Phantom Offspring

Rated: Teen for language and slight romance.

Summary: Every three years, ghosts enter a reproductive cycle. It has been three years since the Portal Accident, and Danny enters his first reproductive cycle without knowing it. One would think without a ghost for a mate, nothing would come of it, but ghost biology is a little stranger than that.

Pairing: Danny/Sam

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is owned by Butch Hartman.

LES: This one shot has nothing to do with Long Reign the Ghost King, so I'm able to experiment with other forms of how ghosts could reproduce. In this case, I was inspired by part of an episode for one of the Ben 10 shows that I saw while doing a wiki-walk through YouTube.

As much as Danny wished he could avoid his parent's lab, he was really left with no choice but to spend several hours a week down there with the portal.

All ghosts needed ectoplasm to survive, and half-ghosts like Danny were not the exception to the rule. Sure, they did not need as much ectoplasm for their power as a full ghost since they could supplement their bodies with food and sleep, but Danny still needed ectoplasm for his ghost form to function. And that meant that he had to stay close to his parent's portal for at least several hours a week, allowing his ghost form to soak in the stray ectoplasm the portal emitted. Thankfully, his parents let him keep his computer down here, so he didn't have to find an excuse to stay near the portal when his ghost side got hungry.

He had spent the last few hours playing some Doom 2 with Tucker and Sam as a cover for him 'feeding' in case his parents came home. But, just as Sam helped them win the game for the second time that month, Danny realized that he was hungry. The human sort of hungry.

GG, guys. Danny typed into the game's message system. I've gotten enough you know what 2 eat. Time 4 me 2 get some food.

C ya 4 patrol 2night? Tucker asked.

U know it. Danny replied.

C u later, Danny. Sam messaged.

Bye Sam. Danny quickly replied before he logged out of Doom and jumped out of his seat. He quickly made his way over to the stairs and began to hop them two at a time. But, before he could go to the kitchen, the smell of something good stopped him in his tracks.

Confused, he glanced back the way he'd come. Sure, it was not unusual for his father to leave fudge down in the lab, but this didn't smell like fudge. Maybe he had left something down in the lab?

He made his way back down the stairs, sniffing around the lab to find the source of the delicious smell. When he found it, Danny almost vomited.

The smell that had been drawing him in was a beaker full of ectoplasm sitting on one of the shelves. Thankfully, at least, it was not the remains of a ghost, just pure ectoplasm pulled from the portal.

"That's so weird." Danny commented, taking the beaker down and smelling it. "Ectoplasm has never smelled particularly good before." He tried to set the beaker down, but found that he pretty much couldn't. As he looked down at the beaker, a strange thought crossed his mind. Drink it.

"Ugh!" Danny groaned. "No, no, no! Hasn't my ghost half had enough ectoplasm? I've been sitting down here for three hours feeding my ghost form! I don't need anymore!" But the more he looked down at the beaker, the less repulsive it seemed. After all, absorbing ectoplasm was nothing new to him. It was just as essential to the functioning of his body as iron, calcium, or any other mineral that humans needed to survive.

After several minutes of delaying, he groaned and brought the beaker up to his lips. He could almost imagine what his parents would say if they caught him doing this. "What is wrong with you, Danny! You should never drink stuff that you found in beakers in a science lab, let alone a beaker full of ectoplasm!"

But it was too late. He drank the ectoplasm in a few gulps. It did not have a pleasant taste at all, but for some reason Danny didn't hate it. In fact, he didn't even dislike it. It just made him want more.

He looked around the lab. Thankfully, his parents were paranormal scientists, so he would not have to look very far to find some more ectoplasm. In fact, they had a whole weapons vault filled with every kind of ecto-powered gun that you could imagine. With a grin, Danny moved over to the big vault door that hid the weapon's vault.

(Three Hours Later)

"So, did Danny tell you where we're meeting him for patrol?" Tucker asked Sam as she pulled up in her car in front of his house.

"No, but I can imagine that we'd start at the school." Sam said. "That's where we usually start."

Just as Tucker jumped into the car, Sam's phone suddenly started to play the Ghostbuster's Theme song, her ringtone for Danny. Danny rolled his eyes every time she brought it up, but she and Tucker found it hilarious.

Sam answered the call. "Hey, Danny, Tucker and I were just wondering where you wanted to meet us for..."

"Not now." Danny said, sounding very distressed. "Sam, Tucker, you guys need to get to my house. There's something really wrong with me."

"Danny? What's wrong?" Sam asked, worried for her friend.

"Just, please… get over here..." Danny pleaded. Just before the call ended, Sam heard something like metal being torn apart.

Sam turned a worried gaze towards Tucker. "We need to get to Danny's house. He says something is wrong with him."

She drove over to Fenton Works as fast as she could without breaking the speed limit. She barely took the time to bring her car to a screeching halt outside of Danny's house before she and Tucker jumped out of the car, and ran up the steps opening the door with the spare key.

They both heard the sound of breaking metal coming from down in the Fenton's lab and they immediately rushed down the stairs. They both froze in shock at what they saw in front of them.

Nearly every weapon that the Fentons owned had been smashed apart and pieces of them lay scattered around the lab. Danny floated in the center of the room in his ghost form, his fingers tearing into the outer casing of a Fenton bazooka. He kept tearing until he came to the bazooka's ectoplasm power source. As soon as the green glow was exposed to Danny, he lowered his head and began to drink the ectoplasm straight from the battery.

"Danny?! What the hell is going on?" Sam asked.

Danny didn't answer until he finished drinking the ectoplasm from the bazooka. As soon as it was empty of its energy, he let the useless weapon fall to the floor. "I don't know!" He sounded really panicked. "The ectoplasm suddenly smelled really good. I just took one drink, and now I can't stop! I think I've drank ten gallons of ectoplasm so far!" He rushed back into the weapons vault, looking around frantically for any weapon that he hadn't drained yet. But the bazooka had been the last. There was no more pure ectoplasm in the lab. "Fuck! Fuck!" Danny cursed, punching a hole right through the vault door in his rage.

"Danny, calm down dude!" Tucker said, cautiously approaching his friend. "You've never needed this much ectoplasm before. Surely ten gallons is enough?"

"But it's not!" Danny growled. "I don't know what's wrong with me, but it's not enough!" There was only one option left, and Danny was desperate enough to do it. He turned to look at the Ghost Zone portal.

Sam and Tucker's eyes widened as they realized what Danny was thinking. "Danny, wait…!" But it was too late. Danny dived into the portal without a second thought.

Being in the Ghost Zone provided some relief to the maddening thirst for ectoplasm, but it was still not enough. So Danny Phantom immediately fell upon the nearby chunk of rocky ectoplasm and began to eat.

Sam and Tucker would not be following him into the Ghost Zone, he realized as he ate. The Specter Speeder was currently decommissioned for making repairs and nether one of them wanted to risk coming into the Ghost Zone unprotected. A small part of him was concerned, but mostly he was being driven crazy by his seemingly endless need for ectoplasm.

"What are you doing in the Ghost Zone, whelp?" Danny viciously growled, never ceasing eating even as he turned to face this new threat. Skulker floated down towards him. "I was just going to your world to hunt you, but now I've found you in the Ghost Zone. What are you doing here? You know that the Ghost Zone is not safe for you."

"Go away, Skulker." Danny growled, ripping off a piece of ectoplasm rock and stuffing it in his mouth.

Skulker froze and stared at Danny as he ate a rock. "What's the matter with you?" He asked. "Are you starving yourself of ectoplasm by staying in the human world so much?"

"How should I know?" Danny growled at him. "Now, go away, Skulker. I'm not in the mood for playing games with you."

Phantom is awfully pissed off today. Skulker thought to himself. Not to mention the fact that he was in the ghost zone eating rocks just to get enough ectoplasm to satisfy whatever sort of craving he was having.

Just then, it all came together for Skulker. The increase in rage bordering on violent behavior, the craving for ectoplasm, being drawn into the Ghost Zone. Skulker knew exactly what was happening to Phantom, although the young hybrid probably had no idea.

"Fine, I won't hunt you today." Skulker said. "It isn't a good idea, nor is proper, to get on the bad side of a nesting ghost."

"What did you say I was?" Danny asked, confused.

"You're nesting. That's what's happening to you." Skulker said. "Don't worry, Plasmius had no idea what was happening to him either." Danny glared at him, still munching on rocks. "Let me guess, it's been three years since you became a halfa?"

"Yeah, three years." Danny paused thoughtfully. "Almost exactly three years to the day. How did you know that?"

"It's pretty clear that you're entering your ghostly reproductive cycle, and that comes around every three years." Skulker said.

"What do you mean, reproductive cycle?" Danny asked, shocked. He was so shocked, in fact, that he forgot to keep eating ectoplasm. "How do ghosts have a reproductive cycle?"

"Not every ghost in the ghost zone is the spirit of a deceased human. Look at all the ghostly animals and some of the most powerful ghosts in existence were never human. Since this is your first time, however, I doubt you'll be able to produce anything more than a few ghostly animals."

"Why are you talking like I'm all ready pregnant?" Danny asked, a frown returning to his face. "First of all, I'm male. Second, I have a girlfriend, but we haven't… well… we haven't done anything that could lead to children, is my point!"

"Male or female doesn't matter when it comes to ghost reproduction." Skulker said. "And it certainly doesn't require a partner."

"Wait… are you saying…?" Danny gasped.

"Ghosts are capable of reproducing with a partner. But if a ghost enters their reproductive cycle without a mate, let's just say that we can make due on our own."

"So ghosts can asexually reproduce?" Danny asked, shocked.

"Yes."

"And I'm…?"

"Definitely."

"Okay… Okay..." Danny gasped, on the verge of panicking again. "Then can you come down here and tell me everything you know about what's… happening to me?"

"I'll tell you, but I think I'll keep my distance." Skulker said. "I'm a walking mass of weapons, and none of your instincts will tolerate that right now. If I got any closer, you'd likely destroy me."

"Is that why I'm so angry right now?" Danny asked.

"An old defense mechanism, from the time of Pariah Dark. Pretty much no civilized ghost would want to bother a nesting ghost, but it wasn't always like that."

"Okay… so what about everything else?"

"You're craving ectoplasm for the same reason that human women crave food during their pregnancy. I believe the phrase is 'eating for two'. Although, in your case, it could be eating for as many as ten."

"Fuck." Danny cursed.

"Normally, the number of offspring depends on the power of the parent ghost. At your current power, you'd normally expect a couple dozen, but its always a low number for the first time. The length of the pregnancy depends on how quickly you can get the required ectoplasm for reproduction. It could take hours, or it could take weeks if you insist on returning to the human world. Once you have the required ectoplasm, you'll produce eggs in a process similar to mitosis."

"You mean they are produced directly from my ectoplasm?" Danny asked, a little relieved.

Skulker nodded. "If the eggs are kept here in the ghost zone, they should hatch within a week. If they are in the human world, it could take as long as a year. And I should warn you, since you are a halfa, you would do well to keep to the Ghost Zone until it's all over. Your instincts will drive you to guard the eggs until they hatch. You will not be able to sleep, and you won't be able to leave for food. The Ghost Zone can keep you going on no sleep and little food for a week, but I doubt your human body will be able to withstand a year-long version of the ordeal in the human world."

"Okay, yeah. I've got the point. That would be pretty bad." Danny said. "And what about… the babies?"

"Without a partner, most ghosts produce the animal-like ghosts that you've seen around the Ghost Zone. Maybe in a couple cycles you'll be able to produce actual phantoms… the species." Danny had heard of actual phantoms, but had never seen one. Not that you'd be able to see one. They were one step above ghost animals in intelligence, but weaker in terms of ectoplasm level. They didn't even have bodies for the most part. "They will hatch and then they will leave. For asexual reproduction, a ghost's parental duties end when the eggs hatch."

"And this cycle will happen every three years?" Danny asked.

Skulker nodded. "Unless the ghost is incapable of gathering the ectoplasm."

At the mention of ectoplasm, Danny's craving for the substance returned and he returned to eating the ectoplasm-rich environment.

"I'll leave you to it, then." Skulker said. "The hunt will resume after you return to yourself."

Danny continued to eat as much ectoplasm as he could, just to get the craving to die down for a moment. After all, he had pretty much left Sam and Tucker back in the lab, and they had to know that he might be gone for a while and to cover for him. He had no idea how they would cover him for over a week, but there was little more that he could do. If Skulker was right, there was no way he wanted to risk producing his eggs outside the Ghost Zone.

(In The Fenton's Lab)

"Maybe we should just jump in?" Sam asked, standing at the edge of the portal.

"And fall fifty feet to the skeleton-infested ground below?" Tucker asked. "No thank you, Sam. I enjoy living."

"But he's been in there for an hour now." Sam said. "And we've all ready fixed up the lab as best as we can, but his parents are sure to notice that every one of their guns has been torn to pieces by someone's bare hands and drained of ectoplasm."

"So, do you think that Danny's getting another power?" Tucker asked. "His abilities always seem to go a little wild just before he gets a new power."

"Not drinking ten gallons of ectoplasm wild." Sam said. "He normally requires only a tiny fraction of that amount of ectoplasm to function."

"Maybe he's about to get some super awesome power." Tucker commented.

"Or maybe..." Danny said as he floated back through the portal. "He just found out that ghost biology is crazy."

"Danny, what's wrong?" Sam asked.

The halfa sighed. "I ran into Skulker in the Ghost Zone."

"Oh, are you injured?" Sam asked, taking a couple of steps towards Danny, but he floated away from her. Skulker only mentioned him being high-strung around those who were a threat to him, but he didn't want to take any chances with his girlfriend and best friend.

"No. He didn't fight me at all. He recognized what was happening to me and left me alone." Danny said nervously.

"Did he tell you what was going on?" Tucker asked.

"...Yes." Danny said slowly.

"So, what?" Tucker pressed.

"So… uh… it turns out that ghosts can reproduce asexually." Danny said.

Neither Sam or Tucker said anything for over a minute before Tucker gasped. "Dude. Are you saying… you're pregnant?!"

"So, yeah… that's how my day is going." Danny said. And so he quickly explained what Skulker had told him, while they just stared at him with their mouths hanging open in shock.

"Man..." Tucker sighed. "I don't even know if I should have given you and Sam a 'Congratulations on the sex' cake, but now I'm going to have to find a 'Congratulations on the Ghost Babies' cake..."

"Do you really have to stay in the Ghost Zone for that long?" Sam asked, glaring at Tucker.

"Unless I want to spend a whole year guarding eggs instead of a week." Danny said. "I couldn't survive without sleep for that long, even in my ghost form. Even a week seems impossible."

"Well, Skulker did say that Vlad's done this before. He's survived." Sam pointed out.

Sam was right, of course. But now that he was thinking about it… Vlad did use a lot of little ghost animals in his schemes. Was it possible that any of them were Vlad's actual…? Danny stopped the thought before it could make him sick. He didn't want to imagine using his own children like that. He could only hope that they were not Vlad's.

"Danny, we want to be able to visit you to keep you company. Is there anything that we can use to follow you into the Ghost Zone?" Sam asked.

"Normally, I'd say that Mom and Dad would have the Specter Speeder finished by tomorrow, but I can image they are going to want to make replacing all their weapons their first priority." Danny said. He turned a guilty gaze on all the ruined guns.

"Why don't your parents have a Fenton jet pack or something?" Tucker asked.

"Well… I do still have the jet pack that I stole from Axiom labs." Danny said, phasing up through the ceiling. The jet pack had been hidden in his wall. He quickly retrieved it and returned it to Tucker. "Perhaps you can build a second based on this, or you and Sam can take turns using it."

"So what do we tell your parents?" Tucker asked.

"Anything but the truth." Danny replied. He was starting to get his ectoplasm craving back.

"Maybe they'll be so focused on fixing all these guns they won't even notice that you're gone." Tucker commented.

"I wish they were that oblivious." Danny commented. "Look, guys, I have to go. I'm being physically driven to consume ectoplasm, and the craving is come back. I have to go back into the Ghost Zone."

"Well, then, take care, Danny. We'll try to come see how you are doing tomorrow." Sam said.

Danny flashed her a small smile before he disappeared back into the Ghost Zone.

(The next day)

It showed how much Amity Park depended on Danny Phantom in the fact that he'd been AWOL for less than twelve hours and the news was all ready running constant stories asking where he was. It didn't help that all the Fenton's weapons had been mysteriously destroyed. That left only the Red Huntress with a little covert help from Sam and Tucker to control the normal influx of ghosts.

If Danny's absence was proving one thing, it was how much he was doing for the city. Even Sam and Tucker, his closest allies, did not have a true idea of how many ghosts he fought in a single day.

They felt bad for leaving everything to Valerie once school let out, but Danny needed them more.

Tucker had spent the whole night before trying to figure out the Axiom jet pack, but he had been unable to find any way to duplicate it without help from Danny's parents. He had, however, been able to tone down the thrust so that the person using it wasn't launched into space. However, that meant only one visitor at a time.

And, obviously, the first visitor was going to be Sam. Girlfriend's privilege.

She jumped into the portal and used the jet pack sparingly to bring her safely to the ground. Danny had not moved far away from the Fenton portal, although it was clear that he'd leached out every speck of ectoplasm from his surroundings that he could.

At least he'd seemed to calm down in that regard. He was sitting calmly on top of a little raised mound.

"Danny?" Sam asked as she drew nearer.

Sam almost lost control of the jet pack when Danny turned around on her with a vicious snarl. For a moment, he seemed far more ghost-like than normal, with paler skin and just a hint of fangs in his mouth. And then, when he saw who it was, he was back to normal. "Oh, Sam, God… I'm so sorry!"

"It's okay." Sam said. She stopped in her tracks and sat down on the ground a pretty good distance away from Danny. "How are you doing, Danny? At least you seem to have stopped inhaling ectoplasm."

"How do you think I'm doing?" Danny asked, a blush coloring his face. "I spent all night eating and drinking so much ectoplasm that I thought I would explode. And then this morning I 'produced' nine ghost eggs."

"Nine?" Sam gasped.

"It wasn't that bad. They just kind of floated out of random parts of my body." Danny said. "Some ghosts have stopped to talk to me, but they all keep their distance. I think Skulker has spread the word around the Ghost Zone that I'm… what did he call it? Nesting."

"So I guess they are buried under that mound you're sitting on?" Sam asked.

Danny nodded. "The Lunch Lady suggested it. At least this way they are not trying to float away."

"Really, the eggs would float away?" Sam asked, confused. "Normal eggs tend to stay put."

"Turns out ghost eggs are not like, say, chicken eggs. They are more like… ectoplasmic frog-spawn." Danny said. "Soft-shelled and ready to drift away in the Ghost Zone's ectoplasm current."

"So, how are you doing? You know, mentally?" Sam asked.

"Fine, actually." Danny said. "Sure, it's kind of boring. And by kind of boring, I mean it's really boring. It's weird how most of my enemies have shown up to check up on me, but none of them come within twenty feet of me. When they show up it's like… every ghostly instinct is trying to take me over. I become angry and territorial, but there have been no issues yet. There is one down side..."

"And what's that?" Sam asked.

"It's only a matter of time before Vlad shows up." He grumbled.

"Do you really think he'll find out in less than a week?" Sam asked.

"Definitely. He and Skulker are thick as thieves." Danny said. "I'm kind of shocked he hasn't shown up all ready."

"Well, even if he comes, he has to either respect your space or you can tear him a new one." Sam laughed, and Danny chuckled at the thought. "Would you like me or Tucker to bring you some food?"

"No, I'm good for now. Really, I just want the company of a friendly face." Danny answered. "Where is Tucker, anyway?"

"We couldn't figure out how to duplicate the jet pack without your parents help." Sam said. "So only one of us can be here at a time. Tucker's waiting in your parent's lab for his turn to see you."

For a moment, Danny looked like he wanted to float over to Sam, but almost as soon as he began to shift from his position on the mound, he grimaced and settled back down. "Damn, Skulker was right about not being able to move from this spot… All I wanted was to give you a hug, maybe even a quick kiss before Tucker's turn. But I'm stuck here. Maybe… you can come closer? I know that you're not a threat to me, so maybe my instincts know that too."

"I'd rather not risk it with you so high-strung." Sam said. "Don't worry, I promise we'll make up for every lost moment once this is all done."

Danny grinned. "I'll hold you to that promise, Sam."

For Danny, it turned out to be an incredibly boring week. Of course, he was grateful to Sam and Tucker for spending so much time with him in the Ghost Zone, but that didn't change the fact that they had school and they had to sleep. So that meant that he only had a few hours of company at the most a day.

Vlad did show up briefly, but the elder halfa quickly came to the realization that as long as he was in Danny's line of sight his instincts considered his archenemy a threat. After a few seconds of dodging blasts of ectoplasm from the protective halfa, Vlad gave up and went home. After all, what was the point of mocking the boy if he couldn't even enjoy it?

So one week passed without any sign of Phantom haunting Amity Park and, by that point, everyone was growing concerned. So concerned that there was hardly a question raised about where Fenton was. From what Sam and Tucker could gather, most people seemed to think that Danny's delinquency had come to a head and he had run away to join a gang.

As much as it hurt the two friends to hear people talking about their friend like that, they did nothing to confirm or deny the rumors. Simply stating that they hadn't seen Danny for a week.

Despite their previous belief that the Fenton parents would not notice their missing son with all their weapons destroyed, they were about the only ones that were frantically trying to find their son. They'd taken the time to repair two small ectoguns, one for each of them, and left the rest on the scrap heap while they spent the rest of the time looking frantically for Danny.

Exactly seven days from the time Danny told them he'd produced the eggs, both Sam and Tucker skipped school and went to the Ghost Zone.

Of course, they still only had the one jet pack, which Tucker was wearing. He held onto Sam as they jumped into the Ghost Zone. Luckily, Danny was waiting on the other side for them. He caught Sam before Tucker could crash, and swiftly deposited her on the ground. Then he rushed back over to his usual spot.

Sam and Tucker rushed over as Danny resumed the work that he'd started before they arrived, removing the dirt and exposing the eggs.

Each egg was perhaps half a foot in diameter, and seemed to contain little more that swirling ectoplasm. "Are you sure they are ready to hatch?" Sam asked, concerned.

"Yes, I'm sure." Danny replied. "It doesn't look like it right now, but there's… structure in the ectoplasm."

He unearthed each egg one by one, until all nine were hanging in the air around them. Every once in a while, an egg would start to drift away, but Danny would corral it back with the others.

Several minutes later, the first of the eggs hatched. But, perhaps 'hatch' wasn't the right word. Rather, the egg suddenly morphed into a new shape. It was a ghost wolf. Not a wolf pup, but a smaller version of an adult wolf. The ghost wolf bound over to Danny, offering its back for a pet. The confused teen reached out to pet this ghost wolf that was essentially his child.

After a brief moment, the other eggs started to hatch. There were a pair of ectopuses, a ghost snake, two birds, another wolf, and a big cat of some kind. The final egg started to morph, and then disappeared right in front of Sam and Tucker's eyes.

"Aw, man… Danny, was that one a dud?" Tucker asked. Could ghost animals be stillborn? He wondered.

Danny floated over to inspect the place where the egg disappeared. The ghost wasn't destroyed. He could still feel the small bundle of ectoplasm. "No, it's not gone. It's a phantom." He said, shocked. He felt the little ghost's invisible presence press up against his body. Phantoms, at least, were more intelligent than ghost animals and could recognize Danny as its parent.

But, while he was not surprised by the little phantom's interest in him, what did shock him was that none of his other eight offspring seemed all that interested in taking off right away. Skulker had told him that they'd wander away almost as soon as they hatched, but all of them crowded around Danny, as if begging for his attention.

"Do you think they all know you're their parent?" Tucker asked, voicing Danny's thoughts.

"Maybe it's your human side." Sam said. "Maybe you gave them each a little piece of your humanity, making them smarter than normal."

The entire time Danny had guarded their eggs, he had to work to not become too attached to them. Perhaps it was no issue for the average ghost, but these were his children, and he knew they would take off into the Ghost Zone, and he'd probably never see them again. But here they were, frolicking around him, rubbing against him, and doing pretty much all they could to get his attention.

"They certainly seem to love their mommy." Tucker said, taking out his cellphone. Before Danny could ask what Tucker was doing, the techno-geek had snapped a photo of him and his children. "Just a family photo." Tucker said, putting his phone back into his pocket.

"You have to send me that picture." Sam commented.

The little phantom was the first to notice Sam and Tucker's presence. Even Danny could not see it, but he felt the little presence move away from him and rush over towards Tucker and Sam. Years of ghost hunting with Danny had sharpened their senses for the paranormal to the point where they could tell if a ghost was invisible within a few feet of them, so they could feel when the little phantom got in their faces.

"Whoa..." Sam gasped, when she felt the presence float around her, as if wondering what she was. And then the phantom rushed over towards Tucker and, without preamble, knocked his beret off his head.

Danny laughed. "Well, phantoms are known for being mischievous."

"Oh, please, we both know that was genetic." Tucker grumbled as he picked up his beret and put it back on, only for the phantom to knock it off again.

The others realized that Tucker and Sam were there too. But none of them attacked as pretty much every ghost animal they had ever encountered would do. Perhaps there was some truth to the theory that Danny had passed some of his humanity onto his offspring, making them less aggressive towards humans. They didn't seem to have any issue with either Sam or Tucker touching them.

So the next few hours was spent playing with Danny's offspring. Over the next several hours, one by one, Danny's children would wander off into the Ghost Zone to start their own existence away from their parent. The last to leave was the little phantom.

Danny held the little spirit in his hands. "You take care of yourself, you hear?" He asked the little spirit, which could understand him, even if it couldn't reply verbally. He got a flash of emotion from the phantom, a calm acceptance as if the little spirit was telling him that it would be fine. And then, just like that, the phantom followed its siblings into the depths of the Ghost Zone.

"Do you think you'll ever see them again?" Tucker asked.

"I don't know." Danny answered truthfully. A part of him hoped that he would never see his children again, because that would mean they had found their way into the human world. They were so friendly towards humans that they would probably be unable to realize that some humans are dangerous. He sighed, and realized that he no longer had any need to stay in the Ghost Zone for another three years. "Let's get out of here."

Danny blamed his absence of the last week on the Wisconsin Ghost, figuring that if someone had to take the heat for his disappearance, it might as well be Vlad. Once Danny's parents heard that their son had been kidnapped by a very dangerous ghost, they had pretty much forgiven him for causing so much worry and were just glad to have their son back safely.

Most ghosts would probably forget about their offspring almost as soon as they left, but Danny's human side could not forget. Now every time he faced off against a ghost animal, even if it was definitely not one of his, he couldn't help but think of them. He was, after all, both their mother and their father. (Father when talking about the experience out loud, but they all knew mother was the closer term to what he was to those ghosts.)

(One Month Later)

To: techno-geek

From: ghost-boy

Tucker? What the hell is this? I'm going to fucking kill you!

PhantomPhans Forums: Phantom Has Babies OMG!

To: ghost-boy

From: techno-geek

Dude, Danny, I wasn't me, I swear!

To: techno-geek

From: ghost-boy

Don't play innocent with me, Tuck. That's the photo I know you took of us! The people on the forums are going insane! Sure, I don't mind the stupid naming contests, but most of them now think I'm secretly a woman!

To: ghost-boy

From: techno-geek

Danny, I swear it wasn't me. What's the user name of the person who posted the topic?

To: techno-geek

From: ghost-boy

TechMaster101. Aw, shit, fucking Technus! I gotta go, Tuck. A certain ghost has just earned a few hours crammed into the Fenton thermos.

To: ghost-boy

From: techno-geek

Not even going to help with naming your babies, man? These people need all the help that they can get. Seriously, Wolfy Phantom? Sounds like a cereal mascot. And there's no way we can let your phantom be stuck with Invis-o-bill Jr.