Okay, 'nother story! I told Halfa-NariMaruko and Yoshi about it and they said I should publish it right away. So now you know what I've been doing in my absense. Well, this is really good, so read away!
Summary: There's a flu going around the Ghost Zone. It's nothing to worry about; i mean, c'mon, they're ghosts, they can't die from anything. No big deal... until Danny Fenton catches the flu. He believes it to be a regular cold (besides the fact he caught it from the Box Ghost), something that would go away with enough chicken soup. But when the people of Amity Park start to fall ill... time to worry. And when the first person dies... panic.
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Duh!
Epidemic
Sneeze
Tucker Foley didn't get sick.
… Well, maybe a few times, but only ever once in a while. But even then, whatever he had caught would dissipate within a couple days.
He was proud to say that he was healthy. Tucker had had perfect attendance at school for the past eight years, a new record in the state.
"School is the nicer alternative to where I could be."
His parents thought his good health was a result of "mind over matter." What Tucker feared above all else was hospitals. He could hardly walk past the school nurse's office without breaking down. So maybe his fear of ending up in the hospital gave power to his immune system.
That's one theory. Tucker, of a more teenage level mind, just thought he was lucky. Plain and simple.
Whatever the reason, every time the words "ill", "sick", "fever", "flu", "cold", etc. were mentioned, Tucker could confidently say:
"Wow! That's greener than ectoplasm, Danny! I'm sure glad I don't get sick. Eww."
"Could you stop saying that already?" Danny snapped, sinus's clogged. "It's not like we don't hear it enough at school."
Danny Fenton, wrapped in a blanket, sat at his computer desk, his two friends gazing worriedly at him through the computer screen.
"Speaking of school, I guess this means you're not going tomorrow, huh?" Sam asked.
"Not unless this clears up overnight." Danny blew his nose loudly. "Stupid Box Ghost," he mumbled.
"Box Ghost?"
"What does he have to do with this?"
"I think I caught my cold from him. I didn't know ghosts could get sick, but when I showed up he was all like, "BEW-ACHOO!" It was sort of sad, actually, seeing him snot all over his precious boxes."
"How's your ghost form?" Sam asked.
Danny went ghost with a sneeze. "Just as sick as I am. Don't worry guys, nothing's malfunctioning." He sneezed again and fell through his computer chair. "Ow! Except that, but that happened when I caught Sam's cold too."
There was a knock on Danny's door, and Danny quickly turned back into his human self. Just in time too, because seconds later, his mother entered the room.
"Danny, I wanted to- why are you in the floor?"
"Oh, I… sneezed so hard I fell off my chair."
Maddie frowned. "I think you should go to bed now. It wasn't even good letting you stay up this late. Say goodbye to your friends, and I'll be up to tuck you in fifteen minutes."
After Danny's mother left, Sam and Tucker let out their suppressed giggles.
"What?"
"Your mom still puts you to bed?"
"Does she give you warm milk and read to you too?"
Danny's eyes flashed green. "No. She just gets a little overprotective when me and Jazz get sick. She doesn't like having us out of her sight, so if that means tucking us in, she will do it. I know your parents get all psycho when you're sick, Tuck."
"That's because they think it will be the death of me. Like I said, I never-"
"Shut up!" Sam and Danny yelled in unison.
---
Danny awoke with a groggy head. He groaned and turned to look at his clock. 5:42. He almost groaned again, but the noise was intercepted by a cough. It was thick and harsh, a sign of drainage.
Danny rolled over and pulled his covers close, trying to fall back asleep. The familiar calm had begun to wash through him, when his throat started to tickle.
He coughed again, harder, triggering his intangibility and falling through his bed.
There was a knock on his door, so Danny quickly rolled out from under the furniture. Thankfully, though, it was only Jazz, coming to check on him.
"Why are you on the floor? …Oh, are your powers messing up?"
"Yeah (cough). But that's normal. They did this last time I was sick." Danny coughed again and turned invisible. His disembodied voice continued, "I only hope Mom and Dad don't see me like this." As he returned to visibility, he thought of what would happen…
Jack would immediately yell, "GHOST!" and point a gun at him. And Maddie, the scientific thinker, would immediately connect the dots and decide that the ghosts had cursed him with his sickness. Not too far from the truth.
Soon afterward, they would have him pinned to a lab table and begin all their tests and experiments, trying to figure out how to cure him. The tests would lead his parents to discover that Danny couldn't be cured of the ghostly energy. That Danny was ghostly energy.
And after that revelation, three things could happen.
One: his parents calmly ask how it happened and accept Danny's being a halfa.
Two: they think he's possessed and throw him through the Ghost Catcher, separating his ghost and human halves.
Three: they blow him up.
Danny sniffled, and shuddered at the ending of his mind's journey.
"You'll just have to be careful. You apparently made it through your last illness," Jazz pointed out.
"That one wasn't as bad, for some reason. Maybe it's because the last one was a human sickness."
"What do you mean 'human'? Don't tell me-"
"I caught this from the Box Ghost. He sneezed all over me. Disgusting, green, gooey, slime stuff."
"Eww… I didn't know ghosts could get sick. How is this affecting your ghost half?"
"It's fine. I'm fine. No big deal. (cough) I want to go back to sleep," Danny complained.
"Of course." Jazz gave Danny a hug and wished he'd get well soon.
A few coughs and sneezes later, Danny was unconscious.
---
"Morning, Maddie!" Jack Fenton boomed. "I just started a new invention: the Fenton Inviso-Dapter! It lets the person wearing it copy the ghostly power of invisibility!"
"That's great, hun." Maddie smiled encouragingly, but still looked distracted.
"So… how's Danny?" Jack asked, thinking he knew the subject of her thoughts.
"Fine, as far as I could tell. He's sleeping… I heard him start coughing last night. Do you think he's getting worse? He could have a fever."
"Ah, it's just a cold. He'll be fine! Strong, just like his old man! Maddie, did we ever take a sample of a ghost's energy while it was invisible?"
"No; we only have the basic ectoplasmic residue commonly found after a ghost attack." In truth, the hunters hadn't even caught a ghost before. Well, there was that one time Maddie, ahem, Jack caught Inviso-Bill. But Jack had accidentally let him get away. Most of their involvement with ghosts had been fighting them off, sending them back to their realm.
"No? Well, time to find the Fisher!" Jack pecked Maddie on the cheek and ran down into the lab.
Maddie sat down at the kitchen table with a sigh. Jack had been correct when assuming she was worried for her son. But it wasn't just his sickness that concerned her. When she had gone to check on Danny, he had been asleep, breathing loudly through clogged airways. Just before Maddie left, Danny had rolled over in his sleep, and his eyes half opened. In the dimness of the room, it was easy to see the slivers of iris glowing green.
---
Jazz skipped down the stairs, running late for once. She was giving a speech to the school today, and had taken extra time getting ready. She was almost sad Danny had to miss it; he had spent most of his Saturday helping her write it.
She found her mother sitting at the kitchen table, her figure tense and expression worried. It was very uncharacteristic of her.
Wanting to ask what was wrong, but knowing she didn't have time to get involved, Jazz silently crept behind Maddie to grab a granola bar and left quickly through the front door.
---
" 'Fear death?- to feel the fog in my throat,
The mist in my face,
When the snows begin, and the blasts denote
I am nearing the place,
The power of the night, the press of the storm,
The post of the foe;
Where he stands, the Arch Fear in a visible form,
Yet the strong man must go:
For the journey is done and the summit attained,
And the barriers fall,
Though a battle's to fight ere the guerdon be gained,
The reward of it all.
I was ever a fighter, so- one fight more,
The best and the last!
I would hate that death bandaged my eyes, and forbore,
And bade me creep past.
No! let me taste the whole of it, fare like my peers
The heroes of old,
Bear the brunt, in a minute pay glad life's arrears
Of pain, darkness and cold.
For sudden the worse turns the best to the brave,
The black minute's at end,
And the elements' rage, the fiend-voices that rave,
Shall dwindle, shall blend,
Shall change, shall become first a peace out of pain,
Then a light, then thy breast,
O thou soul of my soul! I shall clasp thee again,
And with God be rest!' "
The class clapped enthusiastically at her reciting; it was exaggerated and full of feeling. There wasn't one err in Sam's speech, unlike the others' monotone performances, which were mostly composed of staring at the ground trying to figure out what word came next.
Sam allowed a small smile to creep onto her face before returning to her seat.
Prospice, by Robert Browning, was about a man who only cared about seeing his beloved once more. He considered death nothing more than another adventure, another step forward in the path of love.
Sam chose this poem to recite because it touched home base with her. No, she didn't have any loved ones in heaven, besides a great-grandmother she had seen once or twice when she was three. But the threat of death was very real to her. Sam knew that every time she helped Danny fight ghosts might be the last time she saw her friends.
Of course Danny had seen the danger his 'job' induced on those around him. He still tried to convince Tucker, Sam, and Jazz to stay away from him. But Sam knew, and Danny knew, that would never happen.
Sam wondered if Danny would be like the man from Robert Browning's poem, if she died. To be that whenever he thought 'death', he thought 'Sam'.
What had Danny picked to recite? Oh yes, Shakespeare's Sonnet 18. He said there wasn't any deep thinking behind it; their entire class had memorized it in seventh grade and he didn't know if he would have time to learn another one.
Sam snapped back to attention when Tucker cleared his throat at the front of the room.
" 'Twas brillig and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.' "
Does everyone know what Tucker's poem is? I'm sure you've all heard of it. I have it memorized; it's just so fun to say.
Well, I hope everyone liked this! Review and I'll try to post the next chapter soon! (I know I always say that, and never do, but this time I mean it. I already have Chapter Two written.)
Next Update: Fear Week