Changeling

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Part of "The White Dreamer" collection.

Revision: Originally stated that Danny had died as a baby; Maddie would not have noted any familiarity with him if he had died so young, so I corrected his age. He's fourteen at this point.

Getting the Thermos

"I dare you," the blue-haired girl said, the flames of her ponytail flickering with her amusement.

"I don't think this is a good idea," the parrot perched upon his other friend's shoulder remarked.

"You're not a chicken, are you, Phantom?" Youngblood, the pint-sized pirate captain taunted, shooting the skeletal avian a dirty look.

"No," Phantom denied, feeling sick to his stomach. His ivory hair and emerald eyes made him the envy of the girls at Ghost Zone High. "I don't want to be caught. I know you dared me to do it, but this portal belongs to ghost hunters."

"That's why we're daring you, dipstick," Ember shot back, her apple-green eyes boring into his emerald ones. "Just go through the portal and bring back the thermos. We've got to get Johnny and Kitty out of there."

Phantom swallowed. "Alright," he said, resignation in his voice.

"Whoo-hoo! Go, Phantom! Go, Phantom!" Youngblood cheered him on.

"Be quiet!" Ember hissed, her ponytail crackling in anger. "The hunters will hear you."

Phantom swallowed and peeked around the corner of the portal. The lab was quiet. A computer monitor glowed in the corner, calculating some weird algorithms or formulae involving ectoplasm. He shuddered at the thought of it. Using ghost blood for experiments. How barbaric!

He stepped out of the portal and took his first breath of air from the human world. The sudden blare of an alarm's wailing sent him racing backwards into the portal.

Ember held him steady until his heart quit racing. "What happened?" she asked, searching for the answer in his face.

"They had alarms," Phantom replied. "I can't get to the thermos."

"Have you tried your 'special ability'?" the parrot asked him.

"Whose side are you on?" Youngblood grumped.

"My own," the parrot replied.

"Of course!" Phantom straightened up, his emerald eyes wide with surprise.

"Oh no!" Ember said, trying to stop him. "Once was enough; you almost got caught."

"You're the one who dared me to get it," Phantom reminded her.

"So? If everyone were asking Desiree for love spells, would you do it too?" Ember said, folding her arms.

"Depends on the girl," Phantom said, smirking at her.

"Danny!" she yelled, hitting him on the arm. "Try to be serious for once."

"You guys are gross," Youngblood said, gagging as they kissed.

"Well, let's try this again, shall we?" Phantom asked, forming the rings and allowing them to wash over him, changing ivory to ebony and emerald to sapphire. His clothes changed from their usual black and white hazmat-style suit to ordinary teenage garb of baggy blue-jeans, red-and-white sneakers and a nondescript red-and-white t-shirt.

"Well, what do you think?" he asked.

"Be careful, dude," Youngblood told him as he slipped through the portal a second time.

"Hey, who turned out the lights!" Phantom yelped, as a dark covering was thrown over him.

"Quick, Maddie, the ecto-foamer!" a man's voice bellowed. "We've finally caught one of those floating spooks!"

"Hey, I object to being called a floating spook!" Phantom objected, trying to yank the dark covering off his head. "Ouch!"

"You can't take it off, spook," the man said, glee in his voice. "It's coated with an anti-ectoplasmic oil, especially designed to shock ghosts like you."

"Shouldn't we see what he looks like, Jack?" a woman spoke up just then.

"Good idea, Maddie," Jack boomed. "Here, on the count of three...two...one..." the sudden bright light blinded Phantom.

"Great Gobs of Goo, it can't be. It just can't be," Jack mumbled, his blue eyes bulging out of their sockets.

Maddie's lower lip trembled as she lifted the ghost, no, the boy's face and traced his alien, yet familiar features. "Danny, can it really be you?"

It broke her heart as he pleaded with his eyes for her to let him go.

"He's not Danny," Jack said, a bit of steel in his voice. "Danny died when he was a child during the third ghost invasion of King Plasmius."