Chapter Text
*
Chapter 1: Phantom Fans
Danny hadn’t planned on spending the afternoon with his high school bully, looking over his teddy bear collection and admittedly creepy amount of Danny Phantom merchandise – and yet, there he was.
It was an accident and that made it even more ridiculous.
It was summer, but that didn’t mean Danny was able to catch a break from ghost-related business.
Only after Danny had defeated Pariah Dark did he learn that the Infinite Realms operated by old customs, and by right of battle, Danny was now in the possession of the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire, which also made him the newly crowned Ghost King. And boy, did that make Vlad mad that his plan to steal the two failed. Despite only being fifteen, going on sixteen, Danny was pushed into a rushed coronation by Clockwork. It was to “fill in the power vacuum,” as Clockwork said, to ensure no ghost would try and challenge Danny for his new possessions or position. And it worked. No one dared to challenge a fully realised Ghost King, who had the power of the Infinite Realms at his fingertips. Danny was also gifted Pariah Dark’s old keep, as a trophy, and to conduct kingly duties in.
Unfortunately, despite no one willing to directly challenge Danny’s right to the throne, not many ghosts were happy that a halfa was the king – especially Danny, who was considered a baby by ghost standards. A baby with the equivalent of nuclear bomb powers, but a baby, nonetheless. So, not only was Danny swamped with several hundred years of neglected paperwork, but he was constantly having to enforce the new ghost laws and his claim to Amity Park.
This was the third ghost this night – just a nameless soul that resented the living and wanted to wreak havoc for fun. The ghost’s hold on their core was so weak they could hardly stay corporal in the living world. They were less of a threat and more of a nuisance, but they sure led Danny on a wild goose chase, and he was more than ready to shoot back to his family’s basement to release the soul back into the Ghost Zone.
Even though the ghost had been attempting to harm his haunt, something that made Danny’s core vibrate aggressively – wanting, yearning so, so much to crush the weaker core until they were no longer a threat, until they were gone, until they could never touch Amity again – Danny knew first-hand how awful it was to be trapped in the Fenton Thermos. It was cramped and felt like he was being squeezed in from every direction, with no way to sense the outside world. The bigger or stronger of a ghost, the worse the feeling was, with their core being repressed and pushed down. Every time Danny used it, he felt less like a hero and more like a villain. But until Danny learned how to open his own portals, as Clockwork promised he would be able to do in time, the Fenton Thermos was the only option.
He was about to leave to release the poor soul, until he was startled by a loud voice behind him.
“Phantom!”
Dash Baxter.
As much as Danny would have loved to turn around and bury the bully six feet under the ground, he knew that, as Phantom, he had to be cordial with his fans. As much as Danny hated to think about it, Dash had done nothing but worship Phantom from day one. It would be wrong on so many levels to take out Fenton’s anger through Phantom, even though they were the same person.
It didn’t mean he had to like being nice, though.
Danny turned around and tried to put on a smile. “Dash …”
If Danny was being honest, he was tired from the past few days. He spent most of his day in the Ghost Zone, being mentored by Clockwork, stalked by the Observants, and spending hours on outdated paperwork (he even had to use a feathered quill and ink!) He had been led on a wild goose chase the last few hours and he just wanted to go home and go to sleep.
It was only then that Danny noticed Dash looking absolutely starstruck. Danny didn’t realize his mistake until his bully was a blubbering mess in front of him, eyes big. “You … you know my name? Oh my god, Phantom knows my name!”
Danny hit himself. Literally.
Dash didn’t seem to notice, or he didn’t care.
“Well, I … uh, I make a point to know everyone in town,” Danny said, stuttering.
It wasn’t technically a lie.
As much as he denied it, his ghostly obsession was quite wrapped up in protecting his haunt. A haunt was a place, item, or person that a ghost was emotionally attached to, and often lived in or around. And ghosts made it their afterlife mission to protect their haunt, to the point where they would rather be killed than have their haunt destroyed. Most ghosts had haunts in the Ghost Zone, and some even had moving haunts – but Danny was one of the only ghosts to lay claim to a permanent haunt in both the living and dead world. And his haunt was one of the biggest, including the entirety of Amity Park and the Infinite Realms, the latter being courtesy of his new Ghost King title.
So, yes, Danny had sat his ass down and learned almost every name in Amity Park. Even if he didn’t know someone by their name, he knew them by appearance. He kept track of who moved in and out of Amity Park, and he could feel it in his core when more people joined his haunt and unknowingly became one of his possessions. Not that he would ever tell anyone in Amity that they were his – even though they were, technically – because that would be an awkward conversation.
Danny tried to find a nice way to back out of the conversation. He laughed awkwardly. “You know, protecting the town and all, but –”
Dash’s expression fell for a moment, and Danny thought he had offended him somehow. He cringed and waited for Dash to blow up on him. But then Dash’s eyes lit up with even more excitement. “That’s so cool! So, you know everyone? Me? My friends? The mayor –”
“Yes, the mayor,” Danny said through gritted teeth. He didn’t mean for it to come out so harshly.
Dash didn’t seem put-off by Danny’s lack of enthusiasm. “Oh my god – I can’t believe I’m talking to the Danny Phantom! Fuck, man – can you sign my jacket?”
Danny groaned.
Again, Dash didn’t seem to notice.
The jock shrugged off his jacket and held it up to Danny, who was floating several feet in the air, ready to take off. Seeing his bully being so vulnerable and awestruck, Danny had half a mind to play a mean prank on him, or just leave him for his friends to laugh at. He could probably throw a small insult at Dash and watch him cry, and the reaction would be enough revenge for him. But despite all these thoughts going on in his head, something in Danny just couldn’t do it. He wasn’t like that, and he didn’t want to be. Just the thought of it made Danny feel guilty. He knew what it felt like to be on the other side, and he never wanted to do that to someone – no matter how much they deserved it.
Sometimes Danny hated his moral compass.
He sighed and floated lower to reach out for Dash’s jacket. He exchanged his ghostly tail for a pair of legs, crossing them and sitting in mid-air for a more comfortable position to write. Even at that, Dash’s eyes bugged, as if he hadn’t seen much more mind-blowing ghostly abilities during ghost fights. It made Danny feel uncomfortable, as if he were some sort of freak circus side attraction. But Danny knew that the staring didn’t come from a place of malice, so he decided not to hassle Dash about it. Maybe if he played it casual, the awe would wear off and his biggest fan would fade away.
It was kind of uncomfortable to be worshipped by his bully.
Not that said bully knew it was him, but still.
Once he was standing in front of Dash, Danny realized he didn’t have a marker with him. From the amazed and blank stare Dash was giving him, he figured the jock hadn’t realized that either – yet. To avoid the embarrassment, he quickly formed some ectoplasm in his hands and shaped it like a pencil. It wasn’t the same kind of ectoplasm he used to battle ghosts; it was more subdued, like a gel rather than a charged blast, but it still glowed green.
He quickly signed the jacket with the neon ectoplasm, taking care to write “PHANTOM” and not “FENTON” at the end. That would be embarrassing and hard to explain.
Dash pulled his jacket back and stared at the signature like it was a million dollars and a rainbow-shitting unicorn all wrapped up in bacon and footballs. The signature glowed green, and Danny wasn’t sure about how permanent it would be – depending on if the ectoplasm would leave a stain or be washed out or wiped off – but again, Dash was oblivious. He made a sound halfway between a squeal and a grunt, clearly excited.
“Oh my god, I just had Danny Phantom sign my jacket –”
“Just Danny is fine –”
Danny slapped his hand over his own mouth even before he realized his mistake.
Dash continued.
“Oh my god, I just had Danny sign my jacket, and we’re on a first-name basis –”
He had said that because he was getting annoyed with being called “Danny Phantom” constantly by Dash. He was the only one who hadn’t seemed to get the memo. The rest of the town called him Phantom, or Ghost Boy, or some other ghost-related or insulting name. But it had the opposite effect that he wanted. Dash only became more animated.
Luckily, he didn’t look suspicious at all. Thank the gods for jocks and their meatball brains.
“And I’m hanging out with Danny Phantom!”
Dash still looked as awestruck as the first time he saw Phantom.
Danny groaned and pulled away from Dash, floating up in the air. He felt it was only safe to put a good few feet between him and the town’s resident bully, even if he didn’t think Dash would pull that shit on a ghost. “Look, I really have to go, but maybe I can entertain you next time.”
Again, Dash fell silent, and Danny seriously wondered if Dash thought he was a god.
“Next time?”
He hadn’t meant anything by it. He just said it because he was used to those kinds of excuses and banter between his teachers and the ghosts he fought. But it looked like Dash was really taking it to heart.
Shit.
“Well, I mean –”
“Totally! We can meet here again, like, tomorrow? I can watch you battle a bunch of ghosts, and knock them on their asses –”
With a blatant goodbye, Danny flew out of there as fast as he could. Extremely uncomfortable, with some semblance of feeling like he was leading Dash on, he didn’t know what he had just gotten himself into. Him and Dash? That was ridiculous. Even as Phantom, Danny wanted nothing to do with the guy who spent his entire freshmen year shoving him into lockers and humiliating him in front of the entire school. He could only hope that Dash would pick a new target when they started tenth grade. Otherwise, he was going to spend the rest of his summer focusing on ghost-hunting, stargazing, kingly duties, and hopefully avoiding Dash Baxter and his weird obsession with Danny Phantom.
Not very discreetly, he could hear the jock yell a block over from the park. He whooped and hollered, sounding like an overall idiot. But most of all, he sounded excited. “I’m friends with Danny Phantom!”
*
Sam and Tucker were already in his bedroom by the time Danny got home, having let themselves in like they usually did. To avoid being caught by his parents, Danny snuck into his room, by phasing through the walls. He had long ago ditched trying to climb out the window when he could easily use his ghost powers. He assumed his parents thought he was home the whole time – which was a perk of the trio being so close and his parents so oblivious – and he quickly thanked them for covering his ass. Sam rolled her eyes and shook her magazine in his direction. It was one of those weird botanist papers.
She quirked a brow. “Hey, you owe me.”
Tucker looked up from his phone. “What about me?”
“You’re the reason he owes me,” she said flippantly. “Every time Danny has to go off and save the town, I’m stuck with you and your weird obsession with your PDA and meat.”
Tucker looked offended. “Her name is Karen.”
“Really, you’re not even going to take a jab at the meat thing?” Danny wasn’t impressed.
He and Tucker had been best friends since they were kids, and Tucker had always had an affinity for technology. Ever since Danny was turned half-ghost, Tucker had gone through several PDAs because they always got destroyed in the ghost fights helping Danny. This time around, Tucker was determined to stay attached at the hip with his new and favourite PDA, which he had affectionately called Karen. It was weird, to say the least, but not the weirdest thing Danny had ever witnessed. So, he didn’t really bother with it.
Sam turned to him, surprised. “Danny, I thought you didn’t like to touch that subject, being the tiebreaker and all?”
Tucker looked up from his phone when Sam not-so-discreetly elbowed him in the ribs to get his attention. He shrugged and frowned at them. “Not going to pretend to notice something different with you, but sure, whatever Sam said.”
Danny groaned and flopped onto his bed.
“It’s nothing. Just annoying fans and an annoying Dash.”
“Really, him again?” Tucker wheezed when Sam elbowed him again. Smartly, he moved further away from her on Danny’s carpet. “Like, I thought he was done drooling over Phantom.”
“Kind of ironic, though,” Sam said, grinning.
“Don’t even mention it.” Just then, an icy blue wisp came from Danny’s mouth. He groaned more audibly than the last time. With the least enthusiasm possible, he said, “going ghost.”
Blinding white halos flickered into existence at his waist, splitting apart and travelling up and down his body, transforming Danny into Phantom. His skin faded into a light shade of blue, his eyes flashed an ectoplasm green, and his hair was shocked white and started to float. His ears elongated into points, his canines sharpened into fangs, and his freckled started glowing and moving like the constellations. His clothes morphed into his iconic black and white hazmat suit; his boots a glowing white, and his gloves making room for his claws. Phantom’s core pulsed excitedly, making the room drop several degrees. He automatically started to float in the air, the natural state of ghosts.
Sam and Tucker laughed and jumped to their feet, already reaching for their Fenton ghost-hunting weapons.
“Cheer up,” Sam said. “At least your birthday is coming up.”
“If I even get a day off,” Danny said morosely.
And then they were off.
*