High Quality Trash™

One too many panicked whispers down the street, pointing shaky fingers high above, led Virgil groaning and flying past the cloud cover that evening. And the day before his barely started English assignment was due, of course.

It took a while to actually find what folks were so worried about; he’d searched all over the general area with nothing but a few disgruntled geese for his troubles.

Virgil wondered if maybe he’d get lucky and just find Teresa flapping lazily through the pink-orange sky. It’d be nice to catch up, see how she was doing and all. She’d probably have a good story or two for them to laugh over.

“Teresa, where you at?” he called. There was a faint and distinctly person-like sound and Virgil started towards it. He sent a small zap to disperse a cloud in the way and scrambled back at the yipe that came from it. “Shit, why didn’t you answer—?”

Someone—not Teresa—appeared, wide eyed and floating while curled in a tight ball. They were silent and looked like a cardboard cutout the way they didn’t move an inch.

A kid with mussed white hair, green eyes and tanned nose rimmed red, and in some kind of glowing jumpsuit.

“Woah, hey there.” The kid startled, jerking back with his arms covering his chest. Virgil held up his hands. “It’s alright, I just wanna talk.”

The kid gave him a once over, eyes lingering on Virgil’s disc before slumping. “I don’t, but I get the feeling you’re not leaving.”

“Nope,” Virgil said, smiling slightly. “Static doesn’t just leave crying kids floating in the sky on their own.”

“And you’re Static?”

“Yup. Unless you see anyone else up here with blue threads and rocking dreads.” Virgil made an exaggerated look around and the kid’s lips twitched up slightly.

“Danny,” the kid said. He hugged his knees. “Don’t worry, I’m just passing through.”

“Seems like you’re sitting still to me.” Virgil popped a squat. “C’mon, it’s just us up here. Tell me what’s on your mind.”

There was a pause, then Danny’s face crumbled. “I can’t do it anymore.” He curled up tighter. “Sneaking around the security system, fighting all the time, barely sleeping—I just can’t.”

Shit, this was a lot more serious than he thought. Virgil spoke softer, like he’d glimpse his Pops do at the community centre, “If someone’s forcing you to do something—”

“What? No, not like…” Danny made a noise of frustration, a flush crawling along his cheeks. “They try to shoot at me, not pressure me to try drugs.” A mumbled, I wouldn’t put it past them if it meant catching me, was just barely audible under his breath.

“Someone’s hurting you?” Virgil pressed, forcing himself not to float closer. Forcing him to focus on the here and now, than trying to protect from the has and been.

“Yeah, obviously.” Danny sniffed. “They go after all of us.”

Virgil’s brows furrowed. “There’s somebody targeting heroes?”

The flush returned, stronger. “No! Ghosts, I mean ghosts!” Danny covered his face. “Why’d you have to go and make it seem like I’m actually some kind of hero. Now I’m probably green as an apple!”

He was, actually; like a brightly glowing, neon green apple. Virgil would say as much, if it wasn’t for one thing: 

“I’m not a ghost?” he said, confusion colouring his voice. “I thought you were a Bang Baby.”

Danny’s nose scrunched up. “Why would a baby have a gun?”

Virgil squawked a laugh before covering it up with a cough. “Let’s start over.” He held out a hand without moving closer. “I’m Static, hero of Dakota City.” When Danny just stared at his hand for several awkward moments, Virgil pulled it back to rub his neck. 

“...Phantom. Danny Phantom.” The guy floundered, mouth opening and closing before settling on saying, “Just a ghost.”

“So, the people who were shooting at you?”

Danny sighed. “Ghost hunters.”

Virgil supposed that made sense; where there were creatures of the unknown, there were people who’d wanna catch them. Didn’t explain the other stuff though. “And the bit about a security system?”

Danny grumbled, “It’s the only way to get past—uh,” His eyes dipped down again. “the portal. The one that connects the Ghost Zone to here.”

“Earth-here or here-here?” Virgil asked, pointing below him. “Because if there’s a portal to a ghost dimension in my city, I’d really like to know about it.”

“Earth-here.” The guy cracked a smile. “Trust me, if there was a portal, you’d know.”

Vague and unhelpful, but as long as there was no portal, Virgil would let it be. “Good; my family would kill me if I had to start fighting ghosts too.” Danny’s eyes snapped back to Virgil’s and he winced. “Poor choice of words.”

“No, it’s not that…” Danny uncurled completely—the first time since Virgil found him up here. He looked weirdly hopeful. “You get hunted too?”

Virgil quickly waved his hands. “Oh no, I mean like, my Po—parents would get real worried.”

“Oh.” Danny drooped. “Right, obviously—” He paused. Blinked. Then shot up close to Virgil’s face. “Your parents know your identity?!”

Virgil leaned back on his disc. “Woah Casper!” Danny had an odd look in his wide eyes. Maybe he was really invested in the superhero thing; he did mention something about being a hero himself. “Yeah, he—they know now. It’s just a part of my life, nothing big.”

“Nothing big?!” Danny sneered, small glowing tears pooling in his eyes. “It’s everything, it’s—” Abruptly, he snapped his mouth shut and looked away, floating back. “Really cool. That they support you. Real life is a lot better than comics, huh?” Danny rubbed harshly at his face grumbling about bugs so high up in the clouds.

The ghost kid was holding back, clearly, and that would not do in Static’s book. If he didn’t want to talk about what got him alone up here in the first place, then Virgil could at least entertain him for a while. “You wanna take a guess?”

Danny didn’t look up at him, but he didn’t curl into that sad little ball again either. “Did your mom find your suit in the closet or something?”

Virgil allowed himself a moment to imagine it. He already knew she was proud of him and what he’d done, but the thought of her finding out on her own… Virgil smiled. “That would’ve been better than how it really happened.”

Brow furrowed, Danny finally caught Virgil’s gaze. “Did they catch you sneaking in?”

“Nope,” Virgil singsonged.

Danny frowned. “...Outed on live television?”

“Eugh,” Virgil shivered, rubbing his arms. “Definitely worse. Total nightmare scenario, but not what happened.”

“Well, short of being a government experiment—” Wait what. “—I can’t really think of anything else.”

“For real?” Danny nodded. “Dude, supervillain blabbing!” Not exactly, but the news was still talking about his Pops’ kidnapping and, really, it was Omnara’s fault in the first place. 

Danny tilted his head. “Like… on accident?”

Virgil laughed, short and hard. “On purpose! I thought you read comics?”

“I do, but—!”

“Danny, my guy,” Virgil took a chance, hovering closer. Danny didn’t move away. “Criminals are always trying to figure out who the handsome guy under this mask is, so they can stop me from meddling.”

“...All the ghosts I fight already know who I am,” Danny offered, hesitantly. “And most of the time we don’t rat each other out to ghost hunters.”

Virgil didn’t realize snitching was even remotely an issue with ghosts, but then he also didn’t know ghosts were real until today. “At least you got that going for you! Speaking of ghost solidarity, what’re your ghost friends like?” Bit heavy handed for the segway, but Virgil figured it’d probably be a good idea to keep Danny talking while he could.

Danny snorted. “Weird, annoying, and nice. Sometimes all three.” He scratched at his chest, right over the silver logo. “I mostly hang out with humans though.”

“Yeah? What made you choose humans?” Virgil asked. “‘Cause I can tell you, we can be mad annoying.”

A bright, echoing laugh. “Oh, I know. My friends are the worst.”

“I think that title’s reserved for my buddy, Gear.” Virgil rolled his eyes. “He loves tossing his misfiring inventions at me; can’t tell you how many times I’ve been tied up—literally—while he works the kinks out of something.”

“No no, Sam and Tucker are awful.” Danny crossed his legs, bobbing slightly. “Like one time, they got into this big fight about vegans versus meat eaters and they organized these huge protests in, like, one night and set up these stages and junk outside the school!” He laughed holding his stomach. “There was this really strong ghost on the loose too and they were pulling hundreds of people into their fight; it was so stupid!”

Virgil smirked. “Sounds pretty funny to me.”

“You weren’t there, it was terrible!” Danny’s smile widened. “Don’t even get me started on the school dance—”