Disclaimer: Must we go through this again? I still do not own DP or any of its characters. Heck, I'm lucky enough to have my current job!

This chapter has now been beta'ed by the lovely shadowxdragon. Please go shower her with praise. She deserves it.

Eidolon
24: Frost

Sam watched as Danny paced the floor of her room with growing concern. He had cold spells before, but he would usually warm up again after five or ten minutes. It was approaching a half an hour, and there was no improvement. In fact, you could say that he was getting worse. His complexion was progressively becoming bluer, and he was actually shivering. Streaks of frost had even begun to appear on his clothes and on the carpet after he took a step. Needless to say, the hybrid was beginning to panic.

"Danny!" the goth shouted after a few moments of failing to get his attention. His startled expression slowly morphed into a more sheepish one as he realized he had momentarily blocked out everything around him. "I know you're upset," she told him with as much reassurance as she could muster, "but if you're going to continue pacing, please do it in the bathroom. It'll be much easier to clean up the water trail you're leaving."

"Water…? What are you talking about?" he replied, somewhat scared.

"Dude, you've been leaving a trail of frost all over Sam's room," Tucker explained with a dismissive tone. Sam had to wonder how their lives had become so bizarre that such an event could be brushed off so easily.

The effect that statement had was immediate. A pink tinge appeared on Danny's cheeks as he caught site of the frost trail. A string of apologies and an offer to clean the mess was immediately made, but Sam wouldn't hear it. Instead, she pushed the boy into the bathroom attached to her room. If he was going to continue to freeze things, he might as well do it in the one part of her room where her parents would not venture.

"Tucker, watch him," she instructed her other friend as he laughed. Apparently, she and Danny had momentarily looked like a married couple to him. While she couldn't deny that she hadn't thought about the possibility of them dating, it was not the time to bring it up. A quick threat of pain effectively shut Tucker's mouth and brought a smirk to her lips; she hadn't lost her touch. "I'm going to go find him a heavy jacket or something. Make sure he doesn't leave that room until I get back," she ordered as she moved towards the door.

"You do realize I could just phase through the wall if I really wanted to leave," Danny called out weakly from the bathroom where he was sitting on the edge of the tub.

Sam glared in his direction, but Tucker spoke before she got a chance. "You better not! Sam left me in charge, and that means that if you disappear, I'm the one who'll get killed."

"And that's my problem because…?" Even though Danny's voice trailed off, a hint of amusement could be heard.

"You know you'd be lost without me and my babies," Tucker responded rather smugly. Danny just snorted. "Oh, go ahead and laugh, but next time you get trapped by a crazy middle-aged man, you'll see, it'll be me who bails you out."

Sam had to chuckle as she ducked out of the room before Danny could retort. She quickly ran to one of her parents' closets of old clothes and searched for a winter coat. There were a lot of these closets throughout the top floor of her house. Clothing that had been bought and went out of fashion was just stored away instead of being given to charity. During the several times she had brought up donating them, her parents had never given her a good reason as to why they continued to keep them. Her best guess was that it had something to do with their pride and appearances, but for once, she was glad for whatever their reason happened to be. She raced back to her room after grabbing one of her dad's old, heavy, wool-lined suede jackets.

"I hope that's for me," Tucker told her when she came back into the room.

"Unless you've suddenly developed out of control ghost powers, no," she replied as she noticed something odd. His glasses were getting foggy, and he was trying to suppress a shiver. "What's wrong?"

"It seems like Danny's starting to affect the temperature of this room too. Be careful when you go into the bathroom. It seriously feels like its thirty degrees in there."

"You didn't need to stay in here with me," came a sharp reply from the bathroom.

"Do you really think I'd leave you alone while you're having one of your ghostly episodes? Bad things tend to happen when you're alone."

"Like what?"

"Oh, I don't know," Tucker stated as sarcastically as possible. "You get your limbs randomly stuck in objects, occasionally forget to drop your invisibility, get attacked by strange things, and let's not forget, get abducted by crazy vengeful ghosts."

"In my defense, that last one happened when I was in a police station."

"Touché."

Chuckling, Sam peaked into the bathroom. Danny was floating about an inch above the edge of the tub in a sitting position. If she had to guess, he probably didn't even realize he was doing it. It was then that she realized something else was off.

"Why are you in your ghost form?" she asked as she threw him the coat.

He inspected the garment for a moment before putting it on. "I'm surprised you touched this. It has wool on it."

"It was the warmest thing I could find for you," she replied with an irritated huff. "While it's not what I'd personally choose, at least they don't kill the sheep to get the wool. The poor sheep have also been bred where it's better for them to be shaved… but that's beside the point! Answer the question!"

Danny was silent for a moment. "It kinda just happened… I don't know why, but I guess it's easier for my body to handle whatever is going on right now like this. I definitely don't feel as cold."

"Yeah, but as soon as you did that, the temperature dropped," Tucker argued. "I've heard of ghosts giving people the chills, but you're taking it a little too far."

"Anyways," Sam cut in giving, Danny a stern look as he opened his mouth to say something. He huffed for a moment before giving her a signal to continue. "Danny, we need to get you back home. I know that you and your mom are not getting along, but she's probably the only person who might be able to help. If this keeps up, there's no way we're going to be able to let you out in public. I don't think Amity Park can handle constantly seeing the 'Phantom' just yet. " She gave him a wry look. "You'd think they'd be more impressed by the that fact you can fly, but I swear I only hear the adults talking about how you look like a punk."

"Me?"

"Danny, you currently have white hair and wouldn't exactly look out of place at a concert. The adult population is not prepared to handle it. Trust me. My parents have already debated on whether or not to start a protest against you."

Tucker whistled. "I didn't realize they were that passionate about these kinds of things."

"They think it'll rub off on me," she supplied. "Speaking of which, we should probably leave soon. The last thing we want is to have them find you looking like that."

….

The trip back to Danny's house was surprisingly uneventful. Sam and Tucker flanked his sides, making sure they, and no one else, physically touched the boy. Danny was still leaving frost-covered footprints, but due to the recent dusting of snow, they didn't look too out of the ordinary. There was a slight fight between the three over who got to unlock the door – she won by reminding Danny that he was getting ice on everything and by threatening Tucker; it was a job well done.

"Hello…?" Danny called out as they filled the entryway.

Sam heard no answer, but she noticed that Danny had narrowed his eyes. "What's wrong?"

"It sounds like people are arguing downstairs." Both she and Tucker tried asking him about it, but he ignored them and moved towards the staircase leading to the lab.

"I'm not stating we should completely ignore him, but we, especially you, should distance ourselves from him." They heard a female, Maddie, state.

A snort was the initial reply. "Do you hear yourself?" a male voice almost demanded. "You're his biological mother, yet you treat him like he's nothing more than a lab experiment. We might not be blood relatives, but I love him like he's my own flesh and blood. He's going through a complicated time right now. Sure, he may not want me to coddle him, but I'll be damned if anything will prevent me from giving him the support he needs."

"You don't understand! I'm worried…!"

"I've heard this plenty of times before Maddie, you think he's going to become evil and try to destroy everything. Hate to break it to you, but if that boy's evil, I'm a pumpkin."

"He's showing signs of being a strigoi mort!"

The male voice just laughed. "That's a good one, Maddie. You think he's a vampire?"

An irritated sound came from Maddie. "I'll have you know…"

"I'm well aware that particular title applies to both ghosts and vampires. But in those legends, the strigoi drains energy from its previous family and brings misfortune.

"If you are referring to recent events, you brought that on yourself; because you are trying to push him away and ban your daughter from seeing him, you're the one creating strife. Don't you see? It's affecting everyone! To be honest, if it wasn't for the fact that you're the only one who can help him if something weird happens, I would have pitched you out of this house months ago! You don't deserve him!"

After the man's outburst, a tense pause filled the room. Sam and the boys had gotten halfway down the steps by that time. The three of them were hiding behind the wall that ended halfway down the staircase. Danny was in the front and had stuck his head and shoulders through the wall to actually see what was happening. She was getting uncomfortable and accidentally bumped into Tucker when she adjusted herself. It wasn't that big of an issue until Tucker lost his footing and sent him and a surprised Danny down the stairs.

A groan was all that she heard after they stopped moving. "Sorry…!" she apologized as she ran down the stairs after them.

"What are you kids downing down here?" Maddie asked as her tone became angry.

"What does it look like? We fell," Danny supplied as he started to pick himself up.

"Good Lord, Danny! What happened to you?" the male voice asked. Sam was surprised to see it belonged to Winston. Wasn't he supposed to be out of town? He ran forward to help the boy up, but Danny pulled away. Hurt and confusion momentarily flashed across his face.

"It's better not to touch him right now… he's been freezing everything he's touching," Sam supplied.

"Freezing…?" Maddie asked hesitantly. "Please show me."

Giving her a puzzled look, he moved over to one of the metal tables and gently touched it. A light layer of frost immediately began inching out from his finger tips. Slightly awed, Maddie examined the area for a moment before requesting he remove the heavy coat he was still wearing and his shirt before sitting. She grabbed what appeared to be a scanner from another table. It was slightly harder than expected for Danny to remove the clothing as the frost had stiffened them. He sighed for a moment before just phasing out of them and sitting on the already frost covered table.

After taking a few readings, Maddie gave a surprised look at the machine's small screen. She quickly ran over to a nearby computer and starting downloading whatever information she gathered into it. Several minutes of frantic typing and clicking passed before Maddie finally uttered softly, "I was wondering when this would happen…"

"Wonder when what would happen?" Winston repeated. A hint of warning colored his voice.

The female scientist ignored him and turned to her son. "Danny, have you eaten anything today?"

Danny's eyebrows immediately shot up. "With everything else going on, that's what you ask me?"

"Don't get smart with me. Just answer the question."

"Uh… not really."

"Not really?"

Catching the dangerous tone his mother adopted, he immediately started trying to explain himself. "It-it's not that big a deal. I just wasn't that hungry today… and I've skipped meals in the past…"

"Danny." This time it was Winston who spoke. It was clear that neither of the adults believed the ghost boy. If Sam had to guess, it had to be one of those instincts that parents developed. Or that Danny was a terrible liar. If he was going to continue playing the part of the superhero, they were seriously going to have to look into lessons for him.

The boy's sigh was made more pronounced by the frosty mist he expelled. "Dash took my lunch money… again." His voice was soft and his words were mumbled.

"He took your… wait, this has happened more than once?" Winston looked outraged. Ignoring any possible danger, Winston moved closer so he could get his ward to look at him. Startled green eyes held the glance for a moment before looking away. "Why are you letting this happen?"

"I'd rather it be me than someone defenseless." When there was no response, he hesitantly continued. "From what I've heard, Dash mostly teased his victims before he started high school. He's been progressively getting worse over the last year. It started off with simple shoving, but more recently, he's been having his friends hold the victim's arms while he punches them."

Sam felt her eyes widen in shock. "Danny… you don't mean… he's been doing that to you?" she asked in horror. "Why didn't you say something?"

"Wait, you didn't know about this? He didn't tell you?" The former military man turned on her.

"How could we?" Tucker asked while coming to her defense. "We knew Dash had picked Danny as his new favorite, but we'd only seen the teasing. I mean, Dash likes to openly torment him at least once a day. He has made threats before, but we didn't know he followed through with them."

"It's not like he can hurt me. I mean, after what Vlad put me through, I think I can more than handle a few jocks."

"That's not the point! Behavior like this needs to be stopped." Enraged, Winston started marching towards the stairs. "I'm going to go call the school."

"STOP!" Danny's shout was amplified by the sound of cracking ice. The boy was now standing with his ghostly aura flaring and his eyes burning. Spikes of ice surrounded him on the floor and the table behind him. "Don't get involved in this!" he warned while taking no notice of the new additions to the room. "If you do, it'll only end two ways: things will get worse or he'll go after someone else! They'll never suspend him. He's too important for their sports teams, and if he goes after someone else…" He shuddered briefly. "What if… what if, his new target can't handle it and does something rash? I'd never be able to live with myself otherwise."

No one knew how to respond. Behind the mask of shock, Sam was impressed. She knew Danny kept an eye out for others, but she never knew how deep his compassion ran. He rarely spoke his own views. Instead, he opted to listen to everyone else's. A spark of curiosity started to grow. What else would she get to learn about him?

"Alright…" Winston eventually breathed. "We'll talk more about this later. I will still call the school to report the teasing that I happened to hear about 'in passing'."

Danny nodded slowly before moving to sit back down. It was then he caught site of the ice. "What the…? When did this get here?"

This time the sigh came from Maddie. "Until we get you fed, you're going to need to try to keep calm."

"Again, what does that have to do with anything?"

"As you know, ghosts need energy to manifest themselves. Most of the ones in the area tend to use something easily attainable: electricity, fear, grief, heat…"

"Wait… electricity? Is that why my tech sometimes drains around Danny?" Tucker asked suddenly as he eyed his friend scandalously.

"Yes. Even though Danny's human half is able to supply his ghost half with most of its energy, there are still times when it needs a boost, so it'll take energy from the area. Until now, it was mostly undefined. His core would take whatever energy it could get hold of."

"Is… is that why I was able to take energy from that generator… after I woke up like… this?" Danny asked as he gestured to his glowing body.

Maddie nodded. "Exactly. But, taking it from a generator that was creating an anti-ghost shield wasn't necessarily all that safe. Anyways… I happened to noticed that more recently when you were hungry, particularly after training, that the air around you tended to get colder. Almost as if you were taking the heat from it. This episode just confirmed it. Your core prefers to take its energy by absorbing heat when necessary."

"Wait, I steal heat? What about Sam and Tucker? Is it safe for them to be around me?"

"Normally, it's not an issue. Like I said, your human half usually supplies your core with all the energy it needs. It's just that on days like today where you didn't eat, it needs to get its energy from somewhere to remain stable. But it's also why your breath becomes visible when a ghost is nearby. Your core senses the potential threat and takes in some extra energy."

"So… ?"

His mother just rolled her eyes. "It means that as long as you remain fed and not seriously injured, you don't have to worry about it." She made a small humming noise as a thought came to her. "Although when it gets warmer, we'll have to keep watch that you don't suddenly become hyperactive. The extra heat might be too much of a temptation for your core."

"Well, now that this mystery has been explained, let's get Danny some food before he freezes more of the lab," Winston told the group as he started to shoo Sam and Tucker upstairs. "And so that I can call the school."

Danny made a face at the last comment but didn't respond. Instead he turned towards his discarded shirt and the jacket. Sam gave him another quick glance before dashing upstairs; her cheeks burning. While she knew it wasn't going to happen, she could hope he would opt to remain shirtless for a little longer. He wasn't that bad to look at after all. Darn her and her teenage hormones. Tucker would never let her live it down if he ever found out.

So… I picked the title of this chapter for a more in depth reason than the obvious. Frost can also mean "to make angry" or can be used to describe something that is a "failure" or "flop." So, it fits what's going on more than expected.

Moving on…

I'm sorry I disappeared again! I swear, I have a good reason though! I got an official job! I'm using the knowledge I have gained about medications to help do reviews for an insurance company. Basically, I look over exception requests and help determine if the medication in question should be paid for. There's more that goes into that than you'd think: a legitimate medical diagnosis, safety concerns, if standard therapy has been tried, laws, and cost concerns. If you're curious, just shoot me a message, and I can give you an example of what I do.

A couple notes.

A strigoi mort is a Romanian ghost or vampire that reinserts itself into its former home and family. It drains the life, health, and wealth of its family. There are some very famous and startling stories about them. Even soldiers who had passed through the area report similar tales after temporarily staying with such a family.

Then there's the bullying aspect. You might disagree with me on my views. But I was tortured throughout middle and high school. The only thing that prevented it from becoming physical was my own reputation of being strong (which apparently started after a game of kickball). My main tormentors were jocks. The 'big man on campus' even threatened to kill me – in front of a teacher! (He's now playing in the NFL, by the way). So, I empathize with Danny, a lot. The teachers knew, but they didn't do anything. Even if they caught the person, the detention or suspension didn't do anything. It made it worse. And, if I left, the bullies would have won because they had chased me out. And if I had gone, who would have been their new target? Could that person handle it? Or would they be pushed over the edge? I contemplated suicide at my lowest, but remained strong because of my family. Not everyone is that lucky. And it would have killed me to know that someone had died because they were the new target in my place. And that's how I think Danny would view the situation.

I did notice something that I have to change in the 22nd or 23rd chapter. It's supposed to be mid-late November at this point in the story. I think I phrased it as 'early fall', and that's not right with the timeline. This will get fixed… eventually.

When I talk about degrees, I'm talking about degrees Fahrenheit. For those of you who use Celsius, water freezes at 32 degrees Fahrenheit. So Danny dropped the temperature in Sam's bathroom to just under 0 degrees Celsius.

And, I like my explanation of how Danny's core works. While it doesn't completely fit in with the show, it does work with currently paranormal theories. This is an AU, and I'm using it to my advantage.

Wow! That's a long note! Sorry about that. Now I'm off to go brainstorm.