The Life of a Phantom
Danny hadn’t been in the Realms much since the portal had been opened. In fact, he had done his best to actively avoid any and all use of his ghost half. He was perfectly capable of fighting as a human, thank you very much. Granted, his ghost half didn’t seem too happy about that plan. Jazz said it wasn’t healthy for him to separate his ghost half from his human half like that, but it was hard not to.
As much as Danny had always been skeptical of his parent’s views on ghosts, mostly thanks to Jazz, they were still deeply ingrained in his psyche. They were things that had been drilled into both him and Jazz as facts from the time they were kids. Conditioning like that couldn’t just be ignored. So, no matter how hard Danny tried, it was hard for him to think of his ghost half as part of him. As himself, instead of as something foreign, and strange, and dangerous and scary. Every time he accidentally phased through something or turned invisible as a human, he loathed himself for it. He knew that Jazz was right, that the way he thought about it wasn’t healthy, but he didn’t know how else to think about it.
Then the first intelligent ghost came through the portal. Her name was Lunch Lady, and she was very intent on changing the menu back to what it had been. Danny and Jazz pulled her into the thermos and put her back into the Realms, but it was an eye opening experience for Danny. She had been intelligent. And, while her intentions and methods were a little strange, they weren’t inherently violent. Not really. In her own way, she was trying to help. It was very strange.
A week later, Jazz and Sam finally managed to convince him to try to learn to use his ghost powers. They started in Sam’s house, because her parents were oblivious and her house was huge. Danny managed to take on his ghost form, then promptly fell intangibly down to Sam’s basement. This was going to take a lot of practice, Danny thought, rubbing his head. And the life of the phantom went on.
It took a few more months for Danny to gain an acceptable amount of control over his ghost half. It wasn’t perfect, but it was better. At some point, Danny had stopped thinking of his ghost half as a separate entity and started thinking of it as just another part of who he was. He didn’t feel any different as a ghost, after all. Well, not much, anyway. But he certainly didn’t have any sudden urges to kill or hurt innocent people. He was still him, just a little more...ghostly.
It was around that same time that his mother finally perfected the ghost proof food that she had been working on. At first, Danny ate it, and he was fine. Until later that night when he spent the whole night on the bathroom floor, puking his guts out, with a raging fever. He stopped eating at home.
Somehow, not eating at home led to not eating at school, either. He didn’t even notice it was happening until Sam pointed it out, and even then…
“I’m not hungry,” he insisted, pushing Sam’s sandwich back at her.
“You need to eat,” Sam rebuffed, pushing the sandwich towards him again.
Danny shrugged, sighed. “I’m not being stubborn, Sam. I’m just honestly not hungry. I don’t think I really have been, since I started using my powers.”
That was an unnerving thought. Sam blinked twice.
“Wait, you mean, you don’t have to eat?” she asked, derailed.
Danny shrugged again. “I don’t think so?” he offered. “I don’t feel like I need to, anyway.”
That night, Sam, Jazz, and Tucker weighed Danny on Sam’s bathroom scale. He was the same weight he’d been before the Accident. Jazz even confirmed via google that he was a healthy weight for his height and age. Sam dropped the eating issue, and the life of the phantom went on.
Danny started fighting ghosts as a ghost. It was easier, so much easier. Until his parents saw his ghost half, that is. Then, things got a little more complicated.
At least everyone else thought he was a hero. That was nice. As a human, he was afforded a certain amount of respect, of fear, even, for his abilities. As a ghost it was different. People weren’t scared of him the same way they were scared of human Danny.
It was Tucker who suggested the ghost name. After the people in Amity park started calling him “Invis-o-bill”, it was time for a rebranding. So he became Phantom. Jazz thought it was hilarious.
It took Danny time before he ventured into the Realms. When he did, it was with great caution. The Realms were a strange place, with green swirling ectoplasm and floating doors and landmasses. Somehow, he felt more at home there than he did in his own home. There was something energizing, something alive about the Realms that Danny loved. He had a hard time explaining it to his human friends, but it was there nonetheless. That feeling that meant he was home.
The Realms were not always a safe place, Danny learned. Walker was particularly determined to throw him in jail for something Danny never quite caught, and there were other dangers there, too. Ghosts that he was enemies with, particularly dangerous debris, things like that. Also, it was huge. Danny was doing his best. And the life of the Phantom went on.