Author's Note: This is an idea I've been tinkering with for awhile. It's an AU, and it takes place in the future, in 2110! It's probably going to be lighter than other fictions in terms of mood (I'm looking at YOU Black and White), and I'm having fun writing it so far. Lots of fluffy Danny and Sam moments. I am, however, probably going to end up dropping two of my stories (Memory and Reincarnation) in favor for revamping them as original stories, which I think will work better than what I'm currently running with. I extend my apologies to fans of those two stories, but I do hope you guys enjoy my new brainchild! There may be another one coming sometime in the future, which is actually going to be a revamp of a much older story that didn't work out at first.

The Once and Future Phantom

Chapter One: 2110

"Nobody knows how the Great Amity Park Fire of 2010 began, or even what caused it." A redhead woman spoke, standing on a podium in front of an assembly of high school students. Her pink floral dress looked something from out of a retro movie, as did her hairstyle. It was all rather at odds with what she was telling those assembled. "What is known, however, is that the fire spread quickly, and seemed to burn everything it touched, resulting in an extremely high mortality rate."

Today, the senior class of Casper High School were gathered for a field trip, though they hadn't gone too far from their school campus. There was some grumbling amongst those assembled, complaining that they already knew all of this stuff, or annoyed that the teacher couldn't think up of a better outing. Some of them wanted to hurry up with the lab part of the tour.

Pamela Manson, the presenter, ignored it, and possibly didn't even hear it. The students were gathered near the headquarters of Manson Inc, a company that she co-owned with her husband. To be more precise, they were standing in front of the memorial for the victims of the Great Amity Park Fire.

"All told, there were around four hundred dead, and only around a hundred survivors." Pamela continued. "Ten years after the fire, the city was rebuilt, and the first thing to be erected was this memorial." She told them, motioning back to it with her hand. "We bring you here today, on the anniversary of the fire, both to remember those lives that were lost, and those lives that were saved. Some of whom may very well be your great-great grandparents."

Meanwhile, in the crowd, a black haired girl found herself trying to hide from the speaker, concealing herself behind the back of one of her close friends. Her violet eyes peeked out from behind his back every so often. "Ugh." Seventeen year old Samantha Manson grumbled. "Why does it have to be my mom doing this? If she sees me, she's bound to embarrass me!"

"Oh come on, your mom can't be that bad." The boy she was hiding behind glanced back at her, grinning a little. He had thick, shaggy black hair that reached his shoulders, and azure eyes. Although it was hard to see, obscured underneath his bangs, there was a scar going through his left eye, which appeared to be blind because of it.

"Psh." Sam glared up at him. "Don't give me that, Danny, you know my mother. She would do it in a heartbeat. Now just stay still, I don't want her to see me."

"Right, right." Danny just laughed again. "I'll stay put, I promise. But you know she knows you're here right?" He asked, glancing back at her again. "I don't think she exactly needs to see you to embarrass you."

"Ugh, did you have to remind me of that?" Sam asked, glancing up at him. "Jerk. I told you we just shouldn't have come. I told you we should have gone over and hung out at Tucker's."

"I know, I know." Danny glanced back down at her. "But this part of the trip was kind of important to me, Sam. You know that, right?"

The raven haired girl heaved a sigh. "Yeah, I know Danny, sorry." She grinned at him a little then, and gave him a squeeze. "Didn't mean to hurt your feelings, Inviso-Bill." She teased him lightly.

Danny returned her grin, reaching back to ruffle her hair. "Shush, don't call me that in public. You'll make me look suspicious. Besides, that name is lame anyways. Nobody calls me that anymore." He pretended to lecture her, but couldn't keep the grin off of his face.

"I think you manage to do a pretty good job of that on your own. You kind of stand out." Sam pointed out, arching an eyebrow. "Do you want to skip the lab tour, then?" She asked. "It's not like you haven't seen it before."

"Yes, thank you." Danny almost sounded relieved at the offer. "No offense, Sam, but I really don't like your parent's lab. It makes me nervous." He admitted. "Not so good with all of that technology stuff."

"Tell me about it, it took you half a year to navigate a cell phone from 2080." She teased him. It was true, though. Even after they had gone out of their way to get the oldest model in the shop, Danny had spent the rest of the day just trying to figure out how to turn the thing on.

"Hey, you don't like all of this tech stuff either." Danny almost pouted, glaring back at her. Sam was well known as being rather 'old-school' when it came to just about everything. Be it old books or movies, she was in love with the past, while everyone else embraced the future. She didn't use modern technology unless it was absolutely necessary.

"Ah, but the difference between you and me is the fact that I'm not actually afraid of it." Sam pointed out, lifting up a finger as she did so. She grinned at her older friend. "Mister Technophobe. It does make me wonder why you live with Tucker, of all people."

"I'm not afraid of it, I just don't like it." Danny huffed, clearly in denial. "There's a big difference. Anyways, you guys make everything far too complicated."

"Right, right." Sam chuckled. Peering out from behind her friend's back, she noticed that her mother had stepped off the podium and was now motioning for the class to move towards the building near the memorial. "And, I take it that's our cue?"

"Yes, it seems like a fine place for us to take our leave." Danny nodded. Taking Sam's hand, he walked with her until they reached a turning point, and ducked into it with her. They waited for the rest of the class to stream in, before they sneaked out the way the had came.

"You could just turn invisible and fly us away, you know." Sam pointed out, almost seeming a little bit disappointed. She really liked to fly with him. It was like nothing else she had ever experienced. Although there was technology available for that these days, jet packs and hover boards, they were all so impersonal compared to flying with Danny.

Or rather, Phantom. Sam smiled. There was something about having a secret among friends that was always exciting to her, especially one as big as this.

"Someone could have seen me change, you know. For all we know, there could have been a security camera there or something." Danny pointed out. "I'm trying to be inconspicuous, remember?"

"Oh yes, inconspicuous. That's why you're wearing a full flight jacket in the middle of summer." She arched an eyebrow, poking his chest. "Not to mention that you're all covered up underneath that, too. You are just the picture of normalcy, Danny." She held up her hands in front of her face, as if making a picture frame. "They could put you next to the word in the dictionary."

"I'd look a lot more suspicious if I wasn't all covered up." Danny shot back. "Besides, it's not like anyone will ever actually figure it out. To everyone at school, I'm just a weird transfer student from the boonies. They have no reason at all to suspect that I'm anything else."

"Like a ghost?" Sam questioned him, glancing over at him with a smile. She had known Danny a long time before he had 'transferred' to Casper High School, ever since she was around four years old, she thought. Danny however... well, Danny was a different story.

Unique, was one way of putting it. To be sure, Danny was one of a kind. She'd never met anyone or anything else like him.

"Yes, like that exactly." Danny told her, as the two headed down the streets of Amity Park. The town was bustling with activity that Friday afternoon, and people were out and about. Overhead, they could hear one of the train cars go by, running on tracks that expanded over the entire city.

Amity Park was a city that was considered the center of the technological revolution. This was thanks in most part to the work of the company that Sam's parents now owned, which they had inherited from their parents, and them for their parents. They had greatly advanced such fields as communications, transit, and computers, and had made several important medical breakthroughs.

There was almost nothing left to remind anyone that for ten years, the town sat as a barren wasteland. It had been ruined by the fire that ran rampant through it, burning almost everything to the ground. There was only one building standing in the current Amity Park today that had stood a hundred years ago, and that was the Fenton Works building, one of the few survivors of the fire that was intact enough to use again. In fact, it looked as if the only thing that had touched it was time, and not fire.

Currently, the Fenton family resided within it's walls. Of the few surviving families, the Fenton family was one of the only ones to actually move back to the new Amity Park. The then fourteen year old daughter of Grace and Richard Fenton, Miranda Fenton, had survived the fire, hidden away in the basement of the house. Nobody knew why the fire had passed the building, save for perhaps Miranda herself. And if she knew, she was always tightlipped about it.

Those that lived there now were Jack and Maddie Fenton, a married couple, and a family of ghost hunters, much like Jack's great-great grandparents. Living with them were their two daughters, Jasmine and Danielle Fenton. The family, save for Jazz, was typically viewed as the town's eccentrics, always prattling on about ghosts. There were still people in living in Amity who were convinced that ghosts did not exist, despite the fact that it had it's own resident ghost.

Phantom.

"Damn, where's that card?" Danny grumbled to himself, as he dug through his pockets, eyebrows knitting together. The two had arrived at Tucker's apartment and were standing in front of his door. "Ah-ha!" Danny grinned, producing a slim white card. "Found it."

The door made a clicking sound once the card was slid through the electronic lock, and Danny opened it up. "Ladies first." He said, stepping aside so that Sam could get in. The raven haired girl grinned and went inside.

"Tucker!" She called out, looking around for their friend. "Hey, Tucker, you in here?" She peered into his bedroom and frowned, turning to Danny. "You think he's in his lab?"

"Is he awake?" Danny asked, closing the door behind them, and pocketing the card. He unzipped his black and white flight jacket, and hung it up on a coat rack near the door. "Come on, I'm sure he won't mind some company down there." He headed towards the back of his apartment and opened a door.

"Hey, Tucker!" Danny called out, spotting his friend. "You alive in here, man?" He asked.

"Huh?" Tucker looked up from his work, seeming surprised to hear someone come in. The African-American teenager turned around, then relaxed, seeing who it was. "Oh, you two. Class over already?" He asked. "I kind of haven't been paying attention to what time it is."

"Do you ever?" Sam asked, taking a seat on one of his spare chairs. The room was practically filled with computers and parts for computers. The nineteen year old was viewed as a prodigy, and he had always been skilled with computers. "No, we're just skipping out on the latter part of the field trip." She told him.

"What, was Danny afraid that a robot was going to jump him?" Tucker asked, setting down his headphones and turning to face his friends.

"I keep telling you, I'm not afraid of technology." Danny huffed, taking a seat. "I just don't like it, that's all."

"Un-huh." Tucker looked skeptical, not buying it for a second. "Dude, I've lived with you for a year now. I know a technophobe when I see one."

"Well, let me just remind you, Tucker," Danny began, arching an eyebrow. "that I could overshadow you right now, and have you knock on Valerie's door in the nude."

Tucker turned a bright shade of crimson, while Sam snickered in the background, not doubt picturing it in her head. "Okay, okay." He said, lifting up his hands in defeat. "Point taken, Danny."

"Mm, that's what I thought." Danny laughed. "Don't worry though Tucker, I wouldn't ever do anything that embarrassing to you." He assured him, resting his arms on the back of the chair he was sitting backwards in. "Well, maybe."

"So, Tucker, what were you working on?" Sam asked, changing the topic. She scooted her chair a bit over towards Danny, resting her head on his shoulder. "You seemed pretty into it."

"Mm, well, it's not so much of a project I'm working on." Tucker told them. "More like something weird I picked up on the city's monitors." He told them. "Some kind of spike in activity, down below the surface. I'm not really sure what it is, but I don't think it's anything to worry about. I've been keeping an eye on it though, just in case."

"Oh yeah?" Danny asked, curious. For some reason, he didn't feel quite so optimistic as Tucker did about it. "What kind of spike?"

"Like I said, I'm not sure right now." Tucker admitted. "I don't think it's anything I've ever seen before, but I'm running it against the database just to be sure." He eyed Danny, catching his expression. "You have a thought?"

"It's probably nothing." Danny admitted. "I don't know, it's not a thought, really, more like a feeling." He told him. "Kind of like when you know you've forgotten something, but can't really think of what it is?"

"You think it might be ghost related?" Sam asked, lifting her head off Danny's shoulder. She had always found it odd that in a town with a history like Amity Park's there was only one ghost around.

"I don't know." Danny confessed. "I haven't sensed anything. It's been awhile since this city has had any real ghost activity though, my senses might just be dull." The raven haired boy admitted, adjusting the white aviation goggles he wore on his forehead as he spoke. "It's been," he frowned, trying to figure it out in his head. "Well, long before you two were born, at any rate."

"Mm, so says the old man." Tucker couldn't resist teasing Danny, grinning at him. "Exactly how old will you be come your next birthday?"

Danny twitched, shooting a glare at Tucker. "I am not that old." He frowned, looking away from him. "And I'd really rather not say."

"Tucker, don't tease him." Sam shot her friend a look. "You know he's sensitive about that sort of thing." She grinned over at Danny, putting her head back on his shoulder. Danny moved his arms, wrapping one around her.

"Mm, you just say that because you're dating him." Tucker pointed at her. "There are so many things wrong with that picture, you know. So many things. If you two weren't my friends, I would think you were really weird."

"If you weren't our friend, you wouldn't even know why it was weird." Sam pointed out. "Besides, I think you're just jealous because you still can't gather the courage to ask Valerie out yet. You wound up going to the senior prom alone, didn't you?"

"Hey, that was not my fault." Tucker protested. "I did too have the courage to ask Valerie to go, it was just that somebody else got there first." He crossed his arms in front of his chest. "Besides, I've been busy now. I'll ask her out when I'm good and ready! Just you wait."

"Oh, we will." Danny assured him. "But really, Tuck, you ought to do it. You're not going to know what she thinks of you until you ask her. It's not like she's going to bite your head off."

A beeping noise at Tucker's computer interrupted the conversation, and not a moment too soon for him. He knew his friends meant well, but he didn't like it when the subject of Valerie was brought up. It was kind of awkward to get love advice from that kind of couple. "That would be a match, then." Tucker said, turning around to bring up the results.

His eyes widened as he read them, and he turned back to Danny. "Hey, you know that ghost theory you guys had?" He asked them. "Yeah, well. I don't think you were that far off the mark."

The two brunettes exchanged looks, and got up from their chairs, heading over towards Tucker's computer to check out the results themselves. "Oh, holy crap." Danny's azure eyes went wide. "You have got to be kidding me."

Almost no sooner than had those words escaped his mouth, a wisp of blue smoke came from between his lips. Exchanging a look with his two friends, he frowned, turning towards the window. "I guess my senses haven't dulled after all." He observed.

It seemed that Tucker did know what kind of energy spike it was after all.

Ectoplasmic.

AN: No, no, I don't intend to explain about Danny in this chapter. I might cover it in the next, but until then, if you guys have any theories, do feel free to share! I always like to hear them. 3