#slightly depressing

“Hello class! I’m sure you all know me as Danny’s mom but today I’m here as a professional. So address me as Ms. Fenton not Danny’s mom, please”. Maddie finishes her intro with a soft smile. Walking over to the whiteboard she quickly picks up a green marker and starts to write as she speaks. “So it was decided that you all would get educated on how ghost do what ghost do, meaning their powers. Rather than how to fight them.” Turning around for a second to shrug. “The principal decided teaching teens how to use ecto-weapons was a bad idea, I say pah! To that but rules are rules.”. Turning back to the board she finishes writing out a vertical list of all the main, well-known ghost powers.

Ecto-Blasts

Ecto-shields

Invisibility

Intangibility

Body manipulation

Over-shadowing

Duplication

Gravity nullification

“Miss?” Paulina asks with her hand raised, lowing it when Maddie looks to her. “What’s that last one?” Paulina finishes her question with a few agreeing nods. Maddie smiles, glad to see they’re paying attention; unlike her son. Unbeknownst to her, Danny is actually paying attention. Just with his head in his arms, listening both to her and sneakily watching out the window through his arms for any ghosts. “Well, gravity nullification is probably better known by you as” air-quoting “flying” end air-quoting “ but that’s really the wrong word for it”. Star, looking highly confused just asks “what do you mean?”. “You see ghosts aren’t made out of the same things as you and I, they’re just shells wrapped over ectoplasm.” Maddie doesn’t notice the way Danny faintly shivers at her words and how he grimaces. “And ectoplasm reacts differently to the environment compared to any other substance. Functionally, it is always in a state of weightlessness. Ghosts actually have to force solidity into their ectoplasm to even be affected by gravity at all.”. Kwan shoots his hand up. “Yes?”. “What about that metal one, we’ve all seen him falling and crashing around? Wouldn’t he not be able to do that if he’s weightless?”. Maddie chuckles lightly but quickly scolds Danny’s still slouched down form before answering the question. “Danny dear, please sit up straight. You’ll ruin your back like that.” Maddie scolding is sweet as the class snickers at him more. Danny jolts right up, face red but keeps a hand in front of his mouth, just in case his ghost sense goes off. “Anyways, the metal ghost is an anomaly as it’s actually a small blob-like ghost wearing a suit of armour. The armour, like any armour, isn’t inherently weightless. Meaning the ghost has to extend its natural weightlessness to the suit!”. Maddie is quite pleased with herself hearing the “ooooo”’s and “ahhhhh”’s from most the students. Danny, meanwhile, is wondering just how the hell his mom actually knows about that. Sure, he found out about Skulkers real form right away but he doubts his mom found out the same way he did. And even though he’s not on good terms with Skulker, Danny can’t help but frown at him being called an “it”.

Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t take long for Paulina to ask about Phantom, much to Danny’s dismay and the rest of the classes joy. Maddie shakes her head at the clear display of fondness for the ghostly “hero” but answers honestly anyway. “Phantom as a whole is an anomaly itself, very little about that one makes sense and finding out anything about it has proven to be, more or less, impossible. However, considering Phantom’s lack of any suit or exoskeleton, it’s safe to say it’s as inherently weightless as any normal ghost.”. Danny is kinda shocked by the genuine response and it does get him to ponder about his “flying” ability. Muttering into his hand quietly, “well it’s not like I can really feel wind strongly flying by, and the wind resistance doesn’t change regardless of how fast I go.”. Tapping his chin, “and thinking about it yeah, it feels like being suspended in water...but more floaty. Huh, I used to notice that a lot actually”. Shrugging, Danny smirks “the perks of getting used to things I guess”. Danny is pulled out of his mutterings by Mr. Lancer “Daniel, of all people I would expect you to be paying attention” causing Danny to jolt and look around, earning him more snickers. Meanwhile, Maddie just sighs and shakes her head. “As I said, all ectoplasm has this quality due to its composition. The particles it’s made out of are so densely compact, that it actually has its own gravitational force. That force is only strong enough to negate the earths pull, however, so you don’t have to worry about being pulled into an average ghost” Maddie adds with a chuckle.

Paulina, spring her hand up again, “but what if the ghost is carrying you? Would it make them easier to hold you?” Blushing slightly “I wouldn’t want Phantom to struggle carrying me”. Danny physically groans as his mom frowns, “you shouldn’t be that close to any ghost, especially not Phantom. Regardless of the ghosts act, it is evil and it does not care; just like all other ghosts.”. This earns her almost unanimous glares from the students so Maddie just sighs. “But yes, being that close to a ghost would allow for its ectoplasms gravitational pull to have a slight effect on you, instantly making you lighter. But most ghost will almost instantly extend their gravity nullification to anything they try to carry on instinct. So you’d effectively be weightless yourself.”. Dash grins wide “so that’s why Phantom can lift so much...it’s not strength but some weird gravity thing. Cool man, I would kill for that on the field”. Someone chuckles next to him “you’d have to be killed for it” which earns a couple laughs, even one from Danny; who’s ever fond of dark humour. Sighing Maddie corrects Dash, “not quite true, a ghost carrying something would have to exert adequate strength to extend enough gravity nullification to the item in question to render it weightless.”. Danny mulls over this in his head, things were definitely not as heavy or as hard to pick as Phantom; even from the very beginning. Now that both his halves were physically stronger, due to the constant exercise and fighting he did, most things were freakishly light. Even in Fenton form. Muttering again, “though I guess my ectoplasm is a constant in me so I guess I constantly have at least some of this gravity nullification active at all times. Huh, for once I’m learning something that actually helps me”. Noticing Lancer’s glare he makes a point of following his mom with his eyes, instead of staring into space. As Dash pipes up again “so Phantom really is built then? Awesome! I knew he wasn’t punny”. Maddie looks dumbfounded by this, muttering under her breath; though Danny can hear due to enhanced hearing. “I can’t believe how fooled that ectoplasmic scum has all the children. I’ll have to have an honest talk with Jasmine and Danny about their own fondness of him. At least Danny has a healthy fear of ghosts, even if it is a little overboard.”. Danny internally groans, dreading supper, as Maddie continues addressing the class. “Punny isn’t really possible with ghosts, Mr. Baxter, all of them have dangerous powers and most have unique abilities as well.” Earning a couple raised eyebrows from the students. One band geek asks “but what about that box guy? He doesn’t seem capable of doing much of anything” at this most the class laughs, including Danny. Maddie smiles loosely “that one has some sort of power that lets it get into our world whenever it pleases, which is a threat in and of itself. If it wasn’t for how lacking it is in all other areas, it would be an absolute nightmare”. Danny can’t help but laugh hard at this. The idea of The Box Ghost, even after the Pandora’s Box incident, being a genuine threat is so absurd. Danny earns a few odd looks, including from his mom, over his wheezing laughter. Someone in the back mutters “isn’t Fenton, like, terrified of ghosts?” His friend next to him shrugging “I guess even that scaredy cat doesn’t fear the Box ghost.”. The first boy mutters again “That’s kinda sad for the Box ghost actually.”. “Moving on,” Maddie says over the two boys, still shooting Danny curious looks. “Is there any other main powers you’d like me to talk about first before I go down the list?”. Kwan sticks his hand up at the prompt, “uh yeah, what’s intangibility mean?”. Maddie chuckles sweetly, “why it’s the ability to go through solid objects without damaging them. Both intangibility and invisibility have relatively the same explanation, so I do both”. Turning back to the board Maddie cross off gravity nullification. “Basically, ectoplasm is capable of vibrating at specific frequencies and speeds that nothing else really can. This is excluding ecto-raineum which is why ghost hunters make their equipment and weapons out of it.”. Maddie smirks to herself, “this vibration allows for ghosts to move their ectoplasm at such a rate that they surpass that of all the materials around and/or light itself. Rendering them capable of going through almost anything and blinking out of visible range.”. Maddie paces around the front of the room as she continues, “Some theorize that many animals who can see wider ranges of light can always see ghosts, but this is still hotly contested.”. Danny muttered to himself while she was speaking, “yeah and it’s a hell of a lot harder than it looks.”. Star shoots her hand up asking, “I’ve seen ghost turn people invisible and what not, does that hurt the person? Vibrating the persons' cells or whatever like that?”. At that question Danny makes a mildly horrified face, whispering “I never even thought about that, oh god I’m going to have to ask Sam and Tucker about that.”. “Thankfully, we’re certain it doesn’t hurt, if it did I’m sure many more people in Amity would complain about it; considering how commonly that happens here”. The students nod, all but Danny accepting this answer at face value. Danny’s learned not to fully trust all of his parents “science”, after learning so much for himself. He’d rather verify something that could potentially be inadvertently hurting people, for himself.

“Moving on, I’ll talk about ecto-blasts and ecto-shields like I did for the previous two abilities. Both are nothing more than a ghost expelling ectoplasm outside of their manifested form, in a controlled fashion.”. “So kind of like spitting?” Dash jumps in. Maddie, turning to him, replies “That’s about as close as a human can get, yes. Ectoplasm isn’t something ghost can just randomly expel out of their body’s however they please. Ectoplasm is their bones, organs, skin, blood and consciousness. A ghost could destroy itself with over expulsion.”. Paulina makes a disgusted face and pulls her hands up to her chest “so ghost are like? Throwing around their own blood?!”. Maddie grimaces, “in a way, yes, but it’s so vastly different from actual blood that it’s really nothing alike.”. Paulina still looking grossed out, “Well, Phantoms the only one whose ecto-whatever isn’t nasty then”. Danny can tell his mom is restraining herself from going off on a tirade about ghosts. He finds himself rather impressed by her rare show of not going overboard. “Yes well, ectoplasm should always be handled as carefully as possible, you absolutely should not touch it and you absolutely should avoid it; as best you can anyways.” At this Lancer gives a curt nod of agreement. “The last thing any of us want is you, mostly bright, young students getting hurt or worse.” Lancer sighs darkly. While Danny just chuckles to himself “I’ve already done the “worse” option, twice over so...little late for the warning.” Smirking, he can’t help but feel glad for not getting the warning though. He wouldn’t trade his halflife for anything else, though he could do with a break sometime.

“Now duplication is one of the trickier things a ghost can pull. Not a lot of ghost can do it and it’s very difficult for them, but it also makes catching a ghost impossible if you don’t get every duplicate. The body manipulation is similar, being a more basic form of duplication. However, Phantom seems to be one of the few ghosts that actually utilizes body manipulation both offensively and defensively.” At this Paulina grins proudly. Danny’s not sure whether to be creeped out or pleased about her grin. “On one hand she loves me, on the other she’s completely obsessed” Danny sighs. “Yeah, I think I saw him turn his stomach into a freaking donut once” Kwan chuckles. Maddie nods enthusiastically “yes that would be an example of body manipulation, duplication is just body manipulation taken to the extreme. How ghosts manage to control two separate bodies is a bit of a mystery but the general consensus is that since their ectoplasm is their consciousness it’s no different to them than controlling two hands at once.”. Danny has to cover his eyes to keep from boring holes into his mom’s face with his glare. “There is nothing fucking easy about duplication...though I’d have no clue how to explain having 6 heads to a class.”. “I had like 10 bodies once! It was a nightmare, even if it made playing pass more fun.” Kwan shivers slightly as Maddie roles her eyes. “The stories kids spin”.

“Lastly, over-shadowing; easily the most unpleasant and evil power ghosts have. I’m sure you already know but it’s the power to take over a real persons body and control it. Over-shadowing is near impossible to detect without special equipment but ghosts can’t maintain it forever.”. One of the students in the back scoffs “I’m pretty sure all of us have had some experience with that trick.”. “Yes and it’s the only way for a human body to have ghost powers. While possessing a human body ghosts can still use gravity nullification, invisibility and intangibility. Though it is much harder to do.”.  Danny can’t help but smirk as he watches his mom talk so self-assured, when a halfa lives in the same house, eats the same food, and talks to her every day. “There’s something hilariously ironic about a scientist living with the very thing that disproves their theories.”. Maddie walks over to the board and draws a red person shaped outline and then a green one just over top. Tapping the drawing with the pen, “this is basically how over-shadowing works. Ghosts layer their own ectoplasm overall a persons internals, including the brain. Allowing it to use its ectoplasm to control all the nerves and access every sense of the body. This is also why no one really remembers what happened. The ectoplasm coats over the brain muting all the synapses and their communication.”. Dash just groans “I didn’t think there’d be so much brain stuff with ghosts.”. Danny, chuckling “what? Your head hurts?”. Dash turns and pelts Danny with a pencil, the only thing he bothered to bring with him to class. “Mr. Baxter! What did I say about behaving!” Lancer crosses his arms staring at the boy, releasing a disappointed sigh as Dash just glares and sits back down. Meanwhile, Maddie has her hands on her hips, clearly not impressed to see even a hint of the bullying she’s been suspecting Danny’s been getting all his injuries from. “Baxter, the only time going on the offence against someone or thing is when that thing is a ghost. People, unlike ghosts, are not inherently out to hurt you. So control your anger and Danny, don’t antagonize him.”. Danny grumbles “it’s called a joke, not my fault he can’t handle being the joke”, at the mild scolding. “Ghosts are the things that lash out violently at the slightest displeasure, you kids aren’t a bunch of ectoplasmic scum.” Danny sighs “and here comes the anti-ghost rant...plus last I checked I’ve still got my healthy amount of ectoplasm so at least one of us here is indeed ghostly.”. In his mutterings, he completely misses the rest of his moms' rant, though he doesn’t miss noting all the unimpressed teenage faces. Even Mr. Lancer seems put off. Maddie, brushing some imaginary dirt of her thighs, “Anyways, I figured to wrap this up, we’d have a little discussion about which of these powers you’re most impressed by and how you’d use them for good; instead of doing what ghosts do.” Looking around at the suddenly very interested students, Maddie nods contently. “We’ll break up into groups of 4 based on seating and you’ll debate amongst yourselves which power’s best.”. Then giving the floor to Mr. Lancer, “I expect written personal reports from each of you, this will count as your creative writing assignment. Worth 20% of your grade, lates will NOT be accepted.” Lancer finishes as he hands out the assignment sheets, all the while glaring at Danny. Danny just rolls his eyes, muttering under breath “hmm an assignment about something I constantly think about and have years of experience with...”. It takes Danny all of two seconds to write down gravity nullification on his sheet, only slightly intending to actually fill the rest out later.

Maddie and Lancer set about pushing everyone into their groups. Danny ends up with Dash, Star and a random band geek. “What’s up Fentit! If you say anything other than that gravity thing you’ll be eating my toenail clippings for a week.” Danny groans sarcastically “oH wOw WhAt A cOiNcIdEnCe, ThAt’S jUsT wHaT i WaS tHiNkInG.”. Star giggles a little while the band geek just stares in awe and mild horror at Danny’s guts. Dash glares at Danny but turns to then glare at the geek who quickly chirps, “gravitynullifcationisbestforsure”. Star sighs, “I was going to say body manipulation but that seems pointless now”. Danny raises an eyebrow at her, genuinely curious, “why that one, it clearly doesn’t have many uses?”. Star rolls her eyes, “for perfect skin of course. Who cares about floating or flying or whatever. When you can make your skin, hair, eyes and everything else look exactly how you want it to.”. Danny sighing, not quite sure what he expected, replies anyways “pretty sure it doesn’t work quite like that and you wouldn’t be able to keep it up forever. Nothing compares to being up in the sky”. Dash rolls his eyes “space nerd much, try caring about something real. You can bench so much with that power. It’s like super strength but better. Gosh, Phantom is so lucky.” Danny smirks, “Well yeah, the strength boost is great but that still doesn’t beat flying. Normal people can be super strong but they can’t fly.”. The geek jumps in, correcting Danny “your mom says it’s not really flying though, just like weightless floating. I think I’d vomit” his face, as if to prove a point, looks like just thinking about it will make him vomit. “Astronauts are weightless most of the time and they don’t constantly vomit.”. Danny rebuttals while painting a hand at the geek. “Yeah well they train for that, I certainly have no training” the geek rubs his stomach. Just as Dash punches him in the arm “that’s pretty obvious wimp.”. Star just rolls her eyes at the boy’s behaviour.

Pretty soon after, Lancer calls everything to a halt and has one person from each group say their piece. Over-shadowing, invisibility and gravity nullification; are the only powers picked by any of the groups. Teams for over-shadowing would use them for politic influence.

Teams for invisibility would use it to make their own lives easier.

Teams for gravity nullification are split on using strength to help people and using floating to become a high-class travel system. Listening to all the reasons people give out, Danny can’t help but be glad that he’s the one who actually wound up with the powers. “Sweet Plasmius, things like this really smack me in the face with how much more serious and mature I’ve become; compared to everyone else.”. Shaking his head “literally none of them even considered being just like Phantom. Sure, some talked about helping but not to the same degree at all.”. The last group leader manages to wrap things up just before the end of day dismissal bell rings.

Danny stands, looking out the window, as the rest of his classmates file out; he can see Lancer approaching from the corner of his right eye. “Fenton, I expect to see that assignment tomorrow...”. Noticing Lancer’s slightly less collected than usual demeanour, “ but that’s not really what’s on your mind, is it?”. Lancer sighs “you’re always more intelligent than your work says and you pay way too much attention to everything. But yes, your mothers, uh, beliefs on ghosts are, honestly, quite harsh and even cruel.” Lancer leans his hips against the windowsill, “I’ve had many personal encounters with, including with Phantom, ghosts. I can’t say I agree with her view of them being pure evil. Even more so in the case of Phantom. While I do not envy him, it’s clear to me he’s a good soul.” Lancer looks down at Danny in time to notice his soft smile. “Both me and my sister agree with you Lancer, but my parents would never hear of it. They’re scientist yes, but their theories matter more than the proof.”. Lancer shakes his head at this, “that’s not how it should be even if they know many things, speaking of work. I’d like to know your opinion now, since I genuinely doubt I’ll actually see that paper. I’m hopeful but not a fool.” Chuckling, Danny’s smile widens “gravity nullification, how could it be anything else. Though I do consider it flight even if it’s really not, which is kind of neat to know now”. Lancer raises an eyebrow at him, “you mean to tell me you never learned this from your parents before? I expected that they’d have taught you this before I even met you.”. Danny laughs at Lancer's shock, “I kind of tune all that out, normally their talk about ghost is completely hateful, today was a rare day where she tired to keep her biases out of the conversation. Pleasant surprise really.”. Lancer shakes his head frowning, “Well, I’m glad you don’t carry that hate yourself. So what draws you so much to gravity nullification?”. Smiling, Danny replies in earnest “the sky is a home, a comfy place where you could just be free. You could sail over oceans, hover over a neon-lit fast food sign eating take out, or you could just go up”. Danny motions his hand upward and looks to the clouds, out the window “space was always my dream and with that power I could just go up and up and up. Get to see the stars like I always wanted; drift amongst Ursa Major, Aquila, and Eridanus. There’s a whole lot up there and to be able to just go and see it all on a whim? Nothing could compare.”. Lancer stares in awe at his most problematic student, unsure of how to respond. Eventually though, “you have wonderful dreams Daniel, though I can hear in your voice that you think you’ll never get see them through. The teacher in me wants to say work hard and you will, but I’ve started to realize that for some unknown reason you’re blocked from giving me your best. That hurts to see but I understand.  Life doesn’t always work and a teenager being mature enough to be so introspective and watchful; tells me that something has indeed not worked out.”. Putting a hand on Danny, Lancer asks him one last question, “I could tell you were displeased with the other students reasons and uses for their selected power. Why is that?”. Smirking Danny looks at Lancer square in the face, this boldness takes Lancer off guard a bit. “Because of Phantom, no one, not a single person; aimed to do what he does. Self-sacrifice, leadership, heroism.....none of them aimed for that. They all wanted looks, or political gain, or money, or power for powers sake.” Chuckling, Danny continues “Phantom’s like hope here and none of them wanted to be that hope.”. Lancer is once again shocked but he smiles anyways “even I never thought of that Daniel, that says a lot of good things about you I believe.”. Patting Danny on the back, “go home and sleep, and I look forward to seeing your paper tomorrow”. Danny nods and walks to head out but Lancer just manages to catch Danny mutter “who knows maybe one day hope will fly away and sleep too”. Danny, chuckling heartily to himself “or I guess “nullify gravity or whatever”.

Lancer sits down heavily in his chair, just managing to catch a glimpse of Phantom flying by. “I wonder if Phantom even understands what he possesses and how he’s viewed?” Shaking his head he stares at Danny’s seat. “That kids mind is like a supernova shackled by whatever chains it is that keeps him grounded. In all honesty, I’m starting to just want to see him happy and content rather than grandly successful. And as a teacher, I find myself unsure what to do with that.”

Up in the sky, Danny fly’s around lazily in circles. “Well today sure was something and I now have a new look and appreciation for “gravity nullification”. Shaking his head with his hands behind his back, facing the sky; he slowly continues to defy earths gravitational pull and floats home.