Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any related characters, all of which are property of Nickelodeon Studios.
Note To the Reader: This story is set in the Danny Phantom Unlimited Universe, therefore, there are deviations from show continuity. I am not certain which of my two Universes to set the story in. To all, my fan's who read this please tell me if this would be best in the DC Unlimited continuity or Marvel Unlimited continuity. I do plan to have crossovers with the heroes of whatever continuity I set it in.
October 31
The night air of Amity Park was cold and crisp; a typical early Fall night really. The stars were blocked by heavy, dark rippling clouds. Not even the tiniest sliver of moonlight got through the ashen clouds.
Normally, the sound of costumed children running up and down the streets, giggling and comparing the vast amount of completely unhealthy, tooth rotting, and ever so delicious candy treats they had gathered that night, would have filled the unusually still air. But not too night, no the night belonged to something far more sinister. Street lamps flickered on and off, casting temporary light upon the roads and streets before once more they were devoured by the eternally hungry night. For one who knew of Amity Park's rather peculiar recent history, and was remotely familiar with the paranormal, they would be unsurprised by this. If one was not they would be angry at the city's inability to keep its electrical grid in proper working order.
In the temporary light, people became briefly visible in the night, walking up and down the streets and in the roads. Upon paying closer attention, it would become clear that they were slouched and droopy headed. Their skin was a collective rough, bumpy green in color and texture. Their hair was long and filthy, hiding their bowed faces. Gurgling moans and chilling wails escaped their throats, reverberating in pitch-black ally ways.
All of this might make one think that there was a zombie walk going on in the town, a way to drum up money for charity or push the city's floundering budget back into the black. If one was too think that they would be wrong. Dead wrong.
It all started a scant few hours ago in the not so hollowed halls of Casper High…
Tucker had just shut down his precious PDA and packed it safely back into his glaringly orange parachute pants when he saw his best friends, Danny and Sam turn the corner. Tucker winced noticing Danny's wrinkled, stained clothes and angry scowl. The fourteen year-old blurd (a black nerd for those of you not aware) waved his friends over. Danny and Sam nodded and went to join their mutual friend by his locker.
"Dash stuff you in the garbage can again?" Tucker asked, already knowing full well what the response would be.
Danny looked at Tucker with a, lop sided scowl. "Duh! Freaking jerk should find somebody else to screw with! Ugh! I think that carton of milk I landed on was sour!" Danny tugged on his white t-shirt, trying his best to air out his foul smelling clothes.
"You did get back at him right?" asked Tucker.
Danny smiled wickedly. "Phased the bottom of his shoes into the floor. Yes, the school will most likely spend mucho money on getting them out, but it was so worth it."
Tucker laughed, imagining Dash panicking at being unable to move. Ah, pay back was a sweet, sweet thing. "Sweet thing!" Tucker suddenly cried out. This was most unfortunate as Amber Gale, a cheerleader and infamous stuck-up snob was walking right by the trio.
Amber stopped with a shocked gasp in front of Tucker before angrily slapping him across the face. Then, punched him in the gut, and finally, knocking him to the ground with a leg sweep. Satisfied with her work, Amber left with her nose in the air, and a smile on her face.
"Cough, cough! Thanks for the back up guys! Really appreciated." Tucker said sarcastically, in between wheezing breaths.
"It was all your fault Tuck." Sam said looking down at Tucker as he got up of the floor using the lockers as a brace. "You really shouldn't shout 'sweet thing' at snobby girls like her." Danny chimed in agreement to the Goth Girl as he helped his friend to his feet.
"You got to admit it was a pretty dumb move, even for you!" said Danny.
"I wasn't talking about her," Tuck snapped. "I was talking about candy!" At that moment, Candy Sutherman walked by. Tucker braced for another serious of viscous assaults on his person. Candy paused and seemed to think it over. Presumable deciding against bringing further harm to Tucker, she walked away, giving him a warning glare.
After she left, Tucker resumed his conversation. "It's Halloween guys! Costumes, candy, and an excuse for the slutty girls to dress even sluttier! I love this time of year!" Tucker sniffed and wiped a tear away from under his horn-rimmed eyeglasses. "Speaking of which," Tucker said, jogging after Candy. "Hey Candy wanna go out sometime?"
"EEEEEEEKKKKKKKKK! Loser breath!" WHAMM!
Tucker once more collapsed onto the dirty green floor of Casper High. "That wasn't cough, a no!"
To say that Mister Ronald Pearl Lancer's English class was dull as, a butter knife is to say that the Sahara is warm. Mr. Lancer was a forty odd year-old white man. He was completely bald on top of his head with thinning sideburns and a pitiful patch of hair on the back of his head. To make up for this, Lancer had grown a small beard on his chin, which unfortunately, was also growing thin.
His sizable belly hung out over Lancers belt and put a strain on his fading sky blue button down shirt. The teacher's body was somehow supported by surprisingly stick like legs that by all Laws of Psychics should have broken under his weight. Mr. Lancer's droll, emotionless voice did not help matters at all as he scrawled in the chalkboard, reciting from a Shakespeare play that Danny hadn't caught the title of.
Danny propped his heavy head up on his hand, struggling to stay conscious. His normally bright blue eyes were foggy. Bags sagged under his eyelids. He found himself drifting in and out of awareness as his body demanded sleep. Danny did not mean to stay up so late, but it came with the responsibility of being half ghost. He, Tucker and Sam protected Amity Park at night, and various times during the day from the numerous supernatural threats that, pardon the pun, haunted the city.
Before the accident that gave him his powers, he was an average student. Straight B's with an A dotting his report card every now and then. While on average, this was good, but when you come from a family of geniuses, B's rarely count. Now, his grade average had been slipping, much more than either Tucker or Sam. Tucker for the fact that he tended to do a whole lot of cramming the night before a test and was over all a genius in his own right, and Sam was always diligent in her studies. Put together with the fact that Danny always stayed out much later than his two compatriots, contributed to his weary nature.
Danny's eyes fluttered. His brain became hazy. His heart rate slowed. Danny had fought it as long as he could. Finally, the valiant solider was, felled by the looming claws of slumber.
Danny Fenton did not know where he was, but somewhere within him self it was familiar. It was a completely alien landscape. Well, landscape was a misnomer. There was little land to it! It was swirling, endless void that stretched infinitely downward and upward and went on forever and ever to either side of him. A green mist swirled all around the void wriggling and flowing like a living organism. Eternally drifting landmasses filled this strange world. Many were no larger than a small boulder, others the size of small city's, and some no larger than an atom. Where did they come from? They seemed so out of place, yet at the same time, they fit right in.
It was then that Danny noticed him. 'Him' for the sole reason to assign a gender to the form that appeared in a black flash. The figure was a luminescent white and roughly human shaped. That was all the detail Danny was able to take in. He wanted to move in closer, but could not move, like he was paralyzed.
An appendage emerged from the white, human shaped blob, presumably an arm from it position and shape. The hand, what could be a hand at least, light up in, jade brilliance. Then, with a whistling whine, the green light shot from his hand, splitting through the void like an arrow. The beam of light struck one of the floating boulders and with a disastrous explosion, the strange rock was shattered into countless fragments!
As red-hot rocks flew from the blast zone, a box took the rocks place. The box was rectangular in shape with weird, unearthly designs carved into the surfaces. Maybe they were ancient runes or hieroglyphs? Sam would know. She was good with that sort of stuff. Its length was easily seven feet and one foot in width. A golden lock, the kind you would see on treasure chest, or at least what you would see in movies and on TV, dangled on its side.
The white figure moved toward the box. Or, maybe the box moved to him? Danny wasn't sure. After he had seen the box, he had felt sick. A knot formed his stomach, twisting and pulling at his innards. That box, whatever it was, was not good. Not good at all.
Two arms reached out and took the box into their grasp. Danny felt even sicker. It grabbed the lock with a shining green hand, and the sound of breaking metal met the young mans ears. With a simple gesture, the white figure tossed away the lock, which drifted far away from either of them.
Danny felt like he was about to vomit. The figure opened the box. A purple fume spurted from inside, consuming him. Then, the purple fog was blown away and replaced by a great swirling green sphere. The sphere shrank quickly with the same whine of the emerald beam. The sphere dissipated into the figure. The case was open. Danny became cold.
Within the case, nestled snuggly in a red indention was a long, black staff. The bottom was tipped with a deadly golden point.
Danny trembled.
Spiraling up from the point was a golden band with further runic symbols etched all most unnoticeably in it.
Sweat blossomed on his pale skin.
At the midsection of the staff, the golden bands etching became tiny dancing figures, forever immobile in the precious ore.
Danny struggled to breath.
At the very top, a figure of gold, forged in the shape of a hideous demonic head, mouth gaping wide, leading down into a pit of darkness.
Danny felt the bile in his stomach bubble and churn violently.
The figures hand grasped the staff and tore it free from the case, his other hand clawed through the air, actually tearing the void, a blinding white light pouring through. The figure touched the bottom tip of the staff to the tear. The staff seemed to be pulled, not pushed into it!
Danny screamed.
And the whole class looked at him like the total freak he was. "MISTER FENTON!" Mr. Lancer screamed from the chalkboard, having dropped the book in surprise. "I WILL NOT HAVE YOU SCREAMING IN MY CLASSROOM!" he shouted.
Danny noticed nothing going on around him, to consumed in his body automatically lurching forward violently, an spewing the total contents of his stomach out…and right onto the back of Dash's chair, and pants.
Whatever bout of laughter that was brewing in the classroom was murdered. Violently. Dash shot up like a bullet, face red with fury. "You little freak! You yaked on my favorite jeans! I'm going to squash you!" Danny covered his head as Dash pulled his fist back into the air.
"That is enough Mr. Baxter!" Mr. Lancer said. "Mr. Fenton, go to the nurse, right away."
Danny choked on some of the remaining vomit in his mouth. "I-I don't, think I can make it on my own." Danny said weakly. "C-could Tucker or Sam help me there?"
Mr. Lancer growled before tossing up his arm in frustration. "Fine, fine! Mr. Foley, Ms. Manson, escort Danny to the nurses office, then come right back!" the English teacher ordered.
"Right!" Tucker said, getting up from his desk at the front of the class and moving back to Danny, being joined by Sam, who sat right behind, him.
Sam helped her friend out of his chair, putting Danny's thin arm around her shoulders as a brace. "You okay Danny?" She whispered.
"Tell you later." Danny replied softly.
"Come on man, let's get you to the…the…" Tucker's lips pursed together. He grabbed Danny's other arm and put his hand on his back, helping Sam stand Danny up. Carefully, they navigated the sea of teens and one murderous football, playing shark to the door.
Out in the hall, a sufficient distance from the classroom, the trio stopped. Danny stood on his own, his legs still wobbly. Gently, he wiped goo from his bottom lip and spit stomach acid that had worked its was into his mouth out on the floor.
"What was it you wanted to tell us Danny?" Sam asked.
Tucker looked confused. "He wanted to say something to use? Dude, there are seriously less hazardous was to tell us stuff in school, other than upchucking on Fruit-Of-The-A-String in there!"
"No you idiot!" Sam smacked Tucker on the back of the head, almost knocking off his glasses and beanie. "He didn't throw up so he could talk! Did you?"
Danny shook his head, which he immediately. "No! But I got tell you guess this. I think something bad is going to happen."
"Bad?" Sam parroted. "What do you mean?"
"Something really bad!" Danny said. "I-I don't know how or why, but I saw something that…scared the crap out me!"
"Danny," said Tucker with a sigh. "That's called a nightmare! You probable fell asleep again. You need to quit it with these long nights."
"Tucker's got a point Danny. It has been rough past few days. First Skulker tried to kill you, then the day after that Technus attacked, The Demon Brothers popped up, that vampire thing, and the Box Ghost sprinkled here and there just to bug you!" Sam said counting off the threats on her hand. "You need to get some sleep! It's made you sick."
Danny growled, frustrated by his friends disbelief. Just before he was about to shout at them, he realized that what Sam had said made sense. "You're right. You guys go on back to class, I can make the rest of the way on my own." Danny said as he walked away from his friends, wiping his forehead, clearing away beads of sweat that had once more formed on his skin.
Tucker and Sam watched Danny go, both feeling very different from each other at the moment. It was Sam who broke the silence. "You think Danny's alright? He looked really bad." Sam asked Tucker, chewing on the tip of her thumb.
Tucker smiled and replied, "Don't worry Sam, Danny's fine! You'll get to ask him out later!" Sam promptly smacked over the head.
Hollow Meadows was located just two miles outside of Amity Park city limits. It was built over Old Amity Park, which for the most part, had been gutted by a vicious fire in 1849 that was started by famed arsonist Sizzilea LeMakar, who herself was supposedly attacked and killed by a flock of raven's less than a year later.
Over five hundred people were killed in fire and even more were unaccounted for. After the fire, a cemetery was erected in Old Amity's place, and the dead, or what was left of them, were put to rest in the earth. They were followed by many generations of Amity Parkiens. The cemetery now contained well over ten thousand graves. Many citizens felt that the place was cursed as many fatal accidents and murders occurred there. They would soon learn, what they believed, to be the absolute truth.
At exactly six hours, six minutes and one second, a glowing green portal opened above the very center of the cemetery and a staff of evil and ancient design plunged forth from it, rooting itself by its tip in the graveyard soil. At exactly six hours, six minutes and two seconds, the eyes on the staffs' demonic top light up. Violet light exploded from its gaping maw. At exactly six hours, six minutes and three seconds, the violet light slithered down the winding golden band into the ground. At exactly six hours, six minutes and four seconds, a human figure appeared over the staff. It entered without ceremony or theatrics. At exactly six hours, six minutes, and five seconds, its rotted, scaly lips curled into an unholy smile and spoke in a hissing, decayed voice one word: "Rise." Every grave in the cemetery erupted in a shower of earth, wood, stone and purple light. Leaping from their graves, mere shadows of their former living selves, the dead took there first, rattling breaths. At exactly six hour, six minutes, and six seconds, the dead walked the Earth.
Home life for Danny Fenton was not normal, and very often, life threatening. His parents, Jack and Maddie Fenton, were professional ghost hunters. And when they said ghost hunters, they meant ghost hunters. They were both two of the most brilliant people on the planet, if not slightly of kilter.
Together they had created devices that could hurt, maim, cut, burn, fry, boil, slightly irritate, grab, strangle, snag, snare, entrap, suck, vacuum, wash, disembowel, disorientate, hold on let me take a breath…okay, I'm ready, paralyze, taser, poison, beat, translate, gore, dress, chase, blow up, purée, liquefy, mutate, wed, electrocute, confuse, detect, OH FORGET IT! Trying to name what all of the ghost fighting gear the two of them do, is like trying to make Ned Arnel Mencia stop being a joke stealing hack!
Their house, marked by a giant, neon sign reading FENTON WORKS and at the bottom, had a bright arrow pointing right at the door. Yes, Jack Fenton was a master of subtlety. Even worse, inside the house, whenever Danny stepped inside, he would set of numerous anti-ghost weaponry, built into the walls, ceilings, and floors, because his DNA was now, fifty percent ectoplasm. Luckily, despite Jack's large size, he was freakishly fast enabling him to quickly shut off the defenses after recognizing that it was Danny he was pointing a very large plasma cannon at.
That was not the least of Danny's worries as his parents, as well as ninety-nine percent of the town would like to see him reenact a scene from Goldfinger minus the daring escape. And then there was Jazz. While not to the level of technological and engineering brilliance of there parents, she was undoubtedly the smartest girl her age in the United States.
Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton had high hopes of becoming a leading child psychologist. This was do to her…traumatic childhood i.e. growing up under two ghost hunters that often caused her immense emotional and psychological stress. Jazz often cried to council Danny about his "rebellious behavior" and chastised her parents for their "psychotic and demented views and activities that have lead to near irreparable mental and emotional damage to young Danny!" This of course led to further mortification on Danny's part one way, or another.
But, thankfully, not every minute of his home life was like this. At this moment, Danny had just woken up from a, thankfully dreamless, sleep. After he got home, because he had no homework, he went straight to his room, flopped down on his bed, and went into a coma.
Danny stretched and groaned, working out any kinks that had formed in his joints while he slept. Smacking his lips and taking a few deep breaths of air, Danny realized, much to his disgust, his clothes still smelled faintly of Ode De Garbage. Danny peeled of his smelly clothes, tossed them on the floor and redressed in a pair of his favorite blue jeans and white t-shirt with one orange oval on the chest. In the oval was a single upper case D for Danny. This of course led too many a poorly done joke by Dash about what the 'D' stood for.
Danny put on his shoes, note wanting to step on anything that was inevitable to have spilt on the living room carpet barefooted. One bare foot caught in ectoplasmic goo that would either burn the flesh from his foot or turn it to a block of ice was enough thank you very much!
Danny cautiously stepped out of his room, half excepting one or both of his parents to come running up to him to show a new invention that would atomize/detect ghosts on sight. Every time they targeted Danny, and every time Jack and Maddie would write it off as a glitch in the program.
He walked past his sisters bed room, which was marked by a porcelain door hanger made years ago with her name written with squiggly lines. As much as Jazz put up an adult mentality, she was still a kid at heart. Even if it was, buried under years of repression and embarrassment. Probably suffocating to death too.
The half-ghost went down the blue carpeted stairs and down into the living room and adjoining kitchen and dining room. Jazz sat on the coach, nose buried in a book by some guy name Fredric Wromhead, Wasaman, something or other. Danny had read it once out of curiosity and found that it was complete idiocy and as, Tucker once put it "assholery", and a vast majority of his claims were completely unfounded. The things he attributed to comics would later be blamed on Rock and Roll, movies, TV and video games as an escape route for poor parenting skills and denying the fact that teenagers often act out, sometimes in violent and unlawful ways because of raging hormones and the primeval desire to establish dominance and independence from the old rule.
Jack was tearing into a large plat of hamburgers and Doritos while Maddie was searching inside the refrigerator. Jack was an exceptionally large man that looked like Danny, except far large, fatter and in an orange jumpsuit with black gloves and boots. He had worn the suit so long he had actually become allergic to anything else so his wardrobe was fully stocked with them.
Maddie looked more like Jazz except with shorter hair, neck length hair. Typically she was seen with in a blue jumpsuit, mask and large orange goggles, but was wearing regular clothes at the moment.
Danny walked into the kitchen and greeted his parents. "Hey mom, hey dad." Danny yawned.
"Hi ya son!" Jack exclaimed, spitting out bits of hamburger as he spoke.
"Oh, hello Danny!" Maddie greeted with a smile. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah. So, any burgers left?" Danny asked with another, shorter, yawn.
Maddie picked up a large serving platter that was piled with thick beef patties, steam still rising from the meat. "Yep! I was sure to cook extra for you." She then leaned in closer to her son and whispered, "The way your father eats I'm amazed that he didn't devour these!"
Danny stifled a snicker. Grabbing a soft bun off the counter and picked up a fork that was on the large serving platter. He stabbed one of the patties and put it on the halved bun in his other hand. Danny put the top bun back on, and put the fork on the platter.
Danny took a bite of the burger, chewed it, swallowed it, and instantly regretted it. "BLAK! OH GOD! WHAT IS IN THIS? FOR THE LOVE OF GOD IT BURNS MY EYES!" Danny shouted and hacked, an unholy cacophony of bitter, acid flavors racked across his taste buds and throat with the viciousness of ten thousand hot, poisoned, serrated daggers.
Maddie scratched her chin with one hand. "Well it's an old family recipe, for every pound of beef, two large cloves of garlic, a couple dashes of paprika, a few large red onions diced, two handfuls of salt, sardine juice, and just a hint of basil. What's the matter Danny? Your dad loves them!"
Danny saw Jack give him a very sympathetic look before holding up two small peppers. Jack got up from the dinning table, holding the peppers behind his back. "Ah, Maddie there is something I want to show Danny down in the lab. Could you hold on for a second?"
Jack quickly grabbed Danny with his free hand and pulled him out of the kitchen and rushed him down into the basement laboratory. Closing the heavy lead lined door of the lab, Jack turned to his son, who was still hacking and chocking on the monstrosity of a hamburger.
"Danny, eat this quick!" Jack thrust one of the bright red peppers into Danny's hand. Danny bit the pepper of its green, leafy stem and his eyes went wide as the pepper did its devilish work. He spit it out into a trashcan, spitting and gasping.
"Danny, calm down boy, calm down!" Jack said, shaking his distraught son by his shoulders.
"Gah, ahh, what was…that thing you gave me!?" Danny asked his father while he scrapped his burning tongue across his back teeth.
"That was a Naga Jolokia," Jack explained. "It's the hottest pepper in the world. Whenever your mother used to make them, I always ate one. They completely destroy your taste buds for at least a week."
"What about my burning eyes?" Danny wheezed.
"They'll be like that for a while." Said Jack scratching the back of his neck. "Listen Danny, don't tell your mother about this, okay?" Danny took a few deep breaths and nodded.
After this, the two of them ventured back up to the kitchen and finished eating the burgers of evil.
"I can't believe you dragged me along for this!" Sam complained too Tucker. Sam was dressed in a warm night black jacket and long purple stockings. It was way to cold for her and Tucker was smiling like an idiot, dressed up like a giant PDA. Yeah, it was creepy as hell.
"Liven up Sam." Tucker beamed. "It's Halloween! We had to do this! Besides, this could a big ghost hunting time. The Celtics believed this was a time when the living world and the world of the dead were closest. Maybe they were right, ghost activity has jumped." Tucker pushed the Fenton Works doorbell, which using Jack's voice screamed: "Suffern' Spooks!"
A few seconds later, the door opened and Jazz greeted them both with a bowl of candy in one hand and a smile on her face. "Oh, hi guys. You want Danny?" Jazz asked in her characteristically perky personality.
"Yeah, could you get him us Jazz?" Sam asked, her annoyance somewhat relieved.
"Okay I'll go get-" Jazz was cut off, by Tucker.
"Ah-ah-ah!" Tucker said, waging his finger. He raised a pumpkin shaped basket. "Trick-or-treat!"
Jazz and Sam both rolled their eyes. "All right here!" Jazz tossed a fun-sized candy bar into Tucker's basket. "Now I'll go get him." Jasmine put the bowl of candy down on a small stand and walked away, mumbling something about immaturity.
The Giant PDA that was Tucker smiled deviously as he grabbed a handful of candy and dropped it into his bucket.
"Tucker!" Sam chastised. "Don't do that, it's stealing!"
"Pfft! Relax Sam! It's not that big a deal." Tucker replied calmly.
Before Sam could say anything, they both saw Danny walk down the stairs. "Hey Sam, Tuck…and why are you dressed like a PDA?"
Tucker grunted. "It's Halloween dude! You have to dress up!"
"Right. So, what are you guys doing here?" Danny asked his friends, still feeling his eyes burning.
"I wanted to sit at home and relax, but Tucker in his infinite maturity called me out so we could go trick-or-treating like babies." Sam growled, giving Tucker a shove.
"Hey! I am not a baby!" Tucker countered angrily. "I just love candy!"
"Calm down guys! Don't kill each other! I'm busy enough as it is." Danny joked, stepping in between his arguing friends. "How about we just go out on the town and do…something!"
"Alright." Sam said nonchalantly.
"Cool. I still get candy!" Tucker said with a massive smile. Danny looked at Tucker with an exasperated smile. If Tucker did not go into a sugar coma this year…
Little Billy Jones was only six. Billy was a cute little guy who loved his mommy and daddy to bits. Billy loved puppies and kitties and fishies too. But most of all, little Billy Jones loved candy. Sour candy, crunchy candy, chewy candy, it didn't matter to him! Little Billy Jones loved Halloween, cause he got to dress up as a vampire or a ghost and get candy for free.
His parents stood on either side of him, both smiling at the fun their loveable son was having. The way their son laughed and giggled when he got the candy, the slight lisp he had when Billy said, "trick-or-treat". Nothing could ruin this night. Not even when three people ran down the street screaming their heads off.
Mr. and Mrs. Jones paid no attention to this. It was Amity Park at night, and it was Halloween. To not see someone run down the street screaming would be a sign of the apocalypse! Maybe if they had taken notice, maybe if they had seen the figures leaping and running with inhuman speed and agility, things might have turned out different.
"Alright now Billy," Mr. Jones said to his son. "One more house and then we head home, okay?"
"Okay daddy!" Billy said with a big smile, showing off fake vampire teeth fixed in his mouth. Both of his parents smiled widely at this.
"How about that house ove-GAH!" Mr. Jones cried as he fell to the ground with a heavy thud.
Mrs. Jones and Billy screamed, seeing the back of Mr. Jones' neck had been completely cut out. Blood gushed from the mighty gash, pooling around his body and staining the pair's pants and shoes. Little Billy's mind was unable to comprehend what he saw. That was his father on the ground. Little Billy understood that. That was his father on the ground, dead. Little Billy didn't understand that. He couldn't, really. Little Billy's brain was simple to simple to understand.
Mrs. Jones saw her husband's murderer standing over his body. The murderers skin was green, and warty like a toads. Tattered remains of formal wear hung loosely on his emaciated body. His hair was of good length, covered in dirt and blood, matting it to his forehead. His finger nails were long, thick and had a sharp pointed. His right was painted in crimson. Dry, cracked lips pulled back to show sharp, nubs of teeth, glistening a sickening yellow and red. His eyes were small, and almost completely white, only the faintest, outline of pupils were visible. Mrs. Jones could not recognize this thing as a human and assigned it, the, designation, of It.
It didn't really matter though as many more "It's" surrounded them, mouths hanging open hungrily. The creatures pounced on the mother and son, teeth gnashing, claws ripping and tearing, cries of primal lust and fury filled the air.
Hovering above them, their lord and master watched with glee. He was at least seven feet tall. Green, rotting skin was stretched over thick, powerful muscles. His skull was long and narrow. A row of puss filled boils formed his large brow. His eyes were a pale yellow, not from pigmentation, but from decay. Completely out of proportion with the rest of his body, were his thin, skeletal legs. Only a thin covering of pale green flesh concealed the bones. Three golden spikes, each a foot long, were fitted on both of his broad shoulders. If one looked closer, it would be apparent that they actually grew out of his body. Hung on the last two spikes was a long, patchwork cape made from the flesh of his countless victims. In his clawed hands he held the staff.
"Yessss!" He hissed in a rattling voice. "Kill and consume my children! Grow stronger! Soon, this world shall be ours! So commands Lord Ghoul!"
Darkness consumed the room, filling every nook and cranny. It would be smothering to most people. Everyone really. It was unnaturally heavy and humid. Only a small sphere of luminescence at the center of the room gave some sense of life.
All that was contained in the sphere was a lavish green velvet chair and a large cauldron, which was the source of the light. In the chair sat a lone man. He peered into the large, black cauldron, watching with great interest the events that passed in the swirling, magical waters.
"Are you sure it was a wise idea setting Lord Ghoul free?" A voice, deep and grave shattered the silence, much to the displeasure of the man.
"Bullet, I hired you because of your knowledge of the Ghost Zone and its secrets, not for opinion. If the boy can handle him, he may just be worthy."
"But if he is killed, than even you may not be able to-"
"Silence you undead fool! I am far more powerful then that child! I could send to oblivion with one attack! Remember that." There was silence. The man smiled. That was all the answer he needed.
Sirens blaring, several police cars screamed down the road right past Danny, Tucker, and Sam. "Wonder where they're going?" Sam said.
"Probably a break-in." Tucker suggested.
Danny nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Tuck's probably right." Just then, a blast of blue, icy cold smoke went came out of his mouth. "Oh great!" Danny moaned, slapping his head. Looking around, the street was empty, except for himself, Sam and Tucker.
"One of you guys got the Thermos?" Danny asked. They both shook their heads. "Even better! You guys run back to my house and get a Thermos and then find me. Hopefully its not to bad."
Danny took a step away from his friends and took a deep breath. "I'm going Ghost!" Danny shouted as a bright, neon blue ring formed around his waist. The ring split in two, one ring traveling upward around Danny's body, the other descending to the ground. As they did, Danny felt an unnatural cold wash over his body, accompanied by great, supernatural energy filling his being. The rings vanished as the hit the apex of their journeys.
Danny stood transformed, remade into something new and powerful. His jeans and shirt had been replaced by a solid black haz mat style costume only white gloves and a white collar were the only other color on the suit.
His black hair had turned snow white and increased in length, know falling back over his head and down his shoulders. Danny's sapphire blue eyes had become completely green, glowing eerily in the night. His face had become shrouded by a black energy, giving him the appearance of wearing a black facemask, though his mouth and nose wear still visible, if not poorly defined.
Daniel "Danny" Fenton was gone, in his place, the world got a supernatural superhero: Phantom!
"You guys be careful." Danny said in a new voice, softer, distant, but carried with it a strange, implacable feeling and reverberation.
"We will." Sam said for the both of them. "You make sure not to get turned into a full ghost, alright?"
A barely noticeable smile appeared on his face. "No problem." With that, Danny lifted of the ground with out a sound, flew up higher and higher till he was level with the highest building, twenty feet above the ground. He closed his eyes and focused on what had set off his Ghost Sense. They were not close or else they would have attacked and tried to rip them all to bits. So it must have been a very powerful ghost or…
Danny's eyes flew open. There were so many of them! They were a good distance off, but they numerous. Danny couldn't tell how many, never could but knew that it was not one entity. The feeling he got was far too…scattered and unorganized to be one specter.
Danny's hand erupted in emerald fire as he flew toward the mass of ghostly energy. Sam and Tucker had once clocked him at one hundred-twelve miles-per-hour. At that speed, the air around him sounded like a tornado. Buildings under him passed by in a blur of twisted shapes, and faint colors.
Ahead of him, Danny saw pillars of flame and plumes of smoke that would be barely visible to the human eye in the darkness, but Danny, it was like daytime. Night vision rocked. What distressed Danny far more than the fires were what surrounded, them.
Monsters. That's the only word he could think of to describe them. The monsters had hideous features and bloodstained bodies. Many crouched by bodies of men, women and many children, devouring flesh and crushing bones. As Danny floated above them, he felt like he was about to vomit. He had seen evil things, horribly things, but nothing like this. His features twisted into a picture of rage as he dived down toward the monsters at top speed, fists a blaze.
Sam and Tucker ran as fast as they could. Unfortunately Tucker, despite stereotypes against, was never very athletic, and was further inhibited by his bulky Halloween costume. His candy bucket was bouncing with each stride, flinging the sweet treats out.
"Are…we…almost…there?" Tucker asked Sam, gasping for breath.
Sam looked at Tucker with annoyance. "You know, if you exercised more, this wouldn't be such a problem for you!"
"I…don't…do…exerci-oh we're here!" Tucker and Sam stopped before the Fenton Works sign. As they were about three feet from the door, it burst upon. Jack stood in the doorway, holding a large ectocannon in one arm.
"Sam, Tucker, get in here now!" Jack ordered in a tone halfway between a yell and a growl.
With out a word, the two rushed into the Fenton Works. After they got inside they saw many people, some nursing injuries and holding blood soaked cloths to wounds, sitting and standing around the living room. Jack slammed the door shut and turned to Sam and Tucker. "Where's Danny?" Jack questioned. It was then that they noticed blood splatters and gashes on his jumpsuit.
"Why? What's going on?" Tucker asked as he unzipped his PDA costume.
"Ghouls." Maddie appeared from within the crowd, dressed in her blue jumpsuit, clutching a small ectorifle.
"What?" asked Sam, her, head swimming with confusion.
"Ghouls," came Tucker, now holding his PDA, and not wearing it. "In Arabic myth they were monsters that dwelled in graveyards." Tucker closed the internet-window on his Personal Digital Assistant.
"Right." Maddie said, nodding. "All these people were attacked by Ghouls in the street. Many of them got separated from their families or…" Maddie stopped, unable to continue.
"We got out there and got as many people in side as we could." Jack said, looking out the window with wide eyes. "But where is Danny? He could get killed out there!"
Sam and Tucker were silent, thinking of something to say. "He-he saw police cars pass use and he wanted to follow them and her ran ahead of use." Sam said hurriedly.
"And when we tried to follow him," Tucker continued, "A cop stopped us and told us to leave. Danny must have gotten there before he did."
"Damnit!" Jack cursed. He walked over to his wife. "Maddie, I'm going out there to find Danny! You watch out for any Ghouls and blow there heads off. Kids, I trust you can use at least a light Ectogun. There are some lower caliber weapons down in the lab. Grab them and help Maddie watch for Ghouls."
"But Mr. Fenton!" Tucker said to his best friends father.
"No buts!" Jack snapped. "I don't want you two getting hurt or worse! Where were you three before Danny ran off?"
"Sessile Street. Please make sure Danny's okay Mr. Fenton." Sam said, biting her lower lip.
"Don't worry Sam, I always protect my family!" Jack walked to the door, gripping his gun tightly.
Maddie grabbed her husband's shoulder. Jack turned around and was about to ask her why she had stopped him when she kissed him deeply. "Be careful." Maddie said softly.
"I will." Jack said before he slipped out of the door and into the monster filled night.
Sam and Tucker ran down to the lab, passing Jazz who was tending to a young girl with a scrapped knee. They would find out later, her parents had gotten much, much worse. Down in the lab, Tucker and Sam armed themselves with small guns that looked like they had been pulled out of a science fiction movie, and grabbed a single Fenton Thermos from under the weapons rack.
"So, how are we going to get out of here?" Tucker asked Sam.
"We're not." Sam said with a melancholy voice.
"What? Danny needs our help!" cried Tucker. "How can we just sit here and do nothing?"
"Danny's mom will notice if we just disappeared. We should help out here. Danny will be fine. No Ghoul could beat him and he will have the police and his dad helping him out! He'll be fine." Sam wished she believed what she said.
Danny was not fine. He did not have the assistance of the police. They were dead. There wasn't one Ghoul. There were hundreds. Danny felt like he had been fighting for hours, but knew it had only been a few minutes. The Ghouls swarmed him, slash, biting and clawing at him. For every one he took out, fifteen appeared in its place.
He was buried under a proverbial mountain of the abominations. Danny was stronger than the average human, but not by much. There was no way he could throw off this many attackers. He couldn't go intangible, that required a lot of focus, most of which was being devoted to not reverting back to human were he would undoubtedly be torn to pieces.
He needed to get free! He needed to get them off! Danny drew power into his hands, balled it up. Then, when he couldn't contain it any more, Danny exploded! Ghouls were propelled of the ghost boy by a wave of emerald ectoplasmic energy. Those closest to Danny were incinerated.
Immediately upon being freed from the weight, Danny rocketed into the sky. He came to a stop fifty feet above the chaos. Danny trembled from pain. He was covered in great slashes and bit marks that oozed emerald blood. There were so many of them, how could he defeat them all?
"RRAAAHHH!"
Danny spun around in the air and saw a one armed Ghoul gripping a window seal of the building Danny was floating next to. How did it? Danny didn't have time to finish the thought as it leap off the wall, powerful legs propelling it at its prey.
Danny phased out of physical existence for the briefest instance. His body became transparent, intangible. The Ghoul passed right through the teen ghost. Its target missed, the Ghoul plummeted down to the ground were it smashed into a burning up turned car. The damage done to its rotten body put an end to the Ghoul's half-life, and its remains quickly caught fire.
Danny watched the countless Ghouls below him shriek and scream up at him, jumping ten feet into the air, hopelessly clawing into the air. Then, they did something Danny did not expect. As one massive wave of darkness, they charged the tall apartment. Leaping up onto the wall, they used their claws like hooks to climb their way up the side of the building at amazing speed.
Danny flew backwards and took aim with both of his hands. Thin green energy beams fired from Danny's palms. Danny called these "Ghost Rays". They took a bit of energy out of him depending on the strength he put into them, but the could put a dent in the side of a car. Now, when he was so weak and had expend so much energy, the Ghost Rays felt like someone thumping the Ghouls on the ear. Slowed them down, but didn't kill them.
The Ghouls began to jump out at Danny, who was barely able to dodge the deadly assaults. He flew higher, out of the range of their jumps, but they still continued to leap to their doom.
"My God!" Danny groaned. "These guys are so stupid! Hey morons! You can't get me up here!"
"No," Danny looked over his shoulder to find Lord Ghoul hovering over him. "But I can!" the master of the Ghouls swung down with his staff and cracked the demonic head over Danny's skull. Ectoplasmic blood splattered the golden head of the staff as Danny's limp body fell to the ground.
Danny hit the concrete hard, his only cushion the broken bodies of many a Ghoul that he had killed or had leapt to their death.
A neon blue ring appeared around his and split in two, one ascending his body, the other descending. The same process that had given Danny the powers of a ghost reverted him back into a mere human.
Whenever Danny transformed from his Ghost form back to his human form, almost all wounds he received as a ghost were healed, so long as they were not severe to the point of a broken bone or something like that, which would really leave painful bruises and fractures that would heal fairly quickly.
Right now, has Danny rolled over onto his hands and knees, struggling to maintain consciousness, he could feel every single wound he had received. None of them bleed, but all of them hurt like hell.
"Are you kidding me?" Lord Ghoul sneered. On impossible thin legs, the demon stepped over the corpses of his once great army. Danny looked up weakly before he felt a hot, greasy hand grab him by the throat and lift him up. Danny grabbed Lord Ghoul's wrist in a feeble attempt to pry his chocking limb free.
"The ghost that devastated my army to less than a fraction of its full strength, is a Halfling?!" Lord Ghoul's grip tightened like a vice. "This is unforgivable! You have insulted Lord Ghoul! I will rip your head off!"
"Get your mitts of my son!"
Lord Ghoul turned around, still clutching Danny's body. There stood Jack Fenton, his heart filled with righteous fury, and hands full of hot ectoplasmic death. Jack pulled the trigger and a stream of green energy burst from the ectocannon's barrel, sizzling the very air as it made its deadly course.
Lord Ghoul recoiled as the blast took him full on in the face, dropping Danny and the staff from surprise. Danny fell to the ground in a daze, hearing his father scream for him to run home. Danny mustered what strength he could and stood up and ran faster than he ever did in his life, every muscle in his body screaming bloody murderer in protest. As he past his father, he saw Jack give him a look that he had never seen on his fathers face before. It was a look of fear. Was Jack afraid for Danny? Was it for himself? Or was it for the both of them?
After Danny had ran a little ways away, he could hear the sound of an ectocannon, firing burst after burst of energy and the angry cries of Lord Ghoul. Danny stopped dead in his tracks. He was never going to run away. The fight between his dad and Lord Ghoul would only end one way: Lord Ghoul standing over his father's body. That was not going to happen!
Once again, a neon blue ring appeared around Danny, split in two and transformed him into Phantom. Danny floated up into the air and flew off at his top speed, blocking out the pain flowing through his body.
Jack fell to the ground, hissing from the pain in his chest as smoke curled from a scorch mark on his jumpsuit. His ectocannon lay shattered next to him. Lord Ghoul glared at the fallen ghost hunter, the eyes of his staff still glowing menacingly.
"Did you really think that you faired a better chance than your son!? Foolish mortal, at least your son was-UFF!" Lord Ghoul was knocked to the ground as Phantom collided, feet first, with his back.
"A pretty good fighter!" The ghostly defender of Amity Park declared boldly.
"You imbecile!" Lord Ghoul screamed. He flew up to greet his attacker on equal "footing". "You had a chance to flee, yet you waste it to come back and try to save a buffoon?"
"I'd never run from a murderous psychopath!" Phantom dashed in with his left arm raised in a fist. The distance between them shrank in a near instant. Phantom lashed out with a punch, which Lord Ghoul smacked away with his staff, making Phantom to the right as his momentum carried him forward, and right into Lord Ghoul's punch!
Phantom was flung away with violent force. He toppled out of control through the air and crashed against the side of a blood, smeared wall. Phantom felt his bones crack and rattle from the impact.
"Now I shall finish this!" Lord Ghoul flew at the spectral superhero at his full speed, the tip of his staff, pointing straight at him! Before he could even think, Phantom felt incomprehensible pain rage through his body like a wildfire.
Lord Ghoul had impaled Phantom through the stomach with his staff, which had buried itself in the concrete behind him. Ectoplasm spewed from the wound. Phantom hacked up more green slime that spilled out of his almost invisible mouth, coating his chin and chest in his own blood and staining his teeth green.
"Do you see how inferior you Halflings are? All throughout history, when you have come to be, you saw yourselves as above both mortal and specter, only to be ripped apart by us in the end!" Lord Ghoul stepped back, admiring his bleeding, dying enemy with sick satisfaction. "You may have devastated my army, but there are still many Ghouls in the city, and countless graveyards that I can use to create more minions to dominate this world! Do you finally see how futile your battle was?"
Maybe Lord Ghoul should have been paying more attention to the human he had struck down and less time gloating and berating his advisory? After all, the hubris is what had led even the greatest warrior's to their demise at the hands of a lesser enemy.
His rotted body suddenly convulsed in pain as millions of watts coursed through Lord Ghoul's body.
"Ha! Fenton Ghost Taser punk!" Jack shouted. In his hand he held a small green box like device with four metal prongs, two above two in his hand. "Come on, we haven't finished our fight yet!"
Lord Ghoul screamed in absolute rage. With a single might backhand, he sent Jack, a two hundred plus pound man flying through the air. With a painfully skipping, Jack came to a stop on top of the body of a fallen police officer.
"HOW DARE YOU!? I SHALL KILL YOU HUMAN!" Lord Ghoul jumped the ten feet to his target landing with his legs spread over Jack and began to pummel him with a barrage of vicious punches.
Danny saw his father being beaten by the monster. He could hear the sound of flesh hitting flesh and bone cracking. Danny's father was going to die! No! NO! Danny's body became filled with new strength and energy. Grabbing the staff with both hands, Danny pulled. He pulled with every ounce of might in his body. Pain surged through his body as the staff began to move out of his stomach. Ectoplasm spurted from his chest and leaked from his mouth. Finally, with a cry of rage, of pain, of sorrow, and of righteous fury, Danny-no not Danny, it was Phantom, spectral protector of not just Amity Park, but of all he loved and cared for, protector of his family-ripped the staff free of the wall and himself and held it above his head!
Lord Ghoul looked behind him and was amazed by the sight. A young boy, not a ghost, not a human, but a repulsive, unnatural mix of living and death was holding his staff! How dare he touch his sacred weapon? How dare he? Lord Ghoul had no time to launch an attack as Phantom flew at blinding speed, well over one hundred-twelve miles-per-hour!
Lord Ghoul gasped in horror as Phantom plunged his own staff into his chest. He felt the sharp, magically imbued weapon pierce his rotting, decayed flesh. Pain like he had never experienced burst to life like a million exploding suns in his body!
Phantom locked eyes with the tyrannical demon. "Never. Hurt. My. Family!" was all Phantom hissed in a voice so low only lord Ghoul could hear it.
Just as unceremoniously as he had first arrived, Lord Ghoul exited the world without a colorful explosion, without a massive shock wave, but merely exploded in a cloud of dust. And so followed his army of Ghouls. Their unmoving body's vanished in a plume of dust.
At the Fenton home, another battle had taken place. In Jack's absence, a large hoard of Ghouls had descended like a dark angry cloud on the sanctuary…
Maddie fired her ectorifle again, watching with grim satisfaction as another Ghouls head exploded in a shower of bone and brain. "How are you kids doing up there?" Maddie shouted up the stairs were Sam, Tucker and Jazz, were fighting off any Ghoul that tried to get through the upstairs windows.
"It's getting a little hectic!" Jazz shouted back as she swung the Fenton Creep Stick (a bat with the word "Fenton" on it) at another Ghoul that tried to climb through her shattered bedroom window.
"Same here!" Sam called down. She and Tucker where keeping Ghouls out of Danny's bedroom window.
"Just aim for the heads! They'll go down easy!" Maddie reassured them, shooting another of the flesh eating monstrosities. Then, with out warning, ever single one of them, exploded in a shower of dust.
Maddie heard the kids shout in surprise and had to keep herself from doing the same. What had just happened?
Phantom huffed and puffed, ectoplasm still leaking from his chest and back, but at a slowed rate. He looked down at Jack his face was swollen and bleeding but he was okay for the most part.
Phantom tossed the ectoplasm, covered staff to the ground. The staff hit the ground with a heavy clack. Phantom grabbed Jack's hand and helped him to his feet with a grunt.
"Are you alright?" Phantom asked, clutching his bleeding stomach.
Jack looked at him confused. "You're a ghost." Jack said dully.
"Yeah, I am."
"But you helped me?"
"Some ghosts want to hurt, others to be left alone, but me, I want to protect. Remember that." Phantom picked up the staff. He looked into the sunken eyes of the golden demon's head with disgust. With every once of strength in his body, Phantom raised the staff over his head and swung it downward. The golden demon's head exploded in purple light, bathing the entire area in its sinister glow. The light faded just as quickly as it appeared. Phantom once more tossed the staff, now ruined and useless for any purpose other than as firewood, to the ground.
He floated up into the sky and looked down once more at Jack and said, "You better get back to your family, they're probably worried about you." With that, Phantom vanished without a trace.
Jack, still unsure of what to make of the strange ghost that had saved him and the world maybe, began the walk home, limping on a sore leg.
Danny hadn't actually gone anywhere he had simply turned invisible. As he watched Jack leave, he flew ahead of him, noticing that the moon a pierced the clouds. He touched down about a quarter of a mile away from where Jack was, unable to fly anymore. Or stand for that matter. Danny collapsed on the ground, transforming back into a human. A bruised, beat up human, but still very much alive.
A bright light greeted Danny as he opened his eyes. At first, he thought it was the light at the end of the tunnel he was seeing, but as his vision cleared he found Sam, Tucker, Jazz, and his mother and father standing over him.
"Ohhh, what's going on?" Danny moaned weakly.
"Thank God your awake!" his mother cried, wiping tears away from her eyes. She scooped Danny up in a hug that rivaled a bear trap. "We thought we we're going to loose you!"
"Don't get overly dramatic mom!" Jazz said rolling her eyes. She looked at Danny and said, "I knew you'd pull through."
"And after fighting a ghost barehanded too!" Jack announced proudly, slapping his sons still incredibly sore back. "That ghost boy said you put up a good fight against him! That's my boy!"
"Uh yeah." Danny said, lying back down.
"But that was incredible stupid just running off from your friends like that at night!" Maddie chastised harshly. "Those Ghouls could have killed you!"
Danny looked away, feeling ashamed of his self. Maybe he should tell his parents he was part ghost? That could put an end to this. Or they could scream out that he was a freak and try to cut him open with a Fenton Ghost Scalpel!
"I know mom," Danny said weakly. "I just got a little over excited seeing those cops cars go by and you know how high ghost crime is and thought I'd go see it. I thought maybe you and dad would be proud of me if I did."
Jack and Maddie looked at him with shocked gazes. "Danny, we have always been proud of you!" Maddie said.
"You get good grades and have good friends! That makes us the proudest parents on Earth!" Jack embraced his son in a loving, but still crushing hug.
Danny smiled. Maybe one day he would tell his parents. And if he did, he had a feeling they wouldn't care in the least. But for now, Danny would keep it his little secret.
The next day, they found out only three hundred-seven people died in the Halloween Hell Night as the press had dubbed it. Most of those killed had been children under the age of ten and police officers that fought off the Ghouls.
After the town had been repaired, the whole country went into a state of mourning. In recent time, the word that Ghouls had decimated a town would have been laughed at and scoffed, but in this day and age when actual Superheroes were becoming a reality, people had become far more open minded. After a week, school's had reopened just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday season, and life had returned to normal, or what passes for normal in Amity Park…
Epilogue
The man sat quietly in his green velvet armchair, rather amazed by what he had witnessed in his cauldron. The man had not expected the boy to be so adapt, in fighting a vastly superior foe, or as tenacious a warrior.
But still, he was inferior to the man in so many ways. Soon it would be time to play his hand. But for now, the man was tired. Bored really. He stood up from his chair and yawned. Maybe he'd watch a game of football? Yes, that sounded good.
The End…
Letter from the author,
Hello. I am honored that you read my little tale in its entirety. Now, I am going to answer some of the questions you may be asking yourself.
Q. Why the change of costume?
A. In the series Danny's costume was really just a hazmat suit with it colors inverted, yet Vlad's costume was a Dracula style costume. I felt that Danny to should get a different suit and the change in his hairstyle and face was a way to hide his identity better.
Q. What is the DC Unlimited/Marvel Unlimited continuity?
A. I am currently writing a series of new takes on the Marvel and DC superheroes called DC/Marvel Unlimited series.
Q. When will you write DPU?
A. I will write it by at least next year.
And to all of you, a good night…