Stray Shots
A collection of one-shots based on arbitrary inspirations.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of its characters or story line
Contents
#1 - Puzzle: Mr. Lancer finds himself in the hands of the Guys in White. (Drama)
#2 - Wake-up Call: Danny wakes up at 10:30 a.m. and rushes to school… (Humor)
#3 - Good vs. Evil: After an incident, Danny struggles to understand evil and how to fight it. (Hurt/Comfort)
#4 - Birthday: It's Sam's birthday, and Danny is in a rush… (Humor/Romance)
#5 - Love of Humanity: A conversation with a stranger helps Danny with his view about his predicament with the government. (Hurt/Comfort)
#6 - Remember: A certain music-themed ghost confuses herself during her usual haunt. (General)
Remember Piano Arrange Preview: http-s:-/-youtu.-be/PAe9WTdEA38 (Remove the hyphens, or go to link on profile.)
Note: These one-shots do not have any relation to each other. Each exist separately, so events occurring in one do not affect or happen in another.
Puzzle
#1 - Puzzle: Mr. Lancer finds himself in the hands of the Guys in White.
My First Attempt at Fanfiction
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or any of its characters or story line.
…
… Mr. Lancer… Mr. Lancer, please wake up …
… Ow… Head really hurts…
Mr. Lancer… Please tell me you're alive…
Teal eyes opened slowly, squinting blearily at the bright light in the room. The eyes widened when their owner realized he was lying down in an unknown, large, and white room.
"Alice's Adventures in Wonderland! Where am I, and why does my head hurt so much?" Mr. Lancer exclaimed, sitting up to attain a better view of the room. He noticed a figure kneeling at his side, with an arm reaching out as if it had been nudging him.
"Mr. Lancer, you're alive! I was so worried, 'cause most of the others had died. Are you alright? Please don't tell me you're still going to die! I don't know, since it's only by chance that-"
"Mr. Fenton? How are you… What happened?" Mr. Lancer interrupted the teen's rambling.
"Um… This is rather difficult to explain. Do you remember anything?" the student asked nervously.
A massive ghost invasion, barely stopped… The Guys in White on television, declaring the need to perform extensive research to stop the ghosts… People disappearing… Danny Phantom vanishing… More ghosts attacking… Half the school gone… Sneaking into the base of the Guys in White… Alarms… Pain… Bright Flash…
The memories flashed across Mr. Lancer's mind. He remembered entering the GiW's headquarters, and then, nothing. His memories after that were distorted.
"Mr. Lancer?" Danny Fenton urgently asked again.
"I do not remember what happened," Mr. Lancer replied. He lifted his hand up to feel his head - and jolted as he realized the lower-half of his body was sunken halfway through the floor.
"A Christmas Carol! Why am I sinking through the ground like a ghost?" Mr. Lancer frantically shouted, flummoxed by the strange scene and feeling of sinking through the floor. He managed to push his body back up to the floor and turn solid again. "That wasn't just me, was it?"
"No, it wasn't," Danny Fenton replied. He looked down, the dark look forming in his eyes unnatural on his youthful face.
"What… Why?"
Danny glanced to the side, his black hair shifting to obscure part of his face. "You know the Guys in White were doing experimentations, right? I don't know what you were doing, but the GiW found you doing something 'illegal.' They… experimented with the people they 'arrested.' … One of the experiments they did was - they tried to input ghost powers into humans, to make them sort of… half-ghost. They did that to you…"
"…?..." Mr. Lancer was speechless. This could not be happening. However, Danny's expression seemed too serious for this to be a complex prank. And, what he explained made some semblance of sense – rumors had been spreading around about human-experimentation. But... half-ghost? He felt as if he was missing a large portion of an elaborate puzzle. How could someone be half-ghost?
"Aauugh!"
Mr. Lancer's thoughts stopped immediately when he saw his student writhing on the ground in pain. Danny's hands were clutching at a metallic collar on his neck – something that Mr. Lancer had just noticed. He stepped forward to try to help Danny but did not know what to do. He hated to see someone so young in pain. Danny was also one of his students, for whom he cared...
"Subject 0023, please stop wasting time. Continue with the training, or there will be grave consequences," a gruff, male voice announced over an intercom.
Startled from the random voice, Mr. Lancer glanced around the room again. He counted at least sixteen cameras located in the pristine, white room. There was only one door to the room, and it had no handle. Once again, he was nonplussed.
The collar stopped blinking red and ceased emitting electricity. Danny lay on the ground, panting. The sheen of sweat covered his face, and his eyes seemed a little unfocused.
"Are you alright?" Mr. Lancer asked, his voice thick with concern.
"Fine," Danny heaved, struggling to breathe normally again. "I need to get on with training you... They want me to train you to use your… ghost powers. 'Something about using you and your powers as a weapon..."
Danny slowly sat upright. "Are you okay, though? I can't be sure you that you are… fully stable after they experimented on you."
Mr. Lancer mentally checked to see if anything was anomalous about his body. The events had caused him to be preoccupied only with the loud thumps his heart made. His sluggish, confused brain was still processing what Danny had just said. "I don't feel anything wrong… Why do they want you to train me?"
Danny looked down again. "…Because I'm half-ghost too. Let's get started."
"No, that's not right. You're still tangible. Just work on one part of your body for now. Imagine that you are falling through the floor," Danny insisted. He was pacing, hoping that Mr. Lancer could master at least some control of intangibility.
"I can't. Plus, isn't it enough that I can fly and turn invisible?" Mr. Lancer replied. Danny had been drilling him for at least four hours, by his guess. Sweat had long since covered his clothing – a white full-body hazmat suit. He would have never imagined that he would be in this position, being coached by one of his students to use supernatural powers.
"The GiW aren't exactly nice. We may be able to get six hours of free time if we're lucky enough and progress to the point that they want us to reach. Those six hours include sleep time, and half-ghosts need as much sleep as humans. Trust me, I would know. And, you probably want a more thorough explanation. Hurry, please."
Six hours… How well had they treated Danny? How long had Danny been imprisoned? If he remembered correctly, Danny had been absent for four months, right after the GiW had announced themselves to the public. Or was it three? There were so few students in his classes, it was hard for him to remember... Were those dark circles under Danny's eyes? And was that a bruise on his jaw?
"Mr. Lancer? I'm serious when I say we need to hurry."
"Don Quixote! It's too idealistic for me to master intangibility the first day I become half-ghost. Can't you demonstrate?"
Danny suddenly stopped moving, and his hands clenched into fists. His eyes glinted in the light. "I can't. The GiW made this abominable collar that neutralizes my ghost powers. If they hadn't, I would've busted out of here ages ago, and stopped all those people from dying…"
His voice had seemed strained, as if it was a dam holding in a wave of anger and regret. A period of silence occurred, as Danny seemed to battle with his emotions.
Bam! A figure in white slammed the door open.
"Subjects 0023 and 1556, your training session is over. You may have a five-hour break."
The agent shut the door again, leaving Mr. Lancer and Danny alone again in their own solicitude.
Mr. Lancer broke the silence. "So we are sleeping in here? Don't they even have the clemency of providing beds?"
"…You get used to it," Danny answered, diverging from his own thoughts. "They're being very merciful with five hours. Hm… Where do I start explaining? …"
Silence reigned again.
Danny's eyes seemed as if they were looking far away. Mr. Lancer did not want to disturb his obvious contemplation; Danny had undergone a lot and probably needed time to think. His student appeared very different, solemn and pensive, from how he had been at school. Things had prominently changed from before.
Before… Before what? If he recalled correctly, the events had started when a ghost's face had suddenly appeared in the sky. The ghost declared himself to the city: He was Pariah Dark, back to prove his previous loss wrong. Somehow, Mr. Lancer didn't know how, he had been freed and awakened his ghostly army. He repeated his past attempt, bringing Amity Park into the Ghost Zone. This time, however, he was out for revenge.
This time, Phantom did not have a power suit.
He had fought for hours until he collapsed. The tyrant had almost taken the whole town, when Phantom woke and defeated him in an epic battle.
The consequences were dire. The majority of the town had been in ruins, and chaos was still evident a full week after the invasion. As a corollary, someone had to step up and take control. The GiW had taken the role. They succeeded in rebuilding the city, but began "experimentation" to "ultimately prevent another ghost invasion." Ghosts were captured, and horrible rumors of inhumane experiments had spread around the town. One day, Danny Phantom disappeared. The public immediately blamed the GiW, but they had acted nonchalant.
For four months, the public led protests. The GiW had gained substantial power after repairing Amity Park, and were like unmovable mountains to the small wind of complaint blowing against them. People started doing daring deeds, desperate to find their hero. Many people were taken for "illegally aiding ectoplasmic identities" or trespassing. There was still no advancement on the quest of finding their hero. Their efforts increased even more when rumors of experimentations on humans dispersed through the public. Their hero wouldn't want that; he protected humans.
Mr. Lancer had cracked under all of the stress. His students were mostly gone, taken away because they or their family had resisted the GiW. He himself entered the GiW's headquarters to put an end to it all; contrary to what many of his students thought, he did care about his students. He had managed to sneak in. He was hit by a sudden feeling of despair, realizing he had no idea where Phantom could be, when…
Phantom. What was he thinking? He had to find Danny Phantom, so they could escape and terminate the GiW. He had no time to be reminiscing or training his… ghostly powers.
"Danny, do you know where Phantom is?" Mr. Lancer asked with a new sense of exigency. Phantom would have been there for four months… like Danny had. Would he be alright?
"…Phantom? … I thought you would've figured it out," Danny replied, "once I mentioned I was half-ghost. Though, I suppose it would be hard to imagine that your student was a superhero."
Your student was a superhero. What? Did that mean Phantom was his student? Phantom had been missing for four months, and Danny had been as well. In fact, they disappeared on the same day. And, Danny was an enigma, a puzzle to be solved. Mr. Lancer had been certain that Danny was a promising student in his first few weeks of school. Why would he change?
He could hear puzzle pieces clicking together in his head.
Absences, all correlating to the brawls Phantom fought. The lassitude he had seen in his student's eyes, though he had assumed it was the result of staying up late playing video games. Phantom's incessant routine of fights. A bruise or two that he may have noticed, but upon which he never acted.
"You're Danny Phantom?" Mr. Lancer breathed dubiously.
"Yeah. Sorry about all the absences and missing homework. And, all the beakers I dropped."
"It's fine… I can't believe that one of my own students was out there, fighting so often. You could've gotten hurt really badly! … You have been… … Did the GiW do anything to you?"
Danny answered softly, his voice almost a susurrus, "They didn't do much. They only recorded my vital signs and tested my abilities. But, they found that I was half-ghost, or a halfa. Halfas are potentially more powerful than other ghosts. With human properties of thought and emotion, and powers of a ghost and human - since humans pass through objects in the Ghost Zone - halfas may perform better and can be considered the ultimate weapons against other ghosts. So… they started experimenting on others after they… extracted the knowledge of how I became a half-ghost.
"They experimented on so many… Most people died… The DNA of a person and the voltage of the electric shock have to be just right for success. And, ghost energy affects everyone's mind differently. If someone is lucky and survives, they can go crazy. People also have different inherent powers, and some are… not compatible with humans.
"I have to watch you closely now. I don't want to watch you die and become another life that I couldn't save… It's all my fault. If I hadn't been captured, all those people would be alive. This wouldn't be such a mess.
"I feel like this is an impossible puzzle. I can't solve it. Somehow, I have to get out and help everyone. But I can't, no matter how hard I try."
Mr. Lancer looked at his student, his hero. "Perhaps I can help. You have determination and experience. Maybe all you need is the missing puzzle piece: the help of others."
Mr. Lancer continued, "Train me. I'm here to help."
A/N: Sorry for the phony, cliché title and ending. I couldn't think of a title, so I just imputed a random motif of a puzzle into the story and ending. Please tell me my mistakes; I write to improve my vocabulary and writing.
Thanks for reading!
Also, this story is supposed to be in third-person-limited point of view. Sorry for any confusion. The flow of the story needs work, too. ^^;