I do not own Danny Phantom, nor do I own any of the characters that appeared in the series.
The Danny Phantom Superhero Project
Secret Origin
"You know, Danny, that this might not be the best of ideas, right?"
"Oh come on. Dash is just gonna pick this kid apart if we don't do anything. Besides, if Dash tries messing with me, I can always threaten to hold out on those tickets I was going to get him."
Danny Fenton was sitting on a bench outside of Casper High with his friends Sam Manson and Jenny Ashikawa, watching Dash and his cronies pick on a new student. Honestly, while Dash looked out for him, Danny knew it was because he was afraid Danny would have his dad, pro wrestler Jack "The Jackhammer" Fenton, beat him up if he did anything. It was nice, but he knew his only real friends were sitting with him right now. Standing up, Danny started to walk over to Dash, although he didn't get more than a step away before someone grabbed him by the back of his shirt. He looked back to see Jenny giving him a look that was clearly telling him to not get involved. He lightly picked her hand off his shirt and walked over.
"Hey, Dash, leave off this one, okay?"
Dash looked down at Danny; he had gotten a lot bigger over the summer. For a few seconds, Danny was a little scared Dash would forget the semi-business relationship they had. To his surprise, Dash let go of the new guy, brushing his front off. With a muttered "There you go", Dash and his group walked off, leaving Danny alone with the new guy. Both of them walked over to Sam and Jenny, sitting down with them.
"So, you actually managed to rescue him. What's your name, kid?"
The new guy, who had been staring at Jenny, turned to face Sam.
"Tucker Foley. Me and my family just moved here from Seacrest City, kind of a rush thing-"
"I know you! You're the kid that built that battlesuit and fought Captain Superior!"
Hidden by Tucker's head, Sam rolled her eyes. Danny was obsessed with superheroes and their enemies; it was his burning desire to acquire superpowers and join the rest of the caped crusaders in the fight against evil. She thought it was a little idiotic, but everyone had to have a dream, even if it was impossible. Tucker looked visibly uncomfortable at the mention of this incident.
"Look, I really don't want to talk about that. It's kind of the reason we had to move, if you know what I mean."
"Come on, can't you-?"
Jenny shook her head firmly, shutting Danny up. Tucker turned to look at her again, and this time it was her that rolled her eyes. That was the thing with Jenny; she never spoke a word, but could clearly communicate anything with a simple gesture or look. She was clearly telling Tucker to leave her alone; he wasn't getting the hint. Before he could ask her something stupid, like if she would go out with him, Danny jerked his thumb at the school building.
"Lunch is almost over. We'd better head in before we end up being late."
They stood up and headed back into the building, eager for the day to be over. First days always seemed to take forever.
"Huh. Guess your family's doing pretty well, Danny."
The four of them were standing outside Danny's house. Tucker was right; between his dad's wrestling career and his mother's job as a prosecutor, his family had enough money to afford a respectable sized house and fund his older sister's mysterious experiments she did in the basement. They weren't as rich as Sam or Jenny's families, but they did all right. Danny said good-bye to his friends and went in. His sister, Jasmine, greeted him in the foyer.
"Hey Danny. How was school? They actually teach you anything, or was it just one of those stupid 'get to know you' type days?"
"The second, why?"
"Well, I kind of need someone to test my experiment on, and I was wondering if you, you know, if you wanted to . . . "
Danny had kind of been expecting this. He knew Jasmine was working on some kind of genetic modification theory, and he was a little unsure if he wanted any part of it. His thoughts must have shown on his face, because she immediately started to bargain with him.
"Come on, it isn't dangerous. If you must know, I'm . . . I'm trying to figure out how to activate superpowers. If it doesn't work, no harm done. But if it does, well . . . you might be able to do something about your superhero dreams. Just something to think about."
She walked towards the kitchen, silently counting down in her head. Three, two, one . . .
"Jazz, wait! I'll do it!"
Jazz smiled inwardly. She knew the superpowers argument would win Danny over, easy. She didn't even have to lie about what she was doing, either. She turned to Danny, letting a less jubilant version of what she was feeling inside show on her face.
"Great! C'mon, we've got to go to the basement to do this, that's where my lab is. It won't take long, trust me."
Danny and Jazz moved quickly through the house until they got to the basement stairs. Jazz turned on the light and led the way; she was down here all the time, and could guide Danny to the section of her makeshift laboratory with ease. It took them a few minutes to get to her exam area, since Danny was more than a little curious about some of the stuff Jazz kept down here. When they got there, she had him sit down on a table while she plucked a few syringes out of a sterilizing solution.
"All right Danny, just a few pricks and we're all done. OK?"
Danny nodded, eager to see if he would acquire superpowers. He was so hyped up that he didn't even notice the sting of the needles' piercing his skin. After a few minutes his shoulders slumped in time with his spirits; nothing had happened to him. Jazz looked a little disappointed as well.
"Cheer up, little brother. It might not kick in right away. Just remember, this is our little secret, okay?"
"Sure. No problem."
Danny felt bummed the rest of the night. He barely talked during dinner, and shut himself up in his room shortly after the meal was finished. He was lying in the darkness, staring up at the ceiling, when he finally fell asleep. While he was wallowing in his despair, Jazz was downstairs, making notes and muttering them to herself.
"Combination of chemicals used does not immediately take effect; clearly some kind of accelerant is needed to ensure speedy delivery. It is possible that body mass is a consideration, as Subject Alpha is considerably larger than lab animals. Of course, there is the possibility that the combination does not work on humans. Will have to observe over the next few days to determine if more testing is necessary."
She looked over the data on her computer screen, yawning as she did so. It was late, but she had to get it down or else she'd forget it overnight. Rubbing her eyes, she powered down her computer and went over to the cot she kept down here; it was too late to risk tripping on the way up the stairs. She hoped her compound was right this time; she'd been banking on this one working. She wanted the fame, the prestige, everything that went along with being able to induce powers in humans. It would show the professors that had thrown her out of several colleges over the years that she was right, that her theories weren't just (yawn, had to get to sleep) wild thoughts of a disturbed child, like they said. She'd show all of them . . .
"Danny, are you all right? You don't look so good."
Danny waved away Tucker's question like it was stupid, but Tucker did have a point: Danny didn't feel well at all. He'd been nauseous since he woke up, and his mom had said he looked a little pale. He'd wanted to ask Jazz to take a look at him, but she'd locked herself in her self-made lab, and so he had to go to school without talking to her. He was lagging behind the group for a second to lean against a locker when he noticed something: his hand was slowly sinking through the metal door. He jerked it away, and then pressed it up against the door again. This time the metal held, or his hand held, or however you wanted to look at it. He didn't realize he was just standing there in the hall, staring at his hand, until Jenny came out of the classroom and grabbed his arm, tugging him after her; she looked really worried about him. She managed to guide Danny to his seat and sit down in her own before the bell rang.
"Now class, open your books to page . . . "
Danny tuned out her voice entirely, focused on his hand. Had he imagined his hand halfway into the locker door? It didn't look any different from how it had yesterday. He was staring so intently that, for a moment, he failed to notice it vanish entirely. That lack of awareness only lasted a second though, while his invisibility lasted for at least a good five seconds. He immediately raised his hand, which like the rest of him had reappeared, and the teacher looked at him, confused.
"What is it, Mr.-?"
"I gotta hurl!"
She immediately pointed to the door, which Danny took at a run. He actually did head to the bathroom, though it wasn't to throw up. He just wanted to find a mirror. Thankfully the closest bathroom was deserted; he went up to the mirror and stared into it, waiting for himself to disappear again, or do something new and unexpected. It took a minute, but something finally happened: his hair turned snow-white and his eyes shifted from blue to bright, glowing green. He blinked and shook his head, even splashed water on his face, but he was still the same new set of colors when he had done all that. He found himself grinning. Invisibility, intangibility . . . superpowers. I'm a superhero! He heard the bell ring and realized that he couldn't go walking out looking like this. He closed his eyes, concentrating hard on looking normal again. When he opened his eyes again, his eyes and hair were back to normal. He slowly left the bathroom, still very excited by what had just happened. He had to tell someone. He had to tell his friends, and soon.
"Hurry up, you guys! I want to show you something!"
"I thought he was sick, didn't you?"
Tucker looked at Sam and Jenny when he said this. Sam gave an assertive "Yes", while Jenny nodded fervently. Danny noticed that they weren't following him as closely as he would have liked and doubled back to join them. When he got closer, Sam could see that Danny was practically quivering with excitement; she'd known him pretty much her entire life and she'd never seen him this excited ever. Fortunately, Amity Park had several small parks scattered around the city, and they eventually found one that was deserted. Danny waved them over near a tree and then turned to them, grinning.
"Brace yourselves, people. I'm going to stick my arm through this tree."
"No! I'm not sitting by while you hurt yourself again trying to show off made-up superpowers!"
"He did that?"
"Yeah, before you or Jenny met us, back in the second grade. He climbed up a tree and told me he was going to fly."
"How'd it go?"
"He ended up breaking his arm in two places. It still hurts every once in a while, right Danny?"
"That's all in the past. I swear I can do this. Just watch."
Danny screwed up his face, and all three saw his hair fade from black to white and back a few times. He then hauled off and punched the tree. Jenny's hands flew up to her mouth, and Sam actually let out a little shriek of terror. It wasn't for a few seconds that they realized that Danny was standing calmly in front of them with his arm stuck halfway through the tree. Sam ran up to hug him, passed through, and ended up running into the tree face-first. She cupped her hands over her face while Tucker cheered and Jenny applauded. Danny withdrew his arm and bowed, vanishing immediately after bending over. All three of them started looking around for him, but it wasn't until Danny grabbed Tucker's hat off his head, eliciting a jerk and outcry, that they realized where he was.
"No way! I can't believe it; you really have superpowers this time!"
"Yeah, I guess it was bound to happen. Now all I need is a costume and a catchy name and I'm in business."
"Maybe I'm just saying this because I'm new here, but how many super-villains or, for that manner, regular crooks are really active in Amity Park?"
But Danny was so caught up in the possibility of living his dream that he wasn't really paying attention to Tucker. In fact, it was Sam's question that got a response out of him.
"How exactly do you plan on getting around town to do this, anyway? I mean, you can't really take the bus or get your parents to drive you around, right?"
"Actually, I was hoping to try something and, since I can turn intangible now, it's not like I can get hurt-"
"Oh, don't jump out of a tree again, please. I don't think I can take it."
Danny ignored her, pulling himself up the branches of the tree he'd just punched. He made his way up to the top, paused a second to steel up his courage, and jumped. He actually hit the ground, passing through it for a few feet before he managed to pull up, shooting up out of the ground and into the air. He'd never thought flying would be the best feeling he'd ever felt. He rose higher and higher until, down below-
"Danny! Get down here before someone sees you!"
As soon as he heard that, he realized that flying above the tree line would definitely ruin any plans of a secret identity. He dropped to the ground at once, focusing on losing his powers. Sam and Jenny were all over him, congratulating him each in their own ways, while Tucker stood back, a little ashamed that he'd been let into this little club without properly knowing Danny or his friends. Danny let the rush carry him for a little longer until he realized . . .
"I don't have a costume. Nothing even remotely close."
"You can fake it at first, right? I mean, don't most superheroes do that anyway?"
"In the comics, yeah, but even there it doesn't always work right. Look at Batman. His first night out, he tried doing it without a costume and it backfired on him. I want to do this right from the start, and that means I need a costume."
His spirits immediately dropped again. Without a costume, he could easily be mistaken for a thug with a gimmick, even if he was trying to do the right thing. But where was he supposed to get one? It wasn't like he could just walk into a store and buy one; no superhero he'd ever heard of, real or imaginary, let slip who made their costumes. And it wasn't like he could just walk up to Captain Superior or Good Knight and ask them who made theirs. He needed someone he could trust, someone he knew he could count on to not spill his secret, someone smart. And then it hit him like a thunderbolt, and he was amazed that he hadn't thought of it before.
"I bet Jazz can help me out with this!"
"Who?"
"His super-genius older sister. Let me guess, she's the one that gave you superpowers, right?"
But Danny had already broken away. He had to see Jazz, now, right now. This was important.
"It worked? Ohmygod ohmygod ohmygod YES! I did it!"
Jazz threw her arms around Danny and practically danced on the spot when he told her about what had happened at school and at the park, although he didn't tell her that his friends had seen it. She ran over to one of the closets on the wall and pulled out a white jumpsuit with black gloves, boots, belt and collar. She held it up to Danny as if trying to size him up and then shrugged.
"Oh who cares, it'll resize itself anyway I'm a GENIUS! Haha, let's see Professor Tecnus when I show him-"
"Whoa, Jazz, can't I give this a test-drive before you start showing me off to your friends? I mean, who says these powers are even permanent? What if they wear out tomorrow? Just give me a week to test them out before you start shouting it from the rooftops, okay?"
"Oh, um . . . okay, I guess. Good luck!"
"Yeah, thanks! See you later!"
Danny rushed through the house to his room, glad for once that his parents were rarely home before 6 pm. He threw his new costume on his desk and studied it. It was missing something. Not a cape, he'd always thought those looked stupid, but still, something wasn't right. He sat down on his bed and stared at it until it hit him. He needed a symbol, something to identify him as a unique hero. But what? This required some serious thought, and he bent all his brainpower towards this end, pulling out a notebook to sketch in as he tried to decide on a concept. After about an hour he hit on something, sketching it out on the paper. It looked even better on paper than it had in his head. Grabbing a black permanent marker, he drew the symbol on the chest of the costume, careful not to screw up. When he was done he held it up; a black letter D with a small cutout in the bottom to show a letter P in the negative space, with little wisps coming off of the rounded part of the D. He was about to try it on when he heard his mom come in through the front door. Stuffing the costume into his closet, he left his room to help get dinner ready.
Danny practically flew through dinner, eager to try on his costume. He didn't notice that Jazz was sitting silent and thoughtful; if he'd been paying attention, he might have thought she was plotting something. But he wasn't paying attention; he was simply daydreaming about catching bad guys and being popular for doing it. Once dinner was done, he went up to his room and pulled his costume out again. Stripping down to his underwear, he pulled the jumpsuit on. The split in the front sealed up seamlessly, and the suit tightened to fit him like a second skin. He moved around, testing his range of motion and flexibility while wearing his costume. Satisfied, he decided to fly to Sam's house to show her his new look.
He opened his window, about to jump out, when he remembered his first, disastrous attempt to fly. His arm gave a slight twinge when he thought back to that incident. He closed his eyes and felt the change come over him. When he opened his eyes he looked in the mirror to make sure he'd changed colors, the sure sign his powers were active, and got a little shock. His costume had changed color as well, reversing the white and black completely. He had no idea his powers would do that, but he liked the new color combination better. He had another thought, and powered down to test his theory. As he suspected, his costume disappeared when he released his powers; he immediately grabbed his clothes and put them back on. At least I don't have to worry about changing into my costume whenever I need to do something, he thought as he pulled his jeans back on. Hopefully his transformations wouldn't damage his clothes; that could get expensive, and embarrassing. Now, time to see Sam.
Sam was sitting in her room, listening to music on her headphones while doing her homework. Danny didn't want to surprise her, so he decided not to float through her wall and touch her on the shoulder. Instead, he knocked on her window, hovering about twenty feet off the ground to do so. She jumped when she heard the knock, but brightened up when she saw him outside her window. She opened it up for him, and he pulled himself through. She looked him over, more than a little impressed.
"Nice look. I gotta say, you might actually be able to pull this off. Have you come up with a name for yourself yet?"
"I was thinking . . . Danny Phantom. How's it sound?"
"Terrible. I mean, you're practically giving away your secret identity with that. Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom, they sound so much alike that people will figure it out, and then everyone you care about is at risk. Why not just go with 'The Phantom'? It still sounds cool, right?"
"But . . . I designed the symbol for 'Danny Phantom'. See, it has the D and the P on it, and-"
"Trust me, it's a bad idea for anyone to have a clue to your secret identity. All those comics you made me read have taught me that much, at least."
Danny sighed, but he saw Sam's point. He wouldn't be able to live with himself if he got his family or friends hurt trying to save people. "The Phantom" he would be. He stood up, stretched his arms, and then phased himself through Sam's wall and flew off into the night. He didn't want to go home immediately, but spend some time thinking. He floated over the buildings of Amity Park, deep in thought, when he heard something in the alley below. He turned invisible, hovering over the dumpsters while he watched two men. One had a mask on and was holding a gun on the other, who was trying to remove his wallet from his pocket. The man with the gun waved it impatiently.
"Don't make me shoot you man. Just gimme your wallet and we can all go home."
"I'm trying! My hands are shaking, you gotta believe me!"
The scared man finally got his wallet out, and the man with the gun grabbed it from his hand. The armed man started running, and Danny saw his chance. Turning visible again, he dropped out of the sky to land in front of the mugger, who stopped when he saw Danny. He raised the gun quickly, but Danny reacted instinctively, raising his own hand without knowing what he was doing. To the surprise of both of them, a ray of green energy flew from his palm, knocking the gun from the mugger's hand. He turned to run the other way, and Danny flew over him, dropping down to knock him to the ground. He pulled the stolen wallet from the mugger's hand and took it over to the would-be victim, who was on his cell phone with the police. The man looked terrified, though Danny hoped it was because he had almost been robbed, rather than because of him. He made to leave after giving the man back his wallet, but a question held him back.
"You . . . you saved me. Who are you?"
Danny turned to look the man in the eyes, grateful for his changed colors; he would be almost unrecognizable like this. He thought about what to say for a second, settling on a simple declaration.
"I'm the Phantom. You keep out of trouble."
And before the man could say anything, Danny took off, turning invisible so he couldn't be followed on the way home.
The alarm jarred Danny out of a sound sleep, and it took him a few times to find the clock to turn it off. He couldn't bring himself to get out of bed, not until he heard a knock on his door. He lifted his head off the pillow to look at Jazz, who was frowning at him from above.
"Test drive, huh? I thought you'd just start flying around or something, not go around beating up people in the street!"
"Wuh-tha' really happened? Aweso-"
"No, not awesome. You could have been hurt, you could have been killed, and then what would I tell Mom and Dad? 'Hey, just thought you should know, I gave Danny superpowers and he got killed trying to be a hero because of me.' You need to be careful!"
"I'll be fine. I jus-" He yawned massively in the middle of the word, "-t tried to help, that's all. Was it on the news or something?"
"Yeah, some guy was on the radio, talking about 'the Phantom' saving him from a mugger last night!"
"Yes!" Danny's voice was muffled a little by the T-shirt he was pulling over his head, but the enthusiasm was still very audible. "I'm on my way to-"
"To an early grave! That's it, I forbid you to do any more superhero stuff! It's too dangerous!"
"You forbid me? Come on, Jazz, you're not my mom. You can't 'forbid' me doing anything. Now if you don't mind, I have to get to school."
Danny shoved his way past Jazz, grabbing his backpack while he went through the door. Jazz was more than a little upset. She'd held up her end of the bargain, so why was he being such a jerk? Fine. If Danny wants to play superhero, I can give him all the supervillains he could ever want. She grinned a little at that thought. If she did this right, she'd even be able to fund another round of testing for an improved serum. Just had to play it cool . . .
Danny was sitting at his table at lunch, frantically scribbling an essay he needed to do for his English class. Sam, Tucker and Jenny were all watching him, and they all had the same idea. Sam, who had known Danny the longest and was therefore the one he was least likely to get mad at, decided to say it.
"You know, maybe it wasn't a good idea for you to go out joyriding with your powers last night."
"I needed to think, and the whole hero thing just happened. I didn't plan it that way. Besides, what was I supposed to do, just let that guy get robbed?"
"Yeah, but the least you could have done after that was do your homework before you went to bed. Lancer's gonna know you're just rushing through it because you didn't do it last night."
Danny paused for a moment, scratching the back of his head with his pencil, trying to think of how to end his essay. Sam was right; he really should have done this the night before. Still, his first night as a superhero had been too cool to pass up. And his fame was spreading; all day he'd heard other students talking about him, even if none of them knew he was the Phantom, or even, in some cases, that he was calling himself the Phantom. The funniest one was when he'd heard Paulina Sanchez telling her friend Star that he was running around as "the Specter". He finally thought of something to write down and put it on the paper, knowing full well that he was going to get an F on this paper. In his mind, it was well worth it.
In the end, even Mr. Lancer making him re-write his essay ("And this time, Mr. Fenton, why don't you try actually spending some time working on it?") couldn't dampen his spirits. He split off from his friends, making some lame excuse for the crowd to hear; Jenny, Sam and Tucker all knew he was going to fly around the city looking for something public to do.
Danny floated above the city for a while, growing bored as the day passed by. Is this what superheroes have to do most of the time? He was about ready to call it quits when he heard a loud BOOM echo up from the streets. His attention immediately shifted from the interesting shape he'd seen in the clouds to the ground below, where two people were tearing up Main Street. The first was a woman that was bulging with muscles Danny'd never seen before. Her companion, a man, was flanking her on the sidewalk; he had flames dancing on his palms. Danny shot down, pulling up just in time to hover in front of the duo. When he saw them up close, he was amazed at how young they were; both looked younger than Jazz, and she was only in her early twenties. The woman – make that girl – pointed at him.
"It's the Phantom! He's here!"
"Yeah, I'm here, and you – whoa!"
Danny had to take off to dodge a gout of flames from the boy on the left; he knew that most energy attacks could still hurt him while he was intangible, despite its effectiveness against physical harm. He had to focus on the pyro first, since his powers could do infinitely more harm if he hit an underground gas line. In the end, it was a simple solution; he shot the plug off of a fire hydrant with an energy blast from his hands. The resulting deluge struck the firecaster in the side, throwing him across the street and into a parked car, which knocked him senseless. Easy enough, he thought, now to take care of the other one.
The girl rushed Danny, swinging her massive fists wildly as she closed. Her first strike caught him in the chest, knocking him backwards but not hurting as much as he thought; apparently his physical endurance had improved with the rest of his powers. Danny responded by taking a swing back at her. Not only did he hit, but he also knocked her on her heels a little. He was apparently a little stronger, but now wasn't the time to test his new limits. He flew into the air, out of reach of her ridiculously oversized hands. He went higher and higher, out of range of even the most determined potential throw of a car or mailbox. Curling his hands into fists he shot straight down, forcing an energy blast to wrap around his hands instead of shooting out. By the time he hit the girl he was dropping like a lead balloon; he actually had to make himself intangible to keep from shattering his arms from the force of the impact. When he floated up out of the sewers, he found that the girl was lying unconscious in a small crater left from his attack. Several police officers were surrounding her and her companion. One of the officers came over to Danny, looking relieved.
"Phantom, thanks for the assist. I don't think we could have brought these two down without your help."
"Yeah, uh . . . sorry about the street. I didn't think I'd hit that hard-"
"It's not as much damage as she could have done on her own. I'm Captain Jimenez, by the way."
"Good to meet you. Listen, can I sit in on the interrogation? I'm a little new at this and just want to get the full perspective on how this whole thing works . . . "
"Yeah, of course. You need a ride, or can you just follow the cars?"
In the end, Danny decided he would follow the cars, figuring that it would look bad if he got into a police car. By the time he got to the interrogation room, the girl had shrunk significantly; most of her muscles had vanished. Danny was standing behind the two-way mirror, watching as Captain Jimenez began grilling her. After a few half-hearted struggles she slumped into the chair, answering the questions sullenly. It wasn't until they got to the part about where she'd gotten her temporary powers that he really got interested.
"So, how exactly did you come by your strength powers? I can't imagine that those were something you were born with."
"Some creepy chick found me and Ed, told me she wanted us to test this crap. I thought they'd be permanent; God knows I paid enough for them to be."
"A 'creepy chick'? Any name, something to identify her by?"
"Some super-creep name, 'Jizz' or something like that."
"You mean 'Jazz', right?"
The girl shrieked; Danny had phased through the wall to ask his question, and she clearly hadn't been expecting that. When she got calmed down, Danny pressed her again. Something about his urgency showed through, and she answered, though still in the same sullen tone.
"Yeah, 'Jazz' sounds about right, I guess. Why, d'you know her?"
Danny walked out of the interrogation room, Captain Jimenez close behind. She looked at him with eyes full of questions. She managed to get in front of him, stopping him before he left the station.
"Who's Jazz? Why does it have you so shook up?"
"She's the one that gave me my powers. I didn't think . . . she wasn't supposed to start making villains. Give me an hour to bring her in. I can talk her down."
"I can't promise that, but I'll do my best. Go get 'em, kid."
Danny phased through his home, heading straight for the basement. If he went in as Danny, Jazz might try to talk him out of turning her in. As the Phantom, she would know he meant business. At least, that was what he hoped. He really hoped the whole psychology thing paid off.
When he landed, Jazz was sitting at one of her workbenches, facing away from him. While he watched she tucked a loose strand of her long red hair behind her ear. He cleared his throat and she turned her head just enough to see that it was him before turning back to her work.
"They talked, didn't they? I should have known they would. They didn't seem like the type to keep their mouths shut."
"You . . . you really gave them powers? I thought you were only going to do that once!"
"I never said that. Besides, I need to fund my research, and if that means I have to home-brew a few temporary enemies for you, well, I figured you'd be happy for the chance to play superhero."
"You have to turn yourself in. No running away from this."
"But that's exactly what I had in mind. See, I've found that certain mixes make different powers. I've isolated speed, and I figure a double dose will let me run as far and as fast as I need to so I can keep up my research. Now, if you don't mind-!"
Jazz stuck the needle in her arm so quickly that Danny couldn't have stopped her if he tried. She shuddered a little, and he could see everything click all at once. In a second she was at the door, leaving a blur behind. Even when she was standing still she was throwing off afterimages, leaving her looking blurry and washed-out.
"Catch me if you can, little bro!"
Danny had a slight advantage in that he could phase through solid objects; it was only the fact that Jazz had to move around everything in the house that kept her from getting out of reach immediately. Once they got out in the open Danny was hard-pressed to keep up, especially with the superheated wind blowing off around Jazz. Even so, he knew she was toying with him, that she could easily outstrip him if she really wanted to. She was genuinely enjoying the chase.
"Jazz, stop this! You don't have to throw it all away like this!"
"? Neeveeerliiittlebroo!"
"You want to run, fine. Just don't expect me to chase you. I'm through."
Danny stopped instantly, hovering in the air. Jazz was furious; she wasn't done with her little game. She spun around on her left leg, ready to start dragging him through the streets – and all the tendons, ligaments and cartilage from her knee down disintegrated from the immeasurable g-forces forced onto them all of a sudden. She ended up bouncing along the ground as her broken body refused to support her weight anymore, shrieking in agony from her ruined leg. Danny was at her side in an instant as she stopped; he looked like he was the one in pain, when in fact Jazz was only conscious because the pain was too intense for her to black out. He was saying something, but she couldn't hear him over her own screaming. She was floating . . . someone was saying something . . . then nothing but sweet silence as the blackness washed over her.
"How's it going?"
Danny looked up from the park bench and saw Sam, Tucker and Jenny, all staring at him. He only looked for a moment, quickly returning to his melancholy staring at the ground. Sam sat down on the bench next to him on one side, with Tucker sitting down on the other; Jenny stood behind him, arms resting on the back of the bench. They were silent, waiting until Danny said what was bothering him. It didn't take long for him to let it out.
"I couldn't save her. I didn't even get a chance; she just turned so quickly that I couldn't do anything to help her, and now she's crippled because of me."
"Danny, this isn't your fault." Sam wrapped her arm around Danny's shoulder as she said this, and thankfully he didn't pull away from her comforting gesture. "Jazz was just so eager to prove herself right that she lost sight of what should have been really important."
"Yeah, don't beat yourself up over this. I mean, technically I'm a supervillain, but I'm not messed up or evil. Maybe she'll be all right."
Danny shook his head.
"You don't get it. I did this. I didn't listen to her when she told me to stop the whole superhero thing. I drove her to experimenting on other people. This is my fault. I have to give this whole thing up before someone else gets hu-"
"No!" Everyone else was surprised at the vehemence of Sam's denial. "You can't quit, not now! If anything, this should make you want to do this all the more, to keep something like this from happening to someone else's family!"
Danny thought about it for a moment and realized that she was right. He had lost someone important to him, yes, but all superheroes lost things important to them at some point. Batman lost his parents, Spiderman his Uncle Ben, Superman his entire homeworld, but they still did what was right. He had to do this, not for the thrills, but because people needed him. In the distance, he heard sirens. People needed him now.
"You're right, I can't quit. I was just too caught up in my own self-pity to realize that. I've got to go now. They need me."
Danny stood up, transforming as he did so. He took off into the air, feeling the wind rush through his hair as he raced the fire truck. He actually found himself grinning as he did it. How could I have wanted to walk away from this, he thought as he rocketed through the streets. This was exactly what he wanted. If nothing else, he wanted to help.
Welcome one and all to the Danny Phantom Superhero Project! I've decided to put mini-commentaries after some of my chapters to explain some of the stuff I've done, seeing as I'm going waaayyy off-base with the whole mythology. Plus, I feel that I must explain why Jazz is the bad guy if I don't want to get flamed to holy Hell. Anyway, here goes nothing.
Danny's origin and powers
One of the big things I've changed is Danny's origin. Since his parents aren't ghost hunters anymore, the Fenton Portal is out, so he needed a new way of getting his powers. Jazz was always a genius, so it wasn't that much of a stretch to make her able to give Danny his powers. This also allows for more superpowered people showing up as long as she's around, meaning that he had a few more villains at the earliest stages of his career (if you recall, he had his powers for a month before having anyone to fight in the show). He doesn't have the Ghostly Wail, the duplication or the ice powers to start as was in the show, but I was able to eliminate one power from his roster entirely: his ghost-sensing breath. He's not "half-ghost", he's just got ghost-themed powers. None of his enemies are going to be ghosts (at least, not right now), so having the ability to sense ghosts seems a little useless.
Jazz
Like I said above, she just seemed like the right fit to give Danny his powers the way the story works out. Making her a villain was a bit of a wrench, but it beats what I had planned originally. In the original draft, she gives Danny his powers but gets killed when she tries to duplicate the serum for her professor, who gains powers and goes on a rampage. As a villain she provides an interesting moral dilemma for Danny . . . at least, she will once her leg heals. Just for those of you that don't read comics, the run-on sentences with the long vowels are used to show how fast she's moving; any speedster's voice sounds strung together and long-voweled when they're booking like she was. The injury comes from something I've had a problem with for a while. I just don't see how a guy moving that fast can corner like the Flash can, at ninety-degree angles like that. Hence, a quick turnabout destroys the leg.
Sam
As of right now, they're just friends. They've known each other since they were in diapers (again, changed from the show), so they've never really thought about being more than friends. I'm not going to do all that awkward crap they did in the show. Not gonna happen.
Tucker
I always saw him as the type to build some kind of doomsday device and accidentally use it. He'll be Danny's "tech guy", building him little gadgets to help out his crimefighting career. He's also mostly used in this chapter to introduce the fact that Danny's not the only superhero out there; remember, he says he fought another, more established, hero before moving to Amity Park.
Jenny Ashikawa
Jenny's parents help introduce the big mastermind villain of the story (if you figure out who he is, don't spoil it for everyone else, please). Jenny is the unfortunate victim of an attack by the mastermind's lackey. When you meet him, you'll understand why she was originally going to have a superhero name (Kami); she was supposed to get powers from the attack. She might still get something out of it, but for right now she can't talk. It's not that she won't, but that she literally can't; he really messed up her vocal cords when he attacked her, so she can't talk. You'll find out more in chapter 4.
What's next for Danny and his friends? The introduction of a mystic frenemy, that's what! It's kind of hard to explain without spoiling it, so I won't even try.