Hello, everybody! As proof that I can write fiction without OC's, I started in on this Danny Phantom title and immediately failed, as evidenced by the OC at the end of this chapter. However, I can (tentativelly) promise that this will technically be the only OC in the whole story. Yeah, riiight.
In all seriousness, I would just like to state that Nickelodeon and Butch Hartman own all rights to Danny Phantom, and any other licensed characters/series that may show up are property of their respective owners. Now, without further ado...
Danny Phantom: Death of Future Past
Chapter I: Thus Our Story Begins
Somewhere in the Ghost Zone...
A crumbling throne sits in darkness behind one of the thickest doors in all of the Ghost Zone. Then, a click, and the door slides open noiselessly to admit two wisps of ethereal smoke. One condenses into a pale teenage boy with dirty blonde hair, a wrinkled coat several sizes too big for him, and a massive motorbike. The other twists into the shape of a green-skinned woman who still shows the marks of her living beauty, clad in Middle Eastern garb and hiding one side of her face with flowing black hair. As a single red eye slowly opens from the figure seated on the throne, the woman opens her mouth to speak. A withered claw waves her silent, however, and both ghosts mutely await the figure's words.
"What have you to report, Desiree?"
The green-skinned ghost tossed her raven hair behind her before answering in a seductive purr. "If you wish to reach the boy, you must strike at those he holds dear. He will protect them at all costs, we have seen it before, and you will be free to act."
"Good. Jonathan, what of my traitorous fool of a general?"
The pale teenager fidgeted for a moment, rubbing a hand across the seat of his motorcycle. "He's still locked up after the kid beat him, and could you just call me Johnny?"
"Very well, although you are demeaning yourself to be addressed as such. A final question, you said that I should target those close to the boy..."
"There are several whose death would do great harm to the boy. For these two, however, he would be utterly broken."
"A sister and...a lover? Ehe he he, see how history repeats itself! Desiree, Jona...Johnny, go and do as I told you before, quickly!"
"Yes, of course my lord."
"Yes, soon I shall be truly lord and master of the land once more. And with my plan in motion, I shall return more powerful than those accursed Eldars could have ever imagined!"
"You shall join me soon, Daniel Fenton. Danny Phantom."
"Danny! Breakfast is ready!" Danny Fenton groaned as he rolled out of bed and promptly crashed to the floor. Rubbing his back, he rose shakily before another shout fully woke hiim.
"I'm up! I'm up!" Walking over to his dresser, he momentarily thought of actually opening the drawer for old times' sake, then shook his head and simply phased his arm through to grab a t-shirt. The result of an accident in his parents' lab almost two years ago, Danny had ghostly energy bonded to his very DNA, effectively making him half-ghost and granting him abilities far beyond those of a normal human.
Flight, invisibility, intangibility and ecto-energy plasma rays had been first, along with a "ghost sense" that went off whenever he was near another spectral being. In the recent months, however, he had been shocked and a little amazed to find that his powers were, in fact, growing. He had learned to split himself into multiple forms, possess another person's body by way of a process called "overshadowing", gained cryokinetic abilities, and had gained an extremely powerful attack called the Ghostly Wail. Well, technically his evil self from the future had coined the phrase, but...
"Danny! You're going to be late for school!" He groaned as he looked at the small clock next to his bed, then grabbed a pair of jeans hanging off the end of his bed and hopped downstairs while attempting to tie his shoes. Landing in a jarring crash at his sister's feet, Danny bit back a string of curses as the red-headed college freshman tried her hardest not to laugh at her kid brother.
"If it hurts so much, why don't you just fly down the stairs, or go intangible and drop straight into the kitchen?"
"And why haven't you left for college yet? Mom and Dad are still getting used to the idea of me having ghost powers. I think it would be best if we take this one step at a time."
"Oh come on, Danny, Mary Celeste University is only thirty minutes away and my classes don't start for another forty-five. And if they can accept that their son is Danny Phantom, superhero ghost fighter, then I think they could get used to you dropping through the ceiling for breakfast." Jasmine Fenton, known to most as simply Jazz, rearranged her hairband and walked into the kitchen as Danny finished with his shoes and hurried to grab something to eat before rushing to school.
Casper High hadn't changed much over the summer, its long tiled hallways echoing with nearly the same voices that had greeted him for his freshman and sophomore years. The doors to the lockers still squeaked a little when someone pried them open, and the cafeteria mystery meat was as mysterious as ever. There were, however, a few things that had changed. One of those changes was actually hurrying up the sidewalk now.
"Morning, sleepyhead. If you had slept much later you'd have to fly to school. Actually…that's not a bad idea." The two shared a laugh as Danny hugged his recently-discovered girlfriend. Sam Manson was, to most, your typical black-obsessed Goth girl, but she was one of the two people who had known about Danny's powers from the time he had received them. Sarcastic and strong-willed, she had also proven to be the most rational of the bunch, pulling Tucker and Danny back to reason and getting them to focus on the task at hand. After hiding his growing crush for months, and nearly losing everything to an asteroid on a collision course with the Earth, he had finally worked up the nerve to officially ask her out and the two had been "going steady" ever since.
The fact that the "Disasteroid Crisis" also led to his secret identity being spread across the globe was taking a little getting used to, however.
"Hey Fenton! You and your little girlfriend are gonna be late if you don't step on it!" The shining red and white sports car sped by them, Dash Baxter at the wheel.
"Well, at least he uses your real last name now." Sam pointed out. Dash and Danny had never been on what could be called the best of terms, yet the football star had become at least marginally more bearable after discovering the "loser" he picked on every day was also a world-saving superhero.
"Let's just get to school. Even my superhero status won't get me out of Lancer's detentions."
"How the heck do we manage to get stuck with him every blasted year? It's almost like he's following us on purpose!"
"Calm down, Sam. Hey, at least we know the guy. Oh, and if we want to get to school now we're gonna have to fly. Grab on."
"Thought you'd never ask." Sam wrapped her arms around Danny's shoulders as the young man pushed off from the ground. As the buildings passed beneath them, Sam reflected on just how lucky she was. Seriously, how often do a Goth and a ghost really fall in love beyond those stupid seventies B-movies?
"Uh, Sam? Not to sound rude or anything, but you're kinda choking me." Danny's wheeze broke her from her reverie and she blushed as she hurriedly relaxed her grip. As the school came into view, Sam scanned the front for any sign of Tucker. Danny's friend since who-knew-when and currently the youngest mayor in the history of Amity Park, the fourth-generation son of immigrants from Cairo tended to have some trouble handling positions of power. Seeing no Ferraris, helicopters, or gold-trimmed limousines parked near the building, Sam breathed a sigh of relief just before she felt Danny tense.
"What's wrong? Worried that Tucker's got something really ridiculous planned?"
"Not that, although I wouldn't be surprised. It's my Ghost Sense, something's...there!" Sam followed Danny's pointed finger to see a neon green glow weaving among the buildings a few blocks over, and several muffled explosions filtered through the streets..
"Head to class, cover for me with Lancer."
"Nope, I'm coming. Lancer won't take it anyway, told me so last time I tried."
"Come on, Sam. I'm not dragging your grades down along with me."
"Since when have you ever actually hurt my grades? I'm coming with you, that's final."
"Fine, hang on." Sam let out a squeak as the rings of energy swept across Danny's body, passing through her on the way. Still recovering from the sudden chill and the odd buzz, she wasn't prepared when he blasted off at full speed towards the disturbance. As the distance closed, the identity of the attacker became all too clear. Even through eyes narrowed against the wind, the unnatural shine of "The Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter" could be seen cleanly from several hundred yards away.
"Hey Skulker, time for your monthly beating already?"
"Be quiet, whelp! You'll scare away my prize."
"Sorry, but I'm not--huh?" Danny stopped and hung in mid-air as Skulker paused outside an alley. The spectral hunter raised an armored glove and pointed into the shadows.
"My prey, whelp. I quite recently discovered that, while you are certainly the most famous ghost-child, you aren't the only one. You forget, I once worked for Vlad Masters and as such have expanded access into his complex."
"You got into Plasmius's computer? Hey wait!" Danny pushed himself in front of Skulker as the ghost continued into the alley.
"Out of the way, whelp. Yes, Technus assisted me in hacking the computer. I know all about your 'cousin' now, ghost-child."
"You're not laying a finger on Danielle, Skulker, not while I'm around." A brief squeeze reminded the halfa that Sam was still wrapped around him and they had remained a good ten feet off the ground. Dropping down to deposit Sam, Danny groaned as Skulker took the opening and shot over him into the alley.
"Grab the thermos, this shouldn't take long if he's really chasing Dani. Actually, I'm surprised she hasn't taken care of him herself." Hurrying into the alley, he was surprised as Skulker was unexpectedly blasted backward into him. Picking himself off the ground, he heard Skulker laugh and some kind of weapon charging.
"Well, whelp, you've put up a good chase and I can see you'll be defiant to the last. Good, I like a challenging hunt."
"So that's why you've never been able to get rid of Danny Phantom?" Danny grinned at the jab, but the voice clearly did not belong to his 'cousin' Danielle, in reality a clone created by his former archenemy Vlad Plasmius.
"I leave the ghost-whelp alive because he's useful, and he makes for a worthy test of my skills." Danny thoroughly enjoyed the irritation in Skulker's voice, and was that a bit of defensiveness?
"Yeah, sure, whatever. You're not so tough when you haven't fused with Technus yet." Now that got Danny's attention. The only people who knew about the future Skultech were him, Sam, Tucker, and possibly Jazz and Vlad. Well, there was Clockwork too, but the ghostly Master of Time didn't really count as a person, right?
"I don't know what you're talking about, child, but I know you'll be adorning my mantle soon!"
"Not if there's anything I can do about it!" Danny rammed his shoulder into the ghost hunter's back just as a cannon on his arm fired in a blaze of green and blue. He heard a high-pitched scream just before Skulker crashed to the ground. He turned and looked for the source of the sound, finding a young girl hiding next to a dumpster. He gave her a cursory glance, then felt his jaw drop about three feet as he looked again.
Snow-white hair? Check.
Eyes that glowed a neon green? Got 'em.
A black and white outfit? Check, although slightly ragged and torn in a few places.
Danielle Phantom? Not a chance.
The shape of the face was all wrong, and the hair was way too short and messy. She was also a bit thinner than Dani had been the last time he'd seen her. The most telling of all, however, was her outfit. She wore simply a loose black shirt with a stylized emblem of some kind on the chest, along with sturdy-looking gloves and what appeared to be some kind of armor over her fore-arms. Her pants fit a bit tighter than the shirt, but they were silver-white with a black stripe running down the outside of each leg. The pants sagged over the shoes, but they looked to be some kind of boots from what he could see.
"Uh, Skulker? I really love bursting your little fantasy, but that's not Danielle."
"What?" The look on Skulker's face was almost comical, but it quickly settled back into his evil smirk as he calmly said, "Well, it matters not. Your pelt will still look fine hanging from my wall." Before Danny could react, he fired his arm cannon again. Danny was blown backwards by the force of the beam and he heard another shrill scream before a much deeper one and a flash of light. He opened his eyes to find himself against the side of the dumpster and Sam corking the Fenton Thermos a few yards away.
"Well, that could have gone better. Now let's see what--oh no..." Catching sight of the girl's torn and burned clothing, he rushed over to her. As he carefully lifted her off of the ground, ice blue eyes weakly opened and a small smile tugged at the lips.
"D-D-Daddy?"
I love cliffhangers, don't you? Well, as I've said in my other fics, the next time you'll probably hear from me is the end of May. My apologies, but college finals have that effect. Until then, check out my other two fics and maybe tell me what you think!
--NullChronicler--