#phantom punk

Jazz knocked on Danny’s door. “Danny? Can I come in?” She hadn’t been expecting a response, but she had been hoping. She opened the door anyways. As soon as she did, music drifted out of Danny’s room. 

She quirked an eyebrow as she opened the door the rest of the way. She stepped in after letting Danny have the opportunity to tell her to leave him alone. He didn’t, so after closing the door behind her, she walked over and sat next to him on his bed. 

She eyed the guitar in his hands that he was playing. “I didn’t know you played…”

Danny shrugged, but didn’t stop playing the song on his guitar. “I don’t.” Jazz looked down at the guitar as Danny continued playing. It took her a moment to recognize the song. She had only heard it once, specifically an hour ago when the two of them were driving back from school today. 

Danny finished the song and sighed, putting the guitar down by the side of his bed. He rubbed his face and leaned back against the bed. “I never played guitar before… I didn’t know what three-quarter time meant, and I didn’t know what a chord progression referred to either…” 

“But now you do?” Jazz prompted when it became clear he wasn’t going to continue on his own. 

Danny didn’t immediately respond, which worried Jazz. In fact, he remained deathly still for a moment. Suddenly he sat up and grabbed the guitar again. He started playing another song. He got a few bars into it before he answered Jazz. “It happened in the car, a song was playing on the radio and suddenly I  knew how to play it. It’s just like… you know when you are standing over a ledge and you suddenly have an urge to throw something off it?” 

“Call of the void,” Jazz supplied

“It was like that, I just needed to play it. This urge to play…” he shrugged. “So I stole your guitar and…”

Jazz frowned and looked at the guitar. “Wait, that’s mine?”

Danny chuckled fondly. “Yeah, you got it back when…” He trailed off and the smile fell off his face, “Back when Ember first showed up. You were one of the kids brainwashed into liking her music and you suddenly wanted to be a rockstar…”

“Oh…” There wasn’t much more Jazz could say to that. She cleared her throat and went back to why she was originally in here to begin with. “Are you doing okay?”

“Jazz… I know you know that I lost to the Box Ghost today…” he shot her a glare. “How do you think, brainiac?” 

Jazz pursed her lips and tried not to show the fact she was filing that comment away. That hadn’t sounded like the Danny she knew but he was under a lot of stress, and Frostbite had warned them that he would experience some changes.

But she didn’t think Danny would appreciate that being pointed out. 

“You lost to the Box Ghost? Ha! Oh man, the zone would get a kick out of that!” 

The two of them jumped as Ember appeared in Danny’s room. She sat at his desk with her feet up on his desk. She had her own guitar out and was strumming along to the song Danny had been playing. 

She frowned when he stopped. “Wait, keep playing, dipstick, I was having fun.”

“What are you doing here?” Jazz demanded. The guitar playing continued and she turned toward Danny. “Danny! Don’t start playing again just cause she asked you to.”

Dany shrugged. “Relax, she’s not here cause she’s going to hurt anyone.” A note rang out and he added. “She’s been hanging around since the operation.”

Ember tossed her hair back and shot Jazz a look. “If I wanted to cause problems you wouldn’t have even known I was here.” She narrowed her eyes. “You should be a lot nicer to me, after all, I currently have Phantom’s core practically in the palm of my hand.”

Jazz glanced at Danny who hadn’t reacted to that statement at all, but the messages Frostbite had passed along had seemed to imply that was very much the case. 

But Danny wasn’t worried, in fact, he seemed a little less than impressed with Ember. So instead of freaking out like she wanted to do when faced with a statement like that, she took a deep breath and thought about it for a moment.

“You might,” Jazz admitted, “But I think that means you’re less likely to do anything.” Jazz smiled as Ember’s eyes widened. “It’s easy for someone to act like a cartoon villain and laugh, ‘I have your soul ’” She said giving her best Box Ghost impression, “but you ghosts know so much more about what our souls actually are, and I think that someone who is desperate to be remembered would treat someone’s soul as sacred.”

Jazz held up a finger. “And one more thing, I may not be an ecto-biologist or anything, but I still have some knowledge on how to read a medical report.” She smirked, “And so even if I’m wrong about you, I know that the connection is not just one way right now. You might have Danny’s core in the palm of your hand, but he’s probably affecting you too…”

Jazz shrugged. “Now, I don’t know what he’s doing to you, but…” Her admission trailed off, she could continue, but her point was made. 

The room was silent for a few beats, before Danny burst out cackling. “HA! She nailed you good there!”

“Oh shut up!” Ember shouted, her face darkening in color as she blushed. “Look! I came by to check on you! You don’t have to be rude! ” 

Danny didn’t shut up. He in fact continued to laugh. In between laughing fits, he managed to get out, “You have to admit, you did start it.”

“I did not! I just came by and she started demanding you shove me in that thermos of yours!” 

Jazz folded her arms. “Well! What am I supposed to think! You’ve brainwashed me before. Twice!” 

Ember and Danny both rolled their eyes. “The fact my second brainwashing attempt affected you says more about  you than it does me.” Ember shrugged as Jazz opened her mouth to argue and spoke over her. “The same thing can be said about why you haven’t said anything to Youngblood here.”

“What?” Jazz shouted

She was cut off from panicking as Danny put a hand on her shoulder. “He’s not here, she’s messing with you.”

Jazz huffed. “Well, that’s just mean…”

Danny turned back to Ember and gave her a weak grin. “Well, I guess you heard how I’m doing. I lost to the Box Ghost of all people.”

Ember threw her head back and laughed. “Yeah! Man, if I didn’t want the entire zone to know that you lost to him after getting a chunk of my powers I’d have a field day sharing that with everyone.” She then lost all her cheer and fixed him with a glare. “Now then, since I don’t want to become a laughing stock by proxy, how the fuck did you lose to the Box Ghost? You know who loses to the box ghost? I’d tell you… IF I KNEW!”

Jazz slapped her hands against her knees before standing up. “You know what, I’ll leave this to you.”  

Ember smirked in a way that made Jazz want to second guess her decision as Danny’s eyes widened. “What! No! Why?”

Jazz let out a hum. “Well, maybe I’d be more willing to help you out if you were actually planning on talking to me about your problems instead of stealing my guitar and just holing up in your room to play music.”

“Hey!” Ember interrupted, “I’ll have you know holing up in your room and playing music is a valuable coping mechanism!”

Danny also added in his own two cents, “And you didn’t even know you had a guitar!”

“Later, Danny,” Jazz said, opening the door and walking out, “I’m sure Ember will be nice and understanding about losing to the Box Ghost.”

The door clicked shut at the same time Danny’s mouth did. He turned slowly to face Ember who was staring into his soul, quite possibly literally. “Uh… yeah, so hi, welcome to my room.”

Ember rolled her eyes. “Relax, I’m not actually that mad about that… well, I am a little, but…” she waved between them, “Your soul is different now. Mine too now. I get it.”

Danny frowned and plucked at the guitar in his hands. “It's weird… it all is. Everything feels different, and I don’t just mean that cold bothers me again.” He let out a breath and looked up at the ceiling, “I feel different. I feel different things.” 

Ember tilted her head. “Like what?”

Danny worked his mouth for a moment, trying to think of how to begin. “Sam and Tucker…” he started, the words forming on their own before he even got them in order, “The other day… I mean, since you saved me,” He ignored Ember fidgeting at that, she was going to have to get used to that sooner rather than later. “I’ve… I dunno, I feel like when I talk to people, there’s this… I dunno. Echo? When I talk to them? I don’t know what it is but-”

“You’re feeling their emotions,” Ember cut in. 

“What? I can do that? You can do that?”

Ember shrugged. “Yeah, I mean I can, and what you’re describing sounds like how it feels for me.” She smirked. “Come on, dipstick, I feed off people listening to my music, how did you think I did that?”

Danny worked his mouth. “I… didn’t know. I didn’t need to do that before.” his eyes widened. “Wait, do I need to do that now?” 

“Feed is a figure of speech. It’s not something you need to do. You might like it though.” Ember said, dismissing his panic. She started playing her guitar. “So, how come you couldn’t beat the shit out of the Box Ghost?”

Danny groaned and put his head in his hands. “I was too distracted, I could feel that echo… his emotions? Oh man, that’s gonna be weird next time I fight someone…” he shook his head and went back to explaining. “I was too distracted by that and I couldn’t focus.”

Ember groaned and threw her head back. “Oh my god, Phantom, really?” 

“It’s not just that though, it’s everything. Even the way I transform feels different now!” Danny said, jumping up and pacing. “I know everything’s changed, I get that, but it’s just so overwhelming and I don’t know what to do right now!”

Danny continued to pace as Ember watched dispassionately. “Transforming isn’t grabbing that cold spot in me anymore, my ectoblasts are weaker and-” 

Danny was cut off as loud music started pounding out in his room. He turned and blinked toward Ember who was fiddling with his stereo. The music playing washed over him, and resonated with him. 

“I like listening to angry music when I’m angry, makes me feel validated,” Ember explained, tapping a finger to the beat of the song. 

Danny blinked as the song played out from the stereo. “Rise, now, stand and sing. Storm the castle, kill the king!” rang out across the room. The music resonated with him, drawing out images of him fighting Pariah and beating the mad king back into his coffin.

Ember broke him out of his revere as she kicked her feet back up on his desk, “Keep ranting, Baby Pop, I’m listening.” 

Danny looked down at his hands. He went from beating Pariah, to losing to the Box Ghost. He dropped his hands to his side and looked at Ember. “I… I can’t do this, I can’t be weaker than the Box Ghost.”

Ember rolled her eyes. “You’re not, that’s the problem.” She grabbed a pencil off his desk and flicked it at him. He batted it out of the air simply as she spoke, “Look, there was a reason why Frostbite told me you needed help. You are a powerful ghost. We both are.” She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. “Look, I don’t have the cred to back it up, but you’re gonna find out real quick I’m not a normal ghost. I’m practically a spirit myself.”

“Uh, what?” 

Ember groaned. “Ignore that, I don’t want to explain that. You talk to Clockwork about what Spirits are versus Ghosts,” she shook her head and turned to face him. “You’re used to just throwing a fist or a blast around to win. That worked before, but it’s not going to cut it now. You’re not the same powerhouse you were, but you still are a ghost to be feared. It’s just you’ll need to be creative with how to use it.” 

Danny waited to see if any of that made sense to him. When it didn’t click into place, his shoulders slumped and he asked, “What do you mean?” 

Ember smirked. “Well, let me put it this way. Sam thought that the ship that Youngblood uses to play pirate was his.” She paused and turned up the music before turning back with a wicked smirk. “It’s mine.” 

Ember grabbed her guitar and played a few notes. The opening notes to Yo Ho Ho and she was overtaken by fire. Her usual rock attire was replaced with a pirate’s outfit. 

“Brainiac was right earlier,” Ember began,  “us ghosts are more in tune with what humans would call souls or someone’s spirit, but that’s not just applicable to what you’d call a human soul. Music has a soul too.”

Danny’s door thudded as someone pounded against the door. “Danno! Can you turn your music down? We can hear it from the living room!”

Ember looked at Danny as his eyes widened. She smirked, reached over, and turned up the music. 

“You’ll figure it out,” She said quickly, before disappearing in a puff of fire. 

****

Sam leaned against the lockers as she played with the PDA Tucker gave her yesterday. “So… did that give you any ideas on how to fight better?”

“Yeah, a few, also…” Danny shut his locker before looking around. “I found a couple new powers as well.” He reached up and tapped out a tempo against the locker, muttering under his breath. “A shave and a haircut…”

The lock rang back, finalizing the tune, before swinging open. Danny turned and smiled at Sam. “See?”

Sam chewed on her lip for a moment. “That’s cool and all, but uh, Danny?” she ran a hand through her hair before stating, “You can walk through walls…” 

Danny’s smile dimmed a little. “Okay, yeah, it’s not the best power but hey!”

Tucker came running up to them in a cacophony of footfalls, throwing glances over his shoulder all the while. “Guys! Guys! We have a problem!” The tone of his voice made Danny straighten up. As Tucker leaned against the lockers and gasped trying to get his breath back.

“I’m going to be real with you, Tucker, you’re going to have to be a lot more specific.”

Tucker didn’t find Danny’s joke amusing, instead, he took a deep breath and shouted. “The Guys in White are outside! They’ve got like their entire division here! They have a tank!” 

That made  everyone look in the trio’s direction before there was a mass exodus of students towards the nearest exits to see what was going on. The trio waited for everyone else to leave before making their way out themselves. 

Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama were out in front. It was almost impossible to make it out over the din of students talking, but Danny could hear the two of them talking to the lead agent. “This is highly irregular and more than likely illegal! ” Principal Ishiyama stated, turning to Mr. Lancer for backup. The man looked haggard as he quickly read through some documents.

“Principal, your institution is likely  infected with ectoplasmic filth. We have reason to believe the ghost known as Phantom is currently hiding as a member of the student body.”

Mr. Lancer looked up at the lead agent. “Are you telling us one of our students is  dead and we haven’t noticed?”

The agent turned and looked Mr. Lancer in the eyes and said. “At this point, I’d believe you’ve missed a great many things.”

Mr. Lancer frowned. “Well, as she said, this is most likely illegal, you can’t force medical procedures on minors without their parent’s permission.”

The agent folded his hands behind his back. “You’re overstating what we’re doing. The scan will be non-invasive. Also, we are not asking.”

As one, the agents adjusted their weapons, and the chatter stopped. 

Lancer and Principal Ishiyama froze in shock, not expecting to be threatened. Sam and Tucker looked at each other before looking at Danny with eyes wide. “This is bad…” Danny whispered to the two of them as the echo inside him began to tremble as the feelings of the student body began to seep through him.

“Geez, I don’t know why you’re all freaking out!” Danny turned to see Valerie making her way to the front. “They’re just scanning to see if any of us are possessed or anything.” Valerie walked up to the agent. She shifted her backpack and looked up at him. “Can you get this over with?” She jabbed a thumb in Mr. Lancer’s direction, “He’s giving out a test and I need as much time to cram as possible.”

The lead agent waved at another agent, this one Danny actually recognized as Agent K. The agent walked up to Valerie with a wand-like object. Danny felt his throat close up as the wand let out a high pitch whine as it passed over Valerie. 

Valerie turned toward Lancer. “See? It’s not that bad.”

“She’s highly contaminated.”

Valerie turned toward Agent K. “WHAT?” she screeched. 

Mr. Lancer immediately pulled Valerie behind him. “There must be some mistake, there is no way miss… Valerie is at all related to Phantom. She’s quite vocal in her hate of him, and her praise of your agency.”

Agent K frowned, before Agent O walked up next to him. He pulled Valerie out from behind  Lancer and waved a second wand over her. “Let go of me!” Valerie shouted as the agents continued to scan her. 

“Confirmed,” Agent O said, not letting go of Valerie. 

“Oh no,” Tucker whispered, “Her suit! Technus gave it to her! It must be extremely ectoplasmic!”

The two agents approached Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama and began scanning them. The two of them froze, not sure what to do in face of a literal platoon of government agents with weapons bearing down on them. 

The two agents looked at their devices. “Both are contaminated.” 

The lead agent frowned. “Is this whole school infected?”

The agents let go of Valerie but pushed her into the crowd of students. They turned toward their leader and asked. “Orders, sir?”

The agent’s jaw clenched before he gave his command. “Sickness must be purged.”

The trembling hum inside Danny became a thunderous roar as the student body switched from trepidation to full-blown panic. 

“That… doesn’t sound good,” Tucker muttered. 

“No shit, Sherlock!” Sam hissed. 

“Fuck it.” The two turned toward Danny as he let out a breath and repeated himself. “Yeah… just… fuck it.”

“No…” Sam began stepping in front of Danny. “Nothing in history ever turned out good when it was proceeded by the phrase ‘Fuck it’!” She turned towards Tucker, “Help me out here!”

Tucker grabbed Danny’s wrist. “Dude, what are you planning?”

Danny reached down and grabbed Tucker’s hand and gently peeled his hand away. “Fuck. It.” 

And then he disappeared in a whirl of fire. 

The two didn’t need to spend long looking for him though.  They were immediately alerted to his presence by several cries of “Phantom!” from the front of the student body.

The two of them turned toward the calls to see Phantom standing in front of the school. There was a guitar around his neck. He took one step toward the agents. “What are you planning on doing to the students here?”

The agents straightened and pulled out weapons. “We don’t answer questions of ectoplasmic scum.” 

And then that tank fired. 

The students screamed, but Sam and Tucker realized very quickly no one was hit. When the dust settled, the agents had been blown back several feet, and a barrier between Phantom and the agents came down. 

Danny panted and raised a fist up in the air. He threw his head back and began to sing as music rang out across the school grounds. “Man, the cannons, climb aboard! Together weather every storm! Oh! Man the cannons, draw your sword!”

The agents got back up and the lead agent pointed at Phantom. “Who said to stop firing?” He shouted. 

Danny continued to belt out at the top of his lungs, “They’ll remember us forever more!” He followed it up by slamming down on the guitar as the tank fired another anti-ectoplasm round toward the school. 

This time, it wasn’t a barrier that stopped the shot. Instead, a pirate ship rose out from the ground like a whale breaching the surface. The ship rocked as the round bounced off the hull. 

A crew of skeletons appeared on the deck and peered down at the student body, before throwing rope ladders down the side of the ship. With a burst of fire, Danny appeared standing on the railing of the ship. 

He wasn’t dressed in his normal jumpsuit anymore, instead, he looked like he stepped right off the set of Pirates of the Caribbean. He lifted his hat and looked down at everyone, with a grin that belonged on Ember instead of Phantom. He waved everyone toward the ship and continued to sing. “For glory and adventure, we sail the seven seas!” 

Suddenly everyone was clamoring to get on Phantom’s pirate ship, as everyone climbed up the sides the ship rocked as another round hit the side of the ship drowning out some of Danny’s song, but not all of it. 

Through it all, Danny continued to sing. “And if it takes forever, I’ll see us rich and free! And if we band together, so it shall be!”

Sam and Tucker were probably the last ones on deck. They looked around to see that Danny had an entire band backing him that he had summoned, which explained where the music was coming from.

“What do we do?” Tucker asked. 

“Man the cannons, climb aboard!” Danny continued to sing, this time from the crow’s nest.

“You heard the captain,” Sam quipped before finding a hatch below deck. She wasn’t the only one with the same idea. Several of the A-Listers were already below deck. Kwan and Dash were pushing a cannon to a port, as Star and a few others were trying to figure out how to man said cannons. 

Seeing as they were standing around, Sam started barking orders. “Nate! Use that stick to clean the inside! Star! When he’s done, shove that charge your holding in! Dash! Get Star a cannonball! Nate! When Dash gets you a cannonball, push it into the charge!”

“Then what?” Nate asked. 

“You light them up!” Sam shouted, helping Kwan with the other cannon. “Tucker! Get another swab!” 

“How do you know this?” Tucker asked as he grabbed the giant swab and started cleaning the canon. 

“You’ve helped with Youngblood and didn’t look up what it was like on a pirate ship?”

“Fair.” 

Any additional statements he was going to make were drowned out as Star’s cannon fired. “Oh… my… god…” Star uttered as she stared wide-eyed at the cannon. “THAT WAS AWESOME!” She and Dash rolled the canon back forward and she shouted. “Nate! Swab it out!”

“Anyone else have Star going pirate queen on their bingo card?” Tucker quipped as Sam shoved a charge down the barrel. 

Kwan glanced at Tucker before rolling a cannonball into the weapon. “Honestly? That’s my free space.”

“Less chatter and more blowing up the man!” Sam shouted at the two boys who snapped to attention and saluted. 

“Yes, ma’am!” 

Tucker started tamping the charge when the ship rocked as another tank round impacted against the side. He stumbled over the canon and Sam pulled him out of the way. “Star, where’d you get a light?” Sam shouted.  

Tucker’s and Kwan’s eyes widening and them covering their ears was the only warning Sam got to do the same. She turned away from the cannon to see a skeleton with a torch lighting the fuse. 

The cannon fired and metal crashing against metal rang out. And over Danny singing, Sam could hear a shout. “Damnation seize my Soul if I give you quarters or take any from you!” 

Kwan’s eyes lit up. “Was that Ember?”

Dash, on the other hand, shoved his head out of the porthole and looked up. “Ember! I love you!”

“Less adoration, more shooting the pigs!” 

“Ay ay!” 

Sam looked out the porthole. “Wait, are they running away?”

Tucker pointed down at the canon. “I mean… do you blame them? Phantom was a level 8 ecto entity before. Now he can summon artillery. ”

Sam sighed, and leaned back. “Yeah, but the Guys in White aren’t going to take this lying down.”

Kwan frowned. “I mean… I’m not the brightest, but you heard them right? They were saying we were sick and needed to be purged or whatever. I think once word gets out about what happened, they’re going to get run out of town.”

Tucker pointed at Kwan. “That’s a good point! Mayor Vlad is going to lose his shit!” 

Sam smiled. “Oh! Yeah, yeah he will.” Sam turned toward the ladder back to the top deck. “Let’s go check on Phantom.”

“What about the cannons?” Tucker asked. 

“What are you boys standing around for? Those cannons aren’t going to load themselves!”

“Star’s got it covered,” Sam said, waving Tucker towards the ladder. “Come on.”

Sam came up to see Danny leaning against the railing and holding onto his guitar and chatting with Ember. She waved at him when his eyes landed on them. He smiled brightly and took off his hat and waved at her with it.

Sam couldn’t help but notice that both him and Ember were now both sporting flaming hairdos. 

Ember turned toward Danny. “So let me get this straight, you went from losing against the Box Ghost… to summoning a pirate ship with the power of music and getting tons of teenagers to fire cannons at a government-backed goon squad?”

Danny turned back to Ember and dropped his hat back on his head. “Yup, that’s about right!”

Ember nodded solemnly. “Huh…” she looked back at Sam and then at Danny and said simply, “I love you.”