Hey guys, Jack here with an experiment of sorts. I've been a fan of Danny Phantom since it first aired all those years ago, and I've always wanted to write a Danny Phantom story but have never taken the time to actually sit down and write one. So here I am, posting a test chapter if you will. If people like it or not, well, we'll go from there.
I do not own Danny Phantom in any way, shape or form.
Do you like stories? Considering the fact that you're reading this, I'm going to guess that you do. Well, let me indulge you and tell you a story. I'm going to tell you the tale of how I became the ghost hunter known as The Mandalorian. Shockingly original name, I know, totally not from Star Wars at all. Thank Tucker for that. He threw out a nickname cause of the armor's look and it just stuck.
I've been called other names; the Tall Man, the Gunslinger, the Flying Devil, Whelp by Skulker once or twice. But the name Mandalorian has been the one that has been with me since the beginning, and the one that has caused the most fear. Nowadays, it rings true with other names such as Danny Phantom or the Red Huntress.
But, I'm getting ahead of myself. I suppose proper introductions are warranted at the least. My name is William Hartman, and this is my story.
It all started when I was sent to live with my Aunt Maddie's family in Amity Park. See my parents divorced when I was a kid and Dad ran off shortly there after, or was killed and hid in a well by Mom, if you believed her when she was stark raving mad and drunk at the same time. Which I didn't, cause half the town helped track him down and stuck him in a dunk tank for the tenth anniversary of the divorce.
My mom, Alicia, was wrongly profiled by the police when she was pulled over for a broken tail light. Or that's what she'll tell you, anyway, leaving out the weed they found in a cup holder, which led to the pot plants they found in the trunk, which led to them finding the pot growing in the barn, and the meth lab set up in the old chicken coop, and the moonshine still set up in the garage where the car was suppose to be.
When I asked her about it, Mom reminded me that we lived in the middle of the backwoods of Arkansas. A place which had people parachuting into it at times because the roads were so bad during the rainy season. Someone, somewhere was going to want enough drugs and alcohol to forget they lived there.
Yeah, needless to say I don't think there was a three or four letter organization that wasn't lined up to press charges of some sort against her. Being as I was sixteen at the time, I had my clothes packed up and I was sent north to the only remaining family I had left. I'd met my Aunt Maddie and her family a few times before, a long time ago. She had two children, my cousins, Jasmine and Danny. We played some as kids, but it had been so long since I had seen them that I didn't quite know what to expect.
The few letters we had gotten from Aunt Maddie over the years offered a little insight, but not much. Apparently Jasmine was an A student, top of her class, and bound for an ivy league school. Danny, on the other hand, seemed to be a C or B average student and was destined for mundaneness. The last time they had visited, I had been off on a camping trip in a neighboring town, and as such had missed the tenth divorce anniversary party they had thrown for Mom.
I wasn't quite sure what to expect from my family, or the new town I was set to go to. Amity Park made my hometown look like an actual bump in the road, rather than just a small hamlet back in the woods. To say I was going to need time to adjust was an understatement. I was going from a log cabin in the backwoods to a brick two story building in a decent sized city.
While I was expecting a culture shock, I wasn't expecting my family's…antics. My first clue should have been the extra two stories added on to the building's roof that came in the form of a hodge poge of metal devices. Overall it looked like every pirate radio enthusiast and cable TV thief's dream come true, and that it violated every zoning law known to man.
I stood on the sidewalk in front of this place, looking up at it with my backpack full of clothes slung over my shoulder. If I had been a hopeful kind of guy, I would have hoped that I had the wrong address. With the giant sign hanging off the front of the building declaring it to be 'Fenton Works', I knew I had the right place.
With an uneasy sigh, I walked up the steps to the front door. Might as well rip the band aid off and get it over with. If they didn't have satellite TV with all that crap on the roof I was going to be pissed. I banged my fist on the green wooden door a few times and waited. Almost instantly the door flew open, and I found myself ensnared in a net. I barely had time to let out a yelp of surprise before I was dragged inside with the door slamming shut behind me.
"I got it, I got a ghost!" came a booming voice. I twisted myself around and peered out of the mesh around me, trying to figure out what was going on while at the same time trying to untangle my arm enough to get my pocket knife out. Standing over me was a rather large man with salt and pepper hair wearing a bright orange and black jumpsuit. He was holding a silver and green metal tube with a rope coming out of one end, which was attached to the net I was in.
"Jack, that's not a ghost. That's William," a woman wearing a blue jumpsuit said as she appeared beside him. Like mom, she had auburn hair which stopped at her shoulders. This was my Aunt Maddie. Which meant that the guy giving her a blank look was my Uncle Jack.
"My sister, Alicia's son," she elaborated. The blank look continued.
"Literally your only nephew. He's suppose to come stay with us until he graduates," she continued.
"Your sister has a son?" Aunt Maddie let out a long sign before she pulled a knife from her boot and cut me free.
"I'm sorry about that, Jack tends to get a little overzealous when trying a new invention out. How was your trip?" she asked as she helped me to my feet.
"Long. The flight out of Little Rock wasn't bad. The destination is, well, unexpected," I answered, casting a wary glance at my Uncle, who was fiddling with the tube in his hand now.
"Don't let this little accident shape your view on us. Let's get you settled in."
Turns out both Aunt Maddie and Uncle Jack are into ghost hunting, and I don't mean that crap on TV where a couple of guys spend all night in a dark building with a camera scaring each other. I'm talking full on jump suits, gadgets, a laboratory, the whole nine yards. All Mom ever said on the subject was 'your Uncle likes ghosts'.
I got the full tour of my new home. The lab in the basement was cool and full of weapons, the kitchen had man eating hot dogs, which wasn't amusing in the slightest. Aunt Maddie explained that as a side effect of working with ectoplasm at the table. It was looking more and more like fast food and I were about to become best friends.
The second floor had the bedrooms. My aunt and uncles' room, Jazz's room, Danny's room, and finally, my room. Thankfully I wasn't going to have to bunk with someone like I originally thought. The room was fairly spartan in it's makeup. Bed, nightstand, dresser, desk, chair, and that was it. Not that I was complaining, but I was expecting a guest room to have a little more to it than this.
"We stripped it down so you could customize it to your own tastes," Aunt Maddie explained when I asked her. Well, that was nice of them. I sat my pack down before sitting on the bed, bouncing a couple of times in order to test the mattress and springs.
"Is there anything I can get you?" she asked. I shook my head as I kicked off my boots.
"No thanks, I just want to rest a little," I answered.
"Okay, well dinner will be ready soon. I'm sure your cousins are eager to see you," she said before closing the door. I swung my feet up onto the bed and reclined. Sure the net and the killer hot dogs had been off putting, but overall the rest of the place seemed fine, awesome even. The lab was something I couldn't wait to see more of. Out of all the parts of the house I had seen, that part was the most interesting.
I took a short nap before I got up and went down stairs. After the reception I had gotten, the place was oddly quiet and devoid of anyone. Finding no one on the ground floor, I headed down into the basement. Uncle Jack was standing over a workbench with a blow torch, hard at work fixing something and not noticing my presence.
At the far end of the room, standing alone on the far wall was a massive octagon shaped device. It had a pair of massive metal doors painted in hazard colors covering it's center. I stepped closer to it, looking over the handiwork that had gone into building it. Aunt Maddie had said that this was the 'ghost portal', the one invention that was the family's pride and joy.
"So, Jimmy! You want to learn how to fight ghosts, eh?" Uncle Jack asked when he finally took notice of me.
"It's Will. And no, not really," I replied.
"Well, you've come to the right place! You're Aunt and I are the best ghost hunters on the planet!" he declared.
"You're not listening to me, are you?"
"These are ectoblasters, they're guns that run on and fire ectoplasm," Jack continued, holding up a pair of rifles that looked like they had been ripped straight out of some sci fi. Okay, interest peaked a little, but not enough to warrant my full attention.
"I'll just go back upstairs now," I said, starting my way toward the stairs. However, Jack put his arm around my shoulder and turned me around.
"This is the Fenton Portal. It's a gateway into the Ghost Zone and it let's ghosts in whether I want it to or not," he declared proudly, something which I couldn't help but frown upon.
"You're proud of that last bit?" I asked.
"Of course! It means I can blast ghosts and rip 'em apart molecule by molecule!" he said excitedly.
"Does that happen a lot?"
"Quite a bit as of late, actually," he answered. As if on cue, the giant metal doors on the portal slid open, revealing a swirling mass of green light. It was almost hypnotizing if you stared at it long enough. From within the portal came some kind of creature, resembling a cartoon drawing of an octopus, except it had four legs instead of eight.
The thing was sickly green in color, with a massive jack o lantern style mouth, blob shaped head, and huge red eyes. Rather than touch the floor of the lab, it floated about three feet off of the ground. It regarded us hungrily, with slime dripping from it as it's mouth grew wider into a feral smile.
"Suck ectoplasm, freak!" Jack yelled, leveling one of his blasters at the squid thing. The ghost swung one of it's tentacles, striking Jack and sending him flying into a metal cabinet on the far side of the lab. His blaster went airborne, and before I could think I had caught the weapon. The squid was floating closer to me, that same hungry look shining in it's eyes.
Despite the rising fear and panic I felt in my chest, I took a stance similar to the one I took when doing target practice and leveled the blaster at the squid. The weapon let off a high pitched whine as it powered up, and I aimed it dead center, right between those two red eyes.
"Please work like a regular gun," I whispered before squeezing the trigger. A blast of green plasma exploded from the barrel of the weapon and slammed into the squid's face. The creature let out a screech as it flew backwards, going back into the portal from the momentum. Thankfully, the doors slid closed again, and I lowered the blaster and let out a breath I didn't realize I had been holding.
"Hey, not bad! With a little practice, we'll make you a ghost hunter yet!" Jack declared as he got back to his feet, rubbing his head in the process. I couldn't help but let out a groan. This was not how I pictured my high school years going. At all.
"So when is lunch exactly?" I asked as I stuck my text books into my new locker.
"Noon," came the simultaneous reply of my cousin Danny, and his two friends, Tucker and Sam. If ever there was a trio of outcasts, these three would be it. Danny was on the scrawny side, being about the same height as me with black hair and icy blue eyes to counter my rusty copper colored hair and brown eyes. He wearing a white t shirt and blue jeans, and out of the three, he was probably the least likely to stand out.
Tucker was a techno geek, with the love of tech turned up to about a hundred and fifty percent. He wore a red beanie, yellow shirt, green cargo pants, glasses, and always had some kind of beeping device in his hand. Add in the fact that he was a self proclaimed good looking ladies man, and you had a recipe for daily ass kickings from the jocks.
Last but not least was Sam. I wanted to say that she was a goth, but she really didn't fit the bill. Sure she looked the part; pale complexion, black hair, black shirt which showed off her midriff, a black mini skirt, and combat boots. But her demeanor just didn't say goth to me. Goths from what I had seen tended to sit in the shadows, listening to metal or reading Edger Allen Poe or something like that. Sam was an activist. She had a lot of opinions, and she felt VERY strongly about them.
"And what time is it now?" I asked, feeling my stomach rumble.
"Little after ten," Danny replied, looking at the watch on his wrist.
"You're in luck, they're serving meatloaf today," Tucker added as he sniffed the air. I arched my eyebrow at my cousin as the techno wiz continued to sniff the air like a dog looking for a scent.
"He's part blood hound when it comes to meat," Danny explained.
"Can he find me a burger or some buffalo wings? I didn't get breakfast this morning," I asked, patting my rumbling stomach. I'd forgotten about the man eating hot dogs, and nearly had a chunk taken out of me when I opened the fridge door. Tucker sniffed near me, leaning well within my comfort zone to do so.
"You had wings last night, along with ranch as dipping sauce," he said confidently. I blinked in surprise.
"That's spot on, actually. Impressive," I said. I had taken a shower since then, which was only served to impress me more. The techno geek's grin only increased in size. Slamming the locker door closed, I found myself face to face with a girl who I can honestly say left me stunned for the first time in my life.
She had long curly black hair which came down to the small of her back, a yellow sleeveless t shirt, orange skirt and hairband to match. Her eyes were a rich emerald green, and her flawless skin was a mocha color. Despite my initial stupor, she didn't seem fazed by me in the slightest. In fact, she seemed board to the point that she would have rather been taking a nap than being there at that moment.
"You Hartman?" she asked. I swallowed, getting some moisture back into my mouth and somehow managed to find my voice again.
"Uh, yeah, that's me," I answered. She gave me a look up and down, and didn't seem all that impressed by what she saw.
"I thought so. I'm Valerie, I'm suppose to take you to your next class," she said.
"Okay, I guess," I answered awkwardly before motioning for her to lead the way. Although none of them said anything, both Danny and his friends watched me go like I was being led to the gallows. That wasn't something I found worrying at all. Valerie led me through the halls, twisting and turning and even heading up a flight of stairs. Despite the fact that the building was a boring rectangle, there were a lot more corridors than I would have expected. It was surprisingly easy to get lost if you weren't paying attention.
As we walked, I tried to think of a way to strike up a conversation with my escort. I found her interesting, even if she didn't seem to think of me as being worthy of the time of day. She seemed cold and distant, angry almost, although I doubted that any of it was directed at me. I had literally only just met her, there was no way I could have pissed her off in that time frame. Unless she hated me because of Danny. Teens can be petty like that.
"So..um," I said awkwardly, trying to break the ice between us.
"Where are you from, kid?" she asked, looking back at me and casting a glance at my clothing. I looked down at the red plaid shirt over a gray t shirt and faded blue jeans I was wearing to see if I had spilled anything at some point.
"Arkansas," I answered.
"Hm, that explains it," she said.
"What?" I asked, confused.
"Your accent. You don't sound like you're from around here," she explained.
"Oh."
"Yeah. So, you're really Fenton's cousin?" she asked.
"Only one I know of, far as I know," I said with a shrug. I don't think Jazz and Danny had any cousins on their dad's side. Guess I'd find out at Christmas or some other family gathering.
"I suppose I should offer my condolences," Valerie said. I cocked my eyebrow at her.
"What makes you say that?"
"You've seen how his family acts, all the gadgets and quirks and shouting about ghosts," she said.
"Yeah, I've taken notice," I said.
"How do you think that makes them look around here? In everyone's eyes, the Fentons are freaks. Always have been, always will be," she said.
"Ah. So you're sayin' I've already committed social suicide before even setting foot in the school," I said. Despite the tone, a small smirk graced her lips.
"You could say that, yeah," she said. I gave another shrug.
"If I actually cared about stuff like that, I might've been worried," I said. Valerie cast a look at me.
"You don't care about having friends?" she asked.
"It ain't that. This is high school. It'll be over in a few years, and after that none of it will have mattered. I'd rather have a single friend who'll stick by me cause I'm me than a hundred who like me cause it the cool thing to do," I answered. She looked at me now like she was trying to figure me out, not just cause I had gotten dumped on her and she was trying to get rid of me. It was a step in the right direction at least.
"Hey, I'd didn't properly introduce myself back there. I'm Valerie Gray," she said, stopping and extending her hand. I took it and shook it. Her hand felt soft, but there was defiantly strength behind her grip.
"Will Hartman," I said.
"It's nice to meet you, Will," she said, giving me a small, kind smile.
"Likewise, Valerie."
"Does this happen often?" I asked. We were eating lunch outside, enjoying one of the last warm days of the year before winter fully set in. In the sky above us, a metal suit with flaming green hair was duking it out with a white haired kid wearing a black jumpsuit. It was just Tucker and Sam sitting at the table besides myself. Danny was off doing something for a teacher or something.
"Every other day it seems," Sam replied, pausing only briefly to look away from her salad and look up at the floating fist fight. I looked around us and realized that she was probably right. Everyone else was either watching with a mild interest or ignoring the fight completely.
"When this first started at the beginning of the year, everyone would freak out and run away. Now, it happens so often and the ghost kid always wins, so no one really cares anymore," Tucker explained. I shook my head in disbelief and went back to watching the fight.
"This place is just weird," I said.
"Eh, you get use to it," Sam said. At that moment, the flying suit of armor delivered a powerful left hook, sending the white haired kid through a tree and smashing a table like he was a meteor. Apparently this didn't happen all that often, cause everyone around him immediately took their belongings and scattered as fast as they could.
To my surprise, the kid stood up amongst the splintered remains of the table and glared up at his opponent. He was bruised, and he was holding his side, but otherwise he seemed alright. Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed that both Tucker and Sam had stopped what they were doing and were watching intently as well.
"I do not have time to deal with you today, whelp!" the flying suit bellowed down from his position overhead. The kid raised his hands and fired a green beam of energy at his enemy. The impact sent him careening out of sight.
"Make time!" he yelled back before jumping into the air and taking flight after him. I stood from my seat and watched them go, not quite sure what exactly I was looking at.
"Okay, does THAT happen very often?" I asked, turning back to the other two. To my surprise, they were both gone, having vanished into thin air and leaving their trays behind with untouched food. The sound of jet engines filled the air. Turning, I found myself face to face with a figure standing on a hovering metal surfboard.
The person wearing the suit was female, if the curves were anything to go by. Her suit itself was red, and hid every bit of her identity. She was holding a rather large blaster, similar to the ones that Uncle Jack had, only the lights on this one were a magenta color. Holding the weapon aloft with one hand, while putting her other hand on her hip, she paused and looked down at me.
"New in town, kid?" she asked. Her voice sounded familiar, but given how my morning had been going so far, I didn't really have time to process it.
"Uh, yeah," I said.
"Take my advice, just run. It'll be easier to hit the bad guys when you're not in the way," she said before rocketing off in the direction the first two had gone. I stood there and watched her go, not sure if I wanted to follow her advice and run, or be insulted. There wasn't any time to make up my mind, as the white haired kid came crashing down on another table. The woman in red reappeared over him, aiming her blaster at his head.
"No where to run, ghost kid," she said, her voice containing malice and the sense of an achievement finally being achieved. Before she could fire, a blue white energy beam slammed into her side, sending her crashing into a tree and her rocket sled careening into the ground. The suit of armor appeared in her place, a smoking blaster sticking out of his wrist.
"This pray is mine," he said. The white haired kid wasted no time, raising his hands and firing the green beams. His target was sent flying backward into the sky with a grunt, having been caught off guard by the attack.
"Back off, Skulker!" he yelled before jumping after him. I hurried over to the woman's side and knelt down beside her. Her chest was moving, indicating that she was still alive. Raising her mask, I realized with a start that it was Valerie, the same girl who had shown me around school that morning. What kind of school was I going to where students were flying around shooting at ghosts?
The flying tank, Skulker, recovered from the attack and back armed the white haired kid, sending him back into the ground for a third time. Looking around us, I spied Valerie's blaster lying a short distance away.
"It is dishonorable to interfere upon another's hunt," he said before turning his attention toward us. He raised his right hand, and a set of Predator style blades extended from the gauntlet. My eyes went wide as I realized that he intended to kill the defenseless girl beside me. I was moving before I even realized what was going on, diving forward, grabbing the blaster up, and opening fire on Skulker.
He must not have expected the sudden barrage of plasma fire, cause rather then return fire, he recoiled backward in surprise. Despite being quick and sporadic, my aim managed to find it's mark, blowing off a boot, followed by hitting one of the jet engines he used to fly. Skulker let out a yell of surprise as he suddenly went out of control, flying about like a balloon with a hole in it before vanishing from view all together.
"Will!" The sound of my name caused me to snap toward the voice, raising the blaster again out of pure instinct. The white haired kid was floating again, and he didn't look remotely concerned that I was aiming directly between his eyes.
"Take her and get out of here!" he ordered. Now, I had a chance to think, and I lowered the blaster a little. Today was my first day here. How did he know who I was?
"How do you-?"
"There's no time, just go!" he snapped before speeding off in the direction Skulker had gone. I watched him go before lowering the blaster entirely and crawling back to Valerie's side. Grabbing her shoulders, I shook her slightly in an effort to wake her. I didn't do it too much, as I was afraid she might have broken something in her fall.
"Hey, Valerie, you alright?" I asked. She groaned and slowly opened her eyes, looking up at me with confusion. After a second, her eyes went wide and her hands shot up to her face. She started to shoot her feet, by my hands kept her in place.
"Easy! You took a pretty bad fall, there might be more wrong with you than a couple of bruises," I said. She grabbed me by the front of the shirt with one hand and raised her free hand into a fist as if she intended to crater my nose.
"You better not tell anyone, you hear me? If you do, I swear I'll-!"
"Valerie, we got more important things to worry about right now!" I snapped. She realized I was right, released her grip on my shirt, and pulled her mask back down.
"Where did they go?" she asked as I haled her to her feet. As she stood, she let out a gasp of pain and started to fall again. I caught her and slung her arm around my neck, supporting her weight before motioning in the direction the other two had gone with the blaster still in my hand.
"That way," I said. She looked down past me, at her blaster, cocking her head curiously.
"Did…did you use that to defend me?" she asked.
"Not exactly what you pictured for a knight in shining armor, huh," I replied. She didn't really say anything, but rather looked toward her rocket sled.
"I just got that fixed," she said, sounding defeated before pressing a button on her wrist. Instantly the suit she was wearing, as well as the sled and the blaster in my hand all retracted into the pack on her back, leaving behind the clothing she had been wearing that morning. I blinked in surprise and awe. There wasn't anything near this level of tech back home.
"Well, that's helpful," I said.
"We need to get to my place," Valerie said.
"Wouldn't the hospital be better?"
"Too many questions. Come on, I can patch myself up," she said. I looked over my shoulder, back in the direction the other two had gone.
"Alright, point the way," I said, suddenly not really caring if I finished the school day or not.
Third person POV
Deep within the Ghost Zone stood a single tower with various bits of clockwork sticking out of it. Within this tower was a single entity. A hooded, pale blue figure with a staff floated, watching the events of the day unfold upon a screen. His form shifted, appearing first as a boy, then as a young man, and finally as an old man with a long gray beard.
He watched the images of Will and Valerie as they stumbled along the sidewalk with an expressionless face. Lifting his staff, he watched as the images shifted. It cycled, shifting through images of Will's mother being arrested, Will boarding a plane, and Will squaring off against the squid ghost in the lab beneath Fenton Works.
"All of the pieces are falling into place," Clockwork said to himself. The Master of Time cast a glance toward the corner of the room. There stood a single silver and green canister, in the shape of a soup thermos. The frame of the cylinder was dinted and started to be bent out of shape. Even a blind man could see that it was beginning to fail in it's containment of what was inside, and the Clockwork could see all.
"And not a moment too soon," he mused, watching as another dent appeared in the thermos.
And cut. That's a wrap for this chapter. As big as the Danny Phantom archive is, I was honestly surprised that there aren't anymore stories like this. Or maybe there are and I just missed them. Anyway, like I said at the beginning this is a test chapter of sorts. If people like it, I'll continue on with it. If not, well I guess that's that then. So, be sure to read, review and let me know whether you liked it or not, so we can see if I'll see you in the next one.