The Phantom and the Firestarter
A Danny Phantom/Stephen King's Firestarter crossover
by Joshua Falken
Thanks BenRG for the beta-reading
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom and its characters are property of Butch Hartman. Charlene McGee and other characters of "Firestarter" are property of Stephen King. No copyright infringement is intended. This is a non-profit work, created for fun.
Beta's note: Text in italics but not in quotes represents thoughts/inner monologue; text in italics and quotes represents voices over a radio, loudspeaker or telephone
Chapter 1: The Mysterious Woman
Sometimes, Danny Fenton felt that the universe was conspiring against him. Five ghost fights the previous night... and he still had two tests at school today... two tests for which he had not the chance to study!
Sighing, the black-haired, blue-eyed teen rose from the bed, where he had slept for only one hour and went to the shower with his back still aching.
Later he found his family having breakfast.
"Danny, are you ok, sweetie?" His mother, Maddie Fenton, asked worried, exchanging a look her husband, Jack. It looked as if her son had been run over by a bulldozer. A Ghost Bulldozer, most likely... she thought, upset that her son had to endure such things... because of their stupid obsession with ghosts! If only they hadn't built that portal...
The halfa noticed his parents' mood. "Yes, Mom, I'm ok." He tried to smile to reassure them. "Can you pass the juice, please?"
"Sure, Danny," said Jack.
After some moments of silence, a beam of green light began to emerge from what looked a crack in Danny's arm. His body temperature began to rise at an alarming rate. He could feel his ecto-energy growing all of sudden.
"Danny what is wrong?" Jazz asked urgently.
"I… I D… Don't kn-know!"
Danny crashed down onto the kitchen floor as more cracks appeared in his skin. The green light began to engulf the room. Suddenly, he understood what was about to happen. He could not hold the energy anymore.
"R-Run!" he tried yell, before the detonation...
"AAAAAHHHHHH!!!" Danny almost leapt into a sitting position of bed, catapulted out of his nightmare.
Half a second later, his parents and sister raced through the door of his bedroom, clearly scared at all the noise.
"Danny, what happened?" Jazz asked, trying to soothe him.
"Are you being attacked?" inquired Jack, holding an anti-ghost weapon.
"M… Mom..." Danny was about to cry from the shock and fear of the dream.
Maddie immediately hugged him closely and began to caress his hair. "Shhh, Danny... it is all ok... it was just a nightmare," she whispered gently at his ear.
"No, Mom, it is not ok..." he raised his eyes from her shoulder to look at her. "I... I blew up!"
Misunderstanding the meaning, Jazz commented in a soothing tone.
"Danny... it is normal blow up, lose temper..."
But her younger brother interrupted her, upset.
"Jazz, I blew up... like... like a bomb!"
Silently, Maddie put his head again in her shoulder and, while Danny cried, looked at her husband and daughter, both with the same expression of sad hopelessness than her.
That morning, a green Honda Accord approached Amity Park. It stopped close to the billboard, proclaiming 'A Safe Place to Live.'
The car's driver took off her sunglasses and smiled. "I hope so." she thought, hoping to get a new start. In her mind, she was sure that things would change for her...
Later that day, Danny was walking in direction of Casper High, at the side of his best friends, Samantha "Sam" Manson and Tucker Foley.
"In your nightmare, you blew up like a bomb?" Sam asked, concerned. Since Danny's power levels began to grow, her best friend had been more and more scared that he would lose control of his powers.
"Yeah, like an atom bomb." he murmured.
"Dude, it is not like you are that guy from 'Heroes'," Tucker commented. "I mean, you and him both have a hero complex and a lot of powers, but... I think I'll shut up right now," he finished rapidly, seeing the glare that Danny and Sam were shooting in his direction.
"And, to add insult to injury, Mr. Lancer called Mom for a reunion today."
"About what?" his technophiliac friend asked.
"What else? My failing grades!" Danny replied almost harshly.
"But aren't your parents and Jazz giving you lessons?"
"Yeah, they are, Sam, but most of time I get more confused with their lessons that I was before and..." As he turned a corner, he collided with someone with some force, making both of them fall to the sidewalk.
"Huh, what?" asked the person with who Danny collided. It was a blonde woman, wearing a long red trench-coat over a black business suit and sun glasses.
"I… I'm sorry, I should watch where I'm going!" he exclaimed, helping the lady to stand up.
"No problem, it was my fault too."
The teens noticed that the woman was very tall. She took off her sunglasses and Danny saw the most beautiful eyes that he had seen. (If you exclude Sam's eyes, that is, Danny thought dreamily, not even realising that he was thinking it). They were a gentle navy blue with golden flecks in the irises. Combined with the beautiful smile that she possessed, mesmerised Danny and Tucker. "Excuse me, can you tell me where Casper High is?"
It took a moment (and an elbow from Sam) to wake up the two boys. "Oh, yes, Miss! We are going in that direction! If you want, you can come with us!"
"Thank you very much."
Some minutes later, the strange quartet reached the school. Danny, Sam and Tucker went to their classes whilst the woman went to the office of Principal Ishiyama. There she found the principal, a nice Asian woman, and the vice-principal, a serious, balding black man.
The Asian principal shook her hand, but the newcomer immediately felt her nervousness. "Ms. Charlene Maddox, right?"
"Yes, Principal Ishiyama."
"Please, sit down. I'm afraid that I have some unfortunate news."
Here comes trouble, Charlene Maddox thought glumly.
That afternoon, Maddie Fenton was fuming. She just at left a meeting with Danny's teacher, Mr. Thomas Lancer. In that monotonous voice of his, he claimed that they need took action to correct the problematic behaviour of her son, Danny, implying that the boy's poor academic performance was due to 'problems at home'. How dare he? She thought furiously. What right has he to question our parenting, when he does nothing to stop that bunch of bullies who so love to torment Danny? Just that would take a lot of pressure off of his shoulders!
But of course, Maddie knew that the main reason for her son's failing grades was the fact that missed most of the classes because he was fighting ghosts to protect the students and was missing much of his study time because he was protecting the town from ghost attacks.
Of course, Danny could call them to deal with problems, after all they were professional ghost hunters – and, to his credit Danny did occasionally do that. However, as he once put it: "Even with Dad's driving, you still would take a few minutes to reach the school and in that time the ghosts could have hurt someone..."
And of course, Danny being Danny, he could not let that happen...
They tried help Danny with particular classes, but much for her frustration, he seemed to have more trouble with their explanations than with then...
She looked at the paper that Principal Ishiyama gave her. It was the phone number of a teacher that had just arrived at the town, and that had a good record in helping students. Picking up her cell, Maddie dialled her number.
Meanwhile, Charlene Maddox was upset too, walking to and fro in her apartment that she had rented that very day. "I don't believe that they waited for the last moment, to tell me!" she exclaimed. Only after she moved from Boston to Amity Park, did they tell her - or rather, Vice-Principal Lancer did - that there was a sudden cut in the school's budget and that they would no longer be able to offer her a position on the teaching staff. Charlene threw her hands up into the air. "I don't believe it! After I came all this way…!"
She crossed her arms, trying think straight. The teacher could not help but feel that there is something fishy on the story... a budget cut right at the middle of the school year? Principal Ishiyama was looking very nervous when she explained that the sudden cut was "a superior order"...Her navy blue eyes narrowed in a dangerous way. Charlene could very well bet from where the "superior order" was! A certain nasty and slick government agency popularly known as "The Shop"...
Suddenly, she felt a familiar sensation and turned to the bowl of water that she always left for situations like this. Charlene focussed the sensation to the water, which promptly began to boil. When it was over, there is no water left in it.
"Damn it, McGee, you should not lose control like that!" she reprimand herself, upset for such slip, after all that she fought to control her powers... "You know better than that!"
She was interrupted when her cell phone began to ring. "Huh... Hello?"
"Is this Ms. Maddox?"
"Yes. Who is speaking?"
"Ms. Maddox, my name is Dr. Maddie Fenton."
Danny arrived at his home, wanting nothing more than crash into his bed and sleep. That is why he was surprised in see that his parents had a visitor, sitting on the sofa. His surprise grew when he recognised her: it was the blonde lady in the red trench-coat!
The lady and his parents turned to him. His mother smiled, stood up and hugged him. "Welcome back, Danny. How was your day?" To any casual observer, it would seem plain motherly concern, but the halfa could clearly see that she was looking for any possible damage from his ghost fights.
"It was great!" he exclaimed with a fake enthusiasm, that didn't fool his mother. She breathed in.
"Danny, we know that you have problems with your grades, so we hired a tutor for you." She turned to the newcomer.
Charlene Maddox gave a surprised Danny a captivating smile and extended her gloved hand. "Nice to meet you, Danny. I'm Charlene Maddox, your new tutor, but you can call me Charlie."
So, what do you think?
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