I watched the battle from afar, hidden, and silent. Two other ghosts fought one another. Only one was familiar to me; young Daniel Fenton, or better known as Danny Phantom. A halfa, like myself, but with a different purpose, it seemed.
The other was what I could only describe as a dragon; a great, black beast that spewed green fire and roared loud enough to shake the Ghost Zone where they fought. I'd never seen something quite like it before so, naturally, I was mesmerized. Part of me enthralled that I was witnessing a real, live (well, dead) dragon. The other part coolly calculating a way to use the fight to my advantage.
Then it happened. Daniel, using one of his ectoplasmic energy blasts, shot a strange pendant off of the dragon. Its roar of anger and defeat turned into a yell as it shrank and morphed into an average, more human-like ghost.
Nearby, in the Specter Speeder, Sam and Tucker- friends of Daniel- searched for something. But what? Curiously, I crept my way around the area, scanning the floating rocks and doors for some item of interest.
That was when I saw it. A golden pendant with a green cats-eye gem placed within it. Where they looking for this insignificant piece of jewelery? No, it had to be important. It had something to do with the dragon, no doubt. But what?
Before it could be seen, I snatched up the item and quickly fled back to my ghost portal. Better to be safe than sorry, after all. I might be able to find use for this pendant yet.
When I returned to my lab, I quietly closed my portal and walked over to my desk, setting the stolen item down among the papers strewn about. It shined dimly but invitingly in the dull light. Strange… it seemed like it was almost… looking at me.
I shook my head, smirking at my own foolishness. Inanimate objects couldn't look at something, that was common sense. But the human mind did twist things at the most bothersome of times, and I was human- half human, at least.
There were more important things I needed to attend to, however, so I turned away. But the moment I did, I could feel cold eyes staring holes into my back. The notion made me freeze in place. As I turned back around, I half expected to see some other being there, watching me.
Of course, there was none. Just the strange, cats-eye pendant, gleaming more dimly now. Had the lighting changed while I wasn't paying attention? It was shining might brighter before.
I don't know what I was thinking when I did it. But there I was, reaching for the stolen jewelery, pulling it up to eye level briefly before placing it over my head and around my neck. Strangely, it wasn't as heavy as I thought it had been. It felt almost like nothing was there.
Thinking nothing of it, I turned myself intangible and floated up into my room, returning to my human form just after. Since it was nine o'clock and I really had nothing better to do, I began to get ready for bed. Early to bed, early to rise, they say, and it's never good for someone like myself to not get enough sleep.
—
Although I can't remember it, I had some sort of nightmare. I woke up to flashes of lighting and the booming of thunder somewhere in the distance. A storm was approaching, it seemed, though it hadn't reached me just yet. I might not consider myself a superstitious man, but that certainly sounded like a bad omen to me.
Images of a monster flashed behind my eyes when I tried to close them again, sending a jolt of fear through my body. I trembled slightly, only now realizing I was coated in sweat. My mouth was dry, as well. I went to lick my lips, but I cut my tongue on something sharp. A small bit of blood slithered down my throat.
Sitting up, I brought my hand up to my mouth out of instinct. I stopped cold when I did, however, as it was not my hand which I had summoned. My eyes grew wide and a strange, surreal panic began to set in.
No, this was not my hand at all. Before my eyes were claws, and black scales slowly creeping their way over my hand and up my arm. I was suddenly aware of a new sensation, one which I could only describe as change. Not like my ghostly transformation, however. This one was much slower, and much more disturbing.
As my fear grew, so did the feeling. Finally, when I had recovered enough of myself, I tossed the covers off me and jumped out of bed, stumbling towards the large mirror in my washroom. I should have been so uncoordinated because it was pitch black, but no, I could see better than normal. Not perfectly, but better. It was panic making me falter.
What I beheld in the mirror I will never forget.
The pendant around my neck had a slight ghostly glow to it, not like that of a common ghost's, but hard to explain in any other way. I knew then that it was this that was changing me, that was making these claws and scales and fangs appear, but I could not bring myself to remove it. I was curious… and the disturbing rush of the transformation felt… empowering.
It wasn't until I started to physically grow that I realized there might be a problem. New appendages I wasn't used to also posed quite a few issues. My newfound tail tore out of my pajama bottoms and knocked almost everything off of my bathroom sink. Wings broke free of my shirt, tearing it right off, and put holes in the wall and broke my shower.
With little idea of exactly what to do, I somehow managed to phase myself through the floor an into my (much more open) lab below.
It wasn't long until I felt the transformation complete.
"Bring up video- show me what just happened!" I demanded, realizing my voice was much more gruff and powerful than before. Luckily, it was still similar enough for my computer to recognize it, and the large monitor brought of video of the last few minutes.
No, not minutes, seconds; it had only felt like minutes. I watched in shock as I saw myself turning into this… beast. Part of me was terrified. Another part of me was oddly thrilled.
Silver scales coated my entire draconian body, shining with a white streak, almost like my hair had been. Atop my head were six horns, the largest at the base of my skull and the smallest closer to the start of my jaw. I had wings now, the membrane inside them an almost uncharacteristically vibrant red. Half of my arms and legs were black, as was the tough plating of my underbelly and neck. Black spines also protruded from my back, starting at the nape of my neck and going down to the end of my tail.
I don't know exactly what happened, what sort of abilities I gained, or how any of this worked, but there was one thing I was certain of:
Daniel was in for a real surprise.