Chapter Text
Somehow, through sheer force of luck, and—well, actually, no, it was all luck—she managed to survive the school day with little more than a bruised knee.
But at least no one saw her fall!
Is what she would have thought if that were true. Unfortunately, everyone in her history class had seen her spectacular tumble to the floor. And yes, most of them had also laughed.
Which was the icing on the cake.
But, she supposed it could have been worse. She could have been like Danny who'd infamously dropped forty-two beakers and cost the school so much in damaged equipment that he was banned from ever handling fragile objects again.
Unlike Danny, however, she actually had a brain. And some impulse control. So perhaps that was why, unlike him, she managed to stay mostly on her feet.
She had to be nice to him, she reminded herself. He was the one who was going to teach her how to use these powers. She wasn't allowed to make fun of him for being a butterfingers—she wasn't going to say a word.
Of course, that promise lasted all of a minute after the final bell rang.
Actually, she wasn't sure she'd even made it off the property before she was smugly rubbing it in Danny's scrawny face that unlike him, she actually managed to keep her shit (mostly) together during school. That it was obvious that in this competition of who could be the better halfa she'd only just invented, she was winning by a mile.
And no, his protesting and whining didn't change a thing.
"Face it, Danny, I'm just better at being dead. What can I say? It's the goth in me."
"No way! I'm so much better at being dead. Skulker even wants to skin me and turn me into his rug because of how good I am at being dead!"
"Please! Skulker will turn anything that moves into a rug. You're not that special."
"You both are fantastic at being dead. Happy?" Tucker asked.
"Only after I get all this energy out!" Sam looked around, confirming that they were alone in the treeline of the park. Her heart pounded slightly, but her excitement won out. She barely contained her grin as she turned to Danny and asked, "Here?"
"Sure," Danny said.
"How often do you come here again?" Tucker asked. Beside him was a tree with marks running along the bark that suspiciously resembled ecto-burns.
"Now? Almost never. But especially when I first got my ice powers, I was here a lot. The sudden shift in my core energy was pretty intense at first. You guys remember."
Tucker snorted and leaned back against the trunk, folding his arms. "Oh yeah. You nearly froze half the city over!"
"It wasn't pretty," Sam agreed, then faced a tree. "So what, I'm just supposed to blast it? I don't wanna hurt the plant!"
"Yeah, Danny, plants have feelings too!" Tucker agreed with a shit-eating grin.
One that Sam definitely knew wasn't sincere. "Oh, shut up, Tucker."
Danny face-palmed. "You won't hurt the tree. I've done this plenty of times." Then, he paused, adopting that aloof expression that so-often had Sam throwing her combat boot at his head. It was an agonizing pause before he finally opened his mouth and forced Sam and Tucker to listen to him say, "Or, I guess you could say I've done it plant-y of times."
Sam had never felt so disappointed in him in her life. But he didn't seem to notice, instead facing them with a proud chuckle as he continued the torture, saying, "Hah, get it? Plant-y? Get it? Like plenty but with plants?"
He bent over, clutching his knees with his hands as weak chuckles forced their way up his throat and desecrated the natural air around them.
"My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined," Tucker responded.
"I agree," Sam said.
"Well I could leaf you two right here!"
It took two full, long, painful minutes before Danny could stand upright without bursting into another fit of giggles. By the end of it, Sam was pretty sure that if he laughed over his awful puns one more time, she was going to use him for target practice instead of the tree.
"Okay, okay. I'm good now, I promise," Danny said. "I'm not going to branch out into a new—"
It was with Sam's deepest regrets that the last of her restraint failed her and she ended up blasting the ground at Danny's feet, causing him to leap into the air with a yelp and reflexively throw his hands out as if to defend himself. Except, what he'd forgotten, was that he didn't have a ghost core anymore, and thus couldn't do things like fly or blast Sam back, and he ended up with his ass on the ground.
Of course, Sam apologized from the bottom of her heart. It was incredibly convincing, which she knew because Danny totally didn't roll his eyes and "yeah yeah" her when she was done.
Once everyone got back on their feet, the real work could begin. Except...
Sam crossed her arms. "I'm still not blasting a tree. We need trees for the environment, Danny."
"I told you! They're fine. They like being blasted!"
Sam glared.
"I don't know, you're the tree whisperer! Do any of these trees look like they're dying?" Danny asked.
Other than the minor, surface-level burn marks she saw on a few trees, she couldn't see any significant damage.
"Fine, but only because there's literally nowhere else for us to practice in Amity Park," Sam conceded. "So, how exactly do I do this?"
Danny’s face lit up. "So you feel that cold spot in your chest?"
Sam touched her chest. She could feel it, and with the growing anticipation of being used, it had began silently humming like a songbird. It was gentle, but excited all the same. "Yeah, I do feel it."
"Grab it. That should trigger your transformation. From there, it's just a matter of taking the energy and directing it. The more electric feeling ones are the blasts, and ice is colder."
Sam mentally poked at the core, and it almost jumped back at her, desperate to be brought to the forefront. She took a deep breath, steeled herself, and this time when she mentally poked it, she didn't back away.
The transformation felt like being dunked in the Arctic Sea. Cold energy zapped through her spine as bright light overtook her vision. The rings split and traveled apart, and she shivered as she felt the energy course through her body like a charged magnet. It was spiky and tangy, and yet strangely smooth and right.
She closed her eyes as the rings washed over her face and sizzled into her aura. Her body lightened, and her feet left the ground. She threw her arms out to the side and took a moment, feeling every sense heighten—her ears, her nose. It was as if she could hear every rustling leaf and smell each blade of grass. When her eyes opened, the world had sharpened, and she could see tiny details in the distance with more clarity than she thought possible.
"Whoa," was all she could think to say.
"I know, right?" Danny smiled.
"Wow. I had no idea this is what your vision was like." Sam glanced down at him. "It's like putting on glasses or something. That's insane."
Tucker whistled. "You pull off the goth-ghost look pretty well! A little too much Danny, though. Too bad!"
Sam had nearly forgotten that her appearance had changed. She swiveled around—a little clumsily, she wasn't used to this whole flying thing—to face Tucker who had his phone already prepped and raised on camera mode. Leaning forward, she saw herself. Her previously black hair, like Danny's, had turned white, and her hair elastic holding up her half-ponytail glowed ectoplasmic green. Her eyes too had taken on that acid green color from their previous violet. Her suit was very much the classic Phantom suit with its black body, white gloves and boots, and the white DP logo on her chest. The only minor difference was unlike Danny's straight-lined white loop at the waist, hers was shaped like a V.
She backed away from the phone camera slightly, twirling so she could see more of herself. Sam had never particularly been one for appearances, and she certainly always scoffed at the way the A-Listers like Paulina liked to make their appearance the center of the Universe, but even she had to admit that yeah, she really did pull off the ghost look well.
Well, if that wasn't an extremely goth thing to think, Sam didn't know what was.
"I'm stealing your look, Danny," she joked.
He returned her grin. "Careful, and I might have to steal yours right back."
Tucker laughed. "Yeah, I'd love to see you in a skater skirt."
Sam rolled her eyes. Boys.
"So, what, I just direct the energy into my hands and then that's how I blast things?" she asked.
"Yup! Try it out."
"Just don't hit me!" Tucker called, retreating back to his tree trunk where he settled down on the grass and leaned back to return his attention to his phone.
"Just for that, I'll hit you twice!"
"Go for it!" Danny encouraged.
"Shut up!"
Sam steeled herself, facing off against the tree. Even if logically the ectoplasmic blast wasn't going to hurt it, the thought of blasting a tree was a little much for her. So, gathering her energy, she decided to get a little creative.
The chill covered her body like a blizzard, and she'd seen Danny do this enough times to know that her eyes were glowing blue. It surged forth, propelling down her arms and through the tips of her fingers until there was nowhere for it to go but out.
Ice billowed into the open air with more force than she was expecting. Like a blizzard, it wanted to commandeer the woods and fill every inch of the ground with spikes. She strained her fingers, forcing them to flex toward her palm. The ice followed her direction, collecting in one singular mound rather than fanning out. It wasn't smooth or delicate like she'd envisioned, but it worked.
Eons later, but it was likely only a few seconds, she finally let go and the last of the power dwindled from her fingertips. She'd been pushed back slightly, and she drifted back toward Danny and Tucker.
"Not bad!" Danny said, bringing his hands down from their position shielding his face. "A little rough around the edges, but overall that's pretty damn good!"
Sam looked to her creation, the mound of ice that didn't really have much of a shape, but it existed and she'd made it. Pride surged through her, and she raised her fists in the air with a triumphant cry. "Fuck yeah!"
"An ice show? Now she's really stealing your style, dude," Tucker said.
Invigorated by her small win, Sam whirled around and tried again, this time picturing a shape. Something simple, she thought, like a box.
Actually making her vision come to life was more difficult than she'd anticipated, and she wasn't exactly perfect. It resembled more of a rectangular shape than the cube she'd been picturing, and one of the corners was definitely jutting out—not to mention that big ice spike sticking out right in the center—but once again, she'd done it!
And then, now with a target that wasn't a living plant, she switched her core over, tapping into the icy hot, tingly acid that dominated her senses. Like the ice, it was more than happy to respond, lighting her body with what she could only describe as pure and unfiltered energy. Her hair stood on its ends, and she could see her aura’s glow intensify as she raised her green palms and let out a singular blast.
The whiplash was intense, and she flew back, her spine hitting a branch behind her. The blast hit its target—not perfectly, of course, but with all her practicing with the ecto-gun, she had been at least confident that she wouldn't miss.
The semi-cube splintered, and the jutting corner that she'd hit fell into the ground and shattered to pieces.
Sam pushed herself off the tree, a giggle of adrenaline crawling up her throat. "Holy shit!"
Danny stared at her, mouth agape.
"Guys!" She lowered herself, her feet touching down on the now-frosted ground. "Did you see that? How cool was that?"
"That was fucking awesome!" Danny said, nearly jumping over to Sam with bright eyes.
"Right? It was so insane! How do you control the power level? It all came out in a giant flood, I could barely see! And you can make low-powered ones? How the hell do you do that?"
"Ah, yeah." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. "I'm not sure? I just kind of dial the power level down. Like, in my core, I mean."
"Wow, Danny, you're so helpful!" Despite her excitement, she managed to get the sarcasm across.
"Hey, don't look at me! I haven't had these powers for that long, you know."
"Like over a year! And you haven't even sat down to study them at all?"
"Has it really been a year?" Danny asked.
"Yes, space-case!"
"Superpowers, ice blasting, blah, blah! You know what else is cool?" Tucker cut into their bantering, tapping away at his phone. He paused to wave it in the air. "Yo, lovebirds! Ember was spotted downtown!"
Sam and Danny froze, eyes glancing between each other and Tucker's phone.
Sam was the one to first break the silence. "Alright, let's go!"
Danny reeled back. "What do you mean, let's go?"
"I mean exactly what it sounds like. Let's go! Ember's downtown and is probably hypnotizing a bunch of people right now, so we have to go save them! Let's go!"
"Wait, wait, back up," Tucker said, holding his hand out. "You're gonna fight her? Ember?"
Sam huffed. "Well, duh! Who else? Danny? The one without ghost powers right now?"
"Well, I do have more experience—"
"Fighting with ghost powers, you do!" Sam retorted.
"Hey, I have some experience fighting in human form too, you know! Vlad's shorted out my powers plenty of times..." He broke off, grumbling.
"Okay, well, I'm the one with the firepower right now, unless you forgot. So let's go! Seriously, I'm not gonna wait around for you two if you want to stay here thinking about it. The sooner we get there, the easier it'll be to take Ember down."
Danny stood here, brow furrowed and hand rubbing the back of his neck for another beat until he finally relented with a sigh. "Fine," he said, holding out his arm for flight. "Go on!"
Actually figuring out how to get the three of them into the air invisibly was harder than Danny had been making it look. In her defense, he didn't start flying the three of them together until over a month after he'd first acquired his ghost powers, and Sam was out here trying to do it on day one.
Especially since she found that unless she was constantly paying attention to the invisibility, it had a bad habit of shortening out.
Which it did. Twice.
And that was where the phone call came from.
It was her mom, of course, who'd been watching the news and had seen flickers of Danny and Tucker being "kidnapped"—as she'd so elegantly called it—by Phantom. Now, her mom was entirely convinced that the three of them had been kidnapped or brainwashed or both by Phantom, and would not let Sam explain that she was safe and sound.
Especially since Ember was currently downtown. Where Phantom had been spotted with his equally captive audience.
"Shit," Sam swore, hanging up her phone and stuffing it into her backpack that Danny was now holding. "I don't know what to do! My mom is on her way down here to come rescue me!"
"Then turn back into yourself?" Tucker said.
Sam heard a scuffle, and she peeked around the dumpster to glance down the alley they were hiding in, but fortunately, the source of the sound was only a squirrel.
She turned back to her friends. "I can't! I have to go stop Ember. You saw the crowd she'd already amassed! That busking performance is going to turn into a mob before we know it."
"Sam's right," Danny conceded, surprising Sam. He held her gaze, and his eyes were steel. It was an expression she'd only seen come out when Phantom was involved. "She can't go home. As much as I hate to admit it, I don't think I can stop Ember in human form. Sam has to be the one to fight her."
"Okay, then who's fighting Mrs. Manson?" Tucker asked. "Because that woman can be a freaking force when she wants to be."
"Easy!" Danny snapped his fingers. "We’ll just do the old switcheroo!"
Sam and Tucker looked at him blankly.
"The what?" Tucker blurted.
"You know! Like you guys did for me!" Danny opened the small front pocket of Sam’s backpack, and before she could protest, he brought out a little black hairband like it was some sort of prize. To her utter confusion, he began pulling the longer strands of his hair back and forming something of a messy half-ponytail. "Ta da! How do I look?"
"Danny, what the hell?" Sam asked deadpan.
"I told you, didn't I? You steal my Phantom style, and I'm going to steal yours."
Tucker guffawed. "Oh man, I was joking before, but are you really about to put on a skater skirt?"
"Not unless you want to. But something tells me Mrs. Manson won't be convinced if you try to be Sam."
"It's my eyes, I know," Tucker bantered. “They’re just too beautiful to be Sam’s.”
"Definitely your eyes," Sam agreed, then turned back to Danny. "You're being for real right now? You're cool with pretending to be me and letting my mom chase you around town while I deal with Ember?"
"Listen, my stamina's gotten pretty good fighting ghosts."
"My mom does crossfit."
"I thought she did pilates?" Tucker asked.
"She does that too."
Tucker tsked his tongue. "Oh shit, Danny, you're screwed. You can still back out, you know."
Danny rolled his eyes. "I'll be fine! Being chased by ghosts all the time has built me some endurance, you know."
“Some?” Tucker asked.
“More than you have, anyway.”
"Alright, let's do this," Sam agreed.
Her boldness only lasted so long, unfortunately. The clothing swap was just as awkward to do as it sounded. Tucker, laughing maniacally, was forced to stand guard facing away from them as Sam transformed back into human form, they swapped outfits, and uncomfortably redressed behind the smelly dumpster. Only when they'd both given the verbal consent that they were decent again did they turn around and survey each other.
Sam felt as ridiculous in her new attire as she was sure Danny did in his. While she was normally used to her tighter, dark clothing, she felt like she was swimming in his baggy, bright white T-shirt and blue jeans.
"You guys are good?" Tucker yelled.
"Yup!" Danny called back.
"Hang on!" Tucker said, rushing over to them with a speed he hadn’t even reserved for gym class. As soon as he caught sight of them, he burst into laughter. "Oh, man! Oh my god, I gotta get a picture of this!"
"Tucker!" Sam stomped her floppy red feet. "Danny's doing me a solid right now!"
Tucker ignored her, pulling out his phone and not being subtle about the way he'd begun pointing it directly at the two of them. "I know I said I wanted to see you in a skater skirt, dude, but I never thought it'd actually come true!"
Danny took it in stride, putting one hand on the back of his hair and the other on his hip to strike a model pose. "As I said: Sam steals my style, I'm taking hers!"
That sent Tucker into another fit of giggles.
"You're sure about this?" Sam asked, watching as Danny bent down to lace his combat boots.
"Totally!" He gave her a cheesy smile from his crouched position. "I got this! You go get Ember!"
"Right!" Sam touched her core, and this time the transformation washed over her with easy familiarity. At once, her body felt light as gravity became optional, and she levitated into the air, inhaling a deep breath despite being keenly aware that she didn't really need to anymore.
Her aura settled around her skin as her veins became rich with ectoplasmic power, and when she opened her eyes to give one last look to her friends, she did so with determination in her eyes.
"Okay, I'm ready."
"Hell yeah, you are," Tucker agreed.
"You got this!" Danny said.
She nodded to them both once more and then took off, shooting down the alley and swooping up into the sky. She climbed the air high until she spotted Ember's rapidly growing crowd, and then with acrobatic ease, dived down in the direction of Ember's glowing figure.
As she approached, the crowd that hadn't seemed too large from the sky suddenly looked much more intimidating up close. She stopped above them, surveying the sea of chanting faces.
"Ember! Ember!"
No one had noticed Sam yet, too entranced by Ember’s spell. And there was Ember herself at the center of the crowd, twirling to wave to the crowds all around her.
"Thank you, everyone! Thank you!"
"Ember! Ember!"
This wasn't good. If they fought here, Ember would have a never-ending energy supply from the crowd's chanting. Like most ghosts, fighting Ember was a battle of endurance, and here, Ember could endure for hours. Meanwhile, Sam...had no idea what her limits were.
She probably couldn't last that long, based on Danny's early fights.
So, Sam needed to get Ember away from her adoring fans. But how?
The first time Danny had to fight Ember, they used Tucker's ear-bleeding singing voice to snap the crowd out of their hypnosis. And...she'd left Tucker in the alley.
Shit!
Okay, so she couldn't use Tucker. Turning invisible, she flew lower, scanning the crowd to see if there was anyone else she recognized who probably had an equally terrible singing voice.
And... there! Perfect.
Ember's back was still to Sam, and she was still too distracted by her narcissism to notice Sam creeping forward, at first slowly, closer and closer until she was just fifteen feet away from Ember.
And that's when Sam saw it—Ember's shoulders stiffened. She'd noticed the chill of Sam's aura, and so before Sam could think, she shot forward, ripping the microphone from its stand at the same time as Ember whirled around.
Sam regained visibility and darted back triumphantly, a whoop at her lips.
"You—" Ember stopped, her fierce brows melting into an expression of pure confusion. "Wait, you're not the dipstick!"
Sam didn't respond, instead flying down to greet her future savior: Kwan.
"Do you love Ember?" she yelled into the mic and then held it to Kwan's face.
"Yeah I do!" Kwan answered.
Behind him, the crowd roared in approval.
Ember's face pinched in confusion.
"So why don't you show us how much you love her by singing one of her songs?"
Kwan snatched the microphone from Sam's fingers, his eagerness overtaking all sense of reason. At the same time, still in the center of the crowd was Ember, who—based on her shifting facial expression—was just now catching up to Sam's master plan.
But she was too late. Because as soon as Kwan opened his mouth, Sam had already won.
"Ember! You will remember!"
If Sam Googled the definition of tone-deaf, she was pretty sure Kwan's name would appear as the first entry. For as athletically inclined and blessed with powerlifting genetics as the teenager was, his musical skills were....well, not even lacking, they were nonexistent. It was as if Kwan had never tried to sing before in his life. But, either through Ember's spell, his general affinity to being a total airhead, or a combination of both, he was so invested in belting out every approximation to a note that he could muster that he didn't notice the instantly dulled crowd around him as people began snapping out of their hypnosis.
"What happened?" a girl muttered nearby.
"Why does my head hurt?" a boy said.
"Ugh, what's that awful sound?"
"Ember! One thing remains!"
“I think that boy is dying.”
“Should someone call an ambulance?”
"No!" Ember screeched, her legs disappearing into a ghost tail as she abandoned all pretense of acting human and clawed at Kwan.
Sam raised a hand and blasted her away.
Ember recovered swiftly, pulling up midair and grabbing her guitar off her back. "You!" she bellowed, and then strummed a note, sending shockwaves crashing into the crowd that Sam couldn't dodge.
"Ah!" Sam was forced to kneel under the pressure of the soundwaves. Around her, people screamed.
She activated her ice and used it to push her body upright. Gripping onto one ice tower for support, she raised her other hand and sent a blast of ice Ember's way.
Ember dodged smoothly, but the movement had taken her hand off her guitar, and thus interrupted her torturous playing.
Sam steadied herself with the reprieve. Beside her, Kwan groaned, now waking up too after Ember’s attack.
"Ugh…where am I?"
"Don't worry about it," Sam hissed. Then she spun around, grabbing the microphone from Kwan's hand to address the crowd. "Attention everyone! The ghost Ember is targeting this area! Go home or run to a safe zone!"
"You little twerp!" Ember screeched from above.
Meanwhile, the crowd was looking at her blankly.
"Wait...since when is Phantom a girl?" Kwan asked.
Ah. That would be why.
Sighing, she raised the microphone back to her lips. "Yes, everyone, I'm Phantom's...sister. Yup, I'm his sister! He's, uh, on vacation right now and asked me to cover for him! Hello, nice to meet you all. Now please RUN!"
And with that, the crowd took off, running in every which direction. It was chaos, but the people were leaving and that's what Sam wanted.
She dropped the microphone and turned around to face her foe. "Hey, Ember!" she called, her voice catty.
"You're not Phantom's sister. Who the hell are you?"
Sam floated into the air until she was at eye-level with the rocker ghost. "I'm Sam! Remember me? I'm Danny's best friend."
"I thought the geeky weirdo nerd was his best friend."
"I'm the other best friend!"
It took a moment before recognition dawned on her features. Her green eyes widened, and the blue flames on her hair somehow sharpened as she leaned forward, eyes narrowing and lips curving into a smile as she said, "Ooh, I remember you. You were the one who ruined my debut!"
Sensing the challenge, Sam flared her aura in kind. "That's right! Now I've returned."
“Since when were you a ghost?”
“Don’t worry about it!”
"I’m not. I'm gonna make you pay, dipstick number two!"
Ember raised her purple pick to strum just as Sam hoisted her glowing hand up. The two released their powers simultaneously and their energies clashed in midair, sending ectoplasm and sonic booms crashing all around.
Below them, people screamed and ducked down, cowering as the blasts showered over them.
Sam blanched, but barely had time to take in the damage before she saw Ember's hand raised again, her guitar poised for another attack.
"Shit!" Sam raised both hands this time, pushing more energy into the countering blast. But she missed, and Ember's wave hit her like a semi truck.
She was catapulted down, slamming onto the pavement which cracked under her. Pain blossomed on her head, and she thought her vision may have flickered for a second.
But while this kind of injury would have certainly sent her to the emergency room as a human, as a ghost, all she could feel was the adrenaline pumping through her veins. She rolled over and shot out to the side, narrowly dodging Ember's next attack. The edges of the sonic blast still hit her, but she was able to push through the pressure and climb back into the air.
She couldn't fight Ember here. Not so close to all these people.
When Ember raised her hand again, grinning wickedly, Sam shot a blast of ice over to her. Though this time, aiming for the strings of her guitar.
It was a risk, but it paid off. The ice met its mark milliseconds before Ember's pick landed, and at once, the guitar strings were covered in a layer of ice.
Sam laughed. "It's my first day as a ghost, did I forget to mention that? How does it feel to be beaten by a newbie?"
Ember's face darkened, cheeks flushing with green. "Why you little asshole!"
"Oh yeah?" Sam goaded. "Why don't you say that to my face?"
Without waiting for a reply, Sam took off in the other direction. She had the thermos, but Ember wasn't weak enough yet for it to trap her inside. Sam had to wear her down first.
"Get back here!" Ember shouted, but Sam paid no heed, racing down the street and twisting between buildings.
The wind whipped across her body, stinging her exposed cheeks. Cold tears welled at the corners of her eyes, but she made no move to wipe them away. Ember was gaining on her. She needed to fly faster, fly faster.
She pushed her core more until it was at its limits. Street signs, LED lights, and the shapes of people blurred into one. She'd never moved this fast in her life, and like driving down an icy road, she could feel her control slowly slipping away. Panicked, she called forth her intangibility.
Fatigue was beginning to bubble in her chest, but she batted it away. It was too early. She couldn't give up yet.
Ember screamed behind her, hurling fire from her hair. It licked Sam's spectral tail, and she yelped, rolling sideways and narrowly avoiding the brunt of the attack.
She shot down an alley and out the other side into a residential neighborhood. Looking around, she didn't see anyone out and about nearby.
Perfect.
She stopped in the air and whipped around just in time to see Ember throw another fire blast her way.
Sam raised her hands, forming an ice shield. The fire melted it instantly, and she tried to form another, but she wasn't quick enough.
"Shit!" Sam yelled, ducking down as the fire sailed over her head. She could feel the heat singe the tip of her ponytail. Too close.
"That's right! Cower, dipstick! Just lie down and give up!"
Sam straightened, firing another ectoblast back at Ember, who dodged it by a hair's breadth. "The only person cowering here is you, hiding behind all those fake fans!"
Ember glared, her eyes burning with rage. "They're my fans and you took them from me!"
"You hypnotized them! They were never your fans to begin with!" Then she paused. "Well, Tucker might have been your fan anyway, but still!"
That didn't seem to quell Ember's rage, who sent a gust of fire that Sam only barely had time to counter with a blast of ice.
"Just admit it! You've lost!" Sam said. "So why don't you pack up and go home?"
"I can still get them back!"
Sam had to refrain from rolling her eyes hard enough to send them flying off her skull. "No, you can't. I won't let you!"
"Like you're the boss of me!" Ember geared up to shoot more fire at Sam, but then out of seemingly nowhere, a blast of green nailed her shoulder.
Sam spun around, the question dying from her lips the moment she saw who was behind her.
Tucker stumbled out from between two houses. He coughed, half hunched over from panting so hard, half cheering with a single-raised fist. "Booya!" he gasped, sucking in air in between each word. "And that's...what I...like...to call...a sneak attack."
And with that, he collapsed on the ground in a sweating heap of gaudy orange and yellow clothing.
"Tucker!" Sam shouted, reaching out as if to save him.
"Who?" Ember asked.
"Sam!" came another voice from Tucker's hiding place, this one filling her with relief.
Well, until he stepped out into view and she remembered how entirely ridiculous he looked in her black skater skirt, purple leggings, and black crop top.
She grinned. "Danny!"
"I'm all good!" Tucker craned his head up from the sidewalk. "Don't...don't worry about me! I'm gucci here!"
"I'm so glad my mom didn't kidnap and murder you!" Sam said.
Danny smiled mischievously. "Your mom spotted me as planned, and then I ran in the other direction. Managed to shake her off somewhere between Elmer's Park and the Nasty Burger. As far as she's aware, we got out of downtown safely! Though, she might ground you later for ignoring her when she was following you."
"She was....so fast..."
"And persistent," Danny added.
"That...too..."
Sam face-palmed. "Oh man, I'm so grounded later."
"Yup! You are." Danny said, seeming far too cheery for the torturous news he'd just delivered to Sam.
"Okay, okay. Pause." Ember held up her hands in the universal time-out gesture. "What the fuck is going on here, exactly?"
"Oh, hey, Ember!" Danny said as if noticing her for the first time. "How's it hanging?"
"How's it hanging?" Ember guffawed. She pointed to Sam. "Well, your sister just ruined my evening, so pretty shit, actually."
Danny didn't look at all remorseful as he responded, "Oh, bummer! Well, I'll just have to let this supposed-sister handle the rest of it. As you can tell, I'm really not dressed for the ghost-fighting occasion!"
He turned to Sam, offering her a thumbs-up as he said, "You got this!"
Sam smirked, folded her arms, and turned back to Ember. "Yeah, I do got this."
"For sure!" Tucker added, though he still sounded far too on the verge of passing out to offer any sort of confidence.
"So, Ember, you wanna go for round two?" Sam asked.
Ember blinked, gaze swiveling between Sam and Danny, and then again, before she threw her hands up and cried, "No, seriously, what the fuck?"
"I ask myself that same question every day," Tucker said.
"It's called an outfit swap!" Danny said, sweeping his hands over his outfit. "It's all the rage with us teens nowadays."
"You look fucking insane, you know," Ember said.
"You mean I look gorgeous."
"I didn't."
"I think Sam pulls off the ghost look pretty well, though. Don't you think?" Danny asked.
"It's totally goth," Sam agreed, flipping her hair over her shoulder. Then, summoning some ectoplasmic energy to her palms, she added, "I think the green really suits me, too."
"It does!" Danny said.
"I'm so confused."
"Aren't we all?" Tucker said.
"You know what? No." Ember threw her hands up. "Nope! Fuck this shit. Listen, I don't know what the hell is going on, but I refused to be sucked into your weirdo shenanigans tonight. I'm out of here!"
Sam's brows raised in shock. Was confusing Ember really all it took to get her to go back to the Ghost Zone? "You're being for real?" she asked.
"Yup!" Ember pivoted around until her back was to the trio. "I'm going back to the Zone. I'm tired. See ya!"
And with that, she disappeared.
The three of them waited a heartbeat, and then another. But then, Sam felt it: the telltale coolness of her chest receding as her ghost sense ceased detecting Ember around her.
Tucker struggled to his feet. "Are we sure she's actually going to the Ghost Zone?"
"Yeah, she will," Danny said, unconcerned. "When she gives you that look, you know she's over it."
"Wow, congrats then, Sam. You beat Ember!"
Celebratory giddiness washed over her, and she didn't try to fight the smile that overtook her lips. "Wow. Yeah, guys, I did it! I beat Ember!"
Above them, a window slid open. Then, a voice boomed out into the open air, filling the street with a cry so insane, that Sam could have sworn her head exploded right then and there.
"WHOA! PHANTOM! IS THAT YOU?"
Danny cringed, ducking down into his hands while Sam plastered a smile on her face and turned around to meet who could easily turn into her greatest foe of the evening: Dash Baxter.
"Uh, hi," Sam said.
He gasped and leaned so far, he nearly fell out his window. "IT IS YOU! MY WISH CAME TRUE!"
"Your...wish?" Sam asked.
"YEAH! I WISHED PHANTOM WAS A HOT CHICK INSTEAD OF BEING A DUDE, AND THEN BA-BAM! YOU TURNED INTO A HOT CHICK!"
Below them, Tucker guffawed. Thankfully, Dash seemed too preoccupied in his fanboying to notice.
"I CAN'T BELIEVE MY WISH CAME TRUE! THANK GOD! IT WAS TOO WEIRD CRUSHING ON A DUDE, YOU KNOW?"
Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Danny slowly make his way back between the houses and, thankfully, out of Dash's eyeline.
For as exhausted as Tucker was, he quickly followed suit.
"Well...um...thanks? I guess?" Sam looked around as if to plan her escape. But unfortunately, she couldn't see one. It would have been so much easier if Ember had lied and instead of returning to the Ghost Zone, tried to attack her right here and now. That might have been preferable to whatever the hell was happening in front of her.
When the silence turned from awkward to entirely painful, Sam jabbed her thumb over her shoulder and said, "Uh, I'm gonna go now."
"WAIT!"
"What?" Sam asked, internally admonishing herself for responding.
"WILL YOU BE MY GHOST GIRLFRIEND?"
She heard a choke of laughter sound from behind the house, and she shot a glare to the two idiots in hiding.
"Thanks for asking, but...sorry, I have to say no. I'm very busy fighting ghosts, you know."
Dash nodded with more empathy in his eyes than Sam had ever seen him display in his life. "I UNDERSTAND. THANKS ANYWAY AND ENJOY THE TITS!"
Sam would have loved to say that she maintained Phantom's pristine people-pleasing image by giving grace to every single citizen no matter what.
But, of course, Dash was a fucking moron. And as far as Sam was concerned, morons like him deserved to have their face punched in every once in a while.
So, shaking the bruise from her knuckles, she rejoined her friends. Danny's face was beet red, while Tucker, on the other hand, was wheezing laughing so hard, his airy gasps of, "I'm going to piss myself" took about five tries to sound intelligible.
"No funny, Tucker!" Sam glared.
"Are you kidding?" His eyes were wet with tears. "That was hilarious! Dash has a crush on both of you! Oh my god, that was the single greatest thing to ever happen in my life!"
Danny fell to his knees and raked his fingers over his face. "I'm never living this down, am I?"
"Never!" Tucker howled.
"I want to go back to a time where I never had to hear Dash speak," Sam mourned, then she flexed her fists, brightening slightly. "Though, punching him felt pretty cathartic!"
"Wish that were me," Danny bemoaned.
"He'll probably blame you for it anyway, so consider it done."
Tucker doubled over, rasping in uncontrollable laughter all over again. "Oh man, and you punched him! You actually punched him!"
"Hell yeah I did." Her eyes glinted over to Danny, who was still growing redder by the second. "Call that payback for getting me grounded."
"Fair," he said.
"I can't fucking believe you punched him, and that he has the hots for y'all—this is the greatest day of my LIFE"
"Yeah, yeah, laugh it up!"
"You know," Sam said, cutting the boys off, "at least we learned something."
" Yeah, we did," Tucker giggled, clearly not thinking along the same lines as her.
Sam zapped him with her finger and ignored his subsequent yelp, continuing, "We learned that he wished for you to change! I bet you anything Desiree was the cause of this."
Danny perked up. "Wait, you're right! If Dash wished this, that definitely means Desiree was involved."
"So, what? We just find her and wish ourselves back to normal again?" Tucker asked.
That was, in fact, exactly what it meant.
The trio searched high and low for any unusual wishes that had come to light, but unfortunately for them, it seemed that Desiree had practiced laying on the down-low since her last escapade into the Human Realm. That also meant she was incredibly difficult to find.
So difficult, in fact, that despite searching for her for another two hours and Sam receiving a text from her mom stating that if Sam didn't get her ass home right now, missy, then the cops were going to be called, they didn't actually find a single wisp of Desiree at all.
Well, not until in a moment of complete and utter exasperation, did Tucker throw in the metaphorical towel and shout into the air, "Ugh! Where is she? I wish Desiree would just show herself already so we could finally go home!"
The wind picked up, and a transcendental feminine voice graced the air, saying, "And so you have wished it, and so it shall be...."
Danny—now back in his normal attire—stared dumbstruck at Tucker. "I can't believe none of us thought of that earlier."
"Oh my god, guys, we're idiots," he agreed.
Sam could do little more than nod numbly as stray leaves and twigs gathered gently in the air, spiraling until the graceful form of Desiree, dressed in her blue and purple Persian attire, appeared before them. Her thick, black hair flowed down her back, fading at the ends midway down her spectral tail. She raised a silver-bangled hand, her glowing green skin standing out in the night air, and said, "Hello, you three. I had a feeling I would be seeing you soon."
"Yeah, you think?" Danny asked. "What gives?"
"I was merely granting a wish." Her red eyes trailed over to Sam, hovering at the ready just in case. "Though, it seems that you've already caught on."
"You could say that," Sam answered.
Desiree clasped her hands together, looking almost like a ballerina as she did so. "I'm assuming you would like me to set you right again?"
"Yes," Danny said readily.
"Please. I'm so tired," Tucker agreed.
Sam tilted her head. Despite the rocky start to her day, she'd done pretty damn well as a halfa if she did say so herself. And now that she was starting to get the hang of these ghost powers, they were very fun.
But in fairness, they weren't really her ghost powers to begin with. As fun as they were to borrow for the day, she knew she had to return them to their rightful owner. Even if it pained her to do so.
"Alright," she relented. "You can take them back. It's not like I'm going to be able to use them with how grounded I'm about to be, anyway."
"I'd be surprised if your mom didn't put surveillance in your room after this," Tucker said.
Yeah, she'd be surprised too.
Danny stepped forward, head held high as he commanded, "I wish my ghost core was back in my body!"
"So you have wished it, so it shall be!"
The air picked up around them, and Sam felt her body rise as an invisible blanket gently wrapped itself around her and hoisted her into the air. Her aura glowed like a thousand lightning bugs illuminating at once, and she shut her eyes, letting it take over. The core in her chest stirred, and her body was plunged into a snowstorm as it seemed to expand, growing stronger, stronger, until Sam was sure it would burst. But just before it became unbearable, like a marionette on a string, it was gently guided from her chest.
She gasped, her breath freezing in her lungs as the glowing orb of pure ectoplasmic energy exited her body. Her eyes flew open, and she watched as it slowly drifted to Danny who was floating across the way.
As soon as it entered his body, she felt the liquid ice that had been a constant in her veins since she'd woken up begin to recede as her enshrouding aura began to pull toward Danny. As the last strands of it left her fingertips, she was tenderly lowered to the ground.
Heat rushed into Sam’s body, filling in the gaps where the chill had abandoned her. A shiver crawled up her spine, and then her body settled, the heat dispersing around her torso, spreading out to the tips of her fingers and toes. It felt…strangely right, somehow, even as her chest was missing that persistent core.
There was a moment of silence where the world seemed to hold its breath, and then Danny raised a timid hand to his chest, and a grin spread across his lips. “I’m back.”
“Thank fuck!” Tucker cheered. “Now I can finally go home and sleep!”
“Congrats, Danny.” Sam offered a small smile, flexing her now-human fingers. Without the cold, all her bruises were beginning to hurt. At least the one on her knuckles was for a good cause.
“Thanks for keeping this safe for me,” Danny said.
“No problem.”
Desiree brushed the invisible dirt off her clothing. “Well, now that my work is done, I assume I’ll be off.”
“To the Ghost Zone, right?” Danny flashed his eyes at her.
It was a challenge, of course, that she picked up on instantly, giving a wry smile in return. “But of course.”
Danny insisted on accompanying her to the portal, which while he claimed was only because he wanted to be polite, Sam knew fully well was because he didn't trust her as far as he could throw her, even if their relationship had improved since their first few encounters. But true to her word, Desiree took the directive with grace, going through the portal to the Ghost Zone with little more than the tilt of her head Sam's way.
They watched the swirling green fizzle out from where Desiree had left them, and with a final sigh, Danny closed the portal doors behind her.
Tucker nearly slumped over his chair. "Oh, thank god. I thought this day was never going to end."
"Right?" Sam yawned, fatigue washing over her. "I'm beat."
"Well, at least you don't have to worry about not having the ghost powers anymore. 'Cause after this, your mom is definitely going to kill you."
Her stomach dropped. "Oh, fuck. I'd forgotten about that."
"At least you won't have to feel Dash's disappointment at being punched by his hero tomorrow." Danny slumped over.
"You could punch him too, you know. There's nothing stopping you," Sam pointed out.
Where she thought he would argue with her, he just tilted his head, as if weighing the options. "You know," he started, speaking slow. "I guess...yeah, I mean, I could punch him. It's not like I haven't already gotten enough detentions. One more wouldn't hurt. Or, do you think they'd suspend me?"
"Are you kidding?" Tucker snorted. "Dale and Austin were swinging at each other last week and they were sent back to class an hour later."
"Fair point."
"Alright, I better go home before my mom calls SWAT. Danny?"
"On it!" Danny sauntered over to them both, transforming. "Let’s get you guys back home."
"I've never heard such sweet words come out of your mouth before," Tucker said.
"Oh, shut up."
Sam wrapped her arm around his cold body, and instead of the ominous chill she normally felt around ghosts—even Danny, though she'd never tell him—this time, it felt oddly familiar. Comforting, even.
"I did pretty good today, admit it." She smirked at him.
"Don't get cocky now." He returned the grin and took off into the air. This time when he turned invisible and intangible to shoot through the basement, it was almost nostalgic to her skin. And when the air rushed over her face, she felt herself preen like a peacock in its gusts.
"But yes," Danny said, leaning into her once they leveled out over the air. "You did awesome."
She already knew she had, but the validation still made her feel warm all the same.
Well, until she had to step through her front door, at which point the click of a high heel and a screeching "SAMANTHA EMILY MANSON" pierced her ears.
And thus, her second death of the day commenced.
[Artwork done by @blonchie on Tumblr]