It was supposed to be a safety assembly. One that Danny had actually approved of. Even looked forward to, a little bit. Casper High desperately needed a plan for when ghosts attacked, and it certainly would have been nice if the staff and students had actually learned how to handle the weaker ghosts. As it was the 'plan' was run around screaming until Phantom showed up, and apart from Sam, Tucker, Jazz, Valerie, and, of course, Danny himself, the only one who had shown anything akin to competence when faced with a ghost was Mr Lancer.

So, yeah. Danny had been looking forward to the assembly. Anything that took some of the pressure off of him, right?

It had started off well enough for a school assembly. Principal Ishiyama had gone over ghost attack evacuation and lock down procedures. They weren't overwhelmingly brilliant, but they were pretty straightforward, and far better than nothing. The school had bought a ghost shield, and had installed it in the gym. It wasn't nearly large enough to cover the whole school, but Danny was cautiously optimistic about its ability to deter ghosts and protect the student body.

But this was Danny's life. Nothing in it ever went well for long.

And of course the school had decided to invite Amity Park's premier (only) official ghost hunters.

Danny had known that his parents were going to come. How could he not? He lived with them. He had just hoped that they would be reasonable about the whole thing. More than hoped. He had asked his mother what they had planned. So he knew that right now, they were supposed to be demonstrating safe use of Fenton Wrist-Rays, inviting students down to take shots at targets set up across the gym, passing out fliers for lessons, talking about how to hide from or otherwise avoid ghosts.

They were doing none of those things.

Instead of doing what they had planned, instead of doing what Danny would have liked them to do, they were rambling on about their ghost weapons. All of which they had apparently brought with them. To school. They had already gone through all the ones that Danny was comfortable using in battle, and now he and his friends were amusing themselves by classing the weapons as 'disturbing,' and 'vaguely horrifying.'

"Horrifying," said Danny without hesitation as his mother pulled out something that looked like a three neon-pink didgeridoos taped together.

"I'd call it that just for the color," said Sam.

"What does it do?" asked Tucker.

"Mom's saying," said Danny.

"Yeah, but even I can't parse her technobable." He paused. "I can barely hear her technobable. Doesn't she realize that no one is listening anymore?" He gestured to the chattering students seated on the bleachers below them. The three of them were seated at the very top.

Danny shrugged. "It screws with strand communication and plasmic ectosignature reception. Basically paralyzes everything downstream from where it hits," he explained. "Like if there was something that'd temporarily sever your nerves."

That doesn't sound too bad, unless it hit your head, or something."

"Yeah, until you remember that the those two things are typically what determines what a ghost's body looks like and whether or not it sticks together. Slowly disintegrating a person? Horrifying."

"Sounds like something you should get rid of," said Sam, darkly.

"I would," muttered Danny, "but I already get rid of so much other stuff."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I've got seven categories for FentonWorks stuff. Actually useful, useless, useful for ghost fighting, disturbing, vaguely horrifying, avoid at all costs, and destroy immediately. Oh, and the bonus ones that can apply to anything, 'unnecessarily painful,' and 'unnecessarily dangerous.' Jazz and I only mess with stuff from the last two categories. Because, honestly? Most of the stuff they make is disturbing or worse."

"Harsh," said Tucker.

"But true. I love them, but Ancients, if they'd at least safety check half of this stuff- hold it."

"What?"

"I don't recognize that one," he said, pointing at the third to last weapon on the cart. It was awfully sleek for something new, and the hairs on the back of Danny's neck were standing up just looking at it. "Hey, Jazz." He poked his sister, who looked up, annoyed, from her book. "Do you recognize that?"

"No," said Jazz, slowly. "I don't. It must be new. Or maybe really old?"

"Looking like that?"

"Is it really that weird that you don't know what it is? I mean, its like, one, out of fifty," asked Sam.

"Remember that time your parents took you shopping and made you try on all the floral dresses in the store? And then bought them? So they could threaten to make you wear them?"

"Okay, okay. Burned into my memory. I get it."

"But they brought it to school, how bad could it be?"

"Tucker, for real, man?"

"Last week we sabotaged something that was supposed to cause ghosts to spontaneously combust," said Jazz. "Before that it was the addictive light bulb."

"I'm so glad that was theoretically unsound to begin with."

And the thing that made ghosts think their obsessions were under attack. Why they keep trying to make that, I can't even begin to understand."

"Don't forget the whole 'let's plant blood blossoms in the garden this year' debacle."

"That was last month, though."

"I'm so glad I had an allergic reaction to the seed oil."

"Shhh, they're about take it out now."

The group of four turned their attention back to the adult Fentons. Jack was taking the sleek, silver gun from its place on the cart. It looked rather small in his hands, but they all knew that Jack Fenton's massive frame tended to warp perspective.

"And now!" said the large man in his booming voice. "For the moment you've all been waiting for! The grand finale!"

This had the effect of drawing the attention of the other students, and bringing the noise level down to a dull roar. Jack grinned widely.

"This here is the best thing we've made since the Fenton Portal!"

Well. Danny certainly hoped that it wasn't going to be as painful as the portal. Mutters around the gym showed that other people weren't too sure how to feel about a thing that was being compared to something that many blamed for the preponderance of ghosts in Amity Park.

"Its been a special project of ours," added Maddie cheerily. "A top secret project." This attracted the attention of the high schoolers once again.

"Yeah! So that those pesky ghosts don't sabotage it!"

Danny cringed internally.

"We've been working on it for months, so now I'd like to present to you the-"

"Fenton Mortifier!"

Like they needed a machine to do that.

"Jack, honey, I thought we had agreed that we can't call it that."

"But, sweetheart..."

Maddie gave in to Jack's puppy dog eyes and waved her husband on.

This is of course when Danny's ghost sense went off. He sighed, heavily. Of course a ghost would come and bother this assembly. "Hey, guys, I just got a chill."

"Want backup?" asked Jazz.

"Nah, just cover for me," said Danny even as he dropped down to the lower, in-between section of the bleachers, and crawled into the gap between that and the seat in front of them.

"Hey, ten bucks says it's Technus," he heard Tucker say above him as he climbed down the metal bars behind the bleachers.

His parents were still talking, but he was having trouble hearing them now that he was back here. Something about how ghosts were monsters who couldn't feel pain, or joy or anything. He tuned them out. It was more important to find somewhere inconspicuous to change, and get whatever ghost it was to leave. He'd thought about changing behind the bleacher, but with the way that the bleachers were constructed, everyone would see the light from his rings, and he really was trying to be better about that.

He got to the gym floor, went out the maintenance door, and looked up and down the hallway, listening carefully for anyone who might be watching. Then he changed, turned invisible and floated up and back though the wall into the gym.

He had just passed the intercom speaker when the thing made an awful, squawking sound. He whirled, ready to fight, but it was still just a speaker.

"Wazzup that's going down my home bros!"

Danny slapped himself in the face. Oh my gosh, he was even worse than before.

"I, Technus, master of all things electronic and beeping, am in the housy-house!"

Fine. So Technus was either in the intercom, or in the PA room. The first was harder to check, harder to deal with overall, actually, although Danny didn't know why Technus would want to posses the school's intercom system, so Danny decided to check the PA room first. So he flew in that direction-

-Only to run face first into the brand new ghost shield.

He was so surprised that he lost his hold on his invisibility. Of course someone had turned on the shield- … Or not? No one was standing anywhere near the generator.

Instinctively, he dropped several feet to avoid getting hit by an ectoblast. Technus? No. His parents.

"Hahahahahaha! I have you trapped in with the humans now, ghost child! The hunters! As you would say, you're all tied up! Hahahaha! You shouldn't have connected the master on-off switch to the principal's room! Now I will be free to-!" Another ectoblast hit the speaker. Danny could have groaned at the poor timing. Technus's propensity towards shouting out his plans is what made him an easy fight. If he didn't know what Technus was doing, this would be very tedious even after he got out. Danny dodged another blast. At least they hadn't used the new gun yet. "Look, can you guys stop? I only came here to- Ouch!" He scowled and flickered out of visibility. He didn't want to power down the ghost shield- it would keep Technus out of the gym- so he had to find a place to change back to human and then sneak out.

"Quick, Jack, get the Fenton Revealer!"

Heck, that was the one that expunged invisibility. Maybe the locker rooms? Yeah, that would work. Assuming that nobody was making out, or hiding in there. Like they usually did during an assembly. But he didn't really have time to think of a better spot. His mom's finger was on the trigger of the new gun, and he really didn't want to find out what it did. He rocketed towards the boy's locker room.

And smacked into the ghost shield again.

(He didn't understand why his parents had made it so hard to see! The ones that glowed green worked just fine!)

He didn't loose invisibility this time, but he was shocked. Figuratively speaking. The shield wasn't supposed to be here, at least according to Principal Ishiyama's presentation. He quickly estimated the curve of the shield. If it was here, then most of the student body was outside of it.

This had Technus written all over it.

Jack hit the button on the Fenton Revealer, and Danny immediately took evasive action. His mother was too good a shot for him to do anything else. He really, really did not want to get hit by that new gun, especially when he discovered that the blasts it fired were an awful shade of puce.

Except note that most of the school had run off, taking shelter in the locker rooms or behind the bleachers. Most. Not all. For reasons he could not quite comprehend, a certain subset of the school population (aka Danny's class and a few other idiots) had chosen to run towards the people firing guns. The Fenton's weapons were designed not to hurt humans, but everyone in Amity Park knew how often their prototypes malfunctioned.

Sam, Tucker, and Jazz were nearby, too, but they were his team. Also, they were doing something productive: trying to get close enough to the shield generator to shut it off. Unlike the others, who were just giving him extra anxiety.

Then it happened. Danny had been bobbing up and down to avoid the blasts, trying to stay away from the students, but he lingered in one spot a moment too long. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye- a person, although he had no idea who- when at the same time, on the opposite side, Maddie fired.

He couldn't move. If he did whoever was behind him would get hit. As much as Danny didn't want to find out what it would do to him, he didn't want to take the risk that his parents hadn't quite 'human-proofed' the new weapon.

The sickly red bolt hit him dead on.

At first it didn't feel like anything at all.

But.

-he could feel-

Then.

-heart beat against his ribs-

What?

Why had he let Sam and Tucker talk him into this?

This wasn't.

Sure, the portal was cool and all, but it was also really creepy-

No, stop! He didn't want-

Why had he let Sam and Tucker talk him into this? How had he let them talk him into this? Sure, the portal was cool and all, but it was also really creepy, and he could feel his heart beat against his ribs in protest of the whole thing.

Oh, yeah. Because they wanted to go in, and he wasn't going to let them do that without making sure his parents hadn't left one of their goo-shooting guns in here first. Or a 'Fenton Firework.' Or... Honestly, the list was too long. He was talking (thinking) about the people who had once sucked the house into an alternate dimension, after all.

Why did they want to look at it in the first place? Because Sam thought portals to the underworld were 'super Gothic,' and Tucker wanted to check out all the 'killer tech.' Maybe Danny was just jaded, but, honestly, he'd rather be upstairs, playing a game, or talking about the movie they were going to see later (Dead Teacher III: Death-tention!).

Well, this hadn't been too bad so far. He had actually kind of gotten used to the weird, electric chill in the tunnel. Maybe they'd actually spot whatever was wrong with the thing in the first place, too, and cheer his parents up. Tucker was really good with electronics, Sam had sharp eyes, and Danny knew FentonWorks technology pretty well, so together they might be able to see something. Not that they'd do anything. Danny didn't want to accidentally screw anything else up. Or give anyone a shock. Or cover them with goo. He'd made sure that the portal was firmly off and unplugged before going in, but you never knew with these things. Also, he knew that his parents had mentioned something about capacitors, and although he wasn't 100% sure what the difference between those and batteries were, he knew that they stored charge and could be dangerous.

The tunnel was narrowing, and Danny was almost to the back wall, when he tripped. He dropped his flashlight and caught himself on a protrusion on the left hand wall. This would have been fine, except that part of the protrusion depressed and clicked ominously under his fingers.

Danny stumbled back to the center of the portal walkway, staring at the little box. He wasn't horrified. Not yet. Not even when he saw the words 'on' and 'off' staring at him in green and red. Actually, for a split second he was relieved. He had only hit a stupid button. He might have even hit the 'off' button.

Then he started to hear the portal waking up around him. Activating. Turning on. He heard his friends shouting at him Run, Danny run! and he tried to do just that.

But then there was a flash of light and Danny was burning and there was green everywhere and it hurt so, so much.

I screwed up. I screwed up bad.

He could hear himself screaming. Wow. He didn't know he could get that loud.

At least I didn't let Sam and Tuck come in here with me. That was good.

It was cold now, unbelievably cold. And still somehow hot. He felt like his bones were melting.

Mom and Dad are fine, too. Knowing Dad, he would have hit the button without even thinking about it. Heh. Talk about 'killer' tech.

He could see, but also not see. Hear, but also not hear. He didn't like it, but the sensation was nothing next to the crisping of his skin, the seizing of whatever was left of his muscles.

I'm the only one that's feeling this.

He was, bizarrely enough, thankful for that. No one else should have to through this kind of pain. No one else should die like this.

Everyone else is safe.

But...

Were they?

He could hear screaming.

Surely that couldn't all be him. Right?

(He would have thought that his vocal cords would be dust by now.)

He could hear screaming-

Nearby?

He knew those voices.

Who?

Were they hurt? Were they hurting like he was?

No, no, no, no. No!

He had to-

Do what?

Help them!

How?

It hurt so much and he was scared-

(His thoughts were no longer anything even approaching coherent, but he wrenched himself away from the fear and back to the problem at hand.)

He needed to help them!

And then, thought became impossible. Danny became impossible. A passive observer to two worlds being filtered through his soul and extruded into one another. He saw everything. Remembered nothing. Because it was too big, and too beautiful, and there was pain everywhere, and people everywhere on both sides.

He needed to help.

An almost passive observer.

(There was a distant sensation of approval and regret.)

The two sides suddenly crashed together, and Danny was back, and the pain was back, although it had never really been gone in the first place. It was worse now, though. He wasn't even screaming anymore, and this was agony, and he was still dying. Still transfixed by electricity and whatever the heck the portal was doing.

There was something new now. Something in him that hurt, but hurt differently, in the center of his chest, right below his heart.

Then whatever was holding him in place stopped, and he dropped to the portal floor, too exhausted to even whimper. Still in too much pain to even contemplate moving.

(He was a little shocked that he still existed.)

But something tickled the edge of his jumbled mind. The screaming- Had there been others? He had to know. They might need help.

(He didn't even remember his own name at the moment. Could barely comprehend that not being in pain was an option.)

He crawled at first, but that was too slow, and he wouldn't be much help like that. He needed to be lighter, and suddenly he was, and now he was stumbling out of the portal, leaning against one wall for support.

Out of the portal, everything was so not-green. Was that normal? Then he blinked and faces, people, came into focus. He had no idea what they were saying, but they looked okay. Much more okay than he felt, anyway. That was good.

He shut his eyes, and stopped fighting the pain.

As soon as Danny was hit, Sam knew that it was going to be bad. She knew, because, unlike Danny, she knew what the Fenton Mortifier was supposed to do.

It was designed to force ghosts to relive their deaths.

According to Mr and Mrs Fenton (or Dr and Dr Fenton, if they were feeling annoyed with you) a ghost's death was the only thing that they could really feel, the only thing that could scare them. According to them, it would be enough of a deterrent to drive any specter comprised of ectoplasm and post-human consciousness out of Amity Park for good.

Beyond the obvious ethical concerns, Sam was dubious. Also, she was considering making her own 'destroy immediately' list.

Beside her, Tucker was still working on turning off the shield generator. She would have thought that unplugging it would do the job, but the cable apparently came up from underneath the gym floor, so that had been a no-go, and Technus had somehow disabled the on-off switch. Sam, and, she saw out of the corner of her eye, Jazz, were more concerned with watching Danny.

Danny had been hit a full minute ago, and so far, he had just been hanging in the air where he had been hit, staring blankly ahead. The other students from their class (sans Valerie, who looked like she was trying to find an ectogun in her backpack) were cautiously approaching Danny. Mr Lancer was trying to get his students to get away, back to the relative safety provided by the bleachers. Mr and Mrs Fenton were running around, trying to find out where their latest containment unit had gotten kicked during the fight.

(Could one even call it a fight when it was so one-sided?)

Sam had begun to hope that the 'reliving' part was all happening inside Danny's head. That was bad enough, sure. It was horrible, and, once she had gotten the time to think about it a bit more, Sam would probably never forgive Mr and Mrs Fenton. (Just like she had never forgiven herself). But, if Danny had been forced to act out his death, it would have been worse. Not much worse, but worse. If it was inside his head... Well, he had survived it once, hadn't he? And all the nightmares, too.

Then Danny twitched, his face contorting, lightning leaping off of his fingers, and he began to scream. And scream. And scream.

And Wail.

(Every time Sam heard Danny's Ghostly Wail, she hoped it would be the last. Every time, she remembered her friend dying. Screaming. In pain. Because of her.)

The people who were still standing were knocked to the floor. It was a good thing that Danny wasn't aiming at anything or anyone in particular. It was a good thing that Tucker hadn't gotten the ghost shield down yet, because otherwise the roof would be coming down.

The screams died abruptly, without warning. Sam uncurled herself from the floor, raising her head, pulling slightly-bloody hands from her ears. Danny was still floating there, still staring, but now he looked limp, exhausted. Was it done now? Sam knew it had taken longer between the end of the screaming and Danny dragging himself out of the portal, but, surely, the screaming had stopped because he had died, right? Because he had become Phantom? Not because he just couldn't scream any more?

(For all the jokes Danny told about his death, he had given his friends very few details about it.)

Then Sam saw it. A swirl of green in front of Danny's chest. That couldn't be what she thought it was, could it?

There was a flash of green as the portal expanded outwards.