Phantom of the Chamber (DPxHP crossover)

Chapter 2: Gone

A sob rose in the frail boy's throat and he struggled to continue, "I-If it wasn't for me, all of you will still be alive! I-I'm so sorry! I would do anything to be able to take it all back!!" The boy collapsed to the ground and pulled his knees to his chest, tears streamed down as the sobs racked his body, making the child appear small and fragile.

Voice now a soft whisper, the boy continued on, "You guys must hate me now... I stole your happiness, your future, and I didn't even get to die with you. I hate how I was the only survivor and even though I wished I died fully then too, I hate the small cowardly part of me that still wants to live... The accident only half killed me and gave me ghost powers. I'm now Half Human- Half Ghost, a Halfa... a mutant. Vlad says it's a gift but I think it's a curse, a punishment for me to pay for my crimes." Danny sniffed and wiped the tears from his eyes.

"I had a hard time at first with my powers. I was so scared and confused. I wasn't use to them and had so many close calls blowing my secret." Danny paused, thinking back to those times, "It was kind of sad actually, Tucker you would have thought it hilarious. You won't believe a number of times I accidentally phased below floors or through walls. My pants phased off at school once and the A-list laughed at me... Certain parts of my body would spontaneously turn intangible, I dropped so many beakers that the school permanently banned me from handling any lab equipment... Now I know how to handle my powers properly. I can turn intangible, fire ecto-beams, form shields, fly, and even turn invisible. No Tucker, I know what you want to ask, I haven't used my powers to peek into the girl's locker room. So Sam and Jazz, you don't need to worry...yet. Anyway, I mentioned that I have been busy recently but that's because I found a good use for my powers."

"Ever since the portal exploded, it caused a rift between the ghost zone and the human realm. The natural boundary between the two worlds weakened causing more natural portals to form frequently. An increasing number of ghosts have been appearing in Amity Park to cause trouble or wreak havoc. So yeah, I have been using my ghost powers to stop them. I guess I made it my job to protect the people from the ghosts. Vlad says what I do is reckless and stupid, that I'm blaming myself for your death with my so-called "Hero-complex". I can't say he's too far from the truth, ghost hunting is my pathetic, sad attempt at redemption."

"Dad, you can say that I am a ghost hunter now. I made lots of enemies among the ghosts by trying to stop their plans for world domination, while other ghosts are just annoyances that like to spar with me to relieve their boredom and stress. Granted not all ghost are bad, though, I made some ghostly friends and allies, like Wulf, Cujo, and Princess Dora. I also met Johnny 13 and Kitty today. Rather than friends, I feel like their relationship counselor."

"For a while, Amity Park hated me, calling me a dangerous menace to society. Now the people call me brave and praise me as a hero. If only they knew the truth... I'm not courageous, the only reason I was able to do all those things was because my ghost half numbs my emotions...You can't have courage if you don't feel fear." Danny shook his head bitterly.

"I sometimes wonder what you would have thought of my powers if you were still alive when I got them. As ghost hunters, would you have chased me around trying to capture me so that you could rip me apart molecule by molecule, or would you still accept me as your son, despite me being part ghost." Danny finally stands back up. He rubbed the evidence of tears from his eyes and brushes off the dirt on his clothes from when he sat down on the ground.

"I'm living with Vlad Masters now, remember him? He was mom and dad's friend from college. He took me in when he found out I had no other close relatives. We butt heads a lot, in the beginning, I wasn't being fair to him by purposefully making things difficult. I didn't know who he was since I never met him before and he took me from my home and force me to live with him. My first impression of him wasn't good, he was strict, uptight, and bossy. I didn't think he could possibly understand what I was feeling, but then I found out that he was part ghost too. Remember how you told me that you lost contact with him when he got ecto-acne from one of your experiments? Well that was what turned him into a halfa. Once I realized that he was the only other half-ghost in existence, and the only one who could possibly connect with the confusion and fear that I felt over the strange powers and changes that happened to me, I learned to accept his help. Vlad was the one who taught me to control my powers and trained me to fight. Vlad was against me ghost hunting but after some close shaves, he now decided it was better for me to be prepared. He requires me to carry this bag full of ghost hunting equipment with me at all times (which is a pain)."