Phantom Trip

There's no place like home

Danny nodded. "The Red Huntress flew in a second to help, buuuuuut she left later cause she didn't want you guys seeing her." He gestured towards the others who raised their eyebrows.

"Why not?" Andrew questioned.

"Because you would think she was stalking us or something." The others nodded understandingly albeit a bit confused.

"Wait," James raised a finger. "Doesn't the Red Huntress hate you or something?"

Danny scrunched his face up, unsure about what to say. "She used to, or at least I think she used to. We kinda made up some time ago. I don't blame her, though. I kinda ruined her life." He sipped his cup. "Even though it was an accident."

"Wait so you know who she is?" Andrew's eyes widened and Danny scrunched his eyebrows together.

"I didn't say that."

"You're not denying it either."

Danny rolled his eyes as he let out an exasperated sigh. "Can we not start this again, Sherlock?"

"Sorry."

"Anyways," Danny continued as he realized he was taking too long. "We beat Fright up. He shot me and was about to stab me. I broke his sword, making the others appear and he left cause that sucker was his favorite toy or something and is now crying in his lonely hole."

Lancer blinked at his hastily scribbled notes and sighed, knowing he'd never really get the full story from the boy.

"That was lame." Richard commented. "Where's all the pew pew's and slash slashes and the BOOM's."

Danny shrugged. "We're not here for storytelling. We're here to make up a story to tell the civilians."

The students sighed.

"Why do you keep calling them civilians?" Kim asked curiously.

Danny blinked, as if he hadn't realized he did that until the girl pointed it out. "Oh. I don't know."

Sam's lips twitched up. "He's been doing that since two years ago."

"I have?"

"Yep. You got so into your hero persona you just started calling the residents of Amity Park, or any other place with a large group of people, civilians." Sam smiled wider. "Even the ghosts, which was a surprise at first because you don't spend as much time protecting the ghosts."

Danny bit his lip. He didn't know what to do with that bit of information. "I guess I don't really see a difference between ghosts and humans as much. In both worlds have friends and people I consider family, yet both also have beings that want me dead." He grinned. "I guess both places are my home, since I'm kinda stuck in between."

The others were quiet. Danny was really more than they had ever imagined. They had trouble wrapping their minds around what the boy was and how his life was. How different it was from their own.

Maddie and Jack felt a pang in their chests. Only now realizing how far this ghostly business had reached into Danny's life and heart. He wasn't a boy with powers who fought other ghosts to keep the humans safe. He was a kid who was not only half ghost, but also half human, and who lived in two different worlds at the same time. Somehow balancing them together. No matter how hard it was, he made it work. That was what he was. A combination between the two different universes. And he lived like it.

They exchanged a smile.

Mr. Lancer cleared his throat to break the silence and everyone turned to look at him. He looked up from his book. "So we put in the whole fiasco with the ghost king, but we can't tell them Danny beat him up all on his own..."