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Okay, so maybe she could have found something better to do during her summer vacation, but Sam really wanted to prove to her parents that she didn’t have to rely on their money. Because what were they thinking, using it to make her feel guilty about not complying? She could get money on her own. And unlike other people – she didn’t have to be rich to be happy, so she could just make enough money to buy the few things she needed every once in a while and no longer feel guilty about her parents.
It should have been easy. Especially when her target was to work at the goth store, where they sold books and artifacts that had to do with dark, mystical stuff that actually piqued her interest. But, as it turns out, most people that came to the shop just thought it was all a joke and wanted to look sophisticated or creepy. Some even showed up to get their Halloween costumes ready in advance. Seriously, people had no respect.
Honestly, it should have been different. Because those people lived in Amity Park – a town that constantly got invaded by ghosts! Why would people claim the unnatural wasn’t real and then run away, screaming, from those ectoplasmic beings? Were they just stupid?? Silly question – she knew they were if they showed up to the store and asked her to show them where a book about vampires and Snow-White. Seriously, why would anyone want to read this? Sam read it and it was absolutely scarring for all the wrong reasons.
Frankly, the only good thing about this work (besides getting the money she wanted to prove her parents wrong) was the summoning circles she watched random people do. The owner of the store didn’t mind letting teens and… anyone else do it since it attracted costumers from time to time and didn’t require too much. Plus, the ghosts couldn’t harm anyone or the store from within the circle and they couldn’t escape unless the people let them out, so… there was really no risk there.
So every few days, people would come inside and summon ghosts. The Box Ghost kept on showing up, always boring people with his rants about boxes. Skulker, Ember and Technus were summoned a couple of times as well, their threats filling the air the moment they realized humans interrupted whatever they were doing with their afterlives. Someone even summoned Sidney Poindexter once, which flattered the black and white ghost to the point where he almost begged not to be sent away, back to his lair, or wherever it was he came from.
And then there was Danny Phantom. The ghost that haunted Amity Park all the time and saved it and the people in it from the other ghosts that kept on crossing over through the Ghost Portal that was never shut down for some reason. Honestly, all of their problems would have been solved had someone just… SHUT OFF the inventions. But now that the Fentons were gone, people felt like it would be rude to get rid of their most precious and important invention, meaning the portal stayed, the ghosts kept on coming over to attack the town.
Anyway, Phantom was one of the ghosts that people regularly asked to summon. He was a hero, he was a teenager, he was dead… all things that appealed to other teenagers! And every time he showed up, he looked like he was taken away from something else. One time he was summoned with a toothbrush in his hand, as if he was just brushing his teeth. Sam did NOT look forward to dying and still having to take care of her dead body. Another time he was munching on some cereal when he was brought into the store and at the sudden change of scenery he actually began to choke, which was both alarming and amusing, since… he couldn’t really die from it, could he?
Sometimes, he was really nice. He smiled and joked around with the people who summoned him and engaged in their conversations, answering questions left and right as if he had nothing better to do – which he probably didn’t. But other times, he was closed off and rude, trying to ignore the people and get out of the circle to no avail. During those times, people usually found him a lot scarier since he kept on muttering to himself about having to leave and he shot the circle on the ground uselessly in a hopeless attempt at escaping. Sometimes it was obvious why he was in a hurry – the news showing a ghost fight across town that he was just whisked away from – but other times he just looked stressed out or just plainly annoyed at being rudely summoned away from his daily routine.
But, unlike other ghosts, he never once made a threat against the humans. He always kept his anger in check. It was like he could be extremely irritated, his green eyes flashing, yet he didn’t blame the people too much. Once, after being let out of the circle by a fearful group that summoned him when he was upset, Phantom even waved at them over his shoulder and smiled at Sam before flying off. He was just… weirdly polite towards humans even when he had every reason to be hateful towards them.
And then something weird happened.
A group of kids showed up at the store, just a little younger than Sam, and they went over to the corner where the summoning circles were always done and began to follow the instructions to summon Danny Phantom. Sam, with nothing better to do, watched them curiously from her place behind the counter, her book lowered so she’d be able to focus on what was happening. And to everyone’s surprise, Phantom didn’t show up in the circle.
Instead, a very human and alive teenager popped up from the mist, his black hair messy and crunched up, like it’s been smashed down for hours now. He had a NASA themed pajama set and his eyes were groggy. He looked around, his eyes blinking dazedly at the people gawking at him, and, right before them, his blue eyes widened in alarm and he got onto his feet, his hands flying upwards to tug at his hair.
“Oh, crud.” He muttered and his shoulders slumped.
One of the summoners groaned. “Hey, you’re not Phantom.” He complained and then turned to his friends to try and figure out what went wrong, completely disregarding the way the boy in the circle practically begged them to let him out. Sam rolled her eyes and stepped away from the counter and towards the circle. Wiping a fraction of the circle of chalk, she released the poor guy from his impromptu prison and received a grateful smile from him in return. There was something familiar about it.
When he thanked her, Sam waved her hand dismissively and went back to the counter. “Forget about it.” She said and picked up her book again. “You should be glad they didn’t stop to think about how a summoning circle could summon a human.” She noted and smirked at his nervous laughter. He looked absolutely terrified of the possibility of her asking him about it. “Relax, I don’t care. You can be the overlord of ghosts for all I care – as long as you’re being summoned into that circle and not me, I’m fine.”
The boy blinked at her and then shrugged. “Fair enough.” And he walked out of the store in his pajama.
It happened again about a month later. And then again. And again. Over and over, people tried to summon Phantom and only got the raven-haired teen instead. It was like Phantom put them on hold and brought them someone else to pass the time with, only he was human and usually just walked away without saying too much – not that anyone asked him any questions. They were too busy trying to summon Phantom again.
This one time a group summoned Phantom and ended up with the teen. So they let him go and while the raven-haired human tried to walk towards the door of the store, they tried the summoning again only for the boy to disappear and find himself back in the circle, his brows shooting up and his body frozen before he grumbled something to himself, looking irritated.
“Let me burn this book.” The boy begged Sam once after getting summoned again. He had a white T-shirt with a red circle in the middle, blue jeans and red and white shoes. He looked absolutely normal, but Sam was seriously beginning to question that. Sending the three women standing behind him, reading from the book that had the summoning instructions in it, he scrunched up his nose. “Please, just this once.”
Sam glanced put at the women before shrugging and looking back down at her new book. “Fine. But I’m gonna tell Mr. Palmer that it was all your fault and I expect you to own to that…”
The boy smiled. “Danny.” He introduced himself and Sam hummed. “Danny Fenton.”
She snorted. “Well, maybe that’s why they keep on summoning you – your names are so much alike.” She noted and pretended to ignore his flinch. Seriously, she had to get down to the source of this problem because it intrigued her, unlike most things life had to offer her. “I’m Sam.” She grinned at him for a moment. “And you’re supposed to be dead, considering that’s what the news said about all of the Fentons.”
“O-oh!” Danny jumped at her words and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly. “Y-yeah, I just… Different Fenton, you know? I just… just moved here.” He chuckled a little awkwardly and Sam would have told him he was a terrible liar, but he looked like he really didn’t want to talk about it and after he was dragged to the store for the countless time, she kinda felt bad for him, so she let it go for now. “So… you work here.”
“Mad observation skills.” Sam snorted. “However did you know?” She briefly nudged the nametag attached to her shirt and Danny chuckled sheepishly. “But, you know, if I were you, I’d probably work here to – would save you the need to trek back home every time you’re being summoned.”
He leaned away with a smile, his legs taking a step towards the door. “I’ll… keep that in mind.”
“I’m going – “ Sam looked up at Danny as he appeared in the circle, his eyes blinking at the change in scenery. He looked at the people around him and then at the circle on the floor and up at Sam. She smirked and he lowered his hands until they were right by his sides. Furrowing his brows, Danny hopped from one leg to the other. “Alright, bad timing. Really bad timing.” He announced and the people in the group gawked at him. Seriously, Sam should probably put a warning about how summoning Phantom could result in having this guy over. “Let me out!” He urged the group.
One girl stepped forward and broke the circle, eyeing Danny as he stormed out of the store, running as if there was someone running after him. Sam stared at him through the window for a moment, her brows furrowed in concentration, and then she turned back to look at the quiet TV screen, where Lance Thunder was talking about a ghost fight not too far away, where Danny Phantom just showed up to stop the Lunch Lady.
Her eyes drifted back towards the summoning circle and she frowned as a thought occurred to her. She pressed her lips together and then urged the group to stop their summoning, telling them that Danny Phantom was busy fighting and would not appreciate being summoned right now for their entertainment. At least, that was one reason she believed to be true.
They were sitting together in the store, the two of them just passing the time until the chanting group finished summoning Phantom and ended up with Fenton. Danny briefly glanced at them with this amused look in his eyes, like he couldn’t wait to see their disappointment at failing – so to speak. At least to them it would look like they failed. Sam knew the truth by now, even if she kept it to herself and didn’t even tell Danny about it.
She’s done some reading on the Fentons. The entire family was wiped out by the Wisconsin Ghost a while back in a tragic fight between Phantom and Plasmius. It wasn’t supposed to go this badly, but it did and the reports said an explosion erupted because of Plasmius hitting a pipe line. It burned the family to death. And, the most important part, Danny Fenton didn’t even have a body left behind. Yet he was still declared as dead, since obviously no human could take such a hit. Which seemed awfully convenient to Sam who looked at Danny with a smile.
It's been months since the accident and he looked… fine? He was handling it pretty well considering he wasn’t sulking all alone. Instead, he was out and about, if a little too lonely. He had bad days, when he would snap at her for the simplest things and then apologize weakly, his eyes not meeting hers. And he had good days when he’d mess around with her in the store and even joke with the groups that summoned him, doing tricks and answering their questions with smiles that were actually genuine.
He did avoid talking about his family, always trying to claim he was new in town and didn’t know them despite clearly being Danny Fenton – the youngest Fenton. And when Sam looked at the photo of Danny Fenton in the previous yearbook, she found the same boy, a lot younger, smiling at her awkwardly, as if he wasn’t sure he was in the right place. He was so adorable! Not that she was going to tell him that, but it was true.
Sam blinked back to the present when Danny disappeared before her very eyes only to be seen in the middle of the circle, his eyes glinting mischievously at the upset and confused people before him. “Aw, you were so close. Better luck next time.” Danny said when he was let out, patting the shoulder of the guy closest to him before joining Sam again. He noticed her knowing smirk and hesitated. “What?”
“Nothing.” She looked down at the cards she pulled out when it was obvious he wasn’t going to leave, seeing as he was summoned time and time again by those college students that seemed to not give up on Phantom just yet. Danny didn’t look like he felt like visiting them as Phantom, no matter what. “Wanna read my fortune?”
He grabbed the cards and opened and closed his mouth a few times before snorting. “You mean, read your fortune with those… Dixit cards?” He asked, voice a little uncertain. When Sam nodded, he shrugged and let her choose three cards from the pile. She obliged and watched as he revealed them, putting them on the counted between them. “Alright… well, obviously you’re going to have a LOT of food for dinner. You hungry?” He asked at the sight of the first card, showing a table filled with all kinds of food stretched on it, already eaten.
Staring at him, unimpressed, Sam crossed her arms. “Not really.”
“Moving on!” Danny tilted his head at the next card. It had a boy creating a dove made of clouds while balancing on a ladder that leaned on nothing but air. He smiled. “Oh, I know! You shape your own future, relying on no one.” He looked very proud of what he came up with and Sam fought the urge to roll her eyes at him – that was good. It’s just that he didn’t really have to think too hard to get there, did he? “And this…”
He trailed off at the last card. It showed a libra with a sack of money on one side and a feather on the other. The feather seemed to weigh more and Danny scrunched up his nose, his eyes dancing between the card and Sam thoughtfully. She couldn’t blame him – it was pretty hard to try and understand a person with cards that belonged to a random game. Even Sam had trouble with it most days. And no, she only did it once before to pass the time, thank you. It wasn’t something she did on a daily basic.
Danny’s eyes lit up and he straightened up to look at her. “You see the world differently.” He stated. “So the things that are important to others don’t matter to you as much, like money.” He grinned victoriously. “Huh? What’d you think?”
She rolled her eyes and began to shaffle the cards. “Amazing.” She mocked. “I’m sure you can be a wonderful, fake psychic.” She informed him and Danny nodded, as if agreeing with her joke. What a dork. “Oh, hey, I think they’re giving up.” She said and gestured with her head towards the college students who began to shuffle towards the door, their faces filled with disappointment. A spark of guilt crossed Danny’s face for a moment at that, but he quickly shoved it away and focused on Sam with a strained smile. “Y-you should go now, right?”
“Oh. Uh… yeah.” He didn’t go. Instead, he bit his lip before pulling out his phone. “Hey, wanna give me your number?” He asked and when she stared at him, he blushed a little and rubbed the back of his neck. “I mean, so that you’d be able to tell me when someone else might summon me. T-that’s all.”
“Yeah, sure.” She obliged with a smirk.
Cowering behind the counter, Sam stared at the ghosts – Plasmius and the little, female Phantom – as they argued and fought in the shop. Phantom tried to stop Plasmius as the ghost tried to get to the summoning corner after announcing he was about to summon Phantom and finally deal him once and for all. Sam didn’t like the sound of that, and it looked like the young Phantom didn’t, either.
Danielle Phantom – because why wouldn’t that be her name? – clearly didn’t want to be there, but she had this strange collar around her neck that made her yelp in pain every time she used her powers, meaning she was no where as strong as Plasmius was. Not to mention, he was generally one of the scariest, most powerful ghosts. But it looked like Danielle cared enough about the other Phantom because she fought despite the pain, trying to block Plasmius’s path.
“Danielle, Stop.” Plasmius said, irritated, and threw the girl against a wall opposite Sam. Their eyes locked and the ghost girl’s eyes widened in alarm at the sight of her. She focused on Plasmius again, though, and didn’t say a word. “This is ridiculous – you clearly don’t stand a chance against me.” He spat out and then moved towards the circle again, picking up the book with the instructions. “Now, let’s see… how to summon young Daniel…”
Still careful not to be seen by the much older ghost, Sam pulled out her phone and opened her long chat with Danny. Typing quickly, she warned him about being summoned and having to be ready for a fight, and then had enough time to receive a confused message back before Plasmius spotted her and let his hand glow with pink energy, his red eyes boring into her with a smirk playing at his lips. This ghost was sick. So, extremely sick!
Hovering towards Sam with the book in one hand, Plasmius regarded her with this nonchalance air around him, as if he didn’t even expect her to be able to fight him. “Why, you shall be perfect, my dear.” He said and then, to Sam’s disgust and horror, he bent down and picked her up, making her stand up. “You work here, don’t you…” He glanced at her nametag. “Samantha. Then you must know how to summon Phantom.”
She caught the book when he threw it into her hands and her eyes found Danielle staring at her with wide, terrified eyes. She struggled to get back to her feet but clearly couldn’t move too much. When the little girl shook her head desperately at Sam, the goth tried to smile comfortably at her, but she figured she only ended up grimacing. Glaring angrily at Plasmius, Sam moved towards the corner of the store and fixed the circle on the ground, readying everything for the procedure she knew by heart at this point.
When she chanted the words necessary she considered saying the wrong thing to save Danny from all of this mess, but then she figured Plasmius would just get rid of her and do it himself – right now he was being lazy, letting her do the dirty job. But he was probably smart enough to just read what to do and then follow the instructions. No, she was going to get Danny over here and he would… he would deal with this. Still, her voice wavered a little when she called for Danny Phantom to show up.
Green mist filled the circle before the ghost boy appeared inside, his green eyes not even looking too confused this time around. Instead, he looked around at the people in the store before his eyes landed on Danielle and he tried to run towards her only to get blocked by the summoning circle. “Dani!” He called for her and the girl lifted her head and tried to get up again only to drop to her knees. Danny glared at Plasmius. “What did you do to her?!”
“Oh, she’s perfectly fine. Just a little banged up, Daniel. Calm down.” Plasmius said casually and grinned at the sight of Danny trying to get out of the circle to no avail. “Now, now, son. Stop being stubborn and just THINK about everything I’m offering. A home, a family, a mentor to show you everything you could be and more. Oh, so much more.” His hands burned with ectoplasm again.
Danny looked unimpressed. “Forget it, Vlad!” He said and the ghost frowned. Sam, moving slowly and as inconspicuous as possible, reached over to grab her water bottle from the counter. “What makes you think I’m going to join you after you murdered my family?” He snorted and Sam used the distraction to open up the water bottle without being heard. She noticed Danielle watching her from the side, clearly supporting her silently. “I’ve said it a hundred times and I’ll say it a hundred times more – you’re seriously one, crazed-up fruit loop.”
Growling at him, Plasmius did not look like he appreciated the sentiment. He lifted his hand to attack Danny, but Sam quickly poured the water from her bottle onto the chalk drawn on the ground. It disrupted the circle and Danny flew out of the way right before Plasmius shot at him. It missed, luckily, and the ghost boy and Plasmius fought relentlessly around the store, though it was obviously not a fair fight with Danny being weaker.
From the side, Sam watched them, ducking every now and then to avoid their stray attacks. Danielle managed to crawl towards her, her eyes tired and the collar still wrapped around her neck. When Sam asked the girl if she had any idea on how they could help, Danielle bit her lip and shrugged, clearly feeling helpless, just sitting there and doing nothing to help her… friend? What even was she to Danny? They looked too similar to not be related.
Sam’s eyes fell on the circle to her feet and she perked up with an idea. Quickly, and to Danielle’s confusion, Sam began to fix the circle, chanting the familiar words to summon a ghost. She cringed a little when Danny was hit and tossed across the room before smashing into a wall and falling down, his gaze a little dazed. But he quickly got back up to stand against Plasmius, his will to fight overshadowing his need to rest and heal.
Plasmius was just about to shoot Danny again when he disappeared only to show up inside the circle in front of Danielle and Sam, pink mist accompanying him. For a moment he looked confused, and then he scowled and began to attack them, only all of his attacks dissipated when they reached the boundaries of the circle. He couldn’t attack them, nor could he escape. Sam smirked proudly and Danielle cheered.
“Wow.” Danny landed next to Sam and wrapped his arm around his middle. She suspected he had cracked ribs from the fight, but he it didn’t look like he was too bothered by it, instead smiling dorkily at the trapped ghost. “I almost feel bad for him.” He admitted and then glanced at Danielle. “No, wait, I really don’t.”
“Danny!” Danielle hugged him and the boy stood there in surprise for a moment before returning the gesture. “I’m so glad you’re okay!” She pulled back and Danny smiled at her. “I really thought Vlad would have you that time. I mean…” She looked at the summoning circle where Plasmius was still fighting to set himself free. Yeah, good luck with that. “Look at this thing – he could’ve ended you!”
Shrugging, Sam crossed her arms. “Karma is pretty helpful.” She noted.
Danny grinned. “And Sam. Sam’s pretty helpful, too.”