Archive of Our Own ^beta

Once he Sam and Tucker started testing Danny’s powers, and actually looking to track what he could do, and how his powers developed over time, they started to notice things. Danny had always suspected that it would be a good idea for him to stay away from hospitals, now that he was half ghost. But when they started doing their own tests they started noticing that Danny human body had changed, and not just his ghost form. He didn’t have a pulse anymore, nor did he need to breathe. Sam and Tucker were convinced that it didn’t mean anything, that it was probably just a quirk of his powers, refusing to even consider that it could mean something more. After all Danny was still walking around, talking attending classes, so he had to be alive, simple as that, he wouldn’t still have his human form if he wasn’t.

Danny had struggled a lot after the accident, being clumsy or just seemingly uncoordinated. At first he was convinced that it was just him struggling with his powers. Most of his instances of being clumsy could be blamed on having problems with intangibility, his hands going intangible while holding something breakable making it look like he dropped it, or one of his feet going intangible for a moment while he was walking making him stumble. But he was sure that it was all from him being half ghost, and once he got a better handle on his powers that those little hick ups would disappear. Unfortunately it didn’t seem like that was the case.

Danny wasn’t as sure that things would go back to normal, once he got a handle of his powers suspecting that more had changed, he thought back to the accident. He had been trying to be careful, he wore the hazmat suit his parents made as an attempt to be safe about it. Danny hadn’t thought that much of going to explore the portal, after all it was just failed invention, nothing to worry about. He ran his hand along the wall as he walked to prevent himself from tripping feeling a chill of the metal through his glove. Only part way through the wall the chill of metal was replaced with the neutral temperature of plastic, which Danny scarcely had a moment to notice the change before his world exploded. The Portal came to life around him. Danny blacked out from the pain, and when he came to he was floating in a void of nothingness, the only thing he could see seemed to be his own unconscious body. In a fit of panic Danny reached out to his body before feeling like he was sucked inside it. Then suddenly he was back in his parents lab, looking like Phantom. Sam and Tucker were panicking, convinced that they’d just killed their best friend, but then the now familiar white rings appeared around him and he looked like Danny Fenton again. He never spoke about it with anyone, but he had always suspected that he’d truly died that day, but he’d never had anything to back that up, and had convinced himself it was his own sense of mortality.

He had started to experience more problems with his body, he was having more accidents dropping things, but instead of it being because of his intangibility acting up, it was because he was having trouble feeling the things he was holding. Well honestly he was having trouble feeling anything anymore. He could still feel it when Dash shoved him against a locker, but anything lighter than that he’d completely lost the ability to feel, at least in human form. It made Dash’s bullying almost comforting, it reminded him that he really was still here, that his body was still somewhat working. So he didn’t need to think about the fact that a more accurate term for his body would likely be to call it his corpse. But as long as Danny was still using it he refused to think of his own body as a corpse.

The lack of feeling hadn’t caused any serious problems for him so far, mostly just restoring his reputation as a klutzy, where he’d bump into things without noticing, or drop things that he couldn’t tell if he’d had a proper grip on. He’d managed to avoid any serious accidents since his experience with the portal, but that luck could only last him so long, and of course the moment that he did finally have a serious accident would have to be when the entire class was watching him.

It was science class, they were covering electricity, covering static electricity and the Van de Graaff effect. Normally all that would mean is that they watching some of their classmates touch the Van de Graaff generator, and have their hair stick out, followed by looking at a bunch of diagrams. That was how the class started at least, a few people had already gone up showing how it could pass through people who were holding hands.

t Then the teacher called Danny up to the front for another demonstration. Danny shifted uncomfortably hands going to the nearly invisible lichtenberg figure scars on his palm. “I don’t know if it’s a good idea for me to do it.” he said hesitantly.

Dash laughed, “Looks like Fenton’s too chicken” he said mockingly “Too scared of a little shock.”

Danny glared, “I’m not chicken” he said getting to his feet storming to the front of the room not wanting to admit how close Dash was to the truth. The memory of his accident playing through his mind, as his most recent hands on experience with electricity.

“Now remember it’s important that you keep your hand on the ball as long as it’s powered on, it’s perfectly safe, but if you try lifting your hand it can give you a nasty shock.”

Danny put his hand on the ball, his hair starting to stand on edge when his eyes flashed green for a moment as the lights in the class flickered. Danny’s hand drifted off the Van de Graff generator as the power cut out not able to feel the difference between touching it and not, the electrical thrum having faded.

Mr. Falluca stood at the front of the class, “Looks like a power surge, everything should be back online in a moment.” as soon as he finished talking the lights came back on. “Ahh there we go, now calm down everyone, and regain your seats.”

Shortly after the lights came on the Van de Graaff generator started to come back to life. It sent out a large spark towards Danny’s hand which was hovering over the ball, blasting him back. He ended up hitting his head against a desk as he went down momentarily knocking himself out. The class exploded into chaos not having expected anything like this to happen.

Mr. Falluca “Somebody go fetch the school nurse.” he said quickly.

Kwan went up to Danny’s side having some training in first aid, wanting to be able to help in case somebody ever got hurt on the football field. “He’s not breathing.”

Half of the class were frozen in their seats at the news horrified at the thought that they had just witnessed one of their classmates die. Danny wasn’t the most popular kid, and he could be a bit of a freak, but nobody had expected for him to die like this. The other half rushed forward, in a combination of morbid curiosity, and disbelief that Kwan could be right, but seeing for themselves that he absolutely was.

A few minutes later Danny slowly blinked his eyes open surprised to find himself on the floor with his whole class surrounding him. “What are you all looking at?” he said slowly sitting up.

“You weren’t breathing” Kwan sputtered watching him.

“I’m fine, honestly, I don’t even feel anything” Danny said laughing at his own private morbid joke. “I’ve had worse anyway” I’m totally fine, I’m not dead.” he insisted. “I’m still here and talking, so I can’t be dead.”

Mr. Falluca frowned slightly, “Daniel, actually you don’t appear to have any pulse.” he said gently.

Danny looked around anxiously, “Don’t worry that’s fine that’s actually totally normal for me.” he said knowing how ridiculous it sounded.

“Human beings have pulses, the only time they don’t is if they’re dead or about to be that way.” Mr Falluca said.

Danny shifted, “Right then I’ll just go run off and see the nurse.” he said getting to his feet. “I’m sure she’ll be able to sort everything out.” he said getting up and running off down the hall, knowing that he was definitely going to be avoiding the nurses’ office, instead changing into Phantom and flying around the city.

The next day everyone in Casper High was talking about how Danny Fenton had died in science class. Of course Danny was running late to class the next day that had only done more to spur the rumour mill. He ran into homeroom, “Sorry for being late, Mr. Lancer.” he said going to his desk hoping that he wouldn’t get another detention.

“Just take a seat, and try not to disturb the class anymore.” Mr. Lancer said with a sigh.

“You’re supposed to be dead.” Wes said seeing Danny.

Danny rolled his eyes, “Wes I know you’ve been trying to claim that I’m Phantom, but me running late for class isn’t exactly a sign that I’m a ghost.”

“No, I mean yesterday, during science you died.” Wes insisted refusing to let it go.

“Come on you seriously think class could kill me that easily?” Danny said. “Nothing that happened yesterday came close to killing me.” he said, it couldn’t after all he was already dead.

“UGH” Wes grit out angrily. “I will get the truth out of you. You can’t hide that you’re a ghost forever, I will prove that I’m right”

“That’s enough Mr. Weston, detention after school today.” Mr. Lancer said. “I’m sure we can all see that Mr. Fenton is just as alive today as he has been all year, and therefore is not a reason to disrupt class.”