Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, which is property of Butch Hartman. Anyway, this is a story that has been floating in my head for a long while. Basically this story branches away from the establish canon of the series based on the argument between Danny and Sam during the episode Double Cross my Heart. Personally, I hated that episode because it had a chance to touch upon Sam being a hypocrite for spying on Danny before he spied on her. So I want to see how this goes if Flirting with Disaster was brought up. Fair warning, chances are there will be some level of Out of Character portrayals.
Over at Casper High, we see Danny with his friends outside having lunch. However, this time two of them happen to be arguing. You see about a few days ago, the trio were introduced to a foreign exchange student called Gregor. Gregor was a Hungarian Goth who happens to be an Ultra-Recyclable Vegetarian. Sam took an interest in him, while Danny was suspicious of him due to the surprising timing of him and the Guys in White appearing. Believing Gregor to be a spy for the Guys in White, Danny went undercover to confirm his suspicion. After confronting Sam about it, well let's see how it goes.
"You used your ghost powers to spy on me?" argued Sam. "You really crossed the line!" she yelled at her best friend.
At this point you would assume Danny would try to point out his intentions. However, this time Danny actually thought back to a similar event that happened before. The only difference is that Sam was the one spying and Danny was the one being spied on.
"Hey! You crossed it long before I did!" Danny yelled back.
"What are you talking about? I didn't spy on you," argued Sam.
"Oh, so you mean to tell me that you and Tucker didn't spy on me when I was going out with Valerie?" remarked Danny.
"What that was different!" yelled Sam. "We were only watching out for you," said Sam.
"So you two tailing me when I was with Valerie is watching out for me, but when I do the same thing it's spying?" countered Danny.
"He's got a point Sam," agreed Tucker as he started to think about it.
"Tucker, Danny and Valerie were being set up by Technus so Danny couldn't stop him," argued Sam.
"Technus didn't tell me to go out with Valerie. I chose to do that myself or have you forgotten?" countered Danny.
"You weren't thinking at all Danny. You just let your hormones get the better of you," said Sam.
Danny glared at his female best friend.
"Is that what you think Sam? That I can't think properly? That I always need you and Tucker to do the thinking for me?" asked Danny.
"What? No, not at all, it's just that you don't think things through," replied Sam trying to explain herself.
"Like how you thought things through about me going into the Ghost Portal. Well, newsflash Sam, if it wasn't for you talking me into going into that damn portal! We wouldn't be having all of these ghosts popping up in the first place," said Danny as he grew angrier.
"What? Are you're trying to pin this on me? That's pretty shallow Danny," remarked Sam.
"No, all three of us are at fault for it," countered Danny.
"Wait a minute. How do I fit into this?" asked Tucker.
"You could have talked me out of it Tucker, but you didn't. All you did was stand and watch me become this half dead freak," growled Danny.
"You can't seriously be thinking that I'm just as much to blame as Sam?" argued Tucker.
"Yes, because you didn't do anything to stop it," replied Danny. "Not doing anything is just as bad as convincing me to go through with it," he added.
"You could have just told her no dude," said Tucker.
"Yeah I could have, but I didn't. I already accept my part of the mess. Why don't you two do the same?" argued Danny.
"Because it's not our fault you became half ghost Danny," answered Sam. "It happened because it was an accident. So why don't you just get over it?" she added.
That was not the best thing to say to Danny right now.
"Get over it? Get over it!" yelled Danny. "Do you two get shot at? Do you two happen to be hated for being part ghost? Do you two have to live in constant fear of being killed by you own parents?" he asked.
Before Sam or Tucker could respond Danny beat them to the punch.
"No, the two of you don't!" he yelled again, this time louder. "You two just happen to be two normal humans who decided to throw yourselves into this mess. Well you know what? The two of you and this entire FUCKING town are on your own! I quit!" he yelled as he turned into his ghost form.
However, his ghost form is slightly different from normal. The overall look is the same, but his gloves look more like they have claws at the ends. He had red tips on his hair that were barely visible. His usual white glow was replaced with a crimson glow. His eyes were also glowing a sinister yellow. Sam and Tucker gasped at Danny's new look as he took off into the air.
As Danny flew above Amity Park he didn't know he was being followed. Just as he was about to turn left, a missile went over his head. He turned around and saw Skulker in view with a new weapon.
"Nice shot Skulker, new toy?" commented Danny.
"Of course whelp, I always have something ready when I hunt," replied Skulker as he aimed his new cannon.
Before Skulker had a chance to fire, Danny appeared in front of him and threw a right uppercut into his mid-section. Skulker dropped the cannon while Danny phased through him and pinned his arms to his body. Then, Danny flipped backwards as he and Skulker dived towards the ground. They collided to the ground with a thunderous boom with Danny being slightly higher than Skulker to avoid hitting the road. Danny floated above Skulker as people watched from the sidelines after seeing the two ghosts hit the ground. Skulker got himself back up and fired a ghost ray at Danny. However, the Ghost Boy dodged the attack and rushed the hunter. He turned intangible and went through Skulker and stopped behind him. He turned tangible and performed a counter tornado kick at the back of Skulker's head. The robotic ghost went flying towards a nearby car and crashed into the ground stopping just in front of the car.
Skulker got back up and fired a missile at Danny. Danny glanced behind him and saw two people behind. Instead of turning intangible, he formed a ghost shield in front of him. The missile hit the shield, but the force of the explosion sent Danny flying backwards. The two people ran out of the way as Danny crashed into a store. He landed inside the store and hit a counter containing bladed weapons. Danny slowly got back up and saw that under his hands were two strange swords.
They were thin, yet they curved at the long end like hooks. The shorter ends were spiked and a few inches upwards were wraps for grips. The hand guards were crescent shaped and sharp. He looked at the weapons and grabbed them. He stood up and saw the owner of the store.
"Do you mind if I borrow these for a moment?" asked Danny.
"S….sure no problem," stuttered the owner.
"Thanks," replied Danny as he flew out of the store.
He landed in front of the store and tightened his grip on the swords. Skulker looked at the weapons and laughed.
"What do you think you can do with those Ghost Child?" taunted Skuker.
"Let's find out," smirked Danny as he charged towards Skulker.
Skulker fired a ghost ray at Danny, but Danny dodged the attack and slid under Skulker. He used the hooked end from the left sword and grabbed Skulker's right leg. He pulled the sword closer to him as Skulker was yanked onto the ground. He hit the road with a thud. Danny got himself back up and raised the swords above his head. Skulker floated back up, but Danny swung the swords down onto the Hunter's back armor. The swords dug deep into the frame of the robotic ghost. Danny then spun around with Skulker and flung him as sparks and circuits flew out of the metal suit.
"Got to tell ya Skulker, I'm starting to love these babies," commented Danny as he admired the swords.
"I'll be sure to have them place next to you after I have your pelt adorning my wall!" yelled Skulker as he flew towards Danny.
As fast as it happened, Skulker's head was pulled open and his true self flew out. Skulker landed on the ground rubbing his head in pain. He looked up and saw Danny glare down at him. Skulker looked into Danny's glowing yellow eyes as the ghost hybrid glare deepened. Skulker got up and started to slowly back away from Danny.
"I got to hand it to you Skulker. You really know how to make a kid feel better," said Danny. "So I'm gonna give a choice," he added. "You can stay here and get your ghostly ass handed to you again, or you can fly your sorry ass back into the Ghost Zone by yourself. It's your call," he offered the diminutive ghost.
Without saying anything Skulker bolted out of the area and headed straight to Fenton Works. Danny gave a small laugh as he walked back to the store he crashed into. He found the owner and walked up to him.
"Here you go sir, and thanks for letting me use them," said Danny as he presented the owner the swords.
"Are you kidding? After seeing you use those hook swords, I should be giving them to you," refused the owner.
"Say what?" replied Danny surprised that anyone would let him have anything.
"The way you handled that ghost with them was amazing. Keep them, they might come in handy during your fights," declared the owner with a smile on his face.
"Thanks Mister," smiled Danny as he flew out of the store and left the area.
The next day, Danny continued with his school life without Sam or Tucker around. In fact, Danny spent a good amount of the school day avoiding them. Every time he was in the same room or hallway, he never looked at them or says anything. Sam spent most of the time with Gregor while Tucker tagged along. The only thing is that Tucker hasn't been saying anything. He hasn't even played with his PDA throughout the entire day. He kept taking glances at Sam and Gregor, and then he looked at Danny. Whereas Sam would look back at him, Danny never even stopped to even think about looking at his best friend.
Tucker wanted to patch things up, but he felt that chances are Danny won't forgive him. Last night, Tucker did some thinking about what Danny said and realized that Danny was right. He didn't do anything to stop Danny from entering the portal and he and Sam did without a shadow of a doubt spied on Danny. The only difference between Danny spying on Sam and him and Sam spying on Danny was that Danny forgave them for spying on him. Without saying anything to Sam, he left and went to look for Danny.
Tucker found Danny sitting under a tree listening to music on his ipod.
'Wait a minute, since when does Danny have an ipod?' Tucker wondered as he walked up to him.
Tucker stood in front of Danny. Danny looked at his former friend and put his ipod on pause.
"What do you want?" barked Danny as he glared at the techno-geek. His eyes glowing yellow slightly.
Tucker flinched at Danny's glare.
'Wow, I didn't think he could be so scary,' thought Tucker as he tried to think of something to say.
"If you have something to say, say it. Otherwise get the Hell away from me," said Danny as he got up.
"Danny, I'm sorry," said Tucker as he looked towards the ground.
"About what?" asked Danny still glaring at Tucker.
"For spying on you and Valerie, for not talking you out of going into the portal, and for that time when I was jealous of your ghost powers, I'm sorry for all of that," elaborated Tucker still looking at the ground.
"And?" questioned Danny as he raised an eyebrow.
"And I was hoping we're still friends," Tucker finished.
He looked up to see Danny look at him. Danny's eyes shifted from blue to yellow for a second. Then, Danny walked away from Tucker not even looking back.
"Wait, Danny. Where are you going?" asked Tucker.
Danny stopped, but didn't look behind himself to look at Tucker.
"If you can't look me in the eye when you apologize, then I don't want anything to do with you," answered Danny as he continued to walk towards the school.
"Danny wait," called out Tucker.
"Forget it Tucker. If you value your own life, either stay away from anymore ghost fights or learn how to fight. I fight for no one, but myself now," declared Danny as he entered the school.
Later that night, Danny was in a dogfight with the Guys in White. He led the two government agents towards the observatory over at the mountains near Amity Park to avoid collateral damage. Danny had two leather straps crossed over his chest. Behind his back were his new hook swords that he got during his fight with Skulker. He used the straps as makeshift scabbards for them. He flew over the observatory and saw Sam, Tucker, Gregor, and for some reason Star and some other A-list girl. All of them looked up in wonder as Danny floated several yards above them. He turned to look at the GIW's jet as they fired a missile at him.
Danny turned intangible and phased into the missile and grabbed the warhead. The missile flew into the mountain side and scattered into pieces. Danny threw the warhead back at the GIW, but they avoided the warhead. The warhead touched the ground and exploded, luckily no one was near the warhead nor was it near a populated area. The GIW fired two more missiles at Danny. Danny dodged both of them and headed towards the jet.
However, the missile continued to head towards the five teens. Star and her friend ran towards their right as fast as they can. Sam and Tucker headed towards the left with Gregor following. The missiles hit the spot the teens were at and exploded.
"This place is insane! I'm going back to Michigan!" yelled Gregor who dropped his accent as he ran for the exit.
"Don't you mean Hungary, Gregor?" called out Tucker.
"MY NAME'S ELLIOT!" yelled Elliot.
As for Danny he phased through the jet and grabbed the GIW agents. The jet crashed into the side of the mountain as Danny hovered a few yards in the air. Danny glared at the GIW as he thought about what to do with them.
"You know you guys have been pissing me off ever since you came to this town," said Danny as he held them out.
"What are you going to do about it you freak?" argued the dark skinned agent.
"I'm gonna drop my burdens," replied Danny with a smirk.
"From this height? That won't be enough to kill us," taunted the white agent.
"I know," said Danny as he let them go.
The sounds of the bones in their legs snapping can be heard throughout the observatory. The two agents screamed in agony as they tried to ease their pain. Their bones were protruding out of their shins. Blood was pouring out of them as they tried to apply pressure on their legs. Danny landed a few yards away from everyone. He started to walk towards the GIW who were still crying out in pain. The two agents looked at Danny in fear as he continued towards them. He stopped when Sam and Tucker stood in front of him.
"What is this?" asked Danny in annoyance.
"Danny, that's enough. Can't you see that they're hurt?" said Sam as she looked into Danny's eyes. She was shock at how different they were. They glowed with a yellow glow that didn't look right on him.
"Yeah, so?" replied Danny as he crossed his arms.
"Dude, this isn't like you. You never try to hurt anyone," said Tucker as he looked at the two injured men.
"True, but I've found out just how much fun it is," replied Danny.
"Fun, you call hurting people fun?" growled Sam.
"Actually, yeah I do. It's a lot better being a sadist than a hypocrite. Like you Sam," countered Danny.
"Hypocrite?" repeated Sam in rage.
"Yep, that's what you are Sam. A hypocrite," replied Danny. "You sprout out bullshit about being an individual, but you try to make others think like you. Or how about when you didn't want me to use my powers for getting back at Dash, but you try to get me to use my powers to total a bunch of trucks just because they can harm the environment?" he added.
Sam actually stopped to think about what Danny just said to her. She noticed that he was right; she has been contradicting her own morals for her own personal gain. What kind of friend tells her ghost powered friend not to use his powers for payback, but was willing to tell him to use them for her own crusades?
"Surprised? You should be Sam, because let's face it. You're no better than Tucker or me," said Danny. "At least I'm more honest with myself that you are," he added as he turned to walk away from his former friends.
"What are you?" groaned out one of the GIW.
Danny stopped and stood still for a moment.
"What am I? Who knows? Why don't you try asking God or whoever the fuck you worship?" replied Danny as he flew away from the observatory.
As the ghost boy flew away, Sam dropped to her knees in shock from what Danny has said to her. Tucker walked up to her and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Sam, are you okay?" he asked in worry for his friend.
"Tucker, is Danny right? Am I really a hypocrite?" asked Sam.
"Well, I don't think….," started Tucker as he tried to make her feel better.
"Tell me the truth," said Sam with her voice slightly cracking.
"Yes, it's true Sam," answered Tucker after giving up on trying to comfort her. "But I'm no better. I'm a coward," he added as he finally admitted to himself.
"What do you mean Tucker?" asked Sam as she looked at her friend.
"I can't even look at Danny in the eye when I tried to apologize to him," answered Tucker.
"What do think will happen between all three of us?" asked the Goth girl.
"I don't know. All I can say is that chances are Danny will hold true to his word about no longer protecting Amity Park. We're on our own now," answered Tucker. 'Let's just hope he doesn't forget his promise about not turning into HIM,' he thought as he looked at his best friend fly off.
The two out of the ordinary friends have no idea what the future holds for them now.
Author's note: Well that's that for this I guess. I don't know if I'll continue you it or not, but if I do I'll try to expand on what happens with Danny. To be honest, I'm tired of finding stories where Danny and Sam have an argument and Danny happens to be in the wrong all the time. So I figured why not make a story where Danny isn't oblivious to his faults, but uses them to his advantage.
If anyone wonders if I truly believe that Tucker is just as much at fault for Danny being half ghost as Sam is. Yes, I do believe Tucker is just as much at fault as Sam. Tucker could have tried to talk Danny out of it, but he didn't. The fact that he was there means he is just as responsible as Danny and Sam for Danny becoming a ghost and for ghosts to be attacking their town. Yes, chances are Jack and Maddie could figure out what went wrong, but that never happened so the trio is at fault.
As for calling Tucker a coward, that's more of Danny just viewing him as that. Tucker agreeing to it is because he feels guilty for his actions due to jealousy (he did try to have Danny killed when he got ghost powers by Desiree and when he became pharaoh thanks to Hotep-ra) and I think he is actually fine with Danny being picked on if it means he avoids getting bullied. That's my opinion on Tucker on that subject of being coward. I don't plan on diving too deep in that because it's the way I see Tucker at times.
For those who don't think Sam is a hypocrite. She is, because the first episode she tried to get everyone to eat her vegan styled meals when she says that she thinks as an individual. Personally I blame her parents for that. They try to get Sam to dress how they want, she retaliates, but she does the same to others. At times Sam can also be very controlling of Danny. She may be doing this so that he won't do something wrong, but she tends to take it too far.
Danny himself, well he's a kid with ghost powers and has many chances to get back at people who torment him. However, even when he does get back at someone like Dash, he get depressed because he feels guilty about using his powers on some who doesn't have similar powers as he does. Yes there are times he see no problem with payback, but in the end he realizes what he does is just as bad. So I decided that for this change of pace he actually accepts and embraces the hostile nature that some ghosts have.
If I do continue this story I would use it to explore possible changes I can make. I at times wonder what could happen if certain events led to somewhat different results. For example what if Sam became in a way a pseudo-halfa because of Undergrowth? How would she cope with it without Danny willing to help her because of what happened in this story? What if Tucker no longer hanged out with Sam because they can't seem to get along without Danny? So I may use this story to try those out. If I do pairings, I do plan for Danny and Sam to reconcile their differences and have them together. Constantly done I know, but I have a soft spot for best friends ending up together. I do believe that some friends do become happy together. Still, if I do continue this I won't have them automatically hooked up together. I'll have them date others before they get together. Who knows, if people like this then I'll consider continuing it.