Chapter 37: "Press the Glowy Button, They Said. It’ll Be Fine, They Said."
In which I break every lab safety rule, accidentally unlock my ghost powers, and Naruto forgets to warn about spontaneous DNA rewiring.
So, rember how so kids get bikes or ga consoles from their parents?
Yeah. Mine built a gateway to another dinsion.
To be fair, it wasn’t like Jack and Maddie Fenton woke up one morning, stretched, and said, "Let’s casually rip a hole in reality today." No, this had been years in the making. The big project. The Holy Grail of ghost science. And now... it was alive. Literally. Glowing green, humming like an angry toaster, and sparking with the kind of energy that made your hair stand on end—especially if you had ghost-sensitive hair. (Which, fun fact: I do.)
I stood in the middle of our lab-turned-sci-fi-battleship, staring at the completed Ghost Portal, and thought: Well, this is going to go terribly wrong at so point.
My parents were bouncing with pride. Mom was grinning like she’d just won the Nobel Prize and Dad looked like he wanted to high-five the universe. And maybe tackle it. They’d been at this for so long that I almost forgot they were building sothing that could theoretically collapse reality if soone sneezed too hard near it.
They called it "the ultimate solution." The plan was simple(ish): if a ghost showed up uninvited—which happened more often than I’d like—we wouldn’t have to punch it into submission anymore. Nope. We’d yeet it back through the portal and lock the door behind it. Ghost problem solved.
On paper, it sounded genius. In practice? Well... have you ever built a laser-guided ghost funnel and hoped it didn’t explode?
Didn’t think so.
Naruto—yes, that Naruto, still living rent-free in my head—actually agreed with the whole plan. He called it "strategic containnt" and said his world had sothing similar called the Demon World Gate. Apparently, if demons couldn’t just pop up anywhere like surprise party guests, it was easier to plan, defend, and you know, not die. Logical, I guess.
"I like your folks’ thinking," Naruto said in my mind. "Focus the enemy’s entry point, and you control the battlefield. It’s exactly what we did with the Demon Gate. Until it broke. Then things got... ssy."
He trailed off after that, probably rembering a ti when a six-headed snake demon tried to eat him or sothing.
I glanced at the portal again. It pulsed like a heartbeat, the green light reflecting in my eyes. There was sothing surreal about it. This wasn’t just a machine. It was a line in the sand. A glowing, buzzing, probably haunted line. From now on, nothing would be the sa.
Ghosts were already real. But now? Now they had a front door.
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You’d think that after building a door to Ghostville, my parents would take a breather. Maybe a vacation. Disney World? Bahamas? Nope. The Fenton way of relaxing is throwing a party so loud that even the ghosts probably heard it and RSVP’d from the other side.
I’ll admit, the party wasn’t bad. We had cake (green icing, obviously), ghost-shaped cookies, Fenton rchandise at every table, and one guy from the EPA who looked like he wanted to arrest us just for existing. Even Jazz cracked a smile—and she’s basically allergic to fun if there isn’t a thesis attached to it.
Mom kept walking around with this proud sparkle in her eye like she’d just cured cancer and invented hoverboards. Dad? He nearly hugged the mayor to death. Literally. We had to pry the man out of his arms before he suffocated in Jack Fenton’s "victory snuggle."
People clinked glasses. Toasted "to the future of ghost science!" So nerd from Wisconsin tried to dance with a floating vacuum cleaner. I may or may not have encouraged that. (Okay, I definitely did.)
But as the night wore on and the punch ran dry, the music got quieter. One by one, the guests dozed off—curled up on couches, camped out in sleeping bags, or passed out face-first in the snack bowls. Even Jazz went to bed early, muttering sothing about brainwaves and REM cycles.
Eventually, only the hum of the Ghost Portal remained.
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Let just start by saying: I wasn’t trying to beco a half-dead, glowing superhero that night.
I an, sure, I was wandering around the lab like I was in so coming-of-age sci-fi movie, wearing a suit that looked like Gabumon from Digimon had a baby with a high-end ninja exosuit—but I was mostly just curious. Also maybe a little bored. Okay, and yeah, maybe part of thought I’d unlock so hidden cheat code to life by poking around where I wasn’t supposed to.
Spoiler alert: I did.
The lab was quiet, eerie even. The Ghost Portal stood there like so sleek, glowing beast—part sci-fi monolith, part ancient magic. The hum it gave off wasn’t loud, but it felt loud in my bones. Like it was vibrating at the sa frequency as fate. Or indigestion.
Then Naruto spoke in my head, because of course he did. "It is ti for you to unlock your potential and fully enter the new world."
Not ominous at all.
Still, I couldn’t argue with the guy. He’d helped survive sparring with ghosts, fighting Dash, and working retail—all in one week. If he said I was ready, I had to believe him.
I stepped closer to the portal. My suit—Naruto’s upgraded version of Mom’s original Ghost Tech Armor—moved with like it was part of my skin. Smooth, blue-gray armor plates. Pulsing chakra circuits. Built-in sensors. Probably could make toast too, but I hadn’t figured that out yet.
Then I saw it.
The button.
Inside the portal.
Because of course Dad had designed it like a comic book villain would—completely impractical and potentially deadly. I leaned in for a closer look, muttering, "No way this is OSHA approved."
My gloved fingers brushed the button.
Click.
The room exploded in green light.
And then—
WHOOOOOOOSH.
Energy. So. Much. Energy.
It hit like a freight train made of electricity and ghost plasma. My body locked up. I couldn’t scream, couldn’t move—just float as my atoms got a wake-up call from another dinsion.
I saw my skeleton. Like, saw it. Glowing neon blue against a field of blinding light. My skin phased out. My eyes went white. For one horrifying second, I thought I was dead.
Then Naruto’s voice cut through the chaos.
"Stay calm. Your body is syncing with the Yin energy. This is your tamorphosis."
Oh. Coolcoolcool—just syncing with literal spiritual energy from another plane of existence. No big deal.
And then... everything clicked.
The energy stopped hurting. Instead, it flowed through . My chest glowed with a bright neon D-symbol. My hands pulsed with raw power. My senses exploded—I could hear everything, from the hum of a nearby lamp to the rustling grass outside. The world felt sharper. Clearer. Mine.
I dropped to my knees, panting.
I looked at my reflection in the smooth surface of the portal.
Hair: snow white.
Eyes: radioactive green.
Aura: ghost ninja superhero realness.
And yeah, I looked aweso.
I didn’t feel human. But I didn’t feel dead either.
I felt... like sothing new.
"Danny Fenton," Naruto said in my mind, with the kind of pride your older brother gives you when you finally beat him at Mario Kart. "Welco to your second life."
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Hovering in midair was not sothing they prepared you for in health class.
I an, I’ve had weird days—fought a ghost wolf, almost broke my nose on Dash’s elbow, and once got stuck in a garbage chute during freshman orientation. But this? This was next-level weird.
I wasn’t standing. I wasn’t sitting. I wasn’t falling. I was just... there. Floating. The way a soap bubble hangs in the air before popping—except I was the bubble, and I had no plans to pop.
Below , the portal buzzed like it had just finished baking a brand-new superhero. Or ghost. Or whatever I was now.
From sowhere up in the shadows of the lab, I heard a low whistle.
"Not bad," Naruto said, floating effortlessly beside like he did this every day. Which, knowing him, he probably did.
He was watching with this weird combo of curiosity and pride, like I was a science fair project that accidentally ca to life and built a jetpack.
"You’re not fully human anymore," he said casually. "Yin energy has altered your entire spiritual makeup."
"Cool-cool-cool," I replied, my voice echoing slightly like I had a built-in reverb effect now. "So... like, am I dead or—?"
"You’re a halfling," Naruto explained. "Part ghost. Part human. And all headache for anyone who tries to ss with you."
I blinked. Which is harder than it sounds when your eyes are glowing like twin neon highlighters.
"Wait. Did you say ghost? Like, boooo-I’m-haunting-your-sock-drawer ghost?"
Naruto just smirked. "Try walking through that wall."
"Excuse ?"
"Wall. Walk through it. Go on."
Look, normally I would’ve said sothing sarcastic like "Do I look like a magician?" but seeing as I was already floating, I figured I might as well roll with it. I aid myself at the nearest wall, braced for impact, and... didn’t hit anything.
Instead, I phased right through it like I was made of mist.
"WHAT—" I spun around midair, nearly screaming as I zipped back into the lab. "Okay. Okay. That was—Did I just—That was a WALL. And I phased through it."
"Intangibility," Naruto nodded, arms crossed. "Standard ghost ability. You’ll get used to it."
"Used to it? I WALKED THROUGH A WALL, man!"
But before I could spiral too far into an identity crisis, Naruto raised a hand and pointed to the workbench. "Try lifting that wrench. But don’t touch it."
"How do I—"
"You’ll know."
I floated toward the workbench, focused on the wrench... and felt sothing inside shift. A pulse. Like grabbing sothing with invisible hands. The wrench rose slowly, wobbling in the air.
"Oh-ho-ho. Telekinesis. Sweet."
"You’re barely scratching the surface," Naruto said, circling around like he was checking my stats nu. "Fear induction, illusions, mind tricks, possession—"
"Possession?"
"Don’t try that one without my supervision."
Fair.
As he listed each new ability like I’d unlocked a downloadable content pack, I could feel it. This wasn’t just about cool powers. There was sothing bigger inside now. Like the energy buzzing in my cells was alive, ready to shape itself based on what I felt—what I wanted.
Naruto drifted closer, tone softening. "These gifts co with responsibility, Danny. Power like this is rare in your world. And dangerous if misused."
"So... great power, great responsibility?" I said.
He chuckled. "Yeah, I think I’ve heard that sowhere."
I laughed, but deep down, I was already thinking ahead. This wasn’t just a freak lab accident. It was a turning point. The lab, the portal, Naruto—it had all led here.
I wasn’t just Danny Fenton anymore.
I was sothing new. Sothing stronger.
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