Steven had been traveling a lot, he wanted to see the world, find a new place in it for him. After saving it for so long and dealing with the repercussions of that, he found himself enjoying the peaceful towns or busy cities, and generally the people that all lived there. He had made so many new friends, friends he would hope to see again and friends he still stayed in contact with over the phone.
The best part of it all was just seeing how vastly different everything around him was. How much people could range from town to town, the little quirks in each town that only those passing through could notice, the ones that made each place special in its own way.
The next town on his map was a little town called ‘Amity Park’, which was apparently the most haunted place on the planet. All the articles he could find on the town emphasized this, he had to admit a ghost gimmick would make any town quite popular during the fall season. He doubted there were any real ghosts though, despite the town claiming to be haunted, there weren’t a lot of stories to back it up. Not a lot of tragic history or stories, it’s past was pretty normal. They just picked up the gimmick nearly two years ago and haven’t dropped it.
As Steven drove into the town, he noticed how quaint it was. It wasn’t too small of a town, housing a mall, hospital, and fairly large neighborhood. But it wasn’t a city either. He decided to take a look around town to se did he could find a hotel or something to stay in for the night, then jolted as he turned the corner. Across the street was a MASSIVE neon sign that hung off what looked to be a modified house, the sign labeled ‘FENTONWORKS’ then shaped an arrow towards the building in question. Steven didn’t even want to know all the building laws broken regarding whatever was built on the roof of the building.
Glancing out the window, he noticed a teen around his age walking past, and quickly took the opportunity to roll down his window and call out, “excuse me! What’s with the building with the neon sign?”
The teen froze, slowly looking over with the most exhausted expression Steven had ever seen, even he didn’t have bags that dark under his eyes during the worst of his endeavours. “That’s the Fenton’s, so called ‘ghost experts’,” the kid hummed sarcastically. “You’re from out of town?”
Steven nodded and offered a bright smile, “yep! Came to see what the most haunted town in North America has to offer!”
“Let me give you some advice,” the kid slowly leaned towards Stevens car. “Run.”
Steven blinked, “p-pardon?”
The kid grinned, and Steven couldn’t help but notice his sharper canines, “Best to run while you still can, Ghost’s don’t like new things.”
The kid then turned and walked away… then walked into the FentonWorks house.
… what.
Was.
That.
Steven took a moment to collect himself before he did a legal u-turn, carefully parked along the street, and walked up to the house himself. He could play this game. He had a very strong urge to befriend the scary boy, so by the gems he was going to do so!
He knocked on the door and bounced on the balls of his feet as he waited for someone to answer. He did manage to hear yelling coming from inside before the loudest sigh was heard and dragging feet. Then the door swung open to reveal the boy, who looked up Steven up and down, “didn’t I tell you that this town sucks?”
Steven smiled and offered his hand, “my name is Steven! I’d love to learn more about this town and it’s ghosts and seeing that you live with the ghost experts, I’m sure you can tell me a few things!”
The kid eyed his hand, the icy gaze slowly rising up to Steven’s face. Something about it sent chills down the half gems spine.
Then the kid took his hand and shook it, which was freezing cold. “Danny. Might as well invite you inside,” he shrugged and turned around, sauntering into the house. “So why are you interested in Ghosts? Want to hunt them down and tear them apart, molecule by molecule?”
Steven jolted as he walked in, “what?! Why would anyone want to do that?!”
Danny turned around again, walking backwards with his eyes wide, “wow, you really are fresh into town, aren’t you? You probably haven’t even seen a ghost yet, have you?”
“Are they really such a common sight here? Like events and such?”
“Events. Sure,” Danny rolled his eyes as he flopped on a couch, gesturing to a seat near him. “Gonna give you a heads up before you wander in the middle of crossfire. The ghosts here are very real, and when you see one, walk in the other direction. Do not go towards it with your mouth wide open, that’s how you get buildings dropped on you.”
“… seriously?” Steven asked.
“As serious as one who lives in a town constantly under attack by dead people who love to make sure nobody gets more than 3 hours of sleep.”
“That sounds… not very great.”
“Ha! We survive,” Danny hummed, “so where shall we start, the place where ghosts come from, the ghosts themselves, or that Phantom weirdo?”
Stevens mind was reeling, “the- wha- Phantom weirdo?”
“Oh don’t get me started, dude shows up one day and suddenly ghosts are everywhere. He’s so annoying too always breaking his back saving stupid tourists. Never gets thanked, cares way too much for a town that barely gives him the time of day, and then gets blamed for the problems he fixes! What a menace.”
Everything Danny said contradicted itself.
“I am… extremely confused.”
“Welcome to Amity Park!” Danny laughed.
He looked ready to say something else what a small gasp escaped him and he muttered something that sounded like ‘of course they have the worse timing.’
Right before Steven could ask, something flew from the floor, something glowing and magic and supernaturally coloured.
“BEWARE FOR I-!”
Steven acted before he could think, jumping to his feet and throwing up a bubble around him and Danny and pushing the glowing blue man across the room. Danny sputtered behind, “wha- WHAT THE FUCK-?”
The glowing man wasn’t injured, but he glared at Stevens bubble, “HOW DARE YOU USE A CIRCULAR OBJECT TO DEFY ME, THE BOX GHOST! MASTER OF ALL THINGS CUBULAR! I WILL SHOW YOU MY BOXED WRATH!” The glowing man lifted his arms and every box shaped thing in the room flew at Stevens bubble! But harmlessly bounced off it. “IMPOSSIBLE!”
“Hey, maybe we can talk about this?” Steven asked.
“I CANNOT TALK TO ONE WHO FAVOURS THE CIRCLE OVER THE SUPERIOR SQUARE!”
“Boxy,” Danny spoke behind Steven, causing him to glance over his shoulder in surprise, “go back the ghost zone.” He was rubbing his eyes, looking like he had gone years without sleep.
“But… my boxtacular takeover-,” the ghost stuttered, which Danny looked up with a glare, eyes flashing a toxic green that cause Steven to jump and drop his bubble in surprise.
“Ghost Zone. Now.”
The self proclaimed Box Ghost disappeared back into the floorboards in a blink of an eye. Steven was blinking at Danny, and Danny was staring back at Steven.
“Are you a Gem?”
“Are you a Ghost?”
“I’m sorry, What?”
————————————
The two sat on the roof of Danny’s house.
“You’re telling me… you’re half alien?”
“How is that crazier than being half dead?”
“You’re half alien! From like- from space! Half your family is from space! In the stars and on other planets and shit! That’s amazing!” Danny seemed to have stars in his eyes, his personality completely changing at the mention of Stevens alien heritage.
“Well, it’s not as amazing when you find out that they were conquerors that destroy life on various other planets before you managed, at the age of 14, to convince them that maybe killing is bad. Then is left with trauma from constantly being in life threatening danger when only 14, that when everything is finally safe and peaceful you have survival reactions to small things like not being able to help your friends repot a plant over the weekend.”
“… dude… you should talk to my sister, she could totally help you through that.”
Steven laughed a little, “oh, I already have a therapist! They’ve really been helping me work through these things.”
“Must be nice talking to someone about daily life or death battles that isn’t trying to psychoanalyze you or talk about dissecting your alter ego.”
Steven stared at Danny for a moment, “you… don’t have a therapist?”
Danny laughed, “of course not! I can’t even tell my parents I’m part ghost in fear that they will vivisect me! I can’t walk into a therapists office and be like: I died when I was 14 but not all the way and my guilt over opening the portal and letting the ghosts in town has me put my own health on hold in favour of protecting a town from my stupid mistakes!” Danny said it all too casually, but Steven could see the glisten of watery eyes, the hunched shoulders, avoiding eye contact as the other teen stared off over the city. “I thought about it before though,” He said quietly, “but after Spectra… they all will just think I’m some freak. Run away, get mad, or just pretend to care. I just got to keep moving forward. I’ll should be fine.”
Steven was already typing the numbers into his phone.
Danny heard the tapping and looked over, “what… what are you doing?”
“I’m booking you an appointment with my therapist.”
“WHAT NO YOU CAN’T DO THAT!” Danny lunged for Stevens phone but he managed to hold it out of reach.
“They deal with super-powered teens saving the world at young ages and dealing with trauma later in life! It’s all confidential, nothing gets out! And it helps! It’s a support system! Ben can vouch for me!”
“Who the heck is Ben?!”
“A kid who got alien powers at the age of 10!”
“WHY DOES EVERYONE GET ALIEN POWERS AND ALL I GET IS HALF DEATH?!”
