What was it? The suspense is like a choking gas in it's wrathful grip... Too dramatic? Okay, well I guess I could have said the suspense was killing me. But to be honest it isn't because I already know what's going to happen. And I'm rambling again...
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A... what?" The entire class was silent, all gathered around Nick in the dark just as they had been surrounding Tony when the power was still on. Noticing this, Nick took a deep breath, and calmed down. Mustering a shaky smile, he sat up and shook his head.
"It, it was so stupid." he muttered, blushing. "It was all a big prank." Now he stared directly at Tony, who shrank beneath his stare. "First my girlfriend, now you and your stupid friends played some ghost prank on me."
Tony and his friends all looked at each other. Tony shook his head. "No, no one would go that far. Not even me," he reassured Nick.
Danny sat back. "So you just thought you saw something in the bathroom?" he clarified. I'm going to ignore that you said the G-word...
Nick nodded his head, his blond hair falling over his eyes. "Yeah. It really freaked me out." He went on to explain the looks of the creature to the wonderment of the class. "It was glowing green, with bright eyes," he described, "and it had super long green tentacles, and it was trying to grab me with one..."
Danny, for the second time that day, felt the cold feeling of dread in the pit of his stomach. Surely this was some elaborate prank.
For years he had shoved the days of ghost-fighting deep into his memory, where they lay forgotten in his subconscious. That it was coming back, in a place with no history of ghosts...Was there really no escape? It had been twelve years. Why now?
Shaking the fog of his thoughts from his mind, he rebuked the fears creeping into his mind. No. He had moved on. There were no more ghost portals---except for the naturally occurring ones---but he rebuked that thought, too. It was over.
Danny froze. Streaming from his mouth, and icy cold, was a serpentine tendril of blue mist, unfurling and floating up toward the ceiling before slowly fading to nothingness.
And then he knew without a doubt, no matter how much he didn't want to admit it, it was far from over.
Luckily, none of his students noticed his brief chill, all too busy listening, wide-eyed, to Nick's tale. Danny slowly turned around and watched a bright green glowing ectopus materialize through the wall.
The room was now lit up with an eerie green glow. All of the students gazed up open-mouthed, eyes wide in terror. The ectopus, with everyone's full attention, narrowed its blood red eyes and let out a high-pitched wail, waving its tentacles threateningly.
On instinct, Danny stood in front of his students, his mind racing. What should he do?
He wished it was like Choose Your Own Adventure, where someone else could decide what happens next. Turn to page 9 if you decide to go ghost for the first time in twelve years in front of your students and beat the ectoplasm out of this ectopus, or Turn to page 41 if you pretend that you never had ghost powers and just cower helplessly with your students when you know you're more than capable of defending them?
But the problem with Choose Your Own Adventure books was that sometimes you had an "in between" kind of idea of what you'd really do (Stand there and gape stupidly) but the book assumes that you're the kind of person who makes smart and concrete decisions pretty quickly.
As a kid he'd spend minutes pondering a single choice. Jazz was smarter, and she wrote down every outcome she got so she knew how to get to every single one. And here he was again, overthinking this.
Pull yourself together, he told himself. Seeing that the ghost had floated away from the door, he raced over and yanked the classroom door open.
"Everyone, get out of here!" he yelled. "I'll be right behind you!" The students needed no further incentive. Screaming in terror, everyone ran out, pushing and shoving one another to be the first out.
Slamming the door shut, Danny turned and faced the ghost. It seemed to make a gesture that said "Bring it on!" and he looked at it oddly. The ectopus rolled its eyes then, as if it were bored, fired a lime-green ectoray at him. Danny barely managed to dodge it, landing awkwardly on one knee. That's going to be swollen later, he thought glumly. It would be so much easier---
He stopped himself. What was he doing? He couldn't go ghost again. After twelve years of keeping his promise, all just to fight one ectopus? Maybe he could figure it out without going ghost.
Just as he was thinking this, the ectopus, seeming to read his thoughts, brought one glowing appendage to its mouth and whistled. Danny raised his eyebrows. He hadn't seen that before.
Clearly in response to the whistle, at least a dozen more ectopi phased through the wall, menacingly surrounding him. The original ectopus put two of its tentacles on where its hips would probably be, cocking its head and giving Danny a knowing smile.
Danny gaped at him. Do they seriously want me to go ghost? He thought incredulously. Seeing his hesitation, all thirteen ghosts started to aim ectorays at him.
"FINE!" he yelled aloud. "I'M GOING GHOST!"
In his prime years of ghost fighting, Danny could switch to his alter ego in a split second, with little effort. But twelve years of no practice put a strain on him that he could trace back to his early ghost-fighting days, when he was first getting the hang of his ghost powers.
The transformation took intense concentration, and was painstakingly slow. Danny watched through squinted eyes as the icy cold pale blue rings traveled up and down his body, leaving behind a cold tingling sensation. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, the rings closed around his head and feet and disappeared.
Opening his eyes, which were squeezed shut, he stared down at himself, unsure as to whether he should feeling like he was greeting a long-lost friend or confronting an enemy.
The last time he had seen himself like this was the night the ghost portal had been destroyed.
He still was wearing his silvery ghost-armor, marked with the bright green "D" symbol. His costume was also marked with bold green stripes down its sides, around his wrists, and ankles.
To top it off, his skin was now a tanner shade, his eyes a blazing green, and worst of all, his glowing white hair (and beard) were now flowing in a ghost-like manner, almost like a flame. It was really unnerving.
But he tore himself away from his looks; Danny needed to focus on the task at hand: the ectopi. Upon glancing back, he jerked back in shock. The last form of an ectopus was retreating back through the walls it came, without putting up a fight!
Danny scowled and scratched his head in frustration. Why the heck then were they egging him on for a fight when they were just going to leave so suddenly?
He floated a few inches off the ground, looked around one last time, then sighed with resignation, and transformed back with much more ease than transforming into his alter ego.
Once again, he stared in bafflement at the darkened room, no longer lit up by a ghostly glow. What was going on?
As he prepared to go try to comfort his students, one last thought sang annoyingly in his mind: Why had he transformed back into Phantom after all these years? And now what would he do now that he did that?
Though he wished it with all his might, Danny knew that this was far from over. He would have to take up the mantle of a ghostly hero once again, like it or not.
Overwhelmed, he grabbed his head and sat in one of the plastic seats in the shadowy classroom. He really couldn't deal with this right now.
- - - - -
Once Danny got home, after he walked through the school's hallways, which were buzzing with the news of that day's events, and after he stopped by to pick up Lily from daycare, the first thing he did was shave off that ridiculous goatee. If he were honest with himself, it was kind of scaring him how much it reminded him of Vlad Plasmius, not to mention, now that he thought of it, Dan Phantom.
Shuddering, he banished those thoughts from his mind. It was shaved and gone. No creepy ghostly, flowy, ghostly beards anywhere.
Ugh! He felt so creeped out!
His thoughts then wandered to the school. It was odd how they were keeping things quiet around there, as if they didn't want their reputation ruined among the parents. In fact, that was probably why the administration hadn't spoken about it.
They didn't want to risk losing students, he thought with a frown.
"What's wrong, Dad?"
Danny looked over at Jackson, who had glanced up from his math homework at that exact moment and caught sight of dad's moody expression.
Danny sighed and closed his eyes, rubbing his temples.
"Nothing much, sport." he replied, trying to give him a reassuring smile. But he didn't meet Jackson's eyes. "Just a rough day at school."
"How was it rough?"
"Just... some of the school administration I don't really agree with right now." Danny quickly changed the subject. "How was your day?"
But Jackson wasn't finished yet. That was something both admirable and frustrating about Jackson. He was very focused.
"What don't you agree with the admin about?" he asked. Danny pondered how to answer the question both vaguely and specifically enough to not arouse curiosity and satisfy Jackson. He swallowed nervously.
"Well..."
He couldn't just say "something" happened, then Jackson would be curious as to what it was. So... maybe it was time for leaving out some details, but including the more believable parts of the tale.
"The power just went out in the school today," he decided finally, "and the admin have been really quiet about it."
"They must be paranoid about concerned parents I guess," Jackson observed.
"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking," he responded, surprised, though he wasn't sure why. Jackson never ceased to surprise him with how involved he was in affairs of policymakers.
Along with being interested in space and astronomy like himself, Jackson loved politics.
Interrupting their conversation was a knock on the door. Probably Sam, returning from work. Danny opened the door, and was met by a grinning Sam, which was pretty normal because she loved her job, but she seemed a little more excited for a different reason.
"Guess who stopped by?" she asked him. Danny peered around her and started grinning himself.
Because behind Sam stood his best friend of many years, Tucker Foley.
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Yaaasss Tucker!!! Woo!