Disclaimer: I do not own 'Danny Phantom' or any of the characters, concepts etc. Those are owned by Butch Hartman/Nickelodeon, I believe. I make no claim to anything in this story, it is a perspective with hypothetical scenarios added in.
[AN: Allow me to welcome you to my first attempt at an entirely original DP story. In fact, it was the idea for this story that spawned all of my fics after 'Pre-emptive Strike', as I felt I needed a way to build up the background to this concept.
I will explain more at the end of this chapter, so I will detain you no longer.
I hope you enjoy the first chapter./AN]
The Edge of Reason
Chapter 1:And Here We Go...
"Skulker, are the charges in place? Fright Knight is en-route and he cannot lead an army that is still locked behind bars," drawled the patronising voice now echoing through his comm unit.
Skulker couldn't help the scowl that morphed his metallic features. Deciding to grit his teeth and bear it, he continued to listen. He might not like the guy, but he paid well, so he put up with his boss' superiority complex; for the moment at least.
"Yeah, yeah, everything's primed and set to go off when he arrives, so long as he keeps his schedule. I've cleared the way to your Portal as well, so there shouldn't be any problems for that part of your plan."
"Good, just ensure that you are in position when the time comes; if you fail than this entire exercise will be pointless."
"Yeah, I got it; I'll hang back until you tell me to go. But what makes you think that this plan of yours is even going to work? The Whelp has become much more powerful in the last few years, and now he has that whole team behind him."
"Oh I have no doubt Daniel will be able to see off this attack, but that is not the point. This is but the first move in a very stacked game of chess; I wouldn't expect you to understand such complexities."
Skulker sneered in distaste, but once again decided it best to hold his tongue (metaphorically speaking). As he flew away from Walker's prison, he decided that Plasmius' ego was like the Ghost Zone; infinite, unexplainable and mind-numbingly infuriating.
"And how's my beautifully gothic fiancée doing this morning?" Danny said with over-the-top enthusiasm as he slid into his customary spot at their favourite breakfast joint in the town centre.
Sam's scowl would have sent lesser heroes scurrying for cover, but not Danny; he had built up a resistance of sorts after nearly fifteen years of exposure to it. Now he just grinned.
"I've said it before and I'll say it again, 7am is an unholy hour to be awake at on a Saturday. So why did you insist on meeting up this early again?"
"Come on Sam, you know it's one of the few times Tuck has free that matches up with us, at least for the next couple of months."
"Sleep time does not count as free time just because you're used to being up at all hours," she accused, still clearly conveying her displeasure with the morning hour.
"You never complain when I come by at midnight to get patched up," Danny said, smirking when Sam failed to conceal the small blush that had coloured her cheeks.
"That's different. Besides, midnight is not time for sleep; 7am on a Saturday morning, however, is," she defended.
"You know, most people would disagree with that statement," he shot back, enjoying the opportunity to indulge in their usual banter.
"Well it wouldn't be the first time, and it won't be the last, either," she replied as sass began to predominate over irritation, before taking another sip of her tea, "and by the way, where's my daughter?"
"Still at home, I think she must have inherited your sleeping habits because when I tried to wake her up, her response was something like 'uugghhhh' and then turning invisible. It wouldn't surprise me if she shows up here in half an hour when she realises what she's missing."
"Hmmm, it's only been three days since I last saw her and I'm already feeling like part of me is missing; Maternal Instincts: 1, Rational Thought: 0," she responded dryly.
"I told you you'd make a great mum. And just think, less than a year and we can really be a family."
"I am definitely looking forward to that," Sam said as she leaned in for a kiss.
Of course, their little moment was interrupted by the arrival of the third member of their usual quintet.
"Ugh, three years on and you still haven't gotten all the 'Lovebird' stuff out of your systems yet?"
The pair just deepened their kiss, pointedly ignoring their bereted friend's arrival and subsequent jibe.
"You know, if you want some privacy, I can just go…" he deadpanned when they still hadn't responded.
Finally disengaging from each other, Danny slid over in his booth to make room while Sam slid a menu his way, even though none of them had changed their order in months.
Seeing the three regulars in their seats, Sandy, one of the long-time waitresses, quickly made her way over to them, more to confirm their order than anything else.
"Let me guess, scrambled eggs on a bagel, with grilled tomato, hash browns and bacon on the side for Danny, Veggie fritters and a bowl of porridge for Sam, and the 'Tuck In' special for Tucker? I imagine Valerie will want her usual as well, when she gets here. And no Dani today? We even had some waffles ready to go for her."
"No, she's sleeping in this morning, but I'm sure she'll be here soon enough. If not, then I'll just have to describe how good those waffles tasted to her in exacting detail when I get ba-" Danny started before being cut off by a familiar icy tingle in the back of his throat. Pretending to clear his throat with a small cough, the faintly visible puff of condensation quickly dissipated.
But the cold, frigid sensation coiling up through his airways didn't. In fact, it only got stronger.
Sandy looked on in concern as he quickly fell into a very audible coughing fit, despite his obvious attempts to suppress it. It was a wet, hacking sound that reminded her of the time her brother had come down with pneumonia. She was so surprised by the sudden and violent reaction that she didn't even notice the sudden drop in the room's temperature.
But Sam and Tucker did.
They had immediately recognised the signs of Danny's Ghost Sense going off, but this reaction was new and concerning. He hadn't been affected like this since his ice core began to really manifest itself, before he had learned to channel it; and that was years ago.
As such, they were keenly aware of the plummeting air temperature, and they could quite clearly see Danny's mug of coffee freeze over as his coughing intensified.
Eventually regaining some semblance of control over his powers, Danny managed to half-stand and slip past Tucker, forcing out an excuse about going outside for some air, in-between his bronchial spasms.
Tucker and Sam watched in shock as he stumbled out of the diner, the windows next to his path frosting up as he went. After a moment of mutual confusion, they were immediately offering their own apologies to their stunned waitress and rushing out after their friend.
They found him, as Phantom, floating motionless above the street, surrounded by snap-frozen trees and plantings that made the whole scene look like some sort of disturbing fantasy realm. But that wasn't what froze them to the spot. No, that was something completely different.
It was the hundreds upon hundreds of ghosts rapidly descending on the town like an ant colony swarming over a sugar cube.
If he had of been facing them, they would have seen Danny's eyes go from wide and shocked to dangerously narrowed and glowing with a rarely seen intensity. But they couldn't, so all they had to go off to judge his current feelings was his voice.
A voice that sounded about as warm as their currently ice-entombed surroundings.
"Tucker, call everyone in. Call everyone in, right now."
[AN: A couple of notes first up:
Firstly, I said I had two more DP stories in the works recently, but that is no longer the case. The fic I was planning to have before this one just didn't pan out as the plot wasn't really compelling enough to justify it; it was basically an expanded version of Lancer's chapter in 'The Team Phantom Handbook'. On the plus side, that means I could get this chapter out sooner.
Secondly, this fic is to blame for the slight delay with the next chapter of 'TTPH', and I will aim to alternate updates, hopefully getting out one for each every week, but I can't promise it.
Thirdly, I want to clear up some continuity points. this fic takes place a couple of years after the main body of 'The Events That Shape Us' but slightly less than a year before that stories epilogue chapter. There are a couple of minor continuity errors between this story and early chapters of 'TTPH', as my ideas surrounding this story-verse have evolved as I've been writing. I intend to go back and update 'TTPH' soon, when I have the chance as some parts are in dire need or an update and the formatting in general could use some work.
And finally, a quick explanation of Danny's ghost Sense because I haven't had the chance to explain it in 'TTPH'. basically, I imagine it as a slight jump in power output by his Primary (ice) core that occurs when it is exposed to trace increases in ectoplasm, such as when another ghost shows up. This is because he lives in an ectoplasm-poor environment, so his cores react strongly to even minute increases in concentration, hence the runaway effect seen in this chapter when literally hundreds/thousands of ghosts suddenly showed up at the same time.
And now that those are out of the way, thanks for taking the time to look at this story! I hope you enjoyed this chapter and will continue to enjoy the rest of this story as it comes.
If you have any feedback, I'd love to hear it.
Thanks again!
/AN]