Chapter 19: Fans and Flames

If he had to hear it one more time. One more damn time.

Just once.

"Have you heard about Ember McLain?!" Aaaand there it is.

Ember McLain. Ember McLain. Ember fucking McLain. How many times is he going to hear that?!

He snapped. Turning about and away from his locker, Danny inserted himself into the conversation next to him. "Yes, I have, just like everyone else in the damn school! Why are you even asking someone wearing a damn t-shirt with her face and name on it?!"

The person, someone Danny didn't recognize, at least had the humility to blush at her idiotic question, but the other conversation-goer was quick to snap at him, "Did we ask you freak? I see you're not even wearing any merch, so that means you're a loser too!"

Danny shut his locker quietly and moved his agitated gaze towards the other person- Alicia? Not necessarily an A-lister, but she was a trend follower, and one of Paulina's and Stars biggest followers. He scoffed in reply, "Ooooh. Never heard that one before," as he walked away, Danny threw one more branch on the bonfire, "See ya later, satellite's satellite." He didn't need to turn around to imagine how pissed she is.

Ever since he got home from Vlads, that's been the trend. Ember McLain, biggest upcoming rockstar. One twelve-song album dropped, with her greatest hit being a song called 'Remember.' It's okay. Danny's not terribly into the pop genre, but the whole album is categorized as pop-rock. She's good, he'll admit it. Great at singing and she can rip a guitar like a bandage. It helps that she's ridiculously hot as well.

But this much hype?

Posters cover the ugly green hallways, and he even had to tear down two that were covering his locker. Two! And people actually glared at him for it! Besides Sam, he was literally the only one not wearing an Ember shirt. And while that normally would have made him stand out before, everyone was so obsessed with this new music sensation that he's been ignored almost entirely since school started back up two weeks ago.

It's been nice. Truly. Not having to deal with Dash or his crony followers has been a blessing in disguise, something he'd thank the ghostly rocker for if he ever saw her.

Oh yeah, Ember McLain's a ghost.

It was pretty easy to figure that out, especially after her CD came out. Also, a CD? That's ancient at this point, laughably so, but somehow they're selling like hot-cakes. After procuring one from a store -he'd return it eventually- Danny brought it to Desiree and asked if the distinctly blue hair she saw belonged to the person on the cover. Besides, green eyes like Phantoms, hair that almost seemed like it moved on its own, blue-pale skin color. Unlike the people of Amity Park, Danny felt he had a good grasp at guessing when there was a ghost in the midst.

And ding ding ding, he had a winner.

But aside from some super fanaticism, she hasn't done anything. No destruction, no murders, no invasion. Her fan base was, for the most part, any teenager in the town of Amity Park and a few in the neighboring towns. Good for her, but it wasn't anything to go hunting her for. She wasn't attacking a school, causing wanton destruction, summoning a meaty shield, or unleashing a horde unto a sleepy town to get at a fourteen year-old accident victim.

But it sure is suspicious how strangely these people have been acting.

"Ah, Mr. Fenton. Good Morning."

Danny turned to the left to see Mr. Lancer coming out of the teachers lounge. The portly teacher had a small scowl on his face, one Danny hoped wasn't due to him falling asleep so often in class recently. It wouldn't happen if ghosts attacked on the weekend instead of school nights! At least he was still on top of his homework.

For now at least.

"Hey Mr. Lancer. What's up?" He kept his pace up as his teacher started walking with him.

The older man scanned the crowd with distaste, "Oh, nothing much. Same old, same old." He glanced at the half-ghost, "I'm glad to see you don't follow such… trends." Yes, trend was the correct word. Or possibly fad?

Danny flattened his expression, shrugging his shoulders. "Meh. She's hot, but I'm not that big a fan." He adjusted his backpack, shifting the strap elevation, "Besides, I don't have the allowance to pay for all that crap."

There were several things strange about what the teenager walking next to him just said. Most wouldn't admit that to their math teacher, the part about him finding the new pop-rock sensation 'hot'. Kids just didn't do that, especially with one so admittedly dated as him.

It was also strange that he didn't have a large allowance. As far as he knew, his sister had a decently large allowance compared to most children attending the high school. The Fenton family, according to records he had seen, had a fairly large income as well. The parents are entrepreneurs, inventors with a rather large stipend that just seemed to grow, even if they have an unhealthy obsession with the supernatural. Perhaps stipend is too loose of a term, but the point is, is that it's odd for the boy before him to have such a low allowance, when all facts point to what should be the opposite.

"I see." But he couldn't delve any further. As much as he wanted to get to know his student, he'd been reprimanded for asking personal information before, and he didn't want a repeat of that. The boy seems nice, a little sleepy and spaced out sometimes, but he makes decent grades and does his work. And asking anything deeper is overstepping his bounds.

As they rounded the corner up the stairs, Lancer moved the conversation along. "I trust you've completed your homework?"

Danny chuckled, patting his backpack with backwards swings of his arm. "Got both of 'em right here."

The balding teacher nodded in satisfaction, "Good. Make sure to-"

"EMBERRRRRRR!" A student cut him off mid-sentence, making a full sprint down the hall while yelling his head off and swinging a flag with the upcoming rockers face on it. Danny hadn't ever seen the guy before, so there's a good chance he's an upperclassman.

Danny tore his attention away from the nutcase, focusing on his teacher. If he hadn't been fighting undead horrors recently, Danny probably would have flinched at Lancers expression.

Boy does he look pissed. With a head absent of hair, the scrunches on his forehead looked much more pronounced. The large man was biting his bottom lip with a snarl, and with his enhanced hearing, Danny could hear the leather briefcase Lancer was carrying crinkle from his grip.

"I apologize Mr. Fenton," His angry gaze never left the screaming student running further down the hall, "but I have found something that requires immediate attention."

The half-ghost laughed and waved it off, "It's all good Mr. Lancer. See ya."

"I will see you in class Mr. Fenton." He took off immediately, not even looking back.

"Paradise lost! Mr. Adams, get back here you degenerate!"

It's always something.

Okay. Maybe there's some kind of mind control going on here.

Earlier, when Dash was walking by in the halls, Danny took the opportunity to have some fun. Nothing extravagant or supernatural, just a good old fashioned foot trip. And he wasn't even trying to hide it, in the middle of the hall, Danny boldy stuck his foot out and waited. The quarterback was so engrossed in his music and staring at his phone, that he didn't notice from over six feet away.

So, the big blonde oaf fell flat on his face in front of the whole school.

And no one said a thing! No one even noticed, not even the victim of his prank. Dash got up, put his headphones back on, and walked off without even muttering a degrading 'Fenturd'. That was almost disappointing… but it sure was fun to do it another four or five times.

It's getting weird.

Tucker, as strange as he is normally- and as his friend, Danny does think that he's really strange- has had zero attention for everything besides music. He barely liked listening to any before, and Ember McLains' music is definitely not his type. Well, her exotic looks are, but not her brand of music.

Even Jazz, his sister, is acting strange. As far as he knows, she's never had a poster of a music artist or TV star in her room. Intellectuals, engineers, famous psychologists and philosophers, but never a musician. That doubles even more so, since she's apparently not paying attention in class and barely talking to him at home! Jazz: the studyholic. She who cannot put a book down to save her life, has instead picked up some headphones and spaces out while listening to music that is most certainly not her preferred genre. She likes classical tunes, not… pop-rock whatever!

And yes, he's listened to the song. Someone thought it was a good idea to play it over the school speaker system, and now Mickey got suspended for breaking and entering! Mickey, the kid who never breaks the rules, broke into somewhere!

What the fuck is going on?

The saving grace in all this madness was that Sam is so far unaffected. And for once, Danny wanted to thank his parents for inventing something. Little black and green headphones, named Fenton-Phones, act as a bluetooth speaker and microphone. They were actually pretty cool, and Danny did encourage selling them, but they're a past project and neither his mother or father were terribly interested.

Sam's taken a liking to them, and for whatever reason they help her not act like… the masses. Then again, she's never followed a fad like everyone else. So it's hard to tell if it's his parents invention or if it's just Sam being… Sam.

Tired eyes made their way to the clock above the blackboard. Danny liked Mr. Lancer, but holy shit, his English lessons were boring. As if he didn't have a hard enough time staying awake with the whole ghost hero side-gig he had going, but having this guy drone on and on over something he really didn't care about. 'So close.' Ten minutes till the fourth period interlude, but that's what he needed: to stretch his legs just a little and get the blood flowing back to his brain.

The man turned around, taking in the sight before him. Barely anyone was paying attention. Lancer narrowed his eyes at the people not-so discreetly checking their phones. For a moment, his gaze drifted to the drawer on his desk that held at least twelve different pairs of headphones. He wanted to scoff, the sheer audacity of children actually thinking they could listen to music during his lessons. Not happening, and if they kept doing this, he'd take away that testing privilege as well.

Then Daniel Fenton caught his attention. The boy, while trying to pay attention, was minutes away from falling asleep. It's appreciated, but the older man couldn't help but wonder why the boy was always so tired. Maybe he'd talk to the boy's older sister, surely that was within his bounds as a teacher? To inquire why his student could barely stay awake in class. The young man has such promise, and while he didn't get straight one-hundreds on his assignments, he at least kept up A's and B's for the most part. The group assignment last week ended in a C, barely, but Mr. Fenton made it very known just how little work the others in his group put in.

Placing the marker down on the whiteboard gutter, he fully turned around. "Now class, who can tell me the message in Romeo and Juliet?"

The only sound in the class was Danny's head hitting the desk, completely out of it. That and the ticking clock, slowly counting down till freedom.

"OMG! Did you see the new twitter feed from Ember?!"

Danny attempted to scrape the ringing out of his ears, but whatever strange screech Paulina just used is making his attempts ineffective. He'd have to be on the lookout for sound-based attacks in the future, apparently enhanced hearing does have some downsides. Then the context of what she just said registered.

"Ember has a twitter?" He whispered. Danny didn't even have a twitter, and he's human! Was human. Semantics. The point is, it felt a little degrading that he, as a half-human, didn't have any form of social media. Just a little, then he remembered that he has ghost powers.

Why waste time 'tweeting' to what would amount to maybe five or six followers? -That's being generous too. Especially when he could fly to twenty thousand feet in the air, throw around energy attacks, and harness the elements. No brainer on that, he'd choose badass super powers any day.

But now he had an outlet for information, so with great reluctance, Danny downloaded the app onto his phone. He begrudgingly thumbed the screen, forcing himself through the arduous task of making an account and searching for a ghost… which was surprisingly easy. "Huh. Twenty thousand followers?" Now that's a lot, especially from a town like Amity. Although, that probably encompasses almost every teenager with an account.

It doesn't take long to navigate the app and find what he's looking for.

Live Concert coming to Amity Park on Monday! Casper High, here I come!

Not entirely original, but it gets the point across. With almost ten-thousand retweets, it's at least making traction. So Monday, time undisclosed. Location: Casper High; at least he won't have to go far. Today's Friday, so Danny's got the weekend to get ready. Not that there's a whole lot to get ready for, Danny can hardly believe that she'll bring an army of ghosts with her, so a single thermos should do in case she gets rowdy, maybe two just in case. But there is the possibility of this being a neutral encounter, so long as he gets an explanation on why people are acting like insane seven year-olds.

And maybe some free tickets to her concert, he's never been to one before.

Idle attention returned back to the going ons around him. He closed his eyes, eavesdropping on the conversations around him. He smirked a little, collecting information has never been easier.

"Did you hear that Jack and Jill are going out now?" What happened to going up the hill?

"Maaaaan, I don't wanna do the homework tonight. Lancer gave us like, four pages of shit to do!" Yeah, it was four, but it's only the odds. Not even the full pages either, just sections of them. It barely takes any time. He already had two of the pages done during lunch.

In hindsight, there's not a terribly huge benefit of snooping into conversations like this in high school, but it helps to keep up to date on rumors. But, Mr. Falluca stepped out of class for the second time today, a smoke break probably, and the class always erupted like this. There's not much else to do, at least until-

A blue puff of mist trickles up his throat, escaping through his nose, tickling it with the cold vapor. A ghost. Danny forced a frosty sneeze down as the last of his ghost sense left his body. Well, there's not much to do until a ghost shows up, but then it's time to go.

A glance at the clock, 3:11, shows that school is almost over. Calmly, Danny packs his stuff, placing books back in his backpack and sliding his mechanical pencil into one of the many pockets. Before the teacher even gets back, Danny's already out of the class, with none the wiser.

No one pays attention to the schools freak, sometimes it's not that bad being on the bottom of the social totem pole.

No one at least, besides the other social outcasts. Purple eyes trailed his back as he left, burning with curiosity and irritation.

The fact that he still hadn't completed the task Vlad gave him, was frustrating. Not for lack of trying, but his parents have barely left the lab, rarely even leaving to hunt ghosts. Okay, not rarely, just when he was out hunting ghosts. And if they are leaving, Danny doesn't even have time to search the lab. His treatment of the dead may be getting a little extreme, but at least he's not actively dissecting them.

So far, the records in the attic have been a bust. No point searching there any further. His parents bedroom didn't have anything noteworthy either, aside from a not-so surprising amount of dust. That left the lab, which he has a plan for, and the off-property lab they have. Danny didn't know where their other building area is, but he knows that they've had raw materials sent there recently. It shouldn't be terribly hard to follow them whenever they start making more visits.

But who knows when that'll be. Knowing Jack and Maddie Fenton, they'll have their noses to the inventing grinder and it could be months before they actually get around to going over there. Or weeks, or days…

Or this morning.

"Good morning sweetie." Danny turned his head, looking at his mother in the kitchen. That's a rare sight.

While yawning, he responds with a tired 'morning'. He didn't stay up terribly late, only a few ghosts had come out. Without the shield, they've been trickling in, but hopefully he can find the one he's looking for before the weekend is up.

Idly, Danny noted that his dad was absent from the table. Normally he's fidgeting with a newfangled gadget or prototype at the table, no matter what he and his sister bitched at him for previously. His mother and father also rarely separated from each other, not that they didn't, but they were one of those couples that could spend every waking moment with the other and be ecstatically happy about it without realizing it. He shrugged his shoulders, if his dad wasn't here to bug him and Jazz, mainly Jazz, then that's fine. It's not like he sees them that often.

… That's a depressing thought, to be honest.

While his mother was cooking, Danny still took the time to grab some cereal. Ever since he started hunting ghosts, his appetite has skyrocketed. His metabolism is frighteningly high, and at this point, the Halfa has a hard time believing he'll ever gain another ounce of fat. With the constant fights his muscles are constantly gaining mass and density, and his advanced healing factor lets him heal from fatigue rather quickly at the expense of his energy. Energy that's fueled by both his ectoplasm and his body's natural resources: food.

Plus, there was no guarantee that his mother's cooking wouldn't start a crusade against the consumer. That lesson had been hard learned over his fourteen years of life.

Lazily, Danny looked at his sister. Headphones in, book nowhere in sight, and an Ember Mclain t-shirt. If there wasn't some kind of mind-fuckery going on here, then Danny wasn't a half-ghost anomaly of cosmic proportions. Jazz Fenton, without a book in hand to study, just didn't work out with the laws of reality; while everyone else acting strange seemed odd to Danny, it was only when his sister started acting like this when he caught on. Tucker had his face buried into his PDA or phone as usual, and even if everyone else in the school dressed to a fad, it's not like he hasn't seen it happen before.

But for Jazz Fenton, bookworm extraordinaire, study enthusiast and geek among geeks, to not have a piece of scientific journal or academia in her hand was wrong on so many levels. It made him shiver. That was the straw that ended up breaking the camel's back, and what drove him to ask Desiree. Plus, when he watched the music video, it looked way too much like a ghosts' flight, and there was no way a start-up band could afford that kind of special effects.

He called bullshit, and the guess paid off. Plus her eyes glow like his, so… no brainer on that.

Danny waved his hand in front of his sister's face, getting no response. She continued her melodic hum as Danny frowned. He liked his sister, nosy and overbearing for sure, but that's his sister: the one he's come to know and love, and he wouldn't have her any other way, no matter how annoying or how much he bitched about it. Not this music zombie, Monday couldn't come around any sooner for the Halfa.

Phantom's been searching for her as well, when at all possible, but it hasn't truly been a priority. His immediate responsibility was to protect the town and people, so he had to bide his time and wait. With an actual date and place for arrival, his nerves had calmed slightly.

"Damn it, die ecto-scum!" Danny turned to his mother, still at the stove, but shooting a Fenton Ecto-pistol at whatever she was cooking. It fired like a blaster from Star Wars, but with green bolts. The thing in the frying pan- eggs and bacon?- screeched in protest while trying to flop its way out of the pan for high calorie vengeance. Maddie fired a few more shots into it, before nodding and plopping it down onto a plate off to the side. There were two other failed attempts there as well, and Danny idly wondered how much the household spent on food expenditures with so many failures like this. The failed food experiments, while steaming like freshly cooked food, were glowing green. Inedible to humans in their entirety for sure.

"Hey mom?"

Maddie turned around, wiping her forehead from the sheen of sweat slowly collecting. She spotted her son eating cereal, replying sweetly after a moment of hesitation, "Yes sweety?"

Danny took another bite of his breakfast, and swallowed before continuing. "Why does the food come to life so often?"

The Fenton matriarch beamed a bright smile at her son, happy he was taking an interest in something their family made. "Oh, that's easy. We haven't gotten all the kinks out of ectoplasm powered cookware and kitchen equipment."

She tapped the front of the oven, "Baking stuff for the most part isn't too bad, so long as it isn't in there that long." Maddie brought the pan up to showcase next, "The bottom of the Fenton Frying Pan is lined with ectoplasm infused metal, made specifically to react to the Fenton Stove to cook things faster." Pursing her lips, she grudgingly added, "but the exposure rate isn't that consistent all the time."

Danny took another bite, "Uh-huh." He looked to his sister, seeing her still out of it and listening to music. He frowned again, but turned back to his mother. "Why do we still use it then? Isn't it a waste of food and money?"

Maddie laughed it off, "Oh we just haven't gotten around to making any newer versions. Maybe one day, but it's not a priority at the moment." So they're both just being lazy, okay. That's a more human reaction than he thought she'd show. Lazy wasn't something his two workaholic parents had in them normally, but apparently the cookware for the family was actually affected by it. Go figure. "Besides, money isn't an issue, we make more than enough to stock up on groceries like this."

Still, that's lame. "Uh… okay."

Another thing to note is that his father wasn't here at the moment, "Where's dad? Is he still working on something downstairs?"

The way his mother seemed to flinch made Danny suspicious, because it reminded him of the way they acted on the way home from Vlads. Every time he asked what was wrong, or what they talked about with his uncle, they responded that way and waved it off. It pissed him off. While they didn't know about the responsibilities he took upon himself, he thought of himself as rather mature because of it, and the way they bristled like that, only to deflect the question, felt incredibly insulting.

"You're fathers… busy right now. He's checking things out at the offsite lab." She said.

Danny raised an eyebrow in interest, this was prime time information he needed if the task wasn't located in the lab. "You guys have talked about that before, where's it at? And what are you working on out there?"

Maddie perked up a bit, forgetting her previous hesitance. "Oh! It's a little out of town, located on a plot of land about a mile away from Axiom Labs."

Axiom? That's the lab his uncle owned… right? So they were set up near a supplier for their parts, that's smart. Then again, no one ever said his parents weren't smart, just air-headed.

"Okay, that's not too far. But what are you building out there that can't be built here?" Danny looked to the ceiling in thought, before looking at his mother with trepidation. "It's not another portal is it? You really should be careful with that dimension stuff, look at all the cheesy sci-fi films!" That's the last thing he needed, a second portal even bigger than the first beaconing to every ghost in the world. As it was, every specter in the U.S. was roaming its way up to Amity to follow the call.

His mother laughed off his concerns, "Oh, it's fine Danny. It's not a portal anyway." She flipped an egg and threw a piece of bacon on the pan, "We're making an Operations Center. Oh! I can't wait for you to see it, you're going to be so excited!"

That's debatable, but seriously, what the fuck is that? "Yeah… explain that to me like I don't understand. Hypothetically, of course." Because really, he doesn't know what that is. An operations center is like… a military command base, right?

Maddie tapped the spatula on the pan, trying her best to describe the soon to be addition of their home. "Well, it's designed to be a mobile base." She threw some seasoning on the food and spun it around in the pan a bit, "It'll be stationed on top of the house, outfitted with even more powerful sensors than what we currently have equipped, and will be able to move on the fly."

What?

"On top of the house?" He asked. As in, they're going to place some monstrosity on top of their house? Visible for the whole world to see?

Nodding, Maddie cheerfully responds, "Yep! We'll never have to worry about another ghost sneaking up on us ever again, and if we ever get overrun-" She pointed at Danny with the cooking utensil, "-that won't happen by the way, but if it ever does, we'll be able to make a proper defense while retreating."

Suddenly his mouth felt as dry as a desert, his fangs popped out on accident, and an uncomfortable feeling was settling in his stomach. The giant neon sign proudly displaying 'Fenton Works' gave every clue needed to know who lived in the house, embarrassingly enough, and it had been a large teasing point at school, on top of his parents running around town hunting ghosts. It gave bullies like Dash plenty of ammunition, and a giant… whatever it is, nestled on top of his house didn't sound terribly appealing. Even more so with sensors to actually track him and other ghosts, he didn't need that headache in his life, damn it!

Danny gulped, retracting his fangs, and suddenly glad his sister was under some kind of mind control so she couldn't see him panicking like this. He didn't have to worry about his mother, she wouldn't notice.

She never does.

"What…" How the hell does he respond to that? "What about building permits, stuff like that?" His eyes darted around the room, searching for something to keep his mind going. Something to refute this social nightmare that she was so casually talking about bringing upon them. "I'm pretty sure there are laws that prevent you from just… I dunno, owning a flying base?"

Humming away in thought, Maddie moved the finished, non-aggressive food onto a set of plates and walked over to the table. "Normally, yes. But luckily, both me and your father have commercial flying licenses, and there's no permits required for owning or flying a blimp in Illinois." Dannys' jaw dropped.

"Huh?" The sound that escaped his throat was more akin to a pained wheeze, than an actual coherent word. A what? A blimp? A fucking blimp? "You plan on putting a… blimp on top of the house?"

Maddie placed the plates of food down in front of her children, then moved back towards the stove to make some food for Jack and herself. "For the most part, yes."

He wanted to laugh, but it wouldn't be a 'haha' funny laugh, more like a 'I'm fucked' laugh. "On the roof?" He asked for confirmation.

"Yes, on the roof."

…Fuck.

The rest of the morning passed by in silence, with Danny leaving as soon as he was done for his morning jog. He didn't even taste the meal, not even hungry anymore. Because that's just what he needs in life: A giant blimp-base thing planted on the roof.

Finding the offsite lab wasn't as easy as he figured, and searching all of Saturday didn't provide any results. Perhaps he could get an address out of something in the lab, assuming today's plan works. Unfortunately, the ghost he was hoping for never showed up, which is odd. The little shit is normally a constant nuisance, so days without seeing him is fairly strange.

Normally, his parents never leave the lab. Okay, sometimes they do, but it's only for several reasons. Traveling to the offsite lab, getting supplies, meeting business partners, and hunting ghosts. The timetable for their trips to the other lab is unknown for him, so that's out of the window. The only supplies they have to travel anywhere for are urgent parts or pieces of equipment, everything else is delivered; unfortunately, Danny doesn't know what's crucial to their operations and what's not. Business partners… the only one he knew of was Vlad, and asking him for help on an assignment seemed like a bad idea.

That left ghost hunting.

No matter what, he needed them out of the lab long enough to get a thorough search done. Ten minutes wouldn't do, an hour might not even cut it, but Danny knew from experience just how long a ghost hunt could take.

That's why he needed the Box Ghost, as loath as he was to admit it. He needed a distraction, a harmless to be exact. Sure, he could trap a few and let them loose… but that could result in someone getting hurt. He'd be damned, if at this point, he was the cause of someone getting harmed just for a distraction. But of all the ghosts he's ever encountered, a majority of them being ferals, the few sentient ones stuck out.

Desiree was an ally and a friend, and he'd never ask her to be put in harm's way. If she got captured by his parents and he didn't get to her in time, he'd be beside himself in grief and guilt. Contrarily, he couldn't just wish this problem away; if he went around asking for wishes for every problem, it'd be like taking the easy way out and abusing her powers. Danny thought himself as better than that, and refuses to be like the people she's met through her long existence.

Skulker's an ass, and even if he refrained from killing the snot, there's no way the hunter would agree to anything he has to say. Danny's only good as a pelt in his eyes, and there's no negotiating that. Plus, the tin can has no qualms about involving those that don't need to be a part of their confrontations. So, that's a no to him as well.

Sydney Poindexter was an interesting find, but the guy didn't seem terribly reliable. He may have let him haunt the school since he hasn't done anything harmful, but only meeting him for a total of three times now, Danny isn't sure he could trust him. Plus, sending his parents after someone who didn't attack him felt kind of wrong, even if only for a distraction.

Lunch Lady was nowhere to be found, not that she'd listen, so that left good ol' Boxy. Even though the blue buffoon had attacked him before, they were at least able to have a conversation through his inane rambling about all things square. And the guy seemed pretty happy with the set of cubes Danny gave him, even if he constantly 'attacked' the town. And last week the Halfa found the perfect target for the cubical ghost.

A factory just outside of town. Specifically a box making factory, something that the Box Ghost will no doubt be unable to resist. The worst damage that he could do is a little property damage, and no matter how many boxes there are, his parents go out hunting with ecto-guns and ecto-cannons. Practically lasers and rocket launchers that can and will easily cut through whatever Boxboy could dish out. He can rest easy knowing that he won't be able to hurt anyone really, and all Danny had to do was make sure he rescued the doofus before his parents started… dissecting him.

He shivered at the thought, having no desire to subject someone to that fate, especially since now he was possibly susceptible to that as well. He loved his parents with all his heart, but… he's literally gotten confirmation from his father that if he was a ghost, they'd 'put him out of his misery'. He liked his half-life, for the most part, and he had no desire of ending it anytime soon.

That's how he finds himself in front of the portal now. With no sign of Boxy in almost a week, and having no desire to wait any longer, Danny had to go searching for him. Luckily, he knows just what dimension where the little shit could be located.

Turning around, he looked at his parents while maintaining his invisibility. They were working, as usual: his father on some weird submarine thing, and his mother… on a vacuum cleaner?

It's a wonder how they have sensors outside the house that could somehow detect and track other ghosts, including him, but not notice when he sneaks in like this. He shook his head and returned focus back to the portal in front of him. Danny gulped, fear and trepidation building rapidly in his stomach. Taking a step forward, he froze when memories of the first time he went in came crashing into his mind.

"So why is it better for me to go into this with you, instead of by myself?" Not that it wasn't appreciated, exploring a different dimension inhabited by spirits of the dead seemed better with someone who knew the way for sure. But Danny found it odd how insistent Vlad was about it.

The older man turned from the swirling green portal, staring at his young apprentice with patient mirth. He smirked in amusement and gave a small chuckle, "Little Badger, trust me when I say this: you don't want to be in there alone for your first experience. That's from firsthand experience, my boy, it's not going to be entirely pleasant."

That answer didn't make Danny comfortable, but he knew he had to do it now or never. As a ghost, even if only a half-ghost, he needed to eventually go into the Ghost Zone. "Thanks, I guess."

The portal pulsed with energy, twirling in a whirlpool of mainly green, with tinges of black and purple. There was no wafting mist like his parents' portal, a filter had been installed to stop that, along with a set of doors to allow it to be closed off. The filter was so strong that even now, he didn't hear the call. It was strangely… empty, mainly when compared to the one in his basement.

Vlad took a step forward, pushing Danny forward with the hand that was on his back. The large red eyes squinted in seriousness, all amusement from earlier gone. "Daniel, the zone itself isn't inherently dangerous to ghosts, but to Halfa's like us, the first time isn't going to be pleasant." His gaze shifted to the gateway as his features settled in a scowl, "Based on those scars you have running up and down your body, you're used to pain on a physical level- That's not something I'm happy about, by the way. This is going to test your spirit, your mental fortitude."

He took another step closer, bringing Danny with him. "Just hold your will son, don't let the call break you." Danny steeled himself and took a step on his own, now entering the portal. "And remember: I'm here with you." Danny didn't turn around to look back at his uncle, instead choosing to fully submerge himself into the dimensional gate.

As Danny transferred to another dimension, he took in the feelings with glee. At the moment, despite how much trepidation he felt to this whole expedition, he was beyond excited. This would be the closest he'd get to space for years, and it was hard to contain himself. Energy washed over his body, invigorating him so much that he started to feel dizzy. When he appeared on the other side, he was clutching his head in a desperate attempt to stop his accelerating vertigo. Vlad stepped out seconds later, placing a hand on his young apprentice to steady him.

Groaning into his hand, it would be another five minutes for his head to stop spinning while a strange sensation started swelling up in his chest. Eventually though, Danny did open his eyes.

And the sight before him was mesmerizing.

The entire dimension was green as ectoplasm, with clouds of varying colors of green, black and purple swirling about in random directions, seemingly without current or wind. When he floated forward a bit, he noted that it almost felt like going through water, but he could move with just a thought and without his hands. The zone expanded infinitely, amazing him with its grandeur and magnitude. Jagged outcroppings of floating islands and rocks littered the area, some staying in place, and others moving about freely. Some of the larger floating islands, one that looked suspiciously like a volcano a few miles away, actually had several smaller islands floating about in an orbit.

The whole experience fascinated him, leaving him speechless and in awe with giddy excitement.

He quickly turned to his uncle, a shit-eating grin plastered across his face. "This is awesome! The whole place is like outer space! Why did you say that the experience wasn't pleasant? The vertigo wasn't even that bad."

Vlad chuckled pityingly, "Oh Daniel, that wasn't the worst of it. That was just an effect of going into a dimension made entirely of energy. Energy that makes up half of our bodies, might I add."

That wasn't the worst of it? "What do you mean? There's something worse than that?" That feeling in his chest started building again, becoming more noticeable.

Vlad scrunched his face in… distaste? Discomfort? Whatever it was, it made Danny much more nervous, and he slowly started losing his excitement. The elder Halfa seemed to hesitate for a brief moment, but answered nonetheless. "Look down Daniel."

Down? Slowly, with wavering confidence Danny looked down-

And everything was black.

Just as infinite as space and the zone, the black below spanned from edge to edge of his vision, going far past the horizon, never ending. It took a moment for him to realize what it was, but as a space nut he got it quick enough: a black hole. There was no pull of gravity, but the bottom of the zone was a zone devoid of color and light, and Danny knew what it was instinctually.

It's where ghosts go to die.

Rest.

The whisper startled him so much he jumped, and in his surprise he didn't notice the edges of his vision narrow, slowly growing darker. Neither masculine or feminine, it reverberated in his head with a haunting echo. Danny bit his lip to clear his mind, struggling to maintain focus as it continued to speak.

Sleep.

Sweet nothings that sounded trivial, but made him shudder involuntarily. He didn't even notice it when Vlad took his arm over his shoulder.

Aren't you tired?

Danny struggled to keep his eyes open, but he arched his back in pain seconds later. It wasn't physical in the slightest, the younger Halfa could feel something dig into his mind, scraping away at his consciousness, looking for something.

You're just an abomination.

"No!" He's not! Danny shook his head furiously, trying to dispel whatever thing was trying to enter his mind.

You're not right. It hissed venomously. You don't belong.

Danny shut his eyes as tears started to build. Through his memories it shifted, forcing a migraine to the forefront immediately. He sucked in through his teeth with a wince, writhing on the ground he didn't know how he got on.

Vlad watched on with pity, but his hand never left his nephew. Truly, he knew it wouldn't help. This type of battle is a first for the young man, but it won't be the last. The Zone calls for a reason, but as long as he can live through it, he shouldn't have to deal with its vile temptations ever again. So long as he stays away from the End.

FREAK! The voice roared in his soul, degrading him with each word.

He felt like he was withering away, and he screamed in pain while clutching his chest, where his core is.

Poor Danny Fenton. The scalding chide mocked him further, seemingly never to end. Liar liar, you and your friendssssss.

Hated by humans. Hated by ghosts. You're both, but neither. Images flew by his mind's eye: friends, happily enjoying their date amidst their lie days after he died while he's forced to suffer, his parents hunting him like some kind of animal, years of being bullied by his peers- countless times in his past, and every pain he's experienced since becoming a hybrid.

Fangs dug into his cheeks, but Danny ignored the ectoplasm pooling in his mouth. It dribbled out like drool, and he pulled on his white hair relentlessly. He yelled back in his mind in retaliation, but the voice kept up, undeterred and demanding.

No place, no true home, burdened with life but not free even in death.

Thoughts of his parents filled his mind, doubts that he pushed to the back of his mind surfacing at the worst possible time.

How pitiful. Not an ounce of pity dripped from the hateful whispers, however. Just more mocking.

Not even your parents want you, they'd sooner cut you open like the freak you are.

NO! Even… even if they hate ghosts, they'd accept him! They just-

Would they? Why keep it a secret then?

His resolve wavered, knowing exactly why he kept it a secret. It's because…

You're scared of them. Not a question, but a statement.

And Danny knew it was true, no matter how much he hated it. "Yes." To his response, the voice seemed to creep closer and closer, digging further into his mind like claws into meat. He is scared of his parents, after years of hearing them work as hunters, he has the right of reason too. Even now, he still has nightmares about their experiments. Ghosts, feral or not, screaming in obvious pain while his parents cut them up mercilessly, like they don't feel pain.

And it's all too easy to imagine-

That will be you. It stated. Again, it wasn't a question.

"No! It won't!" Was he screaming in his head or was that his mouth?

Yesssssss. It will be. They will strap you to their table, cut you open-

"STOP!"

- and they'll find what makes you tick.

Danny's fists clenched the ground, unconsciously letting power flow into his arms and body. And Tock. The island cracked and began to glow, alarming Vlad. And Tick. Quickly he pulled Danny up to move to another, but the electricity that began sparking off of his body made him scream in pain. And Tock. Still, he moved his nephew to another island- a larger one that hopefully the boy wouldn't be able to crush. And Tick… As he grew closer to another floating landmass, he looked back to see the one they left crumble and fall down below.

Into the End it fell, like Daniel would have had he not moved him.

"ARRRGH! STOP! STOP!"

You're an abomination. Without purpose or point. Rest. End.

Danny fought back against the truths it spouted, against his reality. He knows exactly what he is, he doesn't need a disembodied voice telling him that! And he knows exactly what his purpose is!

END! END! END! It repeated, over and over, like a montra. Trying its hardest to push him. Ever closer to that abyssal edge he came with each word.

Danny pushed it back, slowly making traction on the voice in his mind. He could feel it being pushed away, but he screamed in pain again when the claws on his memories started peeling at his mind. Like a bandage it slowly peeled away with an agonizingly slow pace, somehow stinging his memories with each passing second.

End! Just let go! You're halfway there, all you have to do is finish!

Through grit teeth, he responded. "Finish… what?"

Dying. End it.

He defied it again, pushing even harder than before. Danny had struggled to stay alive when all that energy coursed through him. He didn't want to die, he stubbornly kept hold onto his life even when that damned portal opened up. He wouldn't toss away what little was left. He'd live, even if only half of him was alive.

Do it. End. End. End, End, End, EndEndEndEndEnd…

It went on and on, repeating 'End' over and over. But the rambling made him more resolute, more defiant, and stubbornly, like how he clung to what remained of his life, he fought back. Like on his death day, Danny refused to die. Once was enough, he didn't need to do it a second time, no matter how many times he came close to it.

Why won't you finish?! Join the END! JOIN US!

Pushing back, he screamed as more power surged from him. Vlad stood back, watching calmly as more and more power flared wildly, but he was ready to act if need be. Having done this alone, he thought himself lucky to have had a strong enough will and landmass to sustain him. Daniel, being only fourteen years old, was questionable if he could hold out… but then again, he did become a Halfa. It took a certain amount of will to keep hold of life when being incinerated by an interdimensional portal.

DIE! DIE LIKE YOU WERE MEANT TO, YOU ATROCITY AGAINST NATURE!

Danny snarled, pushing and pushing, further he forced the foreign presence out of his mind, out of his soul. Power coursed through his body in staggering amounts, fueled endlessly by the ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone. Roaring in defiance, he took pleasure in the panic of the voice that had been pushing him closer to the edge.

STOP! YOU VIOLATION UNTO-

"Shut Up!" He shouted, and energy shot from his mouth as he slowly gained control back over his body. The stray beam sliced through a rock far above, splitting it in three with its erratic emission. His eyesight returned first, barely, the sight of unstable ectoplasm firing out of his mouth in a Fanged Focus greeted him. Feeling came back, however numb it felt, but even as he barely felt his fingers twitch, the voice protested viciously against his psyche. He could taste the ectoplasm still in his mouth, and he spit it out with spite.

We are End! You will not defy us! End it, Halfa! End it, monstrosity! End it! Eeeeeend!

If it was trying to be convincing, it failed spectacularly. Revolting against death for the second time in his life, more power came flourishing to the surface. The edges of his vision became clear- no longer stained in black and narrowing. Danny could actually feel the ground beneath him, and slowly the ringing and screaming in his ears turned into actual sound. The chirping of thousands of birds and the hum of electricity was the first thing he heard, followed by the cracking ground, and only now he realized that his electrokinesis was wildly out of control.

Vlad stood off to the side, a pleased and proud expression plastered across his face. An hour in and the boy was almost done fighting back against the call. His apprentice is strong, more stable than he initially was, and even if he is younger, his will clearly isn't something to underestimate.

We-

-re End…

-ou w-

Sub-

-mit!

Submit! Die! End!

And with a final roar of defiance, Danny pushed that vile voice out of his mind. Power spiked, and his ectoplasmic aura radiated with his will. His core complied, funneling all of his power to expel whatever corruption was tempting his mind. The voice screamed and raged as it faded, leaving the young Halfa tired and panting for oxygen he didn't need.

He looked over to Vlad, his uncle, his mentor, to see him smiling so wide he thought his head would split. With fangs bared in a sinister grin, Danny responded in kind, giving a shaky thumbs up even as electricity continued to spark along his smoking body.

Even though Vlad told him that he wouldn't have to deal with… the End again, it still left him shaken. But he couldn't hold out with his invisibility forever. He glanced back at his parents, seeing them conversing excitedly about something… something that he was never a part of. How he wished they would just stop this. That they would, for one day, stop being scientists or ghosts hunters and instead be parents.

The voice echoed in his mind again, mocking him for fearing his parents, but a quick glance at their… operation table, proved that fear warranted. Although dulled and no longer glowing, slightly dried ectoplasm stained the table, giving an easy clue about what they had been doing recently. Two nights ago, to be exact. It was why he was so tired on Friday. On top of hunting other ghosts down, he had to listen to the screams of an unfortunate shapeshifting ghosts. While feral, for the most part they are the most intelligent of the specters he normally faces. No actual intellect or personality, but smart enough to adapt on the fly, remember shapes and sizes, and definitely smart enough… to feel pain. They all felt pain, but having to listen to it isn't great.

He shook his head, and took a step into the portal. No point in wasting anymore time. He didn't have a specific direction to go in, but flying around randomly wouldn't hurt. Besides, how hard is it to find the Box Ghost? If he's an annoyance here, no doubt he's worse on the other side. The GZ is the dimension stuck with the troglodyte, not Earth.

The familiar sensation from before, a tingling energy trickle that invigorated him filled his being, but no dizzy spell encroached this time. When he opened his eyes, the familiar green infinity of the Ghost Zone greeted him. The same clouds of green, black and purple floated aimlessly in any direction, and rocks and islands floated in every direction. There were actual lair doors floating around here though, unlike Vlad's portal. He didn't have any ghost lairs floating around his, but here there were quite a few.

And he didn't know where to start, really. The Box Ghost came to his world often, sometimes multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day, but for the past week he hasn't been around. Looking around, there's no ghosts in sight, which is something he finds rather strange. It is called the Ghost Zone, and even at Vlads' there were no stray ghosts, feral or not.

So with nothing better to do, he went to the closest door. It wasn't the best idea, his mentor had told him that ghosts didn't particularly care for people knocking on their lair. The dead are a private bunch, rather antisocial and introverted for the most part, but some didn't mind…

He knocked on the dull purple door, waiting maybe three minutes before-

"What de fuck do ye' wunt?!" A strong Irish accent greeted him, and opening the door stood a portly man. Pale green skin, red eyes, greasy slicked back hair, and a pot belly made the man's stature; he had what looked like a grey tunic and white dress shirt on. He didn't look particularly impressive or exciting as far as ghosts went, though he did look surprised to see the Halfa.

Danny waved sheepishly, "Uh… hi! I'm Danny a-"

The man shut the door in his face immediately, shouting behind the closed door a loud and muffled: "Fuck off!"

He stayed there for a moment, processing what happened. When his mind finally caught back up, he recoiled in anger. He pounded on the door half a dozen times with his boot before moving onto the next door, a quarter mile above him. He could hear the angry Irishman below screaming at his retreating form, it seems he didn't appreciate the door dash as much as Danny did. Maybe next time he'd answer the door with some manners instead of acting like an asshat. For good measure, he flipped him the middle finger without even looking back.

The next door came up soon enough, similar in color to the last, and really like the rest of the floating doors in the zone. Danny straightened his suit and calmed himself with a deep breath. The ectoplasm flowing into his lungs still felt a little weird, but it didn't hurt in the least so he tried to ignore it.

Knock. Knock. Knock.

Danny waited maybe five minutes before knocking again, but after another five minutes after that, he sighed and left. There's no point in being upset if no one's home, he figured ghosts have stuff they have to do too… maybe. Based on what Vlad said, there are different regions where many of them conglomerate into a community. So it's entirely possible that there may be some doing… whatever spirits of the dead do in their spare time.

Probably lots of board games if he had to guess.

On the third door, no one answered as well, and the same applied for the next three. It was starting to annoy him, and Danny began to suspect that they were actually in their lairs, but instead opted to ignore him. It's better than being attacked he supposed, but it's annoying all the same. Just because someone dies doesn't mean they have to be an ass in death.

Eventually, he gave up on this side and made his way back towards his portal. The front of the portal didn't seem to have the answers he was looking for, so now he decided to check on the area behind it. Gingerly, he landed on top of his portal, finding it a little uncomfortable that it looks the same as the entrance in the mortal realm. While taking a break, he scouts out the area he'll be going to next. There are fewer doors and they're far more spread out than the others.

Danny pushes ectoplasm into his eyes, improving his eyesight and range. Details become clearer, and what were small specks before now have identifiable shapes. There may not be that many doors in this direction, but there sure are a lot of landmasses. Way off in the distance, he can see large mountains and forests floating on what he can only assume is state sized subcontinents.

This whole place is fascinating.

Turning his attention to one of the closer doors, studying it for any details marking it as different. Its color remains the same, but oddly enough there's a pink sticker of a… cat? Huh, okay then. He panned right, looking over more lair entrances. Far, far past the cat door, there's what looks like a rusty grey garage door? So they don't all come in the same shapes and sizes. A large tire with a skull in the middle looked to be spray-painted onto the center of it, but for the most part it seemed generic.

Eventually his sight moved above his head, with him laying down over the portal. Danny's feet dangled off the edge, occasionally touching the swirling portal and sending small shocks through his system. The tingling numbness actually started to feel kind of good after a while, so he just kept doing it while relaxing. Next time he comes here, he'll have to bring his sketchbook. There's plenty to document and have fun with. The doors above him are a little harder to see, but one door in particular stood out from the rest. Not because it looked marginally different, but because right in the center… there was a square.

It could be anything.

Someone else could have decided to decorate their door that way of course, but Danny had a sneaking suspicion that that was the lair he was looking for. With renewed vigor, he pushed off of the portal and took off up. As he approached, Danny finally pieced together why Boxy showed up so often. They're fucking neighbors! Assuming the residents surrounding his portal were the recluses they've proven themselves to be so far, it's understandable that Box Ghost is the only one abusing this privilege. Or maybe he's the only one ballsy enough to try something like this.

Finally at what he hopes is his destination, Danny knocks three times on the door. There's some cluttering and banging, a little cursing, but the door swings open widely to reveal-

"Who dares disturb the Box Gho-"

The low swooshing of the zone broke the quiet pause, and Danny smiled a toothy grin at the Box Ghost. "Boxy! Just the ghost I was looking for!"

His face panicked for a brief moment, and he quickly tried to slam the door shut. Undeterred, Danny shot his foot out to block the door. "Ouch! Fuck, stop it Boxboy! I need to talk to you!"

The cubical ghost denied the Halfa from the bottom of his core, "No! You always ruin my fun in the human realm, I'm taking time off at home for now!" He opened the door slightly, then slammed it shut again. "Beware, or I'll crush your foot with my rectangular door of doooooom!"

Danny growled in annoyance, "Shit, that hurts you ass! Stop it! I'm here to make a deal!"

The specter stopped, halting his assault on the half-ghosts foot. "A deal?"

"Yes!" He barked, "Now open the fuck up!" He enhanced his arm with ectoplasm all the way down to his fingers, then punched the door with his augmented strength. The door swung open, flinging the crate spirit across his lair.

Danny let himself in, rubbing his sore foot. As he floated closer, the inside of the lair came into view. It all looked… rather normal. Hardwood floors, dresser in the entrance hall, deep blue walls, fluorescent light bulbs? Huh, those look like the same ones they have in school. Then there are the boxes. Everywhere, there are shelves and shelves covered in boxes, and a large majority of the floor is covered in the damn cardboard boxes as well.

"Nice place ya got here Boxy," Danny stopped in front of the ghost, "It's a little messy though, like a hoarder lives here."

Box Ghost got up with a glare, "This is my lair ghost child! How dare you push me in my own home! And I am not a hoarder!"

Danny deadpanned his stare, "Uh-huh. Sure, and I'm not half-dead." He shook his head in exasperation, "Whatever. Are you interested in the deal or not?"

The glare lessened, but his attitude didn't change all that much. "You should be grateful that I'm not destroying you with my boxes of DOOM!" Seeing that he got no reaction, he slumped his shoulders in disappointment. "What do you ghost child?"

The Halfa beamed a brilliant smile at the ghost, "Awesome! Now here's what I need…"

"Okay, you know what to do, right?"

The Box Ghost crossed his arms in annoyance, "Yes, ghost child. I know what I'm doing."

Dannys' gaze flickered over to the portal in front of them, then his attention turned back towards his temporary ally. "Okay, but remember: don't get caught no matter what. My parents are kind of off-kilter, and if they catch you…"

The crate creep raised an eyebrow, "They'll what?"

Grimacing, Danny put as much seriousness into his next four words. "They will dissect you."

Boxy paled slightly, his blue skin turning a shade lighter as he gulped. "Oh… uh, will they really? Isn't that kind of extreme?" The nod he got in return didn't make him feel any better, but the reward was too much. A factory for boxes! How could he pass this up, it's literally on his box list.

"Okay. If I were you, I wouldn't fight them. Just… I dunno, dodge around and make fun of them." Danny fished around in his pants for a little incentive, "Just don't get too close to them and stay close to the ceiling so you can run away when needed. I don't need a long time, just a few hours. It's like an hour drive over there, and an hour drive back, so you gotta distract them for maybe thirty minutes tops." Finally he found it, and he passed it over to his ghostly companion. A glass cube, about an inch long and wide. It sparkled an undead green in accordance with the Ghost Zone, not bright, but still enough.

Hurriedly, the Box Ghost caught it. He stared in wonder as the small crystal cube refracted the acid colored light, turning it around in his hand as he inspected it. His excited face turned to the Halfa, a questioning gaze leering into his smug expression. Danny shrugged his shoulders, "Advanced payment. I imagine you won't get much out of the factory aside from the experience, so a little motivation never hurts."

Those lessons from Vlad always seem to pay off when he needs them the most. Always come prepared and know your opponent. Not too hard to figure out for this one in particular. Boxes and cubes are his fancy, and really he probably didn't even need to go the extra mile on this. The second he heard 'box factory', he agreed immediately.

The ghost pocketed his newest treasure and turned towards the portal. "Alright, I'm ready. Your parents will face my packaged doom!" Immediately he took off into the swirling vortex. Danny slapped his face while shaking his head, "Idiot…"

On the other side he reemerged with his invisibility going full blast. The lack of ectoplasm in the air was a little disappointing, but it's nothing he's not used to.

"I AM THE BOX GHOST!" Watching as a spectator, Danny had to hold his laugh in lest he be caught out. His parents turned in surprise, staring at Boxy with a mix between surprise, confusion and hatred. "BEWARE! I AM FREE FROM THE ZONE AND MY FIRST ACT WILL BE TAKING THE BOXES FROM-" He looked at a small piece of paper that he took from one of the pockets on his overalls. "- 4477 Amity Industrial Commerce? What a dumb address name."

It was oh-so tempting to blast the blue buffoon in the back of the head for such a shoddy performance, but his parents didn't seem to notice.

"Ghost!" His father shouted, "Grab the guns Madz!" The large man vaulted over his work table with surprising dexterity, grabbing a blaster off the wall and taking aim immediately. His wife followed suit, snagging an ecto-launcher off of the weapons rack right next to her and sighted in her target. Box Ghost tensed up for a moment, but remembered his objective and took off through the ceiling before the two ghost hunters could fire their weapons.

"Damn it, he got away!" Maddie hissed as she turned towards her husband. "Do you remember what he said?"

Jack nodded excitedly, "That I did! What an idiot, telling us where he's going like that." He tossed the weapon he was holding over towards his wife, who deftly caught it with practiced ease. "Take those up and start the Fenton Family Assault Vehicle. I'll grab some more supplies and meet you back up top."

Maddie smiled at her husband, "Sure thing honey," she walked over and gave him a kiss on the cheek. "Oh! Don't forget to bring the Specter Deflectors. They need some field testing."

Minutes later, Danny was left alone in the lab, with nothing but the sounds of the portal and the occasional beeping from some of the equipment. He returned to the visible spectrum and released a sigh of relief. "Can't believe that worked. I don't know who's the bigger idiot, Box Ghost or my parents for falling for that."

His eyes panned over the whole lab, going over the main computer, the filing cabinets, bookshelves, weapon racks, firing range, worktables, material bins… this place is bigger than the house is, how did they manage that? It almost seemed like they were under the street or neighbors house, or at least close to it.

"Hmm… where to start?"

"Tucker, I swear to god, if you don't put that shit down, I will break it."

Whatever little spell Tucker was under broke for a moment, a horrified expression passed over his face and he quickly hid both his PDA and his phone. "Why would you say that Sam?!"

Same growled in annoyance, "I say that," she took a step forward, poking him in the chest, "because we're supposed to be hanging out! But you haven't even picked up a controller once!" She pushed him again, "All you've done is keep your fucking eyes glued to your screen, and those dumbass headphones haven't even left your ears once."

Tucker looked affronted, aghast, and took a step back. "Dumbass headphones? These headphones rock! They're Ember McLain limited time merch! And they cost me a pretty penny too, so hands off!"

Even now, she could hear the music, the same pop-rock genre that's been playing through the earbuds, headphones, and speakers of literally every student in Casper High aside from her and Danny. She didn't know why Danny wasn't affected, but Sam had a sneaking suspicion that the reason she wasn't under… whatever this is was because of the Fenton Phones she always had on as of late.

Sam's glare seemed to grow, forcing her friend to back down a bit. "Don't tell me what to do techy! And we're having a damned conversation, turn off that crap when you're talking to your friends."

Quicker than Tucker could react, Sam nabbed the headphones off of his head. She wrinkled her nose in disgust at the fan merchandise, the entire cyan and black headphones not appealing to her in the slightest. Cyan is way too bright of a color for her liking, and the sheer narcissism it took to have someone's face plastered onto their own wares… Ember McLain is many things apparently, and an engorged ego was one of the things she had in spades it seemed. "Look at this garbage, who puts their own face on stuff like this?"

When she started waving the bluetooth headphones around, Tucker actually shrieked in fear. He desperately jumped out of the chair, snatching the ear equipment back with fanatic panic. Sam gaped at… whatever just transpired. In all of their lives, she had never seen Tucker act so pathetic before. "What is wrong with you? Did someone finally knock your head too hard?" He had never followed a trend with such zeal, and the goth found it inherently uncomfortable.

Tucker snapped at his friend, glaring back at his best friend. "What is wrong with me? What's wrong with you?! What if you broke my babies?! How can you not like Ember either?!"

Sam scoffed, "Who cares? It's cheap junk, well the headphones are. And I really don't like Ember's genre." She walked back towards her favorite chair, taking the controller from the seat and plopping ungracefully back onto it. The ultra-vegan craned her neck to look over at the techy, "Are you done ignoring the friend you came over to hang out with, or are you going to continue listening to music?"

Her friend seemed conflicted for a moment and made to put the headphones down, but when the song started again, his eyes glazed over slightly and his posture stiffened. Slowly, with the grace of a stiff robot, he put the earphones back on. Sam stared, unnerved at the action and entirely displeased. "Ugh!" She turned back around and started playing DOOMED by herself. Again. Why did he even come over if all he was going to do was stare at his phone like a creep? No talking, no joking, just… nothing. It's like he wasn't even there, but his physical presence was too hard to ignore.

Half an hour passed, and as she stomped her way through the sixth level, her mind wandered over to her other friend that wasn't here at the moment. The last few days had been weird, even for Danny. Sure, every once in a while he came to school sleepy from the night prior. They're teenagers, and sometimes they play games until the wee hours of the morning. With how neglectful both of theirs are, there have been plenty of times they pulled all nighters.

But almost all week, he struggled to stay awake in class. Lancer had to wake him up on more than one occasion, as did Sam. The teacher seemed concerned, which was nice when compared to some others they've had before, but he knew where his professional bounds lied. She wondered if this continued, would he ask Danny the questions himself when it started affecting his schoolwork.

And he even started leaving early! Mr. Falluca hasn't even noticed yet, the incompetent short man stepped out too often for a smoke break to notice half the stuff class did. Whether he was in there teaching or not. She was tempted to follow after him on a few occasions, but he always had perfect timing. If she wanted to follow after him, she'd have to do it the same moment he did. Seconds after he leaves, their biology teacher always makes his appearance, her friend's absence going unnoticed. It didn't help that he never called roll, whether in the beginning of class or at the end.

Honestly, shirking of responsibilities is probably one of the things Sam hates the most from a long list of things she has an extreme distaste for. And Mr. Falluca was slowly making his way onto that list too.

Clearing level ten, she turned back to Tucker to see him zoned out again. His head slowly bobbed to the beat, and again her anger continued to rise. Sam huffed in frustration and picked up her own headset, connecting it with her controller and focusing back on the game. As the multiplayer lobby filled up quick enough, the goth couldn't help but wonder…

"What the hell is going on in this town?"

Over and over, he read it. Every last word, hyphen, exclamation point and letter; he read it all. Even as his hands shook violently, the words burned their way into his mind, never to be forgotten. Unhidden emotions flashed across his face, and he growled through clenched teeth as hidden truths unveil and are splayed out right before his very eyes.

A question remains though: What the fuck is this?

What the fuck is this?!

This…

This documented- signed and dated by both of his parents multiple times through the report- their one and only human experimentation trial. The only time they've tested exposure to ectoplasm on a live, breathing human being. And their only subject, one who couldn't even object or protest-

Was him. He was their only live subject throughout their entire careers. Energy sparked off of his back and legs, leaving small tufts of ash in their wake as they marred the ground. Danny didn't care at the moment, his parents wouldn't notice either. Too tunnel visioned in their own damn research to notice anything, and apparently, follow any semblance of a moral code as well!

Danny's stomach churned, his throat felt like sandpaper, and his enhanced vision blurred as unshed tears began to well in his eyes. He could hear nothing, a dull ringing just continued to get louder and louder as he read, and his skin started to feel numb.

How…

How could they do this? This was where his fear came from! This is where his distrust came from! This level of- of lunacy! This is why he kept his hybridism as secret! His biggest fear: that one day his parents would experiment on him for what he is, and it's already happened. They used him like an experiment: not as a baby, no that wouldn't be evil enough.

According to the notes, they didn't even realize that Maddie, his mother, was pregnant with him until almost halfway through the pregnancy! The dumbasses were so engrossed in their work they never noticed. But when they did, it didn't stop there!

They continued to expose him to the stuff! Day after day, his unborn and still-developing body was exposed constantly to dangerous and hazardous energy and materials! "How could they?!" And they recorded it too, all to happy to get that kind of exclusive data!

If they could do this when he was just an unborn infant, why wouldn't they be able to do it later in his life? What's stopping them? Morals weren't enough the first time, there's no way they'd be enough the second time around. Even more so when his physiology has changed so drastically; after all, who knows when they'll get another chance to study a half-ghost? He's an impossibility unto the universe, life and death in one body; how could they resist?

Danny wanted to destroy this infernal piece of damning evidence, but… he had an assignment to turn in, and this was it. As calmly as he could, Danny placed the wrinkled and slightly damp report back into the disgusting manilla folder. His eyes panned over the reports, the graphs, the data, and again that burning desire to destroy everything in front of him reared its ugly head. If he let the anger take hold though, the lab would be next and there's no way he can cover that up… assuming they blame him of course, but then again, the teenaged boy always gets blamed when something breaks. They're always so rambunctious, those teenagers.

The filing cabinet now cleared- he'd read every painful damn detail from it later- Danny phased through the ceiling into his room. With as much restraint as he could handle, the Halfa tossed the truth onto the ground in his closet. He walked through the wall again, arriving at a linen closet, and took some sheets out and went back to his room to cover it up. His parents wouldn't find it, they never came to check on either of their children and he doubted they'd even notice the lack of files for years to come.

But he was given an assignment… and that means that Vlad had to know something, if not the whole truth. After slamming his door shut and locking it, Danny moved over to his bed and sat down. He took his phone, unplugged it from the charger, and brought up his contacts.

In the U's, he found who he was looking for: Uncle Vlad Masters.

In his anger and unsteady mind, he had to stop himself from crushing the phone in his hand twice before actually making the call. Even then, his shaky fingers kept pressing the wrong buttons. And as the phone rang, his senses dulled again, the hypnotic muted ringing barely calmed his nerves.

"Hello?" His uncle answered the phone on the fifth ring, but Danny couldn't say anything. He ground his teeth together while trying to formulate a coherent sentence that wasn't just an angry yell.

"Daniel? Is that you?" The younger Halfa groaned, loud enough to be heard on the other line. On the other side, Vlad checked the date on the computer's calendar. He nodded in affirmation, feeling confident in his hypothesis. It's been long enough and his nephew is a bright lad, with ample time he's been expecting a call to come any day now.

It seems that today is that day. "Well, I am assuming that you finally completed your first task?"

Through the phone, Vlad could hear his young apprentice growl, "Oh yeah, I completed it alright." The younger hybrid paused for a moment to take a breath, "What the hell is this Vlad? What was the point of this if you knew the whole time?"

It wouldn't do to get angry at the boy for his attitude, if there was ever a time where Daniel rightfully deserved to act like this, it would be now. It's a world shaking revelation after all, he could be afforded more than a little leniency. "I wanted you to find out for yourself Daniel." His next words stalled on his tongue, and thinking better, chose a different set instead. "Even if I do think you are more mature than your peers, especially for your age, tell me: would you have really believed me?"

Danny tried to stutter out a response, tired and angry and so very, very confused. But when he asked himself… "I don't know."

Vlad didn't stop there though, he continued to push. "Daniel, would you have believed me if I told you that your parents used you as an experiment before you were even born and after for a little bit as well? Answer me truthfully."

Minutes go by, and after careful deliberation and painfully awkward silence, Danny answers his mentor. "No." The quiet reply came softly, "I don't think I would have. Is that why…?"

"It's better for both of us if you found out on your own." He began, "If I had told you, it could have strained our relationship and put unnecessary stress between your familial bonds." The older man sighed heavily into the phone, already feeling tired from this depressing kind of talk. "I understand this is a lot to take in boy, but you're strong. You'll get through this."

Compliments are a sure fire way to boost someone's mood, and Danny is no exception, even more so since they've always been lacking in his life for the most part. "Yeah, I guess… How long have you known this for?"

That's an easy response, and one Vlad has no problem revealing. "The night of the party. Weren't you wondering why Jack and Maddie were acting so strange the day after?"

Thinking back, they did seem a little… frazzled. "Yeah, I guess so. They were super on edge the whole day," his eyes narrow in thought, "how come?"

Vlad chuckled on the other end, making his annoyance rise a little once again. "They didn't want me to tell you, though they made no promises about telling you themselves."

Danny didn't respond, and the line went quiet for another five minutes. The younger of the hybrids brooded in silence, memories and parts of his life being replayed. He couldn't trust his parents anymore, not after learning that. His musing was broken when Vlad said-

"Just so you know, Little Badger, they do regret it."

He snapped far quicker than either thought was possible, "Don't fucking defend them!"

Tone harshening, the billionaire was stern in his rebuttal. "Don't curse at me, boy. I am not the one to be getting angry with, and I am not defending them." Silence again, but nearly as long. "What they did was terrible Daniel, I am not condoning it, and I am certainly not forgiving them for doing that to my favorite nephew."

Although small, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly. "I'm your only nephew."

"Yes, you are, which makes you my favorite by default. Good for you on that."

Both of them laughed for a moment, Vlads' small and reserved and Dannys' tired and slightly hollow. There was some genuine mirth in it, but the day's been hard. "What now?"

Vlad hummed in thought before answering. From Danny's side of the phone, he could hear his mentor typing away on a keyboard of some kind. "For now, just live life. Do whatever a fourteen year old does. Your next assignment will be at the end of the month, I will be there to explain it to you."

So he already has another one, huh? That's great. "This next one isn't going to be some ridiculous life shattering revelation again is it?"

"Heavens no. The only way I would say you can prepare for it is to get stronger. Keep practicing your powers, my boy, and you'll do just fine." The line went silent again for the umptienth time. Danny thought of anything to say, tapping on his pant leg all the while, but decided that there was nothing left to talk about really. Suddenly he heard Vlad snap his fingers on the other end, "That reminds me: that suit you wanted will be ready soon. Just in time for task two as well, what timing!"

Okay, that cheered him up a little. Getting some actual armor is going to be a lifesaver. It's a shame it won't get here for another couple weeks, but getting it at all is great. Besides, the protective suit he wears now is a little too tight. It's not entirely comfortable, but hopefully that changes with the next combat suit. "Cool! I was wondering when it'd be do-"

"WE GOT A LIVE ONE HERE!" Danny was swiftly interrupted by his parents' triumphant return. He didn't know how he missed his father swinging the front door open, but the small black cube in his hand was held up like a victorious trophy, or the olympic flame.

Danny slapped his face in exasperation. "How the hell did he fall for that twice?"

"What's going on Daniel?" Vlad asked from the still connected call.

The ghost child jumped slightly, startled from his own musing. "Oh! Sorry Vlad, I gotta go. My parents caught a ghost I know, and even though he's a nuisance, he doesn't deserve to be opened up like a dead frog. See ya!"

Swiftly hanging up the phone, Danny rushed down the stairs. His parents were already down in the lab, most likely preparing for a dissection. He quickly turned angry again, but restrained it since there were more pressing matters at the moment. Checking quickly, he locked the front door and made his way downstairs into the lab. Sure enough, his expectations did not disappoint unfortunately.

"Hey… Mom, Dad." Both turned their attention towards him, waiting to hear what their only son had to say. Danny scowled, but tried to keep his expression flat.

"Yes sweety? What is it?" His mother asked, not even stopping her preparations.

Pointing his fingers back up towards the stairs, the youngest child said: "Ghost went flying down the street. Might wanna go north."

Jack immediately perked up with childlike glee, "Two in one day! This calls for celebratory fudge!" He picked up some more equipment- that weird tracking device they made, some grenades, and another Containment Cube. Already halfway up the stairs, he called down to his wife. "Let's go Madz! These spooks aren't gonna hunt themselves!"

Oh, the irony in that statement. As it turns out, they do hunt themselves. Specifically a little booger compensating for his lacking stature, hunting him for his pelt.

As his parents left the confines of the lab and their home, Danny turned his attention towards the cube holding his accomplice captive. He shook his head in disappointment, clicking the release button on it and letting the guy out.

In a swirl of blue light, the Box Ghost reammurged, looking a little beat up, but otherwise fine. "I AM THE BOX GHOST! BEWARE MY- Where am I?" His eyes swept across the familiar lab he had been going through and quickly landed on the Halfa. He flinched back in embarrassment.

"You idiot, what the fuck are you doing?" His arms spread wide in vexation, "You got caught the same fucking way you did the first time we met didn't you?" Box Ghost flinched again, scooting back towards the portal.

Danny scoffed and continued berating the blue buffoon. "Seriously, I even told you not to fall for the Containment Cube thing."

10:52.

Second period math class.

Mr. Lancer was, at the moment, knee deep in an explanation about the pythagorean theorem and the different ways to apply it and circumvent it. And of the thirty-one students in attendance, Danny found it a shame that he was the only ones paying attention. He also found it exceedingly annoying, since the balding man had taken to asking him, and only him. With everyone else having their heads in the clouds and up their asses, something that did not go unnoticed by the multi-degreed teacher, that left him to pick up the slack.

All the slack. That's a lot of damn slack for someone who stayed up till three in the morning catching ghosts, with no 'thank you' he might add. Luckily it ended without major injury, aside from some bruising, so his body was in relatively good health. It's just his mind which was falling behind, trying desperately to force the half-ghost to sleep. That wouldn't do with literally all of the attention on him at the moment.

When Danny's ghost sense went off, he nearly cried out in joy. Hallelujah was right on the tip of his tongue, but he knew better than to say that out loud. Quickly, he turned his attention to the window he was sitting near. Outside, in quick fashion, a large semi-truck hauling an actual stage rounded the corner, parking itself right in front of the school gates.

His jaw dropped, that certainly wasn't how he was expecting her to show up. Ember McLain followed suit to show that she liked flashy entrances. Appearing in an explosion of purple smoke, the ghostly rocker walked out, ready to strum. The second she started playing on her guitar three more band members poofed into existence right behind her. A man on the drums, a bass player and another guitarist. All with blue skin, all grungy looking rockers, and all over them were quite obviously ghosts. Well, one of them looked like a zombie, but Danny's well aware that ghosts come in all kinds of shapes and sizes.

"It's Ember McLain! The concert is LIIIIIIVE!" He didn't know who screamed that, maybe Star, but it started a domino effect. Everyone in class, ignoring Lancers lecture and cries of protests, rushed to the window in a crowd. Through the glass they cheered, until they couldn't contain it any longer and started rushing through the door. Danny watched on, more than a little amused, especially when one of the A-Listers got trampled for tripping.

This experience is kind of surreal. It's giving him a kick, yeah, but the fervent way people are acting is more than a little dangerous. Trampling is all fun and games until someone gets stepped on the neck. Then it's game over.

"I'm glad to see someone isn't infected by this vile delinquency." Danny turned his head to his teacher of two classes glaring out the window with extreme distaste.

Raising an eyebrow, the Halfa snarkily responds. "Yeah, as great as that is, I don't think teaching one person out of more than thirty will fly with the principal."

Lancer grit his teeth, grinding them rather audibly, but conceded his agreement. "I have to agree with you, Mr. Fenton." His expression shifted again, somehow getting even more sour than before, "I'm afraid I have to ask you to stay here while I deal with this…" He flicked his hand indignantly at the forming crowd for the concert, "problem."

The man was at the door before Danny could even respond. Thinking fast, he packed his stuff up, transformed into Phantom, and shot off to the roof to deposit his backpack. After fishing out his phone, he debated on texting Sam, but decided against it. She has the Fenton Phones and the Wrist Rays, she should be fine. Besides, maybe Ember isn't aggressive enough to attack him…

His track record states otherwise though, so he wouldn't hold out too much hope for that possibility.

After grabbing a Fenton Thermos and attaching it to his belt, Danny floated above the collected crowd with his arms crossed, going blissfully unnoticed by the masses below. Ember didn't seem to notice him either, too engorged in the chanting of her name and the flow of her concert. He watched on with interest, the chanting growing more and more fevered and her hair… getting larger? On a second glance, it actually looked more like fire, with the cheers and chants fanning the flames. He frowned, that had to mean something.

Other than that, the ghostly rocker did look like she was having fun. And she looked hot. Maybe seventeen or eighteen, which didn't mean jack-shit for immortal ghosts, her entire outfit was enticing. While Danny wasn't sure if those were actual tattoos or just make-up on her face, it did take her already exotic appearance to another level. The odd, tight leather clothes helped accentuate her curves and lithe figure, and even if she did look remarkably human at a passing glance, it was a little obvious that she wasn't… entirely normal? Not a ghost specifically, but she still didn't look entirely human; there was a strange ethereal feel that all ghosts shared, him and Vlad included, and it made those more perceptive to the supernatural notice far more quickly.

Well, she wasn't doing anything inherently wrong, so he figured he could just sit back and enjoy his first concert. It put a little melancholy in Dannys' mood when he realized that he died before actually going to a live concert. That's a little depressing. He shifted his position in the air, deciding that laying down while propping his head up was more appropriate. Even if this wasn't his preferred genre, it was still pretty good. If he could say one thing, Ember has a damn good singing voice on her.

Then Mr. Lancer barged through the front doors with a megaphone. Where did he get that anyway? Did they have one stored in the teachers lounge? He'd have to check that out, who knows what goodies they have stored there. He straightened his posture a little when the portly man got on top of one of the school newspaper distribution boxes. It was a little funny to see him attempt balance on the fire hydrant next to it, but Lancer quickly found out how dumb that was when he nearly cracked his skull open on the pavement.

"Attention! Attention! To the freakishly dressed teen idol, I order you to cease and desist!"

… Oh boy. That would have been funny if not for the vindictive smirk on Embers face. "Dismiss this Grandpa!" And then she finally did something aside from playing a tune. After doing something to the guitar, a visible wave of energy washed over the crowd. The people stirred, twitching violently with glowing eyes. Danny tensed, his awareness going from a low two to a solid nine.

When the whole crowd turned to the teacher with glowing red eyes, Danny acted immediately. It wouldn't do to have the only teacher he liked killed by a mob.

"Pride and prejudice!" Danny almost stopped in mid-air at the… weird exclamation. If he wasn't used to it by now, Lancer may have been mobbed.

Quickly, Danny swooped down and picked the older man up. After going invisible, which transferred over to his teacher, he put him back at the entrance. "I wouldn't do that if I were you."

The multi-degree teacher looked up in surprise at the white haired teen. "Don't worry, I'll handle the whole mind-control thing." Before he could respond or recover from his shock, Danny took off towards the rocker.

Ember seemed to be engrossed in the chanting, completely ignoring her surroundings as her hair grew in a plume of flames. As she rocked on, Danny landed behind her with his arms crossed. His eyebrows rose a little as the chanting increased another volume in accordance to how 'hard' she strummed her guitar. Speaking of guitars, Danny eyed the piece of musical equipment warily, the feeling it gave off almost triggering his ghost sense, but slightly subdued. Something to be wary of.

"Ahem."

The blue-haired ghost jumped a little, turning around with a scowl trapped on her face. "Yes? Can I help you? What are you doing here? I don't do duets, Dipstick."

Honestly, he had to chuckle at that. That was the first thought that came to mind? It was just a little funny. "Dipstick? Really? I'm not here to perform with you," he waved off, "Just chill on the mind control, okay?"

That didn't seem to make her any happier, her strumming stopped even though the band continued. The crowd didn't seem to mind though. "And who's going to stop me?" Her voice turned deadly, something Danny recognized by the few villains he's faced so far in his short hero career.

As his hands began to glow green, he didn't notice when she changed the dial on the guitar. Switching from a music note to a skull, she smirked devilishly, which made the half-ghost blush. "You don't have to feel so happy to see me," he said, ecto-blast at the ready, "but I understand, most can't help themselves with my supernatural charm."

Ember rolled her eyes, but the grin never left her face. At least he could talk the talk… now to see if he could walk the walk. "Oh, sure." Before he could react, she strummed her guitar in a harsh riff, blasting the Halfa back with visible sounds waves. Danny flew back past the stage, landing harshly against the wrought iron fence that surrounded the school. It bent sharply with his form, giving testament to his durability since he escaped that attack with only minor bruises. Still hurt like a bitch though.

Getting up with a glare, he aimed it at the smirking rocker. "Was that supposed to hurt?" He mocked, "because I barely felt it." Quickly, he threw a barrage of ecto-blasts towards the stage. Danny felt a little bad about damaging the platform, but that sonic wave hurt, so the guilt passed quick enough. Ember ascended to the sky, dodging the bombardment, but not dodging the ecto-ray that blasted her over the roof.

She screamed in pain or surprise, he couldn't tell, the ray itself wasn't particularly powerful, just fully charged. Danny followed up soon enough though, but he was forced to dodge when she nearly decapitated him with her guitar. Feeling the danger, he quickly backed up in the sky, now more than aware of the danger.

The guitar, purple and blue, now glowed a violent lavender. The edges in particular extended slightly, making the musical instrument look more like an axe than a guitar. Actually… "Whoa, what's with the gitbox? Why's it look like a medieval weapon?"

Ember smirked, "My guitar's an artifact, it's far more powerful than some construct. And with it…" She flipped it around with deft dexterity and changed the dial again, the energy radiating off it far more powerful than before. "I can do way more than just make noise!"

Another wave of sound came out, this time in the shape of a fist. Danny quickly raised a shield, blocking the attack, but she kept strumming on her instrument. The sonic fists kept coming, and eventually the energy dome broke, forcing him back. His ears ruptured slightly, green blood- his ectoplasm- pouring out in no small amount. With the pain came anger, just barely on the surface, came forth in full.

Electricity crackled around his arms as he got up, the smell of ozone in the air, and he started ascending at high speeds, startling the rocker. "That hurt…" the static current converged in his hands, forming a long spear in each hand. "Let's see if you like something similar!"

The spear flew fast, and even though she dodged, Ember still took the attack in full when it blew up on proximity just past her. In a sphere of energy, the electricity surged for several seconds, with Ember on the outside of it. She screamed in melodic pain, and Danny palmed the other electric weapon. Before she could get up, even with her glare centered on him, he repurposed the spear into coiling currents and thrust his arm out. The stream of green electricity burst out from his fingertips, homing in on its target. From her kneeling position, Ember raised her glowing guitar, blocking the attack. She grit her teeth in frustration, but held on defiantly. The sound was deafening, a mix of hard strums and crackling energy.

Having had enough, the rocker's fiery hair wrapped around her body while she defended. Before his eyes, Ember disappeared in a whirlwind of blue fire and flames. The ecto-electricity, now without a target, flew forward until Danny stopped pumping power into the ability. "Wha- She can teleport? I can't even do that!"

Danny looked around, trying to find her. He eyed the stage, seeing the band still performing and the crowd still chanting her name. With a feeling of sudden urgency, the Halfa turned around with his arms glowing green. Ecto-claws formed up to the elbow, barely blocking the swing from Ember. "Fuck!" He was bashed down, and even with the defensive cowl around his arms they stung with a dull throbbing.

"Whoa! Are you old enough to curse?" She took after him on his descent, a manic smirk trailed by her fiery hair. Fire twirled around her fingertips, and she pointed them down at him, letting loose a ray of burning heat.

Growling, Danny twirled in a barrel roll to avoid the attack. In his palms, ecto-blasts formed, and the still in-use claws dug into the balls of energy, splitting them. "Old enough to die," As the ray of fire turned to follow him, the half-ghost twirled around and took aim at his interceptor. "Old enough to do whatever I want!" Firing a spookshot from each hand, he took great pleasure in her surprised expression when they detonated around her. "Ahhhh!"

Changing direction, Danny flew back up at her as she fell back. The claws faded, leaving his arms glowing in augmentation. The distance closed, his speed too fast to leave her anything but time to recover. The guitar flew back to her hands, but before she could do any more damage Danny grappled her, his hand locked with one of hers and at the wrist that was holding the instrument. "Words to live by, Babypop."

He pushed, as did she, and they seemed even. "I think you mean die by… but semantics." The stalemate continued for a moment, but the chanting grew louder and louder now. They had fallen enough to be maybe thirty feet over the crowd, and his lock on her was slowly losing ground.

"What's your game Ember? Why are you doing this?" Her hair was already taller than she was by double the amount, and Danny continued to get pushed back. Her grip on his hand was horrible, and he could feel his fingers grinding under the pressure.

Embers smirk grew to another level, "As you said, 'whatever I want.' And what I want," heat began to build in his hands, a forewarning to her use of fire, and one that Danny responded with by channeling electricity into his hands. "Is to rule the world!" She pushed back against him mid-air until they hit the school, fire dancing along her hands in a battle against the ectoplasm fueled current.

Danny groaned under the pressure, his hands were burning and his bones were starting to bend in a way that was bordering a break. "With music?" He let intangibility overcome him, phasing into the building behind him and out of her grasp. Ignoring the pain coming from his hands, he stuck a hand back through to grab her, "I'll give you points for originality!" He brought her back, slamming her into the wall just above the 'C' in the Casper High letters on the school.

When he brought her back for another round, she phased through and knocked an uppercut into him. A little dazed, he slammed into the cheap fiberglass ceiling tiles used by every public school in the country. Now stuck in the rafters of the third floor and covered in cobwebs, his anger spiked again. Before he could phase through to the roof, she yanked him down and prepared to stomp on him with her platform boots. "You bitch!" He caught her foot and twisted, bringing to the ground with a yelp. Her guitar flew from her hand, the sling just barely missing her shoulder.

Expecting a punch, she brought her arms up to defend her face. While he may be pissed, there was something… kind of wrong about straddling a woman and beating her face in. So he had no qualms when he grabbed the top of her head and brought the two of them to the roof and tossed her into the air. She screamed in surprise, and reoriented herself in the air with a glare aimed at Danny. They charged at each other, acid green against apple green, and to the rockers surprise, at close range he fired an ocular blast. It slammed into her gut, flinging her back into the air. He continued by firing three more blasts, all of them slamming into her abdomen and stomach, leaving scorch marks against her fair skin. It left his eyes stinging like they just experienced the desert winds, but it was worth it.

"I'd feel bad about hurting you," He knocked a glowing fist back, "but I'm not that nice of a person!" Cleanly clocking her in the jaw, she flew out of the school bounds into the woods. Thinking fast, he flew down back into the school and sucked her guitar, an artifact as she called it, into the Thermos. He clipped the piece of equipment back onto his belt by the time she showed up to retrieve her instrument.

She looked around, growling when she couldn't see it. "Where the fuck is my guitar Dipstick?!" She took a step forward, fists glowing alight with fiery energy.

Danny smirked, fangs on full display, giving her pause. "It's Danny Phantom, not dipstick. Although that other pet name isn't bad, aren't you rushing things? We haven't even had our first date yet." His own hands crackled with dangerous sparks and his eyes left vapor trails from the power ready to burst through. Bubbles of ectoplasm formed around his palms, ready to transfer into a blast or ray at a moments notice.

Ember snarled, "And I thought we were hitting it off." The chanting continued right outside, and the sturdy brick walls didn't do much to dampen the noise. In correspondence, her hair grew to the ceiling and the energy surrounding her grew in volume and intensity. "Now where the FUCK is my GUITAR?!"

'Fuck. The chanting is empowering her.' He thought, that's not good. Fighting a scaling battle so far hasn't been terribly fun, even if the witty banter was. Without her guitar, she's definitely less of a threat, but that doesn't mean jack shit if she keeps getting more powerful. Energy sparked along his teeth, his grin growing wider, as he let the conversation lull into silence. That seemed to unnerve her a little, making him chuckle at the defiant glare she kept sending.

"So what's up with the guitar? How'd you come by it? My understanding of artifacts is that they're rare and powerful things…" He eyed her skeptically, eyebrows arching in thought, "and normally in possession of the big ol' baddies that have been around waaaay too long. You didn't nick it from something all powerful did you?" He cracked his neck and shoulder, limbering up a little and enjoying the dull pops. "Last thing I need is you bringing some happy-ass super ghost on a manhunt for their shit. It's hard enough playing hero here as is."

He expected her to insult him again, but the laugh caught her by surprise. "A hero? Aha! You're playing the goody-goody act?" She pointed a flaming finger at him, her index, "You're fucking dead, what's the point of being a hero to a bunch of ungrateful assholes?" She leaned back, wiping a tear away, "Oh… that'll come to bite you in the ass Dipstick, trust me."

It was his turn to snort, "Trust you? Now that's a riot," His face settled into a more neutral position, less emotion showing now than the entire fight, "I trust almost no one. Literally two people, and this whole mind-control the world shit?" He pointed his thumb behind him, towards the crowd behind the wall. "Makes ya reeeeeal trustworthy."

Ember stared at him with an eyebrow raised. Now that sounded sad; for someone who claims to be a hero, he sure had a short list of people he trusted. Even she had more than that: Kitty, Penny, Youngblood… maybe Johnny, but he's a womanizing ass. She could trust him alright, trust the cretin to check her out if she let him walk behind her. Hell, even a few of the bartenders in the Zone she could trust. Still, that was more than this so-called 'hero'. "Ya know, as much as I wanna brag that, even I have more people that I can trust…" She thrust her arms out, sending fire downrange. "I want my fucking guitar back!"

Danny fell back, going intangible and phasing through the wall. Thinking fast, he took the thermos from his belt, uncapped it, and aimed it at the wall. Sure enough she flew through, heading straight for him with a mean look on her face. With a click of the button, a stream of blue energy burst forth and encaptured the rocker. "What the hell is this?!"The tractor beam continued to suck her up, but it wasn't fast enough. With a chanting crowd, she easily broke out of the stream by teleporting herself with that weird flame thing she does with her hair.

Knowing that won't work a second time, he turned his aim back towards the band and took off. Once he got in range, he immediately started on them. He heard her shriek in anger somewhere behind him, but he already got the drummer and the bassist. The other guitarist tried to get away as well, but Danny blasted him down to the ground and detained him in his thermos.

A blast of fire impacted his back, making him scream out in pain. God, he hates fire! With that ice core of his, it fucking hurts even more than normal! Danny made sure to hold onto the Fenton Thermos and raised a shield to stop the onslaught of searing heat on his back. Ember kept the flames on though, "Where the fuck is my band Dipstick?! And my guitar?! Is it in that shitty soup can you got?!"

Despite the flamethrower battering his shield and his aching body, Phantom still let out a chuckle. "It's a thermos Ember! Maybe that's why you're a one hit wonder? Not a large enough vocabulary?"

The princess of pop bristled, the stream of fire stopping all together. Danny peered through his shield and the smoke clouding the area, catching sight of his current enemy. "Oh shit." She was seriously pissed, her formerly green eyes now burned a bright red, licks of flames on the edges of her vision. Quickly, he dropped his shield and bolted backwards and away from the crowd of students. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the cheering seemed to have lessened without the music and some of the teenagers were shaking their heads to clear their mental fog.

A literal wave of fire came at him, and he knew turning intangible wouldn't help. Man, cryokinesis would really come in handy right now. In an effort to get away, he flew up and turned his legs into a ghostly tail, increasing his speed and acceleration. Cresting over the school, he phased through into the building as the heat wave passed over, crisping the edges of the roof a sooty black. Good thing the school's made of brick, if it burned down who knows how long it'll be closed.

Suddenly he noticed how quiet it was, no chanting or music. Deciding to take a peak, he stuck his head out through the wall. The mass of students weren't quiet, but they weren't chanting her name anymore. The band was gone, the lead singer distracted and without her artifact of power; the spell was slipping and they were returning to normal. And he wasn't the only one who noticed.

"Why aren't you chanting my name?!" Ember screamed over the dazed crowd, visibly less powerful than before and losing steam fast. She still looked angry, but clearly she didn't have energy to burn by taking it out on them. "Say my name! Say it! Come on you fuckers!" And she was panicking too.

A small, thin ray of energy slammed into her from behind, from somewhere on the roof. "Ahhhh!" Danny, ever the opportunistic Halfa, took after her and blasted her with his own ghost ray. She screamed again and flew even further, landing and bouncing across the street. He took note of how small her ponytail was at this point, no longer a bustling bonfire, but instead more like a… smoldering ember. Heh.

Shakily, she got back up while holding her head. Danny landed in front of her, thermos in hand and aimed right at her. Time slowed down for a moment as he racked his brains for a witty one-liner. Think! Come one, there's got to be something snarky he can say before he caps her…

With a mean smirk, he pressed the button, "Your concert's been cancelled, Ember McLame." She screamed bloody murder as she too, was sucked into the Fenton Thermos. With a little more satisfaction than necessary, he capped the thermos and took a relaxing breath. He flipped the device in the air a couple times, a cheeky but tired grin on his face.

Putting a hand to his bleeding chin, a new thought popped into his head. "Actually… that last one kinda sucked." He frowned and turned back to the school, ready to get his stuff back and go home. "Like, really sucked."

Stretching out and popping his back, he tried to shake the tired out of his aching joints. "I'm gonna have to work on the witty end fight comments." Phantom mumbled.

When he flew over the school again, this time invisible, he noticed a group of teachers yelling at the students. Based on the sounds he was hearing, they were all being reprimanded, punishments being given out in the dozens. Danny stayed for a few minutes to eavesdrop, looking for any indication of if the school was being closed for the day. Apparently there was a little bit of fire damage, most of it done to the outside of the school, but the third floor needed some replacements by the stairwell.

… Whoops. Tehe, can't always choose where a fight goes down.

Danny landed on the roof, dropping his invisibility with a sigh. Man, the day's been long and he's exhausted and a little crispy. Flexing his fingers caused no small amount of pain, like pins and needles shoved between his fingers and someone thought it'd be funny to drip some salt in there too. "Wonder what's good for burns…"

"Aloe is good for burns." Danny jumped in surprise, twirling around to the familiar voice. Sam stood there, Fenton Wrist Ray pointed directly at him and fully charged up. He raised an eyebrow in surprise, but his twitching eye gave away the annoyance he felt at being held at gunpoint. Wristpoint? Whatever, it didn't matter; the point is, is he's had a hard day and he didn't need this shit too.

He crossed his arms, "Thanks for the advice, but I'm not in the mood for the whole 'stay where you are ghost' bullshit right now. I'm tired and wanna turn in, so stop pointing that at me." He waved her off with an irritated gruff, opting to take a seat on top of the rooftop entrance and lay down.

Sam stared the ghost down, aim still trailed on him. She bit her lip, feeling far more undecided about this issue than she thought she would. Eventually, she dropped her arm, not powering down the concealable weapon entirely, but letting herself relax a little. The ghost- Phantom if she recalled correctly- seemed tired and hurt. Do ghosts get burns? She thought they were just masses of ectoplasm, that's what Mr. and Mrs. Fenton always says, but then again Sam couldn't trust everything that comes from their mouths. Some of it sounds seriously deluded, and Phantom himself is an enigma.

For the past few months the town's been getting attacked by, presumably, ghosts. Originally thought to be monsters, it's been made clearer throughout the recent events that they're ghosts. The Fentons said so, so did Danny, even the mayor had made an announcement declaring them specters of the dead based off of the evidence Danny's parents provided.

So what did that make Phantom? Multiple times now he's saved their skin, a few of his fights have been broadcasted, and so far he's only protected people. First hand accounts of him personally shielding people from harm and whisking them away to safety… "Why are you different from the other ghosts?"

Slowly, Phantom raised his head to peer over at the goth. She had her hand clamped over her mouth, like she hadn't meant to ask that… maybe she didn't, but he's not doing anything at the moment, so he figured why not answer. "Cause I can. You know, I've been asked that a lot. Why help other people?" He hummed in thought, kicking his legs back and forth as they lightly tapped on the top of the door. "Is it that strange to want to help?"

Well. That wasn't what she was expecting, "Uh… no, I guess not." Feeling a little bad, she powered down the wrist ray. She expected some grandiose explanation, not a 'I just want to help'.

"Honey, cold water, ice, aloe vera and obviously burn cream are good for burns. Though I'm not sure how much any of that will affect a ghost." The ghost in front of her hummed again, and she looked left and right out of nervousness.

Slowly, Danny held up a hand, giving her a thumbs up. "Thanks, I guess. For the burn stuff and not shooting me. It's not fun dealing with the ghost hunters."

"The Fentons?" She asked, again clamping a hand over her mouth.

Phantom chuckled lightly, "Yeah, them. Kinda racey bunch aren't they? The parents, that is." From his prone position he waved his arms around, though he visibly winced at the exaggerated action. "'Get back here, ectoplasmic scum!' I mean, seriously? Scum? Ha!" His arms flopped back down again, and Sam could hear him mumbling under his breath. "It's always the same thing too, it's all unoriginal after the first four times."

Sam was at this point, thoroughly confused. She hadn't expected Phantom to be… so human. He's snarky, sarcastic, expressive, emotional… and nothing like she thought he'd be. From their short interaction a while back, it was hard to tell his personality or what he's like, but right now he just seemed so…

Normal.

Danny sat up briskly, tired of sitting there and being in his ghost half. It's obvious he startled his friend again, but he didn't really care at this point. "Well, I'm gonna go. Thanks for the help with Ember and not shooting me I guess. See ya~" He flew up and turned invisible, only to turn back around and grab his stuff, turning that invisible as well. He noted that his bag was a little burnt on the side, but nothing too bad. It was old anyway, and he could go for a new one with more space.

Sam, now left alone on the roof, rubbed her eyes tiredly. She sighed into her hands, and started walking back towards the roof entrance. "What a weird day."