Lyre of Gold

By: Wilona Riva

Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom.

Part of the "The White Dreamer" collection.

Music

"Mrs. Fenton, I didn't know you could play the harp," Tucker said, examining the small hand-held stringed instrument his best friend's mother was fine-tuning.

"It's not a harp, Tucker Foley," Madeline Fenton replied, taking off her goggles. "It's a lyre, molded with a platinum/gold alloy. Once, I get this baby fine-tuned, we'll see what she can do."

"What does it do?" Tucker asked.

"Plays a special type of music only halfas can hear."

Tucker nearly choked. "A halfa? What's a 'halfa'?" he asked cautiously.

"Jack and I caught a cat ghost a few nights ago and interrogated it," Maddie replied, ignoring Tucker's 'tortured it' aside.

"It revealed some interesting facts about the inhabitants of the Ghost Zone. It seems that there creatures out there that can exist both in the human world and in the ghost world, who walk the fine line between life and death."

"So what does the lyre do?" Tucker asked. He had to know to warn Danny, who was upstairs finishing a game of DOOM with Sam. He had gotten killed earlier in the game so he had wandered downstairs to visit with Mrs. Fenton in the lab.

"When played, it will spell-bind any halfa within hearing range, which is about a city block right now," she said, tightening the last string. "It also triggers the transformation into a ghost, to make it easier to capture them."

"Mrs. Fenton, I don't think..." he sighed. He was too late; she had run her fingers across the strings playing a whimsical melody.

"Well, it plays fine," she said, "just need to tighten the strings a bit more."

"You don't think any halfas heard that, do you?" Tucker asked her nervously.

Maddie was about to answer when she heard footsteps coming down into the lab. Could a halfa have heard the music? That was quick.

She looked up as the person in question came into view. She looked into the ice blue eyes of her son, now dull and listless. "Danny?"

"Heard music," he mumbled, ice blue eyes giving way to ghostly green as the spell of the music forced his transformation.

Maddie dropped the lyre.