BVQA: A quick note before we begin:
I am aware that Azure Monarch is a Mary-Sue. . . that's why everyone hates her! She does not, however, notice or care. With that out of the way, sit back and enjoy a story about the true meaning of friendship and wish my pal CashAsh13 a happy birthday!
Picture a normal city block, street lined by brick buildings and trees and even the occasional puppy. One house- the one at the end of the smooth paved road- is less normal than all the others. You would be justified in believing that a UFO was perched on top of it, although the glowing sign reading 'Fenton' would clear things up for you if the jumpsuited parents living within didn't jump you first. There was a scream, then a crash, echoing from within a room at the top of the brick house and spreading through the morning to the edge of the little town. Anyone with keen ears would recognize it as belonging to Danny.
Open the scene on Danny Fenton/Phantom, ghost boy extraordinare and savior of both the ghost zone and the human realm, dressed in black PJ pants and missing his top where it had been shredded in an earlier fight. He was, for once, not fighting ghosts more experienced and powerful than himself. Nor was he fighting ghosts less powerful than himself. He was also not fighting ghosts equal in power to him. In case you're bad at math (like he is), that rules out every ghost in existence. So, he wasn't fighting ghosts. That only rules out about half of his enemies, however, so to clarify I'll also say that he wasn't fighting one of his numerous human enemies either (GIW, Freakshow, etc). This only leaves the other two half ghosts in existence- Vlad and Dani. While Danny was currently fighting off a half ghost, it was not his arch-enemy slash super-fruitloop Vlad Plasmius. Once again, I will clarify for the math-challenged among you. . .
. . .he was wrestling with Dani-with-an-i Fenton/Phantom.
"Get up get up get up get up get up get up get up-" She was commanding in a loud voice. Not quite shouting, but almost there.
"No no no no no no no-" Danny was answering in the same tone. His feet were firmly anchored on one side of the bed, toes curling around the mattress, which was good because Dani was using every ounce of her superhuman strength to try to pry him off. Currently she was only halfway there- his arms, head, and torso were hanging off the side opposite his feet. The hand that Dani wasn't yanking on was scrabbling to find purchase on the covers, but Dani had already thrown them across the room to remove any advantage he'd have.
"Seriously, Danny! There's more trouble than just me if you don't get up soon!" Dani shrieked, finally having crossed the line to yelling. "If you're not out of bed by ten, she is going to come get you out herself!" Dani risked a quick glance at the alarm clock on his bedside table. "We've only got five minutes!"
"But my clock is five minutes slow. . ." Danny mumbled groggily, then froze. "Oh, crud."
He dived off the bed and out of the way a split second before a blue, glowing scythe cleaved through the air where he'd been a second before, ripping through reality and exposing the blue light of the Between, the gap between Danny's world and the Palpable Sentience, the place his visitor was from. In a moment, a pale blue hand slipped through, gripping the edge of the portal and pulling the figure attached to it through.
She made for an odd sight. Her skin, a pale blue that contained a hint of the pearly white in Danny Phantom's hair, lacked the glow that would classify her as a ghost. While her deep blue eyes sometimes glowed when she felt strong emotion, there was nothing ghostly about it. Fangs lurked around the corners of her mouth when she smiled as she was doing now, white in comparison to her dark blue lips (but Danny knew they were definitely blue). Her outfit was a mix of a street urchin from England in the eighteen hundreds and a queen from the same time period - fingerless gloves, pants covered in pockets, a frayed suit's top belted securely with a sapphire-studded chain, and a tiara that somehow was compatible with the deep blue curls that were tied up in ponytails.
"Well, that was fun." She said happily, twirling the scythe between her fingers. It clacked against her long nails, filed to sharp points and painted royal blue. "Ripping through realities is so fun." A moment later she let go of the scythe and it exploded into blue sparks against her palm as she jumped down off the bed to land in front of the two terrified Phantoms. She stretched first one way, then the other, then preformed a triple backflip. Then she stood on her hands and kicked her feet around.
"Are the theatrics really necessary, Azure Monarch?" Dani asked, recovering her nerve first. Azure considered Dani to be one of her close friends, so much so that she's kidnapped Dani several times and forced her to take part in numerous fanfictions. Dani, quite understandably, did not like the little vampire queen.
"Well, no. . ." Azure admitted ruefully (and upside-down). "But I like backflips and handstands and I can't pull them off in the Palpable Sentience. You do have a point though." Azure stood up straight and flopped down on Danny's bed, yanking out a needle and thread and beginning to sew the portal closed. "So the reason I'm here is that one of my very close friends, CashAsh13 or just plain Ashley Nelson, is celebrating their birthday today and I figured, 'what better way to make her happy than throwing a party in another reality'? So, I grabbed my scythe and here I am!"
"And we're supposed to be happy about that?" Danny muttered under his breath. He, too, had been 'borrowed' by Azure many times and was quite the worse for wear. Unfortunately, when he spoke he attracted Azure's attention. This was not a good thing.
"He's not wearing a shirt!" Azure squealed in the pitch of a true Phangirl and immediately glomped Danny.
LINE BREAK
"Alright!" Azure called, having been dragged away from the shirtless Danny after almost fifteen minutes of fighting. She would have lasted longer if Dani hadn't reminded her the reason she was there in the first place, and loyalty to her friend had grudgingly overcome her Phangirl instincts. Danny was staying on the other side of the room from her, however, not fully assured that she wasn't going to jump him. He had related the story to Tucker who, desperate for any attention from a female with a pulse, had plopped down right next to her. Unfortunately for him, Azure was too caught up in preparing for the party by now to pay him any attention.
"First of all, I need two hundred high-speed army planes armed with paint bombs in light green, blue, purple, and black so we can paint the world Ashie's favorite colors! After that, I want Danny to go bother Clockwork so he can make it spring, summer, fall and winter at the same time! Then I want to drain a swimming pool and cook the world's biggest homemade mac 'n cheese (after washing the pool first, obviously) and knock down all the buildings and trees on one side of the world so we can play the biggest game of soccer ever! Then, Danny's going on a date with her and Sam's going to. . . I don't know, hang out in a graveyard with her or something. Whatever Sam does for fun! Now let's get to it, this party isn't going to start itself!" Azure turned to the others, beaming, ready to hear deafening cheers. She got an awkward silence.
Danny cleared his throat and tried to chance the course of the conversation. "Um, how about we pick up a few streamers in her favorite colors, leave the seasons as-is, make a regular-sized dish of mac 'n cheese, play soccer in the backyard-"
"And leave my Danny alone!" Sam shouted, then noticed everyone staring at her and hastened to add, "Because if Ash gets to hang out with him then she'll be after me next."
Azure crossed her arms. "I don't wanna do something lame! I wanna throw my friend the best party ever!"
"But-" Dani began.
"Ever!" Azure repeated, then grabbed Sam and Tucker by the wrists and dragged them towards the door. "Tucker! Go work on the giant mac 'n cheese! Sam, we're going to the army base to but some supersonic jets!"
"But-" Sam, this time.
"Now!" Azure yelled, sticking her hand out in front of her. The blue sparks shimmered to life in her palm and a second later the scythe coalesced into solid form and she sliced it in an arc parallel to the ground. It opened up a portal to a ginormous swimming pool and Azure beamed at Tucker. "Go on!"
"But-" Tucker's turn to protest. He was probably going to follow the statement with something like, 'I don't know how to make mac 'n cheese', but Azure silenced him by kissing him on the cheek, quick but sweet, and giving him a gentle push towards the entrance to the portal. He blushed, stuttered a couple times, then stepped through the portal and pulled it closed behind him like a door.
"He can do that?" Azure asked quietly. "And I've been spending all this time sewing them up. . !" Without further ado, she yanked open a second hole in reality and jumped through, pulling Sam with her. "Top-secret military base, here I come!" She yelled. Danny and Dani had just breathed identical sighs of relief when Azure's head popped back through the portal. "Oh, and go bother Clockwork for me, will ya?" She asked, then slammed the portal closed.
Silence descended over the Fenton's living room.
"I don't know about you, but I really hate her." Dani said quietly. Danny nodded in agreement.
"Let's take a rain check on bothering Clockwork and sabotage Azure's trip to the military base instead." Danny suggested. Dani gave a quiet chuckle.
"I doubt we even need to try. After all, who's going to give two-hundred planes to that loon?"
"She may be a loon, but she's a loon with magical reality-ripping abilities, fangs, ninja vampires, her own freaking kingdom, and a craving for A positive. I think it'll be hard to say no to her without our help."
"Well, what are we waiting for?" Dani asked, grabbing her 'cousin's' hand and pulling him towards the place where the portal had been a moment before. She slipped into invisibility and Danny followed a second later, instinctively. Dani reached for the small flap of reality that was still loose and gave it a rough tug outwards. Immediately, a revolving door was picked out in glowing blue against the air. ". . . why a revolving door?" Dani asked quietly. "Wasn't this just a normal door?"
"We probably don't want to know." Danny replied, then jumped between the spinning bits of reality with Dani close behind. After they exited, they stared at the door for a moment, wondering how to close it.
"You can't slam a revolving door, you know." Dani told Danny. He nodded.
"Let's just leave it." He decided, then turned around. . .
. . .and gasped. The base was all steel and locks and blinky dials, with sensors every two feet to tell the people in charge if anyone so much as sneezed in the wrong place. A plaque on the wall proudly stated that the base was a semi-finalist in the safest-room-in-the-world competition. However, for one of the most secure places in the world, the military base was not very ghost (or vampire) proof. Danny and Dani took only five or so invisible steps before they saw, around the corner, a very annoyed Azure arguing with two military people (still yanking Sam around by the wrist). As luck would have it, one was a boy and one a girl, so neither Danny nor Dani had to feel awkward about stepping over and overshadowing them.
"But why can't I have the two-hundred planes? It's not fair!" Azure was shouting.
"You're too young." Danny replied smoothly.
"No I'm not!" Azure yelled back.
"Yeah, you are." Dani said.
"No, I'm-"
"Fine." Danny said. Dani looked at him like he was insane. "Because I like you, I'll let this one slide. But," Danny continued, "There is one restriction. You have to wear the pink captain's uniform we have over here."
Azure's eye twitched. "Pink?" She whispered.
Dani, catching on, nodded vigorously. "With little bows and things. And sparkles!"
"Vampires do not sparkle!" Azure snapped, enraged. "I don't even want your stupid planes! Sam, we're leaving!"
Sam didn't reply, and Danny saw that the reason for this was that Azure had duct-taped her mouth shut and drawn a smile on it so that it looked like Sam was happy to be there. Similarly, the reason Sam hadn't run away yet probably had to do with the fact that her feet and hands were duct taped to her body.
"The second we get back," Dani whispered to Danny, "We need to rescue Sam."
"But she looks so happy!" Danny replied, and he and Dani couldn't resist a chuckle. They slipped out of their borrowed bodies and raced for the revolving-door portal, crashing back onto the couch at Fentonworks just as Azure ripped a portal back through.
"Argh!" Azure screamed, flopping down on the couch next to them. "The military people were. . . and so. . . just. . . gah!" Azure's gaze shifted to the window. "I'm assuming Clockwork said no as well?"
"Well, you know Clockwork." Danny said, carefully avoiding actually answering the question. What happened next shocked everyone in the room- steadfast Danny, energetic Danielle, and duct-taped Sam.
Azure burst into tears.
"Everything's ruined!" She bawled, unnaturally blue tears streaming down her face. "I just wanted to throw a party for my friend Ash and now look! This is horrible! She'll never talk to me again!"
Danny glanced around the room, avoiding the sight of the sobbing vampire queen, then accepted his fate and patted her on the back.
"It's ok." He tried to cheer her up. "If this Ash person is really your friend, then she'll be fine with a small party. That's what friendship really means, after all."
"Really?" Azure asked.
"Sure." Danny said. "If you're really friends, she won't care if all you do is toss up a few streamers and play soccer as long as it's with you. That's the true meaning of friendship!"
It was all wrapping up as if the story might really have a moral to it after all. Azure called her friend Ash (who turned out to be a werewolf, but that's another story), and they both helped decorate Danny's bedroom and played a few games of soccer out in the backyard. Azure was terrible at the game- she refused to take off her five-inch-platform blue combat boots- and she wiped out ten or so times, but she and Ash laughed it off as they teamed up with Sam against Danny and Dani. They ended in a tie and Danny even gave Ash a quick kiss on the forehead. They all were about to wander off into the sunset when Tucker poked his head out of the portal they'd dumped him in and announced that the giant mac 'n cheese was ready.
So, what's the moral to this story?
Friendship is more powerful than a fleet of paintbomb-armed airplanes, a day for all seasons, or even a hemisphere-wide game of soccer.
But at the end of the day, nothing is better than digging into an olympic-swimming-pool-sized homemade mac 'n' cheese with a good friend.
The End
BVQA: And now, the moment you've all been waiting for. . .
Danny: Happy birthday to you. . .
Sam: Happy birthday to you. . .
Dani, Tucker, and Jazz: Happy birthday dear CashAsh13. . .
BVQA: Happy birthday to you!