Uhm, oneshots, right? I'm just writing a lot in my email drafts, because it saves automatically and I have a place to type there. And, you know, mobile devices. I should have use of my computer back like, tomorrow, or the next day, or Saturday. Sunday at latest, and that's being pessimistic. I promise I'll try on some of my other stories, but Veritonee is no promise, and neither are any of the others. Hopefully in a weeks time I'll be back up and running, just in time to crash and burn again because SCHOOL.
I don't own Danny Phantom. ENJOY!
Technus was getting desperate. Despite the time he'd had to build up power and leak into the city grid, the ghost child was still beating him. He had already been forced to withdraw his presence from the outer reaches of the city so he could focus on fighting the ghost child, and he was losing.
But there always were those pesky human emotions. That gave Technus an idea. While he had to give up a shield and get pummeled by a particularly painful ecto-blast from the boy, he bought himself enough time to snake out some wires, like tentacles, and grab one of the humans of this pathetic town, lifting the man into the air.
Phantom went completely still as Technus brought the man in close and dangled him upside down, just beyond the ghost child's reach. He preached his intentions loud and clear, announcing that the man would die should Phantom seek to stop Technus's plans from this point on. Phantom remained still, though, with no course of action. Technus repeated what he had said, wagging the man upside down in front of Phantom's face.
"What are you waiting for, ghost creep!" the citizen finally shouted at Phantom. "Save me!"
Phantom locked his green eyes on the man's blue ones, and his mouth twisted into a small frown. "I don't want to."
The street went dead silent, because even though the words were spoken softly, the meaning they held carried. Their hero didn't want to save one of them? Had the idiot Fentons been right? Was Phantom just another violent ghost?
"What?!" the man asked, struggling in the grip of the wires. "What do you mean, you don't want to save me?!"
Phantom tilted his head to the side, still frowning, and even Technus was distracted by the scene, forgetting all about his take-over-the-world plans, at least for the moment.
"What would happen," Phantom said, his frown becoming contemplative. "It I let you die, here? I'd surely be marked as a villain for the rest of eternity, even if your death had been an accident and I prevented Technus from taking over the world and taking however many other lives. One death would surely be my fault, even accidental. But," Phantom tilted his head to the side. "What would happen to your family, if I let you become a grease spot of the pavement?"
"What?!" the man snapped, angry. "You are not considering letting me die, Phantom! Just because you're dead, doesn't mean I have to be!"
"What would happen to your family?" Phantom repeated. "You have a wife, and three kids. The perfect family man. Surely everybody would think me the worst ghost of all if I let you drop, and I don't think I will, but let's think over what would happen to your family if you died here?" Phantom shifted his position in the air, and his voice got louder, though if it was intentional or not was unknown.
"They'd mourn for a while, yes," Phantom preached, seemingly pacing in the air. "Not as long as they would if your family was what it appeared to be at first glance." Phantom turned and flew-paced the other way. "Because your wife, and Leila, Cassie, and Dash would stop showing up to work and school with badly concealed bruises, wouldn't they?"
Everybody on the street stilled from nervous whispers about Phantom suddenly going crazy, to dead silence. What?!
"Wouldn't they stop thinking themselves worthless human beings, too? Because those words would be gone," Phantom turned back to the man, eyes blazing like green fire. "Gone with you." He whirled in the air, back to not facing the man, and practically shouted. "Wouldn't they stop picking on other people because they didn't feel so bad about themselves. Maybe they would make actual friends. Maybe their lives would stop being even more miserable than my afterlife, because at least I choose to get beaten to a pulp. At least I get some satisfaction at the end of the day, knowing I helped save people! What do they get?! A worthless feeling in the pit of their stomachs because their own father thinks they don't matter!"
Phantom looked down at his hands, and realized that they were bleeding green light bright enough to reflect of the asphalt far below. He put them together and watched them slowly fade back to normal. "It's not like I haven't tried to help earlier," he muttered, almost to himself. "But what social worker would believe a dead teenager on the fact that three others are getting beaten. What vice principal would believe a dead boy's speak of how a strong, living man has a life worse than his own." Phantom turned, and locked his eyes back on the man. "Nobody."
Everything was quiet. Still. Tense. Phantom reached down and withdrew the thermos, pointing it at Technus. The ghost was sucked into the device without complaint, and the man was left suspended in empty air. He began to fall, and Phantom caught him almost immediately, setting him down gently on the ground.
"So I'll let you live, because if convicted murderers don't die because of their crimes, why should you? Why I should I be the one to give your family more pain under the guise of alleviating their first pains?" Phantom flew closer, so he was face to face with the man. "But I'll leave you with the thought that if you had died this day, I would not have mourned grievously. When a dog starts seriously hurting human children, it is put down. And you, Mr. Baxter, are nothing but a mutt." Phantom flew up and surveyed the entire street. "And I hope all of you," he yelled to the citizens. "Will stop ignoring the bruises!"
Then he fell in a controlled dive down to the street below, turning intangible right before he hit the ground. But though the speaker was gone, the ideas remained, and the people of Amity Park were unsettled. Citizens were putting their phones away, convinced Phantom had done nothing wrong. Lawyers and cops were staring at the man and contemplating courts and lawsuits.
Far away, the four other members of the Baxter family were staring at the live TV coverage open-mouthed, because of all the people to notice, it had to be a superhero to speak out? A ghost, no less. That spoke lengths for both the human and ghost races, that it was a ghost, and a teenager, to finally notice.
I don't know what's wrong with me, but obviously there's something, because where the f*** did this come from, anyway? So, UNTIL NEXT TIME!