#ill drop in outgoing links at some later point in time

[darks-ink]

Antonym

Prompt: Danny is a ghost who became half-human after stumbling through a portal to the human world. Prompt by: @voidetrap​ Word count: 9,526

[AO3] [FFN] [more Phic Phight fics]

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Tail trailing behind him like a comet’s, Phantom lazily twisted around a few floating chunks of rock. Around him, the ambient ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone ebbed and flowed as usual.

How could a world so centered around change, around what’s ever changing, be so boring? It felt like he’d been here for forever, that he’d seen every crummy corner of this existence. Oh, if only he could see the human world! He didn’t know what it was like—if he’d ever been human, he certainly didn’t have any memories of that time—but he’d heard stories! And what stories they were!

His favorites were the ones detailing the world away from humans, he was sure. The infinite reaches of space, an empty void much like the Ghost Zone except not. With planets and stars and life— life. With enormous balls of whatever that came into being, and then died, spectacularly! That changed whole eons with their coming and going!

And the best part, he thought, was that you didn’t actually have to go there to witness all that. You could stay on Earth, watch the ever-continuing bustle of Earth’s life, and still see space.

But there was no point in wistful thinking. Yes, portals to Earth were commonplace in the Ghost Zone, but the dimension was enormous. The chance of coming across one was practically nil.

Something in the atmosphere changed, suddenly, in a way that Phantom couldn’t describe, could only feel in his core. Could it really be…?

Unwilling to let this chance slip by, he raced towards the distortion. There was nothing visible, nothing to see or hear or smell, but he could feel it in his core. Where was it? He just had to find it!

A few moments of frantic flying and finally he found it. His core screamed, and suddenly Phantom felt overwhelmingly— overwhelmed. His euphoria at finding the spot was swept away in the sudden panic as his core went from screaming ‘purpose, purpose, here!’ to screaming ‘danger danger DANGER!’.

He paused, just a single second, to figure it out.

And his world flashed white, then black, and Phantom’s core quietened entirely.

---

When Phantom awoke again, it was… bright. Way brighter than he usually saw in the Ghost Zone, and he flinched. Shot up into a sitting position, his core jerking oddly in his chest.

“Oh!” a startled voice said, somewhere in the room. It was masculine, Phantom thought, but flat. The echo didn’t sound quite right. “Mads, he’s awake!”

Phantom wanted to look, wanted to know where he was and who was here with him, but his core still hadn’t settled down. It was thudding in his chest, a fast rhythmic thumping, like it was trying to break its way out of Phantom’s ectoplasm. None of the regular whirring or humming, and not even a hint of— of feeling to guide him.

“Hey,” the same voice as earlier said, softly, and suddenly next to him. “Are you okay, kid?”

His eyes snapped towards the source automatically, his core faltering for a brief moment. Big, was his first thought, followed by bright. Orange, though, not a color often seen in the Zone. Dark blue irises in white sclera, black hair, pink skin…

Pink skin?

Phantom ran his eyes over whoever was in front of him again. There was no mistaking it. No glow, not even the slightest hum of a core, and all soft and warm in coloration. This wasn’t a ghost at all! This was a human.

Holy shit, he really had gone through a portal to Earth!

“Jack, don’t scare him,” a second voice chastised, from his other side. Phantom turned to look at her, and yes, this one was definitely human as well. Smaller than the man, with auburn hair and violet irises, dressed in teal.

She crouched, one black-gloved hand hovering over Phantom’s shoulder, not quite touching. “Hi honey. This must all be very overwhelming. Do you… speak English?”

Why were they being all polite and stuff? He thought humans hated ghosts?

He opened his mouth to answer, but his tongue felt too heavy, and he couldn’t manage the words. Instead he grimaced, then nodded at her.

“Well, that’s convenient, at least.” She turned her head to look past Phantom and at the man. “Jack, can you go get him some water? He must be dehydrated.”

Phantom watched the man—Jack, apparently—get up and walk away. Now that he’d gotten used to the bright lights, he could finally look around.

They appeared to be inside, the room decently-sized but with no doors, only a staircase leading up. The entire thing was shiny and chrome-like. Metal plates, maybe? He didn’t know what humans used to construct their homes.

There were a bunch of tables in the room as well, made out of the same stuff as the walls. And, scattered just about everywhere, were parts. Bits that Phantom could never hope to put a name to, but that were clearly used for inventing. He’d seen Technus scavenge for them often enough to recognize the stuff.

Were these humans inventors, then? He wondered how common the occupation was for their kind.

He tried pulling his legs under him—the floor was getting hard and uncomfortable—but they were heavy. Heavy like his tongue, heavy like his core, heavy like… like every part of his body, really. Gravity was a thing, he knew, but he thought ghosts were more-or-less immune to its effects? And surely it wouldn’t weigh down his core, would it?

Resigning himself to having to adjust to it, he turned to look at what his leg was doing.

Uh.

Since when was his leg white? And his boots black?

His core did something weird again, and hop-skip that made Phantom feel very odd. He held out his hands for inspection.

Black gloves, white arms.

Phantom turned to look at the human woman next to him, who was frowning slightly—presumably at his sudden frantic behavior. “What—” His tongue still didn’t quite work, and it felt like he was talking through a straw, but he wanted, dammit, and he couldn’t be stopped that easily. “What color is my hair?”

Her frown deepened. “Black,” she said, cautiously.

Another skip-jump from his core, which Phantom was starting to fear wasn’t actually his core. He remembered, suddenly, the moment just before he’d blacked out. The moment his core had gone entirely silent.

With shaking hands, he reached for his left hand. Hooked a wavering finger underneath the edge of his glove, sliding it up further than he was supposed to be able to, until he found smooth skin at the wrist.

“Are the gloves bothering you?” the woman asked, and reached forward the grab his left glove as well. “Here, let me help, you’re shaking up a storm.”

And, before he could stop her, she tugged off the black glove entirely.

His hand was… was fleshy pink, a pale shade much like Jack and the woman. He clenched and unclenched it, hesitantly, watching it shift and pull with the movements. He felt sick, imagining the structures that laid underneath his skin that could be causing such things.

“Hey, shh, it’s okay,” the woman said, her voice soft and gentle. “What’s wrong? Can you tell me, so I can fix it?”

“I—” His throat felt dry, all of a sudden. Could it be dry?

“I’m human,” he said, but it sounded more like a question.

The woman blinked, seeming surprised. She pulled back a little, her hands lifting away from him. She had taken off his other glove, too. “Yes? What did you think you were?”

He opened his mouth to reply, but suddenly realized. The reason why these people were so nice, so polite… He swallowed, instead, around something big stuck in his throat.

Thudding footsteps echoed through the room, and Phantom snapped his head in the direction they were coming from.

Jack stepped off of the last step of the staircase, a glass with water in his massive black-gloved hand. “Sorry that it took a while. All our glasses were dirty.”

“All of them?” the woman asked skeptically. “Jack…”

The massive human laughed uncertainly, quickly coming over and handing the glass to Phantom. “Here you go, kiddo. Drink slowly.”

Phantom knew how to drink water, yes, thank you very much. Just because ghosts didn’t have to didn’t mean that they never drank anything.

But, he supposed, there might be a human anatomy thing going on here. Better take the advice, since it came from an expert on that sort of thing.

He took a sip, cautiously. The water was fresh, the taste almost empty, like something was absent from it. It felt cool in his throat, though, and felt great going down.

“Better?” the woman asked, still sitting next to him. He nodded, taking another sip.

“Can you tell us your name?” she asked, then.

“Um.” Another mouthful of cool water. Oh, he’d figured out what he was missing. Ectoplasm, of course! All water in the Zone was full of ectoplasm, just like, well. Everything. “Phantom?”

“Phantom?” Jack repeated, an odd tone to his voice. “Just Phantom?”

He shrugged, pushing down his initial spike of irritation. It was probably just a weird name for a human. Didn’t they have two names, anyway, like some of the more human-like ghosts insisted on doing as well? Like Ember and Spectra? Phantom had never really cared about that. He was fine with just being Phantom.

“I suppose that that works,” the woman said, but she was frowning at him anyway. She offered him one of her hands, his gloves in her lap. “My name is Maddie Fenton, and that’s Jack Fenton.”

Phantom stared at the hand for a moment, then took it. Maddie lifted and dropped their linked hands, and he repeated the motion.

“How long have you been in the Ghost Zone anyway, kid?” Jack had crouched on his other side again. “Do you remember how you got there?”

They seriously could not be asking that. Could they? He shrugged again. “I don’t know how I got there, or how long it’s been. Felt like forever.” He took another sip of the water. “I guess I must’ve died, though.”

“Nonsense,” Jack immediately denied, flapping a hand. “Portals between the human world and the Ghost Zone are plenty common, and can even be made with machinery!” They could? That was news to him.

Actually, wait. How did these guys know about the Ghost Zone, anyway? Wasn’t that some kind of secret? He thought most humans didn’t even believe in ghosts at all.

“So, like I was saying,” Jack continued, and Phantom realized he must’ve zoned out in the middle of man’s speech. “There are lots of explanations as to why a human teenager might’ve been in the Ghost Zone!”

“Yeah, I guess.” Phantom shrugged, loosely. “But I wasn’t a human teenager before I went through that portal just now. Or whatever it was, since I don’t think they normally turn ghosts into humans.”

“Phantom,” Maddie said with a scolding tone. “Young man, you do not get to joke about this.”

He stuck out his tongue at her, then paused to stare down at it. Ah, yes, a nice reddish pink, of course. He’d almost forgotten that humans were pink and red instead of green.

“If you were a ghost, though, why would you go through the portal?” Jack asked, apparently more willing to consider it than Maddie. “Why go to our world?”

“Because the Ghost Zone is boring,” Phantom exclaimed dramatically, throwing out his arms. “It’s just a lot of green and some purple and everything’s always the same. Out here you’ve got humans and they’re always changing and moving on and stuff.”

“Jack,” Maddie said, her voice strangely forced. “You can’t seriously think that he’s telling the truth about this? A ghost turned back into a human?”

Phantom rolled his eyes. “I never said anything about it turning me back into a human. I can’t remember ever being alive, and I know some ghosts just come into existence on their own, in the Zone. Although some of the others have told me that I looked pretty human, so I guess it’s possible that I was, at some point in the past, alive.”

“Jack,” Maddie said again.

“Mads,” Jack said back, and Phantom was wondering if they would notice if he left. “Whether he was a ghost or not, he’s human now, and he doesn’t remember anything. We can’t just leave him to his own devices, can we?”

She made a derisive noise. “Of course we can’t, honey. I’m not saying that. But I don’t know if it’s wise to play along with something like this.”

Ugh. They were talking about him like he wasn’t even there. Time to execute his brilliant plan.

He placed his glass onto the lab floor, then pushed himself up a little, supporting the weight of his upper body on his hands. And then, since neither human had noticed yet, slowly crept away.

“What harm can it do to listen to him?” Jack asked Maddie, apparently not noticing that their guest was leaving. “He’s been in the Ghost Zone for who knows how long. Even if he is just a confused boy, he must know tons about ghosts!”

That sounded reasonable, but also, why did they care? Why were these people so interested in ghosts and the Ghost Zone anyway? Weren’t they inventors? Or did humans just decorate their houses with scattered bits of inventions?

Something hard pressed against his back, and Phantom stopped crawling to look. Ah. The wall. A glance back towards Jack and Maddie revealed that they were too busy talking to notice his disappearance yet. That was…

Honestly, that was unbelievable. What was wrong with mankind?

Hm. Maybe he should stop thinking of them as humans and himself as a ghost, considering the circumstances.

Eh. Problem for future Phantom. What was the worst that could happen? He would die and become a ghost again?

Pressing his back against the metal wall, he pushed himself up onto his feet. Using his hands to brace himself—the metal cool underneath the bare skin and pink fingers—he even managed to stand properly. Ugh. His body was so heavy and, just, fleshy.

Another glance back towards the bickering humans to confirm that, yes, they were still bickering. Wild. They seemed satisfied to stick to words, though, which made sense based on how sluggish human bodies felt. And no powers, so they couldn’t just use ecto-blasts to circumvent that.

The staircase was set in another wall, but close to the corner where said wall met the one he was braced against. As long as those two didn’t look away from each other, Phantom was sure he could make it there.

Going up those stairs might be more challenging, but it looked like there might be a railing. Worst come to worst, he could always try pulling himself up the steps.

He stumbled—and almost fell—a couple of times, and tripped over his own heavy boots just before he had turned the corner. Hands lashing out, though, he managed to catch the railing and just barely stopped himself from face-planting into the floor. Embarrassing. Good thing no one saw that.

The stairs looked a lot more daunting from here, though. Phantom remembered how noisy it had been when Jack had gone down them, but… Jack was a lot bigger than him, and likely a lot heavier as well. That was an important thing with gravity, right?

Well, he’d come this far, so he wasn’t going to back out now. With one last glance backwards—and how were these people still talking about this?—Phantom confirmed that he was free to go. He grabbed hold of the railing with one hand, and planted the other against the opposing wall. Just, one step after another.

He kept his eyes turned downward the whole time, not wanting to see how far he still had to go. And, y’know, to make sure he didn’t trip on a step and fall down the stairs. That would be a stupid way to get caught.

So when the railing ended, suddenly, and his hand hit a metal surface instead… well, he was surprised!

Phantom looked up to see a door, marked with bright yellow and black stripes. A warning, he could guess, but for what?

He decided it didn’t really matter, reaching for the doorknob. It went down smoothly, and Phantom pushed open the door with surprising ease, following it into another room.

Unlike the one downstairs, this room was… almost homely? He wasn’t used to seeing such sights, but he thought that this space suited the word. Some sort of inventions or appliances lined the wall opposite of him, a big table in the space in-between. Four chairs surrounded it, one for each side of the table.

The wall on Phantom’s right contained a door and several windows, looking out into a large open space. A… yard? The outside, for sure, and oh. It must be day, the sky a pale blue, some white clouds decorating it.

He wrenched his eyes off of the sight, though, to continue his investigation. The wall on his left wasn’t actually a full wall, but was open in the middle, allowing him a glance into another room. It was darker there, it seemed, but that might be caused by the pale purple walls.

Phantom took a step out of the stairway, carefully closing the door behind him, but not releasing it. He didn’t trust his legs that much just yet.

What could such a room be used for, he wondered. It looked like a room for eating, with the table and the chairs, but it seemed too small for large gatherings. There were only four chairs! But, ah. Humans had to eat regularly, didn’t they? Having a room just for that purpose made sense with that context, he supposed.

Did that mean that he had to eat now, too? How often did humans eat, anyway? He’d heard people say that humans ate every day, but that seemed pretty extreme. Every week, maybe? He wondered where in the timeline he was starting. How could you tell that you had to eat again?

Too late, he realized that a noise was coming his way. He froze, instinctively trying to turn invisible, but without his core there was no point.

A human walked in from the open hallway on Phantom’s left. She was slight, slighter than Maddie even, but with long fiery hair. She made it almost two steps into the room before she noticed him and paused.

“Um,” she said, blinking at him. “Who— Where did you come from?”

He stuck a thumb over his shoulder, pointing back to the door he was still braced against.

Her expression grew flat and unimpressed. “Great. Brilliant.”

She sighed, and Phantom could almost feel the weariness in it. Then, suddenly, she walked towards him.

“Move,” she instructed him when she stopped in front of him. “I need to yell at my parents.”

Her parents…? Oh. The Fentons must be a married couple, then, and this their daughter.

Phantom nodded, moving his hand over to the wall before stepping aside. Whatever material these yellowish walls were made out of, it was nicer to touch than the other walls. Warmer, almost, a touch softer than metal.

The girl frowned at him for a moment, then shook her head to dismiss whatever thought she was having and reached for the door. Rather than go down the stairs like he’d expected, she just stood in the doorway and leaned forward.

“Mom, Dad!” she yelled down the staircase, “Did you really grow a kid in your lab?!”

“Oh!” a faint voice echoed back. Maddie’s, Phantom thought. “Oh, gosh, he must’ve wandered off while we were talking. Is he up there, Jazz?”

The girl groaned and, yeah, Phantom felt that. He was exhausted just dealing with them for the last few… however long it was. He couldn’t imagine growing up with them. “Mom,” she groaned back.

Footsteps sounded as the two adults moved around. When Maddie spoke again, her voice sounded louder. “Jazz, honey, it’s not what you think. We can explain.”

Wait, did these people really complain about him calling himself Phantom when their own kid was named Jazz? Hypocrites.

He glanced behind him to the door outside, considering his chances. Yes, he’d almost fallen several times while walking in the room downstairs, but! He was already feeling more confident with his human legs.

Just as he was turning around, though, a warm hand grabbed him by the arm. It felt odd; he could feel his suit rub against his skin underneath.

“Where do you think you’re going?” Jazz asked, scathingly. “You look like you’re three seconds away from falling down. Either stay there, or sit down on one of the chairs.”

“I’m fine,” he snipped back, pushing himself into a full stand.

She shot him an utterly unimpressed look. “Sit. I’m not having this conversation standing up, anyway.”

“Well, why couldn’t you just say that from the start?” He pushed himself off of the wall, using the boost to stumble towards the table. Jazz’ expression grew, almost impossibly, even less impressed.

He grabbed the back of one of the chairs, dragging it backwards, then dropped all of his weight onto it. Ah. That felt better already, as much he hated to admit it.

“Stubborn,” Jazz muttered with a shake of her head. He didn’t get a chance to reply, though, because the two adults suddenly came through the door from downstairs.

Maddie sent him a furious glare, and it was, admittedly, pretty scary. For a human, at least.

“Phantom,” she said, voice low and threatening. “What on Earth do you think you’re doing?”

“Sitting?” he offered, plastering a grin on his face.

The second round of glaring was swiftly cut off, however, by Jazz. “Mom,” she gritted. “What is going on here? I thought you two spent all this time working on your big special totally-not-fake ghost portal, not making test-tube babies!”

Woah, woah, hold on. They were making a ghost portal down there? That must’ve been the one he’d found in the Ghost Zone. And what had Jack said, earlier? Artificial, man-made ghost portals? It must’ve been weird, somehow, that’s why it made him human.

But, wow, what a screw-up that was. Turning a ghost into a human. Yikes.

“Jazz, that’s not what this is.” Maddie’s eyes softened, her voice calmer now. “We were working on the Portal. Your father turned it on, but something went wrong, and it spit out… well, him.” She gestured over at Phantom like anybody needed that clarification. “We turned it off immediately, but he was already down in the lab.”

“But… Phantom?” Jazz frowned.

“Yeah?” he countered, crossing his arms. “That’s my name, Jazz. Don’t be a hypocrite.”

Her unimpressed look was back. “It’s short for Jasmine, actually. What’s Phantom supposed to mean?”

“Well, I am a ghost,” he pointed out, before freezing. Oh. Right. “Or, well. I was when I picked it.”

“This is getting crazier by the minute.” Jazz sighed, heavily, her entire frame shaking with the force of it. “Mom, Dad, wherever he might’ve come from, you can’t just… keep him. You realize that, right?”

“We were going to look for his actual family, but someone,” Maddie shot Jack a heated glare, which he studiously ignored, “wanted to ask Phantom all about the Ghost Zone, first. We figured that he could stay here for now, at least, so we could be sure that he was okay. He must’ve been wandering around in that dimension for forever, if he thinks himself a ghost, and he claims he can’t remember his ‘human life’ anymore.”

“I can also hear you,” he pointed out, loudly. “And there’s no claiming about it! I really was a ghost!”

And he was so sick and so tired of them suggesting otherwise! Oh, if only he’d had his core still! He could just imagine it, whirring loudly at his anger. His glow brightening and ectoplasm sparking as energy poured out.

The humans gasped, and Phantom jerked back in his seat, startled. He could swear he could feel his core’s hum in his chest, still, like a—excuse the pun—phantom limb.

“What was that?” Jazz snapped, suddenly furious, whirling between him and her parents. “You two saw that, right?”

“Saw what?” he asked despite himself, his anger giving way to curiosity instantly. The imagined after-image of his core seemed to settle down as well, softening into an almost undetectable hum.

Almost undetectable, except that now that he was aware of it, it didn’t fade entirely. And maybe it was just… just that everything was becoming overwhelmingly much, but… but Phantom could swear that he could feel it, the hot-cold energy of his ectoplasmic core, settled right in the center of his chest.

He pressed a hand against where he thought it was. His body was hard, there, almost like rock. Humans had bone, didn’t they, to support their forms? To protect their vital insides? That must be what he was feeling.

Underneath the bone, he could feel the powerful pounding of that thing he kept confusing for his core. It wasn’t quite located right, though, a little off-center. And, layered just underneath it, its whir synced almost perfectly with the thudding, was his core.

“I still have it,” he whispered, then realized a silence had suddenly fallen. He’d been so occupied with the rediscovery of his core that he hadn’t realized that the three humans were talking.

“Have what?” Jazz asked, skeptically.

“My core.” He turned to look at them again, grinning despite himself. “I’m not fully human!”

All three humans set judgmental gazes upon him and, hey, rude! “Here, just look!”

Phantom thrust out his hand in front of him, reaching out to his core for an ecto-blast.

Nothing happened.

“Uh…” He shook his hand. Nothing. “Hm. This usually doesn’t happen.”

“Phantom…” Maddie said, gently. “There are many explanations for—”

Another prod to his core. Come on, man, just give him something. Don’t let him embarrass himself like this!

“—can’t imagine the severity of your ectoplasmic contamination— oh.”

“Ha! See?” He shook his hand again, or, more accurately, his arm. His hand had gone invisible, his wrist showing a gradual shift back to visibility. “So maybe it’s a little weakened, but it clearly works, still!”

“This is insane,” Jazz muttered. She reached out, suddenly, grabbing him by the arm. Her hand trailed along the limb until her fingers found his own, despite their invisibility. “This is… this is crazy. This isn’t happening.”

Story of his unlife, girl.

His fingers shifted back to visibility, and his core spluttered, exhausted. Oh, man, it was like he was newly formed all over again!

“Severe ectoplasmic contamination?” Maddie suggested, but when Phantom looked at her she was frowning like she didn’t quite believe it, either. “We definitely can’t let him leave before we’re sure he’s okay.”

“We need tests,” Jack agreed with a nod. “See the extent of this. Phantom, kiddo, why don’t you come back to the lab with us?”

The lab… That was downstairs, then? A lab? Who the hell were these people, ghost researchers? Was that a normal human occupation, or did he have the craziest luck imaginable?

“Mom, Dad, no.” Jazz’ hand grasped onto Phantom’s, like she could stop him from following that easily. “You can’t just use him as a test subject! Besides,” she glanced meaningfully at the clock nestled between some appliances, “it’s practically dinnertime.”

“Jazz, sweetie, we need to run some tests on him, at least.” Maddie folded her hands together, looking worried. “We’ve never seen such high levels of ecto-contamination before, and the only case close to it caused severe health issues. The poor guy spent years in the hospital.”

Jazz narrowed her eyes. “After dinner, then. Let him eat first.” She turned back to him. “Phantom, how long has it been since you’ve eaten anything?”

“Uhh.” He remembered his last meal in the Zone; Johnny, Kitty, Ember, and him had eaten some ectoplasmic fast food. But when was that? “I don’t really keep track of time in the Zone very well, but… I think it was a couple weeks ago?”

Apparently that was the wrong answer, because Jazz narrowed her eyes even further. Right. Eating was important for humans, and he was pretty human right now.

He shrugged at her. “I had a glass of water earlier?”

“That’s not a meal,” she snipped back before turning to her parents. “You haven’t offered him any food?!”

The two shared a guilty look.

“It’s fine, I’m not hungry.” Phantom paused to consider this. “Or maybe I am. How can I tell?”

“How can you tell?” Jazz repeated incredulously, looking back at him. “How can you— Because you feel hungry!”

He shot her a flat look. “I have literally no idea what my insides are supposed to feel like. How am I supposed to know if something is hunger or just normal?”

Maddie stepped further into the room, shaking her head. “I’ll order us some pizzas. Is that okay with you, Phantom?”

“Sure.” He shrugged. “Nothing is gonna taste like what I’m used to, anyway. No ectoplasm, y’know?”

“Right,” Maddie said, taking a small device out of its holder. “No preference for any kind, then?”

“Surprise me.”

His hand felt colder, suddenly, and he looked down to realize that Jazz had let go. Huh. He hadn’t even realized they’d been holding hands the whole time.

Jazz walked over to the cupboards, opening doors and pulling down dishes. Jack quickly joined her, helping her place down plates.

“Why are all the glasses dirty?” Jazz asked, stopping in front of the… something, and frowning down at it. She reached down, but stopped before she touched anything, making a face. “Eugh, Dad, did you use these for your experiments again?”

Jack’s silence was audibly guilty.

“Mom, we’re gonna need more glassware,” Jazz told Maddie, who was talking into the wall device. “There’s no way we’re getting the goop out of these.”

“Aw, Jazz, it’s not that bad.” Jack reached past her to grab a glass. Ectoplasm-like goo was slathered on the inside. “We can decontaminate this just fine.”

“Well, I am not drinking out of that.” She reached down. Phantom guessed she was moving stuff around, based on the sound—like glass knocking together. “Here, this one is just ordinarily dirty. Phantom, you had a glass, right?”

He jerked at being addressed. “Uh, yeah, I guess so? I left it on the floor downstairs.”

“Can you go get it?” She placed one hand on the handle of the thing in front of her, then paused, looking over her shoulder at him. “Or, um. You weren’t walking very well earlier…”

“I can get it,” he assured her, ignoring the doubt niggling in his mind. “I have to get used to my legs anyway, right?”

“Right,” she echoed, pulling up the handle. Water started pouring out. Convenient!

Phantom got up from the chair, wobbling for a moment.

“Careful, honey.” Maddie’s hand suddenly closed around his arm, and he started. “Where are you going, Phantom?”

“I was gonna go grab my glass,” he explained, jerking his thumb towards the staircase door. “Y’know, down?”

She made a face, but let go of his arm. “Are you sure you’re up for that?”

“There’s a railing on the stairs, I’m not gonna fall.” He rolled his eyes, then, very purposefully, stepped towards the door. “I’ll be fine.”

Maddie didn’t look convinced, but she didn’t stop him either, so. “Keep the door open, then, so we can hear if something happens.”

“Sure thing.” He pressed down the handle, swinging it open. “Be right back.”

One hand on the railing, the other pressed against the opposing wall, he made his way down the stairs again. Honestly, going down was easier than going up. Gravity, and all that.

Although he didn’t want to experience gravity too closely and tumble down the stairs, so. He gripped tight, and moved down slowly and with purpose.

The downstairs room—the lab—looked the same as earlier. Big open space, some tables, and, huh.

In the far wall, the one that had been behind Phantom’s back the whole time, was a strange invention. He didn’t really care, it wasn’t something that would normally interest him, but… but it tugged on him, somehow. Drew him in.

It was a big metal arch, though, with the recessed insides painted in yellow and black stripes, like the door upstairs. Maybe something was hidden behind it, like a door?

Oh, but of course. These people were working on an artificial ghost portal, weren’t they? That thing, whatever it was, seemed about the right proportions for that.

And that would explain why he was drawn towards, it, wouldn’t it? It had turned him human. Or part human, at least. He must have a connection to it, now.

He jerked his eyes off of the possible portal machine, searching for his glass. Ah, there it was. In the…

In the middle of the floor, of course, where there was nothing to hold on to. Rude.

Well, nothing for it. Besides, what he said to Jazz earlier was true. If he was going to be human now, or some kind of human/ghost mixture, he would have to learn to function like that.

And, if he learned how to blend in with humans properly, he could spend however long he wanted gazing up at space! Oh, that was a good thought. He would hang onto that for sure.

Braced with that good hope, Phantom pushed himself off of the wall, gently. His legs were slow and heavy, but he’d grown a little more used to them now, and he managed to walk himself over to the glass without falling.

Stumbling, yes. But as long as he didn’t fall, he was fine with that.

Sinking down into a crouch was easy enough, and he grabbed the glass. It was cool underneath his bare hand, and, oh yeah. He’d finally gotten used to seeing that fleshy pink instead of his usual black glove, too.

He stood up again, his jumpsuit creaking, shifting over his skin. See? He was adjusting just fine. Didn’t even shiver at that odd feeling—of his clothes being a layer over him, like a second skin.

And now… back to the stairs.

Another stumble, but hey, that was okay. He made it all the way without falling, twice over! That was pretty good!

Hm. With the glass in his hand he would have to settle for just the railing, though.

“Oh, Phantom!” Maddie said, her tone surprised but pleased, when he pushed the door open to enter the top room again. “The pizza shouldn’t be too long, now.”

“Did I take that long, or is pizza delivery just that quick?” he asked, moving back to the table. “Um. Do you guys have usual seats, or something?”

Jazz flapped a hand, taking the glass from his hand. “You can sit where you were earlier. Any preference for a drink? Water again?”

He made a face. “I’d like something else, if that’s okay. Water tastes… empty.”

“Empty?” Jazz repeated quizzically, but she moved over to one of the tall appliances, opening its door. “Oh, duh. You’re used to ecto-contaminated food?”

“It’s not really contaminated if it’s in the Zone, where everything is ectoplasm.” He sat down in the free chair, idly noticing that Jack wasn’t in the room anymore. “But, yeah, I guess. Everything tastes of ectoplasm, usually.”

She hummed, staring into the brightly-lit space behind the door. “Well, we’ve got contaminated milk that someone should’ve thrown out three days ago, if you want to give that a shot? Not sure how well your body would take that, though.”

“What’s the worst that could happen? I die again?” He huffed. “Big deal.”

“It’s a big deal if we end up with a corpse in our kitchen,” Jazz countered, but she pulled a carton out of the bright space anyway. Away from the light, Phantom could see that it glowed green, like practically everything in the Zone.

Oh, that felt like home.

“You’re weird.” She shook her head, then poured some of the milk into his glass. “But at least you don’t try hiding it.”

“Not much of a point to it, is there?” he countered, taking the glass when she offered it. “I don’t know anything about humans except for crazy fifth-hand stories. How well do you think I could blend in?”

“That’s like the opposite of ghost stories to us!” Jack exclaimed, suddenly appearing in the opening to the other room. He held a stack of pizza boxes in his hands.

“It makes sense, though.” Maddie sat down as Jack placed the stack down in the center of the table. “Humans rarely see ghosts, so most stories are based off of those few sightings. For ghosts, it must be the opposite. With a polar difference being, of course, that most ghosts cross portals on purpose, while most humans do it by accident.”

Jazz shot him a meaningful look. “What about you, then, Phantom? Did you come here on purpose too?”

“Yeah,” he easily acknowledged, waiting for Jack to take the last seat. “The Ghost Zone got boring. It’s all so similar, and it never changes. The human world, though. Wow!”

Her eyes softened a little. “So it’s just… what, admiration for the human ingenuity? How the world changes, constantly?”

“Well, I don’t know about human ingenuity.” He grinned at her while the two adults started sorting through the boxes. “You guys can hardly take credit for the constant changing of the world. Oh, and space.”

“You like space?” Maddie asked beside him, quirking a brow. “I wouldn’t have pegged you for the space enthusiast type.”

“It’s great,” he enthusiastically continued. “And it’s so, so large, that you can stay on Earth and see all the short-term changes, and watch all of the long-term changes out there, too.”

Jazz hummed, lifting up her plate so Jack could move a few slices of pizza onto it. “Isn’t it human ingenuity that allows you to watch all that, though? Inventions like telescopes and rockets to go into space?”

Phantom felt his core still for a moment, his not-core skipping a beat. “Humans have stuff to go into space?” he asked, quietly.

“You didn’t know?” Jazz quirked an eyebrow. “I mean, it’s been a few decades since mankind has first walked on the moon.”

“I take back every mean thing I’ve said about humans.”

Jack snorted next to him. “Kiddo, I haven’t heard you say a single mean thing about humans yet.” He paused. “I think.”

He hadn’t? Must’ve all been thoughts, then. “Oh. Huh. Well, it’s pretty cool, anyway, that humans made it that far.”

“Here, these are for you,” Maddie interrupted, handing him a full box of pizza. “Now, Phantom, I want you to eat slowly, alright? If you haven’t eaten greasy food in a while it can make you sick.”

“Like the water?” He took the box from her, placing it down in front of him. Took a deep breath to appreciate it’s smell. Huh. It actually smelled even better without the acidic tang of ectoplasm. “How do I know… What does sick feel like?”

Maddie made a face, then seemed to consider it carefully.

“There’s all kinds of sick,” Jazz explained before Maddie could. “In this case, it’ll be nausea, I think? That’s like… like your stomach flipping over, if that makes sense?”

“Sure,” he agreed easily. “Like the whole area, or…?”

“No, the organ.” She grimaced at his blank stare. “You know, the guts inside of your body?”

“Oh.” He paused for a moment, considering that. “Are all those things called organs, then?” He prodded the rhythmic one in his chest. “Is this one called the chest, then? Following that logic?”

“No, that’s your heart,” she corrected, a frown on her face. “Or your lungs, but those are on either side of your heart.”

His lungs? He took in a deep breath, thinking that over, and felt… “Oh. I hadn’t even noticed those.”

“You are in severe need of a lesson in anatomy.” Maddie clicked her tongue, then gestured at his pizza. “For now, please just eat. If you start feeling weird, let us know.”

“Okay,” he agreed, reaching for a slice of pizza. Organs, huh? And they all had their own functions? That seemed complicated. How were you supposed to know all that? Did humans just teach all their kids about all that stuff? What if a really young kid got sick?

He took a bite of the pizza, and, wow. It was warm and soft and mushy and, yeah, it tasted way better without the ectoplasm.

The humans watched him for a moment, but apparently seemed satisfied at his ability to eat without killing himself, because they started on their meal too. Silence fell as they all focused on their food.

“What’s your plan, anyway?” Jazz asked, partway through the meal. “You traveled through the portal because you thought the Earth was more interesting that the ghost world, sure, but,” she gestured at him with the slice of pizza, “obviously something happened to you. Whether you were already human and forgot, or you were a ghost and became alive, you’re human now. So what’s your plan?”

He shrugged. “Haven’t thought that far ahead. What does it matter, anyway?”

“You can’t just wander around all day, Phantom,” Jack pointed out, a frown on his face. “You’re a teenager—or you look like one, at least. Anyone under eighteen is supposed to be at school.”

“Not to mention your needs,” Maddie pointed out, her brow furrowing. “You need to eat and drink regularly, and sleep somewhere safe. You could hurt yourself easily out there, or get sick, and then what?”

Man, being human sounded like a lot of work. “Maybe I’ll just fly into space. Being on Earth sounds like a hassle.”

“Food and water,” Maddie reminded him, raising an eyebrow. “And oxygen, to breathe, which is only in Earth’s atmosphere.”

“Ugh.” He took a bite of his third slice. “At least your food is good, although I guess it would have to be if you need to eat it. How often is regularly, anyway?”

“Three big meals a day is normal, although most people snack in-between, too.” Jazz shot Jack a pointed look.

“Three meals a day?!” Phantom repeated, startled. “I thought those ghosts were crazy, when they said that humans had to eat daily. That’s insane. Don’t you waste your entire day doing that stuff?”

“You’ll spent more time sleeping,” Maddie said, her eyes soft but concern clear in them. “Eight hours of sleep a day is considered a healthy amount.”

He made a face. “Being human is starting to sound like a lot of work. Can’t I just go back to being a ghost?”

“Ghosts on Earth get chased down by ghost hunters, though,” Maddie pointed out.

“Like us!” Jack exclaimed. He was grinning at Phantom. “But you, you’re defying everything we thought we knew about ghosts! You got to tell us all about the Ghost Zone, Phantom!”

“I…” He blinked, processing the first part. “You’re ghost hunters? But I’m…”

“Showcasing ghost powers within a human body,” Maddie finished for him. “Your eyes changed color while using them, though, so it’s not a case of overshadowing, which would explain why you claim to be a ghost despite your human body.”

“It could be overshadowing but shared control,” Jack said breezily. “The eye color could signify who is in control, but you didn’t seem any different. And, following that logic, the human should be in control most of the time.”

Jazz, who’s eyes had been bouncing between the two as well, cleared her throat. “Do you guys have any scientific proof of any of that, though? Isn’t everything derived from stories and such?” She gestured at Phantom. “If our ghost stories are anything like his human stories, shouldn’t that tell us exactly why you can’t use those things as a basis for the truth?”

“She has a point,” he agreed. “I mean, I’m not experienced with overshadowing, since you can’t overshadow other ghosts, but I’m pretty sure there’s no such thing as shared control. And I can tell you, for sure, that there’s nobody else in here but me, and that I have full access to my own ghost core.”

“You still have your ghost core?” Maddie said, surprised, then shook her head. “No, of course you do, you’d need one for the ghostly abilities you showed earlier. Speculation isn’t working, we need to run some tests.”

“We’re finishing dinner first.” Jazz glared at Maddie until the woman lowered herself back into her seat. “And after that, you’re following Phantom’s wishes. You’ll explain everything you want to do to him, and he’ll get full say in what he does, or does not want, you to do.”

“Of course,” Jack agreed immediately. “He’s a human. We can’t just experiment willy-nilly on humans!”

Phantom made a face at Jazz, and she shot him an equally disturbed look back. “And what if he wasn’t human?” she asked her parents. “If your tests prove that he really is a ghost possessing a human, or whatever? You can’t deny that he’s intelligent, and that he can feel, can you?”

“No, I suppose not.” Maddie sighed, looking sideways at him. “If that were the case, though, the overshadowing is definitely involuntary, since he’s not aware of it. We would need to figure out some way to separate human and ghost without harming either.”

“The Fenton Ghost Catcher might work for that,” Jack pointed out. “We used it to filter ectoplasmic contaminants out of the air while we were preparing the Portal, remember, Mads? The netting should separate human and ghost.”

“If that’s what’s happening.” Phantom finished another slice, trying to judge how his stomach was feeling. Not the same as earlier—he realized now that that must’ve been hunger, that empty yawning void—but he thought he could fit in more still. He reached for his next slice.

“Are you taking another slice, Phantom?” Jazz asked. “Aren’t you full yet?”

“I don’t think so.” He took a bite, swallowed it, and tried to track how it felt in his stomach. “I don’t feel full yet.”

Maddie leaned back in her chair. “He might’ve been starving without realizing, sweetie. I’m sure he’ll know when he’s full.”

Permission thus granted, Phantom quickly worked his way through that slice.

“I think I’m good for now,” he decided. “Not all the way full, but I’m not feeling that empty feeling anymore.”

“I know teenage boys eat a ton, but that seems extreme even knowing that,” Jazz said. She shook her head. “Well, as long as he doesn’t get sick it’s fine, I guess.”

“To the lab, then?” Jack bounced off of his chair almost before he finished saying it. “I’ll go set some stuff up!”

“He’s deriving way too much fun from my suffering,” Phantom declared. “I don’t know how I feel about that.”

“If it helps, he’s that enthusiastic about anything even vaguely related to ghosts.” Jazz collected their plates, bringing them to the water-dispensing-thing. “Oh, I almost forgot about the dirty glasses.”

“Jack can do the dishes later.” Maddie got up as well, offering her arm to Phantom. “Here, you’re probably feeling sluggish from all the food.”

He rolled his eyes but took the arm anyway, letting her pull him up. He was, admittedly, feeling a little heavier. His core, on the other hand, seemed reinvigorated. It was still syncing up with the thump-thump of his heart, but it was definitely stronger. Not quite up to normal strength, but getting closer.

“Thanks,” he said to Maddie. “Let’s hear the verdict.”

Jazz opened the door for them, watched as he picked his way down the stairs again. Just as he reached the lower steps, though, he heard a third set of footsteps.

“Hold on,” she said, “I’m coming with.”

“I thought you had no interest in ghost stuff?” Maddie asked, stepping off of the last step so Jazz could enter the lab as well. “Did all this change your mind?”

Jazz made a face, stepping into the lab proper. “Kind of, yes. But mostly I just want someone to be here to keep an eye on Phantom. No offense, but you two tend to get caught up in the whole ghost business.”

“Right.” Maddie’s face did something complicated. “Of course. You’re always welcome in the lab, Jazz, you know that.”

The two humans led Phantom towards a nearby table, which had been cleared since the last time he was down here. He leaned against it, the metal cold and hard against his legs.

Jack bounded back over before he could ask what was happening next, his arms loaded with all kinds of gadgets and inventions.

“Why don’t we start with an x-ray?” he said, holding out a flat device. “It’s not a real x-ray, of course, but it scans ectoplasm. That way we can see your core, and how it interacts with the rest of your body.”

“It’s just a scan?” Phantom took the machine from Jack’s hand, looking it over. It looked like a black screen with a thick metal rim around it. “It doesn’t hurt, or draw in ectoplasm, or anything like that?”

“Just a scan,” Maddie assured him. She held out her hand, and he gave the device back to her. “But you’ll have to lie down on the table so we can stabilize it. We’ll just take a picture of your chest, that should tell us plenty.”

Phantom nodded, shoving himself backwards until he was sat on the table. He then grabbed his legs, heaving them onto the metal surface as well. “What, exactly, will it tell you, anyway?”

“It’ll show us all ectoplasm in your body,” Maddie explained as he laid down. “Your core, for example, but the rest of it too. If all the other ectoplasm is clustered around your core, or clearly shaped like a ghost, it’s a case of overshadowing.”

“And if it’s not?” he prodded, watching her draw legs out of the device’s rims and place it over his chest. “What if you can see my core, but the ectoplasm is spread all over the place?”

She bit her lip, looking over at Jack. “I… don’t know.”

Ah. That was encouraging. Glad he was in the hands of these experts.

“Alright. Hit me.”

Light flashed, and then Maddie was picking the device up again. “Wait, was that it?”

“Yes?” She paused to quirk an eyebrow at him. “Why? What were you expecting?”

“I dunno. Something I could feel, I guess.” He shrugged, pushing himself up into a sitting position. The table was cold under his bare hands, but his jumpsuit, at least, seemed to isolate pretty well. “This was literally just a picture.”

Maddie hummed, frowning at the device’s screen.

“Let me guess, it’s not overshadowing?” He figured not. His core was too faded out, clearly weakened, and synced up with the human body. This was some kind of blending.

Besides, overshadowing would’ve required a human body, and it clearly hadn’t come from this side of the portal, either.

“Look at this, Jack,” Maddie said, apparently ignoring Phantom. She raised the device so Jack could look at it. “What do you think?”

“It looks completely integrated,” Jack mumbled. “Like a perfect blend of human and ghost. But that’s not supposed to be possible…”

Phantom threw Jazz a look, and she cleared her throat meaningfully. “Guys? Can we stay focused on Phantom, please?”

“Oh, of course. Sorry, Phantom, it’s just…” Maddie gestured at the device, although it was held so high up that he couldn’t see the screen. “The… the ghostly part, the core and the ectoplasm, it is so well-integrated in the human body. I, quite frankly, can’t imagine a way that a ghost could’ve layered themselves so carefully over a human.”

“So you believe my story? That I was a ghost first, and became part human?” Phantom grinned a little. “That’s the only logical way it could’ve happened, right?”

“Well, I’m not sure.” Maddie hummed in thought. “As far as we knew, it wasn’t possible to combine human and ghost in one body. The ectoplasm would react too badly to the living tissue. But obviously, that’s not the case with you.”

“But it might still happen,” Jack added, looking grim. “You’re fine now, but it might get worse over time. Right now, it looks like you might be half and half. Half human, and half ghost. But that balance might get tipped over, and your body might react badly if that happens.”

“So what does that mean for me?” Phantom asked, grin falling. “Besides the fact that I’m a perfect split now, but might not stay that way, and that my body might collapse on me if that happens? What am I supposed to do now, since you guys so cleverly pointed out that humans can’t just wander around in the wild?”

The two adults shared a look.

“Well…” Maddie started, slowly, cautiously. “You could stay here, with us. We would have to go through the police, tackle a lot of paperwork, but since it’s easily proven that you’re ecto-contaminated, we could argue that we’re the best people to keep an eye on your health. Which would be the truth.”

“We could keep an eye on your health, both human and ghostly, and teach you everything you need to know to blend in with humans properly,” Jack continued. “If nothing worsens, we could even enroll you in school.”

Phantom stared at them. His heart thudded in his chest, his core whirring loudly underneath it. “And in return?”

“You could teach us about ghosts.” Jack gestured at the large metal arch on the far side of the room. “We built the Portal for that reason. Even if this wasn’t the way we had envisioned, well, it still works!”

“Learning directly from the source would be better, from a scientific point of view,” Maddie added. She sighed. “We wouldn’t force you to do anything, Phantom, but please consider it. For better or worse, you’re a human/ghost hybrid now. We don’t know anything about those, but apparently, neither do you. For all we know, dying a human death might permanently destroy your core, too. Maybe hybrids won’t become ghosts. We want you to be safe, Phantom.”

He shuffled, uncertainly. Let his eyes wander over to Jazz. If he did take up on this offer, she would have to deal with him, too.

Jazz pressed her lips together. “As much as I hate to agree with them, my parents probably are your best shot at finding ghost experts around here. You might draw in ghost hunters if you make too much of a scene, but…” She sighed, slumping in on herself a little. “Most ghost hunters are hard, and cold, and uncaring. They won’t see you as human, as someone capable of thought and feelings. You might be able to change their minds like you changed Mom and Dad’s, but do you really want to risk that?”

She clicked her tongue. “I would appreciate it if I’m asked, next time, how I feel about us adopting a half-ghost teenager. Just putting that out there.”

“Well, if you all insist so badly…” Phantom felt his heart—and his core—stutter in his chest. “I… I wouldn’t be opposed to sticking around.”

“Great!” Jack clapped a hand on Phantom’s shoulder with such force that he almost collapsed. “First order of business, kiddo, is a first name!”

“What’s wrong with Phantom?” he asked, furrowing his brow. “It’s been my name for forever, I don’t want to change it.”

“You can keep it as a last name,” Maddie assured him. “But it’s not much of a first name, I’m afraid. Is there anything you like?”

He shook his head. “Not… really? I’ve always been fine as just Phantom.”

“How about Daniel?” She looked at Jack, then Jazz, then him again. “It’s… It was the name we agreed on for our son, but then life got in the way, and we never had one.”

Phantom frowned at the two adults. “How could you be sure that you were going to have a son if didn’t actually get that far?”

“It’s a standard pattern with our family!” Jack exclaimed, grinning at him. “All Fentons first have a daughter, then a son.”

“That’s ridiculous. That can’t actually work that way.” He shook his head, then refocused on the earlier part of the conversation. “What did you suggest again? Daniel?”

He tasted the name on his tongue. Frowned. “Can it be… shortened? Like Jazz did with her name?”

“Danny?” Maddie suggested, and Phantom felt his core hum.

“Yeah.” His core chirped in delight. “Yeah, I like that. Danny. Danny Phantom.”

All three humans grinned at him.

“Welcome to the family, Danny Phantom,” Jack said, his smile so bright it almost glowed.

“Welcome, little brother,” Jazz tagged on.

And in his chest, Danny’s core purred.