#Danny watches Assignment Outer Space | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

beghostdocrimes · 4 years

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Blood Blossoms

Happy Holidays @qlinq-qhost! I was your Secret Santa this year. The prompt you gave me, and I quote, was ‘a n g s t hour with Danno’. Hope I managed to catch that, combined with your suggestions of Blood Blossoms.

Enjoy!

AO3

Danny knew what pain was.

The constant bruises and muscle aches from fighting were there to prove it. The exhaustion that clung onto him and seeped into his very bones, making him want to do nothing more than to just go to bed and sleep for a month. The mental strain that showed itself in tired eyes and sleeping in class and at the dinner table.

There were things he didn’t want to think about that hurt more.

Skulker’s continuous taunts and weird stalker behavior, Spectra’s sneers, Vlad’s constant creeping he couldn’t help but get used to somehow (which was even worse), the Observants’ supervision on his every move, Clockwork’s warnings that rang in his ears every second it was completely silent, his friends’ and sister’s worry…

And a million more things were constantly hammering in his head.

There were the easy days, on which the Box Ghost showed up maybe two or three times, or Technus decided to show his face on Tucker’s PDA at random. He had learned to take care of those within 10 and 30 minutes, respectively. Missing half a class was still better than missing a whole one, or even an entire day. Some bruises were the worst damage he got from that, though sometimes Technus managed to get him to burn himself on some electricity from one of his devices. He could deal with those.

Some days were manageable, with Skulker or Spectra showing up. He’d just try to ignore their constant yammering and focused on getting them into the Thermos asap. Skulker packed a serious punch, and Danny figured he’d at least had one sprained...something every time, plus maybe a light concussion on the worst days. Spectra...did more mental damage than the others, and that pain took longer to go away. Jazz tried to help, but she didn’t understand exactly what it did to him.

He had to deal with that alone.

And then there were the hardest days. With Walker, or Vlad. Sometimes multiple at once. Walker teaming up with someone was bad no matter what, since Walker attacking included half an army of goons, all with weapons and half a brain cell each. Vlad was becoming more of a nuisance each time, but he’d created a web of alliances with all kinds of ghost from the Zone, and fighting off 5 of them at the same time wasn’t good for his body.

The sound of a bone snapping in two as he tried to block a ghost from ramming into him still echoed in his head sometimes, and it left him nauseous every time he thought back to it.

Sam had said he was stupid for not remembering he could literally turn untouchable, and Danny had, though sulking, agreed. He was used to the fact that he could, now, unlike in the first months, but it hadn’t become an instinct yet. He was still human, and humans didn’t do that. Nor did they turn invisible or fly, but hey, those were also fun. Turning intangible just felt...off. Not being able to grab anything or hold onto anything weirded him out.

The ghosts he fought had their powers under control and knew them inside out. He was at a disadvantage fighting literally anyone, being just a rookie compared to everyone. Even Vlad had his intangibility under control, and he wasn’t even a full ghost. But on the other hand, if Vlad could get a hold of it all, maybe Danny could, too.

In 20 years, maybe.

Sometimes he had help during battles, sometimes he didn’t. Which was fine, because not everyone could be at his side every second of the day-- be it during school or at 3 A.M. again. Nobody had any respect for his health, or sleeping schedule, or homework.

Lancer’s disappointed yet concerned look also made Danny flinch and shrink into himself every time he saw it. Or Jazz’s worried lecture when she tried to scold him for not trying harder in school, even though she knew about the ghost fighting. His parents...didn’t do much about anything. They probably figured he was just not trying his hardest, but besides the occasional conversation with his mother about his grades, Danny was left alone.

That loneliness also hurt.

His friends understood better than anyone else, but they didn’t get the full picture. He had trouble sleeping, and they sometimes helped him see things besides the things in his nightmares, but they also had stuff besides just helping their friend sleep at night or keep him awake at school. Sometimes they couldn’t. And even though Danny knew it wasn’t their fault, and that they had a life besides and without him, but a feeling of betrayal sometimes came crashing into his head, and it kept becoming harder to get rid of it each time it came.

He had friends, allies, family, all there to back him up where they could in a situation he needed them, and everything always eventually worked out. He wasn’t leading the most normal life, but at this point, he couldn’t imagine anything different.

Danny thought he knew what pain was.

This was more…stiffening. Crawling. Agonizing. Trembling. It felt like it could burn him to ashes from inside out, or from the outside in. At this point he wasn’t sure anymore. It was suffocating, all over, and nowhere, nothing, all at once. Danny was sure it was there, because he didn’t have the imagination to make this up. It was there. But how?

The only thing that had come close to this was the pure and utter helplessness he’d felt after the Nasty Burger explosion. He didn’t want to think about it, dammit. But that was heavy. Untouchable. Not in his nerves, just in his head. Mental and physical pain were two very different things, as he’d learned the hard way. Being in expert in both gave him enough credit to state that fact.

But this, this was everywhere. In his bones, in his flesh, in his nerves, in his guts, in his skin, in his head, oh God his head—

He couldn’t move. Couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. The continuous loop of ‘no-no-no please stop get away stop god please no more no-no-no--’ was all his brain could muster up in that exact moment, with his nerves on fire and brain completely fried. Was he screaming? He didn’t know. Couldn’t say. Sound was nowhere, complete silence, save for the buzz in his head. It had some sort of metallic rattle to it, but that could just be the adrenaline messing with him.

Or the utter and complete panic.

How he’d ended up in this situation, where he was, who had him, and what they were going to do to him were all blanks. His parents? Jazz? Sam and Tucker? Valerie? Vlad? He didn’t know who knew he was gone from where he was supposed to be right now, and who actually did know, and probably had him somewhere in a laboratory.

After seeing just what some of the creeps he’d encountered were actually prepared to do to get what they needed from their ‘subjects’, Danny wasn’t sure how to stop his imagination from running scenarios in his head. The metallic buzz mangled all the sounds even worse now, and it felt as if his throat was the driest place on the earth all of a sudden. He must’ve screamed because they amped up whatever it was they were using: raw ectoplasm, poisons, electr--

And then it just...stopped. Disappeared. It was gone, and he could breathe. He felt his muscles relax and his jaw unclench, and he opened his mouth to breathe. It was more of a weak pant with a rattle to it, but he took what he could at that moment.

He stared up at the ceiling with wide and unfocused eyes, the white blinding lights all that really registered in his scrambled mind.

So he was on his back, then.

No chambers filled with weird liquids, which was a plus. The air felt dry and fabricated in his mouth. ‘Basement,’ Danny concluded after two minutes of just breathing. Outer space suddenly seemed less and less fun than it used to be, because Danny decided right then that he was quite fond of breathing and air and all that.

The buzz in his head started to fade a bit, and the sounds from around started to separate from each other. Beeps from machines, liquids boiling, a freezer humming, metals clicking together.

No people breathing.

Which meant either that one, there were no people, and he was probably being watched and examined from a distance, with fancy cameras and audio equipment and scanners and whatnot. Which was kinda cool, but also kinda freaky. Because it meant less clues for Danny on who had him.

Or, option two, they were ghosts.

Even less clues as to who had him this time. Although...Vlad actually had the money to set up a whole lab, as did the Guys in White, but his parents? He couldn’t imagine them setting up a lab this...professional. Not like this, at least. They had everything they needed, but it was always a mess at home, in the basement. If Danny craned his neck, he could see the counters/desks glowing with the lack of dust and other things. Nothing was out of place.

So Vlad or the Guys in White, then.

Or there was some new person in town after him he didn’t know about because he was an idiot for not paying attention to his surroundings more, which was basically what Sam and Tucker had been telling him for the past year whenever he bumped into poles, at first, and then it became ghosts and lurking dangers he failed to notice, and then they’d yell at him to turn around already but he’d be too slow because of Lancer’s assignment and Tetslaff’s exercises from the day before and he was still sore, dammit, so he would get shot right in the chest, and then he’d fly back and slam straight into a wall and not be able to brea--

It was back. It was less painful, but it was back.

Danny managed to not completely lose all of his awareness of his surroundings this time, just in case someone would enter via somewhere in the room he hadn’t seen yet and watch him. God, that was even worse than the cameras. The lights seemed to be flickering, but that could just be his head again. There was a slight pulsing pain coming from the back of his head. He probably slammed it back on the table when it started again.

The thought of checking whether he was bound to the table or not suddenly popped into his head, and he immediately regretting trying to check. A flare of pain shot from his right wrist up his arm until it slammed into his back and stayed there.

He didn’t try to move his left arm.

The fact that the pain was less than before rose back into the part of his brain that was actually functioning somewhat normally, and Danny realized that that was actually happening. Whoever was behind this all, was testing something. It couldn’t be in something he ate, or drank, because then they wouldn’t be able to regulate it like this. Maybe it was something they did with the table, or the bounds. They seemed pretty much electrically wired to shock him if he tried to get out. It could be something they did with the whole room, and that’s why there weren’t any other people in the room.

Or...

Or they were testing him.

But with what?

Danny writhed on the table as a particularly nasty sting made its way up his back, settling at the base of his neck and staying there. Whether it was intentional or just his body imagining things, Danny wasn’t sure. It didn’t feel good, and that was all he cared about in that moment. It was as if his muscles had gone rigid right under his jaw as well, and the urge to clamp his teeth together to try and stop it was overwhelming.

It proved unnecessary as the pain disappeared for a second time for seemingly no reason. Danny slumped back onto the table, breathing still ragged and pulse absolutely going through the roof.

Mind still scrambled and disconnected from the rest of himself and reality, Danny found it the perfect time for some more investigating.

Priorities listed in his head, he tried to focus on the feeling of the table pressing into his shoulders and back. It felt sticky with sweat, very uncomfortable, but not cold. Sensing cold meant he was human, not being able to feel cold meant he was ghost. He was ghost right now. Which was good.

Probably.

Danny didn’t remember how he was caught, but it was more likely to be after a particularly nasty fight. So while he was ghost. And he still was a ghost. Whoever had him hadn’t seen him transform.

That didn’t mean they didn’t know, though.

The cuffs around his wrists were electrically charged, as he’d learned the hard way. Moving his head from side to side made his vision swim and nausea rise, but he found that his head wasn’t strapped down or confined in something. A flare of pain shot down his neck when he tried to lift his head, but Danny grit his teeth and did it anyway. Self-preservation be damned for the moment. There were cuffs around his ankles as well. Maybe charged, maybe not. Danny kind of didn’t want to find out.

The room was smaller than a classroom, about the size of a bedroom. Maybe bigger. The floor was some sort of plastic-looking surface, the walls had an off-gray shade to it, and the ceiling was white with lamps in near the corners. The counter was still reflecting the bright light that seemingly came from everywhere, everything in the same place as it had been some time ago.

How long had he been here, anyway?

And where the fuck was the door?

Another flare of pain, short and sharp, made its way through his body, and Danny had to focus to not lose consciousness entirely, despite how appealing it seemed. His breathing became even more panting-like after screaming again, and it sounded off, worse than it’d been. God, he hoped his lungs were okay. He kind of needed those. They didn’t feel all that okay, though. Having been so focused on not dying or passing out and figuring out where he was, the pressure in his chest had completely missed his notice.

Danny was glad it had, because now there was even more pain to think about. Coughing made it worse, and tears sprung to his eyes as he tried not to. Steady and soft breaths were all he could manage as he attempted to calm himself down.

In, hold, and out.

Jazz had shown him some ways to calm down after a panic attack, and breathing was one of them.

In, hold, and out.

Danny was sceptic at first, but after having tried it himself after one of Vlad’s particularly nasty stunts, he had repeatedly thanked her for showing it to him.

In, hold, and out.

Sam had mentioned something about a ‘pyramid of senses’, or something like that, but it didn’t seem all that appealing to try in a place he didn’t know and was trying to get away from. He wanted to ground himself, of course, but he’d better focus on himself instead of his surroundings for now. To avoid another one.

In, hold, and out.

It was odd, actually. How your own mind could betray you in such a way, that you needed to shut it off enough to reboot itself by focusing entirely on one simple task that usually required zero mental effort. Or how listing things calmed the mind down enough to turn active again, instead of running in circles, banging pots and pans together and not wanting to stop.

In, hold, and out.

And why was hyperventilating a thing? And was it a mental thing or a physical thing? How did it even work? And what caused it?

In, hol--

Oh no.

Hyperventilating. Pain. No clear source. Ghost form.

Danny paled.

Blood Blossoms.

#Secret santa #holiday truce 2019 #fic #danny phantom #dp #phandom #qlinq-qhost

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freshwater--mermaid · 6 years

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Ersatz Ch 16: Hypnagogia

Danny sat on the bottom steps of the basement staircase, looking in on his parents as they debated over a set of schematics. They had yet to notice him since he wandered down nearly thirty minutes earlier, and the boy was counting on their continued ignorance. He just...needed to be near the portal for a while. Just a bit, just to relax his nerves. And then he would go back to his room and finish the last of his homework.

He'd already gotten in trouble earlier that day for failing to hand in a few assignments he had forgotten about. He was determined not to fall behind further, but so far that was easier said than done. He just couldn't make himself concentrate for more than a minute. He really needed to pay a visit to the Ghost Zone again.

The teen's blue eyes drifted slowly over the room, taking in the old and new sights of the lab. Ever since the portal began working, his parents' work had doubled, and old dust-coated weapons and devices were soon covered up by newer prototypes. Thankfully for him, nearly all of these weapons were untested, and therefore not used.

The Fenton parents thankfully had finished whatever tests they were running on the old ghost lady just as Danny had arrived from school. She was now once again stored in a thermos and locked away in a cabinet at the back of the room.

Growing uncomfortable, Danny's eyes went to the metallic table, bolted down in the centre of the lab. He didn't know what kind of experiments his parents were running on the elderly ghost, but his unhelpful mind was always quick to provide mental images. Danny swallowed reflexively, tearing his mind from such dark thoughts, and stood up. He didn't want to think about the lunch lady ghost. Part of him felt sad for her, but not enough to attempt to free her. She was just too dangerous, he reminded himself.

Danny walked back into the kitchen, shoulders slumped. Jack and Maddie had been working tirelessly for days now; they had to crash soon, right?

'Any night now they'll trudge upstairs and sleep for hours.' Danny thought to himself, wishing that that night would be now.

After lingering uselessly in the kitchen for several more minutes, Danny finally admitted defeat and went back up to his bedroom. He proceeded to spend most of the night glaring down at his half-finished assignments, his mind not allowing him to concentrate for long on one topic. He was not looking forward to school in the morning.

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Jasmine walked down the front steps of Casper High, a bounce in her steps, not noticing the mass of bumping and pushing bodies around her, all eager to leave the school and head home. Her attention was captured entirely by the blond-haired man leaning casually against his motorcycle, parked at the side of the road.

Johnny smiled at her when her eyes found his, and she felt a warm rush wash over her face. She quickly made her way through the crowd toward him, books clutched tightly to her chest.

"Hey, Kitten." Johnny greeted, winking at the girl when she reached him. "Wanna go for a ride?"

"Sure!" Jazz agreed with a smile, willing the warmth from her cheeks. Why was she so flustered? Part of her was still confused as to why she was so enamored by this young man, but that tiny voice was always quickly quieted.

The two hopped onto the motorcycle, and were soon speeding off, a few students needing to practically dive out of the vehicle's path. Jazz didn't see this, however. Her eyes were closed, her body hugging close to Johnny's back as wind roared in her ears.

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With a frustrated noise, Danny tossed his pencil down upon the papers, further scattering them across his unmade bed. He'd made it halfway through his essay, and considered that good enough. He stood up and headed out of his room and back down into the lab.

The debate from a few hours previous had apparently been settled, and from Jack's slouched posture, Danny could safely guess that his mom had won. He walked over to her side, mindful of the heap of metal parts lying on the tile near her desk.

"Hey, Mom." Danny greeted, eyes sweeping over his mother's scribbled notes. "What're you working on?"

"Oh, just some more theories on how to get our ecto vehicle-."

"Spectre Speeder." Came the sulking interruption from Jack's side of the room.

"Right, Spectre Speeder." Maddie continued, "I'm trying to figure exactly how we're going to be able to safely filter out carbon dioxide from our oxygen supply while within the Ghost Zone."

"Oh." was all Danny could think to say in response, not fully listening as his eyes drifted over to the closed portal. "Interesting."

"You see, sweetie," Maddie began, smiling down at her work. "It's sort of like we're building a miniature spaceship. The Ghost Zone is like outer space, and if your father and I plan on being the first humans to explore it, then I need to make sure all of my calculations are perfect. We won't be in there long enough to worry about particles or moisture in our air supply building up, but we can't let the carbon dioxide levels rise too high."

Maddie was clearly enthusiastic about this, her smile bright as she glanced from her notes up to her son. She noticed that his eyes lingered over on the closed portal doors, and turned to look that way as well.

"Don't worry, sweetheart, no ghosts can get past your father and I." Maddie said, guessing that ghostly intruders were what was on Danny's mind. Recent events considered, Maddie couldn't blame her son for being afraid. Guilt still shifted about inside of her every time she recalled the incident at Vlad's home.

Internally, Danny was laughing at his mom, as mean as it made him feel. He knew for a fact that several small ghosts had been sneaking past his parents for weeks. The thought brought forth aggravation, at how easily they seemed to slip past his mom and dad without a fuss. Meanwhile, he was still too terrified of setting something off to even try sneaking into the portal while they were down there.

Danny's outward appearance didn't change, his face remaining passive as he returned his mother's smile briefly, shrugging his shoulders.

"Don't worry, Mom, I'm not freaked out about the Portal. I know you and Dad could waste anything that stepped a toe into this lab."

"You bet your keister we could!" Jack exclaimed, looking over his shoulder at the two of them with a grin. "No one gets past this vigil." The man pointed a thumb at himself proudly.

The sound of the front door closing loudly caused all three to look toward the stairs, Jack's face falling down into a hard expression.

"Speaking of." he said lowly, getting out of his chair and going up the stairs.

Maddie sighed quietly to herself, standing as well and stretching out, her back and shoulders popping in several spots. Danny followed her as she trailed her husband.

They could hear Jack and Jazzs' rising voices coming from upstairs, and quickly joined. Jazz stood angrily in her doorway, with Johnny just inside. Jack crossed his arms and frowned heavily down at his daughter from the hall.

"I was just showing Johnny my room, Dad." Jazz protested as Danny and Maddie joined the group in the hallway.

"Well now you can show him the front door." Jack replied. "Do you have any idea what time it is, missy? It's a school night!"

"Just lay off!" Jazz yelled up at her father, clenching her fists in anger. Before she could say more, Johnny was moving into full view, his hands held up and an easy smile set low on his face. He gazed up at Jack with half-lidded eyes.

"Hey hey, there's no problem here, man." Johnny said.

"There most certainly is a problem here, pal." Jack answered, his tone letting everyone know that his patience was approaching its end. "I'd like you to leave immediately. My daughter has school tomorrow, and she knows better than to bring strangers into our house at night."

He pointedly looked his daughter's way at this final sentence, and Jazz huffed loudly. Johnny stepped between the two, lowering his arms as he shrugged loosely.

"Just keep cool, pops-"

"I will not just keep cool." Jack replied, maintaining a level tone. "You are not welcome in my house at this hour, so I'm going to ask you again; leave."

He pointed toward the stairs with one massive hand. Johnny looked like he was going to try reasoning once again, but it was Jazz's turn to step in.

The teen grabbed Johnny by the arm and quickly made her way down into the living room with him. Danny watched from the railing as she spoke quiet words to the blond at the door, before opening it and watching him leave. She waved at him as the sound of a motorcycle revving filled the silence.

As it faded quickly, Jazz shut the door and glared up at her father, who stood at the top of the stairs.

"Happy now?" she said moodily.

"Jazz, just what's gotten into you?" Maddie said disapprovingly. "You know better than to stay out after curfew."

"And you know better than to invite strangers into your room in the middle of the night!" Jack put in.

"He's not a stranger and it's not the middle of the night!" Jazz exclaimed, throwing her hands into the air.

"I don't know him, so that certainly makes him a stranger, young lady!" Jack responded.

Jazz groaned loudly in frustration, walking into the kitchen instead of going back toward her room.

"I can't believe you." she spoke as the other three made their way downstairs. "Way to embarrass me in front of my new friend, you guys. Now he's probably never going to come back."

Danny couldn't help but feel relieved at that thought, though he somehow doubted that this Johnny would actually stay away. He hadn't seemed at all intimidated by Jack, which was saying something about the guy's confidence. Jack was downright imposing when he was mad.

Danny had to wonder what had suddenly come over his sister. He couldn't recall a time when she behaved this way toward their parents. Even when she fought with them, it was usually over their ghost studies or him. It was weird to see her acting like a rebellious teenager.

Jazz sat at the table, scowling at her parents, who both stood facing her with twin frowns. It seemed they were equally as confused over Jazz's sudden mood. Danny quickly decided he wanted out of this little family drama and headed toward his room, intent on drowning out any further yelling with a good few hours of Doomed.

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Danny stared at the cracked sidewalk beneath his feet as he and his friends made their way to Tucker's house. Danny had barely dodged detention for turning in nearly all of his class work only partially done, and so Sam had decided that they should all start doing their homework together in the afternoons like they used to.

Entering the small two-story house, the three teens walked toward Tucker's room, giving obligatory greetings to Tucker's mother, who stood in the kitchen simultaneously working on dinner and craning her neck toward the living room to watch her shows.

Despite his repeated complaints, with Tucker joining in, Danny was internally grateful to be forced into finishing his homework. His grade average was suffering enough as it was without him letting his assignments slip. Sam kept him and Tucker on task, despite her own yawns and groans of boredom, and within the first hour the three had already stormed through their Biology homework.

The sound of heavy rain beat down on the roof as the afternoon wore on, and Danny found himself unable to stay fully absorbed in his work as thunder clapped repeatedly nearby. If the storm kept up he and Sam would be spending the night, Danny mused as he tapped his foot on the carpeted floor, his finger spinning his pencil idly as he stared unseeing down at his papers.

"Danny, focus." Sam admonished from her place on Tucker's bed, bent over her History textbook.

Danny blinked his eyes rapidly, forcing his gaze to focus back down on the words of his book report. Danny couldn't care less about Pride and Prejudice, but Sam had insisted he do his report on it, and with no other book in mind, he'd accepted the topic. If he'd known how dull the story would be, he'd have just picked a book at random from the library.

Thankfully Sam wasn't without mercy, and had spent their lunch earlier that day reading passages out of the book and explaining core themes to better help Danny figure out what he wanted his report to cover. Not that it made the essay any easier to actually write...

A flash of light from outside, followed by a particularly loud bang, caused all three kids to jump slightly. Tucker whistled lowly as he looked out his window. Beyond the light curtains, a downpour could be seen washing the streets of Amity Park.

Danny felt like his limbs were falling asleep, and quickly stretched out in his seat, his back cracking as he shook his arms slightly. He felt suddenly stir-crazy, unable to sit still another moment.

Danny stood up from his chair, dropping his pencil down on top of his homework. Stretching his arms out above him once more, he began pacing back and forth in front of Tucker's bed.

The two occupants of said bed looked up at him, quietly watching him for a few moments before Tucker spoke up, a thunderstrike muffling his words.

"Hey, you okay?" he asked.

Danny didn't answer, too distracted by the tingling in his hands. He looked down at them, worried, and shook them harder. There was no mistaking the familiar hum of ghostly energy building up in his fingers, and Danny feared that any moment a blast of ecto energy would fire out of his palms. Why couldn't he seem to quell it?

As he focused down on his hands, paying no mind to his friends' repeated questions, the feeling in his hands only grew. Danny furrowed his eyebrows, frowning hard as he continued to walk mindlessly around the small room.

He heard the sound of a mattress shifting, and then Sam was gripping his shoulders, keeping him still. Danny looked up at her confused face.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"I-" Danny was interrupted by several flashes of light, two roaring crashes following close after. The bedroom's ceiling light felt like it was buzzing. Danny looked up at it, wondering at the static that could be felt surrounding it, expanding out into the room as the light grew a few shades brighter.

"I...do you guys feel that?" Danny asked, looking between his two friends. Tucker now sat on the edge of his bed, legs hanging off as he and Sam traded a glance before looking back at Danny.

"Feel what?" Tucker asked, looking around himself as though he expected something horrible to be hiding in a corner.

Another flash, another clash of wind and rain as thunder rolled over the area. Tucker looked over his shoulder at the window.

"Maybe you guys should stay here for the night," he suggested. "Mom won't mind, and it doesn't look like this storm is going to go away soon."

"Yeah." Sam agreed, looking toward the window as well before her eyes resumed their worried vigil over Danny, who'd backed out of her grasp.

He stared at the floor, scuffing his shoes absently against the carpet as he inwardly focused on the low hum crawling up his arms. His fingers absently danced against the sides of his legs.

Sam sighed, once again reaching out to lay a hand on Danny, only to recoil quickly with a gasp. She held her hand against her chest, looking down at her fingers.

"What?" Danny asked, eyes focusing on his goth friend.

"You shocked me." Sam said in surprise, "More than just a little."

"Oh," Danny said, looking down at her pinkened fingertips. "I'm sorry? I don't know how I did that."

It felt as though an army of micro ants were scuttling around in his bone marrow, and Danny itched to move again. He continued shifting from foot to foot, shoes rubbing into the carpet and fingers drumming against his stomach as he held them close.

"Hey, I think I feel it now." Tucker said, removing his hat as the feeling of cobwebs settled over him.

"Yeah, me too." Sam replied, watching the small hairs on her arms rise.

"It feels kinda like touching a tv." Tucker commented, rubbing a hand over his hair in an attempt to shake the feeling off.

Lighting struck nearby, and the house nearly shook with the force of the thunder. A shrill sound coming from the living room told all three kids that an official lightning storm warning was being broadcast over the television.

"Hey kids," Tucker's mom called, "I'm calling your parents to let them know you're here, alright?"

"Thanks, Mrs Foley!" Sam replied.

The lightbulb flared suddenly, the room becoming startlingly bright for a second before, with a pop, the bulb shattered. Tucker cried out as flecks of glass rained down on his bed, the room thrown into near-darkness.

Tucker quickly stood, squinting through the shadows at the glass pieces covering his and Sams' pile of homework.

Light flooded in as the bedroom door opened, Angela looking at the three with open concern.

"Kids? What happened?" Her hand went toward the light switch automatically, and the woman quickly discovered the problem.

"The light blew." Tucker said, gesturing toward his bed, where the glass shards reflected the light like little stars.

His mother stepped into the room, arm reaching toward her son.

"Did you get any glass on you?" she asked.

"I don't think so." Tucker replied, shrugging as Angela gestured for them to follow her out of the room.

"You kids just go sit in the kitchen for now. I'll go find the broom." she said, disappearing down the hall.

Sam and Tucker sat at the table, listening to the muffled rain in silence. Danny remained standing, beginning to pace in a circle around the small kitchen, rubbing his hands together. It felt like insects were about to crawl out of his very pores, and Danny really didn't want Tucker's mother to be anywhere nearby when that happened.

"Uh, listen," he said to his friends. "I think I'll just head home, I-"

"Dude, do you see how much it's raining outside?" Tucker cocked an eyebrow, pointing a thumb toward the kitchen window.

Outside the sky was a bleak, heavy grey, with water quickly creating a shallow river in the road. Danny glanced at the sight before resuming his path around the kitchen.

"It's not that bad," he offered, shrugging one shoulder.

"Danny, be real." Sam spoke up. "Your house is too far away for you to risk walking all the way there in this storm."

Danny gave a frustrated noise at this argument, and moved to stand close to the other two, lowering his voice as he spoke.

"I can get there twice as fast if I fly, okay? I just...really don't want to be here right now."

"Why?" Sam asked lowly, glancing toward Tucker's room, where his mother could be heard muttering to herself while she searched out every speck of glass.

"Please, Danny, tell us what's wrong." she said, reaching a hand out but wisely choosing not to make contact with the dark-haired boy.

"I don't know." Danny stressed, bringing up a hand to scrape through his hair.

Both sitting teens leaned back in their chairs, eyes widening as Danny watched them.

"What?" he asked, dreading the answer. He just hoped his skin hadn't turned green again or something.

"Your hair!" Tucker whispered. "It- it sparked, or something."

"My hair sparked? Like a fire?" Danny asked, lowering his hand.

"No, like static." Sam clarified, pointing up at Danny's head.

Now that she'd mentioned it, Danny realised that the feeling of static had been building in the kitchen as well. He looked over toward the kitchen lights, feeling the small buzzing sensation coming off of them. A pit developed in his stomach. Lightning and thunder continued to war outside.

"Oh man. Guys, something weird is definitely happening here. I think...I think I'm making the lights pop." Danny said. "And I think I need to get out of here before I blow up all the lightbulbs in this house."

"Oh." was all Tucker and Sam could say after a long pause of silence.

Both friends frowned, getting lost in their own thoughts momentarily. Neither wanted to send Danny out into the storm, but they also didn't want to risk his secret, and blowing up every light in the house would definitely raise tricky questions.

"Look, we can figure something out..." Sam tried, her voice fading as she attempted to come up with a plan.

"No," Danny replied. "Look, it's really no big deal. I'll head home and hopefully find a way to deal with whatever this is."

"We can come with y-" Tucker began to say, standing up.

"No. Then we'll all be stuck walking through the storm."

The kitchen lights flared out in time with a resounding thunderclap, popping almost in unison. Like Tucker's bedroom, the kitchen was now in shadow.

"Oh no." Angela moaned as she walked into the kitchen, dustpan filled with glass in hand. "What is going on with this house?"

The woman shook her head as she began searching the kitchen for her emergency candles. Danny used this opportunity to quietly walk to the bathroom, hoping his friends wouldn't openly protest his leaving with Mrs Foley right next to them.

Once inside the bathroom, Danny closed the door behind him, leaving it unlocked. He finally stopped fighting off the hum, letting it spread from his limbs into his torso. Looking at the mirror, he watched his reflection vanish before his eyes, and quickly ascended up through both floors and out into the rain-soaked dusk.

The sunset could not be seen, clouds choking out the sky as they flooded the streets. Danny's mood only worsened as he became drenched, his clothes sticking to his frame and weighing him down as he focused on remaining unseen. He began the flight toward his home, going as fast as he dared, afraid of losing control and slamming into a building. That was definitely something he didn't want to experience again.

From his periphery, Danny saw streaks of lightning strike a tall building in the distance. An electric charge could be felt in the very air around Danny, and he hoped like hell that he wasn't about to become a lightning rod.

'Maybe flying in this storm wasn't the brightest idea.' he thought, speeding up as the OP Centre came into view.

Danny thanked whatever deities were watching out for him as he made it safely to his house. He dropped down in the narrow alley beside his home, pushing the hum back down forcefully, frowning when it refused to abate fully.

Turning visible once more, Danny ran up the steps and through the front door, trying to think up a reason for his mother when she inevitably asked why he wasn't at Tucker's.

However, the darkness and absolute silence that greeted Danny in his home stalled the boy's excuse-making process.

"Uh, hello?" Danny couldn't help but call out, dripping rain as he walked further into the living room. Neither his sister or his parents answered him, and Danny quickly made his way to his bedroom. He changed into a dry set of clothes before stepping back out into the hallway. Looking at his sister's closed bedroom door, Danny walked down toward the basement.

In the lab, all was quiet and still, and Danny might have guessed that his parents had gone to bed, if not for the weapons vault door. The Fenton parents liked to store their functioning ghost equipment inside, and had begun using said weapons more in the last few weeks than they had in years. The vault door hung open a crack, conveying to Danny all he needed to know about his parents' whereabouts.

'Out ghost hunting, then...'

The sensation of cobwebs settling over his skin caused Danny to rub at his arms, absently pacing around in the lab.

"Come on." he groaned, wondering when this jittery energy would go away. He most definitely did not want to explode lights in his own house; or worse, explode something down in the lab.

That thought had Danny's eyes cautiously wandering over the many gadgets in the room, his gaze soon falling on the closed portal doors.

The static was completely forgotten as Danny fully absorbed the fact that his parents were away, leaving him free to pay a visit to the Ghost Zone in peace. So it was without another thought to the raging storm outside or the buzzing in his limbs that Danny rushed over to the control panel, mashing the giant button and watching the portal doors slide open.

Once inside the other dimension, Danny felt himself nearly go limp as the tension fled from his muscles. The sensation in his limbs remained, however; pent up energy longing to be released. Well, Danny was more than happy to oblige.

He lifted off the ground and flew up the stairs, fazing through his front door and out into the vast open space.

Two green dots could be seen speeding by far off in the distance, giving Danny pause as he watched them go. They were much too small to be more than amorphous blobs, like nearly every other ghost he'd encountered.

As the two specks disappeared from his sight, Danny focused on the energy built up inside him, channeling it down into his hands. It took several minutes, and felt a bit like lifting weights in gym class, but eventually Danny was able to focus all the residual energy into both of his palms.

Holding his arms out before him, Danny sent twin bolts of white-green out into the Ghost Zone. He immediately shook his hands roughly, hissing out a pained breathe from between his teeth. Maybe he'd done too good a job concentrating all that energy into two spots; the energy bursts had burned, and Danny looked down at his palms to make sure they hadn't been damaged.

Finding them unmarked, Danny stretched his limbs out, relaxing and letting himself float, enjoying the absence of the annoying buzzing underneath his skin. He was definitely relieved that it was finally gone.

'Maybe going for a while without using any of my abilities caused them to build up?' Danny considered.

Letting his thoughts drift, Danny began flying around in lazy circles, enjoying the quiet and solitude that the Ghost Zone never failed to provide him with. Well, not total solitude. After all, the Ghost Zone was also home to someone very important to him.

Smiling to himself, Danny practiced firing off ecto blasts for a while longer, making a silent promise to visit with his old body soon enough. He focused on trying to fire energy out of his hands faster, and after a while he was quite proud of his progress. It wasn't at all difficult to master, Danny discovered, once he'd taken the time to perfect this skill. He could quickly call forth the energy needed and send it bursting out of his palm in seconds.

Vlad's words of caution came back to the boy, however, reminding him that he was stronger in the Ghost Zone, and therefore basic abilities like this would be easier. This dampened Danny's mood a bit, and he longed for a way to practice in the human world, some place where he wouldn't be in danger of discovery.

'Oh well,' Danny thought, drifting back toward his home. 'Beggars can't be choosers, I guess. At least I have this place.’

~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~* ~*

Jazz stood underneath the overhang of the Amity Theatre, looking out at the downpour with a sigh. It seemed that the rest of their date would be put on hold. She looked up at Johnny, her frown quickly lifting into a smile as his eyes met hers. Subconsciously, she pulled the red jacket tighter around herself, shivering in the cold night air.

"Sorry that we couldn't finish our date, Johnny." Jazz apologised, as though the weather was her doing.

"Think nothing of it, Kitten." Johnny reassured her, leaning against the brick wall. "We can go on plenty more dates in the future to make up for this one."

Happiness fluttered in Jazz's stomach as warmth crept over her cheeks. Another shiver wracked her frame as a gust of wind blew through, carrying more thunder and rain with it.

"Here, Kitten." Johnny said, producing a scarf from inside his own jacket. He wrapped it loosely around Jazz's neck, and the girl instantly felt several degrees warmer, not entirely due to the extra clothing.

She really was lucky, Jazz thought as she leaned into Johnny's side. She was so lucky to have a guy who loved her completely, and who understood her better than anyone ever could.

"I should be getting back home." the girl said reluctantly. She definitely wasn't looking forward to more third degree from her parents. She didn't understand why they were on her case so much recently. Perhaps their ghost nonsense was stressing them out too much.

'Well, they don't need to take that out on me.' she thought sullenly.

"Alright," Johnny replied, stepping out into the rain. "Let's go, Kitten."

He held out a hand, and Jazz took it, letting the young man lead her to his motorcycle. The cold of the rain quickly sunk through the layers of clothing, and Jazz clung tightly to Johnny's back as he sped off into the storm. Unfortunately, the teen found no warmth in Johnny's cold body, and internally worried about his health. He'd catch a cold for sure in this weather.

The wind rushing in her ears, Jazz watched the muddy shadows of buildings and cars as they passed them by. It felt almost surreal, she pondered, like a dream. The speed of the motorcycle as it weaved in between vehicles on the road gave her the sensation of falling, and Jazz clutched tighter to Johnny, closing her eyes and letting the feeling take over all thought.

#still posting these to tumblr i guess #ersatz au #poor danny i love writing the inconveniences of being electricity based #danny phantom #jazz fenton #johnny 13

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