Yay, another story! Credit for plot line goes to otakubabes, as do much of the first chapter ideas.

I don't own Danny Phantom (go figure) or the initial plot line.

Backfire

Danny swam around in circles, trying to get a better view of the 'sun' as the land-dwellers called the large glowing sky ball. The way it filtered through the water was rather pretty in his opinion and he wanted to get a better look at it, even if every time he tried to look right at it he got blinded the intensity of the light. Of course he wasn't going to go to the surface; that would be crazy! His parents had told him many stories about the land-dwellers and if we honest with himself, he was terrified of them; he certainly wasn't going to get anywhere near their territory, even if they couldn't follow him in the water. Finally he turned and swam home. His parents had been working on a new spell and he was eager to see it, despite the fact that it probably wouldn't work.

Danny's parents were mages, and would have been highly respected if not for their…hobby. Jack and Maddie were completely obsessed with land-dwellers, so much so that they wanted to capture one and –if Danny understood correctly- possibly dissect one, mostly just to see how they breathed. All that seemed rather beastly to Danny, who was glad that his parents have never seen a land-dweller, let alone capture one. Even if they did, how would they keep it alive anyway? His parents were smart, but they didn't know that much. But the spell they had created, if it succeeded, would allow them to survive on land because they would be able to breathe…whatever it was that land-dwellers breathed. Danny wondered how they would move around, which led to the amusing image of his parents dragging themselves across the sand. This led to the question of just how land-dwellers moved around. He shook his head to clear his thoughts when he saw the ship his small clan of merfolk lived.

"Danny!" he heard a female voice call. Looking up, he saw his older sister swimming toward him. She had long red hair, a bright blue and black tail with matching fins, and light teal eyes.

"Hi Jazz. Where are you going?" Danny eyed the sachel slung around Jazz's shoulder.

"Anywhere but here right now," Jazz said distastefully, looking over at nearby cave.

"You sure you don't want to see if it works?"

"Do you think it will?"

Danny shook his head. "No, but imagine how thrilled our parents will be if it does." Jazz simply nodded and swam off.

Danny scowled at her back then turned and swam to the cave. The other merfolk wouldn't let his parents do their research (aka spell creation) in the ship because they had a tendency to be rather destructive when the spells failed, which was often. They had found the cave soon after the restriction was put in place, and it was soon covered in burn marks.

"Mom, Dad, you guys in here?" he called as he swam into the cave. His response was in the form of being crushed half to death by a back-breaking hug from an amazingly large merman.

"Danny-boy, you're just in time to witness our greatest breakthrough!" the merman, Jack, crowed.

"Dad…" Danny managed. The intensity of the hug was slowly cutting off his gill's access to water.

Maddie seemed to notice and came to Danny's rescue. "Jack honey, I know you're exited, but that's no reason to suffocate our son." She swam up to the two males and got Jack to release his considerably smaller son

"Thanks," Danny sighed, lightly rubbing his gills as they began working overtime to make up for the near-suffocation.

"We're finally going to go on the land and see the land-dwellers!" Jack would have been jumping with excitement if he had been able to. As it was, he was just swimming in small circles, which actually looked amusing to see one of his girth doing.

Danny grinned weakly. "Yeah, but…it's been so long since we've heard about them. How do we know they haven't made themselves go extinct?"

Maddie sighed. "That's what Jazz asked us. From what we know, land-dwellers are tough. I don't even know how to kill them, or if we can at all. That's why this spell is important, it-" She was interrupted by her husband grabbing her hand, and shouting, "Bonzai!"

Both parents began to focus and then glow green. At first it seemed like the spell was working, but when their faces contorted in pain, Danny knew something was wrong. Ignoring what his parents had taught him about the dangers of interfering with a spell before it's complete, he swam up and forced the two apart. The spell sort of imploded, collapsing in on itself with Danny at the center.

A fierce, burning pain flashed through his veins and he briefly thought that he was being burned from the inside-out. It was gone before he could scream and he was left dazedly floating in the water. He managed to rouse himself when he heard his mother speaking.

"Danny? Danny! Are you okay?" You know better than to interrupt a spell!"

Danny nodded weakly. It felt as if the water was slowly crushing him and he couldn't seem to breathe as well as he could a moment earlier. "Sorry," he managed. "You guys looked like you were in pain. Besides, I'm fine." It was a lie, but his parents already looked upset enough without their concern for him making it worse. His mother seemed to believe him though and he watched as she led his father out, whispering words of comfort to the now severely depressed man.

As soon as they were gone Danny darted out of the cave. A peculiar pressure had begun building in his chest and there was something in his mind telling him to open his mouth and breathe, which he found odd as he was breathing and he certainly didn't need to open his mouth to do it. Finally though, the urge became too strong and he complied, immediately regretting the decision. Water rushed into his mouth and down his throat and he began coughing, trying to get the water out. He felt his mind beginning to spiral away and he stilled, a few lost bubbles escaping to the ocean's surface.