He stared at the horrific scene before him, shock leaping up inside him, as the hanging image of Mr Lancer swung gasping and terrified like a fish out of water with a gleaming blade pressed to his neck, held up in the grip of Vlad.
He'd dealt with ghost attacks before, but they'd been simple, they'd been easy, he'd been the main target, there was no focus on a hostage, no focus on his weakness; no that was a human tactic, and ghosts weren't human- but Vlad was, of course he was, and that was the reason why the class sat frozen and terrified in their seats as blood slowly stained the steel that seemed to light the room with its deadly gleam.
"So, Daniel, do you now see? See why you'd make a pointless king? Why your weak, spineless self could never rule the ghost zone?!" The words were spat at him, malice curling in the voice of the only person Danny could relate to.
He shook his head, too terrified to speak, his entire form frozen in fear of the knife slipping into Lancer's neck, and yet some small part of him wondered what it looked like, a skull severed of its body, of blood- oh he knew how his blood looked, green with red flecks, but human blood had long slipped his memory- red human blood pouring from the wound in a fruitless effort to repair the wound, and; Danny shook his head to try and clear it of those thoughts.
Vlad took the gesture as a no, and grinned maliciously, those fangs bared as the knife slipped deeper into the skin that lay weakly over the delicate artery.
"The ghost zone needs a ruler who can rule it! I'm hardly the worst you'd see, hardly the evil that lives within. You think I'm bad?! Wait until they come for you, to take over the ghost zone."
No, no, no, this wasn't true- but it was. A buzzing began to fill his head.
"No…." Danny spluttered.
Vlad grinned. He raised the knife, swinging it to point at Danny's exposed heart, and laughed.
"Now my boy, there's a choice here. Let me kill you, or let me kill everyone in this class one by one."
Danny shivered, and then gasped as a thousand volts of electricity arced through his body from the tiny nick in his chest, pulling away. The buzzing grew louder, and spots began to dance behind his eyes.
"No no, Daniel, that's not how we play this game! Either sacrifice yourself, or…"
The knife dug deeper and Lancer gasped, terrified.
Danny shook his head again, his voice vanished by fear, and Vlad's grin contorted into a grimace.
"Fine then, I'll have to make an example. Say goodbye to your useless teacher, kids."
The blade shone as it swung round, round, aiming straight at Mr Lancer's chest, and Danny screamed as the buzzing inside him grew into a burst of pure energy, arcing out, lashing out, the pain behind his eyes growing as his vision was obscured by brightness and yet the pain seemed to twist into pleasure as he felt the full extent of his abilities pour from him, and a low humming rang through his ears as a warmth flooded into him. He couldn't hear the screams of the class, couldn't hear the clatter of the knife hitting the floor, couldn't hear the crashes of glass shattering as the lights exploded; everything was miniscule compared to the delicious pleasure coursing through him, the sheer exhilarating power of thousands of volts racing through his veins; he wanted more, more, and the humming grew louder and he moaned with the beauty of it and then…
The sound of Mr Lancer's flabby body hitting the tiles pierced through the pleasure like a needle into a balloon and Danny gasped as the humming vanished and the spots cleared from his vision. His eyes darted to the source of his awakening, of Mr Lancer lying there with blood dripping from the superficial wound to his neck as he gaped at Danny in shock, but then his attention went to the other body on the floor. Vlad looked weak, pitiful, his skin dried and crinkled, his eyes sunken as he gasped sharply, looking as if he'd aged a thousand years as the ghost lay upon Lancer's desk, and even as Danny watched the humming returned, weaker this time, and tremors shook Vlad's crumpled body as he grew older in front of Danny's eyes.
"Please… no..."
He cried out weakly, but it was too late. The humming grew weaker and weaker as the once terrifying ghost crumpled, and a flash of light lit the room as Masters' body slid off the desk, the skin paper thin and clinging to wasting bones, the eye sockets empty and unblinking- of course they were, there were no eyes to blink with as empty sockets stared into the class, pale white goop slowly dripping from the gaping holes, and as the humming finally faded along with the last vestiges of pleasure the skin crumbled and the skeleton that was once Vlad Masters now lay there.
Danny collapsed, the sounds of screaming, of Lancer's gasps and the sound of his best friends yelling his name dulled as he stared at his hands, the weight of the ring seeming to weigh him down, and a question rung in his mind: how?
A long forgotten biology lesson suddenly came to the forefront of his mind, of how the human body ran entirely on electric nerve impulses, of how without the energy to power them the cells would die, and even as Danny put the pieces together his core buzzed and sparks jumped from his fingers, fizzing out on the floor as danny finally realized exactly what his new powers could do.
"You're a monster…. You're worst then anything you've fought… you're no hero anymore"
His dry whispers sounded deafening to him.
Thoughts raced through his mind and he groaned in pain, doubling over, his eyes briefly closing as he realized what he'd become. A monster.
A heavy weight seemed to sink from his buzzing core into this feet, and his legs suddenly felt.. different. Unwilling eyes opened to see his ghostly tail coiling around him- except it wasn't as he knew it. Rather than being weightless, intangible, it was scraping along the tiles. Scales ran over muscle and bones, the heavy weight almost eerily familiar to him. He reached out to touch it but his hands stole his attention as he gasped, seeing the ends of his white gloves torn apart by sickle-like claws arcing from where fingernails should be, the dammed ring glittering darkly in the barely lit room. His gaze wandered, traveled up to meet the eyes of the suddenly silent class, and as his eyes met Tucker and Sam's he saw himself reflected in them. Instead of a face a sharp fanged snarling skull floated wrapped in a thin layer of translucent skin glared from their pupils. Glowing green slit pupiled eyes sat in eye sockets lit by sickly green, and pure white hair sparked, buzzing electrically.
It was a monster reflected in his friend's eyes, because it was a monster Danny had become, and as Phantom slowly rose the remaining emergency lights flickered, glowing bright before the bulbs exploded.
Phantom looked around at the class now lit only by his own green light, and a single word drifted to his mind as their terrified gazes met his.
'Monster'
The Ghost King shivered, sparks running through him and scattering across the floor.
He looked at Vlad's corpse, and hissed out a few words,
"Guess I'm not as spineless as you thought…"
A burst of lightening crumbled the bones and Phantom looked at his two best friends for the last time,
"I can't play the hero anymore…"
He vanished, leaving behind a darkened room with trails of sickly green blood mixing with red, glittering with broken glass.
