Phantom Falls

4: Dog Catcher

The above artwork does not belong to me.

Danny stretched and yawned as he walked through the door. He'd taken a tour of the town with the twins, and he was exhausted. But the moment he saw Jazz, his drowsiness was replaced with annoyance.

"Hey, Danny," she said as he walked by her to his room, but he ignored her. She sighed and grabbed his arm. "Danny, I'm sorry that you don't like Pacifica, but you shouldn't be so rude to her."

"I'm being rude? Have you even listened to her speak?"

His sister looked at him as if he didn't understand. "Just enjoy yourself. At least you don't have to stay up all night here."

"But what's going on in Amity Park? Who will protect Sam and Tucker without me?"

Jazz rolled her eyes. "They'll be fine. Half the time the ghosts come after you anyway."

"And that's another thing. I can't believe you started talking about my ghost half in public!" he hissed. "Jazz, you have a responsibility to play dumb when it comes to my secret. That Dipper kid isn't stupid. Thanks to you, he knows that something strange is going on."

"Well, it doesn't matter anyway, because no one even knows that halfas can exist. They all think that your alter-ego is full ghost. No one is looking for a human."

Danny's muscles tensed. "Just don't talk about Danny Phantom to anyone but me, okay? That's all I want from you."

His sister looked like she was about to snap a retort, but stopped when she saw the look on his face. "Try not to ruin this trip for me, all right?" She walked past him.

He took a deep breath to calm himself, walking to his room. It was getting dark. Dinner would be served in an hour or two. He decided to fly around for a bit. "Going ghost," he murmured to himself.

A shimmering black and white oval traveled in both directions vertically from his waist. His hair morphed from ebony to snowy white, and his once blue eyes turned a bio-luminescent green.

Stretching again, his glowing form phased through the wall. He went invisible and sped out of the property. It was time to explore the forest.

Turning visible again once he was over the trees, Danny relaxed as he felt the breeze blow through his hair. He could handle this. He could make it out here for a month, as long as he could fly around like this at night.

As the sun made its way behind the mountains, Danny realized that he'd flown above the Mystery Shack. Dipper and Mabel were walking into the woods, and Dipper had a book in hand. The same book he'd had when Danny had met him.

Curious, he went invisible and followed them. They were talking about something that concerned him.

"Where do you think we'll find these ghosts?" Mabel was asking.

"I just want to check around the lake. The journal says that ghosts like to come out at night because they don't want to be seen."

"But what about the old people and the lumberjack? They showed themselves."

Dipper paused. "Yeah, I guess. But only at the last moment. They didn't just jump out and shout 'boo'."

The twins had seen ghosts before? "Why don't we ask the Fentons to come with?" asked Mabel. "Mr. and Mrs. Fenton could help."

"I just wanted to try on our own first," Dipper answered. "Besides, Mr. Fenton seemed to want to blast any ghosts we saw to goo. I just want to meet one that isn't, you know, trying to kill me."

Mabel grinned. "Yeah, a friendly ghost! It could be our friend on the inside."

"That's actually a good point, Mabel," Dipper murmured, thinking. "A ghost would know what was going on here."

Danny bit his lip. The kids had good intentions, but he wasn't about to let them see his ghost form.

Dipper started talking again. "I was thinking we might be able to find this ghost. Grunkle Ford's journal talks about it a bit. It's a dog."

The ghost boy was startled out of his pondering and leaned down to look at the journal. Someone had drawn a picture of Cujo. What had his dog been doing here?

Mabel's brother pulled a black light out of his pocket and shined it on the journal. More words instantly appeared. "I guess his name is Cujo."

"Do we call him?"

"Mabel, I don't know if—"

"Cujo! Cujo! Here, boy!"

Danny didn't think it would actually work, but sure enough, a huge green dog bounded through the trees, all teeth and slobber. Dipper yelped in surprise.

"Aw, Cujo!" Mabel smiled. "Good dog!"

She reached out to pet him, but he growled threateningly. Mabel scrambled away, and Dipper put himself in front of his sister as the slavering canine advanced on them.

Danny had no choice but to place himself between the twins and the ghost and go visible. "Hey, Cujo!" he greeted, holding up his hands. "Who's a good boy, Cujo? Where's your toy?"

Cujo wagged his tail and shrunk down into a little green puppy, yapping as he ran into the woods. He returned with a little dog toy in his mouth and jumped into Danny's arms.

Danny scowled at him. "What are you doing, you weird little dog? Go home!" Cujo licked his face, and Danny threw the toy high above the trees. Cujo bolted after it without hesitation.

The ghost boy sighed, watching the dog sprint off. He heard a voice behind him.

"Dipper, we found one!" Mabel was saying excitedly. Danny turned around to see the twins staring at him. He didn't know what to do.

Dipper was openly gaping. "Um, hi?" Danny said hesitantly.

Danny's ghostly echoing voice seemed to shake the younger boy out of his reverie. "Who are you?" Dipper asked, totally fascinated.

"Uh . . ." The ghost couldn't tell him that his name was Danny Phantom like he could in the city, where there were plenty of Daniels. It would be too much of a coincidence for a brand new ghost and Dipper's new friend to have the same name; the boy might start to get suspicious. "My name is Phantom."

Mabel giggled. "A phantom named Phantom."

Danny nodded sheepishly. "Yeah, well. I, uh, have to go. Eat your vegetables, kids!" he yelled as he shot up into the sky.

The twins stared at him until he became invisible. He flew back to Pacifica's house and phased through the wall, plopping down on the bed. Everyone else was already eating dinner, and he didn't plan on going down there. His adrenaline levels were too high for him to be around the Northwests at the moment.

He breathed in deeply. Gravity Falls was a small town, and he was sure that soon, everyone would know what he was.