Brief warning for a certain lovable misfit's bad mouth.

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Chapter 4

Hide and Seek

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Danny spent the rest of the night and all of Sunday looking over his shoulder, expecting a pale, ethereal being to drift through the walls at any moment. There was no denying what he had seen. A ghost came through the portal. That was it, plain and simple; the only logical explanation.

His parent's work was mainly theoretical. They claimed to have energy readings from ghosts, distorted pictures and blurred video footage, but never before had they seen a ghost's full, nearly physical form. Danny wasn't sure what to think now that hehad. One of Jack's favourite tirades was about how dangerous ghosts were. A menace to all things living, nothing more than protoplasmic blobs of post-human consciousness that could neither feel nor comprehend true emotion.

Now there was one here, in Fenton Works, and Danny had never felt more paranoid in his life. The energy the ghost released damaged the cameras, so he hadn't seen where the ghost went, or if it was even still in the lab when Danny himself exited the portal. It could be long gone, or hovering over his shoulder at that very moment. Danny shivered.

"If you're cold, you should put on a sweater, sweetie," Maddie said.

Danny glanced up from his dinner—macaroni and cheese and ectoplasm, if the green tinge to the already toxically bright cheese was any clue—and gave his mother a tight-lipped smile. "I'm fine."

Across the table, Jazz narrowed her eyes as she stabbed at a piece of macaroni. "You're acting peculiar," she said.

"What? No I'm not." Danny shook his head, avoiding eye contact in favor of studying the food before him.

"Yeah, you are." Jazz's fork clinked against the plate as she set it down. "If you would talk to me for just a couple minutes, I could-"

"Jazz," Maddie interrupted sternly. "What have we told you about using your brother for psychological studies?"

Jazz dipped her head and mumbled, "Not to."

"That's right!" Jack said, puffing his chest out. "We Fentons have minds as strong as our muscles! We don't need a psyche- psycha-"

"Psychoanalysis?" Jazz offered.

"Yes!" Jack shouted, shovelling spoonfuls of questionable noodles into his mouth.

Danny swirled the orange and green mixture with his fork, glaring at the bright streaks as his thoughts consumed him again. If there really was a ghost floating around the house, what would it do? It had been days since the thing escaped the portal. If it had been found, Maddie and Jack would have already announced it to the whole world. But since that hadn't happened yet… the ghost hadn't actually done anything, not that Danny knew of.

A tingling sensation spread up his leg, like a thousand static shocks, and he froze, staring at the limb. It stayed solid, but the sensation didn't go away. He thought back to the cognitive side effects he had read about in cases of large electrical shocks.

Danny gripped his fork tightly, his knuckles turning white. So that was it. The portal had damaged him. He was broken, it wasn't just the strange ghostly—

"May I be excused?" Danny asked. He stood up before either of his parents could answer, dumping his remaining macaroni back into the pot, and quickly stowing his dishes in the dishwasher. "I'm tired and I've gotta go back to school tomorrow, so… um, yeah, goodnight!"

He ran up the stairs and practically dove into his bedroom, kicking the door shut behind him. His footsteps were light as he paced back and forth across the carpet, rubbing his arms and biting his tongue.

Ghostly. That was the answer. Everything that was happening to him, falling through stuff, not seeing his reflection, floating, it was all things ghosts could do. Danny dropped into a crouch, hugging himself tightly and curling his toes against the carpet. He practically was a ghost, and his parents hated ghosts.

"No, no, that's not it," Danny insisted, mumbling to himself. "I'm like a ghost. I'm still alive, and ghosts aren't alive, I'm just… I'm just weird."

He held his breath, squeezing his eyes shut, just hoped. Hoped it was a dream and all he needed to do was wake up, hoped he could turn back time and not step into the portal, hoped this was just some kind of personal hell and he was really dead.

Danny shook his head, casting the thought away. He had ghost powers and that was it. But he didn't know how to control them. If he went intangible or invisible in front of his parents, that would be the end of him.

"I need to find that ghost," Danny muttered. He needed to learn to control his newfound abilities, and what better teacher could he have than an actual ghost? It would be risky, especially if his parents had been right all along and ghosts were malevolent creatures, but it was his best shot.

Danny dug his knuckles into his thigh, grinding hard enough to leave a bruise. The pain was brief, but there was also something reassuring about it, something grounding. He focused on the sensation as the tingling faded from his leg.

He may never be normal again, but he could pretend.

Couldn't he?

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Danny waited until everyone else was asleep before sneaking down to the lab. With the lights off, he relied on the ever-present glow of the portal to see. It was even more mesmerizing in the dark, casting long shadows with its fluctuating light and filling the lab with its haunting song. He hated it.

After several minutes of sifting through cupboards and drawers, Danny had a small collection of ghost detecting prototypes. None of them ever proved to be successful during testing, but then again, neither did the portal.

Danny cleared off a section of the counter and laid the prototypes out. The first one was a metal sphere with a single button on top. Pursing his lips, Danny dubiously examined the device. There wasn't any kind of screen, or speaker. Just smooth metal. He shrugged and pressed the button.

Nothing happened.

"That's… totally expected." Danny sighed and set it down, then reached for the next one. It looked like an old flip phone, only much larger. The triangular screen was dark, but there was a soft backlight on the numbered buttons. Danny pressed the one, and a green pulse of light spread from the point towards the other side of the screen.

"Okay," Danny muttered. His thumb skimmed over the buttons, and this time he pressed five. Several small dots appeared as the pulse passed. He froze, his breath hitching and eyes widening. He looked up, expecting some kind of ethereal shape to be hovering inches from his face, but there was nothing there besides the cupboards.

Danny frowned and looked back to the sensor. There had been six dots. The light reflecting off the prototypes caught his eye, and Danny scrutinized them closely. Six dots, six ghost sensors that may or may not work, but definitely used some kind of ectoplasmic energy to function.

"At least it works." And Danny was almost certain he knew how, or at least what it did. One press sent out a pulse, and each button scanned for different types of ghostly energies.

He held it out and swung towards the stairs, pressing buttons at random. Most of them did nothing, but when he pressed seven, the screen glowed. Danny paused and pressed it again. The glow was soft and white, spanning the left side of the screen. He started turning, shuffling his feet in a smaller circle.

The light wavered as he turned, and Danny glanced upwards looking for a source. When his gaze turned back down, there were two lights. He paused, and slowly swung the sensor back and forth, pressing the button repeatedly. When he turned almost a third of the way around, the middle of the display thinned until it went dark, leaving one bright spots along the front edge, and another at the point.

Turning all the way, Danny planted his feet and looked up at the portal. It was as endless and enticing as always. His hands shaking, Danny walked forwards. The sensor's screen got brighter as he approached, though the reading at the point stayed steady.

The sensor started to whine, and Danny flinched in surprise, nearly dropping the device. Leaning forwards, his eyebrows scrunched together as he scrutinized the screen, pressing the button faster and faster so there was less time between pulses. The light started to move, convulsing and waving as the whining grew louder. It gathered together at the centre of the edge and stretched towards the point, towards him.

Danny whipped his head up to see twining effervescent tendrils reaching out to him.

That's when the sensor exploded.

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It was the scent of smoke and burnt flesh that roused him. Danny's head ached and his nose burned from the smell. He groaned and blinked, his head lolling from side to side as he tried to remember what happened. The portal? No, that was old news. It was something else.

He sat up slowly, raising a hand to rub his eyes, then hissed when he moved his fingers. His vision cleared, and he stared down at shiny, dark red skin. Then the pain hit him.

Danny groaned, curling around his hands, and struggling to rise while keeping them cradled against his chest. He looked around and spotted the emergency sink. He shoved his hands under the tap, and the motion sensor activated. Cool water came pouring out and Danny sighed in relief.

They weren't as bad as they looked. The tips of his fingers and heel of his palms were burnt, probably the source of the blood, but it had already stopped flowing. Caught in the creases of his skin, the blood must have spread across his hand and made it look worse. His palms themselves were bright red and stung, but were otherwise fine.

When the water stopped, his hands started feeling hot again. But he couldn't keep them in the sink forever. There was a first aid kit in the cupboard underneath, which Danny nudged open with his foot. He crouched down and reached forward with his elbows, bracing them on either side of the white box. He bumped his head on the counter once and dropped the kit twice, but otherwise managed to set it down on the counter without difficulty. Actually opening it was another matter. The small, sliding latched required something much smaller than elbows.

Danny leaned on the top of the kit to keep it still and pressed his knuckles against the latch. He slipped the first time, breaking the sensitive skin, but managed it on the second try. He took the items out one by one with his teeth until he reached a packet of burn cream.

Part of him wanted to go get his parents, but a hot ball of unease rested in Danny's gut at the thought. This was his second accident in the lab, but more than that… more than that…

He shook his head. His mind was too empty to think of a proper excuse in the heat of the moment, he just knew getting his parents involved was a bad idea.

Ripping the packet open, Danny squeezed the cream onto his hands and gently patted them together. It stung too much to rub, but already the soothing effects were taking place. He sighed contentedly, then proceeded to to wrap his hands in gauze. He did a poor job, the bandages layered too thickly over the relatively unharmed middle of his palm, and slipping on his fingers, but it was good enough.

Danny repacked the kit and replaced it under the sink before facing the rest of the lab. A couple feet from the portal was a charred piece of equipment, several loose bolts scattered around it, and he finally remembered what, exactly, he was doing in the lab when he should be sleeping.

Looking for a ghost.

Keeping a wary eye on the portal, Danny inched towards the broken ghost sensor, then swept the debris into the corner of the room with one swift kick and retreated. Beyond the normal swirling, the portal didn't move.

A little of the tension left Danny's shoulders and he looked to the remaining sensors. He briefly considered going back to bed, starting again tomorrow after school, but he couldn't wait that long. The sooner he found the ghost, the sooner he could learn to control his new abilities.

As long as none of the remaining devices had as catastrophic reactions as the last one, he'd be fine. Danny gave each of the four remaining sensors cursory examinations before attempting to use them. There was nothing particularly special about each one. The last one—he thought it was the newest—was very blocky. A slab of metal, a raised circular screen was set in the middle, two funky antennas and a small lightbulb at the top, with a series of buttons along the bottom.

Danny started reaching for it, but let his hand drift towards the more compact sensor dwarfed by its side. His parents' newest inventions have a habit of failing spectacularly. It would be better to settle for something a little more tested.

The sensor Danny did grab fit neatly in his palm. Barely the length of his pinky and just as wide, the flat rectangle was as simplistic it could be. It wasn't made out of the usual steel alloy the elder Fentons normally favoured, but a yellowish-golden metal instead.

He remembered a conversation from a couple weeks ago, when his parents were doing some of the final wiring for the Fenton Portal. Pure metals, like silver and gold, reacted strongly to high levels of ectoplasm. Electrum could be substituted for both.

There were five small lights lined up along the middle. They were all off, and it was hard to see with the tinted light of the portal, but from what Danny could tell they were green, yellow, orange, and red. The last light was too dark for him to discern.

He flipped the device over, looking for a way to turn it on and finding a miniscule switch on the bottom edge. There was a soft click, a sound that shouldn't have been audible even in the quiet of the lab, as he slid his thumb across it.

The first light lit up immediately.

Remembering the other sensor, Danny held the electrum piece closer to the others, then backed away several feet. The light stayed steady. He glanced at the portal and swung the sensor in that direction. The lights started dancing, flickering up to red. The final light blinked twice, a deep purple, before Danny let his hand drop.

Finally, something his parents made was working right.

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Seven hours. Seven mind-numbing, soul-sucking hours of walking around the Fenton residence, and that stupid green light never wavered. Danny's eyes burned and his feet dragged across the carpet when he finally trudged into his room and collapsed on his bed, glaring at the Fenton Trace-Detector, as he had come to call it.

Plus the acronym made him chuckle.

He didn't know how strong a ghost's signal should be, but considering the way the portal made the lights react, green meant a ghost was in the vicinity, but too far away to lock onto fully

"I hate this," Danny muttered, finally closing his eyes. He had barely taken a breath before his alarm went off, loud and grating and the last thing he wanted to hear. Danny groaned, covering his ears with his hand and shoving his face in his pillow.

Maybe, if he ignored it long enough, it would go away.

"Time to get up, little brother. You're going back to school today, remember?"

Or it would attract his overbearing older sister.

"Don't remind me," Danny grumbled, but with his mouth on his pillow, it came out more as unintelligible moaning. It might as well have been.

With a great deal of exaggerated effort, Danny slapped his alarm clock to shut it off and quite literally rolled out of bed. He thumped against the floor, groaning loudly when his headache flared.

Stupid ghosts, stupid defective Fenton tech.

He grabbed a pair of jeans from the floor and a shirt from the back of his computer chair, changing quickly. He couldn't find matching socks, but figured no one would notice one of them has a red stripe around the ankle.

Danny's hands were still wrapped, and he didn't feel like struggling to undo his handiwork. Looking out the window, he noted the way the tree outside his window swayed, and found his old blue hoodie with the extra long sleeves. He's still half asleep as he plodded back downstairs, and didn't even notice he was still holding the FTD until he slapped it down on the table.

"What's that?" Jazz asked as she pushed an apple in his direction.

"Uh, some computer thing. Tucker gave it to me," Danny explained hastily slipping the FTD up his sleeve.

Jazz eyed it for a moment, then shrugged and started packing her bag together. "Whatever you say. I'm heading out early, I want to see if Mr. Falluca will give us a pop quiz today. Need a ride?"

"Uhhhh," Danny answered, turning his face towards his arm.

"Okay. See you there."

He didn't move until he heard Jazz's car start, rumbling quietly as she backed out of the driveway and pulled way. He could hear it for much longer than he normally would have.

Danny sat up slowly and took the FTD out again. The green light was still on. With a device to small, he wasn't sure how long the battery would last, if that was even what powered it, and shut it off before stuffing it in his pocket.

Danny batted the apple Jazz gave him between his hands. He didn't feel up to eating that morning, too busy lamenting over the day ahead. Would Sam and Tucker be mad? They sent him a few texts yesterday, but Danny hadn't read them or responded, too preoccupied with the ghost that could be hovering over his shoulder. He glanced at his phone. There hadn't been any new messages that morning.

He quickly typed out that he would meet them at the usual light on their way to school, then shoved it back in his pocket. Mad or not, they would be there. That's just the kind of friends they were.

Danny could hear his father long before he hit the stairs, although that's nothing unusual. With Jack's big size, his footsteps were heavy enough to shake the house out of its foundation. Danny was certain that even if his father were a leaner man, that would never change.

"Good morning, Dann-o! Ready for school? Get a good sleep?" Jack asked as he started up the coffee machine.

"No," Danny said.

"That's great!" Jack plowed on. "Your mother and I are going to run some tests on the portal today, isn't that great?"

"Sure."

"Of course it is!" Jack boomed.

Danny rubbed his temples. His father's loud voice was making his head hurt more. He pushed away from the table and stood, heading towards the living room to find his backpack. The last place he remembered seeing it was behind the loveseat.

"Have fun at school!"

"Hmm," Danny hummed, leaning over the couch. He stretched his arm out, fingertips just brushing the strap of his backpack. Danny's cheeks puffed out as the backrest bit into his stomach and he leaned forwards just a little bit more. Before he even realized it, a tingling feeling was spreading across his body, and he fell through the couch. His chin bounced on the carpet, but by some miracle he didn't slip down into the basement.

Danny grabbed his backpack and rolled away from the couch, splaying out on the living room floor. He squeezed his eyes shut. He felt sick. If something like that happened at school in front of people, it wouldn't take long for him to go from geek to freak. And that's when the tests would start.

As the tingling faded, Danny knew his body was solid once again and opened his eyes. His mother was standing at the entrance of the living room, staring at him.

"It's not what you think!" Danny shouted as he scrambled up into a sitting position. He clung to his backpack, a barrier between him and his mother.

Maddie's eyebrow quirked. "I think you're trying to get out of going to school, mister," she said. "But I've already called the school to tell them you're returning today. You're going to miss the first bell if you don't hurry."

She turned away without another word, but it took Danny another minute or so before he could relax and stand. She didn't see anything, it was fine. She didn't know, she didn't know.

He repeated it over and over like a mantra as he put on his shoes and walked out the door, still clinging to his backpack. But with every step, his dread only mounted.

School, people, Sam and Tucker. There was no avoiding it now.

Danny swallowed thickly, pulling his phone out as he reached a crosswalk. Since he sent his message, Tucker had replied with a smirking face, and Sam with one of those little purple demons, the smiling one. He shut off the screen and examined his reflection. There was still a little discolouring along his cheekbone, but it was almost gone. The lichtenberg figure was still there, noticeable enough that he could see it in the dark screen.

Tilting his head down, Danny let his hair hide the mark as best as it could. In a few days it would be gone, one less reminder of his horrific experience. He had enough of those already.

Danny was so focused on not being noticed by anyone else, he was startled when Sam's hand dropped on his shoulder and yanked him back. He had almost walked right by his best friends.

"I didn't think you'd be in such a rush to get back to school," Sam joked. Danny examined her expression. Her smile seemed a little strange, stretched too tightly, and her own gaze jumped across his face, but she didn't look mad.

"Dude, what happened on Saturday?" Tucker asked. His expression was similar to Sam's, but his smile was more genuine. "Is everything alright?"

There was that question again. Danny smiled back, taking a subtle step back from Sam. His shoulder was starting to tingle with pins and needles, he didn't want to risk her hand suddenly falling through it. "Yeah, everything's fine. I just wasn't feeling that great, you know?"

"It was Sam's salad, wasn't it? The smell of tofu makes me sick too." Tucker grinned when Danny actually chuckled. Sam seemed pleased enough she didn't even slug the techno-geek for the comment.

"You ready for today?" she asked as they started walking.

Danny rolled his shoulder, hoping to dispel the tingling, but if anything it grew stronger. "I just can't wait for it to be over."

"I feel you, man." Tucker nodded solemnly.

Danny spent most of the walk in silence, fading into the background while Sam and Tucker chatted. He kept a careful eye on his shoulder, and after a while decided it was just a side effect of the accident rather than something ghostly make him feel that way. It did nothing to unravel the ball of nerves in his gut.

With his hands in his front pocket, Danny's thumb drifted over the FTD. He mentally counted the lights, going back and forth across it's surface. It was a minor distraction, but the repetition was soothing.

They rounded onto the final street and the school came into view. It was still several blocks away, perched on a hill at the end of the road. There was a line of busses at the curb and far ahead of them were other walking students. Danny's fist curled around the FTD, the corners biting into his injured palm. He managed to stifle his hiss of pain, only earning a brief glance from Tucker, who was walking beside him.

"You ready?" Sam asked when they only had one street left to cross.

Danny hoisted his backpack higher and shook his bangs out. "I don't really have a choice, do I?"

He stepped out onto the asphalt. There was no going back.

The first couple steps onto the grass were okay. Most of the other students were too caught up in greeting their friends, or groaning over school on Mondays to notice him. But Sam shifted so she was standing on his other side anyways, just another wall between him and then. It was fine until a crumpled ball of paper bounced against Danny's head and he glanced over his shoulder to see the last thing he wanted on a Monday morning.

"Hey, Fenturd!" A tall boy with slicked blond hair and a very disproportionate muscle mass between his arms and legs had his arm outstretched as he sat on the hood of a car. He was grinning. "I hear you got your brain fried!"

Danny hunched his shoulders and ducked his head, but it was too late. The whispering had started.

"I heard he lost a limb."

"Then how's he walking, idiot?"

"His parents are inventors, I bet it's bionic."

"I heard he died for five whole minutes."

"No, really, it's true. My mom's a nurse at the hospital."

"Get a life, Dash!" Sam shouted, glaring over her shoulder

"Suck it, Manson!"

"Just ignore him," she said to Danny, her voice level.

"Yeah," Tucker agreed. "Like someone who had to repeat kindergarten knows what's up." He paused, one hand rising to his chin. "Although, he is the only freshman with a car."

"Planning on flunking the year, Tuck?" Danny asked. It was the kind of thing he would normally say, but it felt wrong today. Fake, rehearsed. The words were cotton in his mouth.

"Whether he plans it or not, it'll probably happen," Sam said. She pulled ahead and opened the front door, holding it for the boys.

"Hey, I'm a tech genius, remember?" Tucker said, then went on about his 'mad skills' as he tried to defend his honour.

Sam rolled her eyes. "Whatever you say, Tuck."

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Danny couldn't decide who was worse: his classmates or his teachers. He could almost stand the whispers, though it would be better if he couldn't hear them so well, but the sympathizing looks on his teachers' faces were too much.

They were just being nice, Danny reminded himself, but the eyes following him everywhere made him feel like a spectacle. It was like they knew. Every time he dropped a pencil, every time he tripped, they were thinking it. "Oh, that poor boy, he's ghostly."

Danny's grated nerves only set his powers off even more, making everything that much worse. He fell through the floor on his way to the second class. He made it back up stairs before his friends could notice, huffing and puffing behind Sam and Tucker as they reached the door, but there's no telling who could have seen.

Considering no one pointed at him and shouted, "Ghost freak!" Danny figured he was in the clear.

Third period before lunch, Danny didn't have either of his friends to keep him company. But by some miracles, neither were his bullies. For the next hour, he could just be another bored student. Nothing more, nothing less.

"Welcome back, Danny," the redhead beside him said before the class started. The boy smiled, showing off his well kept braces.

"Thanks, Mikey." Danny smiled back, but the expression slipped when Mikey gaped and he remembered the scar. He spent the rest of the class with his nose to the desk.

At lunch Danny found a small corner table and waited for Sam and Tucker to arrive. His knee bounced as he sat there, back to the rest of the cafeteria. He was starting to regret not eating the apple Jazz gave him that morning. He'd completely forgotten to grab lunch before he left and his stomach refused to let him forget. Then again, he wasn't sure he would have been able to keep it down anyways. The tingling in his arm hadn't let up either despite hours going by.

Danny groaned and lowered his head to the table, staring down at his lap. He slipped a hand into his pocket and pulled out the FTD. The ghost was probably still at Fenton Works, but he turned the device on anyways.

The green light winked up at him. Danny jolted upright and looked around. The ghost had followed him.

Being as inconspicuous as possible, Danny held the sensor out in front of him, hoping for a rise in energy, but nothing happened. He bit his lip and glanced around once more, then set the FTD on the table and stood up. He back away, and when he was nearly at the wall, the green light went out.

"Dude, what are you doing?"

Danny lunged forward and snatched up the FTD before Tucker or Sam could get a good look at it. "Just, uh, there was a draft?"

"Are you sure you're okay?" Sam asked as she sat down, taking out her tofu sandwich.

Danny gritted his teeth, taking a generously long blink, and sat back down. "I'm fine, really."

Why did everyone keep insisting there was something wrong with him?

He scooted to the end of the bench when Tucker dropped his tray next to Danny, shoving his backpack between their legs on the floor. Tucker didn't comment, but glanced at the space between them several times.

"How was art?" Danny asked, looking at Sam, desperate to pull attention away from himself.

"Pretty good, although all last week all we did was easy stuff. They should really offer a class for the people that don't need to go over the basics. But today we got to break out the colour pencils." Sam waved her hands in the air and rolled her eyes in exasperation. "I brought my charcoals from home and did basically whatever I wanted. As long as the assignment gets done, who cares what I'm doing in class anyways? My parents just won't shut up about how 'refined' it is."

She set her purple spider backpack on the table and pulled out a sketchbook, flipping through it quickly. "Just wait until they see this." She laid the book flat and spun the book around so Tucker and Danny could see. Spanning both pages was a swirling darkness, terrifying, swallow faces crying out from its midst.

"Man, that's dark." Tucker whistled.

"Right? They'll probably send me to a therapist again." Sam cackled as she closed the book and put it away, popping the last crusts of her sandwich into her mouth.

Danny stared at the backpack, brow furrowed. He and Sam have been friends for a long time. Not as long as he and Tucker, but since elementary school. In all those years, her biggest adversary had always been her parents. There was nothing she liked more than defying their every idea of what a proper young lady should be like.

Danny was pretty sure Sam would still be the way she was even if her parents supported it, which was the great thing about her. But it made him uncomfortable, sitting there, knowing how wrong she enjoyed looking in their eyes.

What would she say if she knew about him?

He cradled his face in his hands and sighed despondently. Maybe he could say he was sick and skip the rest of the day.

Danny flinched as his right hand spasmed, and he slammed it against the table.

"Dude," Tucker said. "Did you have those bandages before?"

Danny shook out his sleeve, hiding his twitching hand from view, and gave Tucker a shaky smile. "I, uh, burnt myself taking something out of the oven. Forgot the gloves. Idiot Fenton, right?" He chuckled.

"You don't like cooking," Sam pointed out.

"I could learn!" Danny snapped and pushed off the table. "I'm just, I'm gonna go for a walk. See you guys in health."

He grabbed his backpack and stepped around the bench, ignoring Sam and Tucker's confused looks as he left the cafeteria. The moment he stepped into the hall and the doors closed, the noise inside swelled. He could hear several people say his name.

Danny hefted his backpack onto his shoulders and headed for his locker. On the second floor, by the North stairwell, he stopped and stared at the silver 555 scratched across the top. It didn't have a little black plaque like the other lockers, and Casper High was apparently too cheap to replace the one that was lost.

After nearly a minute of staring at the jagged marks, Danny lifted his hand and pressed it against the cool metal. His fingers continued to twitch, tapping randomly against the door. He leaned forwards and closed his eyes, pushing his hand forwards.

There was resistance at first, then his arm lurched forwards as the resistance disappeared. His fingers brushed the cord of his gym bag and he opened his eyes.

Danny's arm was submerged in the door almost up to his elbow. The metal around his arm seemed to waver slightly. It took a second before he suddenly jerked his arm out and stumbled back until he hit the lockers behind him.

Danny slid to the floor and wrapped his arms around his knees, the FTD sitting in his lap. The green light taunted him, staying strong and steady. He let his eyes drift shut again and ran his thumb over the small bulbs. He didn't move until the bell rang.

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It wasn't an exaggeration to say Danny leapt from his desk and ran through the halls the moment the last class finished. He was almost out the door when a beefy hand snagged the collar of his shirt and yanked him back.

"Yo, Fenton. You were gone for a week. You know what that means?"

Danny sighed, his stretched out toes just touching the floor, and looked over his shoulder. "I don't know, Dash. What does it mean?"

"You've got a week's worth of beatings to catch up on," Dash said.

"And I've got a week's worth of homework. Doesn't mean I'll go through with either of them," Danny deadpanned. He twisted his shoulders, pulling himself out of Dash's grasp, and fixed his shirt.

"Too bad it's not up to you. Right, Kwan?" Dash glanced at the Asian boy beside him, who had a similar disproportionate physique.

"Yeah." Kwan nodded and crossed his arms.

Just as Dash raised his fist, Danny glimpsed a flash of blue. At first he thought it was the ghost, until he heard a feminine voice say, "You're such fucking idiot, Dash."

The buff blond spun around, looking for who had spoken, and Danny used that opportunity to slip away. He walked home alone, having avoided Sam and Tucker in the halls to slip out unnoticed. His little run in with Dash almost ruined it, but Danny mentally thanked whoever it was that managed to piss Dash of more than Danny's mere existence did.

On the way home, he kept an eye on the FTD. The test at lunch proved something to Danny. The ghost hadn't just followed him to school, it was following him. Everywhere. He could picture it so clearly, a pale, ethereal being hovering over his shoulder or twirling in the air above his head. His only choice was to confront it directly.

He bided his time, picking away at the piles of homework he needed to catch up on. Maddie and Jack were in the lab, but Danny needed to wait for Jazz to leave the kitchen. So far, she had been there for hours. Of course today would be the day she decided to start tutoring.

Danny was doing his math homework when he heard the front door open and shut. He glanced at his clock—it was almost ten—and leaned out his door.

"Tutoring all done?" Danny called.

A second later Jazz's head appeared as she started climbing the stairs. She paused, a light frown on her lips, and looked back over her shoulder. "Yeah, they just left."

"Cool." Danny shrugged, then went back to his work. He had just finished a question, and the correct answer was written neatly at the end of a long equation. He erased, and wrote a messy forty-two instead.

Danny leaned back and looked to the hall again. Jazz was at the landing now, her hand still on the railing, watching him closely.

"What?" Danny asked sharply.

Jass blinked then looked away. "Nothing," she said and headed for her room.

After he heard her door click shut, Danny shoved his homework aside and stood up. He shoved his hands deep in his pockets and quietly crept down the stairs. He could hear his parents working down in the lab, and after a moment's deliberation, pushed the door open.

"Mom? Dad?" Danny called. The only answer he got was the hum of the portal. . Slowly, he stepped down, stopping on the last step and peering around the wall. His parents were standing in front of the portal, Maddie with a clipboard in her hands, and Jack holding one of the sensors Danny didn't test last night. Both of them are wearing large headphones plugged into a square bulge tucked into their shoulder pockets.

They didn't notice him.

Danny's gut twisted as he watched the portal swirl. He wanted to say something, warn them about how dangerous it was, but he swallowed his words. Before his parents could look up, Danny dashed across the lab to the open weapons rack, grabbed a small pistol, and ran back upstairs.

"Yeah, this is for you!" Danny said aloud, waving the ecto-gun in the air. He opened the fridge, pushing aside a tray of brownies, and reached for the very back where two red buttons glare from the back wall. Danny punched the second one and stepped back.

There was a sharp hiss as a hole in the ceiling opened up, and a clear glass tube dropped down around him. The tiles beneath his feed bobbed, then the section of flooring was pushed up through the tube. Danny tapped his foot as he watched the space between the first and second floor go by. For a moment he could see outside, then he rose through the final floor and the platform clicked as it settled into place. The moment he stepped off, it went down again and the opening closed.

Danny glanced around the Emergency Operations Centre, or the Ops-Centre for short. Even more than the neon sign hanging over the Fenton's front door, the Ops-Centre was the eyesore for the whole street. A large, UFO shaped extension on the roof of Fenton Works, it was held in shape by a large number of metal arms and braces. Inside it was filled with control panels, and screens, and a fridge with Jack's emergency food supply.

But Danny wasn't interested in the Ops-Centre. The door leading onto the roof had a tendency to stick, so Danny kicked it open, wincing when it banged against the outside of the structure. He stepped onto the gravel and walked towards one of the only spaces that didn't have any kinds of antennas or satellites.

Taking out the FTD, Danny held it in one hand and the pistol in the other. He wasn't totally sure how to use it, but he felt safer having it.

"Okay," Danny said. "I know you're following me."

He walked in a small circle, lifting the ecto-gun. "I don't want to hurt you. But if you try to hurt me, I will."

The sound of skittering pebbles made Danny spin around, thrusting the gun towards the noise. He looked down the barrel at a pigeon. The bird cocked its head then took off, forcing Danny to duck as it flew right over his head.

Danny scowled, waiting for the sound of fluttering wings to fade, and started walking around the roof.

"Come on, I need your help!" Danny pleaded. He glanced at the FTD just in time to see the yellow light flicker. Bolstered, he looked up and spoke again. "I just need your help! Something's wrong with me, and a ghost is the only one that can help me."

He could feel his heartbeat quickening. Every second, he expected a ghostly face to suddenly show itself inches from his own. With every second it didn't happen, his nerves only mounted. "Come on!"

The yellow light flickered again and Danny twisted around. His heel bumped against the edge of the roof and he threw his arms out, reeling as he tried to regain his balance. He fell against the ledge, his arm flying out and smacking against the stone. Danny shouted in pain, his burns aggravated, and accidentally let go of the gun. It toppled over the edge of the roof and fell into the backyard.

Rolling onto his stomach, he leaned over the edge of the roof and spotted the weapon gleaming in the grass below. If the ghost was hostile, there was nothing to protect him now.

Danny scrambled to his feet, holding tightly onto the FTD, and started backing up.

"I know you're here!" he shouted. "I don't have my gun anymore, it's just you and me. Show yourself!"

The rooftop was silent.

"Show yourself, come on!" he shouted. The FTD's yellow light flickered again. "Come on! Come on! Come on!"

Danny's shoulder bumped against something and he spun around. He screamed in surprise when he saw two mad, bright green eyes and tripped over his own heels. As he fell, Danny squeezed his own eyes shut, and he felt something cold and icy deep within his chest rise and burst open.

He could see a bright flash even through his closed eyes and cringed, waiting for the pain. It never came. He just felt cold. He uncurled, bracing himself against the gravel, and paused. It didn't feel like he was touching the stones, but more like…

Danny opened his eyes to see a pair of white gloves covering his hands. He wasn't wearing his jeans and sweater either, but what appeared to be a black jumpsuit. Even more than that, everything looked sort of off.

Sharper, more detailed, but also distant and glassy.

Standing up, Danny looked over the rooftop to see the Amity Park skyline, then turned back to the Ops-Centre. He flinched and sucked in a sharp breath as he saw the ghostly figure floating in front of it. Danny's new wardrobe slipped from his mind as he took in the white hair, bright green eyes, and the way the figures shoulders and torso just faded away.

It was the ghost from the video.

He stepped forwards, and the ghost shifted as well, making him freeze in place. When it didn't make another move, Danny took that as permission. But the closer he got, the more he realized something was wrong.

The figure was more defined now, and it only moved when he did. Standing perfectly still, Danny peered out of the corner of his eyes. He couldn't see anything beside him, mimicking his moves, but the ghost was there. Looking at him.

Dread settled in Danny's stomach as he took another step, and another, until he was right in front of the Ops-Centre. There was a sickly green mark on the right side of the ghost's face, like lightning. Danny blinked and the ghost blinked too. He looked down at the FTD. Steady green and flickering yellow.

His grip slackened, and as the FTD fell, the blood drained from Danny's face. His eyes widened, teeth clenched tightly, and he sucked in a sharp breath. He saw the bright glow cast on the gloves, then dropped to his knees and screamed.

.

As always, a million thanks to Astrovagant, my lovely beta. They are an amazing writer and I highly recommend you look at their stories.

You can just ignore any notifications about the reuploaded chapters. I made a cosmetic change that I wanted to be consistent throughout the entire story.

And finally, sorry for another long wait. I'm studying abroad this year and had to move across the ocean, plus a whole slew of personal issues (loneliness, failing confidence, etc. etc. You know, the usual)

Guest: Thank you! Despite the long hiatus, I am doing my best to do just that :)

Dracologistmaster: Thank you, and no problem. I honestly have so many story notifications saved up in my email that I need to get to, it's crazy

Taybugb: :D

WildRosa13474: Technically, this is a prequel to Phantom Alone, but when this story is done I will be doing a rewrite of PA. My writing had improved a lot since I finished that story, and I've gotten a couple new ideas for the universe that don't fit in with PA as it stands now

DannyPhantomPhandom: I can't guarantee gym class will be interesting, but there will be lots of inner angst from Danny. His attitude will definitely be a lot different in this story since he doesn't have Sam and Tucker with him. I always kind of felt that Sam's fascination with the unique and her encouragement is why Danny was so calm with his abilities in the first place.

Lovepatrolalpha1344: Thank you! And they certainly are.

Cutiepie120048: Thanks! The secret between Danny and Tucker will be brought up in time, but since it's not a priority, for now you will have to deal with painfully subtle hints :P

Phantomsoul2015: Thank you!

Luna Lillyth: That's good to hear, thanks

ZeRaXEs: Well, now I just feel bad for taking so long to get this chapter out. But I hope it was worth the wait ;)

HatakeKyasarin: Thank you! I'm really happy you enjoyed the first story, and what little of PZ I wrote. I didn't really like stopping it after only a few chapters, but with the ideas I had, I couldn't keep writing without their being some serious inconsistencies with PA. My battle plan is probably lost somewhere, but I do have charts about the teams and weapons saved on my computer. If I find a way, I just might share them with you guys. My writing has improved a lot since PA all thanks to Astrovagant, my beta, so they deserve a giant round of applause. And I am actually in Germany right now. I'm spending this year studying abroad in Bamberg. Thank you for the offer, I will definitely remember that if I bring Danny's language skills back in this story.

KittyKatt Uzumaki: THANK YOU! Sorry I made you wait so long for it.

To my Survivalists readers, I will be updating soon!

'See' you next time!