Well, here's chapter 2! I tried to stay true to the story, but I really can't stand that lunch lady, so she didn't get a chapter to herself. But I promise that certain characters will be introduced to match up with others in DP that you might not expect. For one, well . . . just look! (But here's a hint on a later one, so don't read this if you don't want a spoiler: Vlad enters in this chapter, but not the way you expect! You'll see later!
I was sitting at a lunch table outside after school. So far, things had actually been going well. I'd finally stopped turning invisible and intangible at random, and I'd finally mastered my running at high speeds. I could break the sound barrier in both forms now, and I found it very fun to do so. I could beat the little ghosts that came out of the Ghost Zone occasionally, and throw them back in.
I was relaxing for once, happy not to have anything to do or anyone to stuff me in a locker as usual. Sadly, my biggest tormentor and his girlfriend (The prettiest girl in the school by the standards of every guy) were heading my way. Amy and Tails were not there, because Tails was tutoring Amy in biology and she needed help badly. I was alone on this one.
"Hey, Sonic," said Knuckles, the guy who constantly stuffed me in lockers.
"What, Knucklehead?" I asked wryly, annoyed that he had ruined my only bit of relaxation for the day.
"Leave him alone!" said Rouge, cuddling up to the jock.
"It's fine, baby, he's nothing. So, are you scared of the ghosts that have been attacking lately, Hedgie?"
"They come out through my basement. No."
"I got a proposition for you, okay? If I get an A on my next English report, I get to go on the spring trip with all the other guys. If I don't, then you're dead meat. Get the picture?" The red echidna cracked his knuckles. I scowled and shook my head, refusing to let him cheat. He growled and dragged me by the shirt inside, then stuffed me in my locker. I waited a minute, then phased out of it. I thought that I could cut through the lunch room to get out faster, but met a detour.
I realized in seconds that the ghost was not friendly, because she was scowling darkly. She was an old lady with a pink dress and a white apron. She could have been my grandmother—if my grandmother glowed.
"This school doesn't feed you children healthy, good food!" she said to me, a sort of rant seeming to come on.
"I bring my own lunch, ma'am, so I wouldn't know," I replied, attempting to keep her calm.
"Want a cookie?" she asked sweetly. I nodded, actually a little hungry. Maybe this would be a nice ghost-
"TOO BAD!" –Scratch that. A bunch of random food items flew around her, and it was like looking at a gigantic disgusting monster. I stepped back, preparing to fly away. This was the first ghost that I'd had to fight that wasn't a simple blob. I transformed regardless and zipped around her, trying to find weak points. Punching did no good, though, because the food just re-formed.
"Uh, I don't like the lunches here either. Last time I ate from this cafeteria, I got sick." She just roared in rage and blasted me with more random food. I pulled out one of the latest inventions that my parents wanted to test—the Chaos Thermos. Ghosts fed off of two types of energy. One type was from their ectoplasm, which kept them alive, kind of like blood in humans. The other kind was Chaos, which showed how powerful they were. The higher amount of Chaos energy that they emitted meant the more powerful and potentially dangerous the ghost was. The Chaos Thermos was supposed to suck in and contain a ghost with any Chaos readings at all. I reluctantly popped off the lid and pointed it at the lady gone mad.
A white light burst out of the Thermos and she was sucked in. I sighed in relief.
"Note to self: sometimes my parents' inventions are actually helpful. Sometimes, they are dangerous." I headed back to my place and called Tails and Amy. They both freaked out that I had defeated a more dangerous ghost, but I told them that I was alright. Which I was—in fact, I was extremely happy that I'd finally managed to beat another slightly sentient ghost. Those tended to be more powerful than the little blobs with faces that I normally dealt with.
I wondered if I'd get to see another one soon as I was finishing my homework, when lo and behold, I got a shiver up my back that I knew meant one thing: a ghost was nearby. I transformed into Shadow and phased out of my room, landing on the ground agilely and skating around the area to find the ghost. And oh, I found him.
I didn't know that he was a ghost at first, because he looked so normal. He was bald, really pudgy, and had a big mustache. He wore a uniform that made me guess that he used to work in a warehouse of some kind.
"Beware! I, Eggman, the Box Ghost and commander of all things cube, will destroy you!" he proclaimed, floating a few feet off of the ground. I literally stared at this.
"Box. Ghost. Really?" I winced at the name, almost sympathetic for this guy. Different ghosts had different attacks and obsessions which often went hand in hand. This couldn't be that much of a threat—although I had had enough trouble with the lunch lady. He summoned a bunch of flying, glowing boxes, and commanded them to throttle me. I dodged easily enough at first, but then they actually began to pelt me. It hadn't occurred to me that the boxes most likely wouldn't be empty.
"Ow!" I yelled when a broken staple managed to stick me in the arm. I saw a huge refrigerator come hurtling at me, and, knowing that I couldn't dodge it, and hadn't really thought of turning intangible, so I acted on pure instinct.
"Chaos Control!" I was engulfed in a light that quickly flashed through the spectrum, and then was suddenly behind the annoying ghost. I furrowed my brow as he cackled, and then went into some speech:
"Ha! You are a weakling! There is no way that you can induce Chaos Control, or any of the pure Chaos attacks! That was a fool's mistake to try!" I tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned. Before he could react, I gave him a good punch to the jaw. He flew back a few feet, but I wasn't lucky enough.
"FOOL! I am the master of all things cardboard! You cannot hope to defeat such mighty power!" I raised my eyebrows, still not entirely absorbing his earlier speech. When I had dodged a few more boxes, I questioned him.
"Chaos attacks?"
"Chaos Control, Chaos Spear, and Chaos Blast are the most powerful and difficult. Ghosts of my caliber even have no way to master them, and new ghosts have no such powers at all. If you truly did try Chaos Control, then it was a fluke that you survived. You won't succeed again." I got a little hope from that statement that he had yet to do what I just did. I centered myself, skating circles around him. I chose a random moment and stopped, then yelled, hoping against all hope that it would work. I held my hand out like I was about to throw a javelin, feeling a strange energy tingling in my hand.
"Chaos Spear!" He could do nothing but gawk as a red and white light flew from my hands right in his face. I sucked him into the Thermos and heard him yell from the inside:
"I will have my revenge!" I sighed. He would definitely be an annoyance later on. I went to bed that night completely exhausted.
I headed home, excited to call Tails and Amy about that entire ordeal—of course, after dumping Eggman back into the Ghost Zone.
The next day, I was in a better mood. I walked to school, and no ghosts showed up. I grinned at my luck. Of course, it wasn't long before I had to deal with something—that something just happened to be a dragon.
I changed into Shadow under the cover of a bush, and people around the school were running around screaming. When Rouge caught sight of me facing the dragon, she didn't scream more. No, she did something far more unexpected.
"Whoever that guy is, he sure is hot!" I was stunned for a second. Hot? Since when did she consider me even decent? I knew I looked different as Shadow, but I would think Rouge would get a better clue and . . . wait . . . I forgot that she wasn't that bright except for looks.
I ran up to the dragon and he squinted down on me.
"You expect to defeat me, Halfling? I am the possessor of the Gem of Life, one of the seven Chaos emeralds! You couldn't hope to defeat me! In fact, you couldn't defeat my minions supplied by the Gem of Life!" I looked at the gigantic green gem he was holding. It was glowing now, so intensely that I really couldn't see even the black claws that held them. All of a sudden, trash cans, cars, and a truck started glowing green too. I stepped back warily. Then . . . they came to life! I immediately began to fight, not using any of my Chaos powers yet in the hopes that I wouldn't need to. I had to be more careful, though, because other Mobians were watching in a crowd a short distance away.
"What is your name?" the dragon hissed as I beat the three trashcan monsters back. When I beat one, it turned back to normal, so I tried to beat them all. Unfortunately, the cars came in at that moment and I got run over multiple times. I growled. Finally, I knew I couldn't handle it anymore. I had to use a Chaos attack, no matter how much it tired me.
"Chaos Spear!" I suddenly realized that this time, I didn't create just one. Ten red lights floated around me, and I raised my hands, letting the power build up in them. Then I waved forward and the "spears" assaulted the glowing, monstrous objects until they were just debris from the fight. I looked up at the dragon at that time, seeing green eyes among the shining black scales.
"You are a strange one. Not many can conjure any pure Chaos powers without the help of a Gem of Power like this. Some cannot even with one. You would do well to come with me . . . train with me in my realm in the Ghost Zone . . ." When he got blasted in the face, he stopped trying to get me to come with him. I avoided the flames to the best of my ability, although I think I singed some of the fur on my arms. Remembering something from an old book, I aimed for his chest, a weak point, and he screamed. I took out the Chaos Thermos, and all that was left was the glowing green gem. I picked it up and suddenly felt wide awake and not sore at all. I looked around to find the crowds surrounding me. In the very front was a snowy white bat.
"Hey, what's your name, cutie?" she asked. I masked my shock and crossed my arms.
"I am Shadow. Shadow the Hedgehog," I said, feeling ready to get out of there. Drawing on the newfound energy from the Chaos Emerald, I decided to get out even quicker.
"Chaos Control!"
Suddenly I was at home, which was farther than I'd ever gone before. My parents and Sonia were crowded around the T. V, watching an instant replay of . . . my fight. I changed back into Sonic before any of them could notice.
"What are you guys watching?" I asked. Only Sonia turned around.
"Shadow the Hedgehog's fight. Mom and dad are probably going to watch it five times before they realize that you're home. Then you'll be forced to watch, too. They think that this one's a 'half ghost' or whatever. You know me though: I think that they're both nutcases when it comes to that kind of thing. I'm going to go call Bartleby."
"Yuck. I forgot that you had a taste in older, rich, snooty, stuck up losers."
"Shut up! I met him after I was forced to go to one of those ghost hunting exhibitions with Mom and Dad, you know. Apparently they sort of knew each other, and Dad had messed him up for a while."
"Which gives him more reason not to date you. You must really be avoiding bringing him home."
"Ugh, I'm leaving. Have fun watching that video with Nutcase one and two." She stormed out the front door after that, and I was then subjected to just what she had predicted. I had to watch first public ghost fight that I've had on video over and over again. And my parents reacting to it . . .
"Honey, can you believe it? It's the most powerful thing I've seen. He's nearly the equivalent to a living hedgehog with that structure. And he's so powerful . . . that's uncommon, even unheard of, to have just Chaos Powers . . ." Mom was taking notes. Sonia was sitting in a chair behind me, not watching the video but my reactions. I noticed that when I said my name to Rouge and Chaos Controlled out, I looked a lot cooler than intended. I had wanted to avoid her, but intead I made a dramatic exit.
"He seems to be avoiding the crowds . . . even protecting them!" Dad exclaimed.
"Maybe he is? Maybe he wants to be sure that they're safe?" I suggested. Mom snorted.
"I doubt it, honey. Ghosts tend to focus on two things. One: their obsession, be it revenge, an old memory, or anything really. The other thing is power and gaining it. There isn't a single ghost with a true mind and heart for others that I've seen. I doubt even half ghosts don't have obsessions if they exist. This one, though . . . he's on another level from any ghost I've seen. Chuck, did you see that? He has pure Chaos powers! It's astounding!" Dad nodded.
"I know, Aleena. I can hardly believe it myself. Why, the only other one I know of to have those intense powers . . . well, it certainly isn't this one. Is it possible that he's the one from that old prophecy that we managed to find?" I got interested then.
"Prophecy?"
"We once found an old piece of paper with high ectoplasm readings. It said something about the old Ghost King rising again, and a new king coming to imprison him forever, and something involving the new king being the 'Ultimate Life Form' and having a core of pure Chaos. I know you don't know what a core is, so I'll explain: a core is like a ghost's heart. It is made of a combination of ectoplasm and solidified Chaos—the ratio is different for each ghost. An old ghost who used to rule the others apparently had the ratio of one particle of ectoplasm to a million Chaos particles—which made him immensely powerful. He had seven Chaos Emeralds and a Master Emerald . . . but he was cruel and destructive. Another ghost, known as the Oracle, locked him away, using the white Chaos emerald as the lock and the other six as the key. The Master emerald . . . I'll explain that one to you another time, sweetie," Mom finished, ruffling my hair.
Finally, I complained that I'd never get my homework for Mr. Vector done if I didn't get started, and they let me go. That teacher was especially annoying because in addition to picking on me for every answer that I didn't know, he expected me to stay after school every time I did worse on a test than he expected. He was my favorite and yet my least favorite teacher.
Of course, he was like that with everyone.
Tonight, however, I didn't have homework in his class. I was just glad that I had an excuse to get out of that constant replay of my awkwardness in getting out of there. At least, it felt awkward to me when I did that with Rouge, but looking at the tape, I guess not. In fact, it sort of seemed cool and mysterious, which I wasn't. My cell phone rang in seconds.
"SONIC! HAVE YOU GONE MAD? FIGHTING A DRAGON? ARE YOU TRYING TO GIVE ME A HEART ATTACK?" . . . It was Amy. I assured her that everything was fine and that she didn't need to worry about me.
Have you guessed who Vlad is this time? Well, if not, you'll see. Oh, and I know I forgot this before:
Disclaimer: Now, if I owned Sonic, Danny Phantom, any of the plots, or any of the characters, I would not be on this website. You would also not be reading my Sonic fanfic if you have, because I would have already turned it into a game, and you will not be reading my DP fanfic in the near future (once I get some chapters edited) because they would have been episodes. So do I own Danny Phantom and Sonic? I think not. But I wish I did. Sigh.
See you guys next time!