for a few seconds before he realized what he was feeling. The blob was sending good vibes his way. It must've sensed his distress and wanted to comfort him.

Danny smiled and invited it to come closer. The ghost hesitated, as if making sure it was ok, and jerked free of the fridge. It flew a few circles around Danny before pressing against his chest, where his core must be. It purred against it and Danny relaxed.

He smiled as he petted it. The ghost didn't seem to be familiar with petting, but he let the halfa follow his human instincts.

They had been sitting like that for a few moments when Jazz peeked around the corner to check on him. She smiled. "Looks like you got acquainted."

Danny looked up. "Did we use to be friends before this?"

She shook her head, much to his confusion. "A bunch of them would follow you around, which would've been bad news for your secret." He hummed a response and after a moment she jabbed her thumb up. "Want me to get Mom and Dad?"

"Sure."

The two ghosts were quiet as Jazz ran up the stairs and shouted at her parents to come down.

Danny shot an amused look to the blob ghost as everyone ran back down.

Maddie was first and she stopped by the doorway with a nervous smile. Before she could say anything his father had barged in, closely followed by his sister, who was frowning at her parents' eagerness.

Maddie blinked at the blob ghost getting cozy with Danny. "Looks like you tamed it."

Danny huffed out a laugh. "More like it tamed me. They're comforting."

The woman raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Oh!" Her eyes cleared and she nodded like it made complete sense.

There was an expectant silence in the air. Danny waited for his mom to explain but she seemed to have already moved on.

"Well?" Maddie started. "Do you...have any questions? We'll try to answer as well as we can."

Danny paused and gave the blob ghost another pet. "What happened to the ghost I captured?" They looked lost so he gave more context. "Right before the accident?"

"Oh. I let it go." Maddie revealed. "Into the Ghost Zone of course. I figured that's what you would have wanted."

Danny nodded. "One more thing. I have a request."

"Anything, Danny."

"Can I go to school?"

#danny phantom #danny fenton #amnesiac!Danny #sam manson #tucker foley #jack fenton #maddie fenton #jazz fenton #ghosts #ghost zone

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