Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

After bidding farewell to his college friend, with the flower he purchased at the Philadelphia Flower Show in hand and overnight bag slung around his shoulder, William Lancer made his way down the elevator and out the doors of the apartment building to emerge onto Arch Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

William crossed at the crosswalk and approached Love Park, destined for the parking garage underneath, the entrance to which would be past the—

“Danny!?” William declared, staring at the boy standing near the fountain. His student was the last person he expected to be in Philadelphia—especially at 1pm on a Monday in early March.

“Mr. Lancer?!” Daniel Fenton, nickname Danny, shouted with equal surprise. “What are you doing here?!”

“I should be asking you that!” William replied. “You ought to be in school right now!”

“So should you,” Danny quipped back.

“I have paid vacation days. You do not,” William pointed out.

William, along with a few friends from college, had been staying with his old college roommate since the previous Wednesday. The man was a professor at Temple University—which happened to be their Alma Mater. There weren’t any official college events that weekend, but they had visited campus anyway; it had been so nostalgic seeing his old school again, even though so much had changed since he had been there. They also, of course, visited numerous museums as well as saw a show at the Academy of Arts; it had been a satisfying vacation for sure.

“And that is so unfair,” Danny grumbled.

“Are you here with your parents?” William asked as he glanced around.

“Um… Ah, yeah, yeah they’re here,” Danny said, in such a way that William was pretty sure indicated he was lying.

“Where?” William asked, a little concerned at seeing his 14-year-old student out here alone.

“Um. Somewhere…”

“You aren’t sure? Well, do you have a cell phone you can call them with? If not, I have one,” William offered.

“Oh, no, no need,” Danny said hurriedly. “I’ll just, er, wait here?”

William frowned, noting the boy’s appearance. His clothes, simply jeans and a plain blue t-shirt, looked disheveled and dirty, his hair was uncombed, there were large bags under his eyes, and he wasn’t wearing shoes. A not-so-pleasant suspicion crossed his mind. “Danny, your parents aren’t here, are they?”

Danny winced. “Ah, well…” He looked like he was debating what to say, then wilted slightly and admitted, “No. I’m here alone.”

“Do your parents know you’re here?”

“...No.”

“Does your sister know you’re here?”

“...No.”

“Does anyone other than me know you’re here?”

“...No.”

“So why are you here?”

Danny bit his lip and looked away.

“Danny?” William prodded.

“I, er, needed a change of scenery,” Danny mumbled.

“A change of scenery,” William repeated. “Hmm. And how did you get here?”

“Uh… Bus,” Danny said slowly.

“And when did you get here?”

“Friday afternoon.”

“Meaning, you skipped school Friday, too,” Lancer concluded. It was a 7-hour drive between Philadelphia, Pennsylvania and Amity Park, Ohio. “Did you run away that morning, or the night before?” That was the only reason William could think of for Danny to be there in such a state with no one aware of where he was.

Danny sighed, still looking at the ground. “Night before,” he admitted.

“And where have you been staying?” Lancer asked with slight dread; he hoped Danny had been able to get a hotel or something, but judging by his appearance…

Danny didn’t reply.

“Danny, have you been—”

“Yeah,” Danny interrupted. “Yeah, I slept on the streets. I… didn’t have enough money to get a hotel or anything like that. I… ran out of money pretty quickly actually.”

William frowned. “When did you last eat?” he asked, noting that Danny seemed to be acting a little lethargic.

Danny looked up at William. “What?” he asked sluggishly.

“When did you last eat?” Lancer asked again.

“I…” Danny trailed, scrunching his brow, as though he had to think about it. “Sometime yesterday afternoon, I don’t remember the time.”

“And what is it you ate?”

Danny looked away with a guilty look.

“Danny?” William prodded.

“A premade sandwich and some chips… that I stole,” Danny admitted, looking very guilty as he admitted that. “I didn’t want to, I know that was wrong to do, but I hadn’t had anything all day, and was hungry…”

“And you’re still hungry, I bet,” William said; a single sandwich and chips over the span of 36 hours, if not more, was much too little for a teenage boy. “Would you prefer to get something at a food cart, or stop for fast food on the way out of the city?”

“What?” Danny asked, looking at William with slight confusion.

“There are a few food carts over there,” William explained. “I’ll buy you something from one. Or if you prefer, we can get fast food on the way out.”

“On the way out…?”

Ah, so that was the confusion. “I’m taking you back to Amity Park,” William explained.

“What? No, you can’t!” Danny said, looking a little panicked.

Alarm bells rang in William’s head at that reaction. “Danny, you can’t stay here. Not with no money and no place to sleep, especially in this weather. It may be sunny and relatively warm right now,” —if one could call in the fifties Fahrenheit warm— “but there’s a cold front coming in tonight that might result in snow, or very cold rain at the least. Frankly, I’m amazed that you’re not in worse condition, given your state of dress and how cold the nights get this time of year.”

“I’ll be fine…”

“I’m sorry, but I cannot in good conscience allow you to stay here,” William told him, though the fact that the boy wasn’t simply running told him that Danny probably at least subconsciously wanted help; or maybe he simply couldn’t run, given that looking closer, the boy genuinely seemed to be on the verge of collapsing. Thinking what he could do to convince the boy to accept help, William offered, “If you don’t want to go home for whatever reason, I have a spare bedroom, but I won’t let you live on the streets—this may be called the ‘City of Brotherly Love’, but it’s still very rough living on the streets, especially for a child.” William could question Danny in the car about the situation, then determine if the best course of action was to send him home or contact CPS.

Danny took a moment to answer. “I can probably stay at Sam or Tucker’s. Jazz will probably insist I come home… Oh, crap, Jazz is probably super worried! I didn’t bring my phone…”

William wondered what could have happened to cause Danny to run away with nothing but his wallet, not even bothering to bring shoes. “You can borrow mine in the car,” William told him. “First, though, let’s get you some food.”

“No, it’s okay, you don’t have to spend your money on me,” Danny said, his voice a little weak.

“Maybe not, but I want to,” William told him, well aware that Danny tended to be reluctant to accept help.

“But—” Danny began, then closed his eyes and put a hand on his forehead, stumbling slightly despite having been standing still. William put a hand on Danny’s shoulder to steady him, surprised at how cold Danny felt—he needed to get this boy food and then to the heated car ASAP! “Th-thanks,” Danny stuttered. “Sorry, just a little dizzy… maybe I do need food… Sorry.”

“No need to apologize,” William said. “Can you walk on your own?”

“Y-yeah, I can do that,” Danny said, seeming a little shaken up. “The dizziness passed.”

Regardless, William kept a close eye on Danny as the two headed over to a nearby food cart, one selling traditional cheesesteaks.

William handed Danny the potted plant. “Please hold this so I can get my wallet out,” he instructed.

Danny scrunched his nose. “What type of flower is that?” he wondered. “It’s kinda ugly.”

“Paphiopedilum,” William told him.

“Pafi—pafo—ugh.” Clearly, Danny was struggling to pronounce the proper name, so…

“A more informal name for it is the ‘Venus Slipper’; it is a type of orchid,” William explained.

“Why do you have an orchid with you?”

“I bought it at the Flower Show,” William explained. “My friends and I went the other day; I’ve been here visiting them. I was on my way to the car to drive home when I luckily saw you.”

“Yeah, ‘luckily’,” Danny grumbled. Then, his stomach growled too.

“Yes, ‘luckily’. Now, what would you like to order?”

Two and a half hours later found William driving down the interstate with Danny slumped against the window fast asleep in the passenger seat. The boy was so deeply asleep that William could have sworn he wasn’t breathing, but the occasional twitches from a dream indicated the boy indeed was still alive.

Suddenly, Danny gave a shout and sat up, breathing hard; William managed to keep the car steady despite his surprise.

“Nightmare?” William asked gently.

Danny winced as he leaned back in his seat. “Yeah… Sorry.”

“Why are you apologizing?” William wondered.

Danny shrugged, then his eyes widened and he sat back up straight as he yelled, “WATCH OUT!”

William saw it at the same time as Danny yelled the warning; two cars ahead of them had somehow crashed, and one spun out of control and into their lane, coming right at them.

William abruptly hit the brakes and tried to pull to the next lane over, but another car was in the way; there wasn’t time. They were going to crash! It was unavoidable. William began pulling into the other lane anyway; side-swiping was better than a full-on collision—

“No, don’t!” Danny said, suddenly reaching over and grabbing the wheel, steering them instead towards the car ahead as he ordered, “Foot off the break, hit accelerate."

“What?” William asked, unsure how that would help; they were seconds away from certain death!

Suddenly, a ghostly glow lifted William’s foot off the brake while another glow surrounded the acceleration pedal and pushed it down. William felt an odd tingly feeling as he and the car went only semi-visible, almost like they were made of mist, and then phased straight through the accident.

“What?” William asked quietly, in mild shock. Had that been intangibility?

“Hey, pay attention!” Danny demanded. “Forget what just happened and regain control of the car! I can’t keep steering from the passenger seat and it’s honestly a miracle I’ve been able to hold the telekinesis for more than a second!”

William glanced over and realized that Danny’s eyes were glowing a brilliant toxic green. A familiar toxic green, one which Lancer remembered from the time when Amity Park’s ghostly hero had saved his life…

…Or rather, the first time, William supposed, because apparently it just happened for a second time.

“Phantom,” William said in a whisper.

“Later! Now, foot on acceleration!”

“Right,” William acknowledged, then did as instructed, adjusting his grip on the steering wheel and putting his foot back on the pedal.

“Phew,” Danny sighed, falling back into his seat, looking tired. He gave a weak laugh. “Phasing an entire car and its contents while maintaining telekinesis takes a lot out of you!”

“Which you can do, because you have ghost powers,” William stated, still processing what had just happened. “Because you’re… You’re Phantom?”

“Yeah,” Danny said tiredly. “Surprised you figured that out just from me activating my powers.”

“No, it’s the eyes,” William told him. “I remembered the green; you saved my life once before.” He smiled gently and glanced at the boy; his eyes were closed now, and he was concerningly… Still… oh. Not breathing, because… “So, you’re a ghost? Meaning…” a wave of grief washed over William. Meaning, his student was…

“I’m not dead,” Danny said, accurately guessing William’s train of thought. “Well, not all the way.” He readjusted himself in the seat and looked out the window as he explained, “Not really sure what I am, honestly. I’m somewhere in-between ghost and human, with two different forms, one more ghost and one more human, at least in looks. Honestly, only in looks, I guess. But, I still need to eat and sleep, which ghosts don’t do. But I don’t need to breathe, just like a ghost. I have a heartbeat, but it’s slow, and pumps a mix of blood and ectoplasm, and beside it I have a ghost core. I have access to all ghost powers in both forms. I’m a hybrid, basically. The ghosts use the term ‘halfa’, as in ‘half-a’ human, ‘half-a’ ghost, but that’s not super accurate—it’s more of a third thing, I think.”

“But… how?” William wondered. “I’ve never heard of such before…”

“Well, we’re extremely rare,” Danny explained, turning to look towards William. “Like, extremely extremely rare. It takes very specific circumstances—basically, your body has to be infused with large amounts of ectoplasm immediately upon death. In my case, I accidentally turned the portal on while inside it.”

“Herbert West, Reanimator,” William whispered. “So that means, you did actually…?”

“Die? Yeah,” Danny said, perhaps a little too casually for the weight of that world. “Yeah, I did. Last summer—you remember that huge power outage? That was me; the portal opened by blasting the ectoplasm with massive amounts of electricity, or at least the concept was that that would make it open, and I was caught between that. Sam and Tucker were there, Jazz found out later; no other humans know except you and them.”

“I see,” William said, then noted the odd phrasing. “When you say that was the concept—”

“That’s one reason my parents can’t find out,” Danny asserted. “Blasting ectoplasm with electricity isn’t enough. There needs to be something to pop open the veil in the first place, then blasting the resultant temporary rift makes it become permanent.”

“And that something is…” William trailed, not wanting to voice where his thoughts were leading him.

“Death,” Danny said bluntly. “To open a permanent portal, someone or something has to die. My death is what finally made the portal work. If my parents found out… they would be devastated—not only because it was their magnum opus that did it, and the reason it worked, but because in their minds being a ghost is worse than death.”

“But you’re not fully a ghost,” William pointed out.

“Yeah but will they see it like that? They hate ghosts with a passion.”

“Is that why you ran away?” William asked. He was sure it must be very difficult living in a house that constantly unknowingly spoke hate about what one was.

Danny slumped down a little and looked at his lap. “Kinda? Obviously they still don’t know about me, at least I hope so, but… During dinner the other night, they were ranting a bunch about ghosts being evil and stuff again, and I just got fed up with it and asked how they knew that for sure, and we ended up in a huge fight over it. So I stormed up to my room, then flew out the window—it’s lucky I had some money in my pocket, because obviously I was so angry I left with nothing.” He gestured at himself, then looked out the window again.

“So it was impulsive?” William confirmed.

Danny sighed, “Yeah. I didn’t plan on running at first, it was just gonna be a small flight to clear my head, but then I realized I was just fed up with everything and started flying as fast as I could in a random direction to vent the frustration. Ended up collapsing on a random roof. When I woke up I realized it was kinda close to the city so I figured why not take a break, spend the weekend exploring the city and seeing some museums. But I only had enough money in my pocket for food for the first two days, and had to steal the sandwich yesterday… when you found me I was debating if I should stay or try to get home, but that’s a really long tiring flight…”

There was a deep feeling of melancholy in the air; not for the first time William wondered if ghosts could project their emotions, as he’d felt similar waves of emotions that weren’t his when around other ghosts.

William noticed an interstate sign advertising a rest stop just ahead, and prepared to turn into it; he needed a coffee, and the car needed gas. William knew this route, and the next convenient gas station wouldn’t be for another hours’ worth of driving, by which point he’d be out.

Danny noticed. “If we’re going to a rest stop, could we get food? I’m still kinda really hungry—it was only enough money in my pocket for one meal a day, so…”

“You only had one meal a day for three days?” William asked in slight disbelief.

“Small ones, yeah. I’ll pay you back, I do have more in my wallet, but that’s at home.”

“No need,” William hurriedly said. “I’ll buy you something. This place has a lot of different options,” he explained as they pulled into the interstate rest stop. It was a large gas station that could service twenty cars at once, and the rest area was almost like a mini-mall, with two stories and a dozen different food options as well as plenty of seating. There was even a small convenience store that sold an assortment of random goods, including clothes—maybe they could find Danny a pair of shoes there, and a clean shirt.

“Looks like it’s going to storm,” Danny said, looking up at the sky as they got out of the car, and William had to agree; those were dark storm clouds, and the frigid wind was picking up.

“Let’s get you some clothes that match the weather,” William told Danny.

As they walked from their parking spot to the building, Danny paused at an older black car. “That’s a cool car,” he commented.

William took a look. “Oh, a Chevy Impala. My first car was a white ‘61 one.”

“‘61?” Danny asked, and William had a sense he knew what Danny was wondering.

“I got my license in the 70s, the car was well used—people rarely get brand-new cars as their first one,” William explained.

“Right, of course” Danny said with an embarrassed blush.

“Hey! What’re you two staring at my car for?” a man somewhere in his early or mid twenties called as he jogged over to them, returning from the rest stop.

“Sorry! It just looks really cool,” Danny told him.

The man grinned, tension fading slightly. “You think so, huh? It was actually my dad’s very first car, before he gave it to me! It’s been on the roads for over 30 years; thing probably has more replacement parts by now than original ones.”

“Really? Your dad a mechanic or something?” Danny wondered.

“Ah, something like that,” the man said cagily, glancing up and down Danny, likely noting his clothes, and William got the feeling that he found them suspicious—which, objectively, they were. “You know, there’s a big storm coming,” he told them. “You should probably get some weather-appropriate clothes and find an inn or something, unless you can get home within the hour.”

“It’s that bad?” William asked.

“Yup; heard it’s not something people want to be stuck in—including me,” the man said, walking to his car door and unlocking it before hopping inside.

“Come on, Danny, let’s take his advice and get you a jacket and shoes,” William suggested, putting his hand on the boy’s shoulder to guide him out of the path of the car and towards the building.

Unfortunately, the store inside the rest stop didn’t have a whole lot in terms of clothing offerings, but it did have some touristy t-shirts and sweatshirts, which was better than nothing, along with some simple brown slip-on canvas shoes. Thankfully it also had packages of basic undergarments (which it hadn’t even occurred to Danny he might need—it was a nigh miracle William had run into the kid, honestly; he feared to imagine what would have happened if the runaway were left on his own) and socks, too. William purchased the items and then sent Danny with them to the bathroom to go change while he headed to grab coffee for him and a sandwich for Danny.

The line was a little long, as expected for a Dunkin Donuts on the interstate, but it gave time for William to watch the weather report, via the Weather Channel, that the rest stop had on a large TV mounted to the wall. It showed a squall quickly heading their way from the east, which would be impossible to miss on their way back and wouldn’t pass over them quickly. The report said the storm would start with light rain, but would quickly become a mix of snow and sleet with high winds—typically William would try to risk it, but he was still a little shaken up after the incident earlier. Plus it had gotten later than William expected, already 4pm, and the sun went down early this time of year; William definitely would prefer not to drive in both a heavy sleet storm and the dark.

Although, if the storm was fast maybe they could still get home tonight—there was school to consider, after all. They could get food instead, wait it out at a diner maybe.

By the time William was close to the front of the line Danny was already back and joined him in line.

“Could I get coffee too?” Danny requested.

“Coffee?” William confirmed, a little confused. “You’re 14.”

“So? I drink it all the time,” Danny informed him. “It’s how I stay awake in class now.”

“I see,” William said. He had been hoping the boy had finally worked out a better sleep schedule, but alas, he had apparently turned to caffeine instead. “Well, if you’re used to it, I suppose there’s no harm. Order whatever you like.”

“Anything? You sure?”

“I’m sure,” William said.

The cashier raised an eyebrow when Danny ordered a large iced mocha with extra espresso in addition to a bacon, egg, and cheese breakfast sandwich on a chocolate-chip bagel (William had learned long ago not to question the tastes of a teenager) whereas William only ordered a regular hot coffee, but obliged.

William also asked where the nearest inn or diner might be, and the cashier directed them to the next interstate exit, where there was a small historic town with an inn that was attached to a diner that usually had vacancies. It was about a half hours’ drive, so they might catch the start of the storm but should avoid the bulk of it.

“So, we’re staying at the inn tonight, not going home?” Danny asked as they walked back to the car. He put his hand out (back of it up as he held the paper bag with the bagel, the other hand occupied with the iced drink) and looked at it, then looked up. “It’s just lightly raining.”

“This is just the edge of it. The weather report on the rest stop’s TV said it’s supposed to rapidly increase to heavy snow and sleet with high winds, and we’re guaranteed to hit it,” William explained. “Given it will also get dark during the last leg of our journey, I would prefer to be safe rather than sorry—if the storm passes quickly we’ll head home tonight, but if not we may have to stay.”

“Makes sense,” Danny said, looking a little relieved; did he not want to go home that badly? William had a gut feeling that things were worse at home than Danny was willing to admit. The boy took a sip of his frigid drink.

“I’m not going to regret letting you have that much caffeine, am I?” William asked.

“Mmmm… Probably not,” Danny said, a little ominously.

Chapter Text

Danny hopped out of the car, probably a little more energetically than he should be thanks to the caffeine and sugar in that drink, and into the rain—or rather, sleet. He used his intangibility to keep dry instead of an umbrella, since Lancer only had one.

As he entered the building, Danny gasped, and a white mist escaped his mouth, causing him to pause on the threshold to the inn. A familiar-looking man in his mid-twenties with short light brown hair and a leather jacket was talking to a tired-looking elderly male desk clerk.

“Danny?” Lancer prodded as he too stepped inside with his suitcase, upon which he closed his umbrella, looking a little wet; the wind had been raging, clearly rendering the umbrella not very useful.

Danny glanced around furtively. “There’s a ghost in here,” he told Lancer. “Maybe more than one.”

“Well, that’s not surprising, given this place looks like it has been around since long before I was a child,” Lancer said, looking around too, squinting his eyes a little; right, humans had issues with dim lighting like the inn had.

The man at the counter turned around. “You can tell there’s ghosts here?” he questioned as he walked over to the two.

Danny gave pause to that; there was something about how the way the man reacted; he was trying to come across as casual-curious, but there was an edge to it as well.

“He’s a little, er, sensitive to the presence of spirits," Lancer said. “I’m sure it’s fine.”

“Hey, ghosts aren’t something to trifle with,” the man said. “I’m Dean, it’s kinda my job to investigate ghosts; I could use the help of someone who’s sensitive to them!”

“Your job?” Danny asked, on high alert at those words. “Are you with the Guys in White?”

“The who?”

“Group of ghost hunters who are not very competent,” Danny said.

“Ah. Yeah, no, I ain’t no amateur ghost hunter,” Dean said with a laugh. “Where you from, kid?”

“Ohio,” Danny told them, unsure if he should give this stranger any more detail than that, especially as his career could be problematic. But, Danny decided he could work with the man, mainly to keep a close eye on him; he’d just need to hide his ghost powers, nothing he wasn’t used to already doing.

“Ohio, huh?” Dean said. “I’m from Kansas, but have been traveling around since I was a kid.”

“Hunting ghosts?” Danny questioned.

“Well, and other things—I didn’t say hunting, though,” Dean said with suspicion. “Are you two Hunters?” he asked, and Danny could hear the capital ‘H’ in the word.

“My parents are ghost hunters, yeah, so guess I kinda am too,” Danny said, unsure if Dean meant the same thing, then at Dean’s curious look at Lancer told him, “This is my teacher, Mr. Lancer. I’m Danny. We were on our way home from Philly when the storm came in, so we stopped here, figured we could get a bite to eat while waiting it out.”

“Call me William,” Mr. Lancer told Dean.

“Got it. And food does sound good,” Dean said. “Well, I got the basic info on the problematic ghost—it’s a little too stormy out to go now though. Clerk said the restaurant's that way,” he said, gesturing down a hallway. “But as to the snowstorm—you might need to spend the night, clerk said it’s expected to last a few hours now.”

Lancer winced. “Yes, I suppose so; driving in the dark on snowy roads isn’t the best idea.”

So, Lancer checked out a room for himself and Danny, and the group of three made their way to the restaurant. The restaurant seemed like a standard diner, a counter with a glass display case of various cakes and pastries, a bar, round wooden tables and chairs, and a row of wooden booths along one windowed wall and another along a windowless wall that had a double door to the kitchen in the middle of it.

There were a few other people there; a lone woman at the bar reading a book, an elderly couple at a small table, a family of four at a booth with a toddler and a girl that seemed to be five or six, a young couple at a table sharing some sort of chocolate dessert that looked delicious, and a group of four guys and a girl in a larger corner booth all who looked college-age.

Danny, Lancer, and Dean requested the booth in the back corner of the windowless wall, as far away from the other patrons as possible, so they could talk about ghosts.

The waitress came over, and Danny resisted rolling his eyes as Dean attempted to flirt with her, just as Tucker tended to try—except Dean seemed to be having some degree of success, which made sense given his age and obvious cool factor compared to Tucker.

Once they all had drinks (soda for Danny, liquor for the adults, which Danny was sure Dean used a fake ID for even though he was of age; strange) and put their food orders in, the group began talking about ghosts.

“So, which ghost here are you hunting?” Danny asked. “Or, is it all of them?”

“All of them? As in, more than one?” Dean asked sharply.

“Well, I can’t be sure, but I think so,” Danny said. His ghost sense had gone off a few times, so unless the ghost kept leaving and re-rentering the building, there were multiple.

“Huh. Well, I’m actually not hunting anything here—I’m hunting a ghost at a nearby bridge, one that’s been causing deaths,” Dean informed them.

“Deaths?” Danny asked with a gasp. He hadn’t known ghosts to cause deaths before! Most ghosts he knew were careful not to, given they personally knew the pain of it.

“Yup. According to the desk clerk, legend has it that the bridge is haunted. Lots of people… die there, and a ghost has been spotted there, so it’s possible she’s doing it. Gotta investigate first though, there’s always the chance it’s a myth.”

“So, you’re not hunting any ghosts in this hotel?” Danny confirmed.

“Well, ghosts are more common than most people think, so it’s pretty much impossible to get every single one,” Dean explained. “So unless they’re causing problems, like the bridge one, Hunters don’t really seek them out—it’d be good to, since their souls should be able to finally rest, but protecting living humans take priority.”

Danny considered that. It seemed Dean did think ghosts should be dealt with, but Danny liked that idea that he didn’t attack ones that weren’t causing issues, like his parents and other Amity Park ghosts hunters tended to, even if the reason was simply quantity. This one definitely did need to be dealt with though, if it were actually killing people. Danny wondered how Dean did that though—did he have a way to actually destroy ghosts, or did he trap them and put them back in a portal somewhere?

“So how much do you know about this ghost?” Lancer asked.

“Well, according to the clerk, legend has it it’s the ghost of a woman who died there in the 80s,” Dean explained. “That’s all I know so far—normally I would’ve gone tonight to check out the bridge, but the snowstorm prevented that. She only comes out at night, so tomorrow I’m going to investigate, go to town and try to figure out who she was and where she was buried, then check out the bridge and if it’s her I’ll go to the graveyard, purify the body to send her back where she belongs.”

“Why do you need to find the graveyard for that?” Danny wondered. “Don’t you have ghost traps? If not, I have a thermos.”

“A what?” Dean asked, clearly confused. Probably because the thermos was pretty unique, one of Danny’s parents’ inventions—Dean must have something else.

Danny took the thermos out of his ‘pocket’, making it seem like it was his pants one but really using his ghost one (he had recently learned ghosts could store things in a sort of personal ‘pocket dimension’, although it only worked for the thermos if a ghost wasn’t in it—he’d gotten curious when he realized his backpack vanished when he transformed, and then recalled ghosts summoning things, such as Ember’s guitar—after messing around a bit, and a destroyed backpack, he figured it out), and placed it on the table.

“What the heck is that?” Dean asked, eying it skeptically.

“It traps ghosts,” Danny explained. “So you can send them back later… What do you use?”

“Um. I use the traditional salt and burn—purifying the bones that way purifies the restless soul so it can finally move on.”

This just confused Danny further; did this guy not actually hunt ghosts? So Danny told him, “That’s not a thing. Ghosts being attached to their bones is just a myth. They’re formed from ectoplasm gathering around nexuses of emotion or when a loose soul is exposed to large ectoplasmic energy. They only fade when they fulfil their drive, though most of those are pretty ambitious and won’t happen ever.”

“They can be reasoned with though; if one is causing issues here, I’m sure we can get them to back down or go somewhere else,” Lancer supplied. “If not, we can use the thermos and Danny can send them back through the portal.”

“I wonder if any of the people here are ghosts,” Danny mused, looking around. “Some can disguise themselves, or overshadow people…”

“What?” Dean asked blankly. “That’s not… Are we talking about the same thing? That sounds more like demons, not ghosts. Ghosts can’t be talked to. They can’t pretend to be people—stronger ones can briefly possess them to carry out vengeance or whatever, but they don’t act human when they do that. Otherwise they’re incorporeal; like, they can move objects sometimes and scare people but usually can’t do much except in small bursts if stronger. They’re either trapped reliving a moment they don’t want to, or overcome by vengeance and stuff. They’re completely irrational. They’re also stuck in one place so I don’t know how you expect to talk to one and get it to leave.”

“Ooooh, you’re talking about shades,” Danny realized. “Yeah, guess half-formed ghosts aren’t really all mentally there, they can’t just be talked to.” He’d been told about them, but Amity Park never got any—there was simply too much ambient ectoplasm to allow for only partially-formed ghosts, which apparently tended to sometimes happen in low-ectoplasm environments—a.k.a., most of the world.

“Half-formed?” Dean asked, looking worried. “What the hell does that mean?! What are full ghosts in that—wait,” he cut himself off, seeming to realize something. “Where exactly in Ohio are you two from?”

“Amity Park,” Danny said warily. “Why? Is something wrong?”

“Amity Park?” Dean asked with incredulity. “Amity Park, as in the ‘Most Haunted Town in America’ Amity Park?”

“Well, yeah.”

“So the rumors about that place are true?”

“What rumors?” Danny wondered.

“Well, rumor has it that that town of yours has enough ectoplasm in the air that the ghosts have permanent physical manifestations,” Dean explained. “They look so human that they can blend in as them, and can’t be salted and burned—salt doesn’t even work as a barrier, and salt bullets just bounce off or go through them with no effect. Iron’s not an issue for them either. They’re free to go where they want, although there’s apparently ghost hunters there that exclusively hunt them and make sure they don’t stray too far from the area. Regular Hunters are warned to stay far away from it.”

“Yeah, sounds about right,” Danny confirmed. “Salt doesn’t do much to the ghosts we know, I’ve seen them eat french fries and stuff. Iron’s definitely not an issue either. And they are definitely very solid and powerful.”

“No, you’re pulling my leg,” Dean said. “No way there are ghosts like that! Hell, they’re no longer even ghosts at that point, seems like they’re more like zombies.”

“No, zombies aren’t sentient,” Danny automatically corrected. “Ghosts are. Plus they can activate the standard ghost abilities like intangibility and flight and invisibility. Er, our ghosts, I guess…”

“They are also extremely durable,” Lancer supplied. “They’ll knock through buildings; plus their ecto-attacks can be pretty damaging too. Ghost insurance is at a premium.”

“Wait what? There’s enough there you need ghost insurance?!” Dean proclaimed. “How often do people die there??”

“No, there hasn’t been a death related to a ghost attack yet,” Lancer told him.

“I don’t mean that, I mean in general, if there’s that many ghosts forming.”

“Oh. Most aren’t from Amity Park; some are, but there still needs to be a strong emotional component to the death for them to form,” Danny explained. “My parents built a portal to the Ghost Zone, but it’s not very secure so they escape through there. We put them back before they cause too many issues, usually.”

“Ghost Zone?! What the hell is that?!” Dean exclaimed.

“It’s the dimension where most of the ghosts live,” Danny explained. “Temporary natural portals to the Ghost Zone form all the time; if a shade goes into one, they’ll develop into a full ghost, inside the Ghost Zone. They can escape through these natural portals too, but without an ecto-rich environment they’ll eventually devolve into a shade again.”

Poindexter had told Danny about that, when Danny asked why the ghosts didn’t tend to leave Amity Park. The two had become sorta-friends since their Freaky Friday incident; Sidney had realized that Danny knew very little about ghosts despite being partially one, and as they shared a locker still sometimes they talked via the mirror (which had simply repaired itself overnight after Danny smashed it), during which Sidney answered any questions.

“Damn. Physical ghosts…” Dean said, shaking his head. “I do not envy you, man… Wait, question though. When your kind of ghosts ‘devolve’ into shades, does that mean they lose sentience too? Become trapped wherever they devolved?”

“No, they still fully formed first, so that’s not an issue,” Danny explained. “It’s basically just going incorporeal, which is annoying, so I hear. That’s why they don’t leave Amity Park much—without a source of ectoplasm, unless they’re particularly strong it can start to happen in as little as a week for human-based ghosts or Zone-native species, less for animal-based ones, ectopi, or blob ghosts. Stronger ones can last longer though.” Ember could stay corporeal for weeks, enough to go on concert tours.

“Excuse me, what?” Dean asked. “You guys have different species of ghosts?!”

“Yes? Not all ghosts originate from humans… Are you sure you’re an actual ghost hunter?” Danny asked skeptically.

“It would seem that Amity Park is rather unique,” Lancer said to Danny. “Dean cannot be faulted for not knowing, if indeed our ghosts are so different from the kinds known throughout the rest of the country.”

“Yeah; can’t fault people for not knowing rare shit like that. Besides, I’m a Hunter,” Dean said. “Not just of ghosts. Bet I know plenty you don’t, too!”

“Like what?” Danny asked, curious now.

“All sorts of things,” Dean said, though looked wary. “I probably shouldn’t tell you if you don’t already know, most people are better off not knowing what’s out there, but… you two seem different,” he told them. “I can feel it, there’s just something about you. Do either of you have ancestors that hunted other things, not just ghosts?”

“Not that I am aware,” Lancer said. “However, it’s possible; my family history got largely lost to time.”

“Well, apparently my dad’s ancestors hunted witches, back during the trials,” Danny revealed. “But weren’t those myths?”

“Oh no, witches are very real,” Dean said seriously. “I bet before they switched to ghosts, your family were general Hunters, not just witch ones. Yeah, you’ve got hunting in your blood, kid.”

Danny wasn’t sure how he felt about that. “Witches, as in human witches? I know lots of ghosts have magic and stuff, there’s this djinn one—”

“Wait wait wait,” Dean said. “Ghost djinn!?”

“Yeah? She’s the ghost of a harem girl from ancient arabia. She grants any wish she hears, but at a price. Real bitch to get back in the Ghost Zone whenever she escapes.”

“Language,” Lancer chided Danny.

“That’s… not like the lore,” Dean said, contemplatively. “So she became one after she died? She wasn't born a djinn?”

“No, of course not,” Danny said. “Some ghosts just get special powers when they form—hers is the djinn thing. There’s also one who can control technology, another that can cast spells on people using her guitar, one that posed as our school counselor who can enhance negative emotions and feeds on them—”

“Dude,” Dean interjected. “You serious?”

“Yup, dead serious,” Danny said, internally laughing at the little pun.

“Again, wow, do not envy you—no wonder Hunters are warned to stay away!” Dean proclaimed, then looked more serious. “But those are all ghosts still, just with special powers. I’m talking about real witches. Casting spells, doing shady things to extend their lives, etc. Demons, too, and wraiths, and werewolves… Basically, anything in mythology you can imagine, it probably exists,” Dean said matter-of factly.

“Loch Ness Monster?” Danny asked. That would be cool to see!

“Er. Not sure of that one,” Dean admitted.

“What about vampires?”

Dean laughed. “No, thankfully, that one’s actually a myth. Pretty much everything else does exist though.”

“Angels?” Lancer asked.

“Man, how are you thinking of everything that doesn’t exist?” Dean wondered. “Fine, let’s change that to 90% of what you think of—angels are definitely not a thing,” Dean asserted. “Or, I guess they could be, sometimes myths end up being real after all, but if angels do exist, no Hunter has seen one, and they’re definitely dicks because otherwise don’t you think they would help with the demons?”

“So just the bad things exist,” Danny concluded. “Or, are there good things? I mean, there’s good ghosts…”

“Wait what?” Dean asked, looking like he’d just gotten whiplash. “Good ghosts? I’ve never heard of that.”

“Well, I guess if you’re only dealing with the partly-formed shades, especially ones obsessed with vengeance, it wouldn’t seem that way,” Danny reasoned, sensing an opportunity—maybe Hunters outside of Amity Park could learn that not all ghosts needed to be ‘dealth with’. “But the ones in Amity Park are sentient, with a similar range of good and bad as living humans. The ones that escape the portal do tend to cause mischief, whereas the nicer ones tend to stay in the Ghost Zone where they have their own lairs and towns, but some nicer ones are around too. My locker has a mirror that connects to a school in the Ghost Zone, sometimes I talk to the ghost that has the locker connected to it.”

“His name is Sidney,” Lancer supplied. “Sometimes he visits the human school to observe more modern classes.”

“Yeah, the one he’s in is stuck in the fifties,” Danny supplied.

“Ghosts… attending school,” Dean said slowly. “Now I’ve heard everything!”

Danny grinned. “Oh, you definitely haven’t. Do you know our town has a ghost superhero? Not all the town likes him, there’s still a lot of anti-ghost sentiment in town, but he’s saved the town from some really bad ghosts a few times.”

“He saved my life on multiple occasions," Lancer supplied, surreptitiously giving Danny a small smile.

“A superhero ghost… who saves human lives,” Dean said slowly. “Okay, now I’ve heard everything! This is all just everyday life for you?” he asked with curiosity.

“Yup,” Danny confirmed. “So, now that we’ve told you about our ghosts, tell me more about these werewolves and things!”

“I have some hunting journals in the car,” Dean said. “My dad insists I write down all my hunts, and there’s a few Dad collected from Hunters that fell to what they were hunting. You can take a look at them later, once the storm’s done.”

“Sure!” Danny said, excited about the prospect.

Dean suddenly tensed. “Did your eyes just glow…?” he asked warily.

“Oh, they do that sometimes,” Danny quickly assured Dean. “It’s ecto-contamination, from my parents’ lab; they study ghost stuff too, not just hunt them. They, er, don’t exactly have the best lab practices though… Sometimes they store ectoplasm samples in the fridge, and it gets in the food and stuff… So, yeah. Now my eyes sometimes glow ectoplasmic green during bursts of emotion.”

“It’s a thing,” Lancer said with a sigh. “Gave everyone a scare at first, thought another ghost virus was loose, but his parents assured us it’s fine.”

“Whoa, wait—ghost virus?” Dean asked sharply.

“Yeah, gave people random ghost powers they couldn’t control—it was eradicated though, never left Amity Park,” Danny assured him. “Anyway, that ecto-contamination is also why I can tell when there’s ghosts around.”

“Useful,” Dean said. “You know, honestly, most this stuff you’re saying about ghosts seems a little fantastical though; are you sure you’re not pulling my leg?”

“If you want, you can visit!” Danny offered. “I can even show you the Ghost Zone itself—my parents made a vehicle that can travel into it!”

“Dude, that’s like some real sci-fi shit,” Dean said, wide-eyed, then sighed. “Damn, I bet Sammy would be really fascinated by all this…”

“Sammy?” Lancer asked.

“Yeah, my little brother,” Dean said wistfully. “Well, not so little anymore, I guess—he’s studying at Stanford now,” he explained.

The waitress then arrived with their food (bacon cheeseburgers and fries for Danny and Dean, grilled salmon with a baked potato and seasonal vegetables for Lancer), and they began to eat. Danny grabbed the salt shaker and dumped some more on his fries, getting looks from Lancer and Dean at the amount, which he ignored. Salt was tasty!

“You know, you kinda remind me of Sammy, Danny,” Dean said after a little bit.

“I do?” Danny asked before taking a bite of his cheeseburger.

“Yeah. It’s been a while since I talked to him, though…”

“Oh. You should call him, then,” Danny said, slightly muffled through the food.

“Danny, please don’t speak with your mouth full,” Lancer reminded him.

Dean shook his head. “Nah, he doesn’t want to talk to me. We kinda had an argument.”

“That’s only even more reason to,” Lancer said. “And speaking of calling people,” he said, leveling a Look at Danny. “You still need to contact your parents—or at the very least your sister.”

Danny swallowed another bite of food, then sighed. “I know, I know,” he said, then staunchly decided to focus on eating his food. He had no intent of doing that.

After a minute, “What’s going on there?” Dean asked Lancer with a nod towards Danny.

Lancer sighed. “I’m bringing him home, but we didn’t go to Philly together. I happened to coincidentally encounter him there—he had an argument with his parents and then ran away.”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “To Philly? Isn’t that kinda far? I’d expect, like, Chicago or something.”

“Yes, well, apparently he wanted ‘a change of scenery’.”

“All because of an argument?” Dean asked, the frowned. “What were you thinking, kid?” he asked Danny.

Danny shrugged. “I just got fed up with everything, I guess,” he muttered. “Needed a break.”

“From your Amity-brand ghosts?”

“Not exactly…” Danny trailed, unsure how much he should say. “So, in town there’s a bit of a… divide, when it comes to opinions on ghosts. There’s people who take the time to interact with them, and see that they’re different from the shades you know, but there’s others who refuse to believe that, still following the old ideas, insisting ghosts are all evil and driven only by vengeance and stuff. It was only kinda recently when the portal opened, allowing more ghosts than ever to get into town, and because of that the ghosts began interacting with humans more, but not everyone’s so easy to change their minds from all the horror stories heard as kids, even though it’s clear that things are different with our town’s ghosts.

“My parents are ecto-scientists and ghost hunters, and really refuse to believe that ghosts aren’t all bad—I think it’s more denial, because they wrote a lot of the research, which was mostly based on shades, and now that full ghosts are more commonplace that research is being challenged. It’s been causing a lot of tension, since my sister and I are a lot more sympathetic to ghosts—that’s what the fight was about, I got sick of staying quiet while my parents talk about how they want to exterminate and dissect ghosts and stuff. If they took two seconds to talk to one they’d see they’re sentient!

“Thankfully they haven’t caught any ghosts yet, other than blobs and ectopi—those types are basically formed from loose masses of ectoplasm and are on the sentience level of insects,” he clarified at Dean’s mildly confused look. “They’re also just as harmless, usually don’t attack unless you attack them. But yeah, me and some others around try to gather up any making mischief before my parents or other less forgiving ghost hunters get them, capture them in the thermoses and then I send them through the portal. My parents don’t know I do that though.”

“Wow. That’s some situation you’ve got there, kid,” Dean said, then laughed. “You know, you really do remind me of my brother! Sammy also often argued with our dad about the creatures we hunt, saying maybe there’s good ones… I dunno, though. A good werewolf? Good demon?”

“Perhaps it depends on the species?” Lancer suggested.

“Maybe if you give them a chance, you’ll see they’re not all the same? Like the Amity Park ghosts?” Danny suggested.

“Eh, maybe,” Dean said, though sounded skeptical. “I guess I could look into it some… But, a lot of the things I hunt really hate humans and actively hunt them, some requiring specific things like hearts or livers. Like, I find them by investigating reports of deaths and stuff.”

“Maybe that’s why you only find bad ones,” Danny pointed out. “Maybe there are more ethical ones that survive off animals, or ones that only use organs from corpses they didn’t kill or something, who knows.”

“Not me, because I’ve never bothered to look,” Dean acknowledged with a sigh.
“But the ones I find? If I try talking to them, at least at the point where they know I know they’re not human, I’d be dead in an instant—there’s no reasoning, and they’re definitely not good. A lot of these creatures aren’t like your brand of ghosts, where they avoid hurting humans—they feed on humans. Some have no choice.”

“Yeah, in that case, probably best to deal with them,” Danny agreed. “But, if you do find one outside of following police reports, maybe a little investigation beforehand couldn’t hurt?”

“Maybe,” Dean said, still sounding skeptical.

The waitress then returned to their table; Dean ordered pie for everyone, and covered the check with a very fancy looking credit card. Danny found that a little suspicious, given the man’s alleged profession, but Danny decided to ignore it—it got them pie to eat, after all.

Chapter Text

Dean sat on one of the two double beds (a testament to how old this inn was, given most nowadays had queens in all rooms; there had been a few single rooms, but those all had twin beds, for some reason, which were way too small for Dean’s liking) in the small room he’d booked in the inn and pulled the corded phone from the nightstand onto the bed next to him, holding the receiver to his ear as he dialed a familiar number.

The phone rang a couple times, then an angry voice answered, “Rufus, if this is you—”

“Not Rufus,” Dean replied.

“Dean? That you?”

“Yeah! Hey, Bobby.”

“Hey yerself… Need help on a case, Dean? You’re not really one for social chats.”

“Well… It’s not exactly a case, per se,” Dean told Bobby. “What do you know of Amity Park, Ohio?”

Bobby was quiet for a moment, and then proclaimed, “I know to stay the hell away from it! You ain’t there, are you?”

“No, I’m at some creepy inn in PA, I was looking for a ghost when these two people claiming to be from there showed up. Said they knew about ghosts, but… Well, the ghosts they know about aren’t like any ghosts we know about.”

“So the rumors about that town are true, then?” Bobby asked.

“Well, if they’re to be believed.”

“Do ya believe them?”

“Actually, yes,” Dean said. “It’s this middle aged guy and a kid, the kid’s like 14 or something but he really reminds me of Sammy.”

“So it’s just because he reminds ya of yer brother that ya trust him?” Bobby asked, clearly not trusting Dean’s judgement. “Maybe ya just miss yer brother.”

“No, it’s not that,” Dean immediately dismissed. “But, they told me all about their brand of ghosts, and man, is it wild! Like, can’t-make-this-up wild. Apparently this kid’s parents opened a portal last year into this Ghost Zone place, and now the town’s swarming with them! Seriously. Like, he said…”

Dean explained to Bobby all about what Danny and William had told him about Amity Park and the ghosts there.

Bobby gave a low whistle. “That is some story, boy. So out there that I’m inclined to believe it, given the stories I’ve heard of that place—stories of those kind of strange physical ghosts have been popping up on and off around that whole area for centuries, ones that salt don’t work with and don’t got bones to burn, but near daily? Man, I do not envy them.”

“That’s what I said!” Dean exclaimed. “I’m kinda curious though; kid offered to show me around there if I want. He seemed interested in learning about our kind of hunting, too—”

“You told them?!”

“Hey, relax, Bobby! It worked out fine,” Dean hurriedly told him. “Look, I thought they were regular Hunters at first, okay? How was I supposed to know they were some weird Amity Park variant?”

Bobby sighed. “I suppose ya couldn’t. So, kid wants to learn hunting, huh? Even though he claims there may be good ghosts, different variety or not?”

“This inn apparently has some of our kinds of ghosts,” Dean explained. “Kid knew all about them, but hasn’t encountered one before—he seems to understand that they’re more mindless than his brand. Oh, and get this, he apparently has some of of ‘ecto-contamination’, he called it, from growing up heavily exposed to ectoplasm since his parents experiment with it, and it lets him sense when ghosts are nearby! That’s how he knew some are here. It makes his eyes glow sometimes too.”

“Glowing eyes? Dean—”

“He’s not possessed or anything; kid was eating extra-salty french fries like no tomorrow, that kid’s stomach is like a bottomless pit. Plus I snuck some Holy Water into both of their drinks like you and Dad always told me too. So, no demon there.”

“Huh. Good on you, there. But speaking of yer dad—”

“I haven’t told him about this yet,” Dean said. “Don’t really want to, not until I’m a little more sure of things—you know how Dad can get. If I even suggest there might be a brand of creature out there that isn’t all bad, at least not without heavy proof, well, that won’t end well.”

“Don’t I know it… even heavy proof might not be enough… Well, you’re not a kid anymore, if you say those two are okay, they’re okay. Just, be careful.”

“Don’t worry, Bobby, I will be. Bye.”

“See ya around, kid.”

Dean hung up, then flopped down onto the bed with his hands behind his head, thinking about the earlier events.

Well, more specifically, about Danny. Honestly, at first Dean had talked to the two not just because the kid had mentioned ghosts, but because the two looked highly suspicious—they had at the rest stop too, even moreso, and Dean had regretted not investigating more soon after he drove off. He hadn’t thought anything supernatural was at play then, but a guy in his 50s dressed nicely lugging around a dirty kid who looked like he was pulled off the street, complete with no shoes and short-sleeves in near-freezing weather? That was definitely suspicious; Dean was glad the kid was just a runaway being rescued and not kidnapped, although a kid running away was concerning too.

Then the two had mentioned they were from Amity Park, and… Well, Dean couldn’t just not ask about the place! It was a myth among Hunters, a place they were warned not to go. Someone who lived there? Yeah, Dean was definitely going to get answers, find out how true those myths were. He even played along with the ‘maybe there could be good creatures’ line instead of outright scoffing at it—which the more he thought about it had made more and more sense, especially the kid’s point about why Dean might only encounter bad ones. Ugh, why was he questioning this now at all times!?

There was also undoubtedly something off about Danny. Dean trusted the kid, he did, particularly with the stories of the town, but… The ecto-contamination thing? Dean was pretty sure that occasionally not breathing was not part of the deal—there was something else going on there. Plus, he had been entirely dry when he walked in the door earlier, despite entering ahead of his teacher without an umbrella. But, the kid seemed all right otherwise. Could he be ones of those sentient solid ghosts? No, he definitely seemed more human than that… some sort of hybrid? Was that even possible?

Actually, he did mention some ghost superhero, hadn’t he? Could that be the kid? William did give Danny a secret smile when that was mentioned, which he thought Dean hadn’t noticed. Or was that just Dean’s inner child excited about a superhero potentially existing, ghost or not? Maybe Dean should ask more about that ‘superhero’ of theirs…

Oh, but first, he should try calling Sam; Sam would love to hear about the possibility of a type of supernatural creature that might not all be bad—if he picked up the phone, that is… Wait, Sam didn’t know the hotel number!

Dean sat up and grabbed the phone, then dialed Sam’s cell number.

“Hello?” Sam answered on the third ring.

Dean’s heart soared at hearing his brother’s voice. “Sammy! Hi!”

“Dean,” Sam said flatly. “I told you to stop calling.”

“Yeah, but Sammy—” Dean cut himself off as he heard the click of the line going dead. He dropped his hand with the phone receiver onto his knee, looking down at it forlornly. Once Dean was sure tears wouldn’t try to fall (he was tougher than that, dammit!), he put the phone back on the nightstand and flopped down on the bed again.

Dean itched to look into the bridge ghost more, it would be a great way to get his mind off of everything, but the storm outside was still raging; besides, he didn’t know the identity of the ghost yet, just the story, meaning he’d need to ask around town and probably, ugh, go to the library to look into historical records…

Dean’s mind again wandered back to Danny and the other kinds of ghosts he’d just learned about, the strange solid ones.

Dean wasn’t sure what to think about the claims that there could be good ghosts. His entire life, he's been told that the things that go bump in the night were all bad, and now here was someone claiming otherwise. It made sense though, didn't it? Dean only encountered the bad ones, like he'd told the kid. But if there was a species of sentient ghosts with the same range of good and evil potential as humans... Could that be the same for other things?

…Damn, what a time to start questioning this, huh? Dean’s dad would be pissed if he found out… But hadn’t his dad jumped to conclusions too? All Dean recalled was his dad saying they were bad, and shutting Sam down whenever he wondered if that weren’t the case. Dean simply hadn’t questioned it, taking his dad’s word. They had to stick together, they had to hunt these supernatural creatures, all which were bad…

Bobby hadn’t said that though. He said he trusted Dean’s judgement. Never refuted the fact that maybe there could be a species of creature that wasn’t all bad.

Dean really wanted to talk to Sam about this, more than ever now. Maybe if he left a message, Sam would get back to him? So, Dean sat up and grabbed the phone again.

As expected, the phone went straight to voicemail.

Dean took a deep breath, then left a message: “Heya Sammy. Look, I know you don’t want to talk, but I learned something interesting that has me… questioning things. I met a couple guys from Amity Park, Ohio, who claim that their brand of ghosts are actually sentient and there’s both good and bad ones. It got me thinking about things you’ve said in the past, about how maybe we’re too quick to judge and maybe not everything inhuman is bad? I dunno. I don’t want to think that there could be good ones for other creatures, but… Kid made a good point that we only look for the ones that did bad things. Just, I need to talk to my brother about this, okay?” He hung up.

Dean again flopped down on the bed and stared at the ceiling, letting his mind go blank, not wanting to think anymore. How could one kid, one story, cause him to start questioning everything? A kid he didn’t even know, yet for some reason just happened to remind him of his brother. Dean didn’t even know why Danny reminded him so much of Sam, either; maybe he did just miss his brother more than he thought.

Well, their situations were very similar, come to think of it. Danny was at odds with his parents, to the point he ran away and was refusing to contact them. Sam had done that before. In fact, Danny refusing to contact anyone after running away was almost just like Sam when he ran away to Flagstaff. Did his parents and sister think he might be dead, like Dean had thought had happened to Sam? It hadn’t been two weeks yet, but still…

Ten minutes later, the phone rang; Dean scrambled to answer it. “Sammy?” he asked.

“Guess again,” came the voice of Bobby. “Sam did call me though; said ya left a message saying ya wanted to talk about not all creatures being bad or summat? He wanted to know how to remotely make sure you’re not possessed, given how far-out that claim is coming from you.”

“Well, at least he’s thinking like a Hunter,” Dean said. “Is it really that unbelievable that I might be reconsidering things?”

“Well, you do tend to parrot your dad a lot,” Bobby pointed out. “Sam’s not really used to ya thinking for yerself, especially when it comes to creatures.”

Dean frowned, considering that. “Guess that’s a good point…” One of Sam’s favorite insults to call Dean was ‘Daddy’s little soldier’.

“I told him that you called me first, to ask about the Amity Park ghosts, and for what it’s worth I believe you’re sincere and yerself,” Bobby told Dean. “He also said he’ll call you back, but not tonight.”

“Not tonight? Then when?” Dean wondered.

“Hell if I know. But, you better work out this shit going on between you two—it’s not right, seeing you two fight like this, not for so long.”

“Yeah no, I get that,” Dean said, wilting a little. He hated this stalemate between him and Sam. “I’m trying though, really!”

“Are ya? Because from what he says, it seems like the opposite.”

“What?” Dean asked, confused.

Bobby sighed. “My advice: just listen for once. Let him tell you his thoughts—without immediately dismissing them, whether you agree or not. Consider his feelings, not just yours. Can you do that?”

“Eh, I guess,” Dean said awkwardly.

“You better. Now, sorry to cut this short, but I gotta go research cursed objects for some Hunters in Seattle—see ya, kid.”

“See ya, Bobby.”

Dean hung up and flopped onto the bed once again, glancing forlornly at the stormy weather outside the window, then at the clock. Ugh; still a full hour until that waitress’s shift was over. Well, Dean supposed he could write in his own hunting journal until she showed up—after all, these Amity Park ghosts, including the possibility that some might be good, should definitely have an entry in it.

Dean joined William and Danny for the inn’s complementary breakfast the next morning, which unlike dinner was self-serve buffet style from a table set up by the entrance to the same dining room. It was an impressive spread—scrambled eggs, bacon, sausage, pancakes, french toast sticks, waffles, bagels, pastries, home fries… Dean was honestly in awe; for the price of the inn, he had definitely not expected a breakfast like this! Maybe the low price was because it was clearly haunted; the pipes had rattled way too much to be natural.

As Dean sat down at the same corner table the trio had the previous night, Danny, seated across from Dean, laughed when he saw how piled-high Dean’s plate was. “See?” he said to William, who was beside him closest to the wall. “I’m not the only one with a food mountain!”

William sighed. “You’re allowed to go back for seconds, you know,” he said fondly.

“FOUND YOU, BABYPOP!” someone suddenly shouted, and Dean jumped back as a teenage girl appeared out of thin air beside the table, hands on the table’s edge and grinning happily. Her skin was a slightly-glowing pale blue and she was floating. Her ponytail was literally fire. Green fire.

Dean instinctually grabbed the nearest salt shaker, tore off the top, and threw the salt at her, in a little too wide of an arch and hitting Danny as well. Her ponytail sparked slightly, likely due to the fire-salt combo, and Dean frowned. Was this one of those strange Amity Park ghosts? Was she potentially a friendly ghost? Dean decided to see how things played out.

The girl stared at Dean with a look of incredulity. “Rude, much?” she said, before flickering slightly; the salt on her fell onto the floor.

“Hey, you got salt in my hair,” Danny complained as he messed up his hair in a poor attempt to remove the salt. “Ember, what are you doing here, and why are you looking for me?”

“Um, you’ve been missing for like four days, Dipstick, why wouldn’t I be?”

“How do you know it’s been 4 days?” Danny wondered, looking confused. “Wait, were you waiting for me or something?”

“Uh, yeah! I left the Zone on Friday wanting to have some fun, but you weren’t there! But your friends didn’t know where you were either so I figured I’d wait because you typically don’t leave without telling anyone!”

“Wait, hold up,” Danny said, a little on edge. “What do you mean, ‘have some fun’?”

“You know, fight,” Ember said, as though it should be obvious.

Danny stared at her for a moment. “Wait... Are you saying you come to Amity Park to intentionally pick fights with me? That’s why you cause property damage and chaos?”

“Uh, yeah? That’s how I can get your attention!” Ember hopped back slightly and summoned a pink guitar out of nowhere. “Now come on, let’s play!”

“Fighting isn’t play, Ember.”

Now Ember was the one staring at Danny in confusion. “It’s not? You don’t have fun when we fight?” She dismissed her guitar, looking sad.

“I mean…” Danny shifted awkwardly. “I guess fighting you is more like sparring than serious fighting… but if you wanted to spar, you could have just asked, you know. Maybe schedule them so you’re not disrupting school? And fight in the park or someplace that doesn’t cause property damage?”

Ember stared at Danny with wide eyes. “You’d be up for that?”

“Well, sure, I guess,” Danny said slowly, looking like he wasn’t quite sure what was going on. Neither did Dean, frankly; a ghost requesting a spar? A ghost requesting anything? These Amity Park ghosts really were something!

“Really?” Ember said, eyes shining with happiness. There was definitely a human-like intelligence and cognizance in those eyes that Dean had never seen in a ghost before; Danny had been right about these ghosts of his being sentient, Dean was now certain. That kind of emotion in the eyes couldn’t be faked, glowing or not.

“Yeah… Hey, um, is it just you doing this for fun, or are some of the others doing it too?” Danny wondered.

“What, you mean seeking out fights with you?” Ember asked, and then she phased through the table to get to the empty seat spot near the wall on Dean’s side of the table, across from William. She reached to Danny’s plate and stole a slice of bacon off it, to Dean’s incredulity—ghosts could eat?

“Yeah,” Danny confirmed.

“Hmm…” Ember said, nibbling on the bacon a little. “Dunno, maybe. I mean, Youngblood definitely, but that’s kinda obvious, he’s like 6, all he does is play… Kitty and Johnny too maybe? Except for if you interrupt one of their dates, then they’re serious… The other regulars don’t really like you though I guess.”

“But… you do?” Danny asked, seeming confused.

“Of course, Babypop!” Ember said happily, as she stole another slice of bacon. “We’re friends, Dipstick.”

“...We are?”

“Not sure what you’re so confused about,” Ember said casually, though Dean had a feeling that Ember was well aware that Danny had not realized she saw him as a friend. “So, why are you in this rinky place with your teacher and some hot dude?”

Dean did a double-take. “You think I’m hot?” A ghost thought he was hot. Was that a good or bad thing?

“This is Dean,” Danny said. “He’s a Hunter.”

“Hey! Don’t just go telling everyone that,” Dean said with a scowl. “Especially to ghosts!”

“What, got a problem with us?” Ember asked edgily, though with a teasing lilt.

Dean considered that. “Honestly? Not sure,” he admitted, deciding it would be best to be upfront about that. “Up until last night, I only knew of the ghosts you call ‘shades’. You know, the ones that don’t really talk, and tend to be angry and one-track-minded. So this is all kinda new territory for me.”

“Eww, shades,” Ember said, scrunching her nose. “They give ghosts a bad name… So anyway, Babypop, up for a spar?”

“Um. Sure, but, maybe later? First Dean’s going to show me how to take care of a shade!” Danny told her.

“I am?” Dean asked. Did this kid somehow think Dean had offered to take him on the hunt? Well… if he could sense ghosts, that would be useful… Eh, sure, Dean would go along with it.

Ember’s green eyes lit up, literally. “Oooh, forget the spar, that sounds more interesting! I’ve never actually seen a shade before, but I’ve heard stories…” She turned to Dean and demanded, “Teach me too!”

Dean took a moment to consider that, then decided, “You know what, what the hell, why not.” He was already teaching one kid that he was pretty sure wasn’t all human (the white salt peppering Danny’s black hair had mysteriously vanished when Dean had looked away), so why not teach a ghost too? More interaction with her would also let him learn more, make a final judgment on the Amity Park ghosts—more proof for his dad, if he ever told him about this encounter (Dean recalled how disappointed his dad had been with him after that Shtriga got away, how his dad reiterated then that no dangerous creature should be left unaddressed, and his dad definitely thought all creatures were bad—shades could be left alone sometimes, but Dean had a feeling that the Amity Park ghosts would be classified differently in his dad’s mind). Well, he’d tell his dad about teaching some kids from Amity Park, but he just had to be sure not to tell his dad about the fact the two were supernatural.

“Awesome!” Ember declared. “So, what’s the story behind this shade you’re hunting?”

“Wait one moment,” William said. “Danny, I’m supposed to be taking you home.”

“Oh come on. Please?” Danny asked.

“It should only take today,” Dean offered. “You can get him back tomorrow.”

William sighed. “If it were the weekend, that would be a different matter. However, there’s school to consider.”

“So?” Danny said.

“Danny, you’ve already missed three days in a row,” William said with a mix of patience and exasperation. “I can’t let you miss more school just to… go on a hunting trip.”

Danny frowned, then his eyes lit up—literally—and he grinned slyly. “Fine. Let me do this and I’ll go back willingly,” Danny said. “If you don’t, I’ll just run away again, and you know you won’t be able to stop me.”

“And I’ll help make sure of that,” Ember said matter-of-factly.

William frowned, and considered that for a moment, looking torn—probably knowing he shouldn’t allow it, due to both school and the danger (although, he didn’t mention danger? Well, they were from Amity Park), yet also aware that he stood no chance of forcing these two do do anything. Dean was a mix of impressed and wary at the two teens’ team-up.

Dean decided to help out. “Hey, you can come too,” he told William. “I know you gotta be curious.” He didn’t know that, but Dean figured it was a good bet.

William took a moment to answer, then conceded, “I suppose I am curious, and it seems Danny is being stubborn, so I suppose I’ll take you up on that, if only to keep an eye on him.”

“Great! Thanks!” Danny said with a grin.

“So, what’s the deets on this shade?” Ember asked excitedly.

“Well, we don’t know much yet, but she seems to hang around a bridge and kills people,” Dean explained.

“Kills people? Really?” Ember asked, seeming confused.

“Well, yeah,” Dean confirmed. “That’s the kind of ghosts I hunt—the dangerous ones that hurt people.”

“Yeah, I actually have a question about that,” Danny said. “How is a shade killing people? I thought shades were incorporeal, and not strong enough to overshadow people?”

“Well, they sure as hell can’t overshadow people as far as I know,” Dean said, “At least, not for long—rumor has it the stronger ones can for very short bursts, but not enough to pretend to be someone, like your kind apparently can. That’s something demons do. But stronger shades, especially when they’re especially emotional, can manipulate their environment some—telekinesis, bursts of energy that can make them material for a moment, et cetera. Some can even physically manifest for short periods of time, though it’s still pretty obvious they’re ghosts since they clearly look dead. Often they’re a bit deformed, usually with their hands becoming claws, which can hurt if they manage to manifest enough to use them; some have weapons, too.”

“Oh, that makes sense,” Ember said. “Ghosts in general are highly reactive to emotions, both ambient and their own, so it makes sense they’d strengthen a shade too, especially since, or so rumor has it, shades usually just have one or two emotions, usually from their death time. If something triggers that emotion, makes sense that they could get stronger.”

“So, if the police reports all say the deaths were suicides, she probably pushed them off the bridge?” Danny ventured. “Maybe out of anger?”

“Sounds about right,” Dean said, impressed by their reasoning. “Ghosts—er, shades—from what I know are generally stuck in their moment of death, and the violent ones tend to be obsessed with getting revenge and stuff… I guess it’s because they’re not, how’d you put it last night, ‘fully formed’?”

“Yeah, shades are basically just fragments of people stuck here,” Ember said. “They don’t have their full mind like us full ghosts do.”

“‘Full ghosts’. Ugh, still can’t believe that all this time I’ve been dealing with only partial ones…”

“Hey, in some ways the partial ones are more dangerous,” Ember said. “Like, they apparently frequently actually violently kill people, which, what the fuck? If one of us started killing humans, at least to the point they notice, the Observants would be on our asses like wildfire!”

“The what now?” Dean asked. Was this yet another new type of ghost?

“The Observants. Ghost Zone law system, basically,” Danny explained. “Most of the Zone is lawless, but they have a few laws they enforce.”

“Yeah, if someone’s killing enough for humans to notice, they’re not gonna have a good time,” Ember said. “Jack the Ripper can tell you that—he’s currently locked up, though they keep giving him parole for some reason, even though he breaks it every time…”

“Wait what? Jack the Ripper’s a ghost?!” Dean declared. “And in Ghost Jail?!” Ghost jail was a thing. These ‘full ghosts’ had a legal system. Killing humans was illegal, meaning they had morals. This just got more and more fantastical!

“Yup. Shades aren’t their jurisdiction though—unless they make it into the Zone and fully form,” Ember informed Dean. “So, how do you plan to get rid of it? I mean, I assume you’re probably not shoving them through a portal; currently it’s really rare to get shades wandering into the Ghost Zone, Spectra would be complaining something fierce if there were an influx, she’s the one who has to deal with all their psych problems.”

“Psych problems?” Dean asked, wary. These types of ghosts with psych problems?

“Yeah, ghosts usually retain memories of their time as a shade, unfortunately,” Ember said forlornly. “Basically, most human-based ghosts actually form as shades first, if they’re not in a place with high ectoplasm, but most of us are lucky to get sucked into a portal before anything bad can happen. If not though, their minds rapidly deteriorate more and more as they’re stuck in their moment of death for who knows how long, their psyche rapidly deteriorating the longer and longer they’re a shade leading to the kind of violent tortured ones you know.

“When a shade that deteriorated enters the Ghost Zone, they’ll fully form, which means they regain their mind. The memories are spotty after a certain point of deterioration, but they might have flashbacks. And if they go explore the human world and learn they did something really bad… well, usually if they were in their right minds they wouldn’t have done that, you know? So they’re kinda traumatized…”

“Even more reason to help them move on before that can happen,” Dean said.

“Definitely,” Ember agreed. “So, what’s the plan for that? How do you force a shade to move on?”

“Purify the bones, apparently,” Danny said.

“Oooh, like with a spooky occult ritual?” Ember asked, perking up.

“Well, I dunno if it counts as that, since it’s pretty simple,” Dean said. “Basically, you put salt on the bones, since it’s a pure element, and then burn it. That disrupts the energy tying the shade to its bones, and with nothing physical here for the shade to hold onto, it moves on.”

“Oh, so since there’s not enough ectoplasm for it to hold form and keep the ghost around, it binds itself to the bones instead, I guess that makes sense,” William said.

“Exactly,” Dean said, even though he had not thought of that before—it did make sense, though. “Anyway, so, yeah. Once we find where the shade’s body is buried, we salt and burn it, then the shade moves on.”

“Cool! So, you provide the salt, I’ll provide the fire!” Ember declared, which confused Dean a little; she did have fire for hair, did she maybe have fire powers too? Amity Park ghosts might, as far as Dean knew. Ember continued, “Oooh, this is gonna be—Oh shit there’s one here!” Ember stared at something past Dean with wide glowing eyes.

“Shit,” Danny said, eyes glowing too, looking in the same place.

“What?” Dean asked, looking where they were and seeing nothing.

“I don’t see it either,” William admitted.

The lights began to flicker, and then all of a sudden a ghost—shade—was a short distance away, flickering in and out of visibility, a translucent monochromatic man in his mid twenties with scraggly hair and torn bloody clothes, covered in bruises and wounds. He was staring right at them, and did not look happy.

The rest of the guests fled.

“Crap,” Dean said, looking around for a salt shaker, then realized he’d wasted it on Ember.

The ghost screeched and flew towards them, full of malice. This was it; this was how Dean was going to end. Ember screamed.

Suddenly, the shade slammed into a curved wall of green and dissipated, much like salt would have done. Danny’s eyes were glowing and his hand was outstretched, glowing the same green as the shield. His hand stopped glowing, and the shield vanished.

“What the hell was that!?” Dean demanded. That was definitely more than ‘ecto-contamination’, that was a full wall of ectoplasm!

“Ectoplasmic shield,” Danny said as the glow in his eyes faded. “And a ‘thank you’ would be nice.”

“Okay, fine, thank you, but, what the hell? Are you one of those Amity Park ghosts too?! And where’s the shade?”

“Uh. The shade ran away,” Ember said. “It looked like he was weakened a lot so probably won’t come back soon?” She seemed unsure.

“If it works like rock salt, which it looked similar to, probably an hour or so before she’s strong enough to manifest again,” Dean told them, trying to remain calm, “But, can we get back to the fact that someone I thought was human with just ecto-contamination can put up a shield made of ectoplasm? Also, don’t think I haven’t noticed you just up and stop breathing sometimes.”

Danny winced. “Dammit, I thought I got better at that,” he mumbled. He then sighed. “Okay, fine. I lied about the ecto-contamination. That’s a thing, but not what I have. I’m still human, just… not all the way.”

“And just what the hell does that mean?”

“I’ll tell you in a minute,” Danny said, nodding to the door; the day hotel clerk had rushed in and was heading towards them. Dean tapped his foot impatiently; he wanted explanations now! But, he understood why it needed to wait.

“Are you all okay!?” the clerk called, rushing over. “I am so sorry about that; he attacks anyone wearing a leather jacket—Nick at the desk last night should have warned you…”

“Well, he didn’t,” Dean said, miffed at that. That isn’t something someone should forget!

“Again, I am so sorry… How did you get rid of him though?” the clerk Judy asked, curious.

“Salt,” Dean answered, figuring the clerk should know a way to protect herself that a human could use. “Salt can ward off ghosts for a while; salt rings can trap them, throwing salt at them will dissipate them. He’ll be back though.”

“Good to know,” Judy said. “We’ll keep plenty of salt handy from now on—in the meanwhile though, could you remove your jacket so he doesn’t return? It’s only if a man is wearing it that he shows up.”

Dean sighed. “Fine,” he said, removing the jacket. “So, can you tell us more about this ghost? You can permanently take care of them by salting and burning their bones, which purifies them and forces them to move on. We’re actually in town to investigate the deaths that keep happening at the old bridge, pretty sure something’s haunting that too.”

“The suicides?” the Judy asked. “You think that’s actually a ghost?”

“Yup,” Dean said. “That many occurring there, all being travellers? That can’t be a coincidence—but first, back to the one that has a beef with leather jackets.” Hopefully he was buried nearby and not far away—inn ghosts could be tricky like that.

“Ah, yes. Well, it happened in the ‘80s,” Judy explained. “His name’s Jim Rueben, he was a local. He died up in room 308; we don’t rent that one out. There’s plenty of old news articles on it, if you want to learn more details, but basically he caught his wife cheating on him with some traveler, the two of them got in a big fight, and Jim ended up dying. He’s haunted this place ever since.”

“Let me guess: the guy who killed him wore a leather jacket,” Dean concluded.

“No, you misunderstand; the wife killed him. The man got away—though yes, he did wear a leather jacket.”

“And the wife?”

“She fled too, and was never seen again; rumor has it she went with her lover.”

“Damn,” Ember said.

“Language,” William chided; Dean almost laughed at the teacher instinctually scolding a ghost for her language.

“Well, that explains his anger towards men in leather jackets,” Dean concluded.

“Definitely!” Judy said. “Well, if you excuse me, I must get back to the desk—good luck with the ghosts!” With that, she left.

After Dean was sure she was gone, he rounded on Danny. “Okay, so don’t think I haven’t forgotten about the ‘not all the way human thing’. Explain,” he demanded.

Danny sighed. “Fine. You can’t tell anyone this, but, I’m actually a weird hybrid thing, result of a lab accident—part human, part ghost.”

“What? You can’t be both alive and dead at the same time,” Dean said without thinking, even though that honestly wasn’t that far-fetched, arguably tame, given some of the other things he’d seen in his life as a Hunter. He didn’t agree not to tell, though, not yet; the kid seemed okay, but Dean couldn’t yet be 100% sure. Keeping this a secret meant keeping it a secret from his dad and Sam, after all—well, keeping it secret from his dad might be necessary regardless.

“Well, I am,” Danny said with a small pout. “I know it doesn’t make a lot of sense, but that’s how it is.”

Dean considered that. He was still skeptical, but… “Well, I’ve encountered a helluva lot of strange shit that doesn’t make sense, so I guess I can live with that… Lab accident, huh? Like… a superhero?”

Danny blushed. “Ah. Yeah. Kinda.”

“He can transform into a cool ghost form!” Ember announced.

“Ember!” Danny said with a scowl.

“What? He clearly knows you play Hero. One quick internet search of Amity Park will have articles pop up about the town’s ghostly superhero-slash-menace ‘Danny Phantom’. He’s seen your glowing eyes, and literally all that changes is your hair becomes white and your costume changes. And you glow. Not super great as well as disguises go honestly, yet somehow works…”

“Probably because no one knows a human-ghost hybrid with separate human and ghost forms is possible,” William supplied. “Especially because there’s only one.”

“Well, there’s a second, actually, but he doesn’t live in Amity Park and I don’t want to reveal his identity,” Danny told them. “But, yeah. Both cases involved accidents with Ghost Zone portals, which not many people play around with.”

“Didn’t you say your parents opened one?” Dean recalled.

“Yup,” Danny said. “That’s the one that did it. Technically, they just built it—I turned it on by getting electrocuted inside it, because apparently portals need a sacrifice to open! Who knew? Not my parents, apparently… and they still don’t know that. The ectoplasm blasting me at the same time is what made me into this weird hybrid instead of straight-up dying, ectoplasm can reanimate things but it also formed a ghost because technically my soul had detached, it was just still inside my body, and then both parts fused again. Thus, hybrid.”

“That… is a lot to process,” Dean concluded. “Like, wow. You’re like… Shoemaker’s ghost or whatever.”

“Who?”

“The guy with the cat that’s both dead and alive.”

“Schroedinger,” William corrected.

“Yeah that dude. You’re like his cat, but human.”

“Ghost,” Ember corrected.

“Human,” Danny corrected back.

“Only partly.”

“Mostly.”

“Babypop, you can fly in human form. You got some human in ya still, but it ain’t half-and-half. Sooner you embrace your more awesome part, the better.”

Danny frowned. “I wouldn’t call part-dead ‘awesome’...”

“No? Despite the cool powers?”

“Well… I guess the powers are cool,” Danny admitted. “But being part-ghost and part-human, no matter how much of each, just makes me a freak! I’m enough ghost that if any of the town’s ghost hunters fount out they’d probably just treat me like a ghost and hunt me, which is why I gotta hide my powers when in human form, but I’m enough human that I can’t even go to the Ghost Zone to get a break from all that stress because half the ghosts hate me and treat me like crap solely because of it. That’s not fun.”

“I don’t think that many hate—”

“They do.”

“Well, I don’t,” Ember said confidently. “Kitty, Johnny, and Youngblood don’t. Sidney doesn’t—he’s been really worried about you too, Babypop.”

“He has?”

“Uh, duh. Two days in a row missed of school? Friends and sister all worried about not knowing where you were? So not like you. Thought you got yourself kidnapped or something.”

“Oh,” Danny said, looking guilty.

“You should really call them.”

“Yeah… I will. After food, though,” Danny told her, and Dean was reminded of his own feud with Sam.

Dean was fascinated by the whole conversation between the two. The little friendly argument really struck home that these Amity Park ghosts were not like any supernatural creature Dean had encountered! Ember had been genuinely worried. She had been teasing. She had shown affection, and comforted Danny when he got upset. There was just no faking that kind of human emotion; not even demons could do it that well. Dean was still a little wary, but… Well, he could give her the benefit of the doubt, for now.

Danny’s situation was also fascinating as well. Dean was a little miffed at Danny for lying at first, but Dean understood why he did—he was no stranger to lying for his own protection, after all. A half(?)-ghost not wanting to admit such to a Hunter until he was certain he wouldn’t be wasted for it was perfectly reasonable. But a lab accident with a machine his parents built… Oof. Talk about being dealt a bad hand!

Plus, Dean owed Danny now—after all, Danny may or may not have just saved Dean’s life, or at least prevented an injury. The ghost—or rather, shade—had reacted similarly to that ecto-shield as it would have to a salt blast; hopefully that meant it would be gone a while…

“Hey, Ember?” Danny quietly asked a little nervously, once his plate was clear (with help from the ghost). “You said Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were worried.” (Those must be his human friends and sister, Dean figured) “What about my parents? Did they notice I was gone this time?”

Dean paid attention to that; ‘this time’? Meaning, the kid had run away before, and his parents hadn’t noticed?

“Dunno,” Ember said with a shrug as she nibbled on one final slice of bacon. “I mean, I was invisibly hanging around your place a lot, waiting for you, but they were mostly working in the lab and I am definitely not going to willingly hang around down there, especially when they’re working on anti-ghost weapons again.”

“But you have ghost hearing,” Danny pointed out, which Dean was curious about—ghosts could hear better than humans? Well, these ghosts, that is.

Ember sighed and looked at the table. “The only thing related to you I heard them mention was that Phantom hadn’t shown up around town in a few days, and some theorizing about what Phantom might be up to. Nothing about your human form.”

“Phantom is what the town calls his ghost form,” William explained, apparently noting Dean’s curious look.

“So they still care more about hunting my ghost half than they care about me,” Danny sorrowfully concluded, and… oof, did that hit a sore spot in Dean. How many times had Dean felt similarly growing up? Felt that his own father cared more about hunting and finding his wife’s killer than he cared about his own sons? Although, Dean’s dad would’ve known if one of his sons vanished for a few days—well, unless he was away on a hunting trip, but that was different.

Dean noticed that neither Ember nor William tried to correct the boy on this, instead both looking unsure what to say.

So, Dean said something. “Hey, I’m sure they still love you,” he assured the boy. “My dad gets busy with work sometimes too, and there’s been times he left my brother and I to fend for ourselves when we were your age and we thought he forgot about us. But, he always came back in the end.”

Danny scoffed. “The only times they really notice me is when they think there’s a ghost involved, or they’re scolding me about my bad grades and school absenses—they don’t even bother to ask why my grades fell, or try to help, they just tell me that ‘Fentons get A’s’ and demand I do better. Honestly, I wonder if it’s even worth trying to get good grades anymore—I’m not gonna ever get as good as they want, and that’s the only way to make them think I’m not a fuck-up.”

“You’re not a… ‘fuck-up’,” William said, stumbling a bit over the word, as though he was reluctant to say a curse in front of the kid even though the kid said it first. “You’ve been doing much better lately, especially given your… extracurricular activities.”

“No, I haven’t,” Danny said sullenly.

“You have,” William insisted.

“I don’t turn in half my homework.”

“But what you do turn in has vastly improved from the start of the year. And you turn in a lot more, too—the first few weeks you barely turned in anything.”

“Only because I was accidentally phasing through every pencil I tried to hold,” Danny said, sounding upset. “I know you didn’t know about my powers then, but school started just a week after the accident and it was still really difficult to control them, took more than a month to just barely get a handle on them. And I was getting like no sleep because I had nightmares like every night those first few weeks.”

“Low energy levels can make powers go wonky,” Ember semi-helpfully chimed in.

“I had no idea you were struggling so much,” William said sadly. “Although that does explain all the dropped beakers and pants incidents…”

“Pants incidents?” Dean and Ember both asked curiously.

“Jinx; you owe me a soda,” Ember said, teasingly sticking her tongue out at Dean.

“Can’t you just stick your arm through a vending machine?” Dean asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Then, get me ice cream or something, I dunno. Now, what’s this about ‘pants incidents’?”

Danny sighed. “So at first, my intangibility and invisibility only sometimes extended to my clothes. Intangibility was the biggest thing that kept accidentally activating, besides the eyes. Extrapolate from there.”

“It happened so often we teachers thought it was on purpose,” William admitted. “My apologies; if I had known—”

“But you didn’t,” Danny cut his teacher off. “I didn’t tell anyone. Only Sam and Tucker knew at that point, because they had been there during the accident. You were only basing things on what you knew at the time.”

“I know; logically, I know. Doesn’t mean I don’t feel a little guilty anyway.”

There was then a brief quiet that Dean interrupted by saying, “Well, if we’re all finished eating, who’s up for some ghost hunting? I mean, shade-hunting?”

Chapter Text

Willam was frankly unsure how he had gotten roped into hunting a shade, which was very different from the ghosts he knew, yet somehow he had… He told himself that he was just helping out so he could keep an eye on Danny, although William couldn’t deny he was curious too, even if this was a very sketchy situation and might involve illegal things—well, definitely involved illegal things, given the law would claim they’d be desecrating a grave, not purifying it.

They met Dean outside after letting the clerk know they’d be staying an extra night—the first part of this was research, during which they’d find out the identity of the ghost, and the second part, apparently, was salting and burning the bones, which happened at night because generally the law looked down upon doing that. William wasn’t sure if he’d do the second part, but he didn’t mind helping with the research portion, especially as, being an English teacher (at least, that’s what he studied to be, even if the haunted school’s lack of applicants forced him to teach other subjects too), research was his specialty.

“The hell are you wearing, kid?” Dean asked with incredulity, looking Danny up and down. “There’s snow on the ground!”

Danny wore the same outfit that William had found him in, the blue t-shirt and jeans—they had been washed in the bathroom sink the previous night and left to dry overnight, while Danny had slept in sweatpants borrowed from William and the t-shirt gotten from that rest stop.

“What about the sweatshirt we got at the rest stop yesterday?” William reminded Danny.

“It’s kinda ugly,” Danny said, then shrugged. “Besides, cold doesn’t bother me anymore. Honestly, this temp feels nice.”

“Okay, fine, but isn’t that kinda suspicious?” Dean pointed out. “You too, fire chick. Your outfit’s worse—and seriously? Floating? This ain’t Amity Park!”

“Ugh, fine,” Ember said, moving to stand on the ground.

“Perhaps a sweatshirt and hat would be good?” William suggested.

“Oh yeah,” Dean agreed. “The skin color and hair—”

“Are fine,” Ember said. “I went on a music tour and no one clocked me as non-human. They just think the skin’s a pigmentation disorder, and the flaming ponytail is just a cool mod.”

“Yeah, biggest problem might be fans,” Danny said, looking her over. “We should probably get you a disguise.”

“Right. First stop, clothing store,” Dean decided. Both of you at the very least need jackets.”

“But—” both began, but Dean cut them off.

“Hunting 101: Don’t be suspicious!” Dean told the two firmly. “No jackets in near-freezing weather is suspicious!”

“Okay, okay, sheesh,” Ember said with an eyeroll.

“Now, first,” Dean said, opening the trunk of the Impala. “You’re gonna need weapons.”

William gasped upon seeing the trunkful of all types of weapons and occult-looking items. None were the safer type of ghost-specific weapons found in Amity Park; in fact, William was pretty sure that some were illegal.

“Cool,” Ember and Danny said simultaneously, eyes aglow.

“Why do we need weapons?” William wondered, mildly unnerved.

“Well, we’ll need them later, in case it attacks,” Dean said. “Once we approach the grave, the spirit usually shows up—before we go shopping we’ll drive by the woods to make sure you can shoot okay with the rock salt guns, if not, iron works too, I have some—”

“No need,” Danny said. “I can shoot some ecto-blasts at it.”

“And I have an ecto-pistol in my car,” William said. At Dean’s surprised look, William smiled and told him, “We live in Amity Park, remember? Everyone carries some sort of anti-ecto-weapon.”

“Right… I guess that makes sense for a town like yours…” Dean trailed, looking a little disturbed at the idea of a whole town carrying ghost defense weapons.

“You can have one too,” Danny said, summoning an ecto-pistol out of seemingly nowhere. He shrugged and explained, “Some weapons can short out ghost powers, so I carry a few pistols too just in case. You can keep it,” he said, holding it out to Dean. “It’s quieter than a gun and won’t hurt humans much more than a bee sting—you can even use it to get ghosts out of people if they’re being overshadowed, or I guess ‘possessed’ as you call it. Which shades can’t do, at least not long enough you’d need to force them out, but if you ever encounter one of our ghosts that’s misbehaving that’ll work.”

“Uh, correction,” Ember said, pointing her finger upwards. “It’s rare, but stronger shades can sometimes temporarily overshadow people for longer than just a few seconds too. I think the longest recorded was just over an hour? At least, if I remember correctly what Kitty told me.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “Well in that case, even more reason to have this.”

“Uh, thanks,” Dean said, accepting the weapon. He flipped it over in his hands, examining it curiously. “This looks like some weird space-age fantasy crap.”

“But it works,” Danny pointed out. “And is quiet with barely any recoil. Try it out.”

“Oh what? You?”

Danny laughed. “No, on a tree or something, it’ll just leave a small burn but that’s all.”

“Oh, like one of those laser guns in Star Wars or whatever? Okay…” Dean held it out and took a shot, hitting a nearby tree with a small ‘pew’ sound. He stared at the little burn mark for a moment, then relaxed his arm and looked at the gun again. “Holy shit. It basically is one of those laser guns. Sammy’s gonna freak when he sees this! Does it need to be recharged, or what?”

“Depends how much you use it and what kind of environment you’re in,” Danny explained. “They can self-charge via absorbing the ambient ectoplasm in an ecto-rich environment like Amity Park, but there’s also ecto-charge cartridges you can use to recharge it if you’re outside of that. It should have like 300 shots per cartridge? If you run out just swing by town and you can get more, my parents sell them but I can get you some no charge.”

“And is it fully charged now?”

“Should be, since I’ve had it on me,” Danny said, then blushed. “Ghosts, er, kinda radiate small amounts of ectoplasmic energy… I don’t give off as much as a regular one, but still emit enough to keep it charged.”

“Huh. Interesting… So, how do you fight? You said something about… some sort of blasts?”

“Yeah, ecto-blasts,” Danny explained. “They use the same energy as the shield I made. There’s a beam form and a ball form…” He held out his hand and shot out first a small beam and then a couple of balls, similar to the shots from the pistol. “I can control the size, but usually I stick to small ones since the bigger ones use up more stamina and can cause more property damage.”

“Dude that’s awesome! Can all of your type of ghosts do that?!”

“Yup!” Ember answered. “Some of us have better attacks though!” She summoned her guitar and strummed a note, sending a wave of ectoplasmic energy at Danny.

Danny immediately blocked it with a shield, then grinned and shot an ecto-blast at her, which she dodged; Danny then lunged forward and tackled her, and soon the two were tussling in the air, very violently.

“Should we be concerned…?” Dean asked.

“No, no, this is tame for them,” William informed Dean. “Although, usually Danny isn’t in human form…”

“That violence is tame!?”

“Ghosts have an enhanced healing factor,” William explained. “What are fatal wounds to humans are mere annoyances to them, with the exception of anti-ghost weaponry like the gun he gave you. Danny’s healing factor isn’t to the same level as a full ghost’s, but it is still significant.” At least, he assumed so, as he had occasionally seen Phantom fly away with injuries, with Danny only occasionally appearing slightly injured the next day—although it made William wonder just how bad the initial wounds had to be to be still there, albeit small, the next day, as he definitely did not have as many as the news caught Phantom receiving.

“And how significant would that—holy shit! She just—that’s a fucking crater, he—he’s standing up and smiling!? And getting right back to the fight?! The hell?”

William sighed. “And that’s why Amity Park has ghost insurance,” he said. “Thankfully the crater’s in grass this time…” he trailed, then yelled, “DANNY! EMBER! STOP PLAYING AROUND AND GET BACK OVER HERE!”

“Sorry!” both called at once and zoomed back over within seconds, both grinning as they alighted onto the ground in front of William and Dean.

“That was playing around?” Dean asked incredulously. “You… What the hell is not-play in that case?!”

“Danny once completely leveled a building,” Ember told him matter-of-factly.

“That was a doghouse,” Danny hurriedly clarified.

“Still a building, still was leveled.”

“Most ghosts are not nearly as powerful as these two,” William explained to Dean, sensing the man was worried. If he recalled correctly, the GIW classification system, a booklet of which they handed out to the public, had assigned them both numbers slightly above 7, wheres the vast majority of known ghosts listed had been below a 5.

“Good to know,” Dean said weakly. “I’m just glad they’re on our side… You got some sticks and grass in your hair, kid,” he told Danny.

“Oh, thanks,” Danny said, moving his hand up, then paused and dropped it before just going intangible, after which all the dirt, sticks, and grass on him fell away.

“Damn, that’s useful,” Dean said, then frowned. “You’ve got some nasty-looking bruises though… And is that green blood?!”

“Give them five minutes and they’ll be gone,” Danny promised, then looked at the small cut on his arm, bleeding green. He licked it off, then turned the arm to show no wound. “Cut’s already gone, see? Green stuff’s a blood-ectoplasm mix, part of being a hybrid.”

“Ghost healing is based in part on emotion,” Ember, who also had some bruises albeit in shades of green, explained. “We were just playing so the injuries won’t last long.”

“Yeah… Can’t say the same for my clothes though…” Danny trailed, sitting cross-legged in the air and examining a singed hole on his jeans leg. “Guess I need to buy new pants too…”

“Should’ve switched to Phantom form,” Ember said. “Since the ecto-based suit just regenerates.”

“You also should’ve so as not to be suspicious,” William said. “Your identity is supposed to be secret; surprisingly no one saw, but that still was reckless.”

Danny winced. “Yeah… not my smartest move…”

“Neither is sitting in the air, kid,” Dean pointed out, then told them, “We don’t want people realizing either of you are ghosts, or really just inhuman in general, so stay grounded and don’t act suspicious! Got it?”

“Got it!” both Danny and Ember said simultaneously, both shifting to standing on the ground.

“Right… So, I’ll drive,” Dean decided. “Teach gets the passenger seat, you kids get in the back.”

“Great! Let’s go, then!” Ember cheered, then she hopped into the backseat of the Impala, not bothering to open the door first.

“Hey! What did I just say about not acting suspicious?” Dean called.

Danny grinned, eyes glowing slightly.

“Oh no,” Dean said in a warning tone. “Don’t you da—Hey!”

Danny hopped into the backseat from the other side of the car, again phasing through the door instead of opening it.

Dean sighed in frustration and slammed the trunk closed. “Damn teenagers.”

William chuckled. “You get used to it. Dealing with two, even if they have ghost abilities, is much easier than dealing with a full classroom of them.”

“Yeah? Well, good thing I ain’t planning to go back to school anytime soon!” Dean said with a laugh.

William smiled. “That’s what I said at your age, too,” he informed the boy. Originally he had been a sound tech who travelled around with various bands, but whereas that was great when he was younger it took a toll as he got older, so in his thirties William had decided to return to school for a teaching degree and ‘retire’ from that life in Amity Park—which was supposed to be a calmer environment, but, alas, ended up being the opposite, especially this past year.

The first place the group went was a thrift clothing store, where William nearly had to intervene when Ember and Danny got into a small fight about fashion that ended up nearly becoming physical, all over whether or not Danny should get a pair of black skinny jeans instead of his usual boot-cut blue jeans—eventually a compromise was reached with him ending up in boot-cut black jeans.

Ember then convinced Danny to wear a black t-shirt with a red flaming skull image (apparently the logo of a band called ‘The Offspring’, which William was only vaguely familiar with) on it instead of his usual lighter-colored shirts, whereas she picked out a similar one albeit with a Blue Öyster Cult symbol (after William pointed out to her that her usual crop top was not the best choice for the weather). Dean found both teens leather jackets without added insulation because they refused to wear normal winter jackets, claiming regular ones were too warm. Danny had also swapped the rest-stop shoes for a pair of black boots more appropriate for the slightly snowy ground outside.

“You two look good,” Dean complimented as they put Danny’s previous clothes and shoes in the car, although William thought the three of them together looked a little like a biker gang in their matching leather jackets and black outfits (although Dean technically did wear dark blue jeans, not black); he didn’t say that though.

“I chatted with the thrift store owner, she knew some more stuff about the ghost,” Dean said. “Told me she remembered the first death there—it was in the early 80s, somewhere between 82 and 85, in winter. Didn’t know the name or anything, she was just a middle-school kid then, but said that it was a woman in her 20s and ruled a suicide but the townspeople weren’t quite sure. Something about her husband having recently been killed by a lover. So, next stop, library.”

“Library?” Danny asked.

“Yup. Store owner says county records are archived there, first thing we do is look through the death records for anyone fitting those parameters,” Dean explained. “Then we can use their archives of the local papers to trace those deaths.”

“So a lot of research goes into this,” William concluded. “Well, that’s certainly something I have experience with! Where is the library?”

“Conveniently, the library’s just that way,” Dean said, gesturing down the street—indeed, there was a large brick clearly-historic building across the street and a few buildings over, the sign in front of which read ‘library’.

The library was an impressive size, two stories with a basement. The library assistant at the front desk directed the quartet to the basement level, which housed the archives. The birth and death records were on floppy discs that could only be read using an older computer set up nearby the stacks of them. The newspapers were in a mix of bound periodical form and microform. No one else was down there; which was expected, given it was early on a Tuesday.

“Man, it would help if we knew what this woman looked like to narrow it down some,” Dean said with a sigh as he copy/pasted the final name from the document onto a spreadsheet, then clicked ‘print’. “24 names!”

“Well, it is a rather large town,” William said, as he accepted one of the copies of the list—or rather, one copy of one of the two lists. It only had the women’s names and dates of death; once they figured out which died at the bridge, they’d look for a matching obituary that hopefully had the cemetery listed.

“Really? Seems kinda small to me,” Danny said.

“Compared to Amity Park, which is technically a small city, yes; but for a regular town, especially one that’s mostly historic, it is substantial,” William explained.

“Okay, now according to the librarian there’s both a county paper and a smaller local paper,” Dean told them. “The county one is on microfiche, and the local is bound; I’ve divided it into two lists, one for ‘82-‘83 and the other for ‘84-‘85. Ember, you and I will look through the local, William and Danny, you two can get the county, that okay?”

Danny made a small murmur, as though he was about to ask something but opted not to—William knew that sound well from his years of teaching. William turned to the boy, who looked unsure. “Everything okay?” William asked Danny.

Danny blushed and glanced towards the microform machines. “Ah, well… I, um…”

“You don’t know what that means, do you?” Dean realized.

“I know what it means!” Danny bristled. “Micro-fish is the plastic sheets. But, um, I…”

“Microfiche,” William corrected. “I can show you how to use the machine,” he offered, guessing that was the issue. The boy was only 14, after all, and as far as William knew he didn’t do a lot of research into old newspapers and journals.

“Thank you,” Danny said with some relief and embarrassment.

William showed Danny how to find the right slides in the long rows of fiche cabinets, and then how to operate the old machines while Ember and Dean pulled the large bound issues with the dates needed and stacked them on a large table nearby the machines before sitting down and looking through them. Once William was sure Danny could correctly use the machine, William set up the second machine and got to work; his was for ‘82-‘83, and Danny’s was ‘84-‘85.

“Hey, I think I found something,” Danny said excitedly after just over an hour of looking, gesturing to the microform machine. “And it’s really something!”

“Well? Don’t leave us hanging, kid!” Dean said.

“Paper dated Sunday, December 15, 1985. Says that the prior day a woman’s body was found below the Willow Bridge, identified as Dana Shu—Skin—” Danny squinted at the screen. “S-C-H-N-E-E, I think it says?”

“That’s likely; Schnee is German for ‘snow’,” William supplied, surprised that this was how his high school foreign language elective was finally coming in useful.

“Okay, so, Dana Schnee,” Danny said, struggling a little with the pronunciation. “Paper says it’s a suspected suicide. But, get this—she was on the run, a suspect in the murder of her fiance, Jim Rueben, two days prior… Why does that name sound familiar?”

“Isn’t that the shade from the inn?” Ember recalled. “The guy whose cheating wife allegedly ran off with her lover after killing him?”

“Seems the legend got twisted a little,” William mused. “I suppose that’s inevitable with word-of-mouth stories.”

“So, what, the chick killed her fiance and then offed herself out of guilt?” Dean said, flipping through the bound paper he had, likely looking for the same date.

“That seems to be what the paper thinks,” Danny confirmed. “But… I dunno.”

“You think there’s something more to it?” William questioned.

“You know, the woman at the thrift shop did say that the townspeople weren’t quite sure it really was a suicide,” Dean recalled. “And a suicide due to guilt doesn’t really fit the ‘vengeful spirit’ narrative, anyway.”

“The other suicides there have all been men, right?” Ember said. “All travellers? Wasn’t her lover a male traveler?”

“You’re thinking that she was killed by her lover,” Dean concluded. “Yeah, that sounds like it’d create a vengeful spirit.”

“So did he kill her fiance, too?” Danny wondered. “Or was it her?”

“Who knows,” Dean said. “What matters most is that we know who she probably is. Now, we look for obits, see if any say where she’s buried. Jim, too. A picture would be great, too—still would be good to confirm it’s actually them first, don’t want to dig up the wrong graves. The local paper only has a photo of the bridge.”

“Same for the county paper,” Ember supplied, apparently having found the article while they were speculating.

Unfortunately, the obituaries only stated the home where the services would be, not the graveyards, but that did point them in a direction to go—thankfully they were both held at the same place. However, the articles did not have photos.

“Well, this sucks,” Dean said. “Not only are there no photos, but neither lists any relatives we can go to to try to get any… Searching ancestry records is a bitch…”

“Would there be an engagement announcement?” William wondered. “Sometimes local papers have a community section that announces such.”

“That is a brilliant idea,” Dean said.

So, the group got to work searching those—thankfully, they found that rather quickly.

“Got a photo!” Ember cheered. “Good call,” she told William. “The guy is definitely the ghost at the inn, right?”

“Yeah, definitely,” Dean agreed.

“So, now that we know who they are, we go to the funeral home?” Danny confirmed.

“No,” Dean said. “First, we get some lunch.”

Chapter Text

“Well, guess that’s a bust,” Ember said, scowling and standing with her arms crossed, frowning at the building in front of them. Danny couldn’t help but think she looked pretty cool like that. Did he look cool too? His outfit was very similar.

“This is the right address? You’re sure?” Danny confirmed. The building in front of them was in ruins; a fire had clearly taken it many years prior.

“Yup,” Dean said. “3145 Ash Street. Sure lives up to its name.”

“So what now?” Lancer wondered. He really looked the odd one out, wearing simple light brown slacks and a long moss-green buttoned-up coat with a light grey scarf and matching winter hat.

“Well, we can try the church the services were held at,” Dean suggested. “St. Augustine’s, I think it was? Not sure if they’ll have records but ‘85 wasn’t that long ago, might be a priest or someone who remembers Dana Schnee—paper said she was a devout follower.”

So, that’s what they did—or rather, tried to do.

Dean pulled the Impala up to the old church near the edge of town, a massive clearly-aging one with a fair amount of grassy land and a dirt parking lot around it. Everyone got out and started walking to the door, but when they got to the foot of the steps leading up to it…

“Ow!” Danny said, stumbling back and holding his nose. He’d run right into what felt like a wall!

Ember poked at the air in front of her a few times, then put her palms flat against whatever it was and tried pushing. Danny too reached forward, feeling the wall, which felt a little spongy with more pressure, like it was pushing back. It was weird; kinda like a ghost shield, but… a little different somehow.

“What’s wrong?” Dean asked, turning around, a few steps ahead. Lancer followed suit.

“Um. I don’t think we can go in?” Danny questioned. “Guess they have some sort of ghost shield?”

“But why would a random church have a ghost shield?” Lancer wondered.

“Ghost shield?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, they’re like my ecto-shield I made, but bigger, manmade using tech,” Danny explained. “Usually they’re see-through green, though, not invisible, and usually my human form can get through it…”

“Hallowed ground,” Dean said with realization. “Churches tend to be warded against certain supernatural creatures, including shades—must work on full ghosts too. And, er, human-ghost hybrids.”

Danny frowned. “So, I can’t go in churches anymore?” he concluded.

“Guess not, kid. Or, some of them, at least—depends on how superstitious the priests who built it were, so mostly it’s just the older ones like this one that get the supernatural-protection blessings because newer generations don’t believe as much in ghosts—look around the door, seems there’s even symbols carved in.”

“Huh. I had no idea warding like that was possible,” Danny admitted. Hopefully his parents didn’t learn of it!

“Family’s not religious, I take it?” Dean asked curiously.

“Not really,” Danny said. The only ‘religious’ thing his family did was technically Christmas, but all his memories of that were disastrous fights.

“Huh. I had no idea churches blocked us out,” Ember said.

Danny scrunched his brow in confusion. “Really? Aren’t you like 40 years dead?”

“30, dipstick, and it’s not like I had any reason to go near any before.”

“Wait, you’re older than me?” Dean asked. “But you look 15!”

“I am 15,” Ember replied. “For all intents and purposes, at least. Ghosts don’t age, physically or mentally, unfortunately.”

“Huh. Still, in all that time, you haven’t been near a church?” Dean asked.

Ember shrugged. “Ghost Zone’s got none, and neither does Amity Park, so no.”

“Wait, your whole city doesn’t have any churches?” Dean asked with confusion. “Isn’t it, like, a population of 40k or something?”

“48k, down from 57k last year,” Lancer revealed.

“Down from—How do you lose nine thousand people in a year?!” Dean demanded.

“A lot of people moved away after this really bad ghost temporarily sucked the entire town into the Ghost Zone,” Danny revealed. Honestly, he was surprised the town hadn’t lost more of its population after the Pariah Dark incident.

“A ghost sucked—you know what, I don’t want to know,” Dean decided. “No churches is still weird though.”

“I suppose it is,” Lancer ceded. “We do have religious people, but the churches are all in the neighboring towns. Same for temples and synagogues. Makes traffic quite obnoxious on Sundays.”

“And they don’t think to build some in town?”

“They tried a few times when the town was still new, but things always happened before they were finished,” Lancer revealed. “Eventually the town decided it must be a curse, and they haven’t tried since, even after more than a century.”

“You know, I bet it’s the high levels of ambient ectoplasm in the air,” Danny realized. “If church warding repels ghosts, which are made from ecto, too much ambient ecto in an area might also repel church warding. Like water and oil repelling each other.”

“Maybe if they weren’t using the warding blessings it would work, but I’m guessing anyone building one in Amity Park even today would definitely try to ward against ghosts,” Ember added on.

“Eh, makes as much sense as anything in Amity Park does, I guess,” Dean decided, still looking rather perturbed. “Anyway, me and William will go see if anyone’s in here, you two just… don’t be suspicious.”

“Danny, I would recommend using the time to call your sister,” William suggested.

And with that, the two entered the church.

“He forgot that neither of us have phones with us,” Danny muttered. Well, he could call Jazz later, it would be fine.

Ember frowned. “What, they expect us to just wait here with nothing to do?”

Danny shrugged. “I guess?”

“Ugh, that’s BS. Come on, I saw a candy shop in town that sells old fashioned stuff, let’s go there.”

“Isn’t that kinda a far walk?” Danny asked.

Ember laughed. “So we fly, dipstick,” she said, floating up a little.

“But that’s being suspicious!"

“Tch. Seriously? Do you have ghost powers or not?” Ember turned invisible.

“Oh, right,” Danny said, blushing, floating too; Ember grabbed his hand and Danny too activated his invisibility.

The two flew back to town, landed in a narrow alleyway, returned to the visible spectrum, then emerged onto the main street and ran to the small candy store, Ember tugging Danny along by the hand.

Danny couldn’t help but wonder why he was letting Ember take him places, or even had agreed to let her tag along in the first place (well, technically Dean had let her; Danny suspected that originated as a ‘keep your potential enemies close’ thing but he was clearly warming up to her). Then again, apparently Danny’s perception that the two had been enemies prior had been incorrect, and in retrospect he realized that was true. Fights with her had been different from the other ghost fights, more like a frenemies or rival situation… maybe not even that. It was actually fun to fight her, more like play than anything, now that he thought about it.

Had Danny made a ghost friend without even realizing? Ember sure seemed to think so. According to her, they had been play-fighting, which was apparently a thing ghosts did with each other for fun (and truthfully, it was fun, with her); she had assumed Danny knew that, not realizing that unlike other ghosts he hadn’t gotten an instinctual rulebook for all the ghost stuff. Plus, she had come to look for him, outside of Amity Park, because she was worried. She sure felt like a friend today… No, not just felt like one, was one. Danny had made a ghost friend… A close ghost friend? Why did Danny already feel like he was as good friends with Ember as he was with Sam and Tucker?

…Ancients, what would Sam and Tucker think about this development?

It wasn’t just about the friend aspect either; Danny realized he felt like he could truly be himself around Ember in a way he couldn’t be with Sam and Tucker. Danny wasn’t sure if it were only in his head or not, but he often got the feeling that Sam and Tucker were uncomfortable with his ghostliness. They said he had ghost powers. They danced around the fact that he’d died, revived partly or not, even though they’d witnessed it. They seemed fine when he used his powers in Phantom form, yet seemed uncomfortable when Danny casually did things in human form. They never said anything, and Danny knew they supported him, but… He still felt bad whenever he saw their subtle flinches or glances away, as though they hated the reminder that he was truly part ghost rather than being a regular human with a separate ghost form as a ‘superpower’.

“Hey, you want anything, Babypop?” Ember asked.

Danny gave a start. “Huh?” he said, snapped out of this thoughts.

“Little bit of a space cadet today, huh? Come on, pick something—look, there’s not just fun old candies, there’s a bunch of fancy homemade chocolates and fudge and cookies and things!”

“Oh. I don’t have—”

“Forget about that. It’s my treat. In fact, we’re getting a big bag of it to share with the others!”

“We are?”

“Yeah, so help me pick stuff out. Whatever you want.”

“You sure?” Danny asked, eyeing the prices. “That’s gonna cost a lot.” Did she even have money? Or did she plan to steal it?

“I’ve got more than plenty,” Ember informed him, holding up a debit card between two fingers. It had a picture of her logo on it—right, she was a pretty successful pop star despite being a ghost, so it made sense that she would have money. Somehow it hadn’t occurred to Danny that a ghost might have such; perhaps he had some biases to work out, if he just assumed she would steal… Then again, even if she did, that would make him a hippocrite, wouldn’t it? He had stolen something just two days prior (did that count the same though? It had been a sandwich, because he was hungry…)

“Hey,” Ember said, shaking Danny’s shoulder. “You’re zoning out again. Everything okay?” She sounded worried.

“Yeah, I’m fine,” Danny told her. “Just, thinking about things.”

“Wanna talk about it?”

“Maybe later,” Danny said.

“Kay, I’m gonna take you up on that though,” Ember said. “But now, candy!”

So, Danny selected some vintage-style candies as well as different types of fudge, fancy chocolate-covered pretzels, and other such things, and after Ember paid (and gave the cashier an autograph after she recognized her), the two snuck into the alley again, turned invisible, and flew around until they found a flat roof to sit on.

“Well, it’s later,” Ember said, unwrapping a package of what looked like small round dots attached to a long strip of paper. She picked one off the paper before popping it in her mouth.

“What are those?” Danny wondered.

“Candy buttons!” Ember said. “Never had them before? They’re good! Basically pure sugar and food coloring.” She handed the paper to Danny.

Danny followed Ember’s example and popped a button off, then popped it in his mouth. He licked his lips and grinned. “That is good!”

“Right? Can’t beat sugar and food coloring.” Ember took out another package of candy buttons for herself and opened it, this time tearing a button off with her teeth before asking, “So, what’s up with you, Babypop?”

“What?”

“You said we can talk about things later. It’s later.”

“Oh. I dunno, just… a lot has happened in the last few days, I guess. And there’s a lot that I’m confused about,” Danny admitted, having a feeling that Ember wasn’t about to let this go.

“Such as?”

“You, for one?”

“Me?” Ember asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Yeah… We’re friends?”

“Of course we are.”

“Yeah… I… I guess I didn’t realize we’d become friends somewhere along the way.”

Ember scrunched her brow. “Yeah, I realized that this morning. How didn’t you realize that? We play all the time!”

“I didn’t realize ghosts sparred as a form of socialization. I always thought you and the others were serious,” Danny admitted. “I… guess I don’t really know as much about ghosts as I thought, or… or about being one. In retrospect it did feel like sparring, like fun. I guess we did become friends somewhere along the way. It’s just… I guess I really didn’t think ghosts could be friends before? I mean, Sidney taught me differently, and I know logically there’s other good ghosts, I’ve seen them in the Ghost Zone, but I guess I still thought friendship wasn’t really possible, Sidney just being an exception…” Clockwork, too, Danny supposed, but he was an Ancient, and was more akin to a god than a ghost.

“Why would you think a halfa couldn’t be friends with a ghost?” Ember wondered, looking truly baffled.

“It’s not… just that,” Danny admitted. “I meant, in general. Most of my experiences with ghosts haven’t been too great, outside of the Christmas Truce and them helping against Pariah Dark. The way I grew up… Well, you know my parents. You’ve heard what they say about ghosts. I grew up hearing that stuff, hearing that all ghosts were bad. Even after I became part ghost, even after learning that there’s as many shades of morals with ghosts as there is with humans, I guess there’s still been some biases—I mean, think about the first human-origin ghosts I encountered before you, other than Sidney: Desiree, Walker, Skulker, Technus, Spectra, Plasmius—yeah he’s a halfa too, but still a bad guy. And Lunch Lady and Box Ghost weren’t bad per se, but still aren’t the best examples of nice ghosts. So that only really reinforced what my parents told me.”

“Which is why you instantly interpreted me as an enemy when we first met,” Ember realized.

“Yeah,” Danny confirmed. “Although to be fair, you were hypnotizing people.”

“Only some of them,” Ember pointed out. “And, I know that’s wrong now; besides, it didn’t feel so great, knowing that the popularity wasn’t earned. Now that it is, it feels better. But, back to you.”

“Right… so, obviously my views have been changing, and again I know there’s good ghosts, have met many of them, but I guess I still have some predjudices I need to overcome.”

“Hmm…” Ember hummed. “Well, you think we’re friends now, right?” she asked.

Danny grinned. “Definitely!” Then he frowned. “But that’s part of what’s confusing. Obviously you’ve been thinking that for a while, but I didn’t even realize. Again, I just didn’t know that friendly sparring between ghosts was a common ghost thing. And looking back, it did feel friendly, except the first time. You definitely feel like a friend now, a good one. So I can’t help but think, who else feels that way? How much did I miss because I just didn’t know, because a part of me can’t get my parents’ words out of my head?”

“Is that why you hate your ghost parts?” Ember asked.

“I don’t hate my ghost parts.”

“Yeah? So then why are you so insistent that you’re more human than ghost when you know otherwise?”

“Because I am…” Danny weakly trailed, even though he didn’t really believe that; he hadn’t for a while.

“Babypop, you gotta stop lying to yourself.”

Danny sat there quietly for a bit, munching on his sheet of candy buttons. It was denial, Danny knew that, he logically knew that. He logically knew that when he laid everything out, he objectively had more ghost traits, or mixed traits, than human ones. He was still part human, but… but it wasn’t mostly. Too much of Phantom blended into Fenton for that to be true. He logically knew that. Yet part of him still refused to admit that. Refused to admit that such a large part of him was now one of the creatures his parents despised.

“Right, guess we’ll work more on that one later,” Ember decided. “So, tell me, why did you run away?” She asked as she unwrapped a bag of hard mini banana-shaped candies the bag called ‘Bananaramas’.

Danny sighed. “I dunno; I was just really emotional I guess. I was already feeling pretty crappy after Valerie broke up with me, and then at dinner my parents were going on and on with their bigoted anti-ghost speech again… This time I actually spoke up, and we got in an argument… I mean, it wasn’t that bad, but it’s just… I guess all the stress of everything in general’s been accumulating, and I just couldn’t really take anymore? So, I ran. Just kept flying until I couldn’t fly any more.”

“What did they say?” Ember wondered.

Danny shrugged and looked away. “Same ol’, same ol’.”

Ember frowned. “No, there’s more to it…”

“No there isn’t.”

“Then why do you seem scared?” Ember challenged.

“I’m not…”

“You’re projecting your emotions, Babypop,” Ember pointed out, and Danny winced. Right, that was something ghosts could do, and Danny had started accidentally doing recently, only one more thing that showed he was more ghost than human—that was probably why he felt more comfortable confiding in Ember than his human friends, if he were honest. He hadn’t told his human friends about that ability yet.

Danny clenched his fists, crumpling the leftover paper from the candy buttons, trying to reign the projection ability back in, and then looked down at the rooftop they sat on. “Okay, fine,” he said; Jazz always said it was better to talk than hold things in. “They said I was ‘talking crazy’ and stuff, and last time they thought I was crazy, back when Youngblood was invisibly taunting me, they tried using… unconventional methods to solve the issue.”

“‘Unconventional methods’?” Ember repeated.

“Yeah, they built this… I dunno what to call it, it was this big machine that spun really fast and they strapped me to it? Dad said it would ‘spin the crazy out of me’.” Danny shivered slightly at the memory. “It was terrifying, I sometimes have nightmares about it. There was other things they wanted to try too, but Jazz convinced them to do a family camping trip instead, during which I resolved things with Youngblood, but… But I’m afraid to go home. What if they try something like that again?” Danny wondered, panicking some as he thought about the possibilities. “What if they try something worse? They have a subbasement with a dungeon and literal medieval torture devices! Stockades, an iron maiden—What if they use those? Dad tried to use them before, mom stopped him, but what if she doesn’t? What if they lock me up in one of the cells, like I’m in some sort of insane asylum? It’s all ghost-proof so it’s not like I can escape!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up, what? Dungeon? Torture devices?! Why the hell would your parents have those!?”

“In case they catch a ghost,” Danny explained.

“Dude, that’s messed up, even for ghost hunters,” Ember said, looking disturbed. “And you’ve been living in that place?”

“Well, yeah…” Danny trailed, feeling a little uncomfortable. It wasn’t that bad, was it? “But, they’ve never used any of the dungeon stuff on me…”

“No, just a spinning device that traumatized you, that’s soooo much better,” Ember said sarcastically. “Pretty sure that literally qualifies as torture. And when they’re not torturing you, they what, forget you exist? Because I’m pretty sure when I left, they had no idea you weren’t even in town.”

“Well, they just get caught up in their work sometimes…” Danny trailed. “They still love me, I think.”

“You think?”

“They say they do… Of course, once they find out I’m part ghost, that might change…” Danny shook slightly, holding back tears.

“Hey, come here, Babypop,” Ember said, scooching over and slinging her arm around Danny’s shoulder. Danny leaned into her, and a few tears escaped.

“Why do I feel so bad lately?” Danny asked. He felt like his emotions were all over the place lately, mostly negative, like a dark cloud was constantly hanging over him.

“Wild guess, but maybe because your home life kinda sucks?”

“Blunt.”

“Just saying it how it is. Even if they don’t know you’re a ghost, and don’t know you’re Phantom, you’re still putting up with them spewing hate about your alter ego and species—sorry, ‘half’-species—near-daily. That’s gotta cause a lot of stress. Plus, all their weapons are focused on hurting you, whether they know it or not! And they’ve been getting progressively worse lately, in both the types of weapons and their attitude—we’ve all noticed it.”

Danny winced. Ember did have a point there. A few weeks prior, when they made the ecto-converter engine, Jazz had asked if it hurt ghosts, and Danny’s mom had laughed and replied, ‘You know your father and I don't care about that’; then, his dad added, ‘Yeah! If we hear it screaming, then we know it's working!’. They found the idea of torturing ghosts fun. Would they find it fun to torture Phantom if they ever caught him?

Before Danny knew it, he was crying into Ember’s shoulder, with her whispering words of comfort while rubbing his back.

Chapter Text

Meanwhile, Dean exited the church with William, after the elderly priest there told them what he knew about Dana Schnee, expecting to find Danny and Ember waiting there, only to find no one.

“Oh come on!” Dean growled with frustration. “I told them to stay here!”

“No; you told them not to be suspicious,” William said with a small smile.

“I thought that implied waiting, not running off who-knows-where!”

“They’re teenagers,” William said flatly. “And not just any teenagers, ghost teenagers, whether full or partial.”

“Yeah, and?”

“Teenage impulsivity plus powerful ghost abilities is not the best combination.”

Dean sighed. “Guess you’ve got a point there.” He and Sam probably would have dicked around at that age, too, instead of waiting, especially if they had flight and invisibility… It was kind of strange though, that the church blessings would block ghosts but the holy water did nothing. Actually, holy water didn’t affect shades either, come to think of it. Dean wondered how all that stuff worked; it seemed a little inconsistent.

“Just be glad they decided to fly wherever they went and didn’t take the car,” William said with a chuckle.

“Oh,” Dean said, glancing towards the Impala. “Yeah, Dad will turn me into a ghost if I let two teenagers, ghost or not, steal that car, even temporarily… So, what, do we go look for them now…?”

“No, waiting here is probably best; I do trust them to return. They were awfully interested in learning to hunt, after all,” William pointed out as he sat on the church step.

Dean sat down too. “Hey, while I’ve got you alone, I’ve been kinda wondering something,” he began, then hesitated, unsure how to proceed.

“You’re wondering about Danny?” William guessed.

“Yeah. I know he said he’s a hybrid, and I do believe him on that, since he does need to eat and sleep, but…”

“He does seem to be more ghost than human overall,” William acknowledged.

“Yeah. What other ghost traits does he have?” Dean wondered. “Obviously there’s the abilities, but does he have things like immortality?”

William gave pause to that. “Honestly, I am not sure; I’d say to ask him, but… Well, he may not know either, giving this is only a recent development.”

“Recent?” Dean asked; he had been curious as to how long Danny had been ‘half-ghost’, although it being recent should have been obvious in retrospect if his parents didn’t know.

“Yes; last summer is when he was changed.”

“Huh,” Dean said. Well, he really hoped immortality was not a factor, because if so that was going to be a bitch for the kid to come to terms with. Eternally stuck in puberty? Yeah, Dean wouldn’t wish that on his worst enemy. “Would Ember know?” Dean was more curious than anything.

“Perhaps; she does seem to know more about this than him, given their little argument about how much ghost he is,” William pointed out.

“Yeah. He claims he’s more human, but Ember seems to think he’s more ghost, and honestly, I’m inclined to believe her given I have seen ghosts—or, shades—in denial before,” Dean said. Usually, these were more recently deceased ones whose minds hadn’t started to decay yet, and once they accepted that they were dead they’d move on.

“There may be some denial, yes,” William said. “However, it is too soon for me to judge; I only just found out as well.”

“Really?” Dean asked, surprised. From their dynamic, Dean would have guessed that the man knew for a while.

“Yes. Truthfully, I’m still processing it. I’ve known him for half a year, and I’ve interacted with him in Phantom form before, but I had no idea they were the same person until yesterday, as we were driving—a couple cars in front of us crashed and swerved into our lane, and he phased the car right through them.”

“He save your life,” Dean inferred.

“Yes, or at the very least avoided a hospital-worthy injury,” William confirmed. “Not for the first time, either—Phantom has saved many citizens of Amity Park.”

“I thought you said your brand of ghosts don’t usually hurt people though?” Dean asked, frowning. “Both of them and you all claimed that.” They said occasionally one might, but essentially at the same rate a human might.

“That’s correct; our ghosts do have a moral system and most of them will avoid bringing direct harm to people. However, you saw those two earlier, just ‘playing’. Serious fights can get much more intense, and although ghosts may not intentionally kill or cause serious harm, that kind of fighting can cause accidents—floors caving in, structures collapsing, cars getting turned over, et cetera,” William explained. “Thankfully, Danny himself is always very aware of this, and will rescue people during fights even if it brings harm to himself…

“Even if ghosts aren’t involved, he will step in if nearby—often with his abilities, he can get to people before first responders can. For example, a gas line at an apartment complex blew, and when some kids and pets were unable to get out, he easily flew into the fire and rescued them far before the firefighters would have gotten to them. And he once rescued a toddler from drowning, after which he used intangibility to phase the water out of the child’s lungs.”

“Wow. No wonder the town calls him a superhero,” Dean said. He basically was, despite being part ghost—which, as long as it didn’t affect his mind, didn’t seem to be a bad thing at all… Huh. Dean never imagined he’d ever even be thinking that someone being part-supernatural-creature wasn’t a bad thing!

“Well, half of the town,” William clarified. “There are still a fair amount of townsfolk, including the mayor, who can’t see past the ghost aspect, and call him a menace, despite all his good deeds. They see the property damage the fights cause, the road closures, and conveniently ignore that he’s done good deeds, including saved lives, too—or worse, claim the good deeds are him trying to trick people into trusting him before turning on everyone, because in their minds all ghosts are evil no matter what.”

“Ouch,” Dean said with a wince. He could imagine his dad claiming that if told about these kinds of ghosts.

“His parents are in the latter group,” William revealed.

“Double ouch,” Dean said, recalling that Danny had run away because of a fight over that topic, as well as that Danny’s parents didn’t know he was part ghost, let alone Phantom. “That can’t be good for his psyche.”

“Probably not,” William said sadly. “Thankfully, his sister does know and supports him.”

“Well that’s something, at least,” Dean said. He wondered what would happen if he or Sam had any sort of supernatural crap go on with them—would their situation be similar? Would it end up being Dean and Sam against their father with a big secret looming over them? No, that wasn’t a question—Dean was certain that it would end up that way. Dean was sure Sam would support him, and he would support Sam, but their dad? John Winchester would sooner kill his kid than have his kid be anything supernatural, of that Dean was sure. Were Danny’s parents like that too?

Actually, there was something else Dean was wondering on that front. So he then asked, “Speaking of Danny’s parents, why are you encouraging him to call his sister, not his parents, and to do it himself, instead of just calling her yourself?”

“This entire situation is a very delicate matter,” William said. “If you haven’t noticed, he’s not a normal kid; if he runs, it will be rather difficult for a human to catch him again, and I do believe he is still at a high risk of running. I fear if I make the wrong move, I could make the situation worse.”

“And the ‘wrong move’ is contacting his parents?”

“Correct. His sister will be able to help mediate the situation. If he doesn’t contact his her today, I will call her, but I wanted to give him the chance to first. Me directly contacting his parents, though, I fear will only cause him to lose trust in me and run.”

Dean frowned. “But he agreed to let you take him home?”

“No. He agreed to let me take him back to Amity Park,” William revealed. “Whether it is to his home or to a friend’s is up to him, but honestly… I’m still not sure if it’s even in his best interest to return to his home. His reluctance to do so seems very atypical, leaving me with concerns.”

“Could it have to do with their views on his, er, ‘alter ego’?”

“That is likely a factor, yes,” William confirmed. “Perhaps that is the only reason, but I want to be sure. His parents are rather… eccentric, and I wouldn’t be surprised if more was going on… It may be unfounded, but I’d rather err on the safe side. Call it a gut feeling.”

“Gut feeling, huh?” Dean said. “Well, in my line of business, gut feelings can save lives, so definitely don’t ignore that. Honestly, from his discussion with Ember at breakfast, and the mere fact that he ran, what, a few hundred miles to get away after an ‘argument’, I’d say things aren’t too hot.”

“Flew, actually,” William said. “Apparently, he flew in a random direction until he collapsed, and that’s how he ended up in Philly.”

Dean let out a low whistle. “Wow. That’s… Okay, yeah. Definitely get why you’d want to do some investigating first before returning him there.”

“Indeed…” William trailed.

The two sat in quiet contemplation for a few minutes, then Dean decided to make small talk, while simultaneously learning more about the mysterious town the man lived in. “So, what’s it like, teaching in a town full of ghosts?”

The two talked for a while, William telling Dean more about Amity Park and Dean in turn telling William about his time on the road with his dad and brother.

Somehow it ended up with Dean telling William about his fight with Sam, including his feelings on the matter… Dean was a little embarrassed about that, not having expected the accidental therapy session, but he couldn’t deny that it did seem to help. Of course, that didn’t make it better—the only thing that could do that would be for he and Sam to make up—but it did help ease the pain a little.

“BOO!” came a simultaneous shout, and suddenly Ember and Danny appeared out of thin air in front of Dean and William, who both jumped slightly and shouted even though the two weren’t that close, instead floating a short distance away due to the church’s barrier.

“Hah! Gotcha!” Ember cheered; she and Danny both giggled upon seeing the adults’ reactions. Ember held a large rainbow twist lollipop in her hand, which she then took a lick of; Danny was holding one of his own.

“You sure did,” William said as he caught his breath, hand over his heart.

“You got candy?!” Dean proclaimed, ignoring the little prank and trying to pretend he hadn’t been spooked by it. “Also, ground exists.”

“Yeah. Don’t worry, we got some for you too,” Ember said, as she and Danny moved to ‘stand’ on the ground. “There’s a big bag of it in the car.”

“You took the Impala?!” Dean proclaimed. Had they driven it around before Dean and William left the church?

“Of course not, doofus,” Ember said with a scoff, as though the idea were totally ridiculous. “We don’t have drivers’ licenses yet. We just flew, then phased the bag into the car when we got back.” Her tone indicated that she assumed that ought to have been obvious.

William sighed. “And where did you get the money for that?”

“We plead the fifth,” Danny said with a mischievous grin, then took a lick of the lollipop.

William frowned and crossed his arms. “Danny.”

“Relax, dude, I have money,” Ember said with an eye roll. “I bought the jacket, remember?”

“You know, I was wondering where a ghost got money for that, too,” Dean said.

“Dude. Not to brag, but my last album was literally an international hit. Between that and merch sales, I make a fair amount,” Ember told them. “Not as much as you’d think, but I ain’t paying rent or bills or anything like that, so I have more than plenty for some candy and clothes.”

“Wait. You were serious about being a pop star?!”

“Uh, yeah? Get with the program, dude,” Ember told him.

“Right,” Dean said, finding himself a bit embarrassed about how he had dismissed that as a joke—seriously though, wouldn’t people notice a ghost pop star? Then again, Dean had now seen firsthand how people tended to miraculously ignore the strange skin color and fire ponytail, whether because they didn’t notice or didn’t care, so maybe it wasn’t that far-fetched.

“So, what’d you find out about the grave location?” Danny asked eagerly.

“Well, it’s on the other side of town, apparently,” Dean replied. “Yeah, I know,” he said, seeing their looks. “But hey, better than having to search every one, right?” This town had eight cemeteries for some reason. Eight! Thankfully the priest had attended the funeral, and remembered which it had been.

“But we might still need to do that for Jim,” Danny pointed out.

“Hey, let me have some hope!” Dean scowled, then sighed. “But yeah, the priest didn’t know anything about him. Hopefully he’s in the same graveyard, though.”

“We’re gonna have to walk around the whole graveyard to find him?” Danny asked, scrunching his nose.

“Nah; these places have books with plot locations,” Dean said. “No need to search manually.”

“Son of a bitch!” Dean swore. “What do you mean, the book’s gone!? You don’t have a digital copy or something!?”

“No, sorry,” the graveyard keeper said apologetically. “We have some volunteers working on reconfiguring the book of plots, but it’s a very old and very large cemetery with over two thousand graves so that may take a while.”

“Fine. Well, do you happen to know where ones buried during—”

“No; I’m new,” the graveyard keeper interjected. “The, er, previous guy is the one who burned the book, actually, it’s why he got fired… stole a body, too, and destroyed the gravestone. Whole area smelled like rotten eggs after, too…”

“Excuse me?” Dean asked, raising his eyebrows. That better not be either of the ones they were looking for! Definitely suspicious though; demon, maybe? Sulfur aligned with that. Well, that could be investigated a different time; the demon was surely long gone by now. Dean would report it to his dad later.

“Ah, sorry! Ignore that,” the graveyard keeper said. “Your loved ones are perfectly safe here! That was an isolated incident and we have since increased security.”

“Ah, that’s great,” Dean said with a fake smile. He said it happily but secretly meant it sarcastically; increased security would make it more difficult to do two salt-and-burns. “Well, let’s go, then—time to get searching,” he told the other three.

The group left the small building that held the office, bathrooms, and should have contained the book of plot locations, and got to searching; thankfully they had boots, because although the roads and sidewalks were largely clear, the graveyard’s grass still had about two inches (5cm) of it, slightly icy and crunching under their feet—or rather, crunching under Dean and William’s feet.

“I told you two not to be suspicious,” Dean reminded the teens. “Not making footprints is suspicious; or can you not physically do that?” They did have solid forms, but maybe they still had no weight.

“We can do that,” Danny said, and suddenly he had weight again, boots crunching in the snow. “I just hate walking in snow.”

“Yeah it’s annoying,” Ember agreed, her feet also sinking into the snow.

“Yeah, guess floating would be easier, for a ghost,” Dean acknowledged. “Wait, not that area; those graves are too old,” he told the teens as they began wandering to what appeared to be a section with obviously older gravestones, probably from close to when the large cemetery opened in, according to the gate, 1814.

“But there’s something over there,” Danny said.

“And you know this how?”

“I dunno; I can just feel it.”

“I think it’s a Ghost Artifact,” Ember said. “Buried in that grave over there.”

“‘Ghost Artifact’? What, like a cursed object?” Dean asked.

“Eh, maybe, maybe not? All I know is it’s got powerful ecto-energy though. Might be a curse, but could be useful too, you never know!”

“Well, probably best to leave it alone,” Dean told them. “Let sleeping dogs lie, as the saying goes.” He could return later with a warded box.

“But what if that’s what the person who stole the book and body was looking for?” Danny wondered.

“Nah; guy said it smelled like rotten eggs, meaning it was likely a demon, given those bastards leave sulfur everywhere,” Dean told them. “Most likely scenario is someone made a deal to revive a loved one, but it was after the burial so the demon had to come in and remove the traces of the person’s death.”

“A demon?” Ember asked.

“They can revive people?” Danny asked.

“Yeah, but don’t you dare try it,” Dean firmly instructed. “They do it in exchange for owning your soul; not worth it.”

“So the previous gravekeeper was a demon?” Ember asked.

“Nah, more likely possessed," Dean explained. “Most demons don’t have a physical form on Earth, so they possess people. I’ll contact my dad later, see if he can check if there’s a Hunter who wants to investigate it, but chances are the demon’s long gone—and the possessed guy has probably been disposed of.”

“Disposed of?” Danny asked, and Dean couldn’t help but think about how innocent the kid still was, despite having gone through so much in his short career as a superhero (he’d shared stories while they were driving). Despite already being very familiar with Death, he really was just a 14-year-old kid… Should Dean really be telling him about all this, taking away that innocence?

“Yeah,” Dean said, and instead of explaining simply repeated, “Disposed of. Now, let’s go.” He walked towards the area of the graveyard that seemed newer, but not the newest.

“He means the demon killed the guy, doesn’t he?” Dean heard Danny ask Ember quietly as they followed him, footsteps again silent.

“Duh, Dipstick,” the ghost replied, and wow, didn’t that really remind Dean of the dynamic between him and Sam.

Maybe Dean should just go visit Sam in California, if calling wasn’t going to work; last night, Bobby did say that Sam would call him, but it was already 4pm. Well, he didn’t say today, but still…

The group wandered around until they found the section with gravestones listing deathdates of the mid-1980s; thankfully this graveyard seemed to give no choice of plot, just went in order of received, so the grave of Dana Schnee was found much quicker than expected.

“Perfect,” Dean said. “Now we just need to find Jim!”

“Hey, how big is the Impala’s trunk?” Danny suddenly asked.

“Uh. Not super big, with the hidden weapon compartment being there,” Dean said. “Why?”

“Do you think it could fit two bodies?”

“Maybe… why?”

“I was thinking we could grab them now, burn them elsewhere after confirming identity, then put them back,” Danny said.

“And how would you propose we do that in mid day without being caught?”

Danny glanced around, then dove into the ground. Ten seconds later he returned carrying the body of… not Dana Schnee.

“Okay, good idea, but you dove into the wrong grave, doofus,” Dean said with amusement, then watched Danny blush and dive back in. When Danny returned, Dean continued, “Good idea, but bad one too. Shades are bound not just to their haunt, but also to their bones, and disturbing the shade can draw them to it—and they can teleport between the two places. So messing with the remains at this time of day? Not the best idea as she’ll show up and we’ll start shooting and cause a panic—remember, we’re not the only ones here ‘visiting relatives’.” Honestly, the kid was lucky the body he grabbed didn’t have a ghost attached.

“Oh. Good point,” Danny said.

“But,” Dean continued, “We can do the intangibility thing to grab them tonight, definitely a much better idea than hauling dirt, and much faster.”

Dean wondered if Danny and Ember would be up to permanently becoming Hunters, because those powers were perfect for it… Then again, they were teens (well, mentally); could Dean really put a kid through that life? He knew firsthand how it was to grow up that way. Then again, they already were used to fighting, and Danny was even the town’s ‘superhero’... Maybe the two would be up for occasional team-ups?

Then again, if Danny’s home life was really that horrible, then perhaps it would actually be better for him to permanently tag along with Dean… Well, except for the matter of Dean’s dad. Then maybe Danny could join him on ‘solo’ hunts in that case?

As though on the same thought wavelength, Danny suddenly asked Dean, “You know, you’re pretty awesome. Could you show us to hunt other things, too? We can be useful!”

“Like, what, an extended field trip?” Dean asked with amusement.

“Danny, you have school,” William reminded him.

“Then, when not at school,” Danny amended.

“I don’t have school!” Ember asserted, then frowned. “Oh, but I’d have to return to Amity Park like every few weeks, that might be a problem…”

“Oh, right, you need the ambient ectoplasm from either Amity Park or the Ghost Zone,” Danny recalled.

“So do you, Dipstick,” Ember told him.

Danny blinked. “Wait, I do?”

“Ancients!” Ember proclaimed (Dean assumed this was some sort of new teenage slang, as Danny had ‘cursed’ like that too a couple times). “Have you, like, never been away for more than a weekend or something? Yes, Babypop, you need ecto too! Because of the human parts you’ll probably last longer before starting to get weaker, maybe a couple months, but you’ll get weak eventually.”

“Oh,” Danny said. “So I’ll become shade-like even with a human form?”

“Honestly, no clue, it could just be weak powers or something, but you literally bleed green, so do you really want to take that chance? Because it’s not like there’s ecto-pills or something you can take.”

“Why not?”

“Because they don’t exist.”

“I have access to a lab with equipment specifically designed for use with ectoplasm,” Danny pointed out. “Pills of concentrated ectoplasm should be relatively easy to make. Worse comes to worse, we can just fill some milk jugs with it—drinking it’s fine, right?”

“Should be,” Ember confirmed. “Pills would be easier though.”

“You ain’t keeping jugs of ectoplasm in my car,” Dean hurriedly said. Last thing he needed was to have it spill and then have his dad wondering why there was glowing stains in the car. “But, how about if I’m doing a smaller hunt in the state, and there’s no school in session, I can swing by and grab you two to help?”

“Okay!” both teens happily replied. It was a little creepy how often the two simultaneously spoke.

“Cool. That okay with you, teach? Well, on Danny’s part,” Dean clarified; Ember was independent as far as Dean knew.

“As long as Danny does not miss school,” William said. “However, I am not his official guardian. His parents—”

“Probably won’t notice,” Danny interjected. “It’ll be fine.”

“That’s not as reassuring as you seem to think, kid,” Dean said, somewhat worried at how casually Danny said that—and vaguely wondering if he himself had casually said somewhat worrying things at that age, too (after all, his dad frequently left for weeks on hunts while leaving Sam in Dean’s care when Dean was that age, including during holidays like Christmas… come to think of it, that was worrying, wasn’t it? If it had been a different kid going through that… No, Dean wasn’t going to unpack that right now).

“What? It’s true. They probably haven’t even noticed this time, I left for a week once and they were none the wiser,” Danny said somewhat bitterly.

William sighed, then held his cell phone out to Danny. “They might not have noticed, but your sister surely has. Call her.”

“Yeah, Babypop,” Ember chimed in. “She was really worried about you when I asked where you were.”

“You talked to her?” Danny asked, surprised.

“Of course. We’re friends!” Ember said. “Well, I think so at least. She’s interested in learning more about ghost psychology, so most the talk is about that, but we chat about other stuff sometimes… Honestly, she probably knows more about ghost stuff than you at this point; still can’t believe you didn’t realize we were play-fighting…”

Danny blushed and rubbed the back of his head. “Yeah… I can’t believe it either, in retrospect I should have…” he said to Ember, then turned to William and told him, “I’ll call Jazz tonight, okay?”

“If you don’t, I will,” William warned.

Danny sighed. “Okay, okay, I’ll call her tonight.”

“Promise?”

“Yes, promise.”

Dean glanced at the sky, noting how low the sun wast, and then checked his watch. “Okay, as great as this conversation is, we really need to find Jim’s grave, because we’ve got about an hour until sunset and it’ll be a bitch to have to try to read these headstones in the dark,” he told them.

“Oh, that’s not a problem for us,” Ember revealed.

“Well, a bitch for us humans,” Dean clarified, noting that ghosts apparently had night vision; did shades as well? “Also, graveyards tend to close after a certain hour, and if we don’t find him here, we gotta check others—so, get to work.”

Chapter Text

“William? What are you calling for?” Principal Satsuki Ishiyama asked when she answered the phone. “Don’t tell me you’re still stranded.”

“Actually, yes, Danny and I are stuck another night,” William told Satsuki. He had called her the previous night about the snowstorm. “Car trouble, this time. The mechanic ended up having to order a part, and it won’t arrive until tomorrow.”

William was a little unsure what he was doing, why he was lying to Satsuki and allowing Danny and himself to miss school to hunt a ghost of a different type with a man they just met, a man who apparently hunted much more than just ghosts; a part of him was screaming that this was completely irresponsible. However, William was also aware that Danny’s threat about running if William didn’t let him was also very real, and it wasn’t as though William could do much if Danny decided he didn’t want to cooperate… Plus, William couldn’t deny that a part of him was highly curious about how this shade-hunting thing worked; he was invested now.

“Ah. Well, I suppose that can’t be helped. How’s Danny doing?”

“Still refusing to call his parents or sister,” William told her. He had told her the part about Danny running away and being stubborn to return, but that was all. “Honestly, I am more than a little concerned about that; all I was able to find out was that he fled after an argument with his parents, but the way he’s been reacting… well, it seems a little intense for just an argument.”

“I hear you,” Satsuki said. “Do you think there may be reason to get CPS involved?”

“No,” William said. “Not at this point. But I plan to monitor things.” Of course, he wouldn’t call CPS at any point, now that he knew that Danny was Phantom; getting the government involved in a deeper investigation would risk potentially revealing that secret, and as a government organization they would have to contact the GIW due to ecto-involvement. Satsuki surely didn’t know Danny’s secret though, and William was not about to reveal it to anyone without his permission.

“Well, you know him better than I do, so I’ll trust your judgement on that,” Satsuki said. “Please try to encourage him to call his sister, though—she was absent from class today, citing illness, and you know how rarely she’s absent; the worry may be causing health issues.”

William chuckled. “No, I’d say it’s a safer bet that she’s trying to look for him on her own,” he surmised. “I’ll call her myself tonight if he continues to refuse.”

“Good call; for the record, his parents have not called the school asking if he’s been in class. I am unsure if they know he’s been gone.”

“Danny himself seems to have low confidence in that,” William revealed. “It is concerning.”

“Definitely,” Satsuki agreed. “Well, I must go now—see you Thursday, hopefully.”

“Yes, if all goes to plan,” William told her, and then the call ended.

William sighed; he hated lying to anyone, especially Satsuki, but alas, he had little choice in the matter. He flipped his cell phone closed and put it in his pocket before entering the pub the other three were waiting in, which was in-between the bridge and graveyard.

“What did Principal Ishiyama say?” Danny asked William as William joined him, Ember, and Dean at a corner table.

“She was understanding about the ‘car trouble’,” William told the boy. “She is also worried about you—as is your sister, who was absent from classes today, which she rarely is.”

Danny scrunched his nose. “Ugh, bet she’s looking for me.”

“Which is why you should call her,” William pointed out.

“Yeah… I’ll do it when we get back to the inn, promise. Did she say if my parents asked about me?”

William sighed. He could simply say she said nothing, but he didn’t want to lie to the boy about this. “She mentioned that they had not called the school, which I must admit is worrisome.”

Danny wilted slightly. “Yeah, I know. You think they’d realize after almost 5 days…” he trailed, and William had to wonder if his reluctance to call might also have to do with testing how long it would take for them to notice.

“5 days is a lot,” Dean commented, also looking worried.

The conversation paused as a waiter appeared and took their orders while bringing them drinks and asking if William wanted anything; he followed Dean’s example and ordered a beer, feeling like he needed one after such a day—a day which was not yet over, as they still had a ghost’s identity to confirm followed by burning two bodies. William couldn’t help but wonder how his life had come to this.

Dinner went off without a hitch, other than the fact that Dean suspiciously paid using a credit card that was not in his name.

Afterwards they played some pool, during which Ember suspiciously was absent and some of Dean’s shots went in that should not have, netting him a fair amount of cash from bets. That almost started a fight since before betting Dean had played against Danny and lost, making the people think he was bad and causing them to place higher bets than usual, hustling them (which he actually was) but he explained that away as going easy on a child who was brand new at pool, which the people reluctantly accepted. While Dean was playing them, William and Danny played too, though were both incredibly unskilled at pool and didn’t have time to finish their slow-going game before it was time to leave—after all, they had a job to do.

By the time the group of two humans, a ghost, and a halfa left the pub, it was solidly dark outside, despite only being half past 6pm—perfect for encountering a shade that was only seen at night.

The car ride to the old covered bridge was bumpy, down a forested slightly-warped road that was more dirt and stones than asphalt by this point. A light fog drifted in sometime along the way, and William was pretty sure that the ghosts in the car were occasionally turning the car intangible to avoid debris in the road that was difficult for human eyes to see between the darkness of night and the fog, even with the headlights.

They parked a short distance from the bridge, making a k-turn first to face back towards the direction that they’d come from for an easy getaway in case the shade attacked.

William and Dean both stumbled a little on the uneven ground as they got out of the car. They turned on their flashlights, as there were no streetlights on this old road; or rather, the humans turned theirs on, whereas Danny and Ember, eyes slightly glowing, seemed completely unaware that it was even dark out.

The wind whistled, tousling their clothes and hair—well, the humans’, that is. Ember seemed unaffected by the wind, whereas Danny oddly only appeared slightly affected by it.

“It better not start to rain,” Dean grumbled.

“Don’t jinx it!” Danny told him.

“Like it even matters for you, Mr. Intangibility-Removes-Rain. Let’s just get to this.” Dean began walking the small distance towards the bridge, with William and the two teens following.

As they approached, the fog seemed to thicken, almost close enough to a mist to dampen their clothes but not quite. William asked, “Can shades affect weather?”

“What, the fog?” Dean asked. “Eh, kinda. Fog very commonly forms around outdoor ghosts; according to Sam, it’s because ghosts can drop the temperature around them, and that can cause fog in the right conditions, or change fog that’s already there to mist, like what’s happening now.”

“Fascinating,” William said. That also likely explained why occasionally the classroom became colder than usual when Danny was in class; the boy likely didn’t realize he was doing that, if he even realized he could do that at all.

The covered bridge seemed ancient, the rails and covering a decaying wood with chipped red paint, although the actual road portion that their shoes clacked upon seemed a little newer, made of a metal mesh instead of wood, although it was showing some signs of rust.

“I thought you said shades were repelled by iron, so how could it be at a bridge like this?” Danny wondered, and William realized that the boy had apparently opted to float instead of walk, as did Ember—understandable, given the ground was wet and rocky. Thankfully the bridge was covered, thus largely dry, even though water leaked down from the roof in some spots—and even if it were wet, the metal mesh was ribbed to increase traction, making that a non-issue.

“It’s probably steel,” Dean said. “Only purer iron works against shades, steel has too much carbon mixed in. Not sure why, you would think—hey, what did I tell you two about floating!?”

“No one else is around!” Ember protested.

“But it’s still a road cars drive down.”

“Which we’ll see and hear coming from a mile away,” Ember pointed out.

Dean sighed and said, “Okay, point.”

The group came to the center of the bridge, and Danny floated up a little to sit on the shoulder-height barrier. “Whoa, the view is so cool!”

“How can you see it?” William wondered. There was an awful lot of fog in the deep narrow valley, and although there was some moonlight there wasn’t much; William could barely make out the bottom of the ravine.

“Let me guess: your ghosts get better vision too, not just hearing?” Dean hypothesized.

“Night vision,” Danny confirmed. “It’s the same clarity as a human’s, but we can see in the dark, like a cat can, although the colors are a bit different at night. The fog makes it a little hard to see the bottom, but it still looks really cool.”

“Fascinating,” William said, as Dean said, “Awesome.”

“It’d be cool to fly through this valley,” Ember noted.

“Okay, well, you can do that invisibly later,” Dean said. “Right now, we’re looking for a shade, so get off the railing and quiet down.”

So they did, and Dean took out a small boxy device with a row of lights along the top that began making a buzzing sound with the lights lighting up. “EMF meter,” he explained. “It’ll detect the shade if it’s nearby; this much activity means she’s definitely around… though I don’t see her…”

The group waited quietly for a while, walking up and down the bridge for a bit before reconvening.

“I don’t get it,” Dean said. “Where is she? It’s past sundown! We’re on the bridge! The EMF meter is going off like crazy!”

“Maybe it’s too early?” Ember suggested.

“Maybe the EMF reader’s broken,” William suggested.

“Well that’s just awesome,” Dean said sarcastically. Then, he paused. “Wait. Stay here,” he instructed, then walked away from them holding the EMF meter, off the bridge until he got nearly to the car, then made his way back towards them. “I’m an idiot,” he then concluded. “It’s not broken, you two are just setting it off!”

“Sorry,” Ember and Danny said simultaneously, both looking a little guilty.

“Can’t believe I forgot you two are ghosts,” Dean muttered. William noted that this time, Danny did not correct him, rather accepted the use of the term. He wondered if something had happened when Danny and Ember ran off earlier, causing Danny to accept Ember’s insistence that he was more ghost, because Danny seemed a little more comfortable now with his ghost traits and people referring to him as one.

“You don’t need that thing anyway,” Danny told Dean. “My ghost sense went off when we stepped on this bridge.”

“Ghost sense?” Dean asked.

“Yeah, it’s a little flare of energy that lets us know when there’s an unknown or hostile ghost around,” Ember offered. “Mine went off too, so she’s definitely here, just hiding.”

“You have a ghost sense too?” Danny asked, looking surprised.

“Babypop, you really need to sign up for one of the ‘Ghosts 101’ classes at Sidney’s school,” Ember replied. “All ghosts can sense other ghosts, it’s not a halfa-exclusive thing. My sense is my ponytail flaring a little.”

“Wait,” William said, realizing something. “The ghost goes after lone travellers—maybe the issue is there’s four of us.”

“That does make sense,” Dean agreed. “Okay, let’s back up, get far enough away,” he instructed, making a motion for them to move.

Once they were a far enough distance away, back near the Impala, the group discussed what to do; naturally Danny tried to volunteer first, but William immediately vetoed that and said, “I’ll go.”

“Hold up,” Ember chimed in. “This ghost’s beef is mostly with people similar to the guy who betrayed her,” she pointed out. “He was younger and wore a leather jacket. So she’s most likely to go after Dean, just like the one at the inn did.”

“Nice thinking, kid,” Dean said approvingly. “Right, so it’s up to me. You three stay here, we’ll make a salt circle, if she attacks when she sees me, which she probably will, I’ll run here too, we can fend her off and then head to the graveyard, make sense?”

“No,” Danny said. “I can just make a shield, no need to take time to do the salt thing.”

“Yeah but that takes energy right?” Dean pointed out as he opened the trunk of the Impala.

“Yeah, but—”

“Salt’s easier and safer,” Dean determined, holding a large bag of rock salt as he closed the trunk. “Doesn’t take energy, don’t need to concentrate, you’re still blocked if caught off guard—it might not work on your kind of ghosts, but it will for this one, so no need to waste power. Got it?”

“Got it,” Danny said, a little unhappily but with understanding.

“Awesome. Let’s do this, then,” Dean said, and began creating a large circle of salt around the group and the Impala.

Once that was taken care of, Dean moved back towards the bridge, ecto-gun in hand, while William, Danny, and Ember stood at the ready.

William watched as Dean cautiously approached the bridge. As he stepped onto it, the wind picked up and the mist thickened, making Dean nearly invisible through it. William’s spine tingled as the air seemed to chill further, though William wasn’t sure if it was coming from the bridge’s shade or was being unintentionally emitted by the two teens beside him, who appeared to be tense with apprehension—understandably so, as these shades seemed a lot creepier and more dangerous than the ghosts William was familiar with, despite technically being weaker.

There was a loud rattling screech followed by Dean being pushed away by an invisible force; he landed hard at the end of the bridge, but rolled, and the sound of ecto-pistol rang out repeatedly as Dean fired into the mist. He scrambled to his feet and then ran towards the salt circle. There was another screech and the shade reappeared, flying towards Dean faster than he could run.

“Watch out!” Danny yelled, and Dean turned as he ran, firing the pistol again; the shade dissipated with another screech.

Dean panted for breath as he finally reached the salt circle. “Whew!” he said. “That is an awesome gun!”

“My parents do have their moments,” Danny said.

“Yes, they are brilliant inventors,” William agreed. Their parenting skills, on the other hand, were another story.

“Too bad it still only staves it off though,” Dean said. “Still gotta go burn those bones…”

The shade screeched again as it reformed and flew towards them, dissipating again as it hit the salt circle, although all four of them inside the circle still instinctually put their arms over their faces in a block and stepped back, with Danny also adding a small shield to it.

“What, don’t trust the circle?” Dean joked.

“Instincts!” Danny said. “And, hey, you still blocked too!”

“I know, I know, just joshing you,” Dean said with a chuckle. “Anyway, that was definitely Dana Schnee, so let’s get in the Impala and high-tail it to that graveyard!”

As the group hurried into the car, the two ghost teens phasing into the backseat while William and Dean actually opened the doors to climb into the passenger’s and driver’s seats respectively, the shade once again reformed and slammed against the salt circle. The Impala driving over the circle broke it, allowing the shade passage, but she couldn’t stray much further from the bridge and soon the unlikely group of Hunters were safely on their way back to the graveyard.

Chapter Text

“Six guards,” Ember said as she returned to visibility where Danny was hiding with Dean and Lancer in some woods on the outskirts of the currently-closed cemetery (gates were only across the main road entrance and exit; it seemed it hadn’t occurred to whoever constructed it that people might arrive on foot through the woods).

“Damn. That’s a lot more guards than expected,” Dean said with a wince. “Usually these places have, like, two at best, even for a larger one; by adding extra security, I thought they meant maybe one more, if they weren’t lying. Not sure how we’ll be able to get in without being noticed.”

“Must be because of the body the demon stole,” Ember concluded.

“We can knock them out and lock them in the visitor building,” Danny suggested.

“Knock them out?” Dean asked, clearly skeptical. “There’s six of them, all trained adult security guards. There’s four of us, only one an adult experienced in fighting, the other two being teenagers and an out-of-shape teacher. No offense.”

“None taken,” Lancer said with a sigh. “But, don’t forget that these two are not typical teenagers…”

Dean frowned. “Okay… Point. But how—oh,” he said, as Danny turned invisible, then Ember followed.

“Don’t worry; we’ve got this,” Danny said, still invisible.

“I have sleep magic,” Ember revealed.

“Sleep magic, huh? And you, Danny? What are you going to do?” Dean asked, looking in the wrong direction as Danny had moved some.

Danny snickered, causing Dean to turn towards the sound, then regained visibility. “Don’t worry, I can knock them out too, I think.”

“How?”

Danny shifted awkwardly and looked away as he said, “Well, I was thinking that the ecto-shields can be any shape I want, and they don’t need to be breathable if I don’t want them to be…”

“In other words, you cut off their oxygen,” Dean translated, voice flat.

“Alternatively, you can overshadow them,” Lancer suggested. “Just bring them to the building that way, and then Ember can use her sleep magic.”

Danny scrunched his nose. “I don’t like doing that. It feels invasive.”

“Oh, and potentially causing brain damage by cutting off their air supply isn’t?” Dean snapped.

Danny paused at that. “Brain damage?” He hadn’t realized that could cause brain damage!

Lancer sighed. “Danny. This type of thing is why you really need to pay attention in biology class.”

“I do! …Sometimes,” Danny grumbled. “Fine, I’ll overshadow them.”

“Shift to Phantom form for it,” Lancer instructed. “That way there’s no chance of them catching what your human form looks like.”

Danny nodded. “Good idea,” he said, then summoned his rings, which circled him and shifted him into his ghost form.

“Holy crap! That’s awesome,” Dean said. Right; he hadn’t seen Danny in Phantom form yet.

Danny grinned. “You think so?”

“Babypop, your suit really needs an update,” Ember commented.

Danny frowned and crossed his arms. “It’s iconic. My hero uniform.”

“Hey! Is someone there?” a voice called as a flashlight swept towards their section of the woods.

Danny and Ember both automatically went invisible; Danny then grabbed Dean and Lancer’s arms and extended the invisibility to them. The guard’s flashlight swept right over them.

“That is so awesome,” Dean whispered.

Danny quietly giggled and commented, “You say ‘awesome’ a lot’.”

The guard turned and shone the flashlight at them again, eyes narrowed, though still didn’t see them. He turned back around again.

A radio staticed at the man’s waist and said, “Everything okay, Ed? Do you need backup?”

Ed picked up his radio to answer; Danny let go of Dean and Lancer and shot forward, phasing into the man to overshadow him. “Nope, no backup needed! Everything’s perfectly fine!” He said into the radio. “Just was a stray wolf.”

“A wolf? You serious? Pennsylvania doesn’t have wolves,” the other guard replied. “You drinking on the job again?”

“Oh. Um, no, sorry, I meant a fox, always getting the two mixed up!” They had foxes there, right?

“Seriously? Ugh, whatever. Over.” The radio made a beep, so Danny assumed that meant the conversation was done; he clipped the radio back on his waist.

Danny strolled over to where Lancer, Dean, and Ember were waiting. “Hey guys,” he said, then frowned. He put his hand over his mouth and breathed out, the resulting smell very telling. “Eww, I think this guy actually has been drinking on the job.”

“Dude,” Dean said, looking impressed and a little disturbed. “When you said your type of ghosts could easily possess people, I didn’t realize you were serious! Is it exclusive to your ghost form? How long can you stay in him?”

“Er. I dunno. A while,” Danny said awkwardly. “At least, assuming he doesn’t realize; usually they’re in a trance-like state and don’t remember after, but sometimes stronger-willed people will stay fully conscious and try to fight, but that’s less likely if they don’t already know about ghosts. This guy seems really weak-minded though, probably due to the alcohol. And yes, I can do this regardless of form, don’t ask me how, I prefer not to question that too much.”

“Alright, well, get him to the visitor building then,” Dean said, thankfully not pressing further.

“I’ll go grab a guard too,” Ember said, flying off.

Danny hopped into the air too and moved towards the building.

“He can fly when possessing people?!” Dean proclaimed.

“Invisibility!” Lancer reminded Danny; right, good idea. Danny shifted to invisibility.

“He can do all the ghost stuff while possessing people!?”

“Well, all except for overshadowing—possession, as you call it,” Lancer clarified. “Presumably.”

Danny then was out of range of their conversation; he approached the small visitor center, where the book should have been, and phased into it before returning to visibility. Another guard phased in too a moment later.

“So, how you wanna do this, Babypop?” Ember asked.

Danny scrunched his nose. “Ew, it’s weird hearing an old guy call me that,” he told her. “How long does your sleep work? Should we tie them up?”

“Oh, that’s probably a good idea,” Ember agreed. “It’s usually got them fully unconscious for about five minutes, but after that it becomes just regular sleep so it depends on how tired they already are and things can still wake them up. Is there rope anywhere?”

“Maybe in the supply cabinet?”

So they checked the supply cabinet, and found a roll of duct tape—that was probably just as good as rope to hold them.

“Okay, I’ll tie you up, then you can let him go and put him to sleep with your guitar spell,” Danny told her.

“Ooh, kinky,” Ember said teasingly, holding the man’s wrists out.

“Don’t make it weird,” Danny said with an eye roll. “And, behind is probably better.”

“Sure thing,” Ember said, putting her arms behind her. Danny tied her wrists together with the tape, then she sat down, and he did the ankles for good measure too.

Then, Ember phased out of the man, who was momentarily dazed. As Ember summoned her guitar his eyes widened and he struggled a little against the tape; she strummed a quick little lullaby tune and a small translucent blue spiral beam shot from the guitar to the man, who fell fast asleep.

The two repeated the process with the man Danny was overshadowing, then did the same with the remaining four guards, the final which tried to run out of the graveyard after realizing his coworkers had ‘vanished’, yelling about how he knew it was haunted and never wanted to be assigned there in the first place (the graveyard must have hired a company). For good measure, they put tape on the mouths too, then used the remainder of the tape to tie the whole group together.

“That was kinda fun,” Ember said, giggling, as she and Danny flew back to Lancer and Dean.

“Yeah, it was,” Danny semi-reluctantly agreed. It still felt invasive to overshadow people, but it had also felt like they were on some sort of secret mission capturing villains like one might see in a movie or comic book, even though Danny knew that technically the law saw his group in the wrong even though this excursion would ultimately save lives.

“Everything’s taken care of,” Ember told the two humans when they met back up in the woods. “We can burn the bones now without being disturbed.”

Danny shifted back to human form; when the adults looked at him a little confused, Danny shrugged. “I like this form better,” he explained. “Ghost form’s suit’s a bit uncomfortable.”

“All the more reason to change it,” Ember muttered. “‘Iconic’ or not.”

“Okay, so here’s how we’re going to do it,” Dean said as they began walking to the first grave, that of the woman, given she was currently more dangerous (at least as long as the inn clerk remembered to warn people to not wear leather jackets on the premises). “We’re going to grab the bones—or, bodies, whatever condition they’re in—using intangibility, salt them, cover them in gasoline, then Ember will light them on fire. The ghost—I mean, shade—WILL appear while doing that, instinctually attempting to protect it. She will be violent. Danny, you hold her off. William, you’ll keep an eye out in case the guards wake up.”

Only Dean’s and Lancer’s boots crunched on the light layer of snow on the ground; Danny and Ember both floated, not liking to walk in snow and not feeling like bothering fake-walking.

“Oh you don’t have to worry about them waking,” Ember said, perhaps a little too vaguely.

Dean paused at that. “And what’s that supposed to mean?” he demanded.

“We didn’t hurt them!” Danny assured Dean. “After Ember used the sleep magic, we tied them up using some duct tape we found.”

“Oh,” Dean said, relaxing. “Lead with that next time! They’re tied up good?”

“Oh yeah,” Ember said. “They won’t be escaping without help. We taped their mouths too, so they can’t scream.”

“Just their mouths? They can still breathe?” Dean double-checked.

“Yes,” Danny confirmed. “Kinda felt like we were superheroes or something, capturing the bad guys!” Well, technically he was a superhero, kinda. “Or, maybe secret agents.”

“Yeah except the law says it’s the opposite,” Dean reminded Danny, echoing his earlier thoughts. “Okay, we’re here,” he said, stopping in front of the grave. “Ember, grab the body. Danny, give me the gasoline and salt, and prepare to defend. William, keep an eye out, just in case another guard or something shows up.”

Danny pulled a large jug of gasoline and large bag of rock salt out of the pocket dimension all ghosts had access to. There was a second set in there for the other body.

“I can help defend too,” Lancer said, pulling his ecto-blaster out.

“Pefect; let’s do this.” Dean took the gasoline and bag of salt from Danny, and then proceeded to made a salt circle around where the bones would go.

“Wait,” Ember said. “Just the body, or whole coffin?”

Dean paused at that. “You can grab the whole thing?”

“Our ghosts have super-strength,” Lancer explained.

“Technically no,” Danny corrected. “It’s not strength, it’s extending our anti-gravity ability to it, like we did with you earlier for the invisibility—it doesn’t work 100% for heavier things, but still enough that lifting isn’t usually an issue.”

“Huh. That’s pretty neat,” Dean said, then decided, “Whole coffin, then, just to be sure we got everything, since it might be crumbly.”

Thus, Ember pulled the whole coffin out of the ground, placing it inside the circle, and then tossed the lid off.

“Okay, gotta do this quick,” Dean said, starting to shake salt on the body.

Suddenly, something hit Danny on the head. “Ow,” he said, as he caught it out of the air, looking at it. “The Boo-merang? I thought this was broken?”

“The what now?” Dean asked.

“A stupidly-named tracking device my friends and sister sometimes use to find me… Which means…”

As if on cue, the Specter Speeder appeared. At the same time, the shade of Dana Schnee appeared, screeching and flying towards Danny’s group.

Danny ignored the speeder as it landed and shot ecto-blasts at the shade. She dissipated, then reappeared a second later, upon which Lancer shot her with his gun. She screeched and a wind began to blow.

“Hurry up and burn it!” Danny shouted as he noted Sam, Tucker, and Jazz exit the speeder. “I think she got stronger!”

“Salt’s getting blown away too,” Lancer shouted.

“Yeah, shades will do that!” Dean shouted back, now pouring gasoline into the coffin. “We’re going as fast as we can!”

The shade reformed and screeched again, this time headed for Danny’s friends, who screamed in response; as she did so, however, her monotone form began to become charred, the red of fire burning holes in the shade in accordance to how her body was burning in the coffin before eventually she vanished completely.

“Okay, help me get the lid back—oh, okay, you ghosts have telekinesis, of course you would,” Dean said as Ember telekinetically lifted the lid back on, smothering the fire, which had started to look like it was about to burn through the coffin; it seemed Ember had made the fire a little too hot (Danny found it fascinating that she could control that, even making fire that was only warm enough that it would feel more like a heating pad and wouldn’t burn).

“I’ll put it back,” Ember said, grabbing the coffin and flying into the ground.

Danny walked the few remaining steps to his friends and sister.

“Are you wearing leather?!” Sam immediately demanded.

“It’s from a thrift store!” Danny hurriedly defended.

“Sam, that is not the most important thing right now!” Tucker chided, then asked Danny, “What the FUCK was that?!”

Danny turned to Dean as he, Lancer, and a wary-looking Ember joined them. “Is it okay to tell them?” he asked the Hunter.

Dean sighed. “They already saw it, didn’t they?”

“Well yeah, obviously, but I mean about… You know, the rest of it.”

“Ah. That,” Dean said with realization. “Up to you. Most people are better off not knowing, but if they’re from Amity Park too, they can probably handle it. But, later, okay? We don’t want those guards waking up and realizing we’re burning bodies.”

Danny frowned. “We told you, they’re tied up really good. They’re not going to escape until we release them.”

“You tied people up?!” Jazz exclaimed, looking harrowed. “And you’re burning bodies?!”

“That’s the easiest way to take care of a shade,” Danny explained. There were apparently other ways, but they involved rituals and whatnot and didn’t always work; or, for some shades, helping resolve their unfinished business worked, but for these two that was out of the question.

“That was a shade?” Sam asked incredulously. “I thought they were intangible and stuff! Like traditional notations of ghosts!”

“They usually are,” Danny said. “But they can be briefly solid during moments of high emotion, and this one had a lot of anger—I mean, we kinda were burning her body.”

“And why were you doing that again?” Jazz asked. “Couldn’t you—”

“Shades can’t be thermosed,” Danny said, predicting her question. “They also don’t have their full minds, not unless they’re super new, so can’t be reasoned with. And this one couldn’t be left alone, she killed like… what was the count, like 31 people or something? As far as we know at least, could be more.”

“So you had to sneak into a graveyard at night and burn her body,” Tucker summed up.

“Basically,” Danny said. “Well, and salt it. Salt apparently purifies things somehow?”

“Doesn’t work on Amity Park ghosts though,” Ember supplied. “We’re not attached to our bodies like shades are.”

“Ember? You’re here?” Sam asked, looking understandably confused.

“And why’s Mr. Lancer here?” Tucker asked.

“Later,” Danny said. “First, we got another body to burn.”

“Another?” Jazz asked in a near-screech.

“Yeah he terrorizes the inn, attacks any male traveler in their 20s who is wearing a leather jacket,” Danny told her. “He was this woman’s fiance, actually, until she murdered him and ran off with her lover, who then killed her at a bridge, causing her to kill anyone with those qualities too. Anyway, grab your weapons, the ecto-guns do work on them and he’ll probably teleport here and attack once he senses we’re bothering his bones.”

“Right, because we’re at a graveyard past 9pm burning bones, that’s what we apparently do now,” Tucker said faintly as they walked to Jim Rueben’s grave.

“Is that why you’re all wearing leather jackets?” Sam wondered. “To lure him?”

“No,” Ember replied. “Dean just normally wears one. But the adults said me and Danny—”

“‘Danny and I’,” Lancer corrected automatically.

“Danny and I had to at least try to blend in. Walking around in just t-shirts or crop tops in winter is apparently suspicious. But actual winter jackets are too annoying, so we went for these, if anyone asks they’re insulated even though they’re not.”

“Yeah, I dunno how the hell you manage to keep your secret in that town you live in,” Dean said. “I clocked you as suspicious that first night—‘ecto-contamination’ is not a good excuse for not breathing and mysteriously being totally dry after being out in sleet without an umbrella.”

“Yeah, I need to work on that,” Danny acknowledged. “Hey, can I pour the salt and gas this time?” He wondered as they stood in front of the grave they sought. “My friends and sister can be on defense, they all have guns.”

“Still crazy to me how your entire town carries ecto-guns,” Dean muttered, then told Danny, “Salt, yes. But I ain’t trusting a 14-year-old with gasoline.”

“Fair enough,” Danny agreed, taking the bag of salt from Dean as Ember again flew into the ground to grab the coffin, during which Danny flew around in a circle with the salt.

When Ember returned and removed the coffin lid, Jim’s ghost appeared right on cue. Sam, Dean, Jazz, and Lancer shot at it, dissipating him; he stayed gone for a few moments longer than Dana had, but then reappeared and they shot him again.

As the wind began to pick up, Danny poured salt all over the body until Dean told him it was enough and then began pouring the gasoline on top, during which one of the newcomers screamed.

Danny swerved to look; Jazz was holding her upper arm, but still shooting; the salt circle had already been blown away enough to break.

“Damn, didn’t expect the ghost to have a knife,” Dean said, glancing at the ghost, who indeed had a large hunting knife, before a shot from Lancer dissipated it again. “Ember, hurry, light him up!”

So, Ember lit up the corpse using her fire; the shade burned up white letting out a sickening screech, just like the previous one.

“Jazz!” Danny called, hurrying to his sister as Ember put the lid back on the coffin and re-buried it.

“I’m okay,” Jazz said. “I think it’s only a small knick, my coat’s pretty thick…”

“Oh, okay,” Danny said.

“Let me see,” Dean instructed.

Jazz removed her hand, then winced and put it back.

“Okay, there’s definitely blood, whether the jacket protected you some or not. Keep pressure on it, I’ve got some first-aid supplies in the car.”

Danny frowned. “Why’d you say it was just a knick if it’s bleeding?” he asked his sister as they began walking.

Jazz blushed. “I mean, yeah it’s bleeding, but it’s still nothing relatively. You often get hurt a lot worse compared to this…”

“Yeah, but you’re human,” Danny stressed. “Fully, I mean. You don’t have ghost healing like I do!”

“Yeah, but still—”

“Jazz. What’s ‘nothing’ to me can kill humans. I can get my arm cut off and it’ll just dissolve and regenerate.”

“Do I want to know how you’re so certain of that?” Jazz asked.

“Probably not.”

The group walked mostly-silently the rest of the way to the car, which was across a short stretch of the graveyard and a slight distance into the woods, on what Danny was pretty sure was a fire trail and not a legit road. Danny occasionally glanced towards his friends, who looked a mix of worried and unsure as Ember talked quietly to them from a short distance away. Frustratingly, Danny couldn’t make out the words; as a music ghost, Ember had an ability to create what was basically a sound shield, where no one outside it could hear what they were saying, instead hearing garbled nonsense.

“Whoa! That’s a cool car!” Tucker said, hurrying over to the Impala when they arrived where the car was parked along a trail in the woods. “Old, too.”

“Yup; it was originally my dad’s,” Dean said as he opened the trunk. “Even though it’s technically mine now, he’ll kill me if something happens to it, so don’t damage it,” he warned, as he opened the lower hidden compartment with the Hunting tools—books, journals, weapons, and a large first aid kit, that last item which he took out.

“Dude, why do you have an arsenal?” Tucker asked worriedly.

“For Hunting,” Dean said as he closed it and the trunk. “Hop up, and take off the coat so I can see the wound,” he instructed Jazz. “I know it’s cold out but that’ll be easiest, I’ll try to patch you up quick.”

“I can keep her warm,” Ember offered, hurrying over with a ball of fire in her hands as Jazz took her winter coat off, followed by a cardigan; the lowest layer was a short-sleeve blouse, the cut below the sleeve. It looked pretty bad.

Lancer hurried over to help how he could too, whereas Danny, Sam, and Tucker stayed off to the side.

“Okay, good, not enough to need stitches," Dean said with relief. “The coat did reduce the impact. I still need to disinfect it though; it’s gonna sting,” he warned as he broke the seal on a large alcohol wipe.

As Dean took care of Jazz, Tucker rounded on Danny. “Okay, explain. Why are you in a graveyard dealing with shades with some extremely shady guy who has an arsenal in his trunk? Dude could be a serial killer!”

“He doesn’t kill humans,” Danny quickly told Tucker.

“Yeah? Then what’s with all the weapons? Because you said he’s a Hunter, but my dad sometimes hunts deer, and those are not regular hunting weapons.”

Danny debated whether or not to tell them, then decided it was probably best; they’d dealt with some pretty terrifying things before, and if other things ever showed up in Amity Park they should know about them. So Danny told them, “He kills other creatures.”

“What, like bears?” Sam asked.

“No, more like…” Danny took a moment to consider how to word things, and decided upon, “Well, let’s just say that apparently ghosts aren’t the only things out there.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Tucker asked, sounding worried.

“Supernatural things,” Danny clarified.

“Like what?” Sam asked.

“Werewolves, for one,” Danny told them. “Witches, zombies, demons, wraiths, ghouls, sirens, basically most mythological things. Not vampires though, Dean says those are a myth. So are angels. But, like, 90% of mythological creatures are real.”

“And this Dean guy… hunts them?” Sam asked. “All of them?”

“Well, he doesn’t go around seeking out every single one to eradicate them,” Danny clarified. “You see, what he does is he looks for cases that are baffling the police, ones involving strange deaths and stuff. Then, he investigates, and if it’s supernatural in nature he takes care of the problem. Sometimes it ends up with a creature dead, or a ghost dealt with like we just did, but not always—for example, sometimes a cursed object is involved, or it’s kids messing around with occult magic when they shouldn’t be, or something like that.”

“Yeah, not every case ends in a fight,” Dean said, putting the supplies away as Jazz put her jacket and cardigan back on, covering her bandaged arm as Ember quelled her fire. “And if it is a creature, sometimes it can’t even be killed—demons, for example, require an exorcism.”

“Wait; demons exist, but not angels? And where do the demons go, does Hell exist?” Tucker asked.

“Well, if angels do exist, they’re dicks,” Dean said matter-of-factly. “Since they don’t help with demons or anything. But no Hunter has seen one—reports of angels usually turn out to be ghosts or illusion magic. As to Hell, it exists, but I don’t know if humans ever end up there—as far as I know, it’s just what the demons call their fiery realm, so we call it that too… Hey, curious, do ghosts know what happens after, you know, moving on?”

“For ghosts, it’s called fading, for the record; and no, we don’t know what happens after that, either,” Ember revealed. “Maybe some of the Ancients do, but if so, they ain’t telling us.”

“Ancients?” Dean wondered.

“Yeah, they’re ghosts that have been around for super long, even before humans,” Ember explained. “Many ghosts think they’re a myth, but Dipstick here managed to befriend one. Basically they’re manifestations of forces of nature, more like gods that happen to have formed in the Ghost Zone rather than actual ghosts—some ancient cultures even worshipped them such, though they super exaggerated the mythologies.”

“Yeah, the only one I know is Clockwork,” Danny said. “He’s like, a manifestation of Time. The Ancient Greeks called him Kairos. But, like Ember said, none of the lore about him was right, just his existence.”

“Well, shit,” Dean said. “Please tell me these ‘Ancients’ are good.”

“Uh. Yes and no?” Danny said. “I mean, I’ve only met Clockwork. He’s kinda… grey? Since he can see all potential futures, he considers it his job to guide the timeline when he can, occasionally tweaking things to prevent really bad futures. So in that sense he’s good, but…”

“But he’s not afraid to do things we might consider bad, like kill people, in order to ensure that good future,” Dean concluded. “End justifies the means kinda thing?”

“Yeah pretty much,” Danny said. “But, he is compassionate—if there’s a way to prevent a bad timeline by, say, teaching someone a lesson, or making a small adjustment that redirects their path, he prefers to do that rather than kill.”

“Well that’s something at least,” Dean said, clearly not liking the idea of such a powerful being existing. “Anyway, let’s get back to the hotel.”

“Danny, you’re coming in the speeder, with us,” Jazz told Danny as she hopped off the car trunk. Her tone indicated it was a non-negotiation.

“We’re not going back tonight, are we? It’s probably almost 10pm,” Danny pointed out. The drive from here would be 4 and a half hours (3 if they directly flew, but technically they should use roads so as not to get mistaken as a UFO (again)).

“9:47,” Tucker informed them with a glance at his watch.

“No, we’ll take the hotel too,” Jazz said, then looked at Lancer. “Hope it’s okay if we miss school tomorrow.”

Lancer sighed. “I suppose it can’t be helped.”

“What are you going do, Ember?” Danny asked. Full ghosts like her didn’t need sleep.

Ember shrugged. “Explore town, I guess, I dunno.”

“So you’re sticking around?”

“Sure! I don’t feel like flying all the way back on my own, so I’ll wait for a ride. Plus, the diner’s breakfast food is awesome, I want more of it.”

“You don’t even need to eat.”

“So? Food is still delicious. And before anyone asks, no, I don’t know where it goes. Now, let’s go; I want cake, but it’s only open until 11,” Ember said, phasing into the Impala. Right; the sign said dining closed at 9pm, but the cakes and other sweet stuff were available until 11pm on a to-go basis.

Dean sighed. “Do those two ever use doors?” he grumbled quietly. “She has a point though—pie sounds nice.” He then proceeded to get in too, with Lancer heading to the passenger side. He called out the window, “Meet us on the main road, you can follow us back.”

Jazz gave the man a thumbs up.

“So, if you had the Boo-merang, why didn’t you come earlier in the day?” Danny wondered as he walked with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz to the speeder. He hoped they didn’t ask where the item was; Danny had put it away in that little pocket dimension he could access, like he could do with the thermos, guns, and other ecto-tech objects, and he had no plans on taking it out of there.

“We didn’t manage to fix it until yesterday,” Tucker said, sounding a bit annoyed. “Then it refused to fly any higher than like six feet off the ground, so we skipped school and spent today figuring out how to get a gps in it to get it to stay on roads—finally we did like six hours ago, but it insisted on taking the backroads and adhering to the speed limit so it took us longer to get here than just taking a regular car would have.”

“If you’d just called us and told us where you were, we wouldn’t have had that issue,” Sam said with clear irritation.

Danny winced. “Yeah, I, er, kinda got caught up in things?”

“With those three? The whole weekend through today?”

“Uh, no, Lancer was on vacation, he accidentally found me yesterday and insisted he take me home,” Danny explained, intentionally being a little vague; it was honestly a bit embarrassing that he’d ran like that. “Then we ran into Dean last night at the inn, we got caught in the storm which is why we stayed at the inn in town instead of heading straight home. Dean thought we were Hunters, so told us about the ghost hunt he was on, it sounded cool and I asked if I could help. Ember found me this morning and insisted on helping too when she learned we were gonna take down a shade.”

“That is the unlikeliest band of ghost hunters I’ve ever heard of,” Tucker said. “A kid with ghost superpowers, a ghost pop star, a professional supernatural creature hunter, and a middle-aged teacher. Sounds like something out of a comedy film.”

“Yeah, guess it kinda does,” Danny agreed as they entered the speeder and took their seats, Jazz driving with Danny in the passenger seat and Sam and Tucker in two seats behind them. Danny ignored the part of his mind that whispered to him about how his friends still thought of him as a human with ghost superpowers. Both his best friends still said things like that, as if they couldn’t accept that their friend was something other than human—when they finally realized that Danny wasn’t that, that he was more ghost than they thought, would they still want him as a friend? The rational part of Danny’s brain knew that they always would, that they did understand what happened to him, that he’d explained to them before that it was a hybrid thing and not just powers, but the irrational part still whispered that they’d someday hate him for being too inhuman.

Jazz navigated the speeder above the trees, staying close to them, and followed the narrow dirt trail the Impala took until they reached the main road, upon which Jazz pushed a button to give the speeder wheels and set it onto the ground, making it into a strange semblance of a minibus instead of the ecto-powered aerial vehicle it was. As long as cops didn’t stop them and ask for insurance, registration, and the license Jazz didn’t yet have (she technically only had a provisional one, meaning someone over the age of 21 was supposed to be in the vehicle), it should be fine. Besides, if they did get stopped, Danny could overshadow the cop—though he’d prefer to not have to do that.

“So, lay it on me,” Danny said, swiveling the chair (the speeder had recently been upgraded so all chairs were swivel ones) to a diagonal position to face all 3 of the humans. “How much trouble am I in? Other than with the school for skipping two days.”

“Four days, technically,” Tucker said.

“Nah, Lancer’s excused me for today and tomorrow, Ishiyama already knows.”

“What?” Jazz asked, turning to glare at Danny. “She knew, and didn’t tell me!?”

“Road, Jazz!” Danny reminded her as the speeder swerved, and Jazz turned back to regain control of the vehicle. “Lancer called her, yes.”

Jazz frowned, though kept her eyes on the road. “But he didn’t call the house, or even my cell? I know he has both numbers.”

“Yeah, he was trying to convince me to call, but he said if I don’t do it tonight then he would. I was planning to tonight after this, I swear.”

“And you waited this long why? We were all worried, you know!”

“Yeah, Danny,” Sam chimed in. “You could’ve at least called me or Tuck.”

Danny winced. “I left my phone at home, and I don’t have your numbers memorized.”

“Well, you could have used a phone book, or borrowed a library computer and messaged us on AIM,” Tucker pointed out.

Danny didn’t respond to that; he could have if he really wanted to contact them, but in truth he hadn’t really wanted to talk to anyone at all.

“Why did you leave?” Jazz wondered.

“Mom and Dad didn’t mention we got into an argument at dinner?” Danny confirmed. Jazz hadn’t been home for dinner due to a dinner book club thing she attended every month at the library.

“No, they didn’t,” Jazz said worriedly. “What was it about? It must have been bad if it caused you to run away…”

“That was it? You ran away?” Sam asked incredulously.

“Dude!” Tucker said. “That totally makes not contacting us worse—it wasn’t just yesterday and today, you could have contacted us any day since Friday?”

“Wait, what?” Danny asked, scrunching his brow. “Where do you think I was?”

“Kidnapped! We thought you were kidnapped or something, man!”

“Yeah,” Sam said. “It’s not like you to go running off without contact, not for this long. Friday at first we assumed you skipped school or something, but then Jazz called us Friday night because she didn’t know where you were, and on Saturday Ember of all people came looking for you too—what were we supposed to think?”

“I mean, jumping right to kidnapping—”

Jazz cut Danny off. “Your phone was still at home, your shoes were still at the door, your backpack was at home with your wallet and ID in it. I think suspecting kidnapping, given some of your enemies, is reasonable. Ember went into the Ghost Zone to ask if anyone knew where you were, and I even called Vlad.”

“That’s when we decided that fixing the Boo-merang was the best bet,” Tucker said. “But man, we were so worried!”

“Sorry,” Danny said guiltily, pulling his knees up onto the seat and hugging them. He looked at the speeder’s floor. “I wasn’t really thinking about that.” He had just wanted to escape.

Jazz sighed. “Danny… What happened? Usually arguments don’t cause… all this.”

“Did they find out you’re half-ghost?” Sam asked quietly.

“No,” Danny said, then shrugged. “Maybe this just was… What’s the phrase? Straw that broke the zebra’s back?” He really didn’t want to talk about this at the moment; he should have just gone in the Impala.

“Camel’s back,” Jazz corrected. “Is that the inn over there?” she asked, and when Danny nodded in confirmation said, “We’ll talk more about this in the morning.”

“You’re really going to spend the money to stay at the inn instead of in the speeder?” Danny asked. “You do know the seats pull down to use as beds, right?” It was designed that way in case of overnight Ghost Zone trips, which hadn’t happened yet but his parents had far-off plans to explore very deep into the Ghost Zone someday.

“I am not sleeping in the speeder if there’s an actual room available available,” Jazz said firmly as she parked in the inn’s dirt parking lot. “I have spare money from tutoring we can use for a room, it’s just one night. Or, it better be just one night,” she said with a warning glare at Danny.

“You brought your go-bags?” Danny asked, seeing the three grab backpacks. Everyone in Amity Park had go-bags prepared for fast evacuation in case of another Pariah-Dark-style ghost invasion.

“Yours too,” Jazz said, tossing a backpack to Danny.

“We didn’t know how long it would take to find you,” Sam said with a shrug. “For all we knew, you could have been in Mexico.”

“Right,” Danny said, hopping out of the speeder.

“Danny, please remember to use the door next time,” Jazz chided as she exited via the door.

“Right, I forgot,” Danny said honestly.

“Dean’s right; how have you managed to stay hidden for so long?” Tucker asked.

“The power of the human mind easily dismissing what it doesn’t understand?” Danny tried as they walked the short distance to the inn, three sets of footsteps crunching in the light snow still on the ground, now covered in a paper-thin layer of ice.

They entered the inn, where Lancer, Ember, and Dean were waiting. Jazz went up to the desk to get them a room.

The clerk looked at Jazz, then glanced over at Sam and Tucker, and frowned.

“They’re with us,” Lancer told the clerk, and the elderly man nodded, looking relieved that the three teens did in fact have at least a semblance of adult supervision.

Jazz returned to the group with a key.

“Danny, Tucker, are you two okay sharing a bed, or should I request a cot?” Lancer asked.

“He wants to divide the rooms based on gender,” Jazz said upon seeing the two boys’ confused looks.

“I know it’s archaic, and I do trust you to behave if permitted to stay together,” Lancer said, “But if your parents found out I allowed it…”

“Mine won’t care,” Danny said.

“Neither will mine,” Tucker said.

Sam sighed. “Mine are the issue—they’d try to sue,” she said tiredly. “Come on, Jazz, let’s go stash our stuff in our room.”

“Wait,” Ember said. “We’re all getting dessert, don’t you two want anything?”

“I’m good,” Jazz told her as she headed up the stairs, then called, “Goodnight.”

“I doubt any of it is vegan,” Sam said. “Besides, I’m tired; see you guys in the morning,” she told them, then followed Jazz.

“So, do you need a cot?” Lancer asked again.

“We can share,” Tucker replied. “We have sleepovers a lot.”

Danny hesitated. Yeah, they shared a bed all the time at sleepovers, but if they roomed together Tucker probably would want to ask about where specifically Danny was all weekend, and ask about the fight, and Danny really wanted to delay that conversation…

“Danny?” Lancer asked.

“Huh? Um. yeah, that’s fine,” Danny said, trying to sound happy about it.

Lancer and Tucker didn’t seem to notice Danny’s hesitation, but Dean did, and offered, “You know what, they didn’t have singles, so my room has an extra bed—one of you can use it if you want.”

“Okay, I’ll take you up on that!” Danny said quickly, before Tucker could suggest he and Danny share a room while Lancer took Dean’s extra bed. “Now, let’s get cake.” He hurried towards the hallway leading to the diner.

“Is he mad at me?” Danny heard Tucker ask quietly, followed by Lancer assuring him that wasn’t the case, and Danny felt immensely guilty.

Chapter Text

A short while later, Dean and Danny sat at the small table in Dean’s room, munching on their late-night snacks: a slice of chocolate cake for Danny and a slice of cherry pie for Dean. Dean wasn’t quite sure why he had offered for Danny to share his room, especially after the waitress had hinted she wanted to have some fun again, but there was just something about the look on the kid’s face. Ember had seemed concerned, too, as they were getting their desserts, and Danny seemed to be somewhat avoiding his alleged best friend.

“So tell me, kid, what’s up?” Dean asked.

“What makes you think something’s up?” Danny questioned back.

“Well, you’re avoiding your friends and sister, for one,” Dean pointed out. “You barely know me, yet you leapt at the opportunity to share a room with me instead of your best friend. That ain’t exactly normal behavior.” He took a bite of pie.

“Well, I’m not normal,” Danny said, looking down at his half-eaten piece of cake, but not moving to eat any more. “I’d love to be normal, but I’m not.”

“Eh, normal’s overrated,” Dean said with what he hoped was a comforting smile.

“I’m not human,” Danny stressed, and all his troubled thoughts began spilling out. “I died. I was partly revived, sure, got these neat ‘superpowers’ as Tucker calls them, but I still died! I remember that, and still have nightmares about it. It was so painful!

“And then I have to listen to my parents saying all the time how ghosts are evil and don’t have feelings, which isn’t true at all, if anything I feel more now that I’m part ghost, and then they talk about how they want to capture a ghost and torture and vivisect it, and they laugh at the thought of causing ghosts screaming in pain, and they don’t just say that about ghosts in general, they specifically mention that they want to do that to Phantom, which is me, and I know they don’t know it’s me but it still hurts, it hurts so much.” Tears began forming in Danny’s eyes.

Frankly, Dean had no idea how to react to that. Torture and vivisection? Laughing at causing pain? That sounded like things demons did, not humans! It didn’t matter if the target was a human or an animal or even a supernatural creature—no self-respecting Hunter that Dean knew would intentionally drag out killing something just to cause it pain and revel in its screaming. Hell, not even a demon deserved that. That was just wrong. That was no different than a monster—no, worse, because monsters couldn’t help it. Humans could.

“Why can’t I just be normal?” Danny continued. “Why do I have to be the freak kid with the freak family? I just want to be normal…”

Then there was that, too. Dean had a flashback to when he and Sam were in high school, with Sam, age 14, saying almost those exact words, or at least that exact sentiment—wanting to be a normal kid when he was far from normal, with a family that was far from normal. He’d even used the word ‘freak’. That time, Dean had dismissed his brother’s feelings, and look where that eventually landed them. This time, it would be different. Comforting kids was so far out of Dean’s wheelhouse, but damn it, he was going to figure out how to make things right this time!

“Listen. No one’s ‘normal’, kid,” Dean said firmly. “No one. ‘Normal’ doesn’t exist. If they say it does, they’re lying. Hell, if anyone’s ‘not normal’ in this picture, it’s your parents—it doesn’t matter what the creature is, you don’t revel in causing it pain and torture it just to hear screams. Not even a demon would deserve that! And demons are evil. You, however, are not evil, not at all.”

“But what if I am?” Danny said in a small voice. “I don’t feel evil, but my parents insist all ghosts are. I’ve made friends with some ghosts, like Ember, and they don’t seem evil… But they keep insisting they are… so what if—”

“Hey,” Dean cut the kid off. “I’ve been Hunting since I was 4. I’ve seen evil. Real evil.” Like the son-of-a-bitch that killed his mom. “Trust me when I say that you are far, far, far from evil.”

“But how can you be sure?”

“I’m sure,” Dean said confidently. “We’ve been working together all day. If you were evil, I would have seen it. I’m sure of it.” And, he was. If someone told Dean just a few days ago that he’d be comforting a supernatural kid, telling him he was good, and genuinely meaning it, Dean would have laughed in their face, but… Well, here he was, doing just that.

Danny finally looked up, tears slipping down his cheeks and eyes glowing. “Thank you,” he said with a grateful smile. “Thank you.”

“Yeah, yeah. Now, finish your cake,” Dean told him. “And, be sure to actually talk to your friends and sister about this, okay? They should probably be aware you’re struggling with all this.” Probably more, too, if Dean had to bet.

“No!” Danny shouted. “No, I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I just… I’m supposed to be strong. I’m not supposed to be messed up like this.”

“Yeah? And why’s that?”

“I’m a superhero. A superhero shouldn’t be struggling like this!”

Dean scoffed at that. “Kid, have you ever read a comic book? Struggling is the definition of a superhero,” he told Danny. “Literally like 90% of origin stories or something start with a tragedy. The comic books might skip the therapy, but there ain’t no way those heroes are perfectly a-okay.”

“I guess you have a point there…” Danny trailed.

“There’s more to this, isn’t there?” Dean noted, then recalled something Danny said earlier, when he was talking about… about having died. “Your friends know how you got your ‘powers’, right? That you’re part ghost? That you…”

“Died? Yeah. They were there,” Danny revealed. He shifted nervously. “They know what happened, but… I don’t think they really get it, you know? They still treat it like I just got powers or something. And I guess I kinda encouraged that at first, maybe I was in denial a bit, but… Well, I know the issue here is my brain being dramatic and that they’d never actually abandon me, but a part of me is kinda just waiting for the other shoe to drop, thinks that once they actually realize I’m truly part ghost—and, if I’m honest, more ghost than human at this point… I dunno.”

“Well, you know what will easily solve that issue?”

“What?”

“Telling them that. Communication is key,” Dean said, and wow, didn’t that make him a hippocrite, huh?

“But what if—”

“Hey, they drove all the way here to find you, and didn’t judge when they found you burning a body in a graveyard. That kind of loyalty isn’t something that breaks so easily. I think they’d be cool with things, even if you were a full ghost.”

“Yeah, I guess that—wait,” Danny said, eyes widening in realization of something. “The graveyard. We forgot something.”

“Forgot something?” Dean asked. “Wait, you don’t mean that cursed object or whatever, do you?”

“No, Ember checked it out, turned out that was just a kid’s doll that got enchanted somehow, she put it back,” Danny revealed, and Dean wondered if he should go burn the doll or just leave it there; cursed dolls often weren’t benign, but it was buried, so maybe that meant it was safe? Danny continued, “I’m talking about the guards. We just left them there!”

“Oh, them,” Dean said. “Eh, they’ll be fine, someone will see them in the morning I’m sure. They didn’t see your face, right?”

“We left the lights off in the building, meaning both our eyes were glowing, and I was in ghost form, so if they saw anything they’d definitely be interpreting it as ghosts.”

“Then, we’re good. Ghosts in a graveyard aren’t so unusual. And we didn’t even dig graves up, so there’s no evidence we did anything,” Dean reasoned. “I don’t think the building had camera, either… Although we probably should have checked…”

“It’s fine,” Danny assured him. “Unless they’ve got special ecto-filters like Amity Park has, which they’ve always needed thanks to the high ambient ecto levels, we look like static in cameras,” he revealed. “And infrared shows us as too cold to be human. Both my human and ghost forms are like that…” Danny trailed, looking a little sad about that.

“You’re still struggling a bit with all the ghost stuff, huh?” Dean noted. “Internalized… what would it be called, ecto-phobia?” That was very understandable; Dean was sure he’d definitely struggle a lot if he ever was changed into something, even when knowing that that something was not bad, especially after all of his dad’s rhetoric on supernatural creatures.

Danny winced; bingo. “Can you blame me? My parents are constantly saying ghosts are evil and that they all should be either destroyed, if not experimented on—and again, by experiment, they mean torture. I grew up with them saying that, and now I basically am one? Ember and I actually talked about it a bit earlier today. She’s firmly in the camp that I’m more ghost than human and should embrace my ghost parts more. And honestly, today, with her, being able to just use my powers around her without worry, because she has the same ones—it felt good. And that scares me, that it felt better hanging out with a ghost than it’s felt hanging out with my friends lately. I think… I think a part of me has started to identify more with ghosts than with humans, and that scares me.”

“Well, that’s natural,” Dean said, recalling his own high school years. “People tend to gravitate to those similar to them, and it can be difficult constantly being around others who are so different. I know it’s not quite the same since I’m not part supernatural creature, but I do know what it’s like to not feel like you belong around so-called ‘regular’ people. I grew up as a Hunter, knowing about this world of monsters, knowing how to fight, how to kill—the kids in the schools I went to didn’t know any of this. I often felt like an outsider. How could they possibly understand what it was like to be a Hunter? It’s why my brother and I were so close growing up; it felt like no one else understood us, not really. I was younger than you when I came to terms with it, but it was definitely tough at first realizing that I just couldn’t relate in the same way to people as they could with each other. So yeah, I get where you’re coming from.”

“Does it ever get better?” Danny wondered.

Dean considered that. “Yes and no. I do feel better now that I’ve accepted how different I am, how different my family in general is, but there’s still a small part of me that does wish I never was forced into this life, that I could be just an average person…” Dean trailed. Oh. He hadn’t realized he still felt that way until voicing it. That’s how Sam felt, wasn’t it? “When I’m around Hunters though, I do feel comfortable. At home. So—and I can’t believe I’m saying this, my dad would probably be appalled—maybe you should embrace your ghost aspects like Ember says, and explore that side of yourself more. Because no matter how you slice the pie, you ain’t human, kid, not fully. Denying that’s only going to cause you more pain.”

Danny chuckled. “Ember said something like that too,” he revealed, then sighed. “How do I even begin to tell my friends this though? I can’t just go up to them and say, ‘Hey guys, guess what? I think I identify more with ghosts now than with humans, surprise!’”

“Why not?” Dean said. “Well, maybe don’t say it that bluntly, but hiding it isn’t the way to go—secrets between close friends and siblings just never ends well. What about your sister? Does she know? You said she’s into ghost psychology or something, right?”

Danny laughed. “Oh, don’t worry, I know she’ll be fine with it. Actually, she found out about me being Phantom months before I told her! Or, before I realized she knew, I mean. She assumed I was a full ghost yet still tried to help and support me in secret, covering for me with my parents and distracting them if they got suspicious and stuff. If she can be fine with me if I were full ghost, she’ll be fine with me identifying as more than one than I do human. Hell, she probably already has theories that I do, and would definitely tell me similar to what you just did. Bet she’ll say she’s proud of me for finally accepting myself or something cheesy like that.”

Dean’s phone then began ringing; he pulled it out of his pocket and looked at the caller ID, upon which his stomach flipped a bit. “Sorry kid, it’s my brother, I have to take this,” he told Danny. Sam was finally calling him!

“Do you want me to leave?” Danny asked.

“Nah, finish your cake,” Dean instructed, and then answered the phone with, “Hey, Sammy! What’s up?”

“Hi Dean. It’s not to late to call, right?”

Dean laughed. “Seriously? You know I rarely go to bed before midnight.”

“Right. Well, you’re the one who called me wanting to talk last night, and Bobby says you’re not possessed, so… let’s talk.”

“Right, right—oh, wait,” Dean realized. “Actually, I’m gonna put you on speaker, I’ve got a kid here I want you to meet.”

“What?” Danny asked through a mouthful of cake.
“What?” Sam asked at the same time.

“A kid.”

Sam took a moment to answer. “He’s not yours, is he?”

“What? Hell no,” Dean told his brother. “He’s 14. Here.” He put the phone on speaker and then placed it on the table. “You’re on speaker. Danny, this is my brother, Sam. Say hi.”

“Um. Hi?” Danny said awkwardly.

“Hi,” Sam replied. “Danny, was it? Nice to meet you.”

“Nice to meet you too,” Danny said.

“Are you the kid from Amity Park that Dean said he met last night?”

“Yeah… What else did he tell you?”

“Well, he left a message. Said you and this other guy had him questioning everything he knew about supernatural creatures, with your stories about that town.”

“Well I didn’t put it exactly like that,” Dean said defensively.

“Close enough,” Sam replied.

“Well, today they made me question it more, if you can believe it,” Dean said. “I met one of those Amity Park ghosts! She joined us on a hunt for a… shade, they called it. Meaning, our type of ghost. Sam, I’m telling you, this girl was basically the same as a human, just with blue skin and fire hair.”

“Fire hair?”

“Most ghosts do not have fire hair,” Danny interjected. “Ember’s a bit unique with that.”

“Ember?” Sam asked, sounding surprised. “Ember McLain, the singer-guitarist?”

“Yeah/Yup,” Danny and Dean confirmed together. Dean was surprised Sam knew about her.

“Huh. I thought there was something suspicious about her,” Sam said. “No skin condition causes skin that shade—a ghost, though?”

“I’m telling you, these ghosts are not like any of the ghosts we’ve fought,” Dean said. “Despite the looks and powers, they’re basically the same as humans—just as intelligent, they’ve got a moral compass, they even have a legal system! The lack of deaths in that town isn’t because the Hunters are good, it’s because the ghosts don’t kill.”

“Most of them,” Danny clarified. “There’s probably the same rate of murderous ghosts as humans. Jack the Ripper’s one.”

“Jack the Ripper’s an Amity Park ghost?! Shit, he’s not still out there murdering people, is he?”

“No, he’s in ghost jail, in the Ghost Zone,” Danny explained. “That’s the realm parallel to our own where all the ghosts—I mean, our kind of ghosts—come from. Most stay in there, but some like to visit the human realm. The reason they stick around Amity Park when they get out is because there’s a lot of ambient ectoplasm in the air, which they need to survive. Guess the line between the realms is a bit thin in Amity Park, especially since my parents opened a portal there.”

“We can get into details like that later,” Dean said, before it became a meticulous science discussion. “Anyway, so today I went hunting that shade—that’s what they call our kind of ghosts, which are only half-formed due to low ecto, hence not having their full minds—and brought Ember and Danny along, and seriously, Sam, these are good people. They’re just kids, just teenagers. They’re not the monsters Dad told us about. And that got me thinking—if these ghosts are the same as humans at their core, just as intelligent and morally diverse, could that be the case for other creatures? I know you’ve considered that before—what made you question Dad’s teachings?”

Sam was quiet for a moment, then replied, “Remember that kitsune hunt we went on, back when I was in middle school?”

“Kitsune, kitsune…” Dean tried recalling. “Oh! The first time you killed something on your own, right?”

Sam took a deep breath. “No, actually.”

“No? Sam, there was definitely a body.”

“Yeah… Well, I’m not the one who killed her,” Sam revealed, then explained, “She had a daughter, Amy, who was my age. I met her at the library; neither of us knew what the other was at first. We became friends. But, her mom found out, and… Wasn’t happy. She tried to kill me—but Amy defended me. She saved my life, Dean.”

“She saved your life by killing her mother? A kitsune did that?” Dean confirmed, unsure how he felt about that revelation. “Let me guess: you let her go?”

“Yeah.”

“Don’t those things need to eat specific parts of the human brain?”

“That’s the thing, though,” Sam said. “She told me that the brain doen’t need to be fresh—it can come from someone who’s already been dead for a few hours. They can get it from a morgue or mortician or whatnot. Her mom was killing, yeah, but didn’t actually have to. Amy had never killed before, and she wasn’t comfortable with it. According to her, most kitsune actually go into careers like morticians or coroners so that they can easily get it fresh enough without having to kill. That’s why we’ve only encountered one, and why Hunters in general have encountered so few of them—we only search for things that are killing, but they don’t kill, not all of them.”

Dean took a moment to process that. Of all the creatures he imagined might not always kill, it hadn’t been kitsune. He thought maybe a werewolf that ate deer or something, but a creature that irrefutably needed a human-exclusive gland to resist killing for such? How many morticians and coroners were those and other types of creatures, who simply had the morals to go against their instinctual natures and wait for natural deaths instead of actively killing?

“Dean? Still there?” Sam asked nervously. “You’re not mad at me for letting her go, are you?”

“Nah, I’m not mad,” Dean hurriedly told his brother. “Just… it’s taking a moment to process. Kinda eye-opening, you know. Why didn’t you tell me this before?”

“Would you have listened before?” Sam countered.

Dean winced and conceded, “Honestly? Probably not. Dad sure wouldn’t have, and… Well, I guess I was always bad at thinking on my own. Still am, I guess—how do you do it?”

“Do what?”

“Go against him,” Dean clarified. “You left. I would have never been able to leave like you did.” The closest he’d come to that had been when his dad left him at Sonny’s Home For Boys those two months when he was a teenager; Dean had been seriously tempted to stay there, but… well, he just couldn’t leave his brother alone with his dad. He often thought back on that time, wondering what would have happened if Sam hadn’t been in the picture; would Dean have agreed to Sonny’s offer to stay, or would he have left with his dad anyway?

“You want to go against Dad?” Sam asked incredulously. “Who are you and what have you done with my brother?”

“Yeah yeah, very funny,” Dean said. “I’m not going to rebel or anything major, but I’m 26, it’s about time I started trying to think for myself some, don’t you think?”

Sam chuckled. “Better late than never, I suppose. But what will you tell Dad?”

“Nothing,” Dean said. “Just like you didn’t tell him about Amy. He’s not going to listen, you know that—I tell him I worked with ghosts, even Amity Park ones, he’ll just get angry, he won’t let me explain further.”

“Yeah, don’t I know it,” Sam said somewhat dejectedly.

“What if he met some?” Danny spoke up.

“Hold up a sec,” Sam said. “How come you keep speaking in plural, Dean? I thought it was just Ember you worked with.”

Dean winced, then looked towards Danny, who locked eyes with him; the boy hesitated, but Dean nodded slightly, trying to convey it was okay, and then Danny nodded. Dean looked back to the phone and sighed. “There’s something else: Danny’s part-ghost.”

“Part-ghost? How can someone only be part ghost?” Sam asked.

“Lab accident,” Danny explained. “You know that ghost portal my parents built? Didn’t work at first, so my friends and I decided to check it out when they weren’t home. Well, it decided to work after all, and I was inside of it when it turned on. It like, simultaneously killed and revived me or something, I’m basically a hybrid between human and ghost now.”

Sam let out a low whistle. “That’s like, right out of a comic book, kid.”

“That’s what I said!” Dean told him. “And, get this? He even does the whole superhero thing!”

“Superhero thing?”

“Ah, yeah,” Danny said, blushing and rubbing the back of his head. “Normally I look human, but the accident gave me the ability to change my appearance to look more like a ghost, it’s like a color inversion so no one knows it’s me. I use it to help people, and to fight and capture any of the more mischievous or actually bad ghosts that come through the portal and send them back to the Ghost Zone…”

Danny, with some help from Dean, explained to Sam all about Amity Park and its unique ghosts, about Phantom’s escapades and the town’s mixed feelings, and even about his family issues. In turn, Dean and Sam told Danny a bit more about their lives, how it was growing up as child Hunters with a dad like theirs and some of their adventures.

“Huh. Never thought I’d be able to relate so well to a teenage ghost superhero,” Sam said after a while of sharing stories.

“Yeah same,” Dean said. “Man our lives are messed up. All three of ours.”

“Hey, at least you two don’t have to deal with portals to other realms being below your bedroom,” Danny joked.

“Well, yeah, there is that,” Dean said with a chuckle. “Do not envy you there.”

“Danny, you and Ember should come visit Stanford,” Sam said. “I’d really love to meet you in person.”

“No, you should come to Amity Park!” Danny said excitedly. “Both of you should! The speeder actually was built to go into the Ghost Zone, I can show you two around there—it’s really cool!”

“Sure, I’m game,” Dean easily agreed. Danny’s stories of it had made it seem pretty neat, albeit dangerous. They were used to danger though. “What about you, Sammy? It’d be cool to hang with my brother again.”

“I guess I can swing by, maybe during spring or summer break,” Sam agreed. “I’ve missed you, Dean.”

“I’ve missed you too, Sammy,” Dean told his brother. He could sense things were still a bit rocky, but hey, they were talking again, so that was something. Dean opened his mouth to tell Sam that his dad also missed him, then thought better of it. Baby steps.

“Just, as long as Dad’s not there,” Sam hurriedly said.

“Oh he is definitely not going to be there,” Dean said adamantly. “Not until I’ve made sure he won’t try to gank every ghost he sees.”

“And how do you plan to do that?” Sam asked somewhat tiredly.

“I don’t know. I’ll find a way to get through to him,” Dean told his brother, even though he wasn’t sure if he actually could get through to their dad—another thing shared with Danny.

Dean’s phone began beeping with a call waiting.

“And speak of the devil!” Dean said loudly, then sighed. “Dammit, he probably wants a status update…”

“I’ll let you go then,” Sam said. “It’s late, anyway. Goodnight, Dean; goodnight, Danny.”

“Goodnight,” Danny said.
“See ya, Sammy,” Dean replied at the same time, then switched to his Dad’s call, this time not on speaker. “Hey Dad, what’s up?” He said as he signalled to Danny and pointed to the go-bag that Jazz had brought, which ought to have pajamas for the kid to change into; Sam was right, it was pretty late, especially for a kid. Danny got the idea and hurried to grab them and then headed to the bathroom.

“‘What’s up’? That’s how you answer? Really?” John said flatly.

“Um… yes? You sound angry.”

“I am angry!” John shouted. “Dean, I expected you back by now! It was a simple salt-and-burn. Where are you?”

Dean winced. “The case had complications. It wasn’t so simple.”

“‘Complications’? If there were complications, you should have called me,” John said sternly.

“Well, it was still easy to handle, just took longer,” Dean replied. “I didn’t need your help.”

“It’s not about needing help or not! I was worried, Dean.”

“Oh come on, it was one extra night. I’m 26, Dad. You don’t have to monitor me 24/7.”

“That’s not—”

“No, that is what you’re doing! Ever since Sammy left you’ve been obsessed with knowing where I am. What, do you think I’m gonna go abandon you too or something?” Dean shouted, expressing a frustration he hadn’t even fully realized he had.

John sighed in frustration. “Dean. Think about it from my perspective: my kid goes on a hunt, alone. Should be a simple one. Then he doesn’t come home when he should. Don’t I have a right to worry?”

Dean winced. His dad did have a point. “Sorry, Sir,” he said guiltily. He remembered how tough it would be when his dad came back late from hunts, how much he and Sam both worried… but, wasn’t that a bit hypocritical, demanding Dean call the second he was late but not doing that himself when he took longer on hunts?

“It’s fine,” John said in a tone that made Dean think that it wasn’t actually fine, then demanded, “So, what held you up, and where are you?”

“I’m at an inn in the town,” Dean reported. “I stayed here last night because there was a snowstorm. But, I discovered there was another ghost around, this one at the inn. It wasn’t so easy to find who they were though—there was rumors and legends, but only one had a name. Turns out they were connected though. So we found out who they both were, lovers from the ‘80s, but unfortunately the funeral home listed in the obits burned down since so there wasn’t records of a cemetery. But, someone in town remembered the woman was pretty devout, so we went to the church and the pastor did remember the cemetery. So we luckily found both graves there, since there’s like eight cemeteries in this town for some godforsaken reason, and when it got dark we confirmed her identity since she only comes out at night and then salted and burned. Now I’m back at the hotel.”

“Okay… But tell me, Dean, why do you keep saying ‘we’? Are you working with someone?”

Dean winced, not realizing he’d done that. “Ah, well, yeah. There’s this kid…” Dean tried to think up a story on the fly.

“A kid? Dean—”

“He’s not mine, he’s 14!” Dean quickly clarified. “So there’s this kid here, he really reminded me of Sam, and he’s from a family of Hunters. He was here with his… sister and… uncle. They were investigating the ghost too, so we teamed up.” Dean felt a little guilty for lying like that, but his dad couldn’t handle the truth yet.

“Ah. Well, I suppose that makes sense,” John said. “Anyway, it’s late—get some sleep, and head straight home tomorrow, got it? And next time, call me if you know you’ll be late.”

Dean opened his mouth to confirm, then closed it. “Why?” he demanded, suddenly angry.

“Excuse me?”

“Why should I? You never did! Do you know how many times you left me and Sam alone for weeks at a time when you went on hunts that you claimed would be ‘just a few days’? Left us wondering if you were dead? You remember that time Sam ran away, right? He was gone two weeks, but you didn’t know that until you returned from that ‘two day’ hunt. And now you think you have a right to lecture me for not telling you that I’d be away just a single extra day? No. No, you don’t get to do this.”

“Dean—”

“You know, I think I get it now. I think I get why Sam wanted to get away from you so badly. You might be our dad, but you were a deadbeat parent. I can count on my fingers the number of ‘happy holidays’ we had—Thanksgiving was buckets of KFC with you passed out on the couch, Chrtistmas always had you off on hunts. We stole presents for each other, you know. And food, we had to steal food because you left for so long sometimes. All because of your obsession with hunting down that demon that killed mom!”

“Oh, what, now that’s a problem? Don’t you want that son-of-a-bitch taken down?” John practically growled.

“Of course I do! That’s not the issue here! The issue is that you say we’re a family, yet you don’t treat us like one! All you care about is hunting that damn demon!”

“Don’t you dare say that!” John shouted back. “Don’t you dare! I care about you boys more than anything! But in our line of work, sacrifices sometimes need to be made!” He took a deep breath, then said more calmly yet sternly, “When that bastard is dead, we can have all the ‘happy holidays’ you want. We can have vacations and see movies and do whatever other sappy family things you want. But we can’t do that while the yellow-eyed demon still lives. Do you understand me?”

Dean clenched his teeth, wanting to say more, but he could tell it was futile. His dad wasn’t going to listen to him. It was his way or the highway, that’s how it always was.

“Do you understand me?” John tersely repeated when Dean took too long to answer.

“Yes, Sir,” Dean said through a lump in his throat.

“Good. Now, again, your orders are to get some sleep, head straight home tomorrow, and next time, call me if you know you’ll be late. Got it?”

“Yes, Sir,” Dean ground out again, “I’ll do that.”

“Good. We’ll talk more tomorrow,” John said, then hung up.

Dean frowned, and flipped the phone closed before setting it back on the table. “Love you too,” he muttered bitterly. The least the man could do was say ‘goodbye’.

“Everything okay?” Danny asked, and Dean swerved around to see the kid sitting on the second bed.

“Yeah, fine—how’d you get there? I didn’t hear you leave the bathroom!”

“I’m quiet,” Danny said nebulously.

“Ghost thing?” Dean asked.

“Ghost thing,” Danny confirmed. “I also might have been too lazy to open the door,” he revealed. “Everything okay with your dad? That sounded… a little violent.”

Dean considered the question. “How much did you hear?”

“Everything,” Danny told him. “I’m sorry, I tried not to, I swear; it’s just—”

“Ghost hearing,” Dean said with a nod, a little frustrated that the kid overheard but it wasn’t not like he could have avoided it.

“Yeah. So, whatcha gonna do?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you gonna go back, like he said?”

Dean considered that. A part of him wanted to say ‘yes, of course’, but another part of him… Another part was demanding he stay away. He loved his dad, he did, but… Maybe a little time away would be good. So, “I don’t know,” Dean said. “I’ll sleep on it, think about it more in the morning.”

“Well, okay,” Danny said, then yawned and laid down; apparently the kid had no plans to use a blanket, despite wearing sleep shorts and a t-shirt.

Dean shoved his rebellious thoughts aside for the moment, and grabbed a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt from his bag; he preferred to sleep in less obviously sleep things, just in case he had to suddenly leave—his dad had taught him that. He headed to the bathroom and turned the door handle…

Only to find it locked. “Dammit,” Dean muttered, looking towards the culprit, who appeared to already be asleep—at least Dean hoped the kid was asleep, as he wasn’t breathing, which apparently was just something ghost-human hybrids didn’t do. He could try to wake the kid, but the kid probably really needed the sleep with the life he led, especially if he’d fallen asleep that quickly.

So, Dean instead picked the lock.

Chapter Text

Meanwhile, at the same time Danny and Dean were talking, William found himself having a conversation with a different boy.

Shortly after William and Tucker settled in, with William in sweat pants and a t-shirt with Tucker in a more traditional long-sleeved pajama set, and were also munching on their desserts (Tucker with some sort of bacon apple pie and William with a simple cheesecake), Tucker asked through a mouthful of food, “So, what’s going on with Danny?”

William sighed, having expected the question, and swallowed his bite of cheesecake before telling the kid, “First, please don’t speak with your mouth full. Second, I’m not sure it’s my place to reveal anything Danny told me in confidence, even though it isn’t much and I still have plenty of questions of my own.”

Tucker thankfully deigned to swallow another bite before speaking. “Why? You’re not a counselor or lawyer or something like that.”

“Well, no, but it seems like Danny currently has no adult that he feels he can fully trust, and I do not wish to further that perception,” William explained. “I know you teenagers can be stubborn, but you need at least some adults you can trust if need be.”

Tucker considered that for a moment, then said, “Fair enough. But, can you at least tell me the gist of what happened? Danny told us how you ended up fighting the ghost, but not what happened before that. He only told us that he ran away after an argument with his parents, and that was reluctantly after he realized we thought he’d been kidnapped—and before you say anything, given some of his enemies, that’s a fair assumption.” His eyes then widened. “Wait. You know, right? Like, obviously you know about the ghost powers, but you also know, er, the other part…?”

“I suppose kidnapping is a fair assumption,” William conceded. “And yes, I know that Danny is not only a ghost-human hybrid, but also that he can shift between a more human and a more ghostly visage, the latter which is known as Phantom.”

“‘Visage’?” Tucker asked.

William assumed he didn’t know the vocabulary word, so explained, “It means, image or appearance.”

“I know the definition,” Tucker said with an eye roll. “I mean, that implies it’s just looks.”

“That is how Danny described it to me,” William said, a little confused. Did Danny’s friends think differently?

“Oh,” Tucker said, looking surprised at that.

“Perhaps I misinterpreted,” William suggested, even though he was certain that he hadn’t. “How would you describe it?”

Tucker took a moment to answer, during which he took a bite of his pie, thankfully again remembering to swallow before speaking. “I’m honestly not sure anymore,” he admitted. “You know, Sam and I were there when he got his powers—actually, we were all going to go into the portal together, but there was only one hazmat suit that fit and Danny didn’t want us going in without one, not that it mattered in the end. Anyway, we planned to take turns exploring, with Danny going first… It could have easily been me, or Sam, instead; there wasn’t any particular reason for Danny to have gone first.

“Anyway, when… when it happened, it was Phantom who came out of the portal, barely conscious. Honestly, we weren’t sure what to think, didn’t even realize it was Danny until he saw us and said our names. Then he switched back to his human form. At first, all three of us assumed it was just the powers… Or at least, Sam and I did. Danny said he did, but I don’t know if he ever truly believed that—he had nightmares about it a lot at first.

“Danny’s the one who first actually said the word ‘died’ in reference to himself. It was the first time Desiree appeared. I was still thinking of it as just superpowers at that point, seeing it as more of a Spider-Man situation, and was kinda jealous that he was the one that ended up with powers. So, I w-i-s-h’d for ghost powers. Desiree grants ones like those by using those pseudo-ghost things she makes, which Dany managed to get out of me, but afterwards even though he said it was okay he was pretty upset for days after, avoiding both me and Sam.

“I thought he was mad at me for being jealous, but eventually Sam and I got him to talk, and he admitted that he was struggling to figure out how to tell us that it was more than just powers, that he remembered… well, you know. Dying. And then was revived some. It wasn’t that he had ghost powers, he was legit half ghost. Which was a bit of a shock, but not that surprising in retrospect…

“Anyway, back to your question. I’m not really that surprised that it might just be a change of looks, I’m surprised he described it that way because until now I’ve never heard him imply it’s just an image change. He’s always treated it as two separate forms—was pretty stubborn about it, actually. Like, obviously there’s some bleed over with the powers, but there’s still things that are separate.”

“Are there?” William asked without thinking, surprised at that; Danny made it sound like it literally was just appearance. Only after he said it did he realize that maybe Danny was hiding that from his friends as well.

“Well, yeah…” Tucker trailed. “I mean, I guess he never explicitly said that he can’t, but I’ve never seen him fly in human form, or twist his body in the way that Phantom form can… I guess those things can be easily hidden, though… And he thinks we haven’t noticed, but it’s obvious he doesn’t need to breathe… And then there’s the cold skin… But, wait, if it’s just an image change, then that means… that means…”

“He still needs to eat and sleep, and does have a heartbeat,” William reminded Tucker, opting not to say that he saw Danny flying in human form quite a bit. “Those are human traits, not ghost ones.”

“And you’re sure he really needs to…? He’s not faking…?”

“I’m certain,” William told Tucker. He was pretty sure Danny had been close to fainting from hunger and lack of sleep back at that fountain, but William opted not to mention that. But he could say, “I can’t see why Danny would lie about a heartbeat when he so easily mentioned to me that he doesn’t need to breathe. Plus, he doesn’t like asking for help, so allowing me to buy him food if he didn’t need it, after I learned his secret, wouldn’t make sense. There would also be no reason for him to fake sleeping, especially in class.”

“All good points,” Tucker agreed, relaxing a little. “So, less of a separate-form thing, more of a hybrid that can change appearance? I guess that actually makes more sense than a separate ghost form and separate human form with changing vitals, from a logical standpoint… But, I doubt that’s what’s eating at him so much. Did he tell you why he ran away?”

William sighed. “I really don’t think it’s my place to say,” he told Tucker. “Although again, he didn’t tell me much at all.”

“In the speeder, he told us it was an argument with his parents,” Tucker revealed. “He said they didn’t discover he’s Phantom, or that he’s a halfa, but wouldn’t give us more than that.”

William considered what he knew. From what Danny had said at dinner the previous night, the argument itself had been about their views on ghosts, Danny getting fed up with all their negative rhetoric and unable to hold it in anymore, although William had a feeling some details may have been left out. William wasn’t sure if Danny would be okay with him mentioning that or not; Danny, from what William had observed, tended to hide his struggles, so might get upset if William revealed he was suffering at home more than he showed, that the argument was only the final straw in a mountain of stress that had been piling up and that stress was ultimately why he’d opted to run away to get away from it all.

But on the other hand, Danny really needed all the support he could get, and continuing to hide from his friends how stressed he was wouldn’t do any good at all… Well, maybe William could encourage Danny to confide in his friends more.

As to Tucker’s inquiries, though… “I would suggest encouraging Danny to talk about his feelings,” William told him.

“Feelings?” Tucker asked, making a face.

William sighed. “I know teenage boys like to pretend that nothing shakes them, so talking about emotions can be a struggle, but given Danny’s alter ego I’m sure that you’ve all been through a lot in the past year—I’m sure he didn’t go into all those fights alone, right? You, Danny, and Sam ought to all confide in each other, talk about what you’ve been through. I’m sure that will greatly improve things, for all three of you—I know the comic books tend to have the heroes perfectly fine after every battle, unshaken by much, but real life is not like the comics, as I’m sure you’ve already noticed.” At much too young an age, William mentally added.

“I guess that’s true,” Tucker reluctantly admitted. “Jazz is always saying the same thing, that we should talk about things rather than trying to pretend we’re okay all the time. Maybe we can try that, though I have no idea if Danny will be game for that.”

“He does tend to be stubborn,” William acknowledged. “Which I’m sure is only heightened by the ghost emotions.”

“Ghost emotions?” Tucker asked, once again appearing confused.

“Well, Ember told me that ghosts have heightened emotions that can sometimes be difficult to keep control over,” William revealed. “She seems to think that Danny is no exception to this, and thus far I have not seen Danny argue against it.”

“Oh. Huh; that does explain some of his outbursts,” Tucker said with realization. “Usually it’s anger directed towards his enemies, but I guess in general since his accident all emotions have seemed a bit enhanced… He can also project them now, I think.”

“Yes, I noticed that too,” William noted. “I am unsure if he is aware of it.”

Tucker chuckled. “I’d say there’s a good bet he isn’t. Half his powers—or, ghost traits, I guess is more accurate—come as a surprise, or he starts doing them without realizing. Or, not doing them I guess, like breathing… Man, when Sam and I first pointed it out to him that that wasn’t just a ghost-form thing, he freaked out so much…”

“‘Freaked out’?” William noted. “As in, a panic attack?” If Danny were having panic attacks, that really needed to be addressed.

Tucker shrugged. “Dunno. Maybe,” he said.

William decided he’d have to ask Danny about that. The boy really could use a counselor, but alas, after the whole Spectra incident most of the students at Casper High were now unfortunately extremely wary of any sort of therapist or counselor, and Danny would surely not be an exception given that she had been the most focused on him (which in retrospect was likely because she knew he was Phantom and wanted him off his game).

Tucker and Sam likely would benefit from seeing a proper counselor too, especially given what Tucker had mentioned about seeing the accident… although, any of the teens discussing things with a therapist would mean revealing Danny’s identity, but surely they could find one willing to keep such a secret? Additionally, perhaps it would be beneficial to add a mental health unit to the school’s health curriculum to try to combat that reluctance for help, in addition to encouraging seeing someone. Honestly, William was a bit at a loss for what to do in this situation.

Tucker then yawned, and William glanced at the clock. “It’s getting late,” William told the boy. “If there’s more you want to discuss, perhaps it ought to be done in the morning? Sleep is important, after all.”

Tucker chuckled. “Hey, I’m not the one who needs that reminder,” he said, no doubt referring to Danny and his penchant for sleeping in class, which William now realized wasn’t due to irresponsibly playing games until all hours but rather feeling obligated to thwart ghost attacks no matter the hour and being kept awake from nightmares. Tucker yawned again. “Yeah, sleep sounds good.” He stood up and stretched before tossing the empty pie container in the garbage and heading towards his bed.

“Brush your teeth first,” William reminded him.

“Yeah, yeah,” Tucker said, though grabbed his travel-sized hygiene kit from his go-bag, something the town had provided upon recommending all residents prepare emergency go-bags.

Not for the first time, William had the thought that their reality was akin to one of those post-apocalyptic dystopian novels that were all the rage among kids these days.

Chapter Text

The morning had come too soon, Danny concluded as he curled fully under the covers of the inn’s bed, hiding from the world.

“Come on, kid, you gotta get up,” Dean told Danny again. “Before your friends barge in and force you to.”

“YO, BABYPOP!” came Ember’s shout.

“Or your girlfriend, who apparently doesn’t have the courtesy to even knock before phasing into the room,” Dean grumbled.

“Not my girlfriend,” Danny grumbled. “Neither is Sam, for the record.” He knew Dean would suggest it. Everyone joked about it. Danny apparently couldn’t have any female friends without people suggesting they were romantically attracted to each other, and had long ago resigned himself to that fact.

“Boooooo,” Ember said, pout clear in her voice. “Well, I’ll settle with friends I suppose. Now, get up!”

Dean’s cell phone began to ring; he checked the caller ID, then hung up.

“Your dad?” Ember asked.

“Yeah; don’t feel like talking to him right now,” Dean revealed.

A knock then sounded on the door, not unexpectedly.

Dean sighed and opened it. “He’s still in bed,” he told whoever was there.

“No, he’s hiding,” Sam correctly concluded, her heavy footsteps sounding as she stomped into the room and over to Danny’s bed.

Danny tightly clenched the covers as Sam attempted to pull them off. He was definitely not ready to face his friends yet!

“For fuck’s sake, Danny!” Sam growled. “Stop being so damn stubborn!”

“Hey, so, just a suggestion,” Ember said, “Maybe try being gentler? Since forceful doesn’t seem to be working.”

“And how do you know what works for him?” Sam spat at Ember.

“I dunno, might be because I have a little thing called eyes,” Ember replied sardonically; Danny had a feeling that he’d have to mitigate a lot of arguments between the two in the future.

“Sam, Ember’s right,” Tucker said; he must have snuck in with Sam. Was Jazz there too? Was Lancer? Tucker continued, “Forcing him to talk has never worked well with him, you know that.”

“Forcing him to get out of bed is different from forcing him to talk,” Sam retorted.

“But he knows we want him to talk,” Tucker pointed out.

“I’m right here, you know,” Danny grumbled, then rolled and phased through the sheets and blanket to get out of the bed on the side opposite of Sam, noting it was only her and Tucker who had entered, no Jazz nor Mr. Lancer. “There, I’m up, happy?”

“Marginally,” Sam said dryly, arms crossed. “Tucker was pretty upset you know. That was pretty rude of you, jumping to staying with a stranger rather than your best friend.”

“He's not a stranger,” Danny grumbled.

“You met him what, not even two days ago? Yeah, he's a stranger. Now, apologize to Tucker.”

“Sam!” Tucker exclaimed. “He doesn't need to do that. I told you, I get why he did; he gets avoidant when he’s overwhelmed, I know he wasn’t trying to upset me.”

“Trying to or not, he still did,” Sam angrily pointed out.

“I’m getting the feeling that Tucker’s not the only one I upset,” Danny said flatly. The previous night, Sam hadn’t seemed as upset as Danny had anticipated, but it was late and she had been worried he’d been kidnapped. Now that it sunk in that he wasn’t… yeah, Danny should have expected this.

“You think?” Sam snapped. “You had us worried sick, and for no good reason!”

“I know. I messed up,” Danny acknowledged. “I really am sorry for worrying you. I should have at least sent a message.”

“Damn right you should have! For all we knew, you could have been dead!”

“Well, technically—”

“Oh don’t you dare!” Sam growled.

“Dare what?” Danny challenged. “Mention that I’m dead, at least in part? Because, newsflash: I am! That’s what ghosts are! We can’t keep trying to pretend otherwise!”

“That’s not what we’re doing,” Tucker spoke up. “We know that’s the case; we had a big conversation about it a while ago, remember?”

“Then why do you still treat it like it isn’t?” Danny asked. “Why do you still dodge around it, and get upset when I mention that?”

“I don’t get upset,” Tucker said. “I mean, I guess sometimes I’ll feel a pang of pain at the memory of it, since that was a pretty traumatic incident, but I’m used to it now… Or, I though I was. Does that not show?”

Danny considered that. “Okay, it’s less you,” he acknowledged. “But Sam, you definitely seem uncomfortable. It’s upsetting. Why can’t you accept what I am?”

Sam looked like she was having difficulty expressing her thoughts on the matter.

Dean, who was off the the side and seemed to have been trying to stay out of the conversation, spoke up then. “I know that look—it’s guilt. You blame yourself for it, don’t you?”

Sam winced.

“Oh,” Danny said in realization. That made sense. “I’ve told you before that I don’t blame you,” he told her, for what felt like the twenty thousandth time.

“Yeah but I blame me,” Sam said forcefully. “I’m the one who suggested you go in in the first place! And then when Desiree reversed that because of that stupid wish that I’d never met you, and made everyone but me forget, I convinced you to go in it again, this time knowing it would ki—that it would, you know. I could have not done that. Could have let all those memories stay gone, let you happily stay fully alive. Could have even gone in myself. But I wanted our old life back and the only way to get her to undo that was to give you back your powers, which meant… Yeah. So I do blame myself.”

“Okay, first, you did the right thing with the Desiree thing,” Danny reminded her. “She grew in power without me there to stop her, and things would have been so much worse if we hadn’t done that—besides, if you’d gone in yourself, who knows if the result would have been the same? Me going in meant we knew for sure it would work. Plus, it was all our decisions after you explained what happened. You gave me a choice. We decided saving the timeline and reversing that wish was more important. So that’s not on you.”

“But the first time was,” Sam stubbornly pointed out.

“No, it wasn’t,” Danny asserted. “That was an accident. It was your idea to go in, sure, but we thought the portal was inert, and honestly even if you hadn’t suggested it I probably would have still gone in eventually, just alone instead of with you two there—and you know if that happened I’d be hiding it from everyone, including you two, which wouldn’t end well.”

“That’s for sure,” Tucker agreed. “But you know, none of that explains why you ran away and went no-contact,” he pointed out, steering them back to what he and Sam really wanted to know.

Danny shrugged. “Honestly, I dunno if there really is an explanation for that,” he admitted. “At least, not a good one. I just… wanted to escape. Maybe it’s like what you said earlier: I get avoidant when overwhelmed, and I was pretty overwhelmed.”

“Yeah that tracks,” Tucker acknowledged.

“Then next time, tell us that,” Sam said with a scowl.

Tucker chuckled slightly. “Sam, it’s not like this is the first time he’s pulled a runner like this, you know.”

“But this is the first time he’s done it since the accident! The first time he’s done it while having dangerous enemies!” Sam pointed out.

Danny winced. “Yeah… maybe I didn’t think that through.”

“You think?!”

“Hey,” Ember interjected. “That’s enough.”

Sam swiveled to glare at Ember, who had been floating a short distance behind and to the side of her. “Excuse me?”

“He obviously feels bad about what happened,” Ember said relatively calmly, yet still forcefully. “What’s the point of making it worse?”

“Yeah,” Dean chimed in. “Kid’s already been beating himself up over all this, give him a break.”

“Oh, says the guy who took him to dig up graves, extending his escapade,” Sam retorted.

Dean’s response was only to raise an eyebrow and say, “Really?”

“Sam, that was necessary,” Danny told her. “The shade was literally murdering people, and that was the only way to stop her! You know I can’t just not act when people are in trouble and I can do something about it.”

“Oh, right, that stupid ghost drive of yours,” Sam grumbled.

“Hey, you’re lucky a protection drive was what I ended up with,” Danny defended. “It could have been something creepy, like Vlad’s.”

“Ugh, that guy sucks,” Ember moaned.

“Who’s Vlad?” Dean asked warily.

“He’s the only other halfa we know,” Danny decided to inform him. “He was my parents’ friend back in college, worked with them on portal stuff, they know he had an accident with one but don’t know it made him a halfa. Basically, he’s a psychopathic megalomanic obsessed with my mom, he constantly tries flirting with her and trying to win her affection even though she’s clearly uninterested. Now he’s focused on me too ever since he learned I’m a halfa, wants to mentor me and thinks if he wins me over my mom will follow or something. He hasn’t seemed to have gotten the memo that I’m definitely not interested in that either.”

“Yeah, honestly we thought he might have been the one to kidnap you,” Tucker said.

“Wouldn’t put it past him to try,” Danny said with a wry chuckle. Then, his stomach loudly growled, and he blushed.

“Alright, I’m making the executive decision that it’s time to get something to eat,” Dean announced, then glanced at Danny. “After you change out of pajamas.”

“Sure thing,” Danny said, and then grinned and shifted his pajamas to a casual outfit of jeans and a t-shirt.

“Show off,” Dean said with a chuckle.

“Dude! How’d you do that?!” Tucker marvelled.

“Yeah, that’s a new trick,” Sam commented, also with awe.

“Ember taught me,” Danny informed them. It used the pocket dimension thing, the same mechanism used to switch between his regular clothes and Phantom outfit when transforming. He couldn’t store all of his clothes in there, since the size was proportional to power, but a couple outfits was easy.

“Dipstick was doing it without realizing every time he shifted forms,” Ember supplied.

“That’s damn useful,” Dean said appreciatively. “Wish I could do that! Then I could sleep in proper pajamas.” He was already fully changed into his usual jeans, v-neck, and leather jacket.

“Why don’t you?” Danny wondered.

“Sometimes the things we hunt catch wind of Hunters being in town,” Dean explained. “Don’t want to be caught fighting in pajamas, or needing to run in them.”

“Makes sense,” Danny said, then his stomach growled again. “Let’s get food,” he decided, then began to head out of the room.

“Shoes and jacket!” Dean reminded him.

“Right,” Danny said; sometimes he forgot that. He didn’t really care if he had shoes or not, since it wasn’t uncomfortable to walk without them due to his ghost traits causing things that normally should hurt to not hurt, especially as he didn’t need to put any weight on the ground. He shifted socks onto his feet, then hurried to grab the boots he left near the door and pulled them on. He then looked around for the jacket.

“Here, Dipstick,” Ember said, and suddenly Danny had a faceful of jacket.

“Did you have to throw it at me?” Danny jokingly complained, then pulled it on. “Okay, now let’s go.”

“No, now let’s stop floating,” Dean reminded him with amusement. “You too, Princess,” he said with a nod to Ember.

Danny looked down to see he was an inch off the floor. Oops; he really had to work on that! He lowered himself down, and Ember, who had been closer to the ceiling than the floor, followed suit. Then, they all headed to breakfast, Danny well aware that the conversation with Tucker and Sam likely wasn’t over.

After breakfast, which Danny found a little awkward but that was mitigated a little by him, Ember, and Dean, with some occasional help from Lancer, telling the others about the parts of the case that they missed. It then was made a little more awkward by Tucker attempting to flirt with the waitress with clear unsuccess, recovered by Dean doing the same with definite success, which Tucker then literally pouted at, to everyone’s amusement.

Then, they gathered their bags (well, the humans did; the others already had their things in their pocket-dimensions), and headed to their vehicles; Danny would be traveling back with his friends in the speeder.

“Hold up,” Danny said as they made their way to where the speeder was parked, near the end of the lot given its size. “I wanna talk to Dean real quick first, I’ll meet you in the speeder.” Before they could say anything, Danny hurried off, being careful to actually jog and not accidentally fly (and possibly failing a little at it).

Well, definitely failing, as when Dean rolled down his window he chuckled and said, “Seriously, dude? How have you not been discovered yet?”

Danny blushed. “Well, it’s not my fault flying’s easier and faster… So, what have you decided?” he asked Dean through the open window of the Impala. “You going right back to your dad, or rolling on your own for a while?”

Dean took a deep breath. “You know what?” He grinned. “I’m going to California.”

“California?” Danny asked, a little puzzled.

“Yeah. Stanford. I’m gonna go see my brother.”

“And your dad won’t be mad?”

“Oh, he’ll definitely be mad,” Dean said with a laugh. “But if Dad wants me back with him, he can come get me.”

“Are you gonna settle down like Sam, or are you still gonna Hunt?” Danny wondered.

“Hunting’s in my blood; Sammy might want to do something else, but I can’t see myself doing anything else,” Dean said adamantly. “Don’t worry, kid; you’ll still get to go on another Hunting trip with me—I promised, didn’t I? And Sammy and I will definitely both be visiting Amity Park and hitting you up on the Ghost Zone trip!”

Danny grinned too. “Looking forward to it. So, California…?”

Dean chuckled. “Let me guess, you wanna come with?”

“Can I?” Danny asked, even though he knew he couldn’t.

“Eh, I have a feeling your teacher, friends, and sister might object just a little to that, kid—Hell, they’d probably hunt me if I took you!”

Danny laughed. “Probably.”

“Plus, don’t you got a town to protect, Hero?” Dean reminded Danny.

Danny’s smile waned a little, but he managed to keep it up. “Yeah…”

Dean frowned. “You really don’t want to go back, do you?”

Danny sighed and looked away. “I don’t know what I want to do,” he admitted. “I know I have a responsibility to protect the town, and my friends are there, but… honestly, I’ve felt better over the past few days than I have in years.”

Dean raised his eyebrows. “Years?”

“Yeah,” Danny confirmed. “Even the few days before Mr. Lancer found me, when I was on my own in a brand-new city with no money, I was more relaxed than I have been in a long time, even before the accident. How messed up is it that sleeping on the streets felt safer than in my own home? I just… I don’t want to go back to that house. I really don’t want to go back there.”

“Is there somewhere else you can stay, then?” Dean asked. “A friend’s? Maybe your teacher’s?”

“I dunno,” Danny said. “I kinda like the idea of traveling around saving people, like you do. I know the town does need help, but there’s some other ghost hunters around now, that are getting better at managing the usual ghosts, and if there’s a stronger one my friends could always summon me…”

“Summon?” Dean asked, raising his eyebrows.

“Ah, yeah, part-ghost means ghost stuff like that works on me,” Danny admitted. “I learned that the hard way when a cult tried to summon me.” He pulled out a small chain from under his shirt to show a coin-shaped pendant with symbols. “This is an anti-summoning charm. So in theory if they called me about an issue, I could remove this and then they could summon me.”

“And what does summoning you entail?” Dean asked, perhaps slightly wary.

“For a basic one, where I can choose to respond or not? Just basic spell stuff, like chicken bones and some plants and stuff. I think a ouija board might work too. For whatever ritual that cult used to force me there? You really don’t want to know.”

“Why did a cult want to summon you?”

Danny sighed. “I wish I knew. It was back when a lot less people thought I was a hero, so I guess they didn’t realize that I try to do good? They were really pissed off when I refused to murder people for them, really glad that containment circle they used didn’t work… Come to think of it, I think that was made with salt…”

“Huh. Well, it’s still probably not a good idea for you to come with me,” Dean told Danny. “I mean, I honestly would love to have you around, Ember too, this hunt went much better than usual with your powers, but… you’re 14. You still gotta do school, you know.”

“School sucks,” Danny said. “The only teacher that doesn’t suck is Lancer, and ironically although there’s a lot of fans of my ghost form my human form is considered a loser by most of the school.” He chuckled. “Really would love to see the look on some of the bullies’ faces when they realize the ghost they idolize is the same kid they bully.”

“You’re bullied?” Dean asked, mildly confused. “Why don’t you fight back?”

Danny raised an eyebrow at Dean. “How? I mean, my identity is kinda a secret. They’re twice the size as me, so suddenly being able to easily beat them would be very suspicious. Besides, if not me they’d just move onto other kids who can’t take it as well as I can.”

“Physically, you mean—mentally though, that can take a toll,” Dean pointed out.

“All the more reason to leave that hellhole,” Danny replied. “Seriously, can I go with you?” The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to.

Dean sighed, but took a moment to answer. “Are you going to run away again if I say no?”

Danny considered that. “I might,” he said.

“Right… Here, let me talk to your teacher first,” Dean said, turning the car off and getting out of it. “Wait here,” he instructed.

Obviously Dean wanted to talk to Lancer in private, but either he’d forgotten Danny had enhanced hearing or didn’t realize it extended that far. Lancer was placing the ugly flower back in the car, carefully strapping it into the back seat; he withdrew and closed the door, then sighed when he saw Dean there.

“Let me guess: he wants to stay with you?” Lancer tiredly surmised.

Dean nodded. “I know it’s not going to be something you’ll allow, obviously he’s 14 and has school and stuff, but I find it really worrisome that he’s asking to run away with a guy he literally met two nights ago instead of going home to his parents.”

“Yes, I agree,” Lancer said. “Honestly though, I am unsure how to approach this situation. Under normal circumstances, CPS would be called in due to suspicions of abuse, but obviously these are not normal circumstances.”

“Because his parents don’t know he’s part ghost?”

“Correct, although I have suspicions that there is more to it—obviously neglect is a major factor, but it seems to go further than that.”

Neglect? Abuse? Why was Lancer using those words? Sure, Danny’s home life was pretty bad objectively, but… it wasn’t really that bad, was it? Maybe it was…

“Well, the whole lab safety thing is definitely an issue,” Dean pointed out. “Kid wouldn’t even be part-ghost if his parents followed basic safety measures, like locking down dangerous experiments and restricting lab access.”

“Precisely,” Lancer agreed. “Plus, if a government organization learns he’s part-ghost, they might alert the GIW—although they are fairly incompetent at actually catching ghosts, there is a likely chance they would intentionally reveal his secret if they found out, as we simply don’t know if they’d count him as a threat as they do with all full ghosts.”

“Ask him about the subbasement,” Ember offered, causing both to jump when she appeared near them. “And what happened when Youngblood thought it’d be fun to invisibly taunt him, and they thought he was hallucinating. Not gotta say any more since I don’t want to betray his confidence though.”

“Aren’t subbasements against zoning laws?” Lancer asked.

“Beats me,” Ember said with a shrug. “Also, FYI, this isn’t far enough away to prevent him from eavesdropping.”

Danny quickly looked away from the group, blushing.

Dean sighed. “Should’ve figured. Kid, get over here.”

Danny quickly flew over, since it was faster than walking.

“What did I say about not being suspicious, kid? You too, Ember,” Dean said, gesturing to Ember’s feet, which were above the ground.

“Sorry,” Ember said, alighting down. “Ghost culture habit, it’s respectful to float at eye-level.”

“So, about this subbasement and Youngblood thing…” Dean prodded.

Danny shot a glare at Ember.

“Lancer, at least, should know, Babypop,” Ember told him.

“It’s not a big deal,” Danny said.

“You were shaking in fear when talking about it yesterday. That implies otherwise.”

Danny winced. “I wasn’t shaking—”

“You were.”

“I’m still getting a handle on the enhanced ghost emotions,” Danny defended. “And puberty doesn’t help. Besides, technically the subbasement stuff is for if they catch a ghost, not for punishments.”

“But they’ve threatened to use them as punishments.”

“Dad did, mom stopped him,” Danny reminded her.

“And next time? Weren’t you afraid that she wouldn’t?”

“I’m probably being dramatic,” Danny countered.

“No, pretty sure you’re not.”

“Kid, just tell us what’s going on. What’s the ‘Youngblood incident’, and what’s in the subbasement?” Dean asked again.

Danny signed in resignation. If Ember was worried enough about it to tell Lancer, maybe it was pretty bad after all. So, he proceeded to tell them what he told Ember, about ‘spinning the crazy out’ of him and the threats to use the torture chamber.

Both Lancer and Dean were staring at him in shock by the end, and it took a few moments for either to respond.

Dean let out a low whistle. “Humans, man… I’m telling you, they can seriously be worse than the monsters I hunt.”

“They’re not that bad,” Danny insisted.

“Hey, the monsters act by instincts. Doing the things you described, to a kid no less? That’s a choice,” Dean firmly pointed out.

“They haven’t ever hit me or anything, in human form. And they’ve never killed anyone like those monsters do.”

“Technically, Babypop, their machine killed you, revived a bit or not,” Ember pointed out.

“But that was an accident, and I’m the one who—”

“If it were locked down and they banned you from it and took all the precautions to make sure it was fully shut down, would you have died?”

Danny let his silence speak for itself, not wanting to voice that truth.

“Do you have full access to the lab?” Lancer wondered.

“Well, yeah,” Danny said. “One of my chores is to clean it, and do maintenance on some of the machines, like changing the ecto-filtrator on the portal.”

“For how long?”

Danny shrugged and crossed his arms, hunching in on himself as he said quietly, “Since I was like six.” He already did know that was way too young to clean chemicals and things without supervision, and the adults’ horrified reaction upon hearing such wasn’t surprising.

“Six?” Lancer repeated.

“They said I was old enough to be in school, so I was old enough to do chores. I don’t think they took the danger of the chores into account. I already know that’s bad, Jazz frequently tells me that. They never made her do things like that.” Danny wasn’t quite sure why he was always given the laborious tasks like that; maybe it was unconscious gender biases or one of the other terms Sam—his Sam, not Dean’s brother—liked to use.

“Tell them about the anti-ghost security system in the house,” Ember said.

Danny frowned. “That’s not a big deal, if I see they turned it back on I just turn it off again.”

“Tell them about it anyway.”

Danny sighed again. He was just so tired, mentally; what the hell, he talked about everything else, why not this too. So, he described the security system, how scary it was when it was turned on, how stressful it was living there with it looming over his head. He also mentioned all the experimental prototype weapons, half of which tried to auto-target him, some which could actually hurt humans some too.

“We need to get you out of that house,” Lancer decided.

“You can join me hunting with Dean,” Ember suggested.

“Wait, you’re coming with me?” Dean asked with surprise, apparently having not been told this yet.

“Ember, you need to ask people before deciding things like that,” Danny reminded her.

“Oh, right. But Dean’s cool with it.” Ember turned to the man. “Right?”

“Sure, I don’t mind,” Dean said. “Having a ghost helping out could be useful. Just, don’t let people find out you’re a ghost, okay? This ain’t Amity Park. And Danny, you can come during your breaks, the whole summer one even if you want, but you do need to do school, you’re too young to drop out.”

“He won’t be dropping out at all,” Lancer said in a warning tone.

Danny sighed. “Okay, fine,” he decided, seeing little way to get out of that. Well, for now—maybe he would drop out eventually, who knew. School just didn’t seem so important to him among all the ghost stuff.

“Wait,” Dean then said with realization. “Don’t you both need ambient ectoplasm?”

“I can last a few weeks before needing it again,” Ember revealed. “I went on tour for a month once and only barely started feeling weaker by the end. Babypop ought to be the same or longer, our power levels are similar and he’s also got the human parts that might extend it.”

“Also, like I said before, I think I can easily make ecto-pills in my parents’ lab,” Danny told them. “I’ll work on that, then even summer break won’t be an issue—although I did already promise Sam and Tucker we could do a two-week road trip, we’ve already got tickets for some events.”

“Details of that can be discussed later,” Lancer said. “But for now, we need to discuss what happens when we return to Amity Park. Something needs to be done about your home situation, Danny.”

Danny looked away and towards the ground, clenching his fists. “Nothing can be done about it. I’m stuck there.” He felt a wave of emotion, and attempted to hold back the tears that were suddenly trying to form. He really didn’t want to go back, but what choice did he have?

Jazz then walked over to them. “What’s going on?” she asked. “Danny, you said you were just saying bye to Dean…”

“Well, I was, but…”

“Your brother is so afraid of going home that he’d rather leave with someone he just met, and then threaten to run away again if not permitted to,” Dean explained bluntly.

“I wasn’t actually serious about that,” Danny muttered.

“Really?” Dean asked with a raised eyebrow.

Danny hesitated. Honestly, he wasn’t quite sure about that; it would depend on what his parents did when he got back. If they tried to ‘spin the crazy out of him’ again…

“Danny?” Jazz asked, scrunching her brow in confusion and placing a hand on his shoulder.

Danny wanted to say something, assure his sister he was fine, but it felt like there was a lump in his throat preventing speech.

“Danny, talk to me,” Jazz prodded.

“I just… I just can’t go back,” Danny told his sister, the tears staring to fall despite trying to hold them back. “I can’t. It’s too much. I just can’t handle living there anymore. I felt better the past few days than I have in a long time—being on the streets was less stressful than being there. I’m constantly on edge when at home. It’s not just late nights and nightmares causing the lack of sleep—it takes an hour of lying awake before I can even fall asleep because I’m so paranoid that it’s going to be the night Mom and Dad find out and I’ll wake up strapped to a table in the lab being vivisected or something, like they constantly say they want to do when they finally catch a ghost—especially Phantom.

“And it’s not even just about the ghost stuff! You can’t possible think our home life is good, Jazz; when they’re not ignoring us there’s only like a 50% chance that they’ll be nice, the other times it’s yelling about breaking curfew or grades being bad or whatnot with the threat of using the stuff in the subbasement, or other machines, especially if they think one of us is talking crazy, like that time a couple months ago with Youngblood… When they… you know.” ’When they used that centrifugal device,’ Danny thought but didn’t say. Jazz knew what he was talking about.

“Is that what happened to cause you to run? Did they call you crazy again?” Jazz intuited.

Danny nodded, and wrapped his arms around his chest as he quietly admitted, “Yeah. I’m scared they’ll use that thing again when I get back. Or one of the torture devices.”

“You know I wouldn’t let them do that,” Jazz said.

“But you’re not home 24/7,” Danny pointed out. She also did let them use that spinning device on him, although she at least convinced them to do a camping trip in lieu of trying more unconventional methods. Still, that had hurt, and now Danny wasn’t entirely confident that his sister would always protect him.

“You also shouldn’t have to stop them from that,” Dean pointed out. “Seriously? Torture devices? Neither of you should be living with parents who threaten that! That makes my dad sound tame, and he taught me and Sammy how to slash monsters’ throats as soon as we could hold a knife!”

“But, I’ve been working on getting them to be better,” Jazz said. “They do love us, they just don’t always show it the best way… But it’s been getting better, I think…”

“No, it hasn’t,” Danny told his sister bluntly. “If anything, they’ve gotten worse since that stupid portal opened.”

“Hey! The portal’s not stupid,” Ember protested, reminding Danny she was there. “ It lets us visit here! But, hate to break it to you, Psych-pop, but Danny’s right.”

“Psych-pop?” Jazz repeated in mild confusion.

Ember ignored Jazz’s comment and continued, “Surprised you haven’t seen it with the amount you psychoanalyze everything. Even other ghosts have noticed something’s not right in that house. They might love you, but they are not good parents and it’s not safe for either of you there.”

“Either of us?”

“Yeah, duh. Half those weapons actually can hurt humans too, you know. Not as badly as ghosts, but they can. And they store lab samples in the fridge that regularly contaminate your food—I can tell there’s already some high levels of ecto-energy in you, it’s only a matter of time before you consume enough to gain mild ghost powers.”

“Wait, really?” Jazz asked with surprise. “Ghost powers due to ecto-contamination is an actual thing, not something made-up to explain Danny’s slip-ups?”

“Yup. Literally all the residents of your town have a little bit, but you have a lot more. So, uh, be a little more careful with your food, okay?”

“Yeah, I’ll do that…” Jazz trailed, then paused a moment in consideration before saying, “Okay. Say you’re right about the house being too dangerous for us to stay. Where are we supposed to go instead? We need access to the Ghost Zone, and the only other person with a portal we know of is a literal evil psychopath who has world domination fantasies and a weird obsession with our mom and Danny.”

“Plus, being there lets me check up on what my parents are working on, and sabotage it if needed,” Danny chimed in. “And gives Tucker access to the computer to mess around with the programming on the shields and trackers to exclude me. If I’m gonna stay in Amity Park, I need to live there.”

“Well, theoretically you could just periodically fly in there to check on things,” Jazz mused.

“Wait, what? You’re actually considering it?!” Danny asked incredulously. Maybe if his sister were considering it…

“It’s hard to deny things are bad when everything’s objectively laid out,” Jazz admitted with reluctance.

“If I may be bold to suggest it, perhaps you could call your parents now?” Lancer suggested. “Let them know why your brother ran, and warn them that if they continue with their current treatment that next time neither of you will return?”

Jazz considered that for a moment. “That could work,” she decided.

“Also, if either of you ever need a place to stay, even if it’s not an emergency and you merely need a break, or even on short notice, I have an extra bedroom,” Lancer offered. “Plus, an air matress.”

“You’d do that for us?” Danny asked, surprised.

“Of course. Even if you just need a place to get some sleep without fear, you can use it,” Lancer informed him.

“Thank you,” Danny said. He might just have to take Lancer up on that offer.

“Okay, I’ll call our parents when we’re in the speeder,” Jazz decided. “And, I let them know a teacher found Danny, and he’s considering calling CPS?” she said in a questioning tone.

“Yes, that certainly may help,” Lancer agreed. “Why don’t we try seeing if that helps, and reevaluate in a few weeks.”

“Sounds good to me,” Jazz said.

“Me too,” Danny agreed.

“The ghost weapons and things still bother me though,” Dean said with a frown.

“I’ll tell them about that, too,” Jazz said. “Say that Danny’s afraid they could hurt him, especially because they ‘accidentally’ target him sometimes. And, that I’m concerned too, about my own safety. Hopefully they’ll then ease up on using them around us.”

“And the crazy machine?” Danny asked.

“I’ll tell them that if they don’t dismantle it, I’ll sabotage it myself,” Jazz said determinedly.

Danny couldn’t help but chuckle. “I guess that works.”

Danny then noticed that Sam and Tucker were heading over, no doubt curious why now Jazz was taking so long to retrieve him.

“Well, that looks like our cue to leave,” Jazz said, glancing to the two; Danny had a feeling she knew that Danny didn’t want to give the two many details about what was going on here. No doubt they’d learn during Jazz’s call while in the speeder, but Danny didn’t want to personally explain.

“Yes, I ought to get going too; that orchid doesn’t do well in cold,” Lancer said, glancing to his car.

“Well, see ya around, then,” Dean said. “I’ll try to find some good cases for you to help with for Spring and Summer breaks,” he told Danny. “And looking forward to that Ghost Zone trip!”

Danny grinned. “Me too! And I can’t wait to meet your brother!”

“Well, assuming he’ll talk to me,” Dean pointed out.

“I’m sure he will,” Danny said confidently. “He did last night!”

“Yeah, but that don’t necessarily mean everything’s fine,” Dean noted.

“Well, I’m sure it’ll work out eventually if it isn’t,” Danny amended. “Me and Jazz fight sometimes, but we always make up.”

“Jazz and I,” both Lancer and Jazz simultaneously corrected.

Ember giggled. “Well, if we’re gonna get going, let’s get going!” she said. “Bye bye, Babypop.” She quickly flew forward and gave Danny a brief kiss on the cheek, then flew cheerfully into the car after waving bye to Jazz and Mr. Lancer too.

Danny couldn’t help but blush, and Sam, reaching them, looked at him suspiciously. “We’re just friends, I swear!” he told her unprompted.

“Not what I was thinking, but now I am,” Sam grumbled, which Danny ignored.

“Anyway, see you around,” Danny told Dean. “And see you at school, Mr. Lancer.” He then turned around and began heading towards the speeder, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker in tow.

“‘See you around’? What, are you a Hunter now, on top of being the Town Hero?” Tucker asked teasingly.

Danny shrugged. “Maybe,” he said with a small smile. “That was definitely a lot of fun—and, come on, now that I know there’s more than just ghosts out there, and that shades can be violent, I just can’t ignore it, can I? I can help more by Hunting than being the Town Hero—the ghosts in Amity Park don’t typically intentionally hurt humans, after all. Isn’t it more helpful to stop people dying than to only stop property damage?”

“You do have a point,” Jazz conceded. “It just seems so dangerous though…”

“Eh, maybe to a human,” Danny said. “Good thing I’m not one. Not fully,” he amended, certain that his friends weren’t yet ready for him actively calling himself inhuman—which was the truth. Halfas weren’t human. Nor were they ghosts, even if they had more in common with ghosts; they were something in-between.

“Think we can get in on this too?” Sam wondered.

“Speak for yourself,” Tucker said. “It sounded cool at first, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I’d rather not be risking death any more than I usually do.”

“I don’t mind, but Ember will be there,” Danny warned.

“Eh, if you can make a ghost friend, maybe I can make one too,” Sam said. “Worth a try, right?”

Danny grinned. “Good. Because surprisingly, I like having a ghost friend,” he told her. “And honestly? I think you could become good friends with her, too; you two are more similar than you’d think.”

“We’ll see,” Sam simply replied, still clearly wary despite agreeing to try; well, it was a start, Danny supposed.

“We’re at the speeder,” Jazz announced. “Ready to go home?”

“No,” Danny replied. “But, I guess I will.”

And with that, Danny’s first Hunting adventure came to a close, as everyone entered the speeder and headed home.