DISCLAIMER:

I, Impudent Miscegenation, of Fanfiction (dot net), do not own or have any affiliation with the creators of Danny Phantom. All rights respectfully go to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon. I don't gain material profit from my works featured here, I write for my own amusement.

So, I know I should be working on Royally Screwed but ohmygod I was on tumblr and I just need to get the plot bunnies out, like, now. ;u; I saw a HC that I REALLY love and I just. Ohmygods.

Summary: A series of oneshots that go from one end of the spectrum to the other.

Bits and Pieces

Chapter One: Broadcast

*Post P.P.

Danny fiddled with the microphone pinned to his shirt, biting his lips nervously. He should never have agreed to go on 'Paranormal Press' to talk about his ghost half. Never. This was dumb, so dumb. Why was he so dumb? He glanced off to the side to see his parents giving him a thumbs-up from where they were, talking to some big-shot GIW scientist that the 'news' had also been interviewing. Of course they'd be grinning and excited; why not? They aren't the ones that have to go on live television and talk about what were the most intimate parts of themselves.

Danny scowled to himself and tried to get comfortable in the black leather seat that he'd been given. Seated across from him was the reporter who would be asking the questions. The reporter, a gentleman in his early forties named Rich, gave the boy a small, crinkly-eyed smile. The brown-eyed man gently moved the teen's hand from the microphone. Danny went stiff and dropped his twitching hand onto his knee.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's like camera's not even there, if you don't think too much about it. I was nervous my first time on live T.V., too, so I know how it feels." Rich gave the boy a reassuring nod. Danny tilted his head to acknowledge that he'd been spoken to but remained rigid. Rich stroked his freshly-shaven chin before grinning.

"Y'know, the first time I did a live show, I was so nervous I got really bad gas." Rich found his cheeks tinting at the not-so-fond memory of his late teens. Danny looked at the man and allowed himself a small, amused smile.

"Really?" He asked, intrigued and a bit more relieved. Rich grinned, glad to see that his confession had produced the desired effect on the teen. There it is. The reporter nodded.

"Mmhmm. Totally. It was foul, too. My co-workers wouldn't stop calling me 'Rich the Ripper' for months." Danny chuckled quietly, behind his hand out of respect, and looked at the plush violet carpet, mirth dancing in his blue eyes.

"That sounds… awful." Rich laughed quietly as well.

"Yeah, it was pretty bad. This stays between us, okay? I really don't want that nickname coming back." Danny laughed and the two shook hands.

"Deal." Suddenly a voice offstage called their attention.

"We're live in thirty!"

Danny gulped. She didn't mean thirty minutes. Rich cleared his throat and Danny glanced over, relaxing slightly at the older man's calming gaze.

"Just breathe, you'll do great. You saved the world from a glowing green asteroid; how hard could a little interview be?" Danny grinned and looked down a bit, pink staining his cheeks. Rich chuckled and straightened his notes, crossing one leg over another. "Just focus on me," the seasoned reporter advised coolly, "I promise you that this'll be over before you know it."

"Fifteen seconds!"

Danny took a deep, steadying breath and made himself comfortable in the seat that he'd been provided with. Focus on the questions, Fenton. Just relax. You've stuffed countless ghosts back into the ghost zone, faced your evil future self, and generally gone through Hell and came back unscathed! This is just a dumb interview! You can do this!

"Five! Four! Three!…"

Danny snapped up to a decent posture and forced himself into a collected countenance. Even Rich found himself impressed at the boy's sudden shift before he gave a dazzling smile to the camera.

"Good evening, everyone. Today is a special day; I'm Richard Rossum of Paranormal Press here with Daniel Fenton who, up until just a few months ago, was avowed as a normal high school student in the not-so-normal town of Amity Park in Michigan; however, the Disasteroid debacle of several months prior is what forced a change, so to speak. I don't suppose I have to tell you that I am not only speaking to Amity Park resident Daniel Fenton, but will also have the pleasure of addressing proclaimed hero, Danny Phantom." Rich adjusted his focus and beamed at the halfa, who, in turn, responded with a slight quirk of the lips. It wasn't necessarily awkward, just a bit unnatural. He was still fraught with nerves.

"So, Danny, what part of all this has been the most difficult to get used to?" Danny swallowed and looked at the space between Rich's eyebrows.

"Well, I guess not having to dodge into a porta-potty to switch forms is pretty neat." Rich chuckled and Danny grinned, gaining a bit of confidence from his jest. "Out of everything? … I have to say that it's a bit odd to, well, not be ignored. I mean, before all of this, I could just kinda do my own thing and nobody would really pick up on it but now it's like I can't do anything without at least someone noticing." Rich nodded.

"I suppose that would be taxing after a while. Now, from the Disasteroid incident we were informed that not only do ghosts exist but half-ghosts as well; can you elaborate on this?" Danny blinked and tilted his head to the side a bit.

"Well, I'm not really a scientist like my parents but I have picked up some things from wandering the 'Zone." Before Rich could think to ask about the Ghost World, Danny continued. "So, ghosts are… formed when a human dies and their emotions leave a strong enough imprint behind into ectoplasm-which is the stuff that ghosts are made out of. Usually, the stronger the emotions a person leaves behind when they die, the stronger their ghost is when it materializes in the Ghost Zone." Jack wiped a tear from his eye backstage; he knew his son would follow in his footsteps! And the way he went about it, he sounded just as smart as his mother, who was also beaming. The boy had a far-off look in his eyes and Rich could tell not to interrupt him, the boy was deep in thought.

"A halfa… Well, we're… I'm different," Danny adjusted his statement, looking towards the floor. "Obviously there's not a lot of, y'know, science behind this but… I guess I'm the product of a half-death. Like, I started to die but because there was a lot of ectoplasm, my ghost formed immediately and, as a defense mechanism, I switched forms before it was over which preserved my human half." Rich heard murmurs and other forms of quiet exclamation from the studio; Danny either didn't notice or didn't care. The boy looked back up from the floor and nodded to Rich, who took the hint and looked at his notepad before frowning and looking back at the boy. He cleared his throat.

"You say that you, in a sense, died. How did you die, then?" A chill swept through the room. Those watching on the television could feel it and saw the shiver that ascended Rich's spine. Danny's black hair covered his face and he had a hard frown set on his lips. Rich was about to open his mouth to take back the question, obviously he'd set his interviewee off somehow, when Danny let out a small noise, a laugh almost.

"Yeah, I sometimes forget that the human world isn't really… acquainted with weird ghost formalities." Danny looked up and brushed the hair from his face, calming his expression and taking back the chill from the room. Rich frowned.

"What do you mean?" Danny shrugged his shoulders.

"To be honest, if you asked anyone in the 'Zone that question, you'd probably get your lights punched out. It's… really rude to ask a ghost how they died. It's the sort of thing that you'd have to gain a certain level of trust before even really broaching the subject…"

Silence as Rich kicked himself mentally. The murmuring hadn't stopped and Danny let his smile drop, facing toward the back of the room. As Rich was about to ask another, more safe, question, Danny interrupted his thoughts with an answer.

"I was electrocuted." The boy's eyes closed. "I… Wandered into my parent's lab one afternoon with my friends. I kinda told them about this invention that my parents made but that it fell just short of working so we were gonna check it out… I went inside and… Turned it on while I was still in it… And the rest is history." The teenager now looked slightly sick and completely miserable, the hands in his lap were trembling. Rich felt a stab of guilt that was nothing compared to what the boy's parents were feeling just offstage. The reporter cleared his throat with a small smile.

"Alright then, next question! So, having parents with lots of paranormal knowledge; how do you think you were able to keep your secret under wraps for so long?" Danny's attitude changed and he rubbed the back of his neck with a crooked grin.

"Heh, luck? … To be honest, I'm surprised myself. I guess those of us who knew were just real careful; I don't really think that there's much else to it. Luck and caution." Danny shrugged his shoulders and Rich nodded.

"Fair answer. So, being half-ghost yourself, what is your opinion overall of ghosts?" The boy frowned in thought.

"Well, that's kinda like asking what I think of humans as a whole. I mean, it's a pretty broad spectrum that you're referring to. Some ghosts want nothing but power and will do anything to get it, some humans are the same way. Some ghosts want to help others any way they can, some humans feel the same… Most ghosts kinda just want to be let alone, which I can respect as long as their 'being alone' doesn't, y'know, cause issues. I think what I'm trying to say is that you can't base your perspective of ghosts because of one nasty encounter; it's bound to happen, just like going about your life and meeting terrible humans. In fact, I know a whole lot of ghosts who are absolutely terrified at the idea of humans." Danny paused to grin, as if thinking of a fond memory. "So… Yeah." He looked at Rich with his boyish smile. The reporter nodded and adjusted his leg.

"Alright, then. What is the most powerful enemy you have faced thus far?" The boy pursed his lips and went quiet.

"Hmm, that's tough, actually. I guess… hm. I guess I should say Pariah Dark was the hardest ghost I've ever had to fight. Especially considering I couldn't have done it on my own." He mused aloud and Rich tilted his head to the side.

"Could you give us a bit… More on this ghost?" Danny made a noncommittal sound before nodding his head and continuing.

"Well, Pariah Dark was a really ancient ruler of the Ghost Zone. The proclaimed 'King of All Ghosts'. As you can imagine, he was pretty… difficult to deal with." Danny rubbed the back of his neck nervously and Rich got the hint to begin to stray away from the topic. A woman cleared her throat and pointedly looked at the clock to remind him that he was on a bit of a time-crunch here. He needed to be quick with the five minutes he had left.

"Alright, how about we start to wrap this up, then. What do you think is the most powerful ability that you have currently?"

"My Ghostly Wail, for sure." He said without hesitation, nodding to affirm himself. Rich grinned and continued along with this train of thought.

"Can you tell me about it? What does it do? How do you do it?" Danny looked even more uncomfortable and Rich started doubting himself. Was he asking all the wrong questions? The boy cleared his throat and adjusted himself in his seat.

"Well, it's… It's a bit tough to understand, really…" He mumbled before biting his lip. Maddie and Jack Fenton were just as confused from where they sat on the sidelines. Usually Danny was pretty ecstatic when demonstrating what he could do. Not once had he tried to perform a 'Ghostly Wail' for them, let alone have such a strong adverse reaction to it. Rich told himself not to interrupt the boy. He was obviously going to answer the question; the teen was looking for a way to articulate himself. Seemingly having found an answer to an internal question, Danny swallowed hard and continued to face the carpet. The teen's face was more hardened than it had been (and much more distant than it usually looked, Maddie noticed).

"You remember when I told you that ghosts form out of strong human emotions bound to ectoplasm, right?" Rich nodded and Danny continued, speaking softly. The producers turned up his microphone to catch his words, which they hung onto like a lifeline. "Well, sometimes it's not just emotions that get left behind. Sometimes there are… traces of certain memories or experiences that also go into forming a ghost. Sometimes these traces turn into abilities unique to the ghost that possesses them. Most of the time, these traces are what fuels 'obsession' in ghosts. Like, hunting, for example." Danny grinned for a moment before regaining his somber expression. He sighed quietly and plucked at his shirt.

"… When I went through the portal it… It really hurt. It was… awful. The worst thing I can think of, really. And… As I was, well, practically dying, I screamed." He paused and the boy almost looked ready to vomit. Maddie was horrified into silence, covering her face with gloved hands while her husband was uncharacteristically stoic, frowning with his brows drawn together in concern. Rich leaned forward whilst Danny continued.

"A while after I became a halfa, I fought a really bad ghost. He was winning and I panicked. I yelled at him, screamed at him, and found out that I could project that sound so that it's unbearable to those who hear it. It, very literally, blows them away." Danny picked at the hem of his shirt again before finishing up with his answer.

"I found out myself that my Ghostly Wail is unique to me in that… Well. When I tap into that power, I'm releasing… My dying screams." His voice faltered for a moment and he heard his mother let out a choked sob at the mention of her child, her baby boy, going through that amount of pain. Danny steeled himself and forced a grin at the reporter. "But it's pretty powerful. It's really only a last resort attack because it just drains me, but it gets the job done, in most cases." He shrugged to play off the sick feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"Next question?" Danny asked, his voice slightly hesitant. Rich merely smiled and shook his head slightly.

"Actually, we're just about out of time. Thank you so much for coming, Danny. Just the few answers you've given us today will undoubtedly shake things up in the paranormal scientific community!" Rich chuckled and gave Danny's hand a firm shake before facing camera #1 again to give his conclusion speech.

Danny waited in his chair until a woman's voice echoed "We're clear!"; the boy stood and-before he could be enveloped in his parents' hugs-flew through the studio's ceiling and into the crisp evening air.

I would rather take a beating from Skulker in my human form than do that again.Danny mused to himself as he twirled in the breeze, allowing the air currents to drift him further into the stratosphere and away from the studio, where plenty of baffled people were chattering away below him.

I edited this a little bit to make it flow a bit better than it had originally. I still like this piece and I hope you guys do too!

Keep on reading and reviewing!
Stay fabtatulistic!
~IM