Chapter One: The Witching Hour!
The smoke billowed out of the former Guys in White regional headquarters. The sound of falling rubble and further fighting inside the building resonated to the outside. The acrid stanch of ozone and burning flesh filled the air. All of these little details tied one of the scenes that would be burned into Danny Fenton (aka Danny Phantom)'s memory…his first encounter with the psychopathic villainess; La Bruja!
La Bruja had her hand firmly around Danny's neck, not enough so he could not breathe but enough that he could not breathe comfortably. Danny had already tried to free himself with his intangibility, but received a violent shock for it. So Danny simply waited for the inevitable monologue he had grown used to hearing from his enemies (especially Technus). But so far La Bruja had only raked her eyes over him, like a scientist studying a specimen or a jeweler eyeing the quality of a gem.
Suddenly, La Bruja closed her eyes and took a deep breath through her nose; getting a good whiff of the surrounding. "Aaaahh!" sighed La Bruja as if smelling a wonderfully pleasant smell in the air, before continuing her thought, "I just love the smell of a battlefield! Most people find it horrid or unnatural, but I find that the smell tells you everything about the human race. Their infinite capacity for destruction, both self and total…The inhumanity to their fellow man…Truly a remarkable and wonderful aspect of humanity!"
Danny only raised his eyebrow in skepticism before he replied, "Wow…I have met some really crazies in the last year or so, but you really earn the title of crazed-up fruit-loop and I usually only say that about one other guy I know!"(1)
"Hehehe. I'm sure Vlad will be quite glad to hear that. It's not easy being alone in this world." said La Bruja after lightly laughing. Noticing Danny's confused demeanor, La Bruja explained, "Oh yes, I know everything! Your secrets, his secrets. It wasn't that hard to figure out. I mean…Danny Fenton, Danny Phantom! If I, a complete stranger, can figure it out, why can't your scientist/ghost expert parents!"
Relishing in Danny's horrified expression, La Bruja decided to drive the point home, "Oh, don't worry, I have no interest in revealing your identity to anyone! I've got big plans for Amity Park, and I want you there to see every second of it!" With that last exclamation, La Bruja threw Danny Phantom onto the ground with enough force to crack the pavement! Dazed and in pain, Danny could only lie on the ground as La Bruja got back in her gunship and her men rushed into their vans with all the loot they could and flew or drove off respectively.
Standing up a few seconds later, Danny caught the sound of emergency sirens over the sound of his pounding head. Checking his headset, which had been smashed up sometime in the middle of the fight, Danny raced off back to his home, deciding he would not be able to explain himself to the authorities. It did not take him long to notice the bright 'FentonWorks' sign over his house along with the command center his parents had built. Stealthily, Danny Phantom flew into his open bedroom window and changed back into Danny Fenton!
The first thing Danny was aware of was the blinding pain of his injuries! Nothing seemed to be broken, thankfully, but he definitely felt bruises. He knew he should probably contact Tucker to tell him he was alright, but the bed was just calling to Danny right now. Not even changing into a pair of pajamas, Danny feel into his bed and passed into dreamless slumber, with his digital clock reading: 1:30 am…
The Next Morning…
The beeping of his alarm clock was the first thing Danny was conscious of when the morning came. The second thing was the sound of his sister, Jasmine Fenton, pounding on his bedroom door trying to get him ready for school: "Danny! Wake-up! You can't be late for school…again!" exclaimed his sister from beyond the door.
Danny groaned as he got up from his bed, both from being tired and the aches from last night's… Well, Danny wasn't sure what to call it because it was too one-sided to be a real fight! Changing into a new set of clothes, Danny looked at the clock which was reading: 7:30 am. Whelp, six hours of sleep will have to do! thought Danny as he made his way downstairs.
Reaching the kitchen, Danny spotted his parents, working on some new invention. There was Jack Fenton, a lovable, giant-sized man in an orange hazmat suit, and Maddie Fenton, a statuesque woman about a head short of her husband in a blue hazmat suit with a hood and red goggles. Between the two of them, they were the greatest experts on ghostly phenomenon in the world…well the 'human' one anyway! Of course, it was only recently that anyone paid any attention to what they had to say on ghosts, which truthfully was not a good thing for Danny because it was mostly negative.
"Hey Danny! Come check what you mother and I have been working on!" exclaimed Jack Fenton dramatically. Despite his scientific background, Jack always came across more as…a bit of an oaf or a big kid. He tended to blunder about, was a bad shot, and not think before doing something. Seemingly bad traits for a ghost hunter, he still was capable, with the help of his wife, come up with new and inventive ways of catching ghosts, so Danny paid close attention to the demonstrations.
The invention being demonstrated this morning, at first, looked like a generic ghost weapon, a long silver tube with green highlights and gun stock with a trigger. What made this one slightly different was that it had a small focusing dish at the end of the barrel with what looked like a tuning fork at the center of the dish. It wasn't until the more technical adept of the duo, i.e. Maddie Fenton, began her explanation that the purpose of the invention became clear:
"As I'm sure you remember from our previous lectures involving ghostly anatomy, a ghost mostly free floating ectoplasm that has been able to project a stable energy field to give it form. This also gives the ghost more fluidity in its form while allowing the entity to put itself out of phase with our reality, thus becoming intangible. This device uses sonic vibration to disrupt the field that keeps the specter together. This will not only allow us to capture ghosts easier and making examinations simpler…"
"I call it…the Fenton Family Fiend Field Disruptor! Or 4F, for short!" declared Jack proudly, excited to get his invention.
Danny could not help but look worried, which prompted him to ask, "Okay just two questions: 1. Is it permanent? And 2. Does it hurt?"
Jack took a moment to think before answering with a smile, "'No' for the first question and 'I hope so' for the second one!" You see one thing that makes Danny anxious about telling his family about his…'alternate persona'…was that fact that his parents had a rampant phobia of ghost! Okay, not fear exactly, but a certain eagerness to quote 'rip ghosts apart, molecule by molecule' unquote. He really should probably ask them about where that obsession comes from!(2)
Speaking of psychological issues…here come Jasmine 'Jazz' Fenton! Sporting the long red hair and blues of her mother Maddie (which was not seen earlier because of the hood), Jazz had always been the most level-headed of the otherwise wacky family! Majoring in psychology, Jazz always looked down on the ghost hunting her parents…that is until she learned about Danny's secret ghost half! Now she served as one of the people Danny came to when his superhero life was getting him down.
"Mom! Dad! What did I say about bring your work to the kitchen!" exclaimed Jazz, sounding almost like a disappointed mother. Yeah, Jazz forced herself to grow-up because of the 'immaturity' of her parents, mostly Jack. Of course she was also concerned that the invention might inadvertently harm Danny!
"Relax Jazzy-pants! Just need to fine-tune this baby before we take it down to the lab to charge-up! Boy I can't wait to see this thing in action!" exclaimed Jack, sounding like an excited teen working on his hot-rod.
"Now Jack remember…we need to find the frequency before we can use this on any ghost." consoled Maddie, knowing her husband would be disappointed he'd have to wait more. She was proven right by the disgruntled look on poor Jack Fenton's face.
"Frequency?" asked Danny, hoping this new info could provide some way for him to avoid the new 4F.
This time it was Jack who provided the answer to the question, "You remember those scanners your mother and I added to the headsets?" Danny and Jazz responded by nodding their heads prompting Jack to continue, "Well, scans of several ghosts we've encountered shows that the field used to keep a ghost together varies, meaning there's a unique signature with each one. So, we have to set the 4F for a particular ghost we want to fight. Thankfully the archive keeps a record of all the ghosts we've encountered and scanned…including that Phantom kid!"
Danny flinch slightly at Jack's change of tone, though only Jazz was aware of it. Danny's parents did not know about his half-ghost nature, meaning his parents inadvertently have been hunting him as fanatically as any other ghost. Danny still had nightmares of what might happen if he was ever caught or if his parents figured out his secret identity. Jazz had been very helpful in keeping his parent unaware of this fact for some time. It also helped that his parents found the idea of a 'half-ghost' to not only be impossible, but patently ridiculous!
In the living room, the emergency broadcast tones sounded from the TV room!(3) Quickly, the Fenton family raced to the living room, wishing to see what the broadcast was about. Almost immediately after they arrived, Tiffany Snow, lead reporter for the Channel Eight News, appeared on screen, out in the field, rather than in the news office as she normally was found, right outside the shattered entrance to the regional Guys in White headquarters. Given the signal to begin from the camera man, Tiffany began her on the scene report:
"Hi, I'm Tiffany Snow, standing outside the regional headquarters for the Guys in White, the elite government ghosting fighting agency, which has just come under vicious attack! Last night, while the residents of Amity Park were asleep, the regional HQ came under attack by persons or phantasm unknown! With me now are two operatives who work out of said offices…gentlemen, do you have any leads as to who or what was responsible?"
The two operatives in question were actually ones Danny had become quite familiar with! They were both bald, one African American, the other Caucasian, and they both wore the blindingly white outfits that were standard for the government agency. It was Operatives O and K!(4) It was Operative O who answered Tiffany's question, "As of this moment, we are still accumulating testimony and evidence, but we do have a solid lead that the enmity known as 'Danny Phantom' may have had some involvement."
"What evidence leads you to this conclusion?" asked Tiffany, sensing a possible scandal (either for the Guys in White or Danny Phantom) and a career boosting story unfolding.
Operative K led Tiffany and her camera man over to a specific location while explaining, "Partly it comes from what our ecto-sensors recorded during the attack, but our biggest proof come from…this!" As he finished his explanation, Operative K indicated…the impression Danny made in the pavement during the fight! There was even a strip of his suit caught in one of the cracks.
"This seems rather circumstantial. From what we have seen previously, isn't it also possible that Danny Phantom was helping your organization to fight off the attackers?" Tiffany Snow suggested, mostly to seem impartial in case the Guys in White were proven wrong.
"Given the lack of an evidence of another…we can only…ongoing investigation." stated Operative O, though the TV static was causing every other word to be lost.
"It seems…having technical difficult…please stand-" Tiffany suggested to the audience before the screen became covered in static. It seemed that the problem was on the networks end. This gave the family a chance to discuss what they had just seen…
"I told ya he was no good! Danny Phantom is going down!" Or in the case of Jack Fenton, to get a chance to gloat about being right. Jack had always been a fan of the Guys in White, even though the feeling of respect was not mutual. The fact that the Guys in White now had more reason to hunt down Phantom could only be a good thing in Jack's mind!
"Dad! Tiffany's right, the evidence is circumstantial!" defend Jazz, unknown to her parents defending her brother specifically. Just as Maddie was about to rebuttal, a tone came from the TV. The static instantly went back to normal, only it did not return to Tiffany. Rather the woman who appeared on the screen, was the really attacker of the GIW headquarters…La Bruja! Seeing that her signal was broadcasting, La Bruja began her 'announcement':
"Hola, Amity Park! It me…La Bruja! Here to bring you the first of many…Bruja Broadcasts! Now I know what you all maybe wondering…what's such a fabulous felina doing gracing us with her presences. Well first and foremost, I'd like to make a comment on the recent attack on the Guys in White (seriously, that is such a horroso name) regional headquarters. And now here's my comment: I DID IT! I DID IT! I…DID…IT!
"That's right, you pea-brained idiotas! I am the one who attacked the Guys in White! If they tell you any different, well their just talking out of their culos! For those of you who need more…hard evidence…I videotape the WHOLE THING and I'm streaming it to you LIVE!"
With that, static appeared again only to be quickly be replaced by footage of the previous night's battle! It looked like it was coming from one of the black cladded soldiers Danny saw, possibly a helmet cam. La Bruja took this moment to comment on the footage, "Okay, so we see my guys versus your Guys. Just the usually volley fire from cover. Nothing interesting so far. Oh but what's ttthhhiiisss…"
At the end of the drawn out word, the camera shifted to reveal…the black gunship! "And there she is…my Butcherbird! I manage to by an old Hind gunship on the Russian black market. You can buy anything there…guns, bombs, tanks, jets, a slave-girl…anything! Anyway, I upgraded with some more modern equipment and give it a good paint job. I'm the one flying…you'll get a shot of me waving to the camera from the cockpit...right…there!"
As the gunship approached you could barely see someone waving from the cockpit. Then the gunship settled over the camera man's head and so he turned back towards the Guys in White defense line. Then we see…the gunship opening up on them! "And now we get to the good part! Look at that…pew pew…one after the other like a video game. Oh, here we see the famous Danny Phantom as he ineffectually tries to stop me!"
Indeed we do see Danny attacking the gunship, though an energy shield blocks him. "And…now we see the shutters close. And their probably thinking, 'oh phew we're so safe now!' Well they're about to be proven wrong!"
And the scene shifts to the missile being fired at the building, Danny failing to stop it, and the front of the building gets blown open. "BOOM! Didn't see that coming did ya?! But wait folks…it ain't over yet!"
The scene now shifts to Danny's encounter with La Bruja, ending with her driving Danny into the pavement. "HA! Let's see him fly away from that! So there you have it folks, my first big night on the town in Amity Park! Oh don't worry though…there is so much more to come! This La Bruja, Mistress of Evil…signing off!"
The static return, only to quickly return to Tiffany Snow in the field. It was obvious that she and the Guys in White had somehow heard the Bruja Broadcast, from the shock looks on their faces. Tiffany quickly recovered, and decided to smugly asked the governmental agents, "Operative O and K, how does this on-air confession by the real culprit effect your investigation?"
Operatives O and K adopt furious expression, no doubt furious at being made fools of by the villain. So Operative O replied curtly, "No comment." And the two agents marched away, no doubt relaying the information to their superiors.
Tiffany turned to finish her report in an unusually cheerful tone, "And there you have it folks, a maniacs on the loose in Amity Park! As if we didn't have enough problems with the ghost, ghouls, and other ghastly creatures! With the Guys in White losing over a hundred agents and miscellaneous equipment, it looks like it might be up to people like Danny Phantom to hold back the mayhem! All I can say is good luck and god-speed! This is Tiffany Snow…signing off!"
Jack Fenton turned off the TV looking rather perturbed, "'Up to people like Danny Phantom!' Like he isn't part of the problem with this town!"
"Now, dear, don't be so glum. I'm sure there's some way we can help out. Kids! Off to school now! You're father and I need to work on some ideas!" exclaimed Maddie, rushing the kids off to school.
"Shouldn't we get like a day off from school with the whole terrorist attack?" Danny asked Jazz as they walked to her car.
"Danny, Amity Park gets hit by huge ghost invasions on a near monthly basis! Compared to that, one nutjob look for attention is almost par for the course." explained Jazz, as she started up the car and took Danny to school. But that wasn't the end of the conversation! No, Jazz just wanted to wait until they were far enough away from the house before continuing.
"So…wanna talk about last night?" asked Jazz, knowing that Danny needed to air out any frustration from last night.
"Not really, but knowing you, probably better to get it out now then have you bug me about it all day." stated Danny, somewhat jokingly before sighing then continuing, "I just…'groan' I was caught completely off guard! I mean, it was like she was prepared for me the whole time!"
"Well I may not be a criminal psychologist (yet), but from what I've seen you might be right." analyzed Jazz, "Look, she can only really catch you off guard once. I know you Danny, and I know you'll find a way to turn this around!"
"You haven't heard the best part…she knows who I am!" declared Danny, shocking Jazz enough to swerve in the road before quickly righting herself, "I don't know how, but I bet Vlad has something to do with this."
"Danny…be careful. Every time Vlad's involved in something it always turns out dangerous." cautioned Jazz as she pull up on Casper High, Danny's school.
"I'm not gonna go rushing into Vlad's house demanding answers! I just need to sort it out with my friends first. Anyway, I'll see ya later." Exclaimed Danny as he rushed out of the car towards, even though ironically he was early today!
Lunch period…
Despite a little commotion caused in first period by Danny being on time, the day was turning out to be an unusually regular day. No ghost attacks, Danny's powers were not acting up. Though Dash seemed to have decided not to shove Danny in a locker today, which was a bit out of character. Despite the peaceful day, Danny actually was feeling more stressed out about it. It felt like the calm before the storm!
Speaking of storm, Danny could see one forming at the table he sat with his friends at. This particular hurricane-in-waiting's name…Sam Manson! This young Gothic enthusiast (definitely an ironic term) was sitting at the table, with an expression of disappointment and rage. She was wearing her usual Goth ensemble; including black tank top with a purple oval, a black choker, a black skirt with green crosshatch design, purple stocking, black combat boots, and black spiked bracelets. Her black hair had a small pony tail with a green tie to complement her purple lipstick and violet eyes.
"Well, well, well! Heard you had quite the adventure last night." remarked Sam in scathing sarcasm. She was obviously upset at not being included in last night's 'adventure.'
"Hey, it wasn't exactly a well thought out occasion! Besides, on the plus side, you got a full night's sleep!" defended Danny, hoping to calm Sam down. Unfortunately he had inadvertently ticked off another friend.
"Unlike some of us!" angrily declared Tucker Foley, just sitting down at the table. Finally we see Tucker Foley, Danny's African American intellectual (sometimes to the point of nerdy) friend. Wearing his signature red beret, yellow shirt, glasses, green pants, and red shoes, Tucker was not a physically imposing figure. No, his strength lay is his mind, providing technical advice on his friend Danny's many adventures! Currently he had bags under his eyes for staying up late worrying about Danny, the line of communication having been abruptly cut before.
"Look, I know I should have contact you guys sooner but…" stared Danny lamely not having a real excuse.
Thankfully, Sam decided to get down to business, "Look, I get it. You were tired and just had you butt handed to you. Let's just get down to business. Tuck."
Having been prompted by Sam, Tucker pulled out his PDA, going over the information he had, "The scans you got last night didn't really tell me much: they were human, they had slightly above average tech. There was nothing unique enough about what they brought with them to trace."
"Great, so we got nothing on this…Bruja lady?!" asked Danny in an exasperated tone. He was hoping his friends found something on her…
"Actually, she came up on a search of the web. More specifically, the SheZow fansites." explained Tucker before showing his friends what he mean on the PDA. On it was a page for one of SheZow's many fansites specifically the 'villain info' page! And right at the top of the page was an entry on La Bruja!
"Aaargh! It figures that pink puffy prim donna had something to do with this!" exclaimed Sam angrily. Yes, the Goth hates SheZow…shocker.
"Whoa! Take it easy Sam! Alright Tuck if you wouldn't mind…" stated Danny after calming Sam down, motioning Tuck to continue. Sam really disliked SheZow on a personal level. See SheZow as 'a giant step backwards for feminism!'
"Well, what I've seen on the web…well, it isn't good." stated Tucker reluctantly.
"What'd mean? I've actually read the list. Most of SheZow's enemies barely rate above the Box Ghost!" exclaimed Sam, seeing SheZow's enemies as lower than most of Danny's enemies.
"Well, La Bruja rates just under Pariah Dark!" exclaimed Tucker, emphasizing one of Danny's most dangerous enemies, "Look Sam, this…witch…nearly destroyed MegaDale on her first try!(5) Whatever she's planning, it's gonna be huge! Especially with what she got from the GIW HQ!"
"What do you mean?" asked Danny, unsure of what La Bruja took.
"Well, I manage to get a list of what she stole-" began Tucker only to be interrupted by Sam.
"How?! I mean, no offense, but I don't see the Guys in White databanks as something you can just hack in." said Sam skeptically. She knew her friends was good, but hacking a government database…
"Thankfully, the back-up database are never as secure as the main one. They had no choice but to transfer after the attack!" stated Tucker cockily. He was very proud of his hacking skills, "Look. Here's the list."
Looking over the list, Sam and Danny did not see anything too dangerous. Some ghost weapons and equipment, the Guys in White's information on all the ghosts (which wasn't as complete as what Danny had; in fact in some area's it was just plain wrong). But there was one dangerous item stolen; or to be more accurate 'broken out'…
"Freakshow!" exclaimed Danny. Danny had very few human enemies and Freakshow was among the worst of them! Freakshow was a form circus ringmaster…his main attraction: ghosts! He originally used them to steal for him and tried to make Danny his slave as well. It took everything in Danny's power to break the spell…with some help from Sam.
But that wasn't the end of Freakshow! Somehow, last summer, he broke out of the Guys in White's custody and got his hands on a dangerous ghostly artifact: the Reality Gauntlet! This artifact, through the uses of four mystical gems, gave the user the ability to alter reality however he wished! It took a nation spanning adventure for Danny and his friends to finally beat him and turn everything back to normal.
"Well, this is turning out to be a real mess." declared Sam, knowing full well that a combination between Freakshow and this freak couldn't be good.
But there was one question still on Danny's mind: "Bruja had ghost fighting equipment, could Vlad have given it to her?"
"Sorry Danny, but I checked back on the scans: nothing she used was meant specifically to fight ghosts! The shield was multipurpose, the missile had anti-tampering shock devices, and…well, to be honest I don't know how she was able to keep you from going intangible! Vlad's hands seemed to be clean with this." explained Tucker, reluctantly. He also thought Vlad was involved before he went over the data.
"Well, at least that's some good news. Sam, I'm going to need you to check old Freaky's research into ghostly artifacts. She's must be after something he knows." Said Danny, assigning a task for Sam. It was Sam who originally learned about the Gauntlet and Freakshow's connection to it.
"Tucker, keep looking up whatever you can on La Bruja. Maybe we can find a pattern of behavior we can exploit. …You might need Jazz's help with that" Danny assigned the task to Tucker and his sister. Just as they were about to leave lunch period, a sharp whistling sound filled the air.
"What the he-" started Sam before the roof of the cafeteria came down! A large black object came crashing through the roof, miraculously not hitting any of the students but destroying an empty set of tables! When the shock wore off, the students edged closer to see what it was…before it lurched upwards on two legs!
The dust cleared to reveal…a giant black robotic walker! Standing at nearly ten feet tall, the major features were two chicken-like legs and a large egg shaped body. A red visor appeared on the egg shaped body and hatches opened up on the sides the reveal gun pods! The chin also opened up to reveal a pair of guns and the machine twisted around to scan the area.
"TIGER UNIT Zed-Beta! LOCATION: Casper High! MISSION:…" began the robot in a deep roaring voice, before training its weapons on the students, "EXTERMINATE! ANNIHILATE! DESTROY!"
"Great! And I was looking forward to a normal day!" exclaimed Danny, as the students ran out of the cafeteria in a panic, while Danny prepared himself for battle!
Disclaimer: I do not own SheZow or Danny Phantom, though they were great shows! I only own the original concepts I came up with. Sorry this chapter took so long. Thanksgiving really took a lot of my time. The length of chapter didn't help much either. Happy Thanksgiving to all! Anyway, I was also being careful with this chapter…wanted to start off my story just right! Please read and review, it tells me if I'm doing a good job!
1 For those who don't know, 'crazed-up fruit-loop' is a favorite nickname for Danny Phantom's arch nemesis Vlad Masters aka Vlad Plasmius
2 I never got where his parents obsession comes from. There is little scientific evidence to back their ideas and they never tell any 'traumatizing stories' to back up this obsession to hunt and destroy ghosts! Give me a review or message if you have any ideas on the source of Maddie and Jack's obsession.
3 I have no idea if there is a proper name for it. What I am trying to describe is the noise made before they show an emergency broadcast, which is usually accompanied by the notice "We interrupt this scheduled broadcast for a special report!"
4 I don't actually know which is which, so for this story Operative O is the African American and Operative K is the Caucasian (aka white).
5 Reference to my first fanfic: "SheZow, Sheason of the Witch"
