Chapter Text
They heard it before his ghost sense even went off. The screaming and loud explosions were much more noticeable than the cold fog that came out of Danny's mouth. The trio looked between each other before running to an alleyway close by so Danny could transform. At least they weren't busy for once. They really weren't very good at coming up with excuses. As his friends looked for their weapons in their backpacks, Danny flew up to try and spot the fight. The bright green explosions and loud shouting were coming from a few streets away but what really caught his eye was the glowing being that was running away from them. The ghost sharply turned a corner and hid behind the building, clearly trying to catch their breath. But ghosts don't need to catch their breath so what were they doing? Danny glanced down at his friends and, after seeing they were almost ready, flew off.
Ignoring the explosions for now, he rushed to the ghost still breathing heavily as it hid. He couldn't see much of the ghost from where he was, but it was definitely a new one. Which was odd considering he'd been doing this for 3 years now. When he finally reached the ghost, they were looking around the corner cautiously. Yeah, they were definitely involved. “Hey, are you OK?” At first, the ghost just glanced back and then ignored him but then their head snapped back to Danny and they jumped back, falling to the floor.
Now Danny could actually see the ghost, he noticed they looked very similar to him. Sort of. They wore a skintight black jumpsuit and white gloves, their hair was stark white and they had a very human skin tone but then the similarities stopped. Wrapped around their shoulders, the ghost had a hooded long white cape with a black lining and their white hair was long and tied back in a low pony tail. The bottom half of their face was covered by a black cloth that seemed to come from their cape and their eyes were hidden by black goggles. Their suit had a white belt around the middle with a few pouches attached and a few empty holsters on their legs. Overall, they looked like an upgraded version of Phantom.
The older ghost stared up at Danny for a moment before finally talking. “Holy shit! How? You- You're-” the ghost composed themselves quickly and shook their head in disbelief, “You're Phantom, right?” Danny put his hands on his hips, feeling very proud of himself. After all, if a ghost he'd never even heard of before knew who he was then that must be a good thing. Or a bad thing. A very bad thing. “Yep, the one and only.” The ghost chuckled a little, Danny wasn't really sure why but he was happy the ghost finally seemed to relax and catch their breath from running and being spooked. An explosion suddenly brought them back to the matter at hand. They jumped up and quickly started talking. “I need your help. Skulker is chasing me and my powers aren't working properly; I can barely float!” Danny's eyes widened as he finally noticed how small the ghost's glow was. He was about to ask why when they were cut off by an ectoblast landing behind them.
Skulker quickly appeared from around the building and looked around before spotting the two ghosts. He grinned menacingly and turned a cannon towards them, charging it up. The ghost grabbed Danny's arm and lifted their other hand up. As the blast was shot, it hit a shield just in front of them. When the beam finally stopped, the ghost let go of the shield and turned completely to shoot their own powerful ectoblast with both hands. It hit the arm that Skulker had fired with and cut straight through.
Danny stared dumbfounded as the metal arm landed on the ground with a loud thud and Skulker roared as he grabbed at where the limb had been. “I thought you said you're powers weren't working?!” Danny looked back at the strange ghost to see them bent over on the ground, their breathing heavy and desperate. The ghost looked up at Skulker but didn't turn to Danny as they spoke. “They aren't. I took some of your ectoplasm to give myself enough power. Usually, stuff like that is pretty easy.” They finally looked away and grabbed Danny's arm again. He thought they were going to use his energy to finish Skulker off but was pleasantly surprised when he was pulled up to the sky as the ghost floated higher.
It was obvious they weren't doing well. They stopped and staggered every now and then as they flew up, to the point Danny was afraid they'd start falling. Eventually, they stopped going higher and stayed floating in the air. As soon as they stopped, the ghost started talking again. “You got something to catch him with?” Danny nodded as he took his Fenton thermos from his belt to show them. The ghost gave a small nod of confirmation before continuing. “I'm gonna distract him. You get a shot powerful enough to blast his head off then grab him. I'll tell you when to fire.” The ghost went to fly off again but Danny grabbed them before they could. “Hold on. I'm not letting you get blasted when you can barely fly. Let me handle this.” This ghost was insane if they thought he was just going to let them become target practice for Skulker. The ghost glanced at Skulker for a second before going back to Danny. “Don't worry about me. I'm pretty good at annoying people into being a bad shot,” the two shared a small laugh, “Besides, the longer I'm in Amity, the better I'll get.” Danny didn't get a chance to question them about that statement as they flew off back down to Skulker. And sure enough, they were steadier and faster than they were a few seconds ago.
He watched as the ghost dodged Skulker's attacks for a moment before joining the fight. They traded blows as Danny shot Skulker with ectoblasts and the other ghost (he should really learn their name, especially for the writer's sake) dodged and weaved around their blasts. Every time Skulker's attention went to Danny, the other would kick and punch or otherwise antagonise the hunter into focusing on them. Just as they had said, the longer the fight went, the stronger they seemed to be getting. At some point, they had gathered enough energy to shoot back their own blasts and if Danny wasn't otherwise occupied, he probably would have been worried. For a ghost that had barely been able to fly minutes ago, they were incredibly strong. It was almost scary. At least they were on the same side? Hopefully?
People started to gather at the side of the fight because apparently three ghosts shooting powerful explosions from their hands wasn't enough of a deterrent. Danny spotted his friends run into the street from an alleyway, their weapons at the ready. Sam spotted them first and quickly grabbed the back of Tucker's shirt who was staring at his PDA as he almost ran face first into an ectoblast. Danny flew to them, figuring the other ghost could handle themselves for a bit. “Who the hell is that?” Sam gestured to the new ghost. “I don't know. Some new ghost Skulker is hunting. Their powers weren't working.” Tucker raised an eyebrow and looked around Danny to see the ghost shoot a blast strong enough to make Skulker stagger back. “Well, they seem fine now.”
Suddenly, Skulker caught sight of them and turned to fire at them. Before Danny could even grab his friends and fly off, the weakened ghost landed in front of them and fired their own beam back. It didn't seem like a normal ectoblast though as it glowed bright blue. As the blasts met in the air, there was barely a battle as the blue beam pushed Skulker's back until it met the ghost. As soon as it touched him, ice started to grow around Skulker's arm and spread over the rest of his body until the ghost was completely frozen in place.
“Holy shit!”
The new ghost turned around to them before the ice had even stopped spreading and pushed their goggles up onto their forehead, their glowing green eyes looking between the shocked teenagers before talking to Danny. “First of all, language. Second, these your friends? I can get them out of here while you fight Skulker-” “Hey! We're not going anywhere.” Sam interrupted loudly and Tucker crossed his arms as they stared defiantly at the ghost. The ghost stared at them and a tension grew between them. For a moment, Danny thought he'd have to fight for his friends to stay but then they nodded. “Fine.” They turned to Danny. “Start charging a blast, now. The ice won't hold for long and we need something strong enough to go straight through Skulker.” Danny started charging a shot as soon as they went back to Sam and Tucker but tried his best to keep listening. “You two are on ground control. Keep people away. I don't want anyone getting hurt. If Skulker gets near then fire at will. If everyone's gone and the fights still going, then take pot shots but don't get too close and try not to draw too much attention.” They turned back to Skulker as they heard the ice begin to crack. Their hands began glowing bright blue and their eyes focused on the hunter. “As soon as the ice breaks, fire at his head, he should be disoriented enough not to dodge but if he does, charge another one and fire as soon as you have enough power. Swoop in and grab Skulker and I'll destroy his suit then use the thermos on him.” The cracking ice started to get louder and large cracks could be seen along the surface. Danny looked up from where he was focusing on building up his blast and stared questioningly at the ghost. “How are you going to do that? You needed to borrow my power last time.” The ghost glanced at him out the corner of their eye and they seemed to smirk under their mask. Suddenly, a bright flash appeared and disappeared at their hands. Ice began to crawl over their arms. It kept growing until two weapons replaced their hands. A large icicle and battle axe. “I'll make do.”
Skulker broke through the ice with a loud angry roar. The ice shot out everywhere but melted before it hit anyone. Sam and Tucker were already gone by the time Danny had fired. Skulker brought up a hand and blasted a shot that diverted the beam until it dissolved. “HA! You thought some ice would stop the greatest hunter in all the realms!” Danny's eyes widened and looked to the other ghost. How had that not been enough?! “Don't worry.” The other ghost was looking at Danny as their gaze softened and they reassured him. “Try again. You've got this.” And just like that they charged at Skulker and slashed at the ghost with the axe.
While the ice ghost distracted Skulker, Danny charged up another blast. Clearly, he needed it stronger. Danny kept an eye on the battle as he stayed focused on building more energy. The new ghost was good; like, really good. They dodged blows and shots as easily as they gave them back. They were terrifyingly powerful. How had he never seen them before? Why had no one ever mentioned them? Especially now he was learning to control his ice powers. Surely, Frostbite would have heard of them. Something just didn't seem right.
The ghost slashed at Skulker's leg, causing him to stumble a bit but it was enough. They swiped their leg under Skulker and, as the giant ghost fell over, they flattened themselves to the ground. The weapons on their hands melted away and they fired an ectoblast that shot Skulker into the air. Danny watched as Skulker went soaring through the air only to stop himself from floating higher and looking down with a glare at the ghost still on the ground.
Perfect.
Without warning, Danny fired. The ectoblast hit Skulker in the head, destroying the helmet. Danny followed his shot and once he was over the headless ghost, who was waving his arm about trying to hit anyone who got too close, he shoved his hand in the hole where the head had been and grabbed the small green ghost out of the suit. “I AM SKULKER! THE GREATEST HUNTER IN THE WORLD! PUT ME DOWN!”
The suit fell to the ground and the other ghost got up. Forming a huge hammer in their hands, they destroyed the suit in one hit. As Danny opened the thermos and sucked Skulker and his suit into it, the ice ghost fell to the ground. They rolled over and closed their eyes. “I thought ghosts didn't get tired?” They opened their eyes to see Danny floating just above them, his arms crossed and smirk on his face. “Sure they do. A ghost can get low on ectoplasm if they use to much. It's why they usually stay in the zone or Amity because there's so much ectoplasm they don't really run out and Amity has so many natural portals that background ectoplasm is much stronger here than anywhere else. It's also why halfas are so strong. They get energy from ectoplasm and their human half.” Danny was taken aback. He'd learnt more about ghosts and halfas from this random half-conscious stranger in the last 10 seconds than in the whole time he's been living with ghost experts. Well, self-proclaimed ghost experts.
The ghost had closed their eyes at some point as Danny processed. If what they said was true then Danny should have tons of energy. After all, he gets energy from ectoplasm and his human half. But most of the time, Danny was less conscious than this guy was. He rolled his eyes. “Right. If you say so.” They opened their eyes again and brought a hand up to pull down the mask. They raised an eyebrow and gave a smug smirk full of sharp teeth. “Of course, the halfa has to look after their human side. Get enough sleep, eat well, that sort of thing.”
“Oh...” Danny floated away a bit and looked to the side, feeling a lot less smug.
They let their arm fall beside them and let out a sigh as they closed their eyes again. “Ancients, I've not rested my human half in so long.” Danny looked back at the ghost- the halfa as they laid there like they hadn't just blown Danny's mind.
Before he could say anything, the Fenton RV came speeding around the corner towards them. The halfa on the ground groaned as they picked themselves up and lifted their mask back over their mouth. “Well, it was nice fighting with you, kid. See you around.” They went to fly off but Danny quickly stopped them. “Wait! What's your name?” They turned back to Danny and stared at him for a moment, contemplating.
“Silence.”
And they were gone.