A/N: Hello! This is Saph here. Now, before you kill me on not updating Operation: Life, I have to say this about the story. Ahem. I don't know how to put it in words. xD There. Now, in case you don't know what that means, it means that I know how the story will go, it's just that I don't know how to put it in story format. So, while I think of it, here's a new story to keep you occupied in the meantime. It's five in the morning right now, and I woke up at three in the morning. Ah well. Now, this story's gonna be loooooonnnnngggg. Why? Because I like this idea. x D Now, I had to put a space there because my stupid new laptop keeps changing it into this: Xd. It looks ugly. D': So, I needed spaces. Enjoy the story!
Oh, and the rules of this game, explained in the story, may be kind of confusing to you. If you don't get it, I'll try to explain more clearly in the next chapter. If you do get it, give yourself a cookie and a glass of milk. (:
Twelve figures stood in a dark room. They didn't know where they were, nor did they know how they had gotten there. All they knew was that something was up, as usual.
"Welcome, friends…" said a dark, yet sweet voice. "Welcome…to the Confession Booth." A light shone on the twelve mentioned earlier, and they shielded their eyes at the sudden change in lighting. They look around once their eyes were accustomed to the light. Nothing much in particular, just an empty old room, with dry, old paint peeling off the walls, and the floor wasn't exactly new either. One person spoke up: Jazz.
"…The Confession Booth?"
"Yes. Allow me to explain. This will be a game to test your wits, strength, and sanity." He started to slowly stride across the room, walking back and forth. "The Confession Game. Over there," he pointed at a door no one noticed before, since his large shadow-like body was covering it. "Is the Confession Booth. Over there, one by one, you will each tell of your life. Your whole life up until now. Why? That makes it so I can decide on your task."
"Task?" a certain raven haired teen asked.
"Oh yes. I must have forgotten. Tasks. Once everyone has told their life's story, I shall drum up a task for you. Tasks, I'm afraid, that might even kill you. If you try to escape, I'll just kill you on the spot."
"Wait, ghosts can't die. We're already dead." Skulker pointed out.
"Exactly. You can't die, you'll just vanish off the face of the Earth. Would you like that?"
"…No."
"Well, seeing as you're all here, I'll just introduce you to each other, in case you don't know who they are. I'm pretty sure you all met, but this is just to make sure. I'll also explain why I chose you out of the number of people in the world." The shadow then started to creep up on Danny. Every one saw, even Danny, but no one made a move.
"Daniel. You were the first one I considered, being a world famous halfa and all. But, that wasn't exactly why I chose you out of all people. The reason I've chosen you is because I've seen you fighting other ghosts before. You never broke down because of the stress of it all. I'd like to see how you'd fair up against this challenge. We'll see how the all mighty Danny Phantom gets out of this one." The shadow moved on to the next person in line, Tucker.
"Tucker. You were the second person I considered. Oh, and you're all in the order I thought of you. For example, Danny's first, he's the first one I considered. Mr. Lancer is last. He's the last one I considered." Lancer made a face, but didn't say anything. "Anyway. You're a techno geek, everyone knows that. You're also known for helping the ghost hero of Amity Park, Danny Phantom. But, I've seen you with your technology, I'd love to see you break down because, well, I'm not going to accept technology here." It swiped Tucker's PDA and dropped it on the floor, smashing it with his, uh, well, foot. Sam snickered.
"Samantha. You come from a rich family. You should be happy, but indeed you are not. I'll admit, I watch all twelve of you from afar, but I do not research your pasts. Tell me, why are you never happy with all the money your family has?"
"That's none of your business." She scowled.
"Fine. But you will have to confess at the Confession booth. Now, back to why I have chosen you. You, like your friend Tucker, help Danny Phantom in fights. You were the one that made him get his ghost powers in the first place."
"You were? You made my son go in the ghost portal that wasn't even working when we tried it?!"
"Temper, Jack. That kind of attitude will dig your own grave. You've got much other things to worry about." The shadow said. "Now, back to Samantha. You were the one that made him get his ghost powers, and he could have died. Yet he only died halfway, thus making him half ghost. If he had died, how would you feel?"
"What is this, therapy? I'm not saying anything. He didn't die, and so that's the end of this conversation. Leave me alone." Sam growled.
"Fine." Shadow sighed and moved on to the next person in line. "Jasmine. Your brains are your finest point. You are the first person to find out that Danny had ghost powers."
"No, we were!" Tucker shouted.
"Actually, you always knew. From the moment he got his ghost powers. Jazz found out on her own." Jazz couldn't help but smile. This bad guy, if he really was one, was actually complementing her? Hmm. Maybe there was something about him. "But," the shadow started, and Jazz knew the insults were coming. Anyone could guess that. "Sometimes brains isn't the most important thing in the world. Like in this game, brawns shall be your most important aspect." He moved on. That wasn't the insults she thought were coming. They weren't really insults at all. But still. Brawns over Brains?! That was outrageous!
While Jazz was furious at what Shadow had said, the shadow had moved on to the person to the left of Jazz: Ember.
"Ah, Ember. What a beautiful name." Ember didn't get his act. Was he complimenting them, building them up, just to insult them and break them down? "And a lovely guitar." He laid his 'hand' on her guitar. It phased right . She was sure of it. "You have the power to control people's minds, and you can't live your afterlife without that guitar, can you? It's your item that you chose to bring in the afterlife, isn't it?" Ember slowly nodded. Where was he getting at? Was he going to take it away? "But then, there is still the matter of your past life. When you were alive." Ember gasped. He said he wasn't going to research their past, is he going to do it now?
"I thought that you said that you weren't-"
"I'm not." Shadow interrupted. "I'm merely only making a statement. But, I do believe that something happened when you were alive. But you shall be the one to tell that story." He crept past her to Skulker. "Now, you won't be needing these." He said.
"…Needing what?"
"Your weapons. But no need to worry. I already took them." Skulker was about to ask how he did it, but kept his mouth shut instead. "Looks like the hunter has finally met his match. Or, in reality, I'm far more stronger than all of you." Skulker felt the need to hit him wherever his face was, but he saw that when Shadow had touched Ember's instrument, his hand passed through. Would it be the same if the hunter tried as well? "I chose you because of your brawn. But then I realized, 'why?' You're useless without your armor anyway. Just a small, green, talking blob."
"Hey! You can't go around calling my boyfriend a blob!" Ember shouted. Shadow merely sighed.
"You people really must control your temper. Is that what you humans do all day? Shout?"
"Hey, we're not all humans, you know." A small little boy scowled. He had a parrot perched on his shoulder. Youngblood.
"Of course not. But when you were alive, you were humans, correct? If not, then why are you in a human form right now?" Everyone silenced. He did have a point, in a way. "But, I grow restless. Let's start the tasks and the confessions, all right? You guys can introduce yourselves later." He walked back, and a wheel rose from the ground. It had the faces of all twelve characters on it, excluding Shadow. "Now, whoever this lands on first must confess their whole life story. Whoever this lands on second, must do a task while the first person does the life story thing. Oh, and I must not forget: The task has to be something related to the person who is currently telling their past's past. We must hear enough of it to see what the task shall be." Danny groaned. This sounded way too complicated for his mind to handle. Shadow had lost him at 'Whoever this lands on first must confess their whole life story.' The rest was just a huge blur. He was interrupted from his thoughts when he heard Shadow speak again. "Everyone get it?"
"I do. This seems like a sick game, but I can prove to you that brains are far more better than brawn." Jazz said. "And, it seems as if we have no other choice."
"I agree with the landbubber!"
"Lubber."
"Whatever! I don't care!" Youngblood shouted at his talking parrot furiously. Who cared if he got it wrong?
"I really don't want to do this." Tucker pouted. Danny nudged him. "But I get it!" Tucker added quickly.
"As much as I'd hate to admit it, Tucker's right." Sam said. "Besides, this is just a silly little game. I don't care that earlier you said that we could die, many villains we've faced before has bluffed."
"Sam, I think this guy is serious…" Danny whispered, but she didn't even turn to look at him. Shadow didn't say anything about Sam's little comment either.
"Hmph. I'll play along with your silly little game. And when it's over, I'm going to go back to what I do best: hunting the halfa." Skulker said.
"Well, if that's what you do best, then certainly you stink at everything else." Danny pointed out.
"Whatever Maddie agrees to, I agree. Whatever Jack agrees to, I disagree. So, my choice will be of Maddie's and the opposite of Jack's. Choose wisely, Maddie." Vlad smiled while Danny frowned in pure disgust.
"I think I should play this game. We're powerless against this…magnificent….creature…thing, and this is our only way out." Maddie sighed.
"Aw. So that means I can't rip these ghosts apart, molecule by molecule?" Jack pouted. Maddie shot him a look.
"So, that means I agree." Vlad smiled. Jack surely can't stand up to these, erm, tasks, he thought. Maybe I can impress Maddie and finally win her after all! "So, when do we start?"
"Right now. I don't really care." Dan muttered. "I can beat you all anyway."
"Hold on," Tucker said. "I have a question. Dan and Danny are the same person. Their pasts would be the same!"
"True," Shadow said. "But we'll get to hear two different points of view."
"No we won't! They're the same person! How will their points of view be different from each other!?" Sam shouted. Shadow sighed.
"There's that temper you humans seem to have in common. And they are both different, in a way. They are the same person, but one is evil and the other is good. Surely they have different perspectives on their past?"
"…That does make sense." Danielle spoke up for the first time. "I mean, I'm a clone of Danny, so that kind of also makes me a clone of Dan, right? All three of us have different perspectives."
"Danni, there are three things wrong with your theory." Danny said. "One, Dan's fused with Plasmius. Two, you're a girl, thus making you different from us. And three, you don't have the same past as us. You were created. We weren't. Well, maybe Dan was created, but I sure as heck wasn't!"
"Fine, fine."
"Ahem," Shadow cleared his…um, throat, I guess. "Now that you have all agreed to the rules, we shall spin the wheel. Who would like to spin first?"
"ME!" Youngblood and Danni cried out at the same time. "You spin first, I spin second?" Danni asked.
"Sure thing, matey!" He shouted, and spun the wheel with all his might, which turned out to be pretty strong. A couple of seconds later, they were sure that it was going to either land on Skulker or Sam(A/N: No, it is not in the order I introduced them.), and the small needle at the top was pointing to Skulker, but the wheel wasn't done spinning. Sam held her breath while Skulker…he just stared at the wheel.
It landed on Sam.
Skulker felt relief overcome him. He couldn't remember his human life. "Darn it!" He heard Sam yell.
Danni flew up to the spinner and spun it hard, almost breaking it and crushing Danny and Vlad, who were standing on both sides of the wheel.
"Next time, you're spinning." Danny pointed at Vlad, who just shrugged.
"The wheels on the bus go 'round and 'round! 'Round and-"
"Shut UP! We're in the middle of a death game and you start singing!?" Sam shouted, while Danni hmph-ed and flew back.
This time, it became apparent on which two people might become the confessor and the task completer: Sam and Danny, or Sam and Ember. The wheel started to slow, and then it came to a stop. The 'lucky' winners were Samantha Manson and Daniel Fenton.
"Aw, man." Danny whimpered while Sam started to ramble about why she had to be first of all people.
Sam's POV
Hey, um, if this thing is working right, then you should see me. I'm currently in an old…closet. Ugh. Anyway, I'm supposed to be telling you about my past while Danny is about to do his challenge("TASK!")—Task, I mean. Something relating to my past or something. So anyway, stalker, if you are currently listening to this right now, then I should be starting anytime soon. Ahem. Ahem.
When I was younger, I was kind of short. Of course, everyone is short at the age of five, but I mean, really short. A three year old was taller than me. That was humiliating. Oh, how I wish I knew where he is located right now so I can strangle him for his freakishly long—oh, I'm sorry. I'm rambling, aren't I? Well, anyway, my parents wanted me to be nice, sweet, and perfect. But they also wanted me to stand up for myself. It was…winter. Ohmigosh, this isn't going to be one of those, "My parents locked me out of the house to teach me a lesson!" stories, isn't it? Well, guess what? It is. And, it was snowing. Grr. Very cold.
Narrator POV
They were all in the same room, watching a small TV in the corner apparently running on a thin, fragile wire. Dan threatened to break it, but then Shadow stopped him. There, on the TV, was Sam, talking about her past. The sound wasn't very clear, but they had to make the most of it. When she started talking about the snow, Shadow hatched up a task for Danny.
"…Have you ever been locked out in the cold before, Daniel?"
A/N: Ugh. I kinda rushed a bit while introducing the characters. :/ And I WAS going to make this longer, but I decided not to. Why? Because I'm too darn lazy, ahaha. Next chapter, I'll start on tomorrow. But I can't guarantee that It'll be up tomorrow, though. Deadline? Fine, fine. Wednesday. (: See you later. Or, er…I actually don't know what to put there. Xd Since we can't really seeeach other, but oh well. Xd Bye. See? The 'Xd' thing did it again! Argh! Oh, and 'Shadow' is a 'he'. (: Just like to point that out. And no, not Johnny's Shadow. Pfft. Oh, and longest chapter ever! Hahaha. Six pages. oO
Oh, and an update: No, this story is not yet published while I type this. It's not very important, it has something to do with Math that reminded me of Dan. Okay, well, instead of numbers(you know, like question numbers?), we had letters, and we each took turns solving the letters. I did three. My first was the letter 'D'. So I was like, 'whoa.' My second one was 'E', which totally ruined it. But my last letter was 'N'!! Change that E into an A, and you got Dan. x D So yeah, that's basically it. :/