“Don’t leave just yet Val.” Paulina instructed. She didn’t even give Valerie the dignity of looking at her as she talked. Instead, she kept her eyes to her reflection, adjusting her hair. 

Valerie stopped mid-step, it was better to just get whatever she wanted to talk about over with. Otherwise, it would become a common occurrence until she complied. “Don’t call me Val, only my friends get to do that. What do you want Paulina, I thought you couldn’t be seen with a ‘loser’ like me?”

“That’s why we’re in the bathroom, it doesn’t count. And I’m here to talk to you as your friend.” Paulina’s reflection smiled. “You need to drop the Fenton creep.”

That caused Valerie to turn fully towards Paulina. “Excuse me? What gives you any right to judge who I hang out around? Let alone talk about him like that.”

“I heard your dad might be getting his job back.” Her eyes flicked towards Valerie.

“What?” It was the first time Valerie was hearing anything about that. She doubted her dad would keep something like that from her.

“Well, my dad heard it and he told me at least. But if he does end up getting that job back you need to start regrouping your image sooner than later if you want back into our group. Which leads us back to you dropping the creep.” Paulina explained.

Valerie couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “What makes you think I even want to be friends with you after you all threw me out like last year's fashion line? And Danny’s not a creep. Unlike you, he doesn’t pretend to be nice.”

Paulina laughed. “I know they say love is blind but, really? Wow. You can’t say you don’t see it. He’s just…wrong. Our town is routinely attacked by ghosts and somehow he is the one who acts the least like an actual person.”

Valerie didn't grace her with an answer. She finished drying her hands and stormed out the bathroom. She walked down the halls before stopping and taking a deep breath before rounding the corner where Danny and his friends would be waiting. The three of them were standing around Danny’s locker as he put his textbooks away. They had yet to notice her as she approached them.

“No I literally can’t find any lead on the group trying to do it. At this point I’m going to have to scour the Realms and hope I stumble across them. All I know is that she’s like volcanic related or something.” Danny slammed his locker.

“Guess you have your weekend plans then, need any help?” Tucker asked.

Danny shook his head. “No. Me and Val already have weekend plans, and I am not cancelling them again. It can wait two days.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Valerie asked as she leaned against Danny’s back. He always ran so cold, she once joked corpses were warmer than he was. She only told the joke once however, it put him in a weird mood the rest of the day. But it was a familiar comfort, especially after the conversation she had with Paulina. 

Danny jumped, apparently just realizing she was there. “Oh, hey Val. Nothing, important.”

“Aw come on, Sam?” ValIerie asked turning to Sam.

Sam just shook her head with a sigh. “There’s a new Doomed event starting this weekend. The main boss is hidden though so players have to find it.” 

“Oh I see.” Valerie didn’t know the first thing about those video games to be honest. Danny had tried multiple times to show her but she felt like she understood even less than when the explanation started. But he enjoyed them so she’d listen to him talk about them even if she didn’t understand a single thing about them. But she appreciated him putting off what seemed like a big thing in the game to spend time with her.

“We are still on for this weekend though, right?” Danny asked with wide eyes aimed towards Valerie. 

She couldn’t say no to those eyes even if she wanted to. Not that she wanted to of course. They’d been trying to plan spending a weekend together for months now. It didn’t help that she kept having to make excuses to go and take care of a ghost attack. But she was determined for this weekend to work out. She’d even let go of her grudge, temporarily of course, and let the ghost boy deal with any ghosts that appeared. 

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” Valerie told him giving him a quick kiss.

“Way to rub it in our single faces.” Tucker pouted.

“Speak for yourself, I don’t want to see it in general. Teenage hormones, bleh.” Sam shook her head.

“Not all of can be ethereal romanticless goths Sam. Some of us are human.” Tucker elbowed her.

“Well at least one of us is, and you should try it sometimes it’s neat.” Sam smiled.

“Haha very funny you two.” Danny deadpanned. “See you tomorrow Val!”

“Why don’t I walk you home?” Valerie offered.

“Are you sure? It’s pretty icy out and you live pretty far away to walk.”

Valerie waved him off. “I have work. I’d rather walk you home safely than just sit in the break room until my shift starts.” Not to mention she’d also be patrolling late due to not doing it at all that coming weekend. 

“My hero, walking me home.” Danny placed a hand to his chest as the two of them made their way outside.

“You know it.” Valerie shivered as a blast of cold air hit her.

As they walked Danny kept having to slow down to give Valerie time to catch up. She had no clue how he was walking at a normal pace without slipping on the ice, if she didn’t know any better she would say it was like he was gliding across the ice as he walked. 

Now that she thought about it more Danny’s motor skills seemed to fluctuate quite a bit. At times, he’d trip over his own feet and was being banned from the science lab for the third time that month. Other times, he moved so fluidly, like when he was weaving in and out of the crowded halls, that she’d swear it was somehow choreographed. She was reading too much into things. That talk with Paulina was messing with her head. No way was she letting some stupid comments effect this weekend.

Thankfully the rest of the day went by quietly. She went straight from her shift at the Nasty Burger, to patrol, then straight home. She only caught glimpses of the ghost boy, seemed like he finally wisened up and learned to stay away from her. About time. 

“Dad, I’m home!” She called out into the apartment as she kicked her shoes off. 

“Oh, good! How was work?” Her dad poked his head out of his bedroom.

Valerie shrugged. “It was work. People feeling entitled as if they’re getting food from a five-star restaurant and not a crapy fast food joint.”

Her dad made his way to the living room and took a seat on the couch, he patted the spot next to him. “On the topic of work, there’s something I would like to tell you.” Valerie hesitantly sat down next to him. Last time he had to talk to her about work was when he had to tell her he was demoted and they’d have to move out of their house. “What’s going on? I can pick up more hours at work if I need to.”

Her dad shook his head. “No that’s not needed. Not mention you work so much as is.”

That made her feel guilty, a lot of the hours he thought she was working was just a cover for ghost hunting. “Then what did you want to talk about?” “Well, the head of the security team and I have been working on this for a while now and we were able to finally pitch it to the boss. I didn’t want to tell you until I knew for sure because I didn’t want to get your hopes up just to disappoint you. But Axion Labs has now officially partnered up with Fenton Works to create security systems, effective against both humans and ghosts. Which includes me getting my old job back, as well as an increase of pay from what I was being paid before. But you can’t tell anyone yet, it hasn’t been announced yet.” He explained.

So Paulina was right after all. It was good news, great news even but Valerie couldn’t help but frown. She should have known better than to doubt Paulina in that regard. She had always somehow known things before anyone else, and tended to be correct in her assumptions in what was going on around the school. That didn’t mean she was right about Danny though. She probably just thought it made her look bad by proximity because she used to be friends with Valerie, or something. 

“Is everything alright?” Her dad asked. 

Valerie realized she forgot to respond to him and had just been sitting in silence. “No! I mean yes! Everything’s fine, that’s great news dad!”

“You should be able to quit that job of yours.” He smiled.

“Oh, I’m not sure. I think it’s a good way for me to… practice responsibility. I wouldn’t want to quit just yet.” Valerie didn’t want to lose her cover for ghost hunting. Even if it did mean she had to continue working at the Nasty Burger. 

“That’s good to hear that you think so. It’s late though, so I won't hold you from sleep any longer. Goodnight, I love you.” He hugged her.

“I love you too dad.” She hugged him back before heading to her room. 

“Your coffee.” Danny handed her a cup of coffee that had steam coming out of the lid. He slid the seat opposing her own. They were starting off their weekend together with a coffee date. It was a nice cozy coffee shop that had just opened up a week ago. Or well it re-opened a week ago after the building was demolished in a ghost attack a few months back. 

“I still can’t understand how you can drink ice coffee in this weather.” Valerie shook her head.

“It’s good, freezing temperature be damned. Plus we’re inside, the weather is outside.” Danny pointed out as he took a drink of his coffee.

“I suppose so-Ah hot!” Valerie quickly put her own cup down and put a hand to her mouth. She was pretty sure she’d just burned her tongue. 

“Here let me see.” Danny grabbed her coffee and took a small sip .of it before shrugging and handing it back. “Feels fine to me.”

Valerie looked at the offending drink with caution before taking it back and hesitantly taking a sip of it. “It’s cooled down? How?”

“Like you said it’s cold out. Probably just cooled it down a bit.” 

Valerie had trouble believing that. Especially from the person who had just pointed out that the weather was not affecting them inside the shop. But it wasn’t like she had any other logical explanation. “Yeah, probably…”

Danny didn’t seem to notice her uncertainty. No matter how much she loved him, she could admit he could be oblivious at times. It was one of the things that made him endearing. It made her glad he didn’t take after his parents when it came to ghost hunting. With his lack of athleticism and obliviousness he would end up a ghost himself. But he had her, so he’d never have to worry about things like that.

“Are you doing okay by the way Danny? You’ve seemed pretty tired lately.” She would have brought it up sooner, but she was so busy herself with school, work, and ghost hunting, that she would have sounded pretty hypocritical if she had said it when her eye bags matched his. Thankfully she got enough sleep the night prior.

“Don’t worry about it, just haven't been getting enough sleep lately.” Danny smiled.

“Oh? Why not? Anything I can help with?” She swore if it was Dash causing him problems again she’d throw the jock into next week.

Danny honestly looked like he was considering it before shaking his head. “Just a research project.”

“I don’t remember anything being assigned?” If she missed another big project she was doomed. Hopefully she had enough time to pull something together.

“No, nothing for school. Just a personal one so to speak. I’ve just come to a dead end at the moment.”

“That sounds fun, what’s it about?”

“Ghost cults.”

“Oh. Well if you can think of anyway I can help let me know, yeah?” 

“Of course.” 

Danny grabbed them both a second cup of coffee to go before they left. He even took a sip of hers to make sure this one was cool enough to drink. As they stepped outside Valarie was glad the coffee was cooled down enough as the cold hit her face. 

They were heading to Danny’s house next to binge-watch a bunch of cheesy rom-com’s. Though getting there seemed like it was going to be a problem. The road and sidewalk on the quickest route to his house were blocked by a bunch of rubble scattered around. It was clear by the splatters of ectoplasm on the rubble that it was from a ghost attack. 

She didn’t remember the road blockage when she walked Danny home the day prior so it had to have happened after that. She also didn’t remember fighting a ghost in this part of the city so it must have been one of Phantom’s fights.

Not surprising with how much property damage there was. “Why didn’t you say the road was blocked?”

“I totally forgot.” Danny facepalmed.

“You walked to the coffee shop this way didn’t you?” Valerie didn’t see how he could have missed it.

“Walked this way? Yeah, totally, I was just distracted I guess. We can just climb over it, it’s fine. You shouldn’t be out in the cold longer than needed and back tracking will add another fifteen minutes outside.” Danny had already started heading towards the rubble strewn street.

“Danny wait up, that’s so unsafe for you! Especially with the ice.” Valerie called after him. He was determined apparently and didn’t listen to her warning, meaning she had no choice but to follow. 

Climbing around rubble wasn’t easy on a good day, let alone when it was covered in ice and snow. By the time they reached the other side Valerie was out of breath. Danny surely would need to stop to take a moment to catch his breath if Valerie was having so much trouble. She looked over at him only to find him looking perfectly fine. The rise and fall of his chest was basically unnoticeable. 

In fact, it was completely unnoticeable, almost as if he wasn’t breathing. She couldn’t even see his breath fog in the cold. Which was impossible, if the trek made Valerie short of breath Danny should have been struggling at least a bit. 

Danny seemed to notice her staring. “What?”

Valerie took one more breath before speaking. “How are you not out of breath?”

Then Danny took a deep breath, as if he was remembering he was supposed to be breathing. “I’ve been doing cardio with my mom.”

Valerie decided to drop it. The rest of the walk and day was uneventful. It was dark by the time Valerie declared she should get going home. 

“We’re still planning on tomorrow too right?” Danny asked.

“Of course we are. You better not try to get out of it.” Valerie joked, jabbing his chest.

Danny opened his front door with a laugh as they stepped out into the cold together. “Never. I’ll meet you at your apartment.” Danny went to turn back into the house before pausing. “Oh, and tell your dad congrats on the promotion for me.”

 “How’d you know about that?” Valerie stopped. She had only learned about it the night prior, and even if Paulina was spreading the information around, Danny’s social circle would have been the last to find out from her. 

“Axion is partnering with my parents.” Danny reminded her, pointing up at the giant glowing Fenton Works sign. 

“Oh yeah.” Valerie felt bad. It felt like ever since that conversation with Paulina she kept doubting things about Danny. She shouldn't let Paulina’s words get into her head, but the seed of doubt was certainly planted. And a lot of the things Danny did that day only watered it more. There was no actual reason for her to doubt Danny. “See you tomorrow, love you!”

“Love you too!” Danny waved her off. Valerie knew she must have been seeing things at that point. Because she could have sworn his eyes were reflecting in the dark of the night, almost glowing. 

She was just out of it today, tomorrow everything would go back to normal. But in the meantime she needed to do at least a short patrol before heading back home. She hadn’t heard of a ghost attack all day or so far into the night and it was strange. Not even just a smaller ghost.

Her good mood from her date was quickly soured as Phantom appeared in her sights just minutes after she started patrolling. Even worse he seemed to be in a good mood. “I thought we agreed to patrol separate areas.”

Phantom looked down at the ground below them before looking back up at her. “Oh hey? But yeah,this is the area I patrol?”

Valerie wouldn’t call it a truce what they had. More of a tentative agreement not to attack each other as long as they left each other alone. It started around the time she and Danny had started dating, it did end up giving her more time for school and other things. Which was the only reason she agreed to it. He was unfortunately right though. They were currently above the area they agreed he’d have patrol in. Why he wanted to be so close to Fenton Works was anyone's guess, maybe because that was where the ghost portal was. “So it is. I was just passing through.”

Phantom shrugged like he didn’t care. “No problem, as long as you don’t shoot me.”

“Don’t tempt me.”

He held his hands up in surrender. “Wasn’t a suggestion. You seem to be in a worse mood than normal around me, something happen?”

“Nothing you’d understand. Or that I’d even want to tell you.” She didn’t need to talk to a ghost of all things about her dating worries.

“Well if I don’t understand it I’d be the perfect person to tell it to.” He had a point. Sadly enough. She couldn’t talk to Danny about it, and the closest other people she could call friends were Sam and Tucker and they were Danny’s friends first and foremost. “Just relationship problems. But I’m pretty sure I’m just overexaggerating things.”

If Valerie didn’t know any better she would have said Phantom looked worried. “Oh? What sort of problems?”

Valerie shook her head. Maybe she was just losing it, all the things about Danny probably had a perfectly rational explanation but she was too far gone to think of any. She couldn’t even think of an irrational explanation was the problem. Nothing seemed to add up. 

How could he struggle in gym class just the day prior and then climb over a bunch of rubble with no issue. Not even with no issue but seemingly not needing to breathe? How could he practically glide across ice as he walked, not even looking down to make sure he didn’t slip. How was he able to somehow cool down her coffee enough to make it drinkable when only seconds prior it burnt her. Was there anything else she just failed to notice? What about his cold skin, and his discomfort every time she brought it up. His constantly fluctuating agility. What about the fact she could have sworn he had bruises but the next day they were gone. 

Every time she brought anything up he seemed to just brush it off. Surely it couldn’t be all in her head.  But what else could it even be?

“Red? Valerie? Hey, you okay? Val!” Phantom was yelling at her.

She snapped out of her thoughts. “What did you just call me?

“Red?”

“No, after that?” ‘Valerie?” Phantom looked her up and down. “Do you want me to fly you home? Are you getting enough sleep, you seem out of it.”

“Well whose fault is that? I have a life and job outside of ghost hunting you know. Not that you’d know about that.” Valerie frowned.

Phantom blinked, opened his mouth before shutting it again. “You won’t have to worry about the job soon enough though at least. With your dad’s new job and all.”

Valerie’s eyes narrowed. “How did you know about that?”

“Shi-I mean I overheard it, while I was leaving the Ghost Zone.” Phantom nodded abruptly. “Well I better get going, see ya later.”

“I hope not.” Valerie grumbled. He was right about one thing though, she probably just needed some sleep. She’d give in this time and head home. 

Unfortunately the morning didn’t bring peace of mind. In fact, it did the opposite. Danny never showed up to pick her up from her apartment. She had waited two hours past the time he said he’d be there before deciding to figure up what was going on herself. He wasn’t even responding to her texts. 

She was going to get answers. For everything. Before she was just planning on just letting it be, but he didn’t even have the courtesy to text her to let her know he wasn’t going to show up. 

It took a few good minutes of rapping on the door of Fenton Works for someone to answer, and it wasn’t the person she was looking for. “Hi Valerie, did you need something?” Jazz Fenton asked.

“I need your brother. He didn’t show up for our date, and didn’t even bother to text. Where is he?” Valerie crossed her arms.

Jazzed looked around with a sigh. “Have you tried Tucker’s?”

“No, I assumed he’d be at his house first.”

Jazz just shrugged. “I don’t know where he is either.” “Thanks anyway.” Valerie turned around and headed towards Tucker’s house.

“No clue where he is, is he at his house?” Tucker said.

“No he’s not, that’s why I’m here!” Valerie felt her eye twitch.

“Sam’s maybe?” Tucker offered but Valerie was already walking away towards Sam’s house.

Valerie didn’t have anything against Sam, but she couldn’t help but feel like she had something against Valerie. A feeling that was reaffirmed when she was facing Sam in her doorway.

“Have you seen Danny anywhere today?” Valerie asked.

Sam shook her head. “Nope. Have you looked at Tucker’s or his house?”

“Clearly I looked there first, and yes I checked Tucker’s!” Valerie threw up her arms. 

“Don’t know what to tell you then.” Sam went to close the door, but Valerie put her foot in front of it before she could.

“Do you have something against me?” 

“No, not really.”

“Really because it feels like you do. Are you jealous or something?” Valerie challenged.

Sam laughed before stopping. “Oh you’re serious. No, I’m not jealous of you dating him. I couldn’t care less who he chooses to date. As long as they aren’t hurting him.”

“I’m not hurting him, why would I want to do that?” Hurting him was the last thing she’d ever want to do. 

“Look, I told you I don’t know where he is. If he doesn’t want to be found he won’t be found. He’s good at disappearing.” Sam laughed like she said something funny. 

It took everything within Valerie not to storm off and walk away normally. If no one was going to tell her where Danny was, she’d find him herself. She was very glad the Fenton’s gave her a boo-merang last time she showed interest in their work. It was still faulty, for some reason locking onto Danny more often than ghosts. But that was exactly what she wanted now. 

Getting into her ghost hunting gear she took to the sky following where the boo-merang lead. She was more and more unsure as she went, it took her over the forest outside of Amity. Why would Danny be all the way out here? Especially in the middle of winter. 

Her anger quickly morphed into fear however as she saw giant plumes of smoke floating into the air in the middle of the forest. Right where the boo-merange was heading. She dove into the newly made clearing. There was ash everywhere, she was glad her helmet had a filtering system otherwise she doubted she’d have been able to breath with how thick the smog was. It didn’t help much with the heat, however. 

 “You seem sorta hotheaded, why don’t you cool off?” She heard before two ghosts flew past. Phantom and a ghost she hadn’t encountered before.

The ghost looked pretty feminine, her clothes seemed to be made of pure smoke, and her skin looked like cracked rock. Where there should have been hair on her head there was flowing magma. Or was it lava? She didn’t pay enough attention in science class to remember.

Whatever it was and whoever the ghost was she was clearly dangerous just by the amount of damage done to the surrounding forest. If the attack was in the city the damage would be unfeasible. 

She watched as the two ghosts fought for a minute, not even sure how she’d attack without staying far enough away not to get burnt. She had a feeling her ecto-guns would only do so much. It didn’t help her peace of mind that Danny was still nowhere to be seen. Not only that but Phantom seemed to be treating this fight like it was a game. Cracking jokes and one-liners as he fought the flaming ghost with a smile. Staying just of reach of the other ghosts attacks, ducking away just in time to avoid a giant ball of fire or a swipe of her arms. Almost like he was taunting her. 

Valerie had landed fully at that point. More focused on finding where ever Danny could be than the fight that Phantom, for the most part, seemed to have handled. No matter how much the idea of leaving a fight to him was, getting Danny out of here was more important. It didn’t help that she kept on having to dodge projectiles from the volcanic ghost that missed Phantom. In a strange twist of fate it wasn’t the ghost herself that caught Valerie off guard but a tree that the flames surrounding the area must have cause to fall. She heard a loud creaking sound and looked up just in time to see a tree coming towards her, but not enough time to dodge out of the way.

She must have lost consciousness for a second because the next thing she knew was that she was pinned to the ground her head screaming at her in pain. Or maybe that was her screaming in pain, because it brought on the attention of the two ghosts causing them to both pause and look at her. 

She couldn’t hear it, but Phantom mouthed something that almost looked like her name. She watched helplessly as the other ghost started to make her way towards her. 

Was this really how she died? In the middle of the forest where no one would know to look. She hoped Phantom had enough humanity left to at least let her dad know what happened to her. 

Though looking at him, Phantom had a look on his face Valerie had never seen on him before. Pure rage. 

Which didn’t make sense. Valerie would admit she had done and said some awful things to the ghost boy, and seen even worse done. But nothing that made that look of rage appear on his face. It didn’t make sense that he was mad, let alone mad over her of all people getting hurt. 

The ghost didn’t get the chance to reach Valarie before Phantom slammed into her causing both of them to crash into the ground. Still within sight of Valerie. 

Valerie had fought and seen Phantom fight many times. He always tended to fight differently than other ghosts. But now he seemed human in the way he was attacking. No ecto-blasts or the occasional ice attack in sight. It was all just punches and kicks, he wasn’t even flying anymore as he fought. None of his jokes to be found.

Calling it a fight was almost too generous. What was occurring before Valerie had arrived was a fight. An at least somewhat equal trading of blows. Or even just an attempt of countering. Phantom didn’t give the other ghost a chance one punch after the other over and over not giving her any time to recover before the next hit. It was the last thing Valerie saw before she lost consciousness once more.

As she came to there was a face hovering over her own. Blue eyes and dark messy black hair, with the remnants of the flames behind it almost seemed like he was glowing. “Danny?”

Danny choked out a laugh, or maybe he just inhaled too much smoke. It was more of a laugh of shock. “Yeah, it’s me Val.”

“Wha’are you doing here? Not safe.” Her head hurt. She was no longer pinned down by the tree, apparently. She brought her hand up to her head to be met with Danny’s own hand. She tried to push it away. “Your hand’s cold. Really cold.”

Danny if anything pressed his hand more firmly to her temple. “Yeah, you hit your head pretty bad there. I’m just trying to make it feel a bit better before we get you to a hospital.  Sorry for missing our date by the way.” 

“It’s fine.” Valerie squinted at him, something about him seemed off but she couldn’t place what it was. She reached up towards his face, it was covered in ash. She tried to brush it away but it sort of just smeared, his hair had some in it too, harder to notice since his hair was dark too. She moved her hand to the top of his head and ruffled his hair to get some of it out. 

“What are you doing?” He asked.

“You’re dirty.” Valerie pointed out still trying to brush the soot out. Weirdly enough his hair seemed to be getting lighter. She grabbed at a smaller section of hair and brushed it off with her fingers. Much to Danny’s protests of her needing to stay still. 

Except, it wasn’t Danny. She was right his hair was getting lighter. He didn’t look like he was glowing, he was glowing. Looking at his clothes revealed a black and white jumpsuit, still recognizable despite being covered in ash. 

Valerie jerked away from Danny’s, or was it Phantom’s, touch. Trying to scramble away from him as best as she could with her injuries. “Val, you need to stay still.” Phantom, Danny, stressed.

“Don’t call that!” Valerie felt dizzy. “I don’t- I don’t understand. Who-what-are you?”

“Fine, I won't call you that. I promise I’ll explain everything. But first we need to get you to the hospital, you’re concussed at best.” He said, reaching towards her. 

She just noticed his hand was glowing blue, frost emanating off of it. “What were you doing to me? Were you trying to kill me?” 

“What? No!” He shook his hand like he was trying to shoo the frost away, his eyes faded into Phantom’s green color. “Like I said, you hit your head, and probably were overheated. I was trying to cool you down and ice your head.”

“How can I trust you? I don’t even know who you are.”

“Because if you don’t, you won’t make it back to Amity by yourself and I’m not going to be the one to break the news to your dad.”

He was right she didn’t have a choice no matter how she felt about it. She let him pick her up and only panicked slightly when they took to the air. True to his word once he was sure she was in a hospital room safely he left her alone after the hospital staff notified her dad as to where she was.

She had time to think in the hospital, too much time to think with too many questions. Danny had ended up texting her the explanation, whether it was because he knew she would want answers sooner than later or because he was too scared to do it in person she wasn’t sure. But she deleted the text after she read through it a second time, no matter how she felt about him after all of this she wouldn’t put him in danger of someone else finding out on accident because of her.  

She did text him back that she understood what he was telling her, but she would need time to think things over. Think everything over. One of the people she arguably hated the most turned out to be loved the most outside of family. It was a concept that took adjusting to, to say the least 

At least it saved her from a total freak out for a different reason. All the weirder things she had started to notice about Danny made a lot more sense now. Her internal conundrum wasn’t helped by the fact that he was clearly trying to help her a lot of the time she noticed the ‘strange’ behaviors. She had at least until she was discharged to figure out her thoughts at least.

Once she was released from the hospital, and a bit longer after that she met up with Phantom, or well Danny in his ghost form she supposed, while he was doing a patrol. He kept looking down at her ecto-gun like she was going to pull it on him at any moment. Which was a fair worry she supposed, even if it made her sad to think about.

“I’m not going to shoot you Danny. We’re here to talk right?” Valerie asked.

Danny nodded. “Yeah, we are. If that’s what you want to do that is.”

“I’m the one who asked to meet up.” Valerie reminded him. “I have a few questions before we start talking about the big things.” Danny motioned for her to go on. “Who was that ghost in the forest?”

“Oh, that’s actually an easy question. Cool. It was Vesuvia, Ancient of volcanos, apparently. Some doomsday cultists or something along those lines summoned her here to kick-start the apocalypse. I thought they were ghosts not humans so I was looking in all the wrong spots until it was too late and you got hurt.” Danny frowned. Clearly he was upset about her injuries still despite her being fully healed. 

“What happened to the cultists then? Do they go to ghost court or since they’re humans is there like a GIW unit for that?” 

Danny snorted. “Ha, no. They died. Burnt to ash, not even bones left. If they do end up as ghosts in the Infinite Realms they’ll probably answer to the Observents but I doubt they will.”

“...Oh.” Valerie supposed his nonchalant attitude towards death made sense. He was a ghost and interacted with other dead people on a constant basis. But it was, unnerving. 

“Is that all you wanted to ask about?” Danny asked.

Valerie nodded her head. It wasn’t, but after that answer she was okay with waiting. “I wanted to let you know, that I won’t tell anyone your secret. I also am not planning on breaking up.” She held a finger up at Danny’s hopeful look. “But that doesn’t mean things aren’t going to be different from now on. This is going to take me a while to fully get my head around and after finding out something this big it’s going to take a while for things to feel normal again. I’m not even sure if things will work out between us in the end, but I am willing to try if you are.”

“Of course I am!” Danny all but shouted. “I mean, yes I understand. I’m also willing to try and make it work.” Valerie smiled. “I’m glad. Do you know what this means though?”

Danny tilted his head to the side, something so very Danny Fenton, it was weird to see on Danny Phantom. “What?”

“We can actually patrol together from now on.” Valerie laughed. Danny lit up after she said that. “First one to defeat five ghosts wins!” She called out before taking off.

“Oh you’re on!” He called after her.

-You apartment was littered with paintings (unfinished and finished) and photography of landscapes, people, places and abstract things. Each detail eliciting deep emotions that only a true artist could behold.

-Least thats what he convinced himself.

-Almost enamored with your work, Ji-Woon was nearly caught as he heard the jingle of your key clicking into the lock of your front door.

-Surely you wouldn't miss just a few pieces of your work.

-They were such beautiful pieces...surely you wouldn't mind them being used as inspiration.

-Or perhaps it was because one photo was that of your face. Each angle highlighted so beautifully showing the delicate little details from your hair flicking in a certain direction to your eyelashes casting a shadow where your eyes were narrowed ever so slightly.

-Perhaps he should get in touch. You must surely have a platform somewhere. Ever artist need a collaboration partner and your artistic visions would suit him well. Just differently than he initially thought for you.

Now he had been stuck at home for the past four days, and would continue to be until he was healed. Of course he was already pretty healed, a big thank you to ghost healing, but a normal human would still be in quite a lot of pain for the next few weeks. Not like he could explain away why he could walk away somewhat fine from the same attack that had put a Danny sized dent in the GAV. At this point he just had a few bruised ribs, which still hurt, but nowhere near the pain he would be in if they were broken.

Unfortunately healing from being thrown back into an armored vehicle apparently itched like hell. It was by far the most tortuous feeling he had ever felt in his life, and he remembered how dying felt. Was he being overly dramatic? Probably, but he couldn't ever seem to scratch at his back enough for the itching to subside. It didn’t help that he could only try to scratch the itch when his parents weren't around since he had to phase through the layer of bandages that were wrapped around his torso. Part of him wished the ghost that attacked didn’t manage to get away before his parents could apprehend it. Not really, but he was super uncomfortable. He at least hoped that Sam and Tucker waited a while before returning it to the Ghost Zone after the two of them hunted it down, the ghost at least deserved to be cramped for a while in the thermos as retribution. 

His parents would be back  home soon, they were picking up some antibiotics and bandages from the store. He had to enjoy his alone time when he got it, his parents were hovering around him constantly now worried if he so much as had to pick up a pillow he’d break. It’d probably be at least another week until they let him go back to school even with restrictions. 

Two weeks off of school should make him happy but he was already falling behind as it was. Not to mention being in school ment not being around his parents. He wasn’t sure how much longer he’d be able to hide his half ghost status when they were paying so much attention to him now. Beforehand they’d leave him alone for the most part, trusting him to be able to take care of his own basic necessities, but now he could hardly brush his own teeth by himself. He couldn’t even confide in Jazz since she was off at college three hours away.

He heard his parents walk through the door and resided himself to once again being overcoddled. “Danny, it's time to change out your dressing.” His mom called over to him. 

He made a show of slowly sitting up from where he was laying on the couch. He did accidentally bump against his side causing him to flinch, they may not be broken anymore but bruised ribs certainly don’t feel great. The hope that his parents didn’t see him flinch were dashed as his mom made her way over to him, her hands hovering over him like she was trying to help him up without actually touching him.  “Oh my poor baby, don’t worry by the time we finish changing out your bandages you’ll be due for your next round of pain meds.” 

Danny didn’t like seeing his mom worry so much, but it’s not like he could tell her he’s dealt with worse without making her worry even more. “I’m fine really, just sore. Honestly I think my back itching is the worst part.” He grumbled. 

His mom nodded. “Well your back did get pretty torn up, it’s to be expected. Hopefully the antibiotic cream and changing the bandages helps at least a little bit. Now come sit in one of the chairs at the table.” 

Just then Danny realized a problem, his mom was about to see his back. His mostly healed back, that shouldn’t be even close to the state it was currently in. “Oh it’s fine, I can do it myself.”

His mother leveled him with an unimpressed look. “Danny you wouldn't be able to properly reach your back normally, let alone with broken ribs.:

“I can figure it out.”

“Danny. Sit. Now.” 

Danny sighed as large as he comfortably could and made his way to the dining table and sat sideways on one of the chairs so his back was easily accessible. Maybe she wouldn't think anything was wrong. She had her doctorate in science not in medicine after all. Even if she did notice he couldn’t see any weapons visible on her, so he’d have at least a few seconds to make a break for it before she activated the ones in her suit. 

He held his breath as bandages were unwound revealing more and more of his back. Halfway though he felt her stop. “That’s strange… Jack, come here for a second!” 

“Mom, trust me I can explain, I-” He said, turning back towards her.

“Don’t move so much, you're going to hurt yourself more.” She said. She gently probed his back with a finger. Danny couldn’t help but wiggle a bit in discomfort, she was poking right where the itch was the strongest. He reached back to try to itch it himself but his hand was slapped away. “I mean it Danny, stop moving. There’s a lot of swelling here, and it looks like two of these lacerations aren’t healing right.” 

“Yes Mads?” His dad asked, poking his head into the kitchen. “Oh that looks pretty ugly.”

“Yes, it does. I don’t want to keep prodding at them with bare hands, it could cause an infection, if it isn’t already infected. Could you grab me a pair of the sterile gloves from the lab while I finish taking off the rest of the bandaging?” She asked.

His dad nodded and left just as quickly as he appeared. His mom continued unwinding the bandages. He was suddenly hit with a thought. What if they figured it out and were trying to keep him from catching on so he didn’t run away, his mom could be activating the weapons in her  suit this very second.  He quickly looked behind him where she was now simply examining his back having finished taking off the bandages, no weapons in sight. He tried his best to suppress a pained gasp from the sudden movement.

She ran a hand down her face. “Danny what did I just tell you? You’re going to aggravate your injuries if you keep this up. Is something wrong?” She moved in front of him and bent down to be eye level with him and seemed to examine his face. 

Danny briefly wondered if enough fear could trigger his eyes to change color similar to how anger could. It took all of his willpower not to turn invisible under his mothers piercing gaze.  “Danny, your father and I both know there is something you’ve been hiding from us for a while now.” This is it, this is where Danny Fenton fully died, his parents finishing the job that their portal failed to do. “We also know that you’ll tell us if or hopefully when you’re ready. But neither of us want you to suffer whatever you may be going through alone if you don’t have to. We’re here for you no matter what, just remember that, okay?” Wait what? 

Maybe he should just tell her now. She wouldn’t try to kill him right after saying all that, not right away at least. “I’m-” 

“Found the gloves!” His dad yelled out reentering the room. 

“Thank you dear.” She said standing up straight and taking the gloves. She quickly put them on and was once again standing behind Danny. 

She still used a very light touch while prodding around the inflamed area. “Let me know if anything hurts too much. What was it you were about to say before?”

He supposed it was now or never, worse case scenario he uses the fact they think he’s more injured than he is to his advantage then makes a break for it to Jazz’s college and lives out of her apartment for the rest of his half life. Hopefully her roommate doesn't mind. “Just promise to keep an open mind okay?”

“Are you coming out of the closet? You don’t have to worry about that, you’ve been talking about the girls and boys you found cute since you were a tyke.” His dad laughed.

Danny could feel his face heat up. “No, it’s not that! I- I mean you’re not wrong but that’s not what I was trying to say.”

“Leave him alone Jack, he’s clearly having a hard enough time as it is.” She chastised her husband, still examining Danny’s back. “Go on, we’re listening.” 

“Well you remember that accident with the  portal?” It had been almost a year and a half since then.  

“Yes I certainly do, gave us quite the scare when you came up saying it gave you a shock and was now working.” His mom said.

“We were worried you’d have to be hospitalized like Vladdy was back in college. We weren’t even mad that you ignored the basic lab safety we taught you about wearing your hazmat suit around that much ectoplasm, we were just glad you were okay.” His dad added.

Oh dear. “Well, I wasn’t exactly… what you would call okay. And I did wear my hazmat suit actually,” He defended himself, “it’s probably the reason I’m only half ghost and not a full one.” That wasn’t exactly the way he wanted to tell them that, oops. Before he could explain himself further he felt his mom tug on something on his back and his world went black. 

Waking up Danny fully expected to be strapped to some sort of experiment table. So it was a pleasant surprise to wake up in his bed, he was confused on how he got there, and why he was lying face down since he was a back sleeper . His phone went off alerting him of a message  he blindly reached for his phone still groggy from sleep. There was a loud thud then the sound of his lamp crashing to the floor. That was weird, he shouldn’t be able to reach his lamp from where he was laying, let alone with enough force to send it flying. 

It only took him a few more seconds to realize it wasn't his arm that knocked the lamp down, because both of his arms were currently pinned underneath him with how he was laying. He scrambled out of bed, his legs getting caught in his blanket. Momentarily forgetting he could float he fell to the ground, before hitting the ground he realized the fall seemed slower than it should have been. Still hurt though. 

The large thud must have alerted his parents of him being awake as they both came running through the door. “Oh  thank goodness you’re awake. Your dad wanted to take you to the hospital, but I didn’t think you’d want that with the state you’re in.” His mom ran over to him trying to help him off the floor. 

Danny wasn’t quite sure what she meant by the state he was in, he actually felt pretty okay. The itching had finally stopped. He was about to ask what she meant but he caught sight of a large black shape off to his side before he could. He quickly turned towards it but it seemed to move with him staying just in his peripheral. After a bit of squirming he managed to catch sight of it, well of them. Two large black wings that had a slight sheen to them. 

It took almost a minute for him to fully realize they were not just randomly floating in his room but were attached to him. “What the-”

“Language young man.” His mom interrupted him.

“I think this is an acceptable time in my life to swear. I randomly gained two new appendages.” Danny pointed out. “Why are they so big?” “For flight probably.” His dad said. 

Danny threw his hands in the air. The wings, his wings, followed suit extending out and up. “I can already fly!”

“So you didn’t know this was going to happen?” His mom asked.

“If I knew this was going to happen I would have tried to stop it.” Danny huffed. 

His mom hummed, tapping her chin. “You passed out on us before we could ask any questions, but maybe this is a ghost puberty thing?”

“How many humanoid ghosts with wings do you see around mom?” 

She shrugged. “Maybe a half ghost puberty thing?”

Danny thought about Vlad who was definitely past puberty and definitely did not have wings. “No, I can safely say it is most likely not. Also you are taking the half ghost revelation very well.” 

His dad gave his mom a look before speaking. “Not really. We called Jazzie while you were asleep and she helped calm us down a bit. We definitely have questions. But those can wait until we know you’re okay.” 

“We were expecting you to have some knowledge on the wing situation actually. But you don’t know anything?” His mom asked.

Danny shook his head.  He never heard of any ghost, or human, randomly sprouting wings before. He might be able to talk to Frostbite about it, or maybe Clockwork or Pandora. He doubted his parents would let him go off into the ghost zone by himself anytime soon though. Not with how they’d been hovering over him, and now that they knew of his status as a halfa. 

“No matter we can figure this all out as a family!” His dad clapped his hands together.  “We can go down to the lab and run some tests.”

Danny could feel his wings puff up behind him, both of his parents eyed them. “It would just be some light testing since you’re still injured. Or we could just not do any if you don’t feel comfortable.” His mom said.

On one hand it would be helpful to figure out where the wings came from, and why they appeared. On the other hand being experimented on by his parents in their lab was literally a recurring nightmare of his. Weighing the pros and cons he relented. “Fine.” He could see his parents perk up. “But no ghost experiments. You can ask some questions, but I have the right to deny answering any of them. I just want to figure out the wing thing, and get rid of them if possible.” His parents seemed to deflate a little bit at the mention of not getting to run tests on his ghostly side, but at least they seemed to respect his wishes. 

Getting down to the lab was an interesting experience. His center of balance was all off and he kept tripping over himself. Not to mention the fact that his new limbs seemed to knock into everything. After trying to go down the stairs into the lab he ended up giving up and just turned intangible and sunk down through the floor. 

His parents stared at him once he landed in the lab, before shakingthemelves out of the shock of seeing their son appear out of the ceiling. “Do you have other ghost powers too?” his dad asked.

Danny nodded his head. “Yeah, pretty much all of the basics.” “Fascinating.” His dad replied. “Alright we’ll need a few things from you Danny.”

They ended up down in the lab for around two hours, running various tests. Studying one of his feathers under a microscope, taking a sample of his blood (Which made him a bit uncomfortable), they even took an x-ray of the wings. Danny didn’t even know they had an x-ray machine. In the end it was pretty fruitless though, they were no closer in figuring out why then when they started. They did find that the feathers had traces of ectoplasm in them, but that was probably just from him being a halfa, his blood did too. Looks like he was going to have to sneak into the Ghost Zone to try to get answers after all. 

“You’ll probably have to start some sort of form of physical therapy. It’s a shame we couldn’t figure out where they came from though.” His mom sighed.

“What? Why would I need to do that?” Danny asked.

“You don’t have any control over those wings yet. You have to learn how to use them like you would with any other body part. Build up their strength.” His mom explained. 

“I never had to learn how to use my arms or legs, why do I have to with wings?” 

His mom gave him a look like she was talking to a young child. “Danny what do you think learning to crawl and walk is? Or how to hold things properly.”

Okay maybe she had a point. It didn’t mean he had to like it though. It was hard enough to learn his powers when he got them, and now that he felt like he had a good handle on the whole ghost thing a whole new issue popped up. He was sick of it. At least his parents knew now, one less thing to worry about.

The next few days passed by quickly. His parents would run through various simple wing exercises with him. Stretching them out as far as he could then bringing them in close, fanning them back and forth, lifting them high then lowering them as much as he could, moving one and keeping the other still, etc.. Somewhere in between everything he did manage to sneak away to the ghost zone while his parents slept. An interesting discovery he made was that the wings weren't there as Phantom, he only had them as a human.

He went to Frostbite first, but the Yeti was just as confused as Danny. He went to Clockwork next, who burst out laughing at the sight of the miffed teen who appeared at the entrance of his clock tower.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.” Clockwork said. The only reason Danny didn’t try to lunge at the ghost right there and then was he’d feel at least a little bad about strangling someone who currently had the face of a toddler. 

“Do you know what’s going on or not?” 

Clockwork cleared his throat. “I have an idea, yes. Your human form most likely mutated due to excess exposure to ectoplasm and having nowhere to expel it. It was probably triggered by you entering a fight or flight response but unable to properly respond to it due to your parents being nearby. While your ghost form wasn’t affected since it is constantly using ectoplasm to stay stable.”

“That doesn’t make sense, Vlad has a constant exposure doesn’t he? He didn’t grow any extra limbs.” Danny said.

Clockwork pulled a face at the mention of Vlad. “He also didn’t get hit with nearly as much ectoplasm as you did during your transformation. He also didn’t have constant exposure to ectoplasm during his formative years, like you did due to your parents’ career. Though his hair color did change if I recall correctly.”  

“Great, Vlad went prematurely grey, while I’m stuck with two giant inconveniences.”  Danny grumbled. “Is there really nothing to do to get rid of them?” Clockwork shook his head. “No, not unless you feel like amputating them. Even then they may just grow back unless you increase how much ectoplasm you use on a daily basis. It would have to be quite a bit of it as well.”

Well that wasn’t fair. Not like he could just go around using his powers all the time to keep his ectoplasm levels below a certain point. He also didn’t like the sound of amputation. How would they even explain that to a doctor? 

So Danny returned home before his parents could wake up and realize he was gone. Another thing that sucked with his new wings is that he couldn’t sleep on his back anymore. He was now stuck sleeping on either his side or stomach. Though his wings did make a soft blanket when he wrapped them around himself. 

Eventually a week passed and Danny’s parents decided it was time for him to go back to school. They figured enough time passed since his injury that it seemed reasonable enough for him to go back now. He’d still have restrictions on what he could do in public to keep his secret safe. But he was fully healed now. The main problem with going back to school was his wings. 

He had accepted he was going to have to live with them at this point but he had no idea how he’d explain it to everyone at school. Hell he hadn't even told Sam and Tucker yet. He briefly entertained the idea of turning them invisible and intangible when he was out in public. But it required too much focus to do both with just one part of his body and he would be bound to slip up sooner or later. Especially if he was focused on his schoolwork, or if he was too tired after a night of ghost hunting. Eventually he and his parents decided they would just end up telling a half truth and say it was due to how much ectoplasm he was hit with when that ghost attacked. His parents already called the school to inform them about his two new situations so the teachers all already knew, but he was not looking forward to explaining it to his classmates. 

It turned out even with all the training he did at home walking through a crowded school hallway was not easy. Even with them pulled in as close to his back as he could get them they still stuck out past his sides. People generally seemed to be clearing the way for him which was nice but with all the stares he was getting made him uncomfortable. He couldn’t reach his classroom soon enough.

There were only a few other students in the class when he entered which he was grateful for. Mr. Lancer binked at him a few times before he seemed to remember the conversation he had with Danny’s parents. “You’ll have to sit in the back of the class from now on Mr. Fenton.” 

That was understandable, his wings would definitely block the sight of whoever was behind him. Mr. Lancer didn’t seem too happy about it though, he tended to have Danny sit at the very front of the class to keep an eye on him. He made his way to the back of the classroom and sat down at his new desk, positioning so his wings draped behind the back of the chair. They brushed against the ground and suddenly Danny was grateful for sitting in the back where they were less likely to be accidentally stepped on.  

Sam and Tucker walked into the classroom together both zeroing in on Danny at the same time. He could see the realization hit both of them as they looked him over before quickly making their way over to him. 

“Dude you get taken out of school because you get bodied by a ghost and you come back with wings?” Tucker said when they got to his desk. 

“Yeah apparently get exposed to enough ectoplasm and your body can kinda just decide to add a few things to itself.” Danny shrugged.

“You could totally be a superhero! Like Angel from the X-Men!” Tucker smiled.

“He already is a superhero idiot.” Sam rolled her eyes “Do you know what kind of wings they are?”

“We think they’re raven wings, or at least that’s the closest we could find.” Danny said, extending his wings a bit to show them off more. 

Sam chuckled, which was basically a full blown laughing fit for her. “That’s ironic.”

“Why? Because it’s our school mascot?” Danny asked.

Sam rolled her eyes. “No stupid. Ravens symbolize death in most places. And you’re you know.” 

“Great, not like people don’t already find me weird as it is. Just had to slap on ‘omen of death’ in there as well.” Danny slumped down, his wings lowering with him.

“Nah, I think it’s cool. Like a dark angel look going on. We just have to get you some black robes.” Sam said. 

“I appreciate it Sam but you’re not exactly a good judge of what others find normal.” Danny said, gesturing up and down at his friend.

“I’m a great judge of what people find normal.” Sam huffed. “I just don’t agree with it.” 

The bell rang signaling the two to go find their own seats towards the front of the class. The first two periods went by as normally as they could, it was third period that he was dreading. Neither Sam or Tucker shared the class with him, and it was the first one he shared with Dash.  It was gym class. 

He changed into his gym shorts quickly. He had to leave his normal shirt on, they hadn't gotten around to tailoring all of his shirts yet to have opening for his wings yet. It wasn’t like he would be doing any physical activity anytime soon. Everyone thought he still had broken ribs. He quickly left the locker room before anyone else entered. 

Ms. Tetslaff waved him over before he could go anywhere else. “Fenton, you'll be with me for the time being. Being injured doesn’t mean you can slack off in my class. You’ll be doing what you can to help improve your health okay?”

“Yes ma’am.” Danny said only half listening. He was more focused on keeping an eye out for Dash. He doubted the other boy would try to do anything in front of  a teacher, especially when it was known he was injured, but he still wanted to be able to know where he was generally. 

Soon enough Dash walked into the gym Kwan trailing behind him laughing, presumably at a joke Dash told from the smirk on his face. The smirk turned into more of a snarl when he spotted Danny, and Danny could feel his own face twist into a frown. The snarl on Dash’s face didn’t last longer than a few seconds before morphing into a more unsure look before he quickly turned away and walked towards the other side of the gym.

“Calm down there kid, you’ll wack someone.” Ms. Tetslaff said as she carefully ducked around Danny’s wings. Which were currently expanded to their full length and raised up into the air, a threat display.

Danny quickly brought them close to his body again. He’d have to keep a better check of his emotions until he can get enough muscle memory in his wings to keep them still without thinking. “Sorry.”

“It’s fine.” Ms. Tetsleff waved him off. “We started the weight training unit while you were out, obviously you can’t lift more than a few pounds right now safely so you’ll be doing some basic stretches and walking laps for the time being. Your parents also mentioned getting you to do wing exercises.” She paused. “I don’t know much about that so I’ll let you figure those out if you’d please.” 

Danny figured he should be glad for once about ghost attacks in Amity, they really made most of its citizens desensitized to some of the oddest situations. A winged teenager was weird, but no weirder than the ghost of an old lady who controls foodstuffs, or a ghost who overshadows your computer if you click the wrong link on a sketchy website. 

So gym went on with surprisingly no issues. As did the rest of the day. Then one day turned to two, then two turned to a week, and a week turned to two months of living with wings. 

Eventually people got used to Danny needing a bit more space in the halls and stopped staring at him through the day. He still struggled with keeping his wings still during class. Cluing people in for how he was feeling for the day.

They made a lot of progress with training Danny to use his wings. He was able to consistently stay in the air now. He still had trouble with taking off from the ground instead of a tall starting point. But that wasn’t a super big problem when he could fly perfectly fine without his wings. But he found flying with them felt more alive than flying with ghost powers. It was nice feeling the air currents run through his feathers, even if he could only fly a short amount of time still without getting tired. 

All things considered things were going pretty well. There hadn't even been any big ghost attacks since he had gotten his wings. Mostly just the Box Ghost causing issues, or Johnny 13 and Kitty bothering people when the two of them left the Ghost Zone for dates. Of course the moment he mentioned that to Sam and Tucker, who were currently  over at his house, the city’s ghost alarm went off. 

“ATTENTION AMITY PARK CITIZENS PLEASE TAKE COVER AT YOUR NEAREST GHOST SHELTER AND STAY INSIDE. A LEVEL SEVEN GHOST HAS BEEN SPOTTED NEAR THE NASTY BURGER. ALL CIVILIANS IN THE AREA SEEK SHELTER IMMEDIATELY.”

The message continued to play on repeat throughout the city. He just had to say something, didn't he. Oh well, his semi peaceful life could only last so long. “Guess I should go take care of it. You guys can finish the movie if you want, hopefully this doesn’t take too long.” 

“Be safe, bird boy.” Tucker said. Sam just waved her hand in his general direction. 

“Gee nice to know I’m loved, guys.” Danny rolled his eyes and headed downstairs, he left the thermos down in the lab from the last time he emptied it back into the Ghost Zone. 

He was just about to transform before his mom stopped him. “Where do you think you’re going? There is a ghost out there rampaging.” 

Danny looked to his thermos then back to his mom then held it up for her to see. “Yeah. I know. That’s where I’m going.” 

“Danny I appreciate you taking an interest in our career, but a level seven ghost is not the place to start with ghost hunting, ghost powers or no. They are no jokes, even your father and I struggle quite a bit with anything above a level six.” 

Danny was a bit confused, according to their latest files Phantom was around a level eight. They’ve also seen Phantom take down numerous high level ghosts so he didn’t really know why she was so worried about him. Then it hit him. 

He never told his parents he was Phantom. He was still pretty hesitant to talk a bunch about his powers around them in the beginning and it seemed it slipped his mind to tell them he even had a ghost form.  How awkward. Well no time like the present he supposed. “Yeah, about that…”  He quickly transformed and flew past her and headed towards the Nasty Burger ignoring her shouts of protest once she got over her shock. 

It was weird realizing he missed the feeling of his wings every time he transformed recently.  But there was no time to dwell on it, his ghost sense went off letting him know he was getting close. So did the large plumes of smoke he could see in the distance. He sped up, better end this quickly before his mom gets the idea to chase after him and put herself in unnecessary danger. 

He found the attacking ghost easily. It was practically the size of a semi truck, wrecking things in its path without a second thought. The giant wrecking ball and jackhammer in place of its hands gave Danny a pretty good idea what its goal was. 

Ghosts who were focused on pure destruction were normally pretty dumb in the grand scheme of things. He should be able to take it down with a few well placed ectoblasts.  Thinking that was his first mistake. The ghost easily blocked his first attack, despite Danny attacking from behind.

“Oh, has an ant come to try and fight me?” It asked turning towards Danny. He couldn’t even get out a witty retort before the wrecking ball had a very unpleasant meeting with his face sending him straight into the side of a building. He was really glad he didn’t get hurt as easily as a ghost, otherwise he would have just broken all of his bones. Still hurt like crazy though, he felt like he was just hit by a train. 

He managed to float out of the rubble that was once a building. He threw another ectoblast at the ghost, but it hardly seemed to have an effect on it. No problem, some ghosts are just stronger against certain attacks, but it meant it was probably weaker against a different kind of attack. It seemed to be trying to keep him from getting too close, maybe melee attacks would work best? Only one way to find out.

“Circling around me like a pesky fly will not save you.” The ghost laughed. “Bugs like you should be squashed!” It said batting at him, but Danny was ready for it this time and dodged away right before the wrecking ball could hit him. He used the opening to land a solid kick to its chest. It caused the ghost to stumble back a bit. So that was it, he just had to keep away from the ghosts attacks until there was an opening and then he could go in for an attack, and repeat until the ghost was weak enough to get sucked into the thermos. A perfect plan. 

Or it would have been if he didn’t spot his mom getting out of the G.A.V. rushing towards the ghost with her gun drawn. It seemed the ghost saw her too, it drew back its arm to attack. Danny knew his mom would have no chance to survive that type of attack, it practically leveled the building he was thrown into. So he did the thing he could before the hit landed. He got in the way of it. 

He felt himself get knocked into his mom who didn’t even have a chance to react before they both went flying. Danny definitely took the brunt of the blow, he could feel his ectoplasm run down the side of his face. He got up again if only barely, he managed to stumble a few steps forward before he detransformed unable to hold onto his ghost form any longer. He looked back at where his mom was lying. She didn’t look much better than he did, she was knocked out but still breathing. He’d have to get her to the hospital once the fight was over to check for a concussion. If he survived that is.

The ghost seemed to believe the two of them wouldn’t be getting up anytime soon and was busying itself with demolishing more buildings in the area. He looked around him for what he could use to attack the ghost, his core was in no shape to transform again, but it still had enough power left to it to give him a bit of a boost. He ran to the G.A.V as quickly as he could, hoping the ghost didn’t turn its sight on his mom while he was away. 

He grabbed the first melee based weapon he saw. The Fenton 

Ghost Vanquisher Blade, a sword it was a sword. Damn if Danny wasn’t glad he learned a bit of sword fighting when visiting Dora he certainly was now. Now the problem of reaching the ghost. On the ground he’d hardly reach the ghost’s calf. So he’d just have to fly. 

He climbed up to the room of the G.A.V. and jumped off it spreading his wings. It wasn’t much of a jump off point but somehow he made it work. He steadied himself in the air as much as he could. Flying with the sword messed with the balance he worked so hard to perfect, but he had no time to adjust any longer. The ghost seemed to grow bored with the rubble it was now surrounded by, and it looked like it just remembered the existence of the two of them since it started to make its way over to where his mom was still lying. 

He flew up as high as he could go, imbuing the sword in his hand with as much ecto energy as he could. He’d only have one chance at this. He circled in the air until he saw the ghost start to pull its arm back and then he dived down head first sword glowing with ectoplasm held out in front of him. He flipped the sword in his hands and stabbed down into the ghost’s head before it could finish its attack. 

If anyone asked Maddie Fenton, who had come to consciousness just a few seconds prior, what she saw after the ghost was defeated when she awoke she would say nothing special. That would be a lie. What she would describe to her husband later when she got home was much different. The sight of her son, holding a thermos in one hand and a sword that was surrounded by a green flame from how much ecto energy was being poured into it, his wings spread out keeping him hovering in place silhouetted by the sun that seemed to rest right behind his head obscuring most of his features almost like a halo. It almost seemed like a biblical experience, an avenging angel come to guide her to an afterlife she didn’t even believe in. 

Nothing that is, except one Daniel James Fenton. Everyone in Amity Park knew it, but it was something left unsaid unless you wanted to catch his attention. If he looked at you you could feel his eyes peering into your soul, judging your worth with a single glance. He moved silently as if even noise was too scared to draw his notice.  It is ill advised to speak of any ghosts  in front of him, they would go missing soon after more likely than not. 

Ghosts would give the boy a wide berth when flying around, always making sure to stay out of his sight. If asked why, they would say they do not want to risk angering him. Better to steer clear, and stay away. Even speaking his name was taboo to ghosts. Epithets were often used instead. In front of humans they simply called him ‘the ghost hunters’ son’ it did its job well enough. There were few if any humans who knew what he was called among ghosts. ‘The one Incomplete’, ‘The Silent King’, ‘Pariah’s Bane’, 'The Wrong Part of a Whole’, ‘The Merciless one.’. 

The only ones who did not seem to notice the change from normal boy to a being to be respected and feared was the three other Fentons and his two companions. The parents would boast about their son, ignoring the unblinking eyes of his gaze on them when he heard his name. The older Fenton child would complain about how annoying he could be, almost as if she was unaware of the danger his anger could bring to her and those close to her. His two companions would talk to him freely and respond to his deadpan statements and blank face as if he was one of the most expressional people in the room. Joking with him even when no one can remember ever hearing him laugh.

Amity Park's mayor seemed to react to the Fenton boy the most, though no one really knew why. Their best guess would be because he moved there so late in life. The two did not cross paths often, not as much as they did when the man first moved to Amity Park. But when they did it was clear the mayor feared the boy. He would stop talking if the child was nearby only resuming once he was far enough away. His breathing practically stopped and he stood tall and still not moving an inch, as if he was trying to convince the other he was merely a human shaped object. The citizens of Amity Park would not judge their mayor for his behavior around the boy, not with the glare the boy gave him every time he saw him. The citizens of Amity Park were more surprised he didn’t die on the spot every time he was glared at.

No one would be able to tell you when exactly the shift in the young Fenton boy happened. He was always a strange child growing up no one would deny that. His teeth grew in just a little too sharp, his kindergarten teacher would talk how his eyes reflected an unseen light even with the lights off and blinds closed for the students' nap time. But the Fentons were a weird pair themselves so it was brushed off. Until the boy reached high school and strange became unsettling which became a terror. A primal fear that seemed like it was etched into their very souls to stay away, to stay safe. 

A far contrast to the town's hero Phantom, who seemed almost human at times. His laughter would ring out through the city when he was around. Like a reminder that he was there and that they would be safe. Ghost attacks weren’t as common nowadays as they were when ghosts first appeared but if they did happen Phantom was sure to be there to help. Even if it wasn’t a ghost he’d help the citizens of Amity with daily tasks and even just be an ear to talk to at times. The way he carried a conversation and talked about his day made you forget you’re even talking to a ghost. 

The ghosts around Amity also cared deeply for Phantom. While not common knowledge if you ask the right ghosts you’d find out why. Phantom too had his own epithets ‘The Young King’, ‘The Great One’, ‘The Savior of the Ghost Zone’, even ‘the Halfa’ was said in an endearing tone. Even the ghosts that did come and seek out a fight in Amity were treated with at least a limited amount of care, Phantom would never stoop down to destroying a ghost's entire essence. Always willing to give a second chance, not always letting offending ghosts off free but even a prison sentence had its limits when you’re able to exist for thousands of years like ghosts can. 

Phantom, like almost any kid his age, still had a streak of mischief to him. He’d occasionally go around ‘haunting’ the city. Popping up out of the ground with a ‘boo’ before bursting into laughter. He’d even forget that he set up pranks and fall for them himself, flying to the nearest person to laugh about it with. Even the mayor wasn’t free from Phantom when he was in a pranking mood, he often walked around for a few days with a wild hair color until the color washed out. If asked he’d roll his eyes and point you towards the resident ghost teen. 

Even Phantom, in all of his bravery and kindness, stayed out of sight of the son of the ghost hunters. Never one around when the other was. None of the citizens of Amity could blame Phantom, even a ghost of his power must surely fear whatever the Fenton child was capable of. 

Soon enough people stopped moving to Amity Park, whether it was the ghosts or the presence of him no one was quite sure. The citizens of Amity Park didn’t mind either way, it kept the rich bigwigs from trying to come to their city and change things. One of the few good things the Fenton child brought to their lives. Around the same time people stopped moving to Amity Park, the G.I.W stopped any and all activity in Amity Park, soon enough they stopped activity all together. The day Amity Park got the news even humans gave the Fenton kid a wide berth. A smile on his face was much scarier than his constant blank expression.