Fatigue Chapter 1, a danny phantom fanfic

The stainless steel barrel of the ectoplasmic rifle was so close to his eyes that those luminous green globes crossed to see the groves on the interior of the gun. Holding the gun were the two gloved hands of his mother, her face blank of emotions as she ever so lightly began to apply pressure to the trigger.

Abruptly, Danny backed up, white boots shuffling backwards and he sat on his bed, the springs creaking as the ghostly teenager, very tiredly, let out a sigh and put his back against the wall.

Nobody moved for a moment, only stared. Maddie stared down at the ghost that she had been studying and yearning to capture for years, while her son gazed up with glowing green eyes at her cold amethyst eyes and auburn hair.

"I'm tired Mom, let's stop playing this game"

His voice, in its usual ghostly nature of echoing as though underwater, was filled to the brim with exhaustion and fatigue, his eyes fell to the floor, a lock of that shining silver hair blocking Maddie's vision from those hypnotic eyes.

She wavered, but failed to drop the gun.

…..

BEEP…

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP.

The hand muscles almost involuntarily depressed the snooze button on the dreaded alarm clock. That brought little respite from life, as a minute later the door creaked open, the teal eyes of his sister falling upon Danny as she opened the door slowly, letting the light of the bright hallway bulb stream through the doorway and on to his glued shut eyes. Jazz sighed as she stopped combing her hair, slid forward across the floor and gently but firmly shook her dead tired brother.

"Come on Danny, up and at them, just 2 more days till Friday and then you can sleep till noon" her voice was soft and coaxing, but quickly became firm when the bed lump's only response was a snort her general direction.

"Danny, no it did not snow enough for a snow day, now com'on, you're going to be late for school"

The soreness of his lead weighted eye lids was immediate as they cranked open and his exhausted blue eyes began to function, brain neurons firing up, the soreness of the exhaustion of days previous returning with a vengeance as Daniel Fenton, an extraordinary specimen of a hybrid of the human and ghost world, began another mundane day.

A yawn opened up his tear ducts, flooding his eyes with morning tears and forcing him to rub the sand out of his eyes, themselves bloodshot, framed by the black rings of a sleep deprived teenager. The time for blessed sleep was over, and the day's concerns began to surge and pour into his mind, the assignment due in history, the test he hadn't studied for in ecology, the 5 dollars he owed Sam for that borrowed pizza money one day.

"Another Day" Danny murmured as he stumbled from his warm bed sheets and was introduced to the winter cold that came through his window and filled his room. Ice powers or not, the warm bed seemed like heaven to him.

45 minutes later after soggy cheerios, denial that school exists, and some rushed minutes of packing a school bag and attempting to smooth his greasy hair in vain, Danny was groping his way onto a yellow bus, hands grasping the cold railing up the steps and then the cheap rubber seat covers. 20 minutes later, after being bounced around while partially sleep, Danny stumbled out of the bus and was thrust into school.

Several hours later, Danny shuffled out of his last hour class to the hallowed sound of the bell. His brain felt as though someone had taken it out of its protective skull, placed it in a frying pan and broiled it, non-stop for the duration of the school day and then put it back, all shriveled up and dried out. Boredom was hardly an issue, with him trying to get work done between classes, during classes, at lunch and every spare minute, while at the same time frustrating his mind with tests that were unstudied for, reading quizzes that seemed impossible, and unmerciful teachers that he swore were purposefully assigning work and giving tests in different classes on the same day.

The day was only half done as Danny's 'extracurricular' began. Letting ghostly energy flood his veins, he rose, invisible and defiant of gravity as he challenged any who dared violate his territory of Amity Park.

The sun was well over the horizon at 6 o'clock when Danny collapsed through the wall of his bedroom, readjusted his leg so it didn't end up sticking halfway through the wall of his bedroom, and lay on his bed for a moment, letting his brain cool down after a harrowing hours of chase and attack, defense and strategic maneuvering as well as witty banter with the same odd gang that considered Amity Park nothing more than a place to have a weekly joy ride to ruin his life. Skulker, Desiree, Spectra, none of them gave Danny a break as he tracked them down, subdued them and detained them for release within the ghost portal.

It wasn't till well past 7; dinner and hiding the full Fenton thermos and emptying it into the ghost zone that Danny flicked on his desk lamp and considered homework.

At 11 at night, Danny fell limp into his bed. With Facebook calling, Doomed online gaming, Sam, and the ever talkative Tucker, homework seemed near impossible to finish, let alone be right. Sleep was kind in incoming, and his mind turned the lights out.

…..

….

He woke up, cold chills welling up from his lungs in blasts that had forced him awake. He had to deal with the ghost, unfortunately.

Danny silently moved, tapping his ability to levitate slightly to make his footsteps noiseless. He snuck up the stairs, hoping his parents wouldn't notice that he had arrived home so late.

A hand emerged from the darkness, looking like a black claw that grabbed his shoulder and dumped a shock of adrenaline into his ectoplasm stained blood, heart hit a new rate of beating, breathing doubling, and color draining from his face when a black cloth was pulled over his head.

A few moments later, after being carried and laid on some cold metal, the cloth was whooshed back.

A bright light, the kind of light you see in a surgery room was above, near blinding Danny. He was strapped to a table, the kind at the coroner's office and strapped with belts like those from the insane asylum.

"We can only conclude" A familiar voice began in the background, steel in seriousness, sharp in maliciousness. "That you are ectoplasmically contaminated, and will proceed to surgically study your condition"

"Why?" Danny's voice was a shrill call into an echoing room.

"Because" His parents loomed from the darkness, their faces straight from a horror film, eyes filled with loathing, faces blank in expression and deathly pale, near white, their lips a thin line that nearly grinned on their faces, their movements robotic and unnatural. "you cannot exist alive as a ghost"

They were carting two tables with them, and clearly visible were countless tools for cutting into an organic body, knifes with a hungry gleam, drills by their side.

"Have a nice afterlife" His mother growled as she lifted a small saw, its blade no larger than a doorknob that began to whir. She moved it like some sort of machine, lowering it ever closer to his skin.

BEEP…

BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP…BEEP.

Eyelid slid open, pupil dilating as Danny felt his head throb with terror, a cold sweat dripping down his forehead, his heartbeat so heavy he could feel the blood rushing through the left and right atriums and ventricles, heart muscles dancing back and forth. Hand shakily went over to the alarm clock and silenced it.

The terror fell away, fatigue setting in as his brain registered new bouts of soreness from head to toe, eye lids growing heavy again, the bed beckoning him to fall back asleep.

A knock on his door returned him to life.

"Danny, com'on, time to wake up" his mother's business voice found its way, muffled but true, through the door and onto his ears. But her voice only renewed the fear that bounced around his chest.

He felt like crying as the days concerns came anew into his mind, missing assignments, wrecked tests and grades, corrections to make at school, ghosts to track down, and parents to lie too and fear.

His head so heavily laden with thoughts that he thought it would tumble to the floor the moment he rose from his pillow, Daniel Fenton, an extraordinary specimen of a hybrid of the human and ghost world, began another mundane day.

…..

…

Maddie Fenton flipped the switch in annoyance as the great FENTON sign was extinguished. The city council had made up their minds, even though Vlad had fought the protests of light pollution, or so he said. She doubted him, ever since that incident with his hunting lodge and that supposed free trip over Wisconsin, she had serious doubts of his good intentions. But then again, few people seemed trust worthy those days. Her own son, lying to her about school, grades, even what Danny did for fun was under a thick mask of lies. Jazz seeming to cover for whatever Danny was doing illicit and his friends too. Not to mention Vlad, the multiple incidents with ghosts that made her carry a Fenton rifle around for protection, because every corner, every dark alley and seemingly innocent bystander who was possessed could become a hiding place for a ghost.

She grunted in a stifled laugh. Her paranoia was getting ridiculous, but the events of the last three years ever since the ghost portal had been opened had made her rethink her own securities. A man's, or woman's home is her, or his castle, but she never thought that she would half to put her own house under lock, stock, and key.

There was a time, long ago, when she remembered a more subtle life. A time when she came home nightly after a day of work at Axion labs to pick up a smiling, tooth missing Jazz from kindergarten and a complaining Danny from daycare. A time when she would come home and cook a meal, greet Jack from his job at town hall as an accountant, and then clean the house before enjoying a movie with Jack, tucking the kids in and then enjoying some personal time before bed.

Of course, that was before the government grant that Jack had applied for, before they had moved from their cozy yellow bungalow in Madison, Wisconsin and moved to Amity Park, Illinois, the most haunted city on earth, and before she had gotten into…jumpsuits and ghost portals and ectoplasm and capturing ghosts and…

Maddie was about to leave the roof and re-enter the Fenton Ops center when she turned around and stared at the stars, wondering and silently asking the great beyond why she had ever wanted the fast paced life, the danger invested days that seemed to come around every corner. She was a daredevil, but after years of life or death situations, she was ready to call it quits. Of course, that was out of the question. Not now. Not when the city council was giving them ever more funds than ever before to keep the ghosts at bay.

Jack, who was probably in the lab shouting about some invention he had thought up, and her were getting much better at what they did. They did a daily patrol during school hours and if they were lucky, could catch a few ghosts a day. They were always small, low level ghosts but none the less, ghosts all the same. It was a great improvement over years previous when they would go months without arresting a peace-destroying ghost. But it seemed the better they got, the more ghosts there were.

She was fatigued of it all, tired. The zest to find a ghost to study was still burning down in her heart, a spark of curiosity that would probably never die, but she wanted a simple, humble life again.

It was a full moon that night, large and sickly yellow in the sky. It was a night for monsters, the eerie yellow of the moon casting a terrible light on the city. It was a night for mystery and magic, the sky filled with countless stars. The Milky Way crossed the sky like some path way for aliens far above her head, all of those millions of tiny lights winking at her.

Danny would have loved the night, and with the sign off, perhaps he could actually use that ancient telescope she had given him so many Christmases ago. To see him with a contented smile on his face, ice blue eyes that gazed upon her with the compassion and love that only a son can give was a wonderful dream that she sometimes had at night. Not anymore, no, nothing in her life was straight forward anymore, even her own son.

She took a final look at the stars and turned to go back inside when something moved in the corner of her eye.

It looked like some sort of plane at first, a light in the sky moving faster than an artificial satellite, slower than a shooting star, before she looked closer.

It was the ghost kid, that strange and mystifying ghost that was as legendary as the constellations of the night skies themselves, swooping thousands of feet above her head, out of reach, a strange symbol of power and security, or threat to Amity Park. She felt the scientist within her yearn to fly, yearn to reach for the stars and join that strange ghost, to accompany him on his daily patrols, to discover his secrets, and the warrior within her yearn to reach for a ectoplasm charged gun and shoot that entity of power and unknown intent down to the ground where he could be locked up, his powers restrained from endangering her turf, her castle, ever again. She felt powerless, mystified, angry and admiring all at the same time as the star of Danny Phantom twirled through that starry firmament and…

Dived straight for her house!

…

That night was rough, over a dozen ghosts showing their pathetic faces in his path as he attempted to find the strength to get their ectoplasmic rears into his thermos, not physical strength, but the sleep induced strength that he lacked so often due to nights of bad sleep. His hair whistled as the air rushed through it, the night sky cool and like an embrace to his exhausted self. Sleep was an overpowering wave against the dam of his mind, pushing and shoving to be let out, yawns coming every few minutes as Danny, taking for granted his near paranormally enhanced eyesight, spotted his house amidst the dark streets of Amity below, despite the characteristic FENTON WORKS sign being flipped off.

Letting gravity do the rest, his body fell, like a falling star from the heavens as he descended, images of his bed dancing in his mind. Slowly turning gravity back on, Danny felt as he began to float, level with his bedroom window. Without a second thought, he willed himself forward, the barrier of brick that was his wall presenting no obstacle as he entered his inner sanctum, eyes already closing when…

Abruptly, Danny backed up, white boots shuffling backwards and he sat on his bed, the springs creaking as the ghostly teenager, very tiredly, let out a sigh and put his back against the wall.

Nobody moved for a moment, only stared, Maddie down at the ghost that she had been studying and yearning to capture for years, son up at her cold amethyst eyes and auburn hair.

"I'm tired Mom, let's stop playing this game"

She wavered, but failed to drop the gun.

…..

…

Mom. MOM! MOM! Of all the things a ghost would say. MOM! Had it really just called her mom!

It yawned, strange for a non-breathing thing, and closed its eyes, almost serenely, but Maddie only gripped the stock of the Fenton Rifle harder, the iron sights near hear eyes centered on the thing's head.

But, why 'Mom', of all things to say, why did it call her Mom? Come to think of it, Phantom was the enigma that was the unknown variable in her papers on ghosts. Everything about what she knew about ghosts was turned upside down by the one sitting in front of her. Ghosts were supposed to have an obsession and fairly simplistic mind, and most did, but Phantom was documented of having a rainbow of rich emotions from angst, sadness, remorse, embarrassment, fear and countless others that made him an ever changing individual. It was a rapidly changing ghost, gaining new abilities and learning new tactics almost as rapidly as she could record them. Which, was mightily disconcerting, considering that rumor was that it could duplicate itself easily at this point. Despite his peaceful posture, who knew, perhaps it was just dangling the carrot in front of her.

But then again, Phantom's intents not to harm her seemed so realistic that Maddie began to consider, what could she do? Before her sat the unknown variable, the answers key to the grand test of the study of ghosts, a beautiful specimen of an ectoplasmic entity as graceful as it was destructive. If only she could restrain Phantom, bring it in for study, analyze its abilities and its attributes, and document its lifestyle and behavioral patterns.

"Jack!" Maddie hollered downstairs as her eyes remained locked down the gun barrel and onto his closed eye lids. "turn on the Fenton ghost shield NOW! And will you get the Fenton syringe and knock-out substance; ASAP because I got something you might like to see"

"GHOST!" The muffled hysteric yell of Jack rumbled through the house. The said ghost opened an eye and peered apprehensively at her, the glowing pupil staring at her with almost laziness.

"Mom, what are you going to do to me, by the way, what's for dinner?"

Why, why, why the word 'mom', why did it just ask her to eat, like ghosts actually did that, which they didn't, and why was it so calm…tired looking when faced with disintegration. Was it imbecilic? Was it aware of the impending doom that could befall it?

She tightened her lips, tempted to say something. Tempted to ask why, but terrified of what it might do if enraged. She had a knife that she carried with her, unsuitable to really hurt a ghost, and a single cartridge of shots for the Fenton rifle. On the other hand, the ghost had a diverse pick of internal abilities to use against her. Her jump suit might delay possession and suppress it, but not prevent it. Her gun was no match for a single blast of green ectoplasm that would decapitate her, or worse, use its paranormal speed and strength to simply rip her head off the old fashioned way. She was a black belt, but she had fought ghosts hand to hand before, it wasn't fun, and Phantom was among the most renowned ghosts for hand combat there was. Not to mention it could simply turn invisible and incapacitate her that way, or slam the entire bed into her, or encase her in one of his shields, freeze her, annihilation by green, ethereal fire…

The list and images of things that the ghost could do to her and then laugh in victory was nightmarish, terrifying really. Usually she took on most ghosts with relish, but at least she was almost always well armed; now she had nothing but 10 shots, meant for low caliber ghosts to neutralize it.

"If you want to know" she began, voice quavering in nervousness, tentative and cautious not to say anything inflammatory. "First off, I just want to make sure you won't damage me, my son and daughter, my husband or my house" she drew back quickly as the ghost turned its head to pay full attention, its hard-to-look at glowing eyes boring into her skull.

"Keep going Mom"

She narrowed her eyes at the unwelcome noun that the ghost had used. The window suddenly glowed green as the Fenton shield activated, the house encased in green, ghost repelling energy, followed by the enthusiastic thundering footsteps of Jack coming upstairs. The noises emboldened her and she pushed the gun closer to his face.

"And second, ensure you will not cause any further collateral damage in Amity Park. Third, find out what makes you different than all other ghosts out there. Fourth, imprison you as an ongoing experiment" she gained strength, voice rising in volume, shakiness leaving as Jack's footsteps came just around the corner.

It looked at her, its posture slouched on the bed, before it sighed, making some difficult decision. "WHERE IS IT! so that I can tear it apart molecule by molecule!" Jack almost literally went through the door, the wood shrieking horribly as the latch gave way and swung over with a bang, the door flinging itself to the wall. He was in his element, face lit up with a boyish grin, hands wrapped around some monster of a weapon, jumpsuit loaded with more gadgets and ghost fighting equipment than seemed feasible.

The ghost closed its eyes and squeezed them hard, sending some prayer out and looking like a diver jumping from a 30 foot diving board into arctic waters, did the last thing both of them expected.

The energy that wisped off its body in small transparent tendrils condensed, glowing brighter and gather energy, spinning and forming into two giant halos that encased its body, that rapidly traveled the length of him.

….

…..

Inside, Danny was screaming at himself, feeling as though wasps had been let loose in his stomach, mind pounding with two warring factions of his brain battling for control. Already exhausted, Danny gave it the marathon runner's final shove and pushed through.

Why was he just giving in to those small thoughts that told him to tell his parents was simple. He was sick and tired of being the Atlas, the mythological Greek Titan that had been cursed to hold the entire earth up for all time, of holding his secret from the people that he ate and slept with every day of his life from the baby crib days to insomniac days of angst teenager years, and simply fatigued of life in general. He needed change to prevent a burn out, a change to save his soul from splintering in moral predicament, a way out, a new life.

His eyes were closed tight as he felt the strange and euphoric sensation of being a ghost drain like water from a bath tub and the heavy, somewhat hot feeling of being human came over him.

He waited one second.

And another.

By the third moment, his ear drums had still not vibrated with the reverberations of the expected reaction of his parents. Slowly he lifted an eye lid.

It looked as if the three fairies from Sleeping Beauty had swept in and cast a frozen spell on his parents, for they were frozen in their positions, guns still aimed at him, his dad with a goofy grin on his face, mother with a furrowed eye brow and ace shot eyes down the gun barrel.

Time started up again as eyes widened, his Dad's smile turning slowly upside down, his mother's dead serious face turning horrified, and grips on guns loosening. Danny's heart was pounding again, ectoplasm stained blood rushing from atrium to ventricle, breathing audible in near hyper ventilation.

All of a sudden, breaking the building tension, his Mom exploded, face staining red in a rage that Danny had rarely seen in his mom. "WHERE'S DANNY? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO HIM!" She moved the gun right under his nose, steel touching flesh. Danny knew fully that a blast from the Fenton rifle would be fatal, now that he was out of his durable ghost form. His eyes widened in utter terror, the fatigue vanishing as the situation turned lethal.

"m-m-mom, p-please, it-its me, your son? Don't shoot me please" Danny felt as though there was a rock in his throat, eyes watering, sweat seeping from his pores, mind and senses blurring in the moment. His mother was now his mortal enemy, face in a snarl, gun so close that Danny swore he heard the faint groan of metal as her finger pressed harder and harder on the trigger.

Jack was stunned, but, as if in a trance, followed suit of his wife, hand shakily reaching for a pistol and aiming it, aim jiggling back and forth as his hand failed to stabilize.

"You…" Maddie started, words loaded with a fury "filth of the ghost zone dare think you have the capability of replicating my son, well then, you crossed the line. Maybe entering my city, harming my fellow citizens, even attacking our house, but if you think shape shifting into some mockery of my son was a wise thing to do, think again. Why you have the audacity to even pretend to be my son, for what purpose, I don't know, but I cannot allow, will not permit, a creature that represents malice and inhumanity attempt to replace Danny, do you understand?"

"I-I a-am Danny Phan…Fento…o…on" Danny felt the betrayal of a mother's love cross his heart, striking the soft spot, like a arrow through the Achilles heel, blunting his mind and slowing his speech to a blubbering lisp. The tears came next, slowly rolling down his checks, all while still holding that stare with his mother.

"We'll see about that" Maddie had a dead and dangerous tone as she reached into her pocket.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: I noticed that I had never written a scene of Danny-parents reveal so I wrote this bit of junk. Generic and cliché I know, but I hope at least somewhat exciting. I will be writing a second chapter for sure, maybe I'll kill Danny, but most likely not (if I find the time and motivation…and considering how many other stories that have died at chapter 1) but THAT IS IT. Unless I receive a mound of reviews (laughs hard…like that's ever going to happen). But anyway, please give me critiques or take at least the 30 seconds to say hi.

Sincerely

DBack47.