Hey everyone, turns out I'm a big fat liar. There is much more to this story than I thought originally. I'm very excited to be writing this piece. I'll be working on a few other DP projects too, so I hope you look forward to that too. Thanks so much to everyone for such awesome reviews. Please keep them coming! I'll be doing some edits as the story progresses, so bear with me.
I own none of the DP universe: All hail its creator Butch Hartman!
This is an all Danny Chapter with a few twists and turns along the way. Please enjoy :)
Echoes and shadows… a cool breeze and the smell of grass… a cold feeling pressing so close to him… and that feeling of dread… pain and piercing red eyes… that bone-chilling laugh…; Danny's eyes shot open, gulping down breath like he'd never had before. It was pitch black as Danny groped around the area for a light. He was surprised he could move anything at all, after what happened last night… no, he pushed the event out of his mind. It was so… humiliating. "I'm surprised that maniac hadn't tied me up or something…" Instinctively, Danny reached for his wrist at the thought of more hidden surprises and felt only his bare skin. It was like the watch was never there. The young boy shivered, remembering Vlad's cruel trick all over again. To avoid traveling down that road any further, Danny carefully reached out his hand and reached fervently until he found a lamp switch. The light, though dim, revealed enough to make Danny gasp.
It was a familiar place – a small bedroom with wooden floors and white walls filled with NASA posters. In the corner was a collection of Dumpty Humpty CDs, even the model Challenger Danny had build with his father. A picture of his best friends stood on the tiny nightstand next to the bed. "T-This is my room. THIS IS MY ROOM!" Danny heaved a sigh of relief as he jumped out his bed and landed on the squeaky floorboard. This was only further proof. Danny jumped up and down on the board a few more times - it used to get him in trouble with his parents if he was up past curfew. "Calm down Danny, you don't want to get grounded for making a hole in the floor." He ran towards the door, his relief and excitement clear on his face - "I'm okay. It was all a sick, twisted nightmare!" Slamming the door against the wooden frame, Danny darted down the hallway. "Mom! Dad! I…" He stopped abruptly and froze in place, his face filled with disbelief.
It wasn't home. The hallway he stepped into was dark mahogany with plush red carpeting, displaying dozens of prominent pictures on the wall. They were almost all the subject of his hatred- Vlad Masters. Danny's mouth dropped open in horror. "No way…" Carefully retreating back to his bedroom, his shock was too much to contain. "That fruitloop made a carbon copy of my BEDROOM? W-WHAT?" Danny, to say the least, was officially creeped out. He couldn't stand looking at the bedroom any longer; the comforts of home definitely DID NOT belong in a place like this. "I-I've gotta get out of here and figure out what's going on," the raven sputtered, closing the door and leaving the lie behind him.
Backing away slowing down the hall, Danny was instantly hit with his most obvious choice of action. "Right, I'll just go-ghost and find Vlad and…" No, he wanted nothing to do with the elder halfa. "Right. Leave now, destroy Plasmius later," Danny reminded himself. The teen took a running start and jumped slightly, ready to fly through the roof and get back to reality. "Okay then, I'm going-gho-" But the teen stopped short and was surprised as he fell back to the ground completely human. He sighed, mentally kicking himself in the process. "I should have known that Vlad would play dirty and short out my ghost powers. What a jerk." He felt his temper rise quickly at the thought of the older man sauntering around this place with that stupid grin holding all the cards in this game they played. "You're gonna get it, Masters. Just try and mess with me now. I swear it will not end well." Danny's voice was dangerously low as he ran through the halls, not recognizing any room he ran through. It had all the opulent, classic features Vlad would integrate into his mansions, but Danny had destroyed enough of those rooms to know Vlad's Wisconsin mansion when he saw it. "The house is practically deserted," the young boy thought as he ran down another hall, "then again, if something is here, they must be keeping themselves awfully well hidden."
Choosing a door that revealed some sort of library, he gave the room a once over. "Books? No thanks." But something else caught his eye. On a nearby desk sat an array of photographs in a variety of frames. Walking over to take a closer look, Danny was surprised that they weren't of Vlad getting some award or achievement. In fact, he was even more surprised to see his own grinning face staring back at him. "I never knew the fruitloop had these…" There were several pictures of him growing up; there even shots of his ghost half. "I don't know if I should be flattered or weirded out." The teen continued to scan over the photos, focusing on one in particular. The picture near the very center of the desk surprised him the most. It was the family picture his parents had taken last spring. Danny remembered the day well. His parents had dragged him and Jazz out of bed, declaring they had a session for the picture in twenty minutes. It was the only time his saw both his parents out of those jumpsuits. It actually was a nice, normal family moment. Something the Fentons didn't experience that often. Even Jazz looked pretty that day. But after the pictures were taken, there was trouble.
"Vlad…" the boy muttered. The young halfa had a brutal fight with the elder that night. It took Danny awhile to recover from that one. "Is this what he was mad about? This picture?" He decided to take the picture with him. Maybe he could get some answers about it out of Vlad later. He folded the picture carefully and pushed it in his pocket. It was time to get going. Besides, the room was now making him uneasy – something just didn't feel right. He quickly made his way out of room, shut the door firmly behind him and returned to running. Danny had been running for the past twenty minutes, but there was no exit to be found. "Maybe the next door will be the way out of this impossible place. Great, right or left? I went left last time, so right it is." Every corner he turned, the worse the panic set in. Danny felt like he was running forever. The dim ceiling lights guiding him flickered slightly. Feeling a bit uneasy, the raven took a quick look behind him; he swore someone was following him.
He didn't have time for this. Instead of slowing, Danny picked up the pace, his focus returning slightly. The more he ran, the darker the hallways appeared. He didn't try any more doors; most of them were locked, anyway. After picking a few more halls and running down a flight of stairs, the teen suddenly stopped, his exhaustion getting the best of him. Running was never his strong suit. Sam used to taunt him about it, pushing him to be more athletic. He was a half-ghost crime fighter, for Pete's sake! Danny sunk down to the ground. Sam. Tucker. Mom and Dad. Jazz. He felt a pang of involuntary homesickness. It felt like hours since he left that bedroom. "Am I ever going to get out of here?" He pushed himself back up reminding himself of his family and friends waiting for him. "If you don't get up, you never will."
It was almost pitch black as he stared into yet another hallway. He sighed again in anger. "All these damn hallways! And they all have pictures of HIM! It's like he's mocking me!" Danny knew that he was quickly losing this battle with the house. "VLAD, IF YOU DON'T HELP ME OUT OF HERE, YOUR HUMAN HALF ISN'T GOING TO BE ALIVE MUCH LONGER!" he yelled in frustration. Making a last ditch effort before he was alone in the dark, Danny darted down one of the halls in front of him. He heard a slight popping sound as the lights flickered their last light, quickly going out one by one. Danny swore he heard laughing. Emotions already running high, Danny ran aimlessly in the dark, his anger and panic creating a powerful adrenaline rush. "That's it. I'm not gonna make it out of here. I'm a goner, I'm a goner…" The lights were failing with greater intensity, the teen just barely keeping up with the remaining light. Then he saw it.
A single door or at least the outline of one was at the end of the hallway. But he was now losing to the lights - it was completely dark. Carefully making his way towards the door, Danny suddenly tripped and fell hard onto the carpet. "What the hell? I did NOT just trip over nothing." Looking back and feeling the ground, the young boy concluded there was nothing that could have tripped him, aside from his own two feet. And he knew he didn't do that. "This is NOT good," the young halfa muttered. "I'm wasting time. Let's finish this." Struggling to get back up, he felt heard something shift behind him. "Who's there? Hello?" Danny shouted some more into the dark, looking for something he knew he couldn't see. A ghost? Or something… else? The teen started to back towards the door slowly, listening to hitched, raspy breathing that didn't belong to him. A breathy laugh escaped the stranger's throat. Danny filled with dread as he inched closer to his destination, the door now only a few yards away.
"Nooooooo, I don't think soooooo…." a hoarse, thin voice screeched from behind him. It sent chills down the boy's spine. He felt something brush his leg as punched randomly into the dark.
"G-Get away from me!" he shouted. Fear was definitely setting in now. Scrambling to the door, he reached for the silver knob; it was almost within his grasp. But suddenly he felt heavy, a pressure pulling him slowing from the door. It was all-consuming and Danny struggled to move. Large dark claws were hooked around his legs, dragging him away from the door. "No. Not again." He at once started to fight the power, desperately trying to become Phantom once more. "Vlad wouldn't let me die – no, don't think about him. C'mon Danny. Save yourself!" The boy at once became still, pouring all his focus into finding Phantom once more.
"Fighting is pooooointlessssss. You're mine, booooooooy…" the stranger laughed again, pulling the teen further into the darkness with increasing speed. Danny groaned, making the stranger cackle with glee. "Yessssss. Give up, booooooy…" Danny shifted slightly as he pushed himself up from the carpet, his face revealing a small smile. The stranger didn't notice this action, making his way happily across the hall. The stranger also failed to notice as Danny whispered to himself, barely audible as blinding white rings rapidly appeared around the boy's middle.
"I don't think so, buddy."
The stranger let out a pained screech as Danny became Phantom, sending out a stream of glowing ecto blasts into the darkness. Danny flew up off the floor, flying a good few feet above the stranger. The stranger let out another wail as it writhed on the floor, its shadow now visible as Danny continued the ecto-bombardment. "Don't like the light, hey tough guy? Well, try this on for size!" Concentrating as much energy as he could, the halfa let loose a charged blast that lit the whole hall. The ball of ectoplasm was immense and gave off an eerie glow. It looked so… alive. Looking in disbelief at the power he had summoned, he watched the monster panic and cower in fear. The creature screamed, fleeing the boy as blast followed him. Danny looked on in horror at the scene, but it was too late to stop it. Directly striking the hideous creature, Danny watched as the monster's figure shattered under the blast, leaving only ash and scorch marks behind.
Keeping a small ecto-light alive in his hand, the teen stared at the sight, shocked at what he had just done. Letting out a small laugh in disbelief, he punched his fist into the air. He couldn't believe it. He had overridden Vlad's device and gone ghost; he had even released one of his most powerful attacks yet. "Yeah! That'll teach you to mess with Danny Phantom!" Hovering slightly and grinning ear to ear, Danny couldn't help but feel the guilt return. He stopped for a moment, once again looking at the remains of the thing that tried to – do what exactly? "Well, if he was trying to help me, I don't think this is how he should have gone about doing it. A simple 'hey, I'll show you the way out' would've been good." The boy looked uneasy, running his hand through his snow white hair. "I've never actually killed anything before. I mean, setting those guys back into the Ghost Zone is one thing, but this is new. I definitely will not make that a habit." His smile dropping to form a somber frown, Danny reached for the door, hoping that it would finally lead him home. He refused to change back to normal despite his growing exhaustion – there could be even more danger behind those doors. But content and confident at his decision, he pulled open the door and flew inside.
And came face to face with Vlad Masters.
"DANIEL FENTON!"
Sorry, I can be such a troll. Here's a little cliffhanger for you. I'll hopefully have the next chapter up sometime next week after I finish stressing about my SATs...
What did you all think? There are so many directions I can pull this plot, I'm so pumped!
