Well, I came up with this idea a long time ago, and wrote a good chunk of it, but recently pulled out all of my old (handwritten) work to start typing it, and decided that it needed a major reworking in the process. This is the first multichaptered fic that I've posted in an unbelievably long time. Good news is, I don't believe in letting any stories, good or bad, go unfinished. So this will be completed at some point, I can assure you of that. No guarantees on how frequent updates will be, but hopefully every couple of weeks or so, depending on how much free time I manage to find.
Summary: Imagine TUE never happened. Clockwork doesn't exist. A freak accident as a result of a fight gone horribly wrong kills Sam, Tucker, and the entire Fenton family, with the exception of Danny. Lancer is one of the first civillians to arrive on the scene, spots Danny, and gets him to the hospital. Now Danny is staying with Lancer while trying to keep his secret safe and deal with the deaths of his loved ones. And all the while he is feeling a darkness slowly overtaking him...
Rated: T; pretty much because of character death, mental rants, and contemplation of suicide. Shouldn't be too dark, though it will hopefully be depressing at some point... I'll do my best ;)
Spoilers: Definitely some for TUE, though I'm not sure what else will be in here. I'll put warnings at beginnings of chapters if I decide to include any specific references to later 2nd season or any 3rd season episodes.
With a sigh, Danny Fenton sat back further in his booth at the Nasty Burger. His two best friends, Sam Manson and Tucker Foley, carefully scrutinized him from the other side of the table. Sam was the first to break the tense silence. "Danny, what's going on with you lately?"
His head came up, a defensive look already creeping into his brilliant blue eyes as he snapped, a little harsher than intended, "Nothing is going on! There have just been a lot more ghost attacks lately and I'm getting sick and tired of it all." That was part of the truth anyway. The whole truth wasn't something that he was willing to share with his friends at present… he wasn't even sure if he himself had fully accepted the implications of what he was considering doing. But the constant ghost attacks were making it completely impossible to study for the upcoming C.A.T. test, and his parents would kill him if he failed it. Well, his mom would. Jack had failed it himself years ago, so his punishing Danny for doing so would be hypocrisy in its purest form.
"Don't give us that," Sam's voice broke into his muddled thoughts. "This whole week you've been distracted, jumpy, defensive… you don't get like that when it's just an overabundance of ghosts."
"Yeah, man," Tucker cut in. "I beat you in Revenge of the Zombie Octopi IV last night, and that hasn't happened in months. Sam's right, dude, something's wrong, we can tell." Danny barely acknowledged his spoken words, glancing up briefly before staring off into space, clearly no longer paying attention, focused instead on his private thoughts. Tucker started to say something more, but was cut off by the unexpected arrival of Danny's ghost sense.
Giving his two friends a look that said clearly, "See, I'm not just making this up," Danny grumbled a bit and got up from his seat. "Be right back." He rounded the corner to the bathroom, and, after checking to make sure he was truly alone, transformed into his ghost half. Twin rings of light passed over his body, and in another brief flash of light he propelled himself effortlessly through the roof.
The instant Danny emerged into the glaring sunlight of the outside world he was met by a glowing green net wrapping itself tightly around his body. A brief struggle and flash of green energy expanding from his usual shimmering aura quickly dissolved the netting, and a beam of light immediately launched itself from Danny's hand into the net's creator. A large robotic being was pushed backward from the force of the blow but quickly righted himself and fired a beam of his own in return, calling out, "You will not escape me! For I am Skulker, the Ghost Zone's greatest—"
"Yeah, yeah," Danny interrupted, throwing a quick punch, "And you want my pelt on your wall, or on the foot of your bed, or something like that. Quit with the long-winded speeches; you're making Technus seem quiet."
Skulker's glowing green eyes narrowed dangerously at the ghost boy. "We'll see who's quiet when I'm through with you." A large cannon emerged from one of his shoulders, its sights set on the teenager. Danny suddenly found himself unable to dodge as the biggest blast yet slammed into his chest, effectively forcing all air out of his lungs and foiling his attempts at concentration as he slammed into the Nasty Burger's roof.
Plaster and bits of roofing shattered beneath the boy at the point of impact. Danny groaned, picking himself back up more slowly than usual, gingerly favoring his left side, which had taken the full brunt of the landing. Just as he was staggering wearily to his feet he was met by another massive blast of energy, this one flinging his limp body into the wall of the next building, where he made a large enough impression in the brick that he actually stuck in place for a few moments before falling onto the rusty fire escape just below. With a groan, the metal structure pulled away from the old building, and he was sent tumbling into the alleyway amidst a crashing and shrieking of metal.
Dazedly, Danny managed to grip his spinning head with one hand as he attempted to lift his body with the other. He forced himself to his feet just as Skulker came into view over the Nasty Burger. His head cleared just enough to manage to dodge out of the way of the next attack, rolling along the ground.
Unfortunately, the surface was covered with shards of metal from the collapsed fire escape, and these sharp pieces decided to rather rudely reintroduce themselves to the boy's skin. Now bleeding from numerous additional small wounds, and barely able to pick himself up in time to avoid hitting yet another wall, Danny mustered his remaining and steadily waning strength just to the point to suddenly whirl and go on the offensive.
Lunging at Skulker, he somehow took the hunter by surprise and released the biggest blast he could muster directly into his opponent's large metal chest. The surprised ghost was blown backward, through not nearly as much as Danny had hoped. The teen was on his hands and knees now, panting with the effort of keeping his ghost form. He was too low on energy; there was no way he would ever get out of this on his own. What had happened to Sam and Tucker?
Skulker was advancing on the boy again now, growling in fury that his quarry had managed to evade him again, for however short a time. Claws appeared on his fingertips as he reached out with a large metal hand and grasped the teen around the neck. Danny gasped desperately for air as the hand tightened and the claws pricked into the sides of his neck, drawing yet more blood. His air supply was nearly completely cut off, and he mentally cursed the fact that he still needed to breathe in ghost form, albeit not as much as he did when human.
His hands scrabbled desperately on the metal hand, trying to get enough of a grip to pry the claw off of his neck. However, Danny's luck simply wasn't that good, and despite his frantic gasps for breath his vision started to fade at the edges. The blackness was beginning to take over, and the boy found himself low on power and completely helpless to stop it.
Just before Danny lost consciousness from lack of oxygen he suddenly was flying through the air again and slamming through the outer wall of the Nasty Burger. He landed heavily inside the restaurant, scattering tables and chairs as the terrified civilians fled the scene. Panting desperately for air, he made no attempt to rise, focusing instead on getting a sufficient amount of oxygen into his deprived lungs.
Skulker blew an even bigger hole in the wall and marched toward the fallen boy, large metal feet leaving small craters in their wake. He had almost reached Danny when a sudden red blast blew him backwards. A triumphant laugh came from the door as a figure clad completely in red stepped forward.
The Red Huntress entered with a confident spring in her step, ignoring the more threatening being in favor of attacking the object of her vengeance. Her gun was aimed directly for Danny's head, charging as she grinned. "Any last words, Ghost?"
(hides) Don't kill me! But hey, if you want to kill me, you'd better let me know! Know what the best way to do that is? The pretty button down there that has the word "Review" on it!
Seriously, the more reviews I get, the more motivation I have, and the sooner I'll update. :) Please let me know if you think anyone is OOC, or if you notice a plothole, or if there's something that I could be doing better, or even if there's just a little typo somewhere!