*Note: Re-edited version is up!*
I hope this chapter is just as good as the first one; your responses really blew me away! I never expected that many people to like it so much! Thank you!
Another thing; if you guys like my stuff, I have the best stories for you to check out! Boxghost228 has THE most awesome stories I've ever read! The character depth is amazing, and he really does a great job developing his ideas. Please check them out! I promise you won't regret it.
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom! Geez, get off of my back.
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Danny jumped back in surprise as pieces of pavement flew past his face; he'd completely forgotten the ghost attack in his moment of elation. Quickly shoving the note into his pocket, he transformed and flew up to meet his new foe. The ogre-like ghost straightened himself as he realized his prey was no longer in the alleyway, another loud roar grumbling out of his cavernous mouth. Danny quickly turned intangible as ghostly spittle flew towards him, letting it hit the building behind him. He grimaced in disgust.
"That'll be fun to clean up." Pushing the thought out of his mind, he focused back in on the fight. He was vaguely aware of Sam shouting up at him, warning him of the huge club that was headed right towards his head. Ducking and weaving, he flew towards the enraged ghost, ecto blasts leaving his hands and shooting towards the ogre's ugly face. They all made contact, but none seemed to phase the monster. He now floated right in front of its face, forming a huge blast in his hands as he tried to avoid the swinging hands.
The blast left his hands and collided with the ogre's nose, sending it stumbling back a couple of paces and giving Danny enough time to swoop down to Sam.
"Sam! Get out of here!" Her defiant face glared at him sullenly.
"I'm not leaving you here, Danny! It's too dangerous." The huge club swung down towards them, and Danny grabbed Sam's hand to turn them both intangible. It smashed down where they were standing, sending shivers up both of their spines. Flying off behind a nearby building, Danny released Sam's hand.
"And that's exactly why you can't be here! It's way too dangerous for you!" He turned to face her, staring into her eyes challengingly.
"Which is exactly why you need me here! That thing could pulverize you in a heartbeat—you need back-up!" she spat angrily. "If I leave who knows what could happen to you!"
Danny took in a large breath, trying to calm himself before he completely blew up at Sam. "Look, Sam, I don't want you to get hurt. Tucker's probably on his way right now, and mom and dad aren't going to be far behind." Sam opened her mouth to protest, but Danny quickly cut her off.
"No! When Tucker gets here, I'm sending both of you back to my house to activate the town's ghost shield." By now Sam was glaring daggers at him,
"Why won't you let us help you, Danny? Without us you would have been dead hundreds of times already! I-I don't want you to get hurt. What if you don't come back?" Looking into her bright eyes, Danny could see the tears that were threatening to spill out. He caught his hand before it crept up to her face, jerking it back to his side.
"I know, Sam. I know. But this time it's different. This guy is not going to be easy for me to beat, I'll admit it. But he's not going to kill me. I'll make it through this one, I promise. Mom and Dad will hopefully be more helpful than anything else, and we can beat this guy. Just promise me you'll stay out of trouble?" A loud crash erupted behind them as the building behind the one they were in front of collapsed. Desperation taking hold, Danny gently pushed Sam towards his house while turning to face the oncoming ghost.
"Please! Just go!" She hesitated slightly, turning back to look at him again.
"Promise me you'll come back, Danny." Bright blue eyes met teary lilac ones, and he nodded.
"I promise, Sam. I'll be back." A small smile played across her features before she turned and bolted down the street towards his house. He watched her retreating figure until it rounded a corner, then turned to face the oncoming ogre.
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Sam ran down the street towards Danny's house, trying to fight back the tears that were threatening to spill down her face. Turning a corner, she paused behind a building and peered back at Danny. He was facing the huge ghost, who had just demolished the building they had been standing in front of. They seemed to size each other up for a moment before continuing their fight, the ogre clearly having the upper hand. She clamped a hand over her mouth as he was slammed into a six-story building, every floor shaking and trembling with the impact. Before Danny could shake himself off, the ogre swept him off of the cracked wall and into the street, its large foot slamming down onto the battered halfa.
"DANNY!" She immediately swung back around the corner, knowing she'd just both endangered herself and let Danny know she hadn't left yet. After a few terrifying moments, she gathered up her courage and peered around the corner, a small gasp of relief escaping her lips as she saw Danny emerge behind the ghost and start attacking him, clearly leading him away from her hiding spot.
Muttering angrily to herself, she spun away from the fight and sprinted to Danny's house, passing a speeding GAV on the way. She bolted into Fenton Works, barely crossing the threshold before Jazz stopped her.
"Sam! What's going on?" The elder Fenton sibling looked frazzled; her hair was disheveled and her eyes looked sleep deprived. Sam's eyes widened in surprise, her jaw falling slightly open.
"Jazz, what happened to you? You're a mess." Jazz glared at Sam, running a slightly shaking hand through her messy hair.
"It's nothing; I'm just having some problems with my entrance paper." Sam nodded slowly, but as the sirens started up she remembered why she was there in the first place.
"Danny! Oh my gosh, I almost forgot." Jazz cocked an eyebrow at Sam, worry etching itself onto her face.
"What's happening, Sam? Mom and Dad looked a bit scared when they left earlier, and Danny should have been home." Sam gulped slightly, tears re-forming in her eyes.
"Some huge ghost is attacking the town, and…" she looked up at Jazz, unable to continue as the tears burst from her. Sliding down the wall, she put her arms onto her upraised knees.
"He…he…Jazz, it's horrible." Jazz wrapped her arms around her shaking frame, trying to comfort her as she sobbed into her arms.
"Shh, Sam, it's okay. It can't be that bad, Danny'll be okay. He's always made it before, how can this be any different. It's okay." Sam raised her head sadly, looking up into Jazz's concerned eyes.
"You don't understand, Jazz, he's losing. He can't beat that thing on his own, we have to help him!" The red haired girl pulled Sam to her feet, dragging her towards the back of the house.
"Well then we'll just have to go help him! Call Tucker and tell him to meet us over here to stock up on weapons, and I'll start pulling things out of the weapons vault." Sam stopped in her tracks as she pulled out her phone, a confused look crossing her face.
"You guys have a weapons vault?"
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Tucker scrambled through the streets of Amity, trying to get downtown through the mobs of people. It seemed for every one step he took towards the ghost fight, the crowd pushed him back two. He wasn't getting anywhere. A loud insistent ringing reached his ears over the screams of the crowd, and as he pulled out his cell he recognized Sam's number.
"Hey, Sam, where are you?" he yelled over the crowd's noise. "I can't get to Danny, the crowd's too thick." He could hear a muffled reply, but couldn't make out what she said.
"Sam, Sam! I can't hear you, let me get somewhere more quiet." A muted agreement drifted through to his end, and he spotted a deserted candy store a few paces ahead. Pushing his way through the frenzied crowd, he fell into the store and shoved the door shut behind him.
"Okay, Sam, what's going on?" He was surprised at the answer he got; Sam was clearly worried.
"Tucker, you have to help us! Danny's not going to make it if we don't do something! You have to get over here now!" Her frantic voice shrieked into his ear, making him wonder how he couldn't hear her outside.
"Sam, where are you?" Panic started welling up inside of him as he worried not only for Danny's safety, but the safety of the entire town. Things hadn't looked too bright with the frantic crowds, but if Sam was losing her cool it couldn't be good.
"I'm at Danny's, in the weapons vault. You have to get over here now!" Looking out the window at the surging crowd, Tucker shook his head slightly.
"I'll be over there as fast as I can, Sam. Don't do anything without me unless you have to." He hung up the phone on her, not even waiting for her reply. As he plunged back into the crowds, a stray thought ran through his head. Danny has a weapons vault?
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Ducking, dodging and weaving were the only thoughts running through Danny Fenton's mind. The ogre was thrashing around wildly, smashing into nearby buildings in its blind rage. Danny had managed to infuriate it enough that it followed him, but so far he'd been unable to get it out of town. Each street he tried had swarming crowds of panicked people, so he'd been forced to keep to the interior part of town. So far the mall was half gone and most of the office buildings were hopelessly damaged.
Danny gritted his teeth as his hands began to charge with ectoplasmic blast. I've got to get him out of here. He flew around the distracted beast, blasting his back. It screeched out in pain, flailing around to face its attacker.
"Hey big fat and ugly; look at me." The monster seemed to recognize that Danny was talking to it, and it angrily narrowed its eyes. It gripped its club tightly, slowly advancing onto the wary halfa. Oh crud, maybe I shouldn't have called him ugly. He backed up slightly; preparing himself for the crushing blow he knew would come when a loud screeching was heard on the streets below him.
Both ghosts looked down at the Fenton RV as it swerved into fighting position, guns flaring up and aiming at the ogre. Danny took the opportunity presented to him by his parent's arrival to start bombarding the ogre with ecto-blasts, thoroughly confusing it as it tried to determine which foe to concentrate on.
Maddie and Jack were thankfully ignoring him, helping him distract the ghost so they could get rid of it more easily. Between the three of them, they managed to lure the ghost out of the main part of downtown Amity, but left a considerable trail of destruction and debris behind them.
The ogre was still swinging wildly by the time they reached the outskirts of town, which was thankfully deserted. Danny was readying an ecto-blast when something hit him in the back, propelling him towards his waiting foe. He managed to glance behind him to see what hit him and was met with the glowing green of the town's ghost shield as it expanded to cover the entire city.
The two dueling specters were pushed to the outskirts of town, and Danny took the chance to fire a few ecto-blasts at the confused and shocked ogre as it tried to calculate what had just happened to it.
As the ghost re-gained its senses, Danny realized he would need a significant advantage if he was going to win. Quickly taking in his surroundings, he saw a swampy area off in a nearby field and immediately noticed he would be able to lose it in the trees. He took off towards the thickly-foliaged area with the ogre hot on his heels. The monster clearly did not realize that it was a game of hit and run, blindly raging after Danny in hopes of destroying the pest like a person swats a fly away. Danny descended into the safety of the trees, quickly weaving his way to the inner part. He felt his energy diminishing, but he ignored his fading strength and turned to face his foe as it came crashing through the wooded area, a large ecto-blast forming in his hands. As soon as he got the ogre right where he wanted it, he gave all he had, blasting the huge creature into a nearby grove of trees. Thinking it was thoroughly defeated when it made no move to rise, Danny approached it with a cocky smirk on his face. The creature suddenly swung its arms around, the massive club catching Danny in the back of his head and throwing him to the murky ground, breaking a fallen tree in the process.
Jumping up to his feet, he reached behind him and pulled out the dented and battered Fenton Thermos, pointing it at his wallowing foe. He could feel his knees wanting to give in, but he summoned all the strength he could find and fired. It was sucked into the bright blue beam, screaming in frustration as it was defeated. Danny slowly slapped the cap on, dropping to his knees and returning to his human form as beads of sweat dripped down his forehead. His eyelids drooped downward, and he could feel strength being sapped from him as his body caught up with his injuries. The wound on the back of his head sent his head throbbing, and various cuts and bruises began to ache.
"No, I have to stay awake…" he murmured softly. "I have to make sure everyone's okay, that Sam's okay. I have to…" His entire body collapsed to the ground with a dull thud, his eyes fully closing while streaks of red blood ran down his face and into a murky puddle.
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:D Ah, such a lovely cliffie, don't you think? A big round of applesauce for Rose Garden Twilight! *yes, I said applesauce* She really helped me out a lot with that last part; a few of the sentences are hers too, but I don't know how to let you know which ones without disturbing flow. So send your thanks in a review, and I'll pass any and all praise along to where it's deserved!
Anywho, the weapons vault thing was thrown in because this is such a serious fic, and I wanted to lighten it up a tad before I threw this to ya and jumped into the big stuff. Chapter 3 is written…just not very well. It's only about 2 pages, and I'm having some severe writers block on expanding it. Plus my work schedule has really been messing with my system; I'm not feeling to great anymore because of it. Ugh. But I'm really trying to work on it; promise! It's already been sent off for editing. I'm hoping to get it up within a week, but it's not really up to me. Thanks for reviewing!
~~TSW~~
