Good afternoon and welcome to another chapter of REM! No, wait... wrong story. This one's PI, right? Oh well, at least it's a story. Anywho, I'm glad you people are able to stand me long enough to get to this point. Chapter eleven, after six or seven chapters of my annoying past self! Good grief, you guys are rock solid. Enjoy this hopefully more mature chapter of PI!

Chapter Eleven

Revelation

"W-what are you talking about?" Danny stuttered, trying in vain to cover his mistake.

Dib was having none of it. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, ghost!" he shouted. "No more secrets! Tell me everything!" The young PI's face flushed with excitement. He'd never even realized that the ghost he'd been after was under his nose the entire time, joking and eating ice cream with him. "How did you disguise yourself? And what about your family? Are they ghosts too?"

"Dude, calm down, what makes you think I'm a ghost?"

"Your hair, your build, your face, heck, your name! Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom? Why didn't I see it before?!"

"So we look alike, so what? It's just a coincidence."

"Then explain the whole 'so buttons' thing! You even use the same tone! There's too many similarities! I refuse to accept a different explanation!"

As Dib rambled on, the Ohio trio formed a huddle.

"We've gotta do something!" Danny whisper-shouted.

"Like what?" Tucker whispered back. "This kid is nuts!"

Sam chewed her lip. "Maybe we play along with it…"

"How is it playing along if it's true?" Danny whispered dryly.

"I don't know! Just… feed him fake ghost facts to distract him or something!" Sam said, breaking out of the huddle.

The ghost teen straightened up as best he could, wincing. "Dib."

Dib halted mid-rant, looking up at Danny.

"I'm not entirely a ghost. I'm a halfa. Half a boy, half a ghost. My family is completely human and oblivious, and I'd like to keep them that way. Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and now you are the only people that know," he said reluctantly.

Dib blinked, his rant stopped in its tracks. He had expected denial and resistance, the type of things Zim usually shouted to the planet when he was under pressure. "Oh… How can someone only be half ghost?" he inquired.

"Very carefully," Sam commented dryly, earning a rueful grin from Danny.

"It was your fault," he joked. "'Go stand in the portal, Danny, it's a great idea! Nothing can go wrong!'"

"Portal?" Dib's ears perked up.

"Another story for another time," Danny said with finality.

Dib sensed that Danny was never going to tell him about the portal. The young PI shrugged it off, changing the subject. "I can't wait to tell my dad, or the mayor, or the president, or" - he gasped - "Mysterious Mysteries! Those guys have never believed me about Zim, but after I show them an actual half-ghost, then maybe-"

Dib was interrupted by a strong hand on his shoulder and said half-ghost's grim face mere inches from his own. "You can't tell anyone," Danny said firmly. "If my secret gets out to the world, I will never stop being hunted. I'm fourteen, and I'd like to live my life on the outside of a lab."

Dib's face grew serious as he comprehended what Danny had said, and he nodded slowly. "I can't believe I'm saying this but…" He ran a hand over his hair-scythe. "Your secret's safe with me."

Danny smiled slightly, then took his hand off Dib's shoulder, extending it to the twelve-year-old. Dib took it in a silent vow, and the four kids left Zim to regain his senses.

However, no one noticed a shadow flit behind them to the battle mech, its eyes narrowing in scheming concentration.

oOo

Dib's room was a mess. The sight of its disorder made every Guy in White cringe from their crisp suits to their souls (which were not quite as pristine as their attire). The agents had searched every inch of it, confiscating any alien-hunting tech that wasn't a comic book hoax. The pile totaled three items, including Dib's alien handcuffs.

"Any sign of ecto-activity?" a high-ranking agent inquired.

"No sir. The kid doesn't seem to have harboured a ghost in here. We couldn't pick up anything around the rest of house either," a subordinate replied.

The first agent exhaled in frustration. "Then load up and roll out. I want to have a talk with that weird green kid about pranking his friends via government authority."

oOo

Danny was going absolutely insane.

He never knew so many questions could fit inside such a small kid, but Dib Membrane's large head seemed to be bigger on the inside. The halfa was so sick of talking about ghosts and their abilities that he thought he'd glimpsed a certain ginger classmate of his. He chuckled as he thought about the absolute field day that Wes and Dib would have trying to expose either Zim or Danny himself to the world.

"DANNY!"

"AH!" Danny jumped as Dib suddenly popped his tangent of thoughts, and the ghost realized that the short PI was staring at him expectantly from his perch on the Skool's broken swingset. "Sorry, what?"

Dib sighed impatiently. "I said, what kind of powers do you have?" he asked, exasperated.

"Oh, right. Well, the most basic ones are stuff like flight, intangibility, invisibility, you know, standard ghostly things. I can also overshadow - or possess - people, like this…" Danny went intangible and slipped into Tucker. The geek blinked as his body was taken over and his eyes turned green.

"Hi, everybody!" Tucker announced in Danny's voice. "My name is Tucker Foley and I have PDA with my PDA! Rhonda is one sweet computer, and her screen tastes like new tech!"

Tucker crossed his arms as soon as Danny exited. "Not cool, dude," he muttered over Dib's hearty laughter.

Danny grinned, continuing. "I also have ghost breath. It's this blue wisp that I breathe out whenever another ghost is nearby, kinda like Spidey-senses. From what I've learned, ghost breath is connected to my ice core, which lets me freeze stuff."

"Cooool," Dib breathed, fascinated as Danny formed a small crystal between his hands.

"I can duplicate myself too (which took way too long to figure out), and I can… uh, stretch myself apart." Danny made a ring where his sternum should have been. "And of course you've seen the ecto-blasts. I'm also pretty sure that I can use my ghost energy to do telekinesis, but we haven't tested that out yet. There's like, an entire Wiki article on my powers back in Amity."

Dib looked up from the notes he had been furiously scribbling down on his legal pad. "Is that it?"

"Probably not… there's a lot of stuff to keep track of," Danny answered sheepishly.

Dib shrugged, jumping down from the crooked swings. "We can find out later. But for now, I hear ice cream calling my name!"

"Amen to that!" Tucker exclaimed, eagerly following the young P.I.

The four friends headed to the ice cream parlor, where the nice psychic grandma was already preparing their favorites.

From the shadows draped over the corner of the Skool, the mysterious figure watched the entire exchange, a small, handheld camcorder clutched in its hand. Recording everything.

Welp, nothing like a nice plot thickening to end a chapter! Sorry about the late chapter (although, which of the past four haven't been?), but I've been busy with band camp, homework, smashing sugar-glass bottles over guys' heads. You know how it is. Also, the next chapter will be a ways away as well (try saying that five times fast). I have so much work to do… oh well. Thanks again for sticking with me this far. I wasn't really sure where I was going with this one, but I think I do now, and I appreciate the support from 6000+ viewers! Thank you for the constructive criticism and your undying patience with me. Also, please check out my new original story over on FictionPress, Symphony in G. I'm hoping to get some feedback on it, to see if it would work as a physical, published novel. Symph in G is probably the best thing I've ever written, seeing as how it does not feature my crappy early writing style, and I would love to see what y'all think! See you in chapter twelve!

-REM