#fun fact: kade is a portmanteau of kool-aid

[jus-a-lil-mouse]

BITE

(including this fantastic art from @this-is-z-art-blog )

Danny decided very quickly that he really, really did not like the new kid.

Kade Johnson (“That’s such a white boy name,” Tucker had said, eyes rolling) had started in the middle of November. A senior with blonde hair and blue eyes that rivaled Dash’s good looks. Smart and athletic. A model student. Charismatic. Friendly. Off.

“He’s just sort of… weird,” Danny had told Sam over lunch.

She had glanced at the senior in question, varsity jacket slung over his shoulder, laughing with the rest of the basketball team. “Yeah, Danny. He’s a popular kid who’s going to peak in high school.”

Danny shook his head. “It’s more than that.”

“Danny, I promise it’s not,” Sam replied. “Unless he’s, y’know…” she wiggled her fingers at him, flinging a bit of pizza sauce his way, “ghostly?”

“No. He’s normal,” Danny sighed. Sam raised an eyebrow at him. Danny rolled his eyes. “He’s human, I mean.”

Tucker dumped an armful of vending machine snacks on their lunch table, settling in next to Danny. “He’s telling you about his conspiracies too?”

“They’re not-“

“Yeah, new kid’s evil and out to get us,” Sam replied.

Danny grabbed the Ruffles and ate them as petulantly as he could, glaring at his two dearest friends in the world. “He’s weird,” Danny insisted weakly, glancing over at the senior again.

Clear blue eyes stared back at him, alive and bright. Unsettling. Kade grinned at him, showing off too-white teeth. Danny thought he might puke.

Behavior

It had been nearly three weeks since Danny was able to sit at his seat. He didn’t even realize it was his seat until fucking Kade was there with impeccably clear skin and the vague hint of cologne hanging around him. Khakis (who wore nice pants to high school?) and a polo and his Varsity letter jacket. And Danny knew why he, a freshman, was in the Junior-level physics class - because he was fucking smart - but that didn’t explain why Kade, a senior, was in the Junior-level physics class - because Danny knew that Kade was also fucking smart. It was the only thing Jazz could talk about anymore.

And Danny was stuck staring at the back of Kade’s stupid head. Because Star had just given Danny’s seat away. Like “Lab Partners for Life” meant nothing to her. Every day Kade came in and sat down next to her and gave her a big grin. And Star gazed up at him adoringly and said “What do you think of my outfit today, Kade?” And Kade said “You look great, why don’t you sit next to me at lunch today?” Or “I don’t think that style suits you very well, sorry Star.” Or something equally weird and unrelated to physics. And Danny couldn’t see the whiteboard.

Danny had tried telling Tucker that Kade was weird. Tucker had put Danny’s cheeks between his hands and said “Hey, man. You can tell me if you’re gay. It’s okay.” And Danny said “You’re an ass, Tuck,” because Danny had already come out to him three years ago.

Danny had tried telling Sam. She’d said, “At least he’s gotten Dash to stop wearing those stupid ripped jeans. The khakis and polos are an improvement.” Which was true - all the A-listers wore exactly what Kade wanted them to. They probably shopped together.

At lunch Kade sat with the A-Listers of every grade. They all ate what he ate and sat where he asked them to. They all wore stupid matching friendship bracelets that were too bright. The charms hurt Danny’s eyes whenever they caught the light right, and they caught the light right all the time.

Danny hated that guy.

Information

Danny was always a little bit prepared for an attack during school. After it had happened so many times already, it would be foolish not to keep a Thermos in his bag and be on edge all of the damn time. But it had been less frequent lately. All the ghosts seemed to be quieting down. It was suspicious, but Danny had been trying to take advantage of the sleep while he could. Growing boy and all that. Unfortunately, dull headaches throbbed in his head and his nights were frustratingly sleepless.

So it follows naturally that Skulker shows up while Danny is nearly asleep in English. He isn’t even fully awake when he transforms in the bathroom, Thermos in hand and backpack discarded in the corner.

He manages to be wide awake when he makes it onto the football field and finds Skulker staring down Kwan, who - to his credit - is staring right back. Danny’s able to get a good shot in while Skulker is distracted, and the following fight is short and sweet and incredibly routine. Danny touches down next to Kwan once it’s over. “Hey, man. You’re supposed to run away from ghosts.”

Kwan grins at him, bright and full of teeth. “It’s fine, Phantom! See, I’ve got this!” He held up his wrist and Danny winced as the sun caught the charm just right and blinded him. Kwan sheepishly put his arm back down. “Sorry. It’s an anti-ghost charm.”

“It’s a what,” Danny said flatly, reaching for Kwan’s wrist again. He braced himself for the brightness, and squinted to examine the bracelet.

“An anti-ghost charm!” Kwan repeated. “See, there’s a new student - his name is Kade - and he’s a genius. He knows all about ghosts. The charm is a little locket, see, and inside is special ingredients.”

“What ingredients?” Danny asked, trying to open the container.

Kwan kicked at the dirt. “Well, I’m not really supposed to ask… I don’t know,” he admitted. “But Kade says if I keep doing well, I can learn one day! Kade’s great.”

Danny grunted, finally wiggling the locket open. “Is that hair?” he asked, pulling a little knot of it out. It looked just like the clumps of Jazz’s hair that he found on his laundry - definitely human hair. And a small pin, and a little thorn that pricked Danny’s finger. “What the fuck,” Danny breathed, shaking his hand out. He glanced up at Kwan, who looked devastated that Danny had opened the locket.

“Kade will be upset that I opened it,” Kwan said quietly, as though confiding a great secret. “I might not get to sit at the table during lunch.” Danny did his best not to roll his eyes. “He says they lose their magic when you open them.”

“Why?” Danny asked, shoving the items back into the container and shutting the clasp. “It’s just some garbage - it doesn’t even do anything.”

“Yes it does,” Kwan insisted, suddenly loud again. Danny dropped his hand. “Kade says so. He knows all about ghosts.”

“I am a ghost,” Danny reminded him.

“Ghosts are liars. Kade says a ghost will tell you anything you want to hear to get what they want.” He took a step back. “You could be lying right now. Maybe you aren’t even saving us from the ghosts, like Kade says. I shouldn’t even be talking to you. What if someone sees?”

Danny rolled his eyes. “Whatever. Kade can save you next time Skulker comes around if he’s so great.” He left before he could hear Kwan’s response.

Thought

Danny is only a little pleased to be paired with Paulina for English today. Sure, she’s a bit unbearable to be around, but she’s pretty, so it evens out. The sickly sweet smell of her perfume worsens his headache, but at least she isn’t wearing one of those damn charms.

She gives him a disinterested glance as he sits next to her, worksheet in hand. He tries not to be that offended. And then he is offended, he decides, because she’s got a picture of Kade sticking out of her notebook.

“Did you do yesterday’s reading?” Danny asked. He knew the answer.

“No, I was busy at Kade’s house,” Paulina replied, looking at him as though he was stupid for thinking she’d do her homework. “I’m in the inner circle.”

“So… the worksheet?” Danny said, hoping to redirect the conversation. “Lancer’s usually willing to fail us for not finishing before ghosts attack.”

“Don’t worry, we’ll keep you safe. Kade knows how to keep ghosts away. He knows everything. He’s protected the school so well!”

“I thought Phantom was protecting the school,” Danny said through gritted teeth.

Paulina tut-tutted at him. “No. Phantom is a ghost. Ghosts are evil,” she says, as though he is a child. “Kade tells us how to protect ourselves from ghosts. My perfume is ghost-repellant. And I do all of my meditations so that they can’t take over my mind. If you asked, Kade could help you too,” she added sweetly. “Your parents clearly don’t know anything about ghosts. Not like Kade.”

Danny recognized the insult for what it was, but Paulina also sounded genuine. She believed this nonsense. “Paulina, none of that works.” The perfume smelled bad, but it wasn’t repelling him. “How has he proven any of that works?”

“Um, it obviously works,” she replied. “Ghosts haven’t attacked the school in weeks, and even the attacks in town are stopping. That’s because of us. Kade is showing us how to protect the town, and soon… well, we won’t need Phantom ever again.”

She had a point. Ghost attacks were way down. Danny still felt like shit all the time, but at least he hadn’t needed to be doing vigilante business as well - he just thought he was finally winning. That after enough fights they’d stopped coming back. It made more sense than Paulina stopping the attacks, at least. “Paulina, Kade doesn’t have that kind of power. He’s just a guy.”

Paulina’s hand shot in the air. “Mr. Lancer, can I work by myself?” Lancer didn’t even look up from his monitor, just sighed and waved his hand in a ‘ do whatever’ motion. She turned back to him, angrier than Danny had ever seen her. “I don’t listen to unbelievers like you. I’m part of the inner circle.”

And then she was up and gone, seat vacated. Danny let his head thud onto the table. He also hadn’t done the reading. This worksheet was going to take him forever.

Emotion

It’s mid-March when Danny finally realizes that something is wrong with Dash. Early March is when Dash’s ‘spring cleaning’ starts, and everyone who looks at him wrong gets shoved in a locker (at best) or a toilet (at worst). But Danny - despite being sleep-deprived, achey, and nauseous - has been snarking at him constantly for weeks, and hasn’t been shoved anywhere. His hair is blessedly free of toilet water. And Dash is wearing khakis and polos and he wears that stupid bracelet.

“I thought you’d be glad he stopped his brutishness,” Sam said when he brought it up. “I really think you need to see a doctor, Danny.”

Tucker hadn’t even tried listening to him. “You haven’t slept well in months, man. Of course you’re paranoid.” The kindness in his eyes made Danny want to hurl. Danny was the protector, not the protected.

He was on his own.

Which is why he nearly let out a breath of relief when Dash cornered him in the near-empty locker room after gym. The remaining boys cleared out quickly, leaving Danny and Dash alone. Finally, a fight. Ghosts hadn’t been seen in weeks. Danny felt more deathly than ever.

“Hey, uh, Fenton,” Dash started, and Danny froze. Was this not a fight?

“Baxter,” Danny replied coolly. “Come for spring cleaning?”

Dash looked scared, and Danny didn’t understand anything that was happening. “No. I wanted to apologize for my past behavior. It was juvenile, and will not be repeated.”

“Those are some pretty big words,” Danny says, and he can see the conflict in Dash’s eyes: to punch or not to punch? That is the question.

Dash takes a deep breath and sticks his hand out between them. “I apologize for my past behavior,” he repeats. Danny lets this hang between them, too.

“No,” Danny says. “Dude, what? Glad you cleared your conscience, but I’m not going to shake your hand and say we’re fine.”

“You have to,” Dash pleaded. “Everyone else did.”

“Yeah, man! Of course they did! You beat the shit out of us all the time!”

“I used to beat the shit of you all the time.”

“Dash, what is going on?” Danny asks, dropping his volume down.

Dash shifts uncomfortably. He mumbles something into the air dividing them, but Danny can’t quite catch it. He stays silent, waiting for Dash to break first. It only takes a moment. “Kade is going to save some of us. I’m supposed to be free of grudges or the negative emotions will cause the process to go wrong. I’ve been having extra one-on-one sessions,” Dash explains. “Kade says if I’m forgiven it’ll go well. Then we’ll all be okay. So you have to forgive me.”

“Dash, none of that makes any sense.”

“Well it’s not my fault you’re not in the inner circle. Maybe if you weren’t such a loser you’d be able to be saved too.”

“You’re so good at not continuing your past behavior,” Danny replies, and is almost glad for the cold bite of the locker on his back when Dash slams him into it.

“I am going to go to Kade’s. He is going to make it so I can’t die, and then we will make it so the whole town is safe and the ghosts won’t be able to touch us. Kade can cut us off from death! He’s done it before! So you’re going to forgive me and I’m gonna be a hero.” Dash’s eyes were bright and alive and sickening to look into.

Danny didn’t know what to say to that. So he didn’t say anything, and got shoved in a locker.

Control

“I hate being right all the time,” Danny mutters to himself. He shuffles through a couple more papers on Kade’s desk, and then phases through the ceiling. The easiest realization was ‘Kade is leading a cult’. Next step was to visit Kade’s house by following him home from school. Thankfully, Kade was the kind of evil genius who left his plans out on his desk.

Gather recruits. Help guide them towards salvation. Cut off the town from the Ghost Zone. Be hailed as a savior.

The problem was this: Danny knew intimately that life and death were in balance. You couldn’t have one without the other. Kade had been leaching energy off of his fellow students to begin the process. Danny was being slowly cut off from death (explaining the headaches and the nausea and the bone-deep exhaustion). The whole town was. Of course there’d been less ghost attacks. Danny had been right to be suspicious. Amity Park’s veil was razor-thin, and this separation would probably cause it to implode spectacularly.

“I was so hoping you’d be here.”

Danny turns and sees Kade, eyes bright and alive and smile full of too-white teeth. “Here I am,” Danny says, spreading his arms open dramatically.

“Here you are!” Kade says. “The ghost boy himself! Are you here to foil my plans?” He asks it as though it is an inside joke, as though they are old friends. “Shall I give you my monologue?”

Danny settles. Gives the illusion of complacency. Shrugs. “Yeah, if that’s what you want to do with your day.”

“I am always searching for souls seeking redemption,” Kade replies, spreading his arms wide. “Daniel, I am a visionary. I am alive. I have removed all traces of death from myself. It cannot touch me.”

That last bit may have been true; being in the room with him was dizzying. Agitating. Looking at his face felt sickening.

“I could tell you all the details, but here are the highlights. I have saved my soul, made myself more alive than anyone has ever been. It was simple and bloody, but now I know how to save everyone.”

“If you upset the balance, everything will collapse in on itself. By separating them you’ll bring them closer together. Like a rubber band, y’know?”

Kade tuts at him. “What will you do, ghost? Stop me?”

“It’s what I do,” Danny shrugs, and prepares for a fight.

The fight doesn’t come; it never even starts. Kade is untouchable; the ectoblasts and wails just wash over him like a wave breaking on stone. Kade is grinning. His teeth are too white and his eyes are bright and Danny is tired.

“I told you, I cannot be touched by death,” Kade reminds him.

Danny is the world; he is balanced. He returns to life and lands a well-placed sucker punch. Kade hadn’t been expecting that, and soon enough they were tumbling on the ground. It’s been a while since Danny was in a fight, but it returns to him easily. His knuckles are bleeding. He is winning. “What are you?” Danny asks through bloody teeth. “You aren’t a ghost.”

“I am to life what a ghost is to death,” Kade hisses from the floor. “And you are an abomination.”

“Dude. That’s rude,” Danny replies.

Danny has spent years avoiding Dash Baxter, so when he hears those familiar footfalls in the hallway, he transforms. He lets Kade push him away. He makes sure Dash and Paulina have a good view of Kade, beaten and bloody, and Phantom looming over him. Kade pushes himself up off the floor, his “anti-ghost” charm swinging wildly off his bracelet as he attempts to steady himself.

He uses his best Superhero voice. “This evil-doer was attempting to upset the balance of forces sustaining the world. He intended to cause the apocalypse.” The apocalypse bit was a lie, but they wouldn’t know that. Danny gave them a thumbs up. He disappeared.

Sam and Tucker weren’t that impressed when he told them about it.

“Cults are small potatoes,” Sam says wisely.

“It wasn’t even a real cult, it was a high schooler with an entourage,” Tucker adds.

“He was a supernatural entity that wanted to destroy the world,” Danny argues.

Sam nods. “Yeah. Small potatoes.”

“I’m just glad you finally got some sleep, buddy,” Tucker says, swinging an arm around Danny’s shoulders.