Chapter 9

"Oh… my everything."

Pain, again, is the ruling feeling when Danny wakes up. This was becoming a regular occurrence, unfortunately. His head was pounding, his body felt like it was vibrating, with too many senses all relaying one feeling: pain. Danny hesitantly cracked open his eyes, tiredness, exhaustion, and dread filled his being. He was greeted by the visage of his cave ceiling. Rocky protrusions jutting down from the roof like spike traps in a dungeon, which ironically enough, was what he used them as: a trap.

Then Danny got an eyeful of what was wrong.

His arms actually didn't hurt that much, just a dull soreness. No, not really, they were burned, battered and bleeding. His right forearm was shredded, the muscles beneath the skin chewed on and very visible, and his bone was either broken or bruised. The sight made him queasy.

His torso, or specifically his ribs, had that familiar sharp ache that was there over a week ago. Broken. Splotchy patches of yellow, purple, black and blue colored the offending area. It didn't look pretty. There was also the burning along his chest and stomach, vague recollection reminds him that it was from a good clawing, courtesy of one of the wolves. He winced at the memory.

His back was untouched for the most part, except for the shoulder area. That's a good thing, Danny learned last time that patching up back wounds by himself was damn hard and tedious. His left shoulder was not only bitten by a dire-wolf ghost, but half the wound was cauterized with that devastating beam attack. The other half left small holes where the teeth had torn chunks out.

Then there were his legs. "Yikes."

Fucked up, for sure. There was no internal debate about it, that's just what they were. His left calf didn't look like it was bitten by a wolf, it looked like it was attacked by a pack of angry meat hooks, but the shin area had large holes in it from the damned beast.

His other leg was better. The ghost wolf had bit into his thigh, and based off the small movements he was making, it was either bruised or broken. He could tell that beside the skin, his muscles were torn into as well. There were once again large puncture marks where its giant teeth settled into his skin. The abnormally large canines of the wolf had to be at least punctured five inches deep, probably deeper after he practically hammered the thing into his leg in a panic.

Danny felt like puking, this was the second time this summer. If anything, this felt worse than the last supernatural fight he got into. Where the hell were these things coming from?

There was a feeling of pride, and it boiled through his bodies hazy fog of ache. Not only had Danny survived, he had won against four enemies at once. Four horrifying, large, snarling monsters that fired lasers from their mouths, flew, and almost chomped through him on several close calls.

Danny drug the battle out, made hit-and-runs, dodged around like a madman, used the environment as a weapon, divided them and focused on their weakest links. Hasty plans coming together on the fly, literally, and somehow, someway working out.

And he won.

He should have used his head more. He should have prepared more, should have been more cautious. Should, should, should; Yet, he lived. His heart still beats and his core still pulses. He was banged up worse than anything before, he was in immense pain all over his body, and it could have been prevented.

But he won.

Danny was victorious. He won, he won, he won and against all odds he won! Everything pointed to him becoming a meal: He was led into a trap, ambushed twice, wounded on every limb and pushed to the point of mutual destruction with the last two. He fought and pushed himself harder than anything in his life. Limits were broken, so was his body, but his will was never stilled and he kept pushing and it showed in his survival!

'Who's the loser now?' It was a thought that echoed in his head. Despite damage that would no doubt kill a normal human, he survived and he would live to see another day. He'd like to see Dash and his crony A-listers do a tenth of what he did.

"Haha… hahaha-ack!?" Danny laughed, it was all he could think to do after everything that's happened, but he forgot about his broken ribs. He deluged into a painful coughing fit for a couple of minutes, until he finally calmed down. He grimaced, but realized he wasn't in as bad of a mood as he should be, especially with his body in its current condition.

There's no denying that he hates the pain, it's been a constant part of his life for years. Parents, bullies, peers, accidents, friends. This time, however, it's almost like there was a purpose for it. He took the pain for his survival, and was rewarded with his victory. He would live to fight another day. At least he thought so, he'd probably think differently later when bandaging himself up.

Danny made to sit up, but it wasn't entirely feasible to use his arms. One shoulder shredded, burned and out of commission, and the other arms forearm wasn't going to be seeing any action for a few days, possibly a week if the bone was broken. Danny was also Fenton at the moment, human and all. It's no wonder he hurt so much, everything seemed to hurt more whenever he had a fully beating heart. Danny braced himself and shut his eyes shut before he started again. He shimmied his body up the wall he was by with small wiggles and nudges. It took seven minutes of agonizing shuffles to get to a more comfortable position.

"What the fuck?" Immediately after he opened his eyes, he was greeted by another sight. The glowing substance that makes up his ghost forms blood, ectoplasm, was flowing towards him. He could see it actively moving towards him. He peaked a little to the left, not enough to fall over, but enough to see where one of the paths traveled.

"!"

Danny did not let out a girly high pitched scream, or rear back in confused revolt. He would deny it to anyone who ever suggested it, but he wasn't entirely prepared for the sight that greeted him. Flowing into the wounds on his legs, ectoplasm trailed from the melted bodies of the wolves he had slain. It didn't make him happy to kill the ghosts, again, but he wasn't going to become a snack so they could live. They picked the wrong fight, and paid for it. The trails of dimly lit ectoplasm flowed from the last locations of the wolves.

"Oh- ew, ew, ew. What the fuck?! I can feel it moving in my leg!" The foreign energy that was entering his wounds, almost crawled around his insides. Like leeches or worms wiggling around his veins. He could feel it move through his blood vessels and integrate itself in his body. Two trails of two led to separate leg wounds, slowly entering through his calf and thigh.

This time Danny really did puke, he leaned over left and vomited onto the ground next to him. This was worse than getting stabbed with a needle at the doctors, a completely different kind of invasive displeasure and discomfort. He really hoped that there were no ghost diseases that could be transferred through ectoplasm-to-ectoplasm contact.

Despite the discomfort entering and probing through his gaping and previously patched wounds, Danny can feel some energy returning to him. Laden with tender irritation and pangs of minor relief from the invading energy, Danny can barely process what he's feeling.

The worst part about it was that he couldn't do anything to stop it. He was too thoroughly exhausted to move or get away from… whatever this is. It took every bit of energy he had to shuffle into this position, and calling on his ghost half proved to be a fruitless endeavor. It seemed that side of him too, was exhausted.

So he's stuck here, wounded and barely conscious, with ectoplasm crawling into him like a parasite. Now he had an empty stomach, his earlier emergency patch-ups were dirty with blood, ectoplasm, dirt and grime and he doesn't even have his phone!

"Oh man, what time is it? I can't see shit in this cave…"

Danny doubted his parents would notice his absence, but Jazz would. She would raise hell if he stayed out past curfew again, that's for sure. That raises another question, how long has he been here for the packs bodies to melt to goo? Was that common for ghosts who died again? How long did it take for that to happen? The giant rat ran away before he could finish it, but the wolves didn't have that luxury.

Danny had slayed them down to the last, no member of the pack was left unreaped. Even if it was for his survival, it left a bitter taste in his mouth, but it would pass. He's hunted before, a sparse few times with his uncle, and while he doesn't particularly like the sport, the act of killing an animal won't burden his conscious too heavily.

Especially since it was in self defense.

What makes him feel like shit is that it probably could have been avoided. If he had prepared accordingly, observed them thoroughly, paid more attention, he could have had much better results! Maybe he wouldn't have been injured to such an extent, maybe he wouldn't have had to kill the creatures. So many maybes, but none of them would come to fruition. He could work on it in the future, but the die has been cast for this fight, and there was no changing the results.

Danny groaned and closed his eyes. He laid his head against the cool wall of the cave and tried to fall back asleep. He wouldn't be moving from this spot anytime soon, and there was no reason he had to stay there in pain and boredom the whole time. May as well sleep away the pain while his body slowly heals itself.

"So, do you think he knows?"

The question startles her, but she knows the answer nonetheless. She hesitates for a brief moment before responding, "I would say… yeah, he does. We've been back for a couple days now and he hasn't texted or called once."

They had seen him online a couple of times on several different games, but he would always go offline before they could even invite him.

Tucker sighed, but he wanted to know what to possibly expect. "How much do you think he knows? Like, we just lied to him knows, or that we watched him spit blood and did nothing to help him knows?"

Sam bit her lip, that was the question she's been asking herself for the past few days. "Honestly, I hope it's just the first one. Otherwise, we're in deep shit."

Their inaction to help their best friend had been weighing on their conscious since the day it happened. It made them feel like shit for just watching as he literally coughed out blood onto the floor. They didn't even try to help him, to comfort him, nothing. They were in the lie at that point, and afraid of the possible repercussions from Danny.

Danny hates a lot of things. He hates school, the A-listers, most of their pushover biased teachers, his parents embarrassing him and his sister, and most of all: being lied to by his friends. He's made that point clear the first time they lied to him. He doesn't have many people that he could call friends. Literally just Sam and Tucker.

"You know how this is gonna go right?"

She knows, but maybe they can rectify it and salvage the summer. "We're going to have to apologize to him. There's no getting around it, it's just a matter of how angry is he? Normally, he blows up on the spot. That he didn't immediately call us on it, or send an angry text… means… well, I'm not sure. Bu-"

"He might not have known until after the ordeal, actually." Although not pleased with the interruption, a different insight is welcome.

It's a comforting thought… until it isn't. Really, it's almost worse. If he found out through a third party that not only had they lied to him, but did nothing as he bled out, he would be infuriated beyond anything they've seen. "Actually, maybe we should prepare for the worse. What if h-"

"Oh, dammit! How did I miss that timing?!" A large 'You died' message appears on screen, and Tucker clicks the respawn tab. "Ahem." He pauses the game, looks back to Sam and promptly flinches at the glare he's getting.

"Stop interrupting me, and pay attention." There's no room for argument there, so he puts the controller down.

"Sorry."

The goth sighs before resuming where she left off, "Like I was saying, what if he found out through someone else? You know he's loyal to a fault, and that's what he values most. If he found out, not from us or by himself, that we lied and didn't help him, he's gonna be furious."

Tucker hadn't thought of that. He grimaces at the possibility. Now that's the worst case scenario, and if it really was that, then the coming storm is going to be awful.

"Let's… hope it wasn't that. It's not necessarily gonna be the worst possible thing, Sam. He might not even know- he probably does, mind you- but it could be any scenario and we won't know until we speak to him." There's wisdom in what the nerdy teen says, but there's a feeling in the pit of her stomach that's practically screaming at her that he not only knows, but is pissed about it too.

Sam runs a hand down her face and leans back onto her bed. "Maybe, I don't know. Let's just text him okay?" It's never been so hard to type out a few simple words before, and they've been procrastinating and putting it off.

"Not it."

Tucker gapes at her for a moment, "Really?" Sam smirks in response, "Yes, really. Now send the text and lets get to playing. This game's got co-op right?"

He shakes his head in exasperation, "Fine, and yes there's co-op. Grab a controller, sign in, and help me kill this damn boss. I keep messing up the timing for dodges and parries."

Danny's been acting strange. It's been noticeable since the start of summer, but to be honest, ever since their parents completed and activated their portal, it's grown to new heights. Before, he wasn't in the house that often, which was strange since he never went out without his friends. Now, while he stays home just a bit more, he almost seems paranoid.

Danny, when home, would constantly glance at their parents lab. Every time there was an explosion, or if their father cheered in a ridiculously boisterous manner, Danny would jump slightly. That sounds normal by all accounts, but ever since Jazz and Danny were little, they've gotten used to those… rather odd quirks.

It's like he regressed.

On top of all that, he's been getting home later, and leaving much earlier than before.

So, Jazz now finds herself snooping in her brothers room. If someone asked, yes, she does feel ashamed to be doing this. It's without a doubt a breach of trust, and she hates that she's doing this, but she's worried. And anyone who knows her knows that she can take things too far in her worries. Especially when her little brother is concerned.

The elder sibling looks around her brothers room, and to her relief, notices nothing at first glance.

"That's a good start." She mumbles.

Deciding to do a little more than just taking a look, she starts with the dresser. Nothing of the sort of damning evidence was found there, but she idly wonders why the dresser was so empty. That does cause her to pause as she can't remember the last her brother had gotten any new clothes. He hadn't hit a growth spurt for a while, so he hasn't had the need for any new articles. So did he finally get tall enough to outgrow some of his clothes? She knows for sure that he'll probably end up close to their fathers monstrous height of 6'9".

"The dresser's a bust, what about… the computer?" That unfortunately, was a bust as well. Not only is it password protected, which is smart, he apparently changed his password from any of the ones she knew before. She's happy he's changed his rather obvious previous password into something she couldn't guess. Hopefully he won't notice that she locked him out for eight hours. When she went to check his desk, surprisingly that was locked as well. She didn't even know he had locks on the thing!

Dresser, computer, desk: all failures, and she's glad for it. The less she finds the better. If she finds nothing, that means she's just overthinking it.

The end table next to the bed was unlocked, thankfully, but that turned out to be nothing as well. Just a couple of chargers for his phone and a controller. His backpack was gone, nothing she can do about that, so where would be next? Jazz's eyes drift towards the bed, and she shrugs her shoulders. 'It can't hurt to check.'

Nothing is specifically under the bed, aside from some dirty clothes he's most likely forgotten about, but she is startled to find a little bit of blood by one of the bedposts. It's dry, so she can't really tell how long it's been there, and it's really not a lot, but Jazz can't help but feel a bit of foreboding from it. She frowns, but it's not exactly a crime. Honestly, it could have come from any number of times Danny's been hurt over his life. He may clean his room, but obviously he's not that thorough.

The closet is next, and the only thing she finds is a similarity to his dresser: fewer clothes than what should be in there. Maybe he really did catch a couple inches in verticality. That's good, the bigger he is for high school, the better. Who knows how Casper High is going to treat him, and he needs all the bulk he can get to survive that cesspool.

Jazz stands up straight and stretches. Thankfully, everywhere so far is a bust, and while the bit of blood by the bedpost is concerning, considering his life, it's not entirely strange. She can just find a way to be nonchalant and ask him about it.

The last remaining place to check is his bathroom. Danny has an en-suite bathroom similar in size to hers, but smaller than her parents. Jazz has always been thankful that their family can afford to have three bedrooms with en-suite bathrooms. Their house is rather large actually: two stories, five bedrooms, four baths, attic, basement; all proof that their parents do indeed make enough money from their inventions to support an even larger population in the house.

The bathroom is different from his room, Jazz notices this immediately.

It's not as clean, as in there's towels strung about on racks and on the floor. His sink looks clean enough, but that's not what garners her attention.

His garbage bin. There's not much in it, a couple empty toilet paper rolls, crumpled paper, used q-tips. None of that steals her attention: it's the few bloody bandages and gauze.

Why was this here? When did Danny get so hurt he needed to have it covered in gauze? Was it recently? Did their parents cause this, or was this because of those despicable bullies. That last thought makes her fume at the possibility. 'If those disgusting, snobby A-listers are behind this, there will be hell to pay!'

She wants to ask Danny what this is about, she wants nothing more than to know why her baby brother could have gotten so hurt. But she can't. If she did that, he'd find out right away that she searched through his privacy. Not only would she get no answers, Danny would be furious with her. Their relationship right now can be said to be better than ever before. He willingly talks to her about what's bothering him; his concerns, his fears, and if he found out she invaded his privacy, that might just go down the drain.

Begrudgingly, Jazz knows that she's going to have to let this go. It's not the first time Danny has been hurt, it won't be the last, and who knows how long ago he used these. It could have been three days ago, or three weeks.

Other than the contents of the garbage bin, there's nothing of interest in the bathroom, and the eldest Fenton child takes that as a que to make it her best interest to stop being such a nosy sister.

At least for the moment. She could be one later when she catches Danny doing something he's not supposed to do. Plus, she was starting to feel kind of guilty.

However, in her peripherals she catches something on the ground, under the open door. It's sticking out ever so slightly, barely noticeable, but she catches it nonetheless. She backs up a step and closes the door. Without the obstruction of her vision she finally sees what was once hidden underneath.

It's blood. Not a lot, maybe a couple inches in diameter. That's not what catches her eye though.

It's that there's a very familiar glowing green substance in it, and it brings up a rather valid question.

Why the hell is there ectoplasm, in what is most likely, Danny's blood?

Beautiful. Enchanting. Mystifying.

The endless expanse of space sprawled before him, demanding his attention and his marvel for the infinite void. And marvel he did. The pure black of space was highlighted by far off galaxies, suns, black holes, and other celestial bodies. Travelling storms of radiation, space dust, and other miscellaneous foriegn objects peppered the sky here and there, roaming endlessly since the big bang, and they will continue till the end of time.

Marvelous.

It was the most beautiful and awe-inspiring thing he's ever seen. To see it without an atmosphere, with perfect clarity and enhanced sight, makes him appreciate his death and all the benefits he's been given. It caused almost a physical pain to look away from the rawest form of the universe he's ever seen.

Subtly, ever so vaguely, Danny knew this was a dream. Above all, he would definitely remember going into space. It's his lifelong goal after all, so it goes without saying that him, finally reaching his end goal, the final frontier, would be unforgettable.

Yet, he's on a comet. It's probably a comet, if the millions of miles of a tailing trail are to go by. The dust and ion tail continues further than what he can see, and it brings a smile to his face. Despite the whole thing being covered in ice, frost and everything cold, he felt more comfortable than anytime he's ever been on earth. That's most likely because there's no gravity, but he should be freezing. He's in his ghost form, but surely he could feel the cold in that form too, no?

Another thing to indicate that this is a dream, is the ridiculous construct made of ice that is on the comet. If the half-ghost was going to put a finger on it, he would say it's like some kind of fantasy castle. The castle wasn't made, or molded, or sculpted. No, it was formed, created, willed into its shape.

Grand ice blue was the predominating color, although darker and lighter shades of blue were apparent in other areas. From his position, he could see battlements on each corner, and a quick flight up showed that there were nine in total. An odd number, but who was he to say it was weird? He didn't know how to design castles, but in his opinion, it looked pretty damn cool. There was only one entrance, the one he was in front of. The parapets grew jaggedly from the top of each battlement tower, though they were all unmanned. Abandoned? Looking around proved there were no arrow-loops either, further proving that this was not an average or traditional castle.

Danny chose to walk instead of fly at this moment. He wasn't sure how far he could get away from the comet before it sped off without him, and they weren't very well known for having that great of gravity. Seeing as how they weren't anywhere near a sun or planetary body, the speed was probably somewhere around two-thousand miles per hour. He wouldn't be catching up if he fell off.

The soft crunch of snow and frost rang out on the silent drifting snowball. Honestly, that confused Danny since he shouldn't be able to hear anything in the vacuum of space, but it added to the mood. It helped to relax him, and surmounted the whole situation. It felt right, and it was pleasant on the ears.

There isn't a moat or drawbridge, so Danny walked through the barbican and the gate. It was a two fold entryway, with a portcullis on each side. Surprise, surprise, they were made of ice as well. A dark, very dark, almost midnight blue ice, but most definitely still ice. Looking up, there were murder holes up where a ceiling should be, but nothing was there to actually kill any invading forces. He wondered how smart that was, to not even have any form of defense or ammo for them, but again he realized that he's on a comet.

Who the hell is going to invade this castle?

Moving on, Danny finally gets his first glimpse at the bailey. It's honestly, unimpressive, or rather, kind of creepy. Maybe if there was some greenery or vegetation of some kind, but there was no way of getting any of that in deep space. There were statues though, quite a bit too, mostly of large claws and hands of ice erupting from the ground. There were a few weapons here and there too. Large swords of all kinds like longswords, claymores, zweihanders, nodachis, odachis, there's even a giant buster sword. Spears, glaives, and other such pole arms mingle with the bladed weaponry, along with wicked looking shields, even a few scythes and warhammers too. A couple axes, a few clubs, the occasional halberd, bardiche, an eveningstar. Name it, and it could probably be found somewhere in the ward.

A closer look shows an almost frightening amount of detail on each and every weapon: engravings, etchings, polishing, and if it had an edge, it was most definitely sharpened to a horrendous degree. Off to the side, by the entrances of the battlements and turrets, was a rack of bows. Not the old archaic bows of the middle ages, but what looked like some kind of super-compound bows. Four pulleys, two on top and two on the bottom, most likely intended for more strength and accuracy, but Danny genuinely wonders if it actually adds more or not. He knew nothing of archery, especially compound bows, and couldn't help but think that they were pointless. But maybe he's wrong. There were no arrows anywhere nearby though, so that in and of itself made the bows useless.

Seemingly having had enough of his weapons inspection Danny does an about-face and returns on his path back towards the gate house, or the main entrance. A large double door, maybe twenty feet in height, with intricate carvings, runes, hieroglyphics, and other odd symbols stands before him. It's honestly beautiful, and despite the lack of variety in colors, Danny is still marveled by the sheer magnitude of detail and work put into it. He can say for sure he never knew that someone could do so much with one color. Actually, looking closer, the runes flicker with an acid- no, ectoplasmic green every minute or so.

"Whoa." That opens up another possibility, were these magical? Does magic exist? Why else would they be glowing? He can't see all the way through the gate or walls, but it is still ice, and it's very easy to see that there's no immediate wires or lights, so maybe, just maybe there's magic in it. Or in this case, maybe ghost magic. For Danny, as the son of two scientists, it is a little hard to believe that magic exists, but then again, he's dead and alive at the same time, so he'd try to keep an open mind to that in the future.

At the top of the double doors was a large emblem. Depicted in a scaled heater shield was a flaming black and white D with a P in it. Just under the shielded emblem was a passage in a language he's never had a chance to learn or read.

"Mortuus Est Autem Rex Frigus?" Definitely not English, but if he can remember this when he wakes up, he'll have to google it. Assuming it's a language from earth and not some alien language, but it looked like it came from Earth, sounded like it too.

Danny refocuses on the door again. He doesn't know how long he'll be in this dream, so he may as well get back to exploring. Time's being wasted, and this is the best dream he's ever had.

Hands down.

Using his ghostly strength, Danny pushes the giant doors open. They made no noise as they ghosted across the floor.

And then he woke up.

Glowing green eyes snapped open. The real world greeted the young half-ghost with a subdued ache across his injured body. It was a vast difference compared to when he last went to sleep. He idly wonders how he's healed enough for the pain to lessen so much, but quickly realizes that he's in his ghost form. The reduced pain does wonders for him though, and he's more than okay with it.

Danny floats off the ground and re-inspects himself. His arms… aren't in the best shape, but they're coming along. He can't exactly check his shoulder without a mirror, but his forearm doesn't look as bad, but it still doesn't look great. He notices that his suit did not reform over his body, it makes him wonder if the suit won't reform over wounds or when he's low on power.

His legs, actually, look healed for the most part. The wholes that were over the shin before are closed and scabbed over. His back calf isn't bleeding anymore, but there was a very obvious and noticeable indention where his leg meat used to be. His thigh wound, while not healed as much, seemed smaller. His bone didn't hurt anymore, and the wounds weren't as deep. That's not saying much since he hammered those teeth into his leg some six odd inches, but a show of improvement so soon does wonders for his mood.

The half ghost still has no intention of walking on it though, so he keeps his way of movement via flight. He looks over to where the ghost wolves had perished. There was nothing left of them. They had either dissipated already, or he absorbed them in their entirety. Danny shivers at the possibility, he can positively say that having that stuff wiggle and crawl its way into him was one of the most disturbing things that's ever happened to him.

He shakes his head before searching for the cores of the wolves. He wasn't sure what he would do with it, but it should come in handy later. Well, it might have, if the damn cores weren't gone.

"Where are they…?" Is it possible that absorbed them too? That's disappointing, and disturbing, he wanted to be able to take a peak at one and see what they actually looked like.

With enough energy to actually get around he makes his way to the entrance. He stops shortly after and turns to the spot where he had passed out. Dried and still smelly vomit laid on the ground, it was intermixed with blood and ectoplasm. With a simple though Danny burned it with a ray. He grinned, that was a way better way to clean stuff up. Just burn it!

The teenage ghost made his way towards his bag at the entrance. When he arrived, he noticed that it was dark out. Night had come, and the day was long gone, but the question remained: What time was it? He was glad the only thing that had changed from its position at the entrance was that it was knocked over. Most likely, the wolves had smelled his scent on it and checked it out. There was no missing contents, not that there should be, but it never hurts to check, and was always good to be cautious.

He grabbed his phone and unlocked it using the fingerprint scanner. "Tsk. Ten percent, cheap-ass phone." It was four in the morning. That's great, he'll have to explain that to Jazz. There was a missed call from Jazz, and three or four texts from her. All along the lines of: Where are you?

There was also a message from Tucker. His eyes narrowed and his lips thinned, it was about time they sent him something. He wouldn't respond right away though, nor would he visit them anytime soon. Maybe when he's fully healed, or when he didn't have broken ribs.

The flight back home was short and sweet. No incidents, no sightings, he just made it home. When he phased through into his room he shut his door, quietly, and then he locked it. When he turned around he had an odd feeling that someone had gone through his room. Everything was in order still though. Dirty laundry where he last left it, presumably. Books and models were in the right places, his desk was locked still and his computer was off as well. By all accounts, nothing was wrong. Danny shook his head, he was getting paranoid for no reason.

That portal being complete through him off, and riled him up something fierce, but he was right about his paranoia at that time. Four ghost wolves were found just outside of town, what would have happened if they had made it? He paled at the thought, most likely a lot of people would have gotten hurt or killed. He was sturdy in his ghost form, but a well placed tackle had broken ribs. They were huge creatures that could fire laser and blast from their mouths, and they hunted in a pack of four. Would his parents have been able to handle them? Maybe, but they weren't there. He was though, he almost died to them, and he had super powers!

Danny reasoned that he was just on edge. He took a deep breath and let it out in a large sigh.

Now that he was home, what was there to do? He wasn't tired, so he had no plans on going back to sleep anytime soon. It was currently… 4:30 in the morning, but who's to say he couldn't have woken up early? Like, really early. He needed a shower too, and then after that he can stitch himself back up.

Danny nodded, it sounded like a decent course of actions. He could think of the excuse for his sister in the shower. He went to his dresser and took out some clothes for the new day. He frowned at the sight of his half empty drawer.

Danny was getting very close to needing almost a whole new wardrobe because his clothes kept getting ruined. And he still didn't even have an allowance!

Danny smacked himself upside his head, "I should have asked for an allowance instead of pizza!"

Inside Danny's room, we find a rather irritated Jazz Fenton, tapping her foot on the floor impatiently. She was standing in the doorway with her arms crossed. Her lips were pursed in an obvious frown.

"Where were you last night?" She gets no response.

Danny is completely oblivious to his current situation. He had his back turned to her and was playing DOOMED on his computer. He was having a good time with it, and when he started talking, not to Jazz, but to someone else entirely, his older sibling finally realized he had a headset on. He couldn't hear her and was talking to someone online.

Jazz's eye twitched, before she stomped over and very gently grabbed one of the muffs on his ear. She then ripped the headset off and screamed into his ear, "WHERE WERE YOU LAST NIGHT?!"

Danny jumped out of his seat a little, and knocked his mouse off his desk. "AHHHHH! What the fuck? Jazz?! What is wrong with you?! Can't you ask like a normal person?!" The reaction came as expected, startled and agitated.

Jazz still wasn't having it. "Answer my question, little brother. Where were you last night? You didn't come home even past midnight!"

Danny made to respond, but was cut off- "And don't you say you were on the roof! I checked there! Twice!"

Danny opens his mouth, before closing it and looking at his sister in confusion. Finally, he decided to say something: "Why did you check the roof twice? Once would have been eno- Oh, Damn it, I died! Come on!" He whipped his hands up into the air in exasperation. He was on one of the largest killing sprees he's ever had in PVP, of course his sister had to ruin that.

He turned to her with a scowl, "You owe me for that, I was slaying the competition! I could have gone undefeated!"

Jazz responded by turning her head up to magnify her glare. Her teeth were visibly and audibly being ground, and that eye twitch extended itself to both eyes. Danny backed down when he saw how visibly irate she was.

"Are you going to answer my question?" The irritation in her voice made Danny flinch. He figured she's had enough, didn't need to rile her up anymore then need be. For now.

The half-ghost put his hands up in mock surrender. "Alright, alright. Jeez, you don't have to bite my head off, it's not that big a deal. I was at Tuckers, alright?"

Danny pointed at her, "You're the one that reminded me that they got back." He was really hoping that would placate her.

His sister seemingly relented at that, but not all the way. "How do I know you were there for sure?" Danny's been coming home at odd hours recently, and to add to that, she found that contaminated blood in his bathroom. Even if she's being nosy, she still wanted to make sure.

Danny rolled his eyes before he grabbed his phone. He pulled up the text from Tucker and showed her. "There, date and time are from yesterday. Happy? If so, let me get back to playing. These guys suck at the game, and I'm gonna milk them for all they got." He turned back around and reached for his headset.

"Hold on." Jazz wanted to check one more thing.

Now it was his turn to get annoyed, he put the headset back down and turned back to his sister. "What is it now?"

"Can you stand up? I want to check something."

Danny gave here a strange look, hesitated slightly, but complied anyway. She took a step closer and measured her hands over to the top of his head. She did that for a few seconds before she smiled. "Looks like you got a bit taller, little brother. Won't be long till you're as tall as me."

The news caught him off guard, but it brightened his mood. It was about damn time he gained a few inches. "So how tall do you think I am now?"

Jazz put her finger to her chin and started tapping it. She looked back at her brother for a moment, before responding. "How tall were you before summer started?"

"I was about 5'4" before summer started, how tall am I now?"

"Hmm… if I had to guess," she turns her hand over in a guessing wave, "then I would say that you're around 5'7" or 5'8". We'll have to check later to be sure."

Danny beams a smile at her, and Jazz can literally feel the mood being lifted. "So are we done? We can check my height another time, I want to prove my superiority to these noobs."

Jazz sighs, but relents nonetheless. "Yeah, yeah. Go for it, but next time you better send me a text or call me if you're gonna run late." Danny looked like he was going to say something, but Jazz cut him off, "I mean it, mister. I hate coming home and worrying about you till the wee-hours in the morning."

Danny smiled, and at least had the decency to look apologetic. "Alright, you win. I'll try and text you next time I'm gonna be late. Sorry about last night."

Jazz started walking to the door. Before she closed the door, she turned back around and smiled at Danny. "It's alright, I just worry about you. Someone in this house has too, and I just want you to be safe."

"Thanks sis. I mean it." She gives Danny a nod and walks out, closing the door gently behind her.

The second she's out of the room, Danny crumples into his chair roughly, agitating his wounds. His breathing is hard and ragged, coming and going in shaky repetition. His legs wobble and shake, still injured from the night before, and still barely able to help him stand without assistance. He takes a couple minutes to recompose himself, slowly rolling his shoulders. His arms and left shoulder are sore and hurt from the movements he was making in front of Jazz. He might have overdone it, but she's perceptive, and he needed to have her believe him.

He held his side, where his ribs were broken, again, and closed his eyes. He leaned his head back against the headrest and closed his eyes.

God, was he tired. Even after all that healing, he was still nearly crippled from the pain of the injuries. But even then, he trudged on.

He could handle pain. He was used to it. The pain of his peers being beaten into him, the pain of humiliation every time he was stuffed in a locker, the pain of being a social outcast because of his parents. He could handle it all. Just like he can handle the injuries he has now.

At least that's what he keeps telling himself. And that's what he was going to keep telling himself.

He could do this alone. He fought the rat alone, and he came out on top with that. He fought four wolf ghost monsters, and won that too. He did even better than his win with the rat, completely decimating them. He found out his friends were lying to him alone, and he got proof of it alone as well.

He was tempted to tell his sister though. So close to doing it, because even if he could do it alone, didn't mean that he wanted to. He wanted to tell someone, but he just couldn't.

Danny was scared, and that… that made him feel weak. He hated being weak. He hates it to his core, he hates being the runt, the loser. No, hate isn't a strong enough word. He despises it.

So he kept quiet. He kept his mouth shut. Just to prove, to nobody but himself, that no, Danny Fenton is not weak.

He is strong, and he'll prove it.

Even if he has to do it alone.