#and danny hadn’t noticed that restriction in others before since he’d never seen a ghost who didn’t speak english converse with a human

[stars-obsession-pit]

“Mom, why do you think ghosts are intrinsically evil?”

“It’s what the science says, of course!”

“No, I mean like, what were the studies? What did they actually observe”

“Ohh, I get what you mean, Danny! Well across all reputable reports of encounters with the ghosts strong enough to matter, they’ve always attacked first and never responded to attempts at communication! There’s no reason for them to do that if they’re not evil!”

“Huh…”

…

Danny, learning about Ghost Speak and how humans can’t understand it: hmm.

Danny, learning that ghosts greet each other and bond by fighting: hmmm.

[mischiefandspirits]

Doppelgänger (6/?)

Previously on Doppelgänger ~ Masterlist ~ Next time on Doppelgänger

Danny, Sam, and Tucker were just 14 when they took a look inside the portal Danny’s parents had built. From there, everything changed. They woke up with white hair, green skin, and powers they could learn to control. They were hybrids, halfas.

They were the hero Doppelgänger.

{13}

“He had a living shadow,” Sam was explaining as the trio made their way through the fairgrounds. “It was pretty cool, until the stupid thing managed to release the ghost snake and I had to spend another hour chasing it down. Though, it would have been a lot easier if I wasn’t alone.”

“Sorry Sam,” Danny said, leaning into her side. “Apparently, Dad put in a fingerprint scanner to lock the portal and wanted to show it off. I had to convince my dad to stop before he let the whole ghost zone out, not to mention try to figure out how to get you guys access.”

“How’d that go?” Tucker asked.

“Dad took forever to stop, but once he did it didn’t take long to add you guys. Jazz helped.”

“Really?” Sam said. “Why?”

Danny shrugged. “She’s been weirdly helpful since Spectra. She’s been helping keep mom and dad off my case and everything. Maybe she’s worried I’ll stop hanging out with her again?”

“Maybe.” Sam nudged Tucker. “So that’s why Danny couldn’t help. What’s your excuse for ditching me?”

“Mom asked her friend’s daughter to tutor me in history. I had to leave to meet her at the library then walk her home.”

“Did you flirt with her?” Danny asked.

“How bad was the turndown?” Sam added.

“You’re both terrible partners.”

Danny pulled away from Sam to cuddle up to Tucker, kissing his cheek. “You know we’re just teasing.”

Tucker wrapped his arm around Danny with a glare. “You’re too adorable for your own good.”

Danny’s nose scrunched up. “I’m not adorable.”

“You are. It’s not fair when you use it against us,” Sam said.

“I’m not adorable. And I don’t use it against you.”

“Not on purpose,” Sam agreed with a smirk. “You’re too oblivious for that.”

Danny rolled his eyes and pulled away. His eyes caught on where his sister was waiting for him by an art stall and he smiled. “Alright, I’ll catch up with you guys later. Jazz!”

“Hey Danny,” she greeted. She stared at a painting of a clown as he ran up to her. “What does this say to you?”

“It says My name’s Joe. Why? What does it say to you?”

“I’m serious,” she huffed.

“So am I.” He laughed and ducked away when she tried to mess with his hair. “Come on, I want to kick your butt at Ring Toss.”

“You’re on, little brother!”

Jazz ended up winning at Ring Toss, but Danny beat her at darts. The two were heading towards the Skee-Ball booth for a tiebreaker when screams sounded overhead. They looked up to see the roller coaster train had jumped the tracks. Danny spotted Sam and Tucker carrying the train’s passengers to safety, but the train was heading straight for the siblings.

Danny grabbed his sister. He was about to use his intangibility, secret or no, but then suddenly they were next to a booth and the train smashed to the ground ten yards away.

The siblings gaped at the crash, then turned to each other.

Danny started panicking, sure that he had just done… something to get them out of the way.

Jazz gave a shaky laugh. “Wow, that was crazy. I was sure it was headed for us for a second there. Guess fear really does mess with your head.”

“Y-yeah.” She didn’t notice! Danny didn’t know how she didn’t notice, but he wasn’t looking a gift horse in the mouth. “You okay?”

“Yeah. You?”

He nodded and looked back to the train as his ghost sense went off. What just happened?

That stupid shadow ghost is back! Sam said.

“Are you alright?” Danny and Jazz turned as a guy on a motorcycle came up to them. He smiled at Jazz and looked her over. “That looked close.”

“We’re okay,” Danny said, then frowned when the guy gave him a quick annoyed look before focusing back on Jazz.

“I think you dropped this.” The guy handed Jazz the stuffed owl Danny had won her -- Jazz had won a teddy bear covered in stars for Danny -- with a smile and wink. “The name’s Johnny.”

Danny blinked. Was he… flirting with Jazz?

Gross.

“Thanks. I’m Jasmine. Jazz.”

Danny smirked and leaned towards her. “Should I give you two some privacy?”

She elbowed him.

“I’m glad you’re okay. You look cold though.” The guy pulled a scarf out of his jacket and held it out. “Here.”

Danny shivered and felt Jazz do the same. He looked around with a frown as she said, “I couldn’t.”

“It’s fine, take it.” He smiled as Jazz hesitated, then took it from him. “I bet you’ll look great in it, Kitten.”

“My name’s not Kitten,” Jazz said as she put it on. Then her smile widened. “But you can call me that, if you want.”

Wait, was Jazz flirting back?

Double gross.

“Ride home, kitten?”

Jazz gasped and moved to climb onto the bike.

Danny caught her arm. “What are you doing? You don’t even know this guy.”

She yanked her arm away with a glare. “Lay off. I can handle myself.”

“What about us-time?”

“I want to go home. I know you can get home on your own.”

“Ja-”

“Bye, Danny,” she snapped, climbing onto the bike and putting on the helmet.

“Bye,” he said as the bike took off. “Wow, and I thought I was an idiot with my crushes… I shouldn’t follow her… She will definitely kick my butt if she finds out…”

Danny transformed and followed the bike invisibly.

Thankfully Johnny did take her home, if on a bit of a circuitous path. She seemed happy about it though so Danny couldn’t hold it against the guy.

He left them at the door and headed to the lab. He couldn’t go to his room without raising questions, so he figured he might as well clean up the lab then head into the zone and check on Cujo and the blobs.

He had just put away the last beaker when someone opened the door to the lab. He quickly changed back as Jazz and Johnny came down the stairs, his sister wearing a red leather jacket he’d never seen before.

“Danny? What are you doing down here?”

“Oh, uh, hey Jazz! Just, uh, doing my chores. Yeah. Nice jacket.”

She smiled and turned to her date. “Johnny gave it to me.”

Okay, a scarf was one thing, but a jacket? “Right. What are you doing down here?”

“Looking for some privacy. So scram,” Johnny said.

Danny was slightly surprised -- and hurt -- Jazz didn’t react to his rudeness, but pushed it down. Instead, he gave her an incredulous look. “You wanted a secret place to make out and you brought him here. To our parents' lab. Where they spend almost all their waking hours.”

Jazz frowned and looked around, confused.

“Don’t you have better things to do than bug us, kid?”

Danny ignored the older boy and set his hand on Jazz’s shoulder. “Seriously, do you want mom and dad to walk in on you? I thought you were smarter than that. Take him up to the Ops Center, at least.”

She pulled away from him, but his hand caught on the scarf, causing both to slip down her shoulder. Both began to glow green.

Before Danny could react, Johnny grabbed him and yanked him away. “You know what, punk? We’ve had just about enough of you.”

Sam had mentioned a biker ghost was controlling the shadow. Danny’s ghost sense had gone off just before Johnny had ridden up.

I’m an idiot, Danny thought. “You’re a ghost!”

“Scared?” Johnny chuckled, aura flaring up.

Danny closed his eyes to hide the flash of red as he reached into his Space Fold behind his back and pulled out the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. He opened his eyes and smirked. “Dude, my parents are ghost hunters.”

Then he hit the ghost in the head with the ectoplasm saturated bat.

Johnny dropped him with a yelp, grabbing the side of his face. Then he shot Danny a deadly glare. “Shadow.”

The biker’s shadow lifted off the ground and growled at Danny.

A throat cleared and the three turned to see Jazz glaring at the ghosts, the Fenton Ghost Peeler wrapped around her. She aimed the gun at the shadow. “Hands off the little brother,” she said before blasting it.

It shrieked under the light, writhing as the darkness was peeled away to nothing.

“Oh, no! My Shadow! My Power!” Johnny shouted and froze when Jazz turned the gun on him.

“In you go, creep,” she said, gesturing to the portal with her head.

Smiling, Danny walked over and opened it, bat bouncing against his shoulder.

Johnny sent him a poisonous look. “This isn’t over, kid.”

Danny stuck his tongue out at him.

“And take your junk with you,” Jazz said, kicking the scarf and jacket.

Johnny grabbed them and left.

“Don’t come back soon,” Danny called as he closed the portal. He turned to Jazz as she disengaged the peeler. “That still looks weird.”

“Yeah.” She pulled him into a hug. “Thanks. Who knows what that ghost would have done to me if you hadn’t been here.”

“I just hit him with a bat. You’re the one that blasted the shadow.”

She pulled back to look at the bat. “I thought that was just an ordinary bat that mom slapped a sticker on. How’d it hurt him?”

“Oh, I, uh, soaked it in ectoplasm.” And by that, he meant he let a ghost dog slobber all over it and use it for fetch. “I’m just glad it was close enough for me to reach.”

“Sure.” She kissed the top of his head. “You’re the best little brother.”

“Ugh! Gross, Jazz!”

{Public Enemies, Part 1}

“I’m exhausted,” Danny moaned.

“What is going on in the zone? We’ve never needed all three of us out all night,” Sam said, leaning against Tucker.

“At least most of them are all low levels. They’re more annoying than anything,” he huffed. “I need a nap though.”

“- over to Principal Ishiyama, who's here to inform you of some exciting rules and restrictions,” the mayor was saying as the trio tuned back into the assembly.

“This is going to end badly,” Danny muttered.

“I swear if they make it harder for us to transform, I’m just going to leave them to the ghosts,” Tucker said and both his partners elbowed him. “Ow! I was just kidding!”

“Due to the continuing and escalating ghost threat,” the principal said as she came onstage, “here's the way we're going to limit your freedom: One, students are to have no contact with these spirits.”

“You heard her Sam, get off,” Tucker joked and tried to nudge the tired girl off his shoulder.

She jabbed him in the side, but otherwise didn’t move.

“Two, all students will be escorted directly to their homes after school. And three, by order of the Mayor's new security advisor, a nine o'clock curfew.”

“A curfew?” Sam hissed.

“An escort?” Tucker groaned.

“OK, who's the idiot security advisor that came up with those lame ideas?” Danny huffed and leaned into Tucker’s other side.

The door to the auditorium slammed open and Danny’s dad yelled into a megaphone, “Fear not, young ones! We're here to make sure this school is prepared for any ghost emergency!”

Danny whined and hid his face in Tucker’s neck.

“You must be cautious! At any time one of these ectoplasmic malefactors -- Hi, sweetie! -- could appear out of nowhere!”

Danny didn’t want to know if his mom had singled him out or Jazz. He really didn’t. “Time to sit in the back where nobody can notice us?”

“Time to sit in the back where nobody can notice us.”

The three sluggishly got up and slipped to the back of the auditorium, ignoring Danny’s parents as they went on and on about how terrible ghosts were.

Then their ghost senses went off.

“Oh no. You have got to be kidding me. Here? Now?” Danny asked as Sam grabbed both their arms and started dragging them towards the doors. The crowds were making it impossible to get out together, though. And then a werewolf ghost was grabbing them by their linked arms.

“Servi!” it growled before Danny’s mom blasted it away.

They tried to chase after the ghost when it fled, only to come face to face with Lancer as soon as they were out the door.

“Bridget Jones' diary, kids! Stop your screaming and get over there into the safe area!”

They all scowled, but allowed themselves to be shoved back towards their classmates.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Our parents invited the A-listers over to be trainee ghost hunters,” the trio said as Danny met up with Sam and Tucker. He handed them each a thermos then they split up. “We’re surprised Paulina would risk her hair like that. We’re more surprised they’d want to spend time with our parents. They always make fun of them. We can’t wait to toss that blabbering hairball who started this back into the ghost zone. We don’t think it was blabber. We think it was Esperanto.”

Danny and Sam frowned as the information floated from Tucker to them.

“Do you think we could look up more of the language to figure out what he was saying? Or talk to our fellow nerds? We can try.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The three ran towards the trees after the wolf ran past their lunch table. They froze when they saw Jazz hiding there.

“Danny, Sam, Tucker, hi. Are you hiding here?” Jazz pointed down, looking over the three. “I'll go hide over there.”

“That was weird,” Tucker said as she ran off.

“It is Jazz,” Sam pointed out.

“No time for that. Let’s go ghost.”

The three transformed and shot off towards the wolf.

“Walker,” they growled as Sam pointed at the ghost police following the wolf. Then they scattered to dodge a green blast. It shot past them and hit the guards, sucking them through a portal.

“Whoa! Portable ghost portal? Oh great. Can we get one of those? Too clunky.”

They continued the chase to see the remaining guard fire a gun that shot out ectoplasmic ropes to catch the wolf’s tail.

“He’s hurting him,” they said as the wolf was electrocuted. “We have to help. If Walker's goons are after him, he can't be all bad.”

Tucker flew past the goon, shutting down the gun with a wave of his hand and leaving his partners to fight him off as he intercepted the wolf. It glared at him and he held up his hands to show he wasn’t armed. “Friend. Uh, amiko?”

The wolf sniffed him then licked his cheek. “Ugh, why couldn’t the dog person deal with this. We’re the only one who can sort of understand him.”

“Alright nobody move!” Tucker turned to see Danny’s Dad standing in a bush, tangled Fenton Fisher in hand. The man frowned when he realized what was wrong and started tugging at the line. “As soon as I get this thing untangled, you two beasties are going down.”

“It’s okay, he’s not a threat,” they said quietly as Sam and Danny came closer, having run off Walker’s goon. “It’s our mom you have to worry about.”

“Vere?”

Danny spotted his mom in a tree, targeting the wolf, and all four quickly fled. They landed on a nearby building.

The wolf glanced between the trio and growled something in Esperanto, but they could only pick up something along the lines of not and one.

“You mean us? Yes, we’re not one.” They all transformed.

“Guess it’s a little more obvious with animal instincts,” Danny said.

“We need to find somewhere you can stay,” Sam said.

“Tuck, think you can do something about that collar?” Danny asked.

The wolf growled and Tucker held up his hands. “It’s okay, no touching is needed.” His eyes turned purple. “Wow, this is kind of complex. Okay, I think I’ve… Yes!”

The collar fell to the ground.

“Mi libera!” the wolf barked, hands going to his neck.

“Of course you’re free. You -” The wolf ran off. “You're welcome!”

"Follow him,” Danny said, grabbing two thermoses out of the fold and tossing them to Sam and Tucker. “I need to go get the spare thermos I hid in my locker. Mom stole my other one. It’s probably going to be another long night.”

They nodded and transformed. Sam and Tucker followed the wolf as Danny went back to the school. He’d just grabbed the thermos when he heard voices.