Descent
AN: Hi again! Spring Break is over! Oh, the horror! I hate early mornings. With a passion.
Rated T for violence, and death.
One thing:
Talking
Thinking
Flashback (which I will proclaim! ^^)
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom does not belong to me, no matter what the voices in my head say!
CHAPTER ONE: Descent
Danny's POV
'Ties,' Danny mused, 'were not so much formal dress wear as colorful fabric nooses.'
He was vaguely surprised he had even remembered a tire in his sleep deprived rush this morning. Before him at one of the two long wooden tables sat a mousey elderly man with spectacles perched on his upturned nose. Runny eyes and stiff, stained tweed suits were his trademark. Danny seemed to lounge in his chair, compared to the rigid posture held by unintimidating lawyer. His parents hadn't paid for a lawyer, so the court had been reluctantly forced to give him one. Apparently, this relic was the best the government could afford.His lips twitched.
If his lawyer was a mouse, the angry parents of Amity Park's representative was a lion- tall, proud, sophisticated, with fierce topaz eyes and an equally fierce pointed nose. Her ivory ruffled shirt was buttoned all the way up to her hooked nose chin, paired with a black pencil skirt and sensible matte black shoes. Greying orange hair was pulled back in a severe bun, with two curls tugged free to frame her heart-shaped face. Impressive, and scary.
A brief plastic smile touched his thin lips, not reaching his eyes, as he scanned the crowd futilely in search of support. Every face was impassive and in each eye he could see his reflection grow more and more flustered. Angular face flushing, dark hair sticking out in jagged exclamation points, sweaty bangs plastered to his forehead by sweat, and baby blue eyes widened almost comically. White knuckled hands clutched the wooden pedestal like it was a life line. His three pillars of support had turned against him, betrayed him, and three pairs of eyes, one green, two amethyst mocked him. His parents had refused to come though they had thoughtfully provided the ecto-restraints, which he could so easily snap if the fancy stuck him. Next to him loomed the judge, a powerful imposing presence in his flowing robes, and the gavel clenched in his bony hands.
"Mr. Fenton, how long have you been possessed by the malevolent ghost Danny Phantom?" inquired the strict, chipper voice of the female lawyer, turning Danny's attention to her. Exasperation and irritation trickled through him, hot and sharp.
"Never! I already told you, when I was fourteen, I was pressured into checking out my family's faulty portal by my headstrong best friend and accidentally pushed the on button within it. As a result, I was fried by an inordinate amount of ectoplasm, half killing me and fusing to my DNA in the process, creating my alter ego, Danny Phantom." Impatience edged the teen's voice.
"How do you explain the attacks you've committed against your hometown?" asked the lawyer smirking with barely concealed contempt.
"The property damage was mostly caused by multiple battles with rogue ghosts and thus necessary. Any people put in danger was inadvertent and I tried my best to either avoid it or to remove them from harm's way."
"Yes, but what about when you held the mayor hostage?"
"Or when you robbed the jewelry stores and banks?"
Random people in the crowd began voicing their questions heatedly.
Frazzled and weary, Danny answered, "At the time, the mayor was being overshadowed by the ghost sheriff Walker and he was actually grabbing me. Couldn't you tell that his eyes were glowing and unnatural red?" There was a collective murmur of assent, and grumbles filled the courtroom.
"As for the thing with Freakshow, Frederich Isak Show'enhower had a staff that could control ghosts, and as an extension, half-ghosts. He made me steal and torchure other ghosts along with the rest of his circus troupe under the guise of Circus Gothica. It was not voluntary."
Not unlike sharks sensing easy meat the lawyer swam in for the kill, "Would you say ghost activity has increased since you 'became' Danny Phantom?"
"Yeah, but—."
"And it's possible that certain characters could force you to commit heinous crimes?"
"Yes, but—."
"Then it would be best for the community as a whole if Danny Phantom didn't exist."
"No, wait listen! You don't understand! The town will be overrun without me! And Phantom IS me! You can't just rip half of me out! There are consequences to—."
"Danny Phantom is menace to society and as such is henceforth banned and will be removed from one Daniel Fenton, and destroyed." The gavel rang through the satisfied courtyard like nails being hammered into a coffin. Horror rocked the teen. He looked at his stoic, silent friends.
"Sam? Tuck?" he pleaded plaintively. They remained mute, as though someone had cut out their tongues. Desperately, he turned to his sister.
"Jazz?"
No response. Nodding dejectedly, he went ghost, dissolving the weak bonds easily to a chorus of gasps, not even saying his catch phrase. People began screaming and staring around wildly, while others reached for weapons.
"Fine, then. I won't let you tear me apart. From now on, Danny Fenton, and Danny Phantom no longer exist
With these parting words he teleported away, knowing that there was nothing more he could do, and not wishing to look upon those TRAITORS any longer, leaving behind only a light green mist.
Sam's POV
Sam slumped forward, the tears pooling in her eyes finally spilling over. Tucker reached over awkwardly and placed a comforting hand on her shaking shoulder. Eyes glassy, Jazz just stood there as if she intended to never move again. It couldn't be helped, not after yesterday, even if it was an accident.
Sam's Flashback!
Danny had been fighting more ruthless ghosts lately, ones that had no problem killing the innocent and certainly no problem sending Danny home in a matchbox.
It had been an extremely foggy day. The ground melded into the sky, and the surroundings were just variations of grey shadow. Even your hand held in front of your face had been unfamiliar. It had struck suddenly, catching the populace of Amity Park unaware. As such, school hadn't been canceled.
Danny had been leading a ghost away from an elementary school, and, even with his enhanced sense of direction, had been turned about in the cloaking mist. They had ended up at a kindergarten. Danny was sore and weakened by that time, barely flying, much less in a straight line. He had saved some, but, nevertheless, the carnage had been brutal.
All those little bodies, broken and played with like a macabre puppet show, skin slowly turning blue, eyes empty, marionettes with clipped strings. Porcelain dolls discarded by careless giants, shattered and bloody. In his despair and rage, Danny had killed the waste of ectoplasm with his Ghostly Wail. And, exhausted and in full view of the cameras toted by the arriving newscasters, Danny Phantom had revealed himself to be none other than Daniel Fenton.
His parents had shut themselves away in the lab, their endless obsession with work stilled by trauma. None were sure whether it was self-hatred for trying to destroy their own son molecule by molecule or disgust at what their own inventions had made.
The answer came when the Elder Fentons agreed to split the two Daniels if that was the will of Amity Park, and the sporadic explosions picked up once more, as if they had never quit, this time (at least to Danny) with a more sinister intent.
Sam, Tucker, and Jazz had come to the conclusion that the danger for average citizens had become too risky. The mortality rates had been rising dramatically. Trouble seemed to seek Danny out, as he was a magnet for ghosts searching for a fight. The damage that these brawls inflicted on the town was too great. They figured it the abandoned him, he would leave voluntarily—not as some last act of heroism. If it was his integrity making him leave, he would eventually return and so would Amity's problems. They would not give him the chance to change his mind, nor theirs with a well-placed argument against his dispatch.
Obviously, their plan had worked—a little too well if his declaration was any marker. Suddenly, a shadow passed over the trio's hearts and they shuddered. They worried for their future, fear touching their minds. But only for an instant, then, joints creaking like an old persons', they filed out of the room with the rest of the crowd; blending in and becoming faceless among the multitudes. Almost wishing they could have done something different, not betrayed him. Almost.
AN: This will be the first multi-chaptered thing I've ever had published! I'm excited! I would enjoy some feedback. All you have to do is push that beautiful blue button there. XD
-peace,
Kuroitaiyou-Shiroitsuki