The only sound in the room was the gentle scratching of pencils and the silent whispered prayers to the gods of math tests for the right answers. One student in particular was about three seconds away from offering up a human sacrifice to ancient deity of bubble sheets for a passing grade, a student called Danny Fenton. His hand quickly passed through his messy black hair as he tried to decipher the problem that he had been stuck on for the last ten minutes. Half remembered formulas and equations zipped around in the periphery of his mind. Danny growled in a low voice, "Why do letters have to be in math at all…"
"I feel you buddy." Tucker said from across the isle.
Danny took a quick look at his friend's paper only to see that he was having just as much trouble with the pop quiz that Lancer had sprung on them as he was. "Lancers just subbing this class," Danny whispered to Tucker "Is he even allowed too give a pop quiz?"
Danny waited for Tucker's answer when a shadow seemed to fall over him. Turning around he saw his English teacher haloed in white fluorescent light. "Is there a problem Mr. Fenton, Mr. Foley?"
"No sir!" Tucker and Danny said in unison.
"Very well," he said as he nodded "You both have ten more minutes, use them wisely."
Both of the young men quickly returned to their tests sweating enough bullets to win a world war. Danny scanned the problem again with desperation, he just didn't know it.
A small cough came from in front of him looking up he saw a mass of shiny black hair complete with a small ponytail on the top. A small flash of movement caught Danny's eye. Looking down he saw that Sam had pushed her answer slip out so he could read it, there was even a small pencil circle around the answer to the question he was struggling with .
"The answer is C…" he said as he filled in the dot on his answer sheet. "Thanks Sam." He whispered.
A few minutes later Danny handed his finished test to Mr. Lancer at the front of the class, "Thank you Mr. Fenton, you can…" Lancer cocked his head as if trying to discern an odd noise. Turning around Danny say that the rest of the class seemed to be hearing it too. "What on earth?" Lancer asked as he headed towards the door.
Cracking it open the odd sound became clear, it was screams of fear. Lancer quietly closed the door, turned around, leaned against the door "For the love of The Prince and the Pauper they don't pay me enough to put up with this." He cleared his throat "Hem, children you may all want to commence…" jumping out his seat he finished "RUNNING FOR YOUR LIVES!" With this he ran over to the windows, threw one open and jumped out onto the front lawn of Amity High.
Wasting no time the entire class leapt out of their seats and followed their teacher's shining example, except for two students, "Sam," Danny asked while looking around "Where's Tucker?"
Sam nodded towards the window "I'd say at the speed he was traveling, roughly three blocks away by now."
Danny chuckled "Wow, he's getting faster." He turned to face Sam with a stern expression "Seriously though you should get going, I've never seen Lancer freak out like that."
"Kay," she said "meet up at the Nasty Burger after?"
"You bet." he replied.
Sam, going to the window, turned for an instant and said "Be careful." Danny nodded and she was gone.
"Well…" Danny said to no one as he changed into his ghost form "Let's see who we've got today…" Just as he was about to phase through the door it was blown off his hinges knocking him back into the teacher's desk.
Danny shook his head and looked up. Through the smoke that was billowing in from the hallway three figures emerged. A familiar voice with penetrated the room "I think we found him boys!" out of the haze stepped Walker with two of his ghostly guards. "Remember your orders." He told his spectral entourage "Bring him in, dead or alive." And with a snap of his fingers the guards aimed their weapons and fired.
Going intangible the green beams of energy passed harmlessly through Danny leaving several scorch marks on the wall behind him and a few broken windows. "You've got to teach your goons to aim Walker, the school's repair costs are high enough already." He quipped as he flew towards the ghostly battalion.
Grabbing the closest ghost by the collar he quickly spun around and launched it into its comrades scattering them like bowling pins. The small victory was short lived as more ghostly troops glided into the room. "Getting a little cramped in here…" He mumbled as the enemy count ticked past the double digits.
Opting for an escape route he turned and shot off through the scorched wall into the open air of Casper High's front lawn.
"Follow him!" Walker said as his troops took off in hot pursuit "We can't let him get away." He said to a now empty room. Unconsciously his hand slid to a small metal band on his wrist "Can't…"
Cutting through the air away from the school Danny looked back to see at least twenty of Walker's guards speeding after him. Scanning the ground below him he saw Amity Park off to his right. Dropping altitude he began to zigzag through the trees to avoid the shots being lobed at him from behind. Saplings exploded and limbs were blown off closer and closer to Danny as the ghosts zeroed in on him with their weapons, These were not the capture rods that Walker's goons usually used, if he got hit it was going to hurt, bad.
Finally coming to the tree he was looking for he phased through the trunk and came out the other side holding a Fenton Thermos. His pursuers came to an abrupt halt as their eyes widened in terror at the all too familiar object. With a small wave and a smile. Danny pressed the button on the side of the small cylinder activating the device causing his twenty or so problems to be whisked away into an easy to carry thermos. Turning his hand intangible he placed the thermos back into the hollow he carved in the tree. Taking off quickly to meet his friends he didn't see the guard he had missed hiding in the bushes, nor did he hear the small whisper into a head set that said "Plan B."
Almost instantaneously a harsh voice crackled into the ear piece "NO! You fools had your chance, now it's my turn!" as the voice clicked off a band of metal identical to the one on Walker's wrist began to emanate a harsh red light. As soon as the illumination touched the ghostly subordinate he began to writhe in pain, then all of a sudden there was a blinding flash. As the light subsided all that could be seen was the slightly warm and smoking metal circlet, which a few moments later fell into a pile of dust.
From the air Danny was able to spot his friends by Tucker's bright red cap, he slowly spiraled down to a collection of dumpsters behind the Nasty Burger. Taking a quick peek up and down the alley to make sure he was alone he quickly shed his ghostly form. Walking around the corner he raised his hand in greeting to his friends and was promptly thrown through the air by what felt like a pillow welded by the incredible hulk. Hitting the garbage cans that he just came out from behind in a tangle of limbs Danny attempted to gain some kind of grasp on what the hell had just happened. Picking a Nasty Dog wrapper off his face he look at the spot he was standing a few moments before, there was a three foot crater about a foot from where he had been standing. The impact had just been the concussive force of that explosion. Danny gulped realizing how close he had just come being killed.
"Hmm… I guess my aim is a little rusty…" a voice rasped above him.
Quickly looking above him Danny was confronted with a floating specter clad entirely in a black robe. A black so deep that it seemed to draw the very light out of the air around him giving the impression that he was wreathed either by a dark smoke or pure shadow, the only feature that was evident were his burring red eyes.
Danny was able to take all of this in roughly a second which was fortunate because if he had waited a moment longer the second shot the mysterious ghost lobbed at his head would have taken it clean off his shoulders. He quickly dropped and rolled to his left missing the edge of the beam by inches. The blast took the corner off of a clothing shop adjacent to the Nasty Burger. The edge was as clean, as if sliced by a blade.
Rolling to his feet he summoned his ghostly powers causing the halos of light to ring him and bring forth Danny Phantom. Danny quickly flew around his hooded opponent, took aim and retaliated with a shot of his own. The shaft of energy hit the opposing ghost dead between the shoulder blades leavening a dark, smoking spot that only led to the ghost's infuriation.
Danny's opponent whipped around and stared at Danny with a look that could kill "Insolent child!" he spat do you think that your power can stand against those of the all powerful Reaper!" Reaching behind his back Reaper pulled out a scythe.
Danny was struck dumb by the visage in front of him. Even if this ghost was a pretender to his title the overall effect was still intimidating. This hesitation was fatal.
Reaper blitzed forward leading with the butt of his weapon, his speed was such that Danny was not even sure what had happened until he looked at his stomach and saw the blunt tip being driven into his gut. The strike knocked all the air out of Danny leaving his helpless. Reaper grabbed Danny by the thought and let out a small grunt of effort and then a sigh of relief.
Danny felt a cold deep inside him, slowly leaching away what little strength he had left The small halos of white light appeared and quickly receded, revealing his soft vulnerable human skin. "What did you do?" Danny asked now returned to his human state.
The ghost let out a small snicker "Wouldn't you like to know." Then slowly rising in altitude he started to laugh, a maniacal laugh that showed this spirit was beyond any reasoning what so ever.
Then once the ghost had reached an altitude of about thirty stories high looked down at the helpless boy in his hands and whispered "Good bye Danny Fenton." Then let go and let the boy fall.
Danny fell for what felt like an eternity an even when his body hit the ground Danny just kept on falling…
Sam silently watched from a bush as Danny fought against the shrouded ghost. "Go Danny, get him…" she whispered to her self, silently egging her friend on.
She heard a twig snap behind her. She quickly tensed her muscles, ready to run from any unseen attacker. Out of the bushes came a red hat with another of Danny's friends attached to it.
"Tucker, dam it! Don't sneak up on me like that!" she hissed.
"Chill Sam, God you got to relax." He said putting up his hands defensively. "So how's our boy doing?"
Looking away from tucker she saw that the ghost and Danny seemed to be exchanging some kind of banter. 'Probably the ghost saying some lame pun then Danny shooting back one of his' she thought sarcastically.
Sam then noticed that something was wrong; Danny had stopped moving and was just staring at the ghost in shock. "Danny?" she quietly asked.
Tucker looked worried "What's wrong with him?" a small quaver in his voice. Then the ghost rushed at Danny slamming him in the gut with the butt of his scythe then grabbed his neck in a vice like grip, and lifted him up into the sky.
All was quiet for a moment, then there was a drawn out scream and Danny's two friends saw him fall and then it the ground with a sickening "THUD!" Sam gasped and rushed forward to her fallen friend.
Tucker slowly crept out of his hiding place and softly asked "Is he all right?" He got no answer except Sam's soft sobs. Then walking across the pavement to where his friend had fallen he saw Danny was no longer with the living. A small tear of blood ran down Danny's face and Tucker sank down to his knees and joined his friend in sorrow…
Danny awoke in a familiar place, one though that he wished he had never known. He was in the swirling abyss of the ghost zone. "How did I get here?" he wondered aloud. He looked down at his body and saw that he was in his ghost form. "How in the world?"
Thinking back he remembered something had happened that had caused him to lose his powers, what though he had trouble remembering. The last thing he could recall was a long fall then…
He started to draw deep ragged breaths but then realized he couldn't. He went into a panic, his mind screaming at him this can't be real. 'It must be a dream,' he thought 'That's it the ghost knocked me out and I'm dreaming' Danny tried to ghost out only to find he couldn't.
Looking for one last piece of evidence proving him to be alivehe felt his chest for the familiar beating of his heart only to find he had none. It hit him like a hammer, he hadn't survived…
It was a somber day. Almost every person Danny had ever known had shown up, friends and enemies alike. One by one they passed by Danny's coffin all then turning towards the on stage microphone to say a few words of about the dearly departed.
First up was Jazz who solemnly told the other mourners about how great of a brother he had been in life and all the things she felt were left unsaid between them, then broke down in tears and had to leave the podium.
Then Jack and Maddy came to the stage. They had both abandoned their jumpsuits in light of the funeral for more appropriate dress, Jack in a black tuxedo and Maddy in a black mourning dress with a black lace veil. Jack had to say the entire sermon himself because his wife couldn't stop crying long enough to say anything coherent. And so went the rest of mourners all saying how great of a person he was and how they were sorry that they only realized tin once Danny was dead.
All the people slowly filed out of the hall fallowing the pallbearers to the grave site. The coffin was slowly lowered into the ground then covered with earth. The proper blessings were ordained by the priest and the mourners all slowly went to the Fenton's house.
Sam and Tucker remained a little longer staring at the inscription on Danny's grave stone. "Danny Fenton cruelly snatched away from his loved ones at such a tender age. April, 4, 1990-November, 5, 2005" The two sorrow stricken teens slowly started to walk away to find there parents. Sam glanced back one last time to look at her lost friend and thought she saw the dark outline of a person. She stopped and turned around only to see the figure disappear like he was made of nothing more than mist.
Tucker turned his head "Sam are you coming?"
"Ya just give me a sec." she went back to where she saw the figure only to find what she expected nothing. Then as she turned to go something caught her eye on the grave. Sitting on the mound of freshly dug earth sat a single, deep blue rose. Sam picked it up and took a deep smell of the fragrant flower.
"Sam hurry up!" Tucker yelled from the parking lot. Sam hiked up her dress and sprinted to the waiting car.