Chapter Text
Danny phased through the wall, half-stumbling even with his ghost form leaving a trail of mist rather having proper legs. Now that he had made it outside, Danny had to have a hand to the wall for support, still holding his invisibility up and frantically looking around for any signs of guards or motion. He was shaking in a way that told him he’d be soaked in sweat in his human form. Whether from fear or adrenaline, he didn’t know. Danny took a deep breath he didn’t really need, trying to think. Okay, hard part done. He’d managed to escape from his cell (a stinking cell) several floors underground. Looking up, Danny teared up at the sight of the stars in the sky. The moon was only a thin crescent, which made the stars seem that much brighter. A relieved sob broke out of him, but he quickly reigned in those feelings. Ok ok, you’re out, time to reassess.
Danny allowed his legs to re-materialize, slumping against the wall. It was quiet—so no one had noticed him escape yet. He didn’t have that long though, so he needed to move quickly. He couldn’t fight them in his condition, so that left running—but he was dangerously low on ectoplasm. He didn’t even know how long he’d be trapped down there for. His healing rate had slowed considerably, and honestly he wasn’t sure his system was entirely clean of whatever they’d been pumping into him.
“Try replacing the atmosphere with sulfur hexafluoride.” Danny had stared at his mother in horror from the floor on the other side of the ecto-proof glass. She was talking to some GIW scientist, not even looking at him. Said scientist was already nodding and moving to adjust some controls on a computer Danny couldn’t see. That could be deadly to a human, if breathed too long. “Ectoplasm, as the name implies, acts like a plasma rather than a true liquid, meaning some of its properties are more similar to gases. A heavier atmosphere will probably affect its physiology, maybe decrease its reaction time. If we increase the pressure in the room, that might even infuse the ambient gases into its system. If that doesn’t work, we can try volatilizing some anti-ecto lubricant to see if it has any sedative effects.”
It had, in fact, had a sedative effect. Danny had felt drowsy and sluggish whenever they put him in the cell. The weird atmosphere made it harder for him to think straight, or even float. When he was removed, they had just injected something straight into him so they could drag him from room to room without issue. Just getting out of the cell and into normal atmosphere had helped, but he wasn’t sure how long it would take to filter out. He really needed to get some fresh ectoplasm soon. He tried not to think what would happen to his human half if he was infused with ghost poison.
Lately though, they hadn’t wanted him just sedated—they wanted him in pain. They had been increasing the severity of their “experiments,” which usually left Danny sobbing in pain. Danny’s ghostly hazmat suit had “healed” over, but Danny could still feel the injuries. He wasn’t actively bleeding, which was good—always best not to leave a trail of glowing green blood. Speaking of—Danny looked down at the razor blade he had stolen, relaxing his grip on the blade to allow his gloved hand to re-form and heal. Clenching the anti-ecto coated metal to cut into his fist had been enough of a grounding sensory to focus through the haze, eventually leading to said escape attempt. Danny was mostly surprised it had worked. It hadn’t even been that difficult, waiting for a guard to bring him a measly gulp of ectoplasm (because of course, they couldn’t have their prime subject fading out on them), and had been able to overshadow the man who had only been expecting Danny to be non-responsive as he entered the cell. Danny hated taking control of someone forcibly, but well, they hadn’t left him many options. After that, it was as simple as leaving the door locked, walking the man to a closet and locking him inside unconscious, and then phasing invisibly up through the stairwells. Danny had even been holding his invisibility in the cell for the past few weeks(?) and feigning fear in case anyone walking by checked. At a glance, they would just think he’s invisible again, they’d have to actually scan the room to realize he was gone. Easy peasy. Except his head was spinning and Danny thought he might vomit. Vomit would also be a no-no, at the moment. He’d like to keep his remaining ectoplasm inside of him, thank you. Danny went through the motions of a deep inhale, trying to settle his nerves. “Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota,” exhale, “mu epsilon 42 63 28,” inhale, “1 colon 65 dash 9,” and exhale, Danny finished in a whisper.
Speaking of… Danny leaned down to phase the scalpel blade a few feet underground. Giving them hints on how he escaped was probably a bad idea. Leaning over, however, caused Danny to gasp as unexpected pain flooded through his sides and chest, causing him to fall over rather than just crouch down. Damn, fuck, those sedatives had actually been doing something after all. They had wanted to find his ghost core, which they suspected had to be in his upper body based on the higher density there, but… luckily, even his famous ecto-biologist parents didn’t know how ghostly cores actually worked. Didn’t stop them from trying, though.
Danny pushed himself off the ground, holding his head between his legs. He closed his eyes tightly and pulled at his hair, trying to shake the image of his mom and dad standing over him with dissection tools and large, painfully emotionless goggles, out of his mind. “Maddie dear, maybe we need to induce a stronger survival instinct to make the core appear?” His dad had suggested blithely. His mom had nodded. “Good idea, sweetie, it’s possible they have a stress-related response to it’s formation.” That’s when they had stopped injecting him with their sedatives, and the pain became much, much worse. Danny remembered thinking it was kind of dumb for them to think stress would make the most vulnerable part of him appear. Maybe if they gave him some hot chocolate and a day without being experimented on, they would get better results, Danny had thought bitterly.
Ancients, my brain isn’t working right. I feel light-headed. Danny didn’t have bones in his ghost form, but the feeling of foreign tools and hands and probes in his chest had been—Danny started gagging before clamping a hand over his mouth and tried to calm himself down. Absolutely no vomiting, c’mon, get it together.
Danny tried to breathe deeply, but it felt like he was on the verge of hyperventilating. Or passing out maybe? Ghosts don’t even breathe why the fuck am I hyper—oh, I’m probably panicking. “Ok ok, I’m okay, gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon 42 63 28 1 colon 65 dash 9.” Danny tried taking a deeper breath, rocking back and forth a bit. “Yeah ok I can do this.”
Jazz had taught him how to register when he was having a panic attack, but Danny had never needed to as a ghost. All of the panicking was usually just as Danny Fenton—Danny Phantom could handle himself. Or so I thought. Danny pushed himself more firmly against the wall, still holding his head. Tears sprung to life again, but at least ghost tears didn’t glow green. That’s fine. This is fine. Crying is a chemical release, Danny, it’s okay to let yourself cry sometimes, Jazz had told him with a smile. But ghosts didn’t have chemicals to balance. Or did they? Danny shook his head again, trying to clear it. “Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon 42 63 28 1 colon 65 dash 9.” Danny unclenched his fists, breathing shakily. “Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon 42 63 28 1 colon 65 dash 9. Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon 42 63 28 1 colon 65 dash 9. Gamma—” a loud noise made Danny jump, despite being both invisible and intangible, but he managed to not yell out, at least. Had they heard him whispering? Stupid, Danny, should have stayed quiet. Danny looked around but couldn’t see anything which might have made a noise. Just a few scattered buildings and a chain fence beyond them. Danny got up and walked to the nearest corner, peering around. An electric gate was slowly opening while an armored, white truck was waiting to be let in. Ok, maybe it was time to leave.
Yeah ok, body hurt, chest hurt, thanks mom, thanks dad, that’s ok. He was probably still high. He needed away without being seen. They’d be able to track him later, but if he was running, it was always better to have a head-start. Where the fuck does he go from here? Home? Like hell.
Yeah, Amity was not an option. Danny hated to leave without grabbing his things—mostly the emergency phone and cash that he had set up for something like this happening, but he had never expected it to be quite this dire. The phone would have to be left. He could call Tucker, Sam, and Jazz from a payphone or a burner phone or something later—yeah, that would be hard to track, right?
Danny wondered if switching back to human form would throw off their ecto-signature readings. It was the best way they had to track him—and damn ectoplasm for having such long-lasting signatures, stupid radiation-ish motherfuckers—yeah ok, Danny was definitely high. But human form meant human injuries, and human legs—it’d be too slow, and Danny wasn’t sure if his body could take the change right now. How long has it even been? A few weeks, or longer? I can’t tell. He thought about Clockwork, and about convenient it would be if the Master of Time ever used his all-powerful interdimensional mind to actually help him every once in a while. Even just a “run that way, Danny, only in 34% of possible timelines do they guess that direction!” Danny scoffed. Useless old ghost.
C’mon Danny, you’re high and need to focus, simple tasks now. You’re human voice probably would be super deep right now—Nope, focusing. “Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon 42 63 28 1 colon 65 dash 9,” he repeated again. The mantra helped. It gave him something to focus on, something safe and good. He hadn’t dared utter it in the facility for fear of them listening, it was a relief to hear them out loud again.
Danny didn’t know where he was or where to go, but he didn’t exactly have time to think of a plan. Keeping his powers up, he decided to just pick a direction, flying over and past the double fenced ugly white buildings, stupid corny GIW agents and their pristine lab coats and guns and scalpels, and just kept going, flying aimlessly in a direction he imagined Clocky might have pointed him in.
As Danny flew, feeling haggard and sore and scared… Yeah, he might not be able to avoid Amity after all. He absolutely needed the secure phone Tucker had made them, specifically for emergencies like this. He needed to get out of dodge and hide somewhere but he was going to need help. Maybe even… No. He couldn’t lead the GIW there.
The possibility of never returning to Amity sent a pang of regret through Danny, but it couldn’t be avoided. With the GIW constantly hunting him, likely with more ferocity now that he had escaped once, with Valerie not knowing Phantom was on her side, and then his parents… Would he be able to hide from them?
Danny started crying again, feeling the tears streak past his eyes in the wind before, almost drying as quickly as they fell. “Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon 42 63 28 1 colon 65 dash 9.” Danny gripped his stomach with both arms as he flew. He felt like his insides were being dragged and twisted as he flew. Fuckin ow.
Getting in and out of Amity shouldn’t be too difficult if he was fast and kept invisible the whole time. It’d be easier to disappear if there weren’t any civilian witnesses who could claim to have seen Phantom recently. Had his parents even noticed Danny Fenton missing? Had anyone in town? He probably shouldn’t be surprised, but it hurt to realize how unwanted he really was… Plus, he’d really like to say bye to Sam and Tuck. Jazz was leaving for college soon, he could visit her soon after she moved, but for now… Danny Phantom needed to disappear.