Parallel Hardships
By, Cassie Buttelman
Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Danny Phantom characters, they belong to Butch Hartman.
Rating: PG
Chapter 1
An older man sat on his throne in a room shrouded in darkness. The only light came from torches on various places in the room, and the man's fiery red eyes. The room itself was vacant of any life and perfectly calm, despite what was happening behind the four walls. The man lied back in the chair in a lazy manor. He loved to be the ruler of this world. Yet something was still missing, something he was afraid he could never get back, unless he stopped the rebels. He sighed softly at the horrible day of disappointments he had.
The large empty room seemed as still as a graveyard until a loud knock came from the doors in front of the man. He raised his red eyes up lazily to the two doors, his face contorted in a fierce scowl.
"Who dares interrupt me!" He bellowed as his hands clenched the sides of his throne until his knuckles were a ghostly white. He was ready to take out sweet rage on the person who opened the door, until he saw his son's face behind it. At this, his features relaxed as did his form. He once again sat in a lazy manor on his beloved throne.
"Ah, son, come in come in!" he greeted in a more friendlier tone.
His son snorted as he made his way into the room. "Thought I was the maid?" he said in a rather smart alack way.
"Something like that." The father waved his hand dismissively to his earlier actions. "So, what is the news my dear boy?"
"The rebels of course are fighting back, but I have more news father." His red eyes flashed with triumph as a wicked smirk appeared suddenly on his face. "He's coming."
The king sat straight up in his chair and gasped. "You mean to tell me that it is going to work?"
The teenager nodded. "Yes, just as the seer saw it." He floated in midair effortlessly and had his arms crossed over his chest.
"Perfect." The man smiled, showing his vampire like teeth. "Soon, I will have everything." With that, he let out a loud diabolical laugh that echoed throughout the castle……
"Oh come on! Cant one ghost be easy?" Danny Phantom sighed, exasperated as he dodged another attack from a ghost scorpion that was causing major chaos at Amity Park. Danny had a long day and was getting tired of fighting all these ghosts constantly, his green eyes narrowed in anger and he concentrated, his hands started to glow a bright green color and soon formed plasma in his palm. The green against the white of his glove sent off a lime green tinge to everything and everyone around them.
The scorpion that was already totally green itself didn't seem phased. It locked its blood red eyes on Danny and pulled its tail back to attack again.
Danny clenched his teeth tightly and threw back his hand, ready to throw the blast.
At the same time, both launched their weapons foreword at each other, a green acid type liquid came out of the scorpions tail and was headed straight for Danny, meanwhile, the scorpion saw Danny's plasma blast headed straight for it.
One was hid badly, so badly it fell to the ground and closed its eyes. It was the scorpion.
Danny had barely dodged the hit, but he was spared from being hurt from this fight for now. He steadied his breathing and looked down at the two figures who stood up from their hiding spots. Both looked relieved to see that Danny was unharmed. He floated down and landed between his two best friends. Sam Manson and Tucker Foley.
"Wow, that was a close one man." Tucker pointed out.
"Yeah, I'm glad you are alright Danny." Sam sighed.
"Don't worry Sam, you know me." Danny gave her a wide grin, then took the thermos from Tucker and sucked up the ghost into it, then put the lid tightly back on.
" I wish there was a way for me NOT to fight that ghost again." Danny closed his eyes and felt a rush go through him as the two whitish blue rings appeared at his midsection, then split going opposite sides of each other. His suit instantly transformed back into his jeans, shoes and white T-shirt with a red circle in the middle. His snow-white hair turned pure black. When he opened his eyes they were no longer a ghostly green, but a calming blue.
"Ditto Danny, but until your parents come up with a way to stop ghosts from coming through, we don't have a choice." Sam said.
"Boy you're a real spirit lifter." Tucker said sarcastically.
Sam gave him her trademark glare.
Danny gave a small laugh at Tucker and Sam. They were both his best friends, but were as different as day and night. For instance, Sam was a vegetarian Goth who always seemed to be a bad mood, until you really got to know her. Once in a while Danny would see her smile, but she mostly had this sour mood to her. Tucker however, always found an opportunity to shout out a wise crack even in the most dangerous situations. He also was a meataholic so he and Sam had battled quite often about that one. Yet both were there when Danny needed them. He felt so lucky to have them as friends, especially in a time such as this. Ghosts seemed to be popping up everyday now and Danny was already weighed down with fatigue of normal ghost fighting, school, Dash and his parents. "Invisio-Bill" was still not cleared of any of the charges he was slapped with when Walker turned the town against him. It seemed everything was against him lately and he was just getting so tired of it. Thinking of sleep made him blink and look at his watch, his calm expression turned to one of fear and dread. "Oh no! I'm late!" He cried as he grabbed his nearby backpack and started to run at a high speed to his house, leaving a very confused Tucker and Sam.
"I gotta go bye guys!" He yelled as he disappeared from view. Both looked on as he ran away.
Sam was worried about him. He was working himself to death, he didn't tell her that, but she saw it around his eyes, where dark circles were easily seen. Even his manner had changed, he was no longer as cheerful or calm about everything, and this worried her. Not only for his physical help, but now for his mental.
Tucker was worried about Danny too, but he also had a feeling that Danny could handle this. They had been through harder scrapes than this and Danny always pulled through. Tucker knew Danny was strong, he only hoped he was strong enough to survive a few more weeks of ghost attacks, Dash attacks, Lancer attacks and parent attacks. He shook his head of the thoughts and turned to Sam who was still staring out.
"Lets get home Sam, I'm freezing out here." Tucker hugged himself as he realized the temperature had dropped further than before, the later it got. Sam blinked, then turned to Tucker and nodded.
They walked toward their houses, some feelings still echoing through their heads.
Danny had made it thirty minutes after his curfew, he smiled nervously at his parents who were standing at the door as they saw him run up. Both had stern looks on their faces, and Danny had a sinking feeling nothing could even get him out of this one, even when Jazz walked over and intervened with some physiological mumbo jumbo that neither he or his parents really understood. Well, at least that his father didn't understand at least.
"A month!" Danny yelled unbelievingly.
"Mom, dad, wouldn't be a week more appropriate for just missing curfew?" Jazz interjected.
"Yes Jazz, but his teacher called, Danny's grades are slipping quite dramatically." His mother explained.
Jazz opened her mouth to speak, but Danny cut her off. "It's okay Jazz. Look, mom, dad, you have to trust what I am doing outside there is important, to everyone." Danny looked at his mother through her goggles. "Even if I cant tell you what it is, you wouldn't understand. But, if this is my punishment, fine." He ran up to his room without another word and slammed his door behind him. He sighed and slumped back against the door. He was staring at the floor with unblinking eyes, thinking what a mess his life was. His black hair drooped over his eyes, which was exactly his mood, his blue eyes had darkened, of the thoughts he had. He never let pressure get to him like this, but now that it was boiling over, he couldn't help but want to scream. He was sick of everyone treating him like a freak, like a villain.
Why can people hate each other without a real reason? That question rang through his mind.
"Maybe I should stop." He muttered. "If I do, then I'll go back to normal. Let my parents and Valerie handle the ghosts, I quit." He slumped down on his bed and closed his eyes. But as he did, something poked him in the hip, quite badly too. He rolled away instinctively from the pain and lifted his head to look at what caused the unnatural pain.
Where he was lying was a dagger. When he processed this, he jumped up and away from the sharp object, then when his heartbeat slowed down, curiosity got the better of him and he looked at it. He picked it up slowly and looked at it with detail.
The dagger itself looked brand new, but it also could have looked like it came from the middle ages. The handle had two red gems on opposite sides of upper part of the handle. The handles color was a dark red itself, but almost a pitch black red. It also had silver strands woven neatly down the handle's frame on both sides and Danny felt his throat tighten as he held it longer and longer. He looked at the back and saw something written on the bottom of the handle. It was letters. D.M. He blinked at them with interest. Then he turned it back around. His eyes roamed over the sharp blade, that had some sort of inscription on it. He narrowed his eyes to read the writing.
"Cross thy passage to lives unknown."
As he said the last word, Danny felt himself start to feel hot all over. The glowing blade in hands started to vibrate and glow a golden bright color. Danny's eyes widened as the world around him began to spin, he looked around in fear as the world he once knew disappeared into a yellowish light. It felt as if he was spinning rapidly, yet he couldn't have been, he was still standing in the same place!
He closed his eyes tightly so he wouldn't get dizzy, though he felt himself about to lose his lunch anyway.
"Help!" Danny cried as the light began to get brighter and brighter, but Danny knew deep inside, no one would.