Chasing Destiny a Danny Phantom story

Rating: T for mild cussing and possible situations later on.
Pairings: N/A yet.

Chapter Two: First Encounters

Note: We're going to assume that Danny always had that logo on, because one) I like that logo and 2) This is the first time he's ever met Sam. I'll come up with a logical explanation about it later. Promise.

Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is a licensed product of Billion Fold Studios, in cooperation with Nickelodeon and created by Butch Hartman. In no way, shape or form do I stand to make any profit from this story and are only borrowing the characters for my own amusement. In other words, I do not own.

There was silence for at least three minutes in the car as rain continued to drum down from the skies and the music finally switched to a radio commercial that was advertising something Sam was not interested in buying. At the moment, the young woman was staring disbelievingly at the stranger she'd picked up, who had just, moments ago, suggested that she drop everything in her life and do what he was doing: walk across the country just because he could.

Sam opened her mouth to say something and pointed a finger at the stranger, only to shut her jaw with an audible 'snap' and to let her finger droop as she actually let the idea take root in her mind and let it start to grow. The dark haired girl frowned at the knowledge and turned back to her wheel, forcing the car to move again as the stranger chuckled at her reaction.

'Why don't you?'

The words echoed in her head and she tried to keep his voice out. She wanted to, so very badly, every part of her did! But it wasn't practical: how could she just up and leave everything she'd been working for on the whim of someone she didn't know? She'd have to leave behind her job, her schooling, her-

Wait. Sam blinked and pulled over to the side of the road, putting the car back in 'park'. She leaned against the door of the driver's seat, the seatbelt digging into her skin, but she ignored it. The stranger mirrored her pose, both of them crossing their arms over their chest as they had a semi-intense staring contest.

She reached out to shut off the radio, letting the rain be the only background music to her thoughts. Her reasoning was off. Pratical? She was Sam freaking Manson. She'd never been 'parctical'. When she wanted her school's menu changed to allocate for ultra-recyclo vegetarian, she didn't write to the school board- she bugged them until they relented. Instead of protesting frog dissection like normal students, she let the amphibians go. When had she every cared about practicality?

And her job? It was a part time job that she hated. Sure, she didn't need the job, but she needed something to fill her time when she wasn't going to classes. As for her schooling? She was paying her tuition and hell, with her parents' fortune and her trust fund (finally open to her), she didn't even need to go to school! She didn't have friends in this town: she kept to herself for a reason- her only true friends were somewhere stuck in Amity Park.

There was truly nothing holding her back but herself. She was frightened of this prospect, of being adventurous. Three year of living in conformity had dampened the soul of her rebel side and she'd become…like everyone else.

What had happened to her?

But here, like an ominous godsend, was some stranger, who was offering her a way out of the rut. All she had to do was let herself go.

"Why should I go with you?" She asked finally.

He shrugged and she was starting to hate that reaction. "I never said you had to. It was just a suggestion." He leaned forward and grinned. "But why shouldn't you go with me?"

"For starters, I don't even know you. You could be trying to kill me for all I know." She countered.

He laughed. "Me? Try to kill you?" He sighed. "That's funny. But you're right. You don't know me, you don't know if I'm trying to kill you. However, isn't that better than what's waiting for you here?" He gestured vaguely and she knew he was talking about the town. "You're unhappy." He stated bluntly.

Her eyes narrowed. "How would you know?" Sure, she'd kept her Goth look over the years, upgraded it a bit to fit her age, but she loathed people who assumed to know her through her appearance.

"In my experience, people say a lot more with their eyes than anything else." He explained. "At least, that's what yours tell me. Am I wrong?"

Sam's silence was all the answer he needed. And he knew that.

"If it makes you feel better, my name's Danny."

"No last name?"

"Hey, I didn't get your first."

"Sam."

"Nice name." He shifted in his seat, facing forward again. "So, Sam, you reach a decision yet? It's a onetime offer I'm making here." He waggled his eyebrows and gave her a charming smile that had her scoffing as she pulled the car out of its parked spot.

"I've made my mind up."

Sam stood in the middle of her apartment, looking around at the plain, boring and definitely not her room. There was nothing there to resemble who she was. And, thinking back on it, she hadn't ever had the desire or the inkling of it to make it mirror who she was. In retrospect, she'd always believed that she'd move on and instead, had been stuck. It was why she hadn't bothered to unpack everything fully; boxes were still lying around. There were things of little value to her in this place, save for a few personal items that she could throw into a bag and take on the road with her.

With Danny down in the lobby of the complex (she didn't trust him with her car), she only had a few minutes to pack whatever it was she needed before she left her life behind. Well, it wasn't her life, really- just a shell of something she hated waking up to. She found a few backpacks and a suitcase, filling it with her clothes and some hygienic products- tucking away some emergency credit cards for future use, if need be. She had strong suspicion that they'd have to be paying for a lot of things in cash. Not that she minded much.

As for everything else in her apartment: DVDs, food, dishes, her tv….she'd leave that behind. She could always buy new ones and she didn't need them for this trip. But that reminded her- if Danny was a hitchhiker, then he probably hadn't eaten anything for a while. And while all she had in the refrigerator were "things without faces", well, it'd be better for him. After all, beggars couldn't be choosy.

Danny wondered if this was a good idea; while listening to his ghostly mentor had usually yielded fruitful results (though not initially), involving a completely innocent citizen was never their style. With Tucker and Jazz, it'd been different; his best friend and his sister had been with him on this trip since day one. But this girl, Sam? She'd probably never even seen a ghost before, much less fought one. He was starting to have serious doubts about letting her come on this trip, but it was a necessity to complete the rescue mission.

The duffle bag he was carrying was on the floor, next to his shoes as he waited on the couch in the lounge. His trench coat, soaked, was draped over the couch in an attempt to let it dry some. Sure, he didn't feel the cold like others thanks to his internal air conditioning, but it still sucked to sit in a cold jacket- and it was gross.

He sighed, resting his hands on his knees as his blue eyes stared at the bag. Along with his laptop, his parents' weapons were in there- or at least, what he had been able to grab before Vlad had found him. All of his parents' inventions, their research, all of it was stuck in Vlad's lab. Except for the Ghost Portal. That was almost impossible to move, and it was still in their home in Amity Park. Except…that home was under lock down, too. By Vlad.

Danny had pulled off a lot of impossible missions before; he was a superhero, after all, but this seemed even more impossible than those put together. It seemed almost hopeless, even with the assurance that all would be as it should be, if he did what he needed to.

A shiver ran through his body and a small wisp of smoke left his mouth. With a groan, Danny stood, double checking the area and the ceiling for any cameras or observers. Out of all the places to find a ghost…the only way he could release a ghost back into the Zone was with the Fenton Porta-Portal and that would have been a doozy to explain to Sam.

Grabbing the thermos out of the duffle bag, he checked again for onlookers before transforming.

"I'm going ghost!"

Two rings appeared at the middle of his body and while one traveled upwards, the other traveled towards the ground, changing his travel worn civilian clothes into a black hazmat suit, his shoes replaced by white boots and his hands covered by white gloves. Dark raven hair turned snow white and blue eyes switched to glowing green. In the torso area of his hazmat suit was a white "D" with a "P" in the negative space. Gone was the quiet stranger Danny Fenton. In his place was the spectral hero Danny Phantom, a long way from his home in Amity Park.

The only logical place the ghost would have visited would have been Sam's place and, while she didn't quite trust him to know which floor she lived on, he had been paying attention to the elevator. Clueless as he was, he knew when to watch out for things. What put him on edge was the fact that he'd only been with the girl for maybe an hour at most and they already knew.

He went intangible, flying up to the third floor, hoping that his duffle bag wouldn't get stolen. The hallway was empty and he stayed afloat for a while, listening for any indication of a ghost. Muffled yells and one very familiar voice finally reached him and he flew towards the second door on the right, going intangible and readying an ecto-blast for whatever was waiting on the other side.

Danny was visibly disappointed when he was met with a blue skinned ghost dressed in overalls with a matching cap, gloves and black boots. Relaxing his posture a bit, Danny rolled his eyes when the ghost raised his hands in what was supposed to be a menacing gesture, wriggled his fingers and yelled, "BEWARE!"

Sam was somewhere near the television, hiding behind it. Danny couldn't really blame her; the first time anyone met a ghost had to be a harrowing experience. And, while Danny was a bit ticked it was just the Box Ghost, he was also slightly grateful that it was just the Box Ghost. Exposing Sam to these things was better in small doses.

"All right, Boxy. We can do this the hard way or we can do this the easy way." Danny held up the Thermos and quirked an eyebrow. "Your choice."

"FOOLISH CHILD! THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO DEFEAT ME! FOR I AM THE BOX GHOST, MASTER OF ALL CORRUGATED CARDBOARD!" he paused to think about it. "AND BUBBLE WRAP! BEWARE!"

Danny sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his hand. "More like the master of unwanted headaches." He uncapped the Thermos and pointed it at the ghost, caught off guard when one of the many boxes in the room (how the hell had he not noticed that before?) slammed into him from behind, sending him to meet and greet the ground unexpectedly.

Pushing himself up, Danny rubbed the back of his head, which had begun to throb from impact, muttering, "Note to self: the Box Ghost still has powers. Especially when there are boxes around." He leaped back into the air, dodging the boxes the ghost was chucking at him. Searching for Sam, he called to her, "Hey! Do you mind if these boxes get destroyed?"

She was clearly still in surprise and shock, her eyes wide and her mouth slightly agape. At least she wasn't running away in fear; that was always a plus. But she did manage to answer his question with a shake of her head.

That was all the incentive he needed. Using his fingers as pistols, Danny began shooting small blasts of ecto-energy at each of the boxes that Box Ghost flung at him. Cardboard rained and its contents were reduced to ashes until the ghost had no ammo left. He gave Danny a nervous smile and when he tried to flee, the halfa grabbed the Box Ghost by the neck of his shirt and dragged him.

"I have one question and you better answer." Danny growled. "Did he send you?"

The Box Ghost blinked in fear once, twice then relented. "THE BOX GHOST WORKS FOR NO ONE BUT HIMSELF! But…he did this as a favor to the one you speak of."

So he was sent by him. Danny scowled and sucked the ghost into the Thermos, capping it as the Box Ghost squeezed in one more "BEWARE!"

Glad that his task was over with, Danny flew over to Sam, who was staring wide eyed at him still. "Um hi. You okay?"

"Who are you?"

"The good guy, I swear." He slung the Thermos around his torso. "I've-WHOA! No need to pull those out on me!" He held up his hands in an effort to calm her, floating away from her as, lord only knew where Sam had pulled it out, but she had one: a freaking ecto-gun. A small pistol, not as powerful as the ones Tucker and Jazz normally used, but still enough to sting. So much for not having met ghosts before.

"I'll ask again: who are you?" Sam asked, her voice steel as she kept the gun level.

"Phantom. They call me Phantom. Now, let's be rational and put the gun down." He said calmly. The pistol looked familiar, not of his parents' design, but similar to it. In fact they looked almost like… "Where did you get that?"

"It doesn't matter: a friend from somewhere. That good?" Sam lowered the pistol, all hostility gone as she gave him a quizzical look. "I've heard about you from some people. Why are you here? Isn't your haunt Amity Park?"

"You know me?" He asked. That explained quite a bit. He shook his head. "Look, I'm here for a reason and I've got to go for those very same reasons. I-I." Danny didn't know what he was going to say so he dove back down into the floor, changing back in the lobby, glad to see that his things were still there.

Feeling exhausted, he sank back into the couch. Sure, it was just the Box Ghost, but ghosts almighty, this rescue mission was starting to become complicated. And he'd barely even started.

Well, there you have it! Chapter two! More is revealed on both our characters and ha! I hope you're all confused. You should be.
More from Danny's point of view, as this chapter did call for it, but you definitely received a taste of Sam and her life. Subsequent chapters should be more from her POV, but I'm not making promises.

I love hearing your guys' guesses and would love to hear where you think this is going.

*Note: I won't be updating quite as fast as this. The second chapter was already partially written. So I thought, "why not?"

I would like to thank all of you who reviewed and who put this story on their alerts! It warms my heart up plenty.

Please, please, please leave your comments, concerns, and questions! I can't promise that I'll answer questions, but hey, it never hurts to ask!

Next chapter: Our protagonists hit the road for real! And as they travel together, Danny realizes that he's going to have to tell Sam his secret if they're mission's going to be effective. But Sam's got a few secrets of her own that she's keeping. Not as life changing as Danny's of course. And as for our guest ghost? Well...it'll be a surprise.

Thanks! And Happy Holidays!
.chary