#phanphiction

Danny is flying; where, he doesn't know. But all around him is searing blue-green light that he can't shut out because his eyes are welded open, and his skin is boiling, and his innards are seizing, and he's screaming, and this supposedly-nonoperational hole in the wall is sending him somewhere, beyond the walls of the lab, beyond sense, beyond reality.

The atmosphere changes. Though the light is still blinding, he can make out a vast nothingness beyond it, stretching on without end, which has been sandwiched between two great somethings. He isn't sure how else to describe it, but it's like he's hurtling over a valley of nonexistence, and behind him is one reality and ahead is another.

That's ridiculous, of course. Yet he knows in his heart of heart that it's true. And reality is coming at him fast.

He braces for impact—

And then the light is punching him through the wall, and he's sailing through air at incredible speed. He has a brief impression of green and existence before he crash-lands onto some surface and knows no more.

——

Continue reading on AO3

Prompts used:

"Danny gets shocked by the Portal, but instead of waking up in the lab with Sam and Tucker, he wakes up in the Ghost Zone. (Can be full-human, halfa, or full-ghost.)"

"Anything fluffy with Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom in a romantic relationship (Pitch Pearl)."

“It’s fine guys, just go on ahead without me.  I can handle one giant bat, it’s fine, it’s just a big ol animal, I’ve fought those before.  Stars I’m a moron!”

Danny sighed as he capped the Fenton Thermos, wincing as the motion brought his attention to the acid burns on his arms and leg, and the ice shrapnel that littered his body.  Phasing the ice out, Danny groaned when he found the acid was not, in fact, going to just phase off of him.  Typical.

Before Danny could find the nearest water source, his ghost sense went off again.

Growling, Danny turned around.  Glowing fists raised, he prepared to blast whoever it was apart for trying to kick him while he was down.

“Whoa!  Hey there kid, are you alright?  You look like you just fought a natural disaster - this block looks like it too.  Is that acid on you?”

Danny looked the ghost in front of him up and down, trying to find any threat.  Blue skin, white eyes, white hair, and a sweater covered in lions to go with sweatpants.  Danny didn’t see any theme going on - ah, a lab coat appeared out of nothing around them, wonderful.

“It was actually Batman’s inspiration, cause no normal bat has all those extra features on it.  I think it was one of the only ghosts I’ve met that actually uses being invisible against other ghosts.  What’s it to you, though?”

“Well, I’m a doctor, so when I saw some kid in a costume looking like someone either cut him up or burned him, I thought ‘hey, maybe he needs some help’.  So, if you’ll let me?”

The doctor was holding up a cotton ball he’d pulled from his coat, and Danny arched a brow at him.  After a moment, though, he held out one of the arms burning from being eaten at by acid.

The doctor dabbed the splashed area with his cotton ball and the acid was sucked up into it.  Another few balls were applied to other areas of Danny’s splashed-over self, and he was finally free to start piecing himself back together.

He laughed and swung his arm a few times, giving the doctor a smile.

“Thanks, dude, I didn’t know there were ghost doctors outside of the Far Frozen.”

“Well dying can’t exactly keep you away from helping people forever, can it?  I’m Dr. Cosmos, and this will help you heal up faster.  Your aura’s different from most ghosts that I’ve met, though.  Are you any particular kind of ghost?”

“Oh, I’m a halfa, so I probably register as kinda weird on your ghost-dar or whatever, right?”  Danny reached for the lollipop being held out to him.

It was pulled away, a frown on Dr. Cosmos’ face.

“A halfa?  What’s that?”

“Oh, you don’t know?”

That was new.  Every ghost Danny met seemed to already know what was weird about him as soon as they met.

Danny looked around and saw that civilians were starting to fill the streets again, so he flew up higher, out of earshot of even the most perceptive humans.  Dr. Cosmos followed him up.

“I’m half-ghost, half human.  Sidney Poindexter called me a halfa and we just sorta never looked for a better word.”

“That’s adorable and it sounds like the way my kid would describe it.  Ok, this one’s not the right kind for a bridge spirit like you.  Hold on.”

Danny cocked a brow at the doctor as he rummaged through his pockets and pulled out a faintly glowing lollipop, like the first one except that it was a lot more physical.  He handed it over to Danny, who accepted it easily enough, and waved.

“Well, I’ve gotta go, stuff to do and all.  You have a good day, kid, and don’t go gettin into more fights!”

“No promises!”  Danny waved at the retreating back of Dr. Cosmos before flying off to the school as fast as he could, sticking the lollipop into his mouth.  After all, if it was supposed to poison him or whatever, the doc would’ve stuck around, and Danny couldn’t sense him.

He was even feeling better already, imagine that.

Checking his phone for the time, Danny went intangible to pick up speed.  He probably wouldn’t be thinking about Dr. Cosmos any time soon.

#

The universe proved Danny wrong once more when Lancer introduced the class to a tall, bear of a boy with brown hair, sepia brown, freckled skin, and one brown eye while the other was opalescent.  Danny swore he saw some colors human eyes weren’t meant to see in the new kid’s left eye.

“Class, this is Stefanos Cosmos, an exchange student from Pittsburgh.”

“Hey there,” Steve said with a wave, smiling wide enough that everyone could see his canines were much longer and too pointy to be human.  “My last school was Three Rivers so uh I’m kinda not used to this kinda school, so if I’m weird I’m sorry about that.  Also, call me Steve!”

“What’s so different about Three Rivers?”

“Oh, it’s a Sudbury school, lookit up!  I’ve been told they’re really different from regular public schools.”

“Not a problem, Steve.”  Lancer patted the large boy on the back.  “Your classmates will be doing their best to help you adjust, I’m sure.”  No one missed the look Lancer gave them, and no one even really considered caring. 

“So why is your eye glowing?  Is that a cool contact or something?”  Dale looked interested in getting a set of his own.

“No dude, that’s just cause I’m a bridge spirit.  Wait, sorry, most people don’t know what that means.”

“Holy shit, are you a ghost?!”  

Steve held up his hands with a chuckle when everyone tensed up at that, Lancer included.  He didn’t look the least bit scared though, and his grin wasn’t all that malicious.

“Dudes, chill out.  I’m a liminal spirit, my Dad’s a ghost and my Papa’s still human.  I’m just, ya know, the fun in-between.  This is still all my flesh and blood; I’m not possessed or anything like that.”

There was an entire 2 seconds where nobody said anything at all.  

The room exploded into a chaotic cacophony of overlapping voices as everyone tried to voice their opinion at once.  Danny could pick out a few shouts of ‘that’s fuckin awesome’ and even the delighted cries of fangirls being validated in their dreams to marry Phantom - which, horrible, no thank you.

Still, things were quieter than Danny thought they should be, and when he focused, he realized that there was a layer of calmness washing over him that didn’t come from him.  He couldn’t risk the glow of his eyes to check, but he had a sneaking suspicion that was coming from Steve, who looked a bit freaked out by the explosive reaction.

Danny, personally, was having an existential crisis over the situation and he felt he had every right to have it.  He didn’t know that half-ghosts could just be born.  Sure, Elle was half-ghost from the start, but she was a clone made primarily from ectoplasm, she was more half-human than anything.

“My guys, my dudes, can y’all calm down?  I can answer questions if you want, I guess, but one at a time.  Uh, you?”

“Hi, Lester: what do you mean, exactly?  How does that even work?”

“Well, my dads wanted a kid and dad’s a ghost so his body uh changed to fit.   Can we stop talking about my parents having sex now?  Thanks.”

“So you’re saying that I do have a chance with mi amor, Phantom?  Oh, this is amazing!”

“Oh, oh hey dude do you know Phantom?”

“Yeah, have you ever met Phantom, like in the Ghost Zone?”

“Lord of the Flies, people, settle down!”

It took a few seconds for everyone to shut up, but Lancer’s glare and volume eventually reminded them all that they were in class.  Everyone was buzzing with excitement and confusion, however, and Danny could practically taste it.

Based on the way Steve licked his lips, he could actually taste the emotions in the room, which was nothing short of alarming.

“Antiguos arriba, you guys are wild!  I guess my classmates back in Pittsburg had a lot more time to get used to me, but it was never this big a thing.  Uh, I don’t know who Phantom is or what this Ghost Zone is either.  It’s a big Earth, guys, I only ever really knew the people back home and in a few places my dads took us out to for vacations, like Disney World and the Grand Canyon and - actually, my guys, the Grand Canyon has such amazing acoustics!”

“Hold us, I thought you said you’re half ghost?  How do you not know about Phantom?  Name’s Dash, by the way.”

“Sup Dash.  I dunno how to tell you this but there’s a lot of dead people, and not just humans.  I’ve met so many dinosaurs and ghost cats, though most cats can teleport anyway, they don’t have to die for that.  Unless he did something major, I doubt I’d’ve heard about him.”

“Hey dude, name’s Kwan.  Have you not ever been to like, the Ghost Zone?  I’m pretty sure that’s where the ghosts all usually are.”

Steve scrunched up his face in confusion, staring at Kwan for a long moment before snapping his fingers.

“Oh, you mean the Infinite Realms!  Dad’s been there, but I haven’t.  He said they call it the Infinite Realms or the Liminal Realm over there.  Never heard it called the Ghost Zone, that’s just dumb.”

“Are you so massive cause you’re a ghost?”

“Uh, no, actually.  Not mostly, really.  Abuela has gigantism, she’s like 7’2” I think, so I’m pretty sure this is Papa’s genetics at play.  On the other hand, if it’s a ghost thing then you’ve got Clifford the big brown dog right here.”

“Dude, how tall are you?  You should join basketball!”

“I’m like, 6’6?  I’m not really into playing sports though.  I’m more of a music guy myself.  Actually, Mr. Lancer are there any dance clubs or anything like that at the school?”

“We do, but it is the middle of the school year.  Maybe next year you can sign up.  I do believe that’s enough questions about Mr. Cosmos, class!  You are to respect his privacy and let him tell you what he will on his own time, am I understood?”

There was a chorus of “Yes Mister Lancer”s and Steve grinned.  Danny could swear he’d seen the same smile on his, Sam and Tucker’s faces before, and he wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or not yet.

“There’s a seat between Danny Fenton and Dash Baxter over there, Mr. Cosmos.  I’ll make sure you get a study guide to catch you up on where we are.”

Steven nodded and vanished from human sight.  Danny watched him, translucent in the way that only a ghost could be, walk right through people and desks, and plop himself down in his seat before reappearing to everyone else.

Despite Lancer’s best efforts, the chattering only got quieter instead of being silenced.  Danny couldn’t blame them.

#

Valerie Grey was having one hell of a month.  Last week she found out half-ghost half-human hybrids existed, and both her multi-billionaire mayoral boss and the little girl he’d sent her to hunt down were half-ghosts themselves.  She was already going through a worse existential crisis than the very discovery of ghosts and an afterlife dimension gave her - the spite and anger revolving around her ruined life had been a great distraction from the enormity of that - and wondering how a good person could enjoy the screaming agony of a boy her age who had already died.

Now there was this guy complicating things even more.

Val hadn’t even considered whether or not ghosts could reproduce, let alone with humans, and now she felt stupid for not landing at that conclusion with the half-ghost discovery in the first place and wondering where Elle’s - and by extension, Phantom’s - parents were.  According to her radar, something had split off from Steve and was wondering the school, but there was no subtle way for her to check what it was.  Asking him would require admitting that she had a ghost radar built into her nanotech ghost hunting suit that appeared whenever she called for it, and sending off a drone to track it down would mean leaving class again, and she wasn’t looking to lose any more of her education to ghost stuff if she could help it.

Nobody was actually paying attention to Lancer’s lesson though, not fully, not even the nerds.  Everyone was stealing glances at Steve, who was looking around every now and then with interest, though Val wasn’t sure it was possible for him to match everyone else’s curiosity.  She could afford to pay him as much attention as Lancer’s words.  She was listening to the lesson at least.

Other than being well over 6 feet tall and sporting one glowing eye, Steve didn’t seem all that different from the rest of them, his roaming gaze landing on Dash, Kwan, and Dale just as often as it did on Paulina and Star.  He even looked over at Valerie, winking at her with that ring of shifting, rainbow colors.  Class wasn’t much an opportunity to see what someone was like beyond the surface.  Maybe having a human dad to raise him kept the ghostly tendencies at bay?

Phantom cared plenty about his twin though, enough to go back to the torture Val had put him through for her.  The only humans he was seen around frequently were that witch girl Mourner and Jazz Fenton - the werewolf didn’t count, even if Ghouly only changed at night.  Was Phantom all that different from a regular human teenager or would any boy go around breaking the town with reckless abandon after getting superpowers?

Val’s gaze drifted from Steve to Dash, and she imagined him with even basic ghost powers.  She shuddered and thanked her lucky stars that she hadn’t ever detected Phantom in the girls’ locker room like she knew she would’ve Dash.  That boy was the last person in the world that should get invisibility, let alone intangibility or flight.

Ghosts weren’t exactly known for their subtlety in Amity Park, even that Biker boy that was constantly arguing with his girlfriend was an obvious spool while flirting with humans, so Val was sure that by the end of the day she’d have a good idea of how dangerous Steve might be.

#

When lunch rolled around, the trio sat at their usual table in the cafeteria, Sam with a salad, Tucker with a whole burger and fries, and Danny with whatever the cafeteria was trying to pass for corndogs and corn.  They really needed to get Danny some actual, proper food.

Danny and Tucker sat on one side while Sam sat on the other, facing them, and arched a brow at the expectant looks they were giving her.  Sam ate a sporkful of spinach and mushrooms, and once she finished chewing, Tucker sighed, tossing one hand in the air in frustration.

“Well, you had algebra with him, anything weird about Steve that you noticed?”

“Other than the size, the eye, and how bright the lights are around him, no.  He’s ahead of us as far as math goes, it looks like, but I only got that from him finishing the work faster than everyone and paying most of his attention to whatever jocks were in the room, especially Dash.”

Sam scowled in clear disapproval as she stabbed a tomato with her spork.

“He walked into class with Dash, whose hair was all over the place and had bruised lips.”

Danny rolled his eyes while Tucker gagged, chin in his palm.

“Guess Dash has been on his best behaviour in front of the new hotness.  Bet he thinks Steve can get him some one-on-one time with Phantom.  I think I sensed him send off a duplicate or something earlier, guess he was scoping out the school.”

Tucker nodded, adding a handful of fries to his burger before he dug into it.  Sam sneered in disgust and Tucker stuck his meat covered tongue out at her, earning a kick from Sam and an elbow from Danny.

After he swallowed, Tucker spoke up in Esperanto.

“This is fucking wild, right?  The fact that there’s a half ghost in our school and he was just fucking born that way?  Oh, Danny, you think he’s got any tips for you?”

“I mean, I guess it’d be cool if he did, but I dunno if I wanna have him anywhere near the house.  Mom and Dad do not need to find him on their own.”

Tucker’s brows furrowed as he set down the latter half of his burger.

“You don’t think they’d try to hurt him, do you?  He’s clearly human just as much as he is a ghost, more so even.”

“I think the Fentons would refuse to believe that half-ghosts can exist, conclude that he’s either overshadowed or severely contaminated, and try to rip the ghost out of him.”

“C’mon Sam, they wouldn’t do that.  Even the Grave Huntress backed out of trying to destroy Elle and helped save her when she found out she was half human.  I’m certain that Mom and Dad would accept me if I explained what happened… what I am.”

“You, their son, they might accept with just an explanation, but the Fentons are anti-ghost bigots, Danny.  They don’t care about facts and logic and evidence, just what their tradition and bias says about whoever it is they hate.”

Danny opened his mouth, brows furrowed and the air around them cold.

“Would you trust them with Elle?”

Danny ate his food, and the table was quiet for a moment.

It was then that Danny noticed the chill he associated with a ghost being nearby and followed that feeling up and around to find Steve descending from the ceiling and flipping right-side up.  Every table in the cafeteria was filled with students and everyone was too absorbed into their food or conversations to notice, save for him and Valerie.

Everyone definitely noticed when Steve split in two, then four, and kept doubling until there were 20 of him.  Each Steve sat down at a different table, next to Val, at the A-list table, with the band geeks and choir kids, and even with Danny, Sam, and Tucker.

“Sup dudes?  I’m Steve, from earlier.  I decided to split off and see all the cool people I can meet, chat with y’all while we eat.  Oh, my original body is on the roof eating the lunch papa made me.  Nice to meet you!”

Steve offered his hands to Tucker and Sam to shake, a third appearing in front of Danny.  Danny chuckled and shook, while Tucker held up his greasy palms, a finger covered in barbecue sauce.  Sam shook his hand then scooted over to invite Steve to sit with them properly.  Tupperware, lunchbox, and food tray alike rattled when he sat down, leaning forward with a grin.

“So, what do you guys like to do afterschool?  I was in show choir back home, really hoping there’s room for me in it here.  I like to dance and do a little singing.”

Tucker wiggled his eyebrows and smirked, gesturing with a french-fry.

“Tucker Foley, or TF as in Too Fine, at your service.  I’m in the robotics club, though I only really show up every now and then.  Ow, rude and uncalled for.  You see the abuse I have to put up with?”

Danny rolled his eyes, relenting in his elbowed assault on his dork of a best friend.

“Excuse him, he’s still learning how to talk to people instead of technology.  I’m Danny, Danny Fenton.  I like astronomy and I stargaze whenever I can, though Amity doesn’t exactly have the most picturesque of night skies.  Light pollution, ya know?  I like to play videogames too though.”

“Hardly the only pollution there is to deal with in this town.  Sam Manson, I have a greenhouse I tend to, and I do activist work when I can.”  

Sam pointed at Steve with her spork, eyes flicking between the boy in front of her and the one sitting with the A-listers.  “Word to the wise since you’re sizing up who to and not to hang out with: Dash Baxter, Paulina Sanchez, Star Thunder, and Kwan Ishiyama along with practically the entire football team are all bullies.”  

Steve blinked at Sam, perplexed, and Tucker swallowed down the last of his burger.

“What?”

“Yeah, the jocks are the muscleheads who go around giving wedgies, swirlies, demanding other people do their homework for them and tossing people into lockers.  Only if you’re a nerd, geek, or freak like us though, of course.”

Danny chuckled and leaned on his elbows, corndog eaten down to the bare stick and corn powered through like a champ if he did say so himself.  Steve was gawking at them, which had Danny laughing a little more.

“Can’t forget that if you accidentally piss off one of the girls, or talk back to the meatheads, or even they just fail their own tests cause they don’t learn shit, they go and find you to beat up.  Well, me, probably not you.  You’re good looking and the fun kinda weird.”

Steve frowned; teeth bared just enough to see that he had more canines than he did when he sat down.  Over at the A-list table, Sam noted that Steve stuttered in whatever their conversation was over there.

“Have they killed anyone or sent someone to the hospital?”  

Tucker snorted and shrugged.  “Not yet, no.”

Steve nodded, and his ghost eye changed, iris now a ruby red ring around his pupil.

“There’s a chance to course correct then.  I can fix em, I’m sure of it.  Don’t worry, I’m gonna see what I can do to get their general attitude all fixed up.”

Sam snorted and rolled her eyes, but Steve only looked more determined.

“I’m serious!  I just gotta talk to em and I’ll figure it out from there.  Now, what do you guys actually wanna talk about?  Oh, hey, favorite animal?”

The boys looked at each other and decided to take the olive branch for what it was.

“I like dogs.  Always wanted one but my parents said no.”

“I for one prefer jackals.  They’re just really cool, ya know?”

“Snakes or tarantulas, I can never decide.  My parents wouldn’t let me get either.”