Hey look…it's Angst Day! Also in two days I get to go home, and I am so pumped it's not even funny.
Anyway, please read the is a reveal scene, though it's slightly anti-climactic.
I don't own Danny Phantom.
GENERAL POV
It had never been hard to defeat the ghosts that insisted on constantly invading Amity Park. At least, not once Danny had managed to figure out his powers.
The Box Ghost, The Lunch Lady, Skulker, Technus, Johnny 13, Desiree, Ember, Kitty, Spectra and Bertrand-heck, even Plasmius had gotten easier and easier to defeat over time.
Which was why now, when he was running-or rather, flying-for his life, Danny couldn't figure out what had changed. Skulker was the same as he had always been, weapons and skills wise. But something about his demeanor had changed drastically since the last time Danny had seen him.
He wasn't quite so witty; his humor gone and his eyes flashing dangerously with every shot Danny had managed to get in proved that. He wasn't quite so sloppy. The fact that the halfa was now clutching his ribcage and bleeding heavily, showed this.
Danny gulped and glanced back over his shoulder, his fingers trembling. He had never been truly scared of Skulker. The ghost was evil, sure. He planned to put Danny's pelt on display (gross). He had almost killed him multiple times. But when it came down to it, Danny understood that Skulker could be counted on when he really needed help.
So now, when Skulker had come within seconds of slicing Danny in half, the ghost boy couldn't help but be truly afraid.
"Tucker? Sam?" he called softly into his Fenton Phone, trying desperately not to make too much noise. "Guys, where are you?"
The halfa landed in an alley behind a dumpster, clutching at his side and trying to focus. "Guys?"
A hand viciously wrapped around the earphone and tore it from Danny's person, slamming it to the ground where the fragile metal shattered on impact.
Phantom looked up fearfully at Skulker, whose eyes burned with a deep hatred for the creature in front of him. The white haired boy shrunk backwards until his back hit the dumpster behind him.
A swift punch to his chin made Danny hit the pavement hard, and Skulker knelt over him, sneering. "Your friends are a bit…tied up at the moment," he hissed, grinning wickedly.
Danny's eyes flashed dangerously. If there was one thing he didn't tolerate, it was hurting his friends and family. "What do you mean?" he growled, struggling to his feet and rubbing his sore jaw.
Skulker smirked and in one swift move, he had Danny pinned to the wall, a glowing green blade pressed just next to his already painful wound. "Exactly what I said, kid. They're tied up."
Sam and Tucker were indeed tied together and gagged in a separate alley, safe, though Danny had no way of knowing this. The boy's fluorescent green eyes darted to the blade that Skulker had pressed to his quivering body.
"I swear to God if you hurt them…" Danny snarled, his hands curling into fists.
Skulker sneered and pulled the blade back ever so slightly. Danny relaxed ever so little, keeping a close eye on the sharp metal.
"Your friends are fine. You won't be, however. You screwed up, Phantom. Screwed up badly and now you're going to pay."
Danny narrowed his eyes slowly, studying the metal ghost in front of him carefully, his mind hazy. "You…you aren't Skulker, are you?" he whispered, his eyes slowly widening in horror.
Skulker, or whoever it was, smirked. "Why would you say that? I have you here, now, don't I kid?"
Danny's fists tightened and began glowing bright green. "Skulker doesn't call me 'Phantom' or 'kid.' He calls me 'whelp' and 'ghost child.'"
He thrust his hands out and beat the Skulker look alike back into the wall. "What the hell did you do with the real Skulker?" Danny yelled, shoving his fist into the ghost's stomach. "How did you get his armor?"
The un-named ghost or ghost like person roared and slammed Danny back into the dumpster, the blade pressed close to the boy's abdomen. "Skulker was no match for me. He's floating helplessly in a cage in the ghost zone and you, my boy, will never find him, nor will any of you ever know who I am. You fucked up, kid. Badly. I don't know why you care about that sickeningly pathetic ghost, but he will trouble no one anymore."
The ghost's eyes flashed and changed to black as he leered at Danny. "And neither, my boy, will you."
Danny gasped in agony as the glowing blade, which had been lined up neatly with his stomach, shoved its way through his skin, clothing, and intestines, hitting the dumpster behind him with a solid thud.
The fraud yanked it from Danny's body, letting the halfa drop to the ground and gasp for breath like a fish out of water. He knelt over the boy and slapped the sword across Danny's face, leaving not only several more cuts but Danny's own blood behind.
He stood and grinned down at the dying boy. "No one to help you now, whelp. Maybe you should have thought before ruining my life."
He vanished into thin air and Danny shuddered, clawing at the ground and trying desperately to call out for help from someone, anyone, who might happen to be nearby. He was faintly surprised that he was still in his ghost form, though he could feel his hold on his ghostly half weakening with every staggering breath he took.
"Please," he murmured, the edges of his vision darkening as he tasted copper on his lips. "Please. Someone."
Dash Baxter wasn't one to scare easily. Well, unless it came to ghosts. But other than that, he was like a sturdy mountain, and built like one as well. He never backed down from a fight with his peers and was able to beat the crud out of any nerd that he found irritating. He loved horror movies almost as much as his romantic comedies and was currently a green belt in karate, and working his way up.
He adored town hero Danny Phantom, so when Dash heard what sounded like a battle coming from the alley near his house, his curiosity was peaked while at the same time his brain was telling him to run for his life.
Ignoring the sensible half, Dash crept to the alley in question and stood outside, listening to the arguing coming from within. It almost sounded like a couple fighting, and Dash, not wanting to get in the middle of something like that, almost left.
Almost.
He was two steps from the entrance when he heard the agonized gasp come out of the damp and dark alley. There was a sickening sound, almost as if someone had gotten hit, and then silence, save for quiet wheezing.
Dash hesitated, too scared of who, or what, might be in the alley, but too scared for whoever was in pain in the alley to leave.
After a few moments of no sounds but agonized breathing, Dash took a deep breath and stepped into the alley slowly.
It was dark in there; the stench overtook nearly every other sense the boy had, which was why he was able to pick up the smell of fresh blood so quickly. It startled him and he immediately darted further into the alley, wondering who was bleeding.
His foot slipped from under him and Dash landed hard on the ground, twisting his ankle a bit. That didn't bother him so much as the fact that he was now sitting in a sticky substance he could tell was blood.
Bile rose into the football players throat and he quickly forced it back, looking around for the source of the blood.
His eyes alighted on the dimly glowing form of his hero, Danny Phantom. The ghost's eyes were glazed over, but they seemed to be watching Dash anxiously. The ghost boy swallowed harshly and reached a trembling, blood coated hand out to Dash.
"Please," he mustered out before his hand dropped to the ground and his eyes shut.
Dash scrambled over to the ghost kids side and knelt, turning him over to see the injury. The bully whipped around and gagged for several minutes upon seeing the bloody, ragged hole in his hero's stomach.
Steeling himself, Dash slid his arms under Phantom's body and he lifted the ghost off the ground easily. Uncertain of what to do, Dash wracked his brain for anyone who might be able to help, anyone who knew anything about ghosts.
The pieces in his brain clicked together and Dash started for the entrance of the alley quickly, only to be stopped by the sound of two frantic voices.
"Danny! Danny, where are you?! Danny, come on! Tucker, where the hell is he?"
"Dammit Sam, if I knew, why would I be here?!"
Dash took a deep breath. Sam and Tucker. He knew them only from the numerous times he had bullied them, but he also knew that they were good friends with Danny Fenton and at the moment, his panicked brain could not remember where Fenton lived. And if he was ever going to try to help Phantom, that's where he was going to have to go.
Shaking, the bully stepped from the alley with Phantom clutched tightly in his arms. Tucker and Sam faced the opposite direction, and Dash gulped as he raised his voice. "Sam. Tucker. You have got to help Phantom."
The two whipped around so quickly that Dash was afraid they had gotten whiplash. The teens faces paled and they darted over to Dash, both of them clearly panicked.
"What the hell happened?" Sam snapped, glaring at Dash as if it was his fault that the town hero lay in his arms dying.
Dash shook his head, not bothering to snap back at the obviously concerned girl. "I don't…I don't know. I found him like this and….some ghost hurt him, badly."
"Sam," Tucker interrupted, drawing the Goth's attention away from Dash to where Tucker had his fingers pressed to Danny's neck. "He's dying. His vitals aren't good. We have got to get him back to Fenton Works."
Sam threw her hands in the air. "Tucker, his parents will kill him, you know that!"
Suddenly realizing what she had said, the teen slapped a hand over her mouth and looked nervously at Dash.
The bully had never been very smart. His grades weren't high and he sure as hell wasn't going into a career in math. But that one sentence triggered something in his brain that caused it to work for once, and he slowly pieced together what little information he had.
Danny Phantom.
Is a ghost, but he's dying.
Danny Fenton.
Ghost hunting parents.
His parents will kill him.
Fenton.
Phantom.
Danny.
Dash looked up at Tucker and Sam slowly, shifting Phantom-Fenton? - in his arms ever so slightly. Sam winced when she saw the look on Dash's face. "Dash, it isn't-"
"Save it, geek," Dash muttered. "We got to get him to Fenton Works or he's screwed."
The duo looked surprised but nodded and started sprinting in the direction of the Fenton household. "It might be too much for Mr. and Mrs. Fenton!" Tucker called to Sam.
Dash glanced over at the girl, keeping an easy pace with the two. Sam's brow furrowed and she shook her head. "Then we'll just have to go to Frostbite if that's the case. But we don't have much time, Tucker! Danny's losing blood way too fast."
As if hearing his friend, the boy in Dash's arms suddenly shuddered violently, his lips flecked with blood and his white hair a dull pink color from all the blood coating his body. In one blinding second, rings traveled up and down the injured halfa's body and Dash no longer held Phantom. Rather, he held Fenton.
Dash didn't even stumble. He merely gritted his teeth and kept running, feeling the awful sensation of guilt forming in the pit of his stomach.
Danny spasmed in the jocks arms, nearly making Dash lose his grip on him. The bully dropped to his knees, unable to run and keep Danny still in his arms anymore. He looked up to see they were merely feet away from Fenton Works, Sam and Tucker looking horrified as Danny jerked violently on the ground.
"Tucker! Fuck, get his parents! And then take Jazz and go get Frostbite, NOW!" Sam shrieked, dropping so hard to the pavement that Dash heard her leg crack badly.
Tucker gulped and ran for the house, slamming the door open and shouting at the top of his lungs that Danny was dying out on the street.
Sam and Dash straightened Danny as best they could and Dash, in a moment of complete selflessness, ripped off his prized letterman jacket and pressed it to the gaping wound in Danny's stomach.
He barely registered Danny's parents screaming and dropping to the ground next to him. He could only focus on the shallow movement of Danny's chest, praying that it would keep moving, that Tucker would get back with whoever this Frostbite person was.
He was vaguely aware of the Fenton's yelling at him, asking what happened, but the boy could only focus on the hero in front of him.
Hero.
The one he had bullied daily.
The one who had saved his sorry ass more times than he could count.
The one who was now bleeding to death or was already dead in front of him.
Breathing. Still breathing. Slow. Shallow. But there.
He registered Tucker and some giant white beast come flying into the road, Jazz on their heels. Dash kept his eyes on Danny's chest. It still moved. Barely.
The Fenton's were fighting with Tucker and Sam and Jazz. The white fur ball ignored them, kneeling next to Danny and setting to work. He was professional. His paws moved quickly, the bandages almost tied themselves.
Dash felt calm in the beast's presence and slowly the world around him came back into focus. He saw the blood coating his body, Danny's body, the beast (Frostbite) himself. Saw Tucker, Jazz, and Sam holding the parents back, protesting that Frostbite was helping. Felt the tears he hadn't known existed on his cheeks.
Danny groaned softly, only Dash and Frostbite catching it, and the bully leaned in. "Fenton?" he whispered.
The boys mouth opened and Dash looked down at the work Frostbite had done, the bandages wrapped carefully, some kind of glowing green salve caked all over the boy. "Da...Dash?" Danny coughed, his eyes cracking open in the slightest, his breath coming in gasps.
Dash leaned in further, well aware of the people behind him realizing that Fenton was awake. "What is it, Fenton?"
Danny's eyes focused for a brief second, flashing a bold color of green. "Wasn't…wasn't him. Help him. You have to."
Dash leaned back, confused. "Who? Help who, Danny?"
Sam, Tucker, and Jazz knelt next to Dash and looked from him to Danny. "Danny," Jazz whispered softly, tears in her eyes as she pressed a cold hand to her brother's even colder cheek. "Danny, who?"
The eyes flashed once more before dying to the dimmest shade of blue anyone had ever seen. "Skulker...needs help. Skulker. It wasn't Skulker."
A shudder wracked his body and the world fell still.
Well that was fun!
Review!