~Skulker's Island
I could feel the leaves of trees rustling around me, but I felt no pain, no falling through sharp tree branches, no fatal crash. Instead, I felt something enclose me. Something made of slick rope. I had been caught up by what felt like a net. I was still too afraid to open my eyes, but I could hear and feel us land on the coarse earth of the island. The tall metal hunter laughed menacingly as he held me up in the net like a goldfish in a plastic bag. I slowly opened my eyes, only to find his awful smirk only inches from my face. I quietly whimpered and curled up into a ball, burying my face in my knees.
"Oh, don't worry," he said lightly, in a sick, sadistic kind of way. "I always go easy on females. Besides, you won't be completely alone." He grinned and looked up. Danny was speeding right towards us, his fists held in front of him and his face held a look of serious focus. Like a true super hero. Skulker's evil grin turned into a wicked smile that curled fiendishly from the corners of his mouth. Suddenly everything felt colder. I knew that Danny could beat Skulker, but would I be around long enough to escape? All of this was so wrong, so messed up. None of this should be happening. This was always something I'd hoped that I'd experience, or at least I dreamt about it a little, to be in the worlds I had seen so often on TV. But now I was having second thoughts. Very powerful second thoughts.
"Let her go," Danny demanded. I could hear him as his silver boots tapped onto the ground. He sounded very angry, or rather, very determined. Did he really want to save me that badly? Or was he just being a good person? I didn't seem to have enough time to think it through.
"Well, if it isn't the Ghost Child," the hunter asked. My heart leapt; I heard the awful pleasure in his voice. He never seemed this malevolent in the TV series. Or did the TV just cut out a lot of this kind of stuff? I slowly opened lifted my head and viewed my surroundings. I was being held in midair in the net, and Skulker was holding me up. Danny was a good ten feet away, but he looked like he was going to attack any second. "What a wonderful surprise."
"The feeling isn't mutual," Danny growled. "Just let her go Skulker. She didn't do anything." I looked at the inside of the net. It was a basic square knit. Maybe I could rip myself out. If only I had my pocket knife...
"On the contrary, she was falling within my territory. It's as if she actually wanted to become my new prey," Skulker sneered. I shuddered again. The hole I was working was slowly becoming bigger.
"RRRRRAAAGH!!!!" Danny cried as he leapt towards the hunter. I increased my efforts in pulling the ropes apart. The net jostled as Skulker kicked Danny away. I heard a deep laugh, then the sound of missiles being released from their launchers. I pried the net apart with as much force as my hands would allow. I could feel them chafing and burning angrily as the rope cut into them. I didn't really care though. I had to get out this net, out of this nightmare. Danny grunted as he dodged the missiles and came in for a second attack. This time he ditched the physical tactics and went to his ectoplasmic hand-rays. He hit the hunter square in the chest, and the next thing I knew I was on the ground. I felt a sharp pain on my right cheek. Dirt and little red dots splotted onto my glasses. Skulker didn't bother to pick me up, he just flew off to continue the fight with Danny. I held my breath and tugged at the hole. There was a loud rip. The net came apart and I quickly climbed out of it. I was free, but not free from this horrible place. I stood up and tried to run towards the forest, but I didn't notice, until it was too late, the sharp slippery rocks under my shoes.
"Oughf!" the wind got knocked out of me as I fell over. I could feel blood starting to trickle down my face. My hands felt like they had been set on fire. I quickly turned around to see if they heard me. To my relief, Skulker didn't turn around. But Danny was staring straight at me, still trying to hold his own against bullets and various blades. I panted, my mind racing. I should help him. But I'm already in enough trouble. Gotta hide. Gotta find a way out. I stood up once more and, being more careful, ran into the forest.
"No! Don't go in there!" Danny yelled, but my legs refused to stop running. I knew why he said that too, after a few seconds. This place was filled to the brim with traps and hidden darts (I remembered that from an episode where he and Valerie were brought here to be hunted). Note to self: watch your step and don't pick up anything with a string attached to it. I managed to slow down to a quick jogging mode as I started to maneuver through the forest with extreme caution. I could still hear Danny and Skulker fighting out on the edge. I didn't think much about it after that; Danny always wins. Even when he was getting his butt kicked, he always won the fight somehow. I smiled, wincing when my right cheek stung. I looked down at my hands. They were scraped and red and covered in grit. Just great.
"You won't get away with this, Phantom!" Skulker bellowed. He sounded like he was in quite a dilemma, which was good. But he also sounded furious. Not so good. Then I heard the sound of multiple ectoplasmic rays being fired at once. I didn't stop to look back. I looked ahead and immediately skidded to a rough halt. I couldn't believe my eyes. I almost cried, I was so happy. About twenty feet away was a portal that stood over a clearing, probably towards the edge of the island. I ran, as fast as I could, towards it.
Big mistake.
I felt my foot pull on an invisible line. I froze. One moment there was complete silence, the next moment the air was filled with multiple sharp whizzing sounds. I only got a quick glimpse of the small silver disks before they cut in to my arm and my leg and the left side of my torso.
"AAAAUUGGHH!!!!"
The pain was excruciating. I could feel a warm stickiness forming underneath my jacket and my jeans right underneath the fresh cuts. I swallowed and panted thickly. All my energy was gone, I was about to just fall over. I was functioning on purely borrowed time. The portal... I looked ahead. My vision was turning hazy, but I could make out the glowing gateway that floated only two feet away. I took a deep breath, put my hand over my arm wound, and limped through the portal.
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~Again, just somewhere....
I could feel myself rising back up into consciousness. I was so tired, so exhausted, I couldn't even bring myself to open my eyes. My whole body ached, especially in certain areas where I had been cut or bruised. I suddenly shivered and winced as my wounds stung from the gust of cold air. I slowly moved my hands, grimacing as the warm blood circulated through my stiff, gritty palms and fingers. There was something slick and soft underneath them. I felt a little more, touching little individual fibrous blades. Grass. Where was I? I managed to open my eyelids a little. All I saw was a dark blue sky filled with stars, framed with the shadows of treetops. What... what happened? I gradually sat up, feeling the intense gashes in my side. That's right, I was attacked. Danny and Skulker were fighting. I went through the portal. So where was I now? I looked around, trying to see if there was a sign, some kind of hint of where this place was. The various shadows of benches and neat sidewalks told me it was probably a park. Was I... back home? Possibly? I looked at the trees and sighed in disappointment. They weren't pine trees, or even juniper trees. They were like oak trees or maple trees or something. I wouldn't know; I've only lived in the desert or the White Mountains. None of those trees grew on the west coast, I don't think. All I knew was that I was still lost.
I inched my way to the nearest tree and leaned against it. I wanted to just lay there forever. All of this was happening so quickly. One minute I'm at school, on my way to my to math class to study during lunch, then the next minute, there's this quick flash and everyone's gone. Instead there's this giant ghost lizard glowering down at me. Why did all that happen? How did I end up in Danny Phantom's world? Was I still in his world? Or did I get teleported somewhere else?
Footsteps started to tap on a nearby sidewalk. My heart immediately began to beat faster.
"Do you really think that girl's here?" a voice said. It was Tucker's.
"Yeah, Danny," another voice added. Obviously Sam's. This wasn't good. I crept to the other side of the tree so they wouldn't see me. "If you found her in the ghost zone, I doubt she's even human. Why would she be here?"
I heard a sigh. "Because the portal on Skulker's island led back here," Danny explained. I panicked. They were looking for me. Danny had followed me through the portal, which apparently led to Amity Park. I was still stuck in his world. "Besides, if she was a ghost, she would have just phased through net she was trapped in and flown off. Or she would have gotten rid of that ghost lizard by herself." Very true. If only I had ghost powers....
"Maybe when she got here she went home," Tucker suggested.
"I don't think she's from around here. She seemed scared of me. She probably didn't know who I was," Danny assumed. The only thing he said that was true was that I wasn't from around here. Well, in a way I was scared of Danny, but not in that way. I was scared that if he knew who I was, important things that needed to happen could change.
"I wonder if she's okay," Sam said sympathetically.
"She looked pretty beat up when she ran into the forest. And after that... well, who knows what could have happened," Danny's spoke slowly. There was a hint of despair in his voice. Maybe hiding from him wasn't a very good idea. Maybe I shouldn't have tried to run from him in the beginning. If I had just let him help me, none of this would be happening. I grimaced at my stupidity. But the whole fact that I didn't belong here somewhat leveled it out. Really, he shouldn't have had to save me in the first place. I shouldn't be here. I was only running from him because I can't really get involved with him or anyone else in this world. I could really mess things up, change the whole storyline. But then again, I was left with few options.
A loud growl echoed through the park.
"What was that?!" Danny exclaimed.
"Sorry, that was me," Tucker said with embarrassment. "I haven't eaten for about an hour."
"I think it's time to call it quits for tonight Danny," Sam said. "We'll continue looking for her tomorrow."
"Alright," Danny sighed. I heard them start to walk away. "Hopefully she's okay."
It amazed me, how much they cared for someone they didn't even know. I felt so conflicted; I wanted to go to them, tell them all I knew, get the help I needed, but... it was such a dangerous risk. I couldn't do that, not yet. Not until I got a better picture of what's going on. I waited until I could no longer hear them, then I slowly lifted myself off the ground and stood up, using the tree for support. Everything hurt so badly... I shook my head and gritted my teeth. It was nothing I couldn't handle. I straightened up and walked around the tree, trying not to limp too much. I stopped as I looked over at the sidewalk.
Tucker was still there, doing something on his PDA. Maybe there was still a chance I could get by him without noticing; he had never seen me before. I pulled my hood over my head and stepped silently onto the sidewalk. I was starting to feel anxious. All I had to do was turn my back to him and walk casually down the cement until I reached the town. But, because the universe seemed to not agree with me today, a strong gust of cold wind rolled in, smacking all my cuts like knives.
"Aughck!" I exclaimed from the pain. I quickly grasped my arm and my torso to block the cold air. I turned to Tucker. Apparently he heard me. He was staring straight at me.
"Hey, are you okay?" he asked the standard question. My pants and jacket were black, so he couldn't see all the blood from the razor cuts. Maybe I could still get away.
"Um, yeah." I tried to keep my face in the shadows. His eyes immediately turned to my hand, which was slightly red at the edges from the wound underneath it. "I... crashed my bike on the other side of the park. Got nicked by a branch." I shrugged in false indifference. Ugh, it hurt to even move my shoulders...
"Do you need some help? You look pretty bad," he said with concern.
"No thanks. I'll be fine," I smiled, wincing as the scrape on my cheek burned. "My house is just a few blocks away."
Tucker paused and gave me this suspicious look. "Who... are you? You're not on my list of Casper High girls I have on my PDA. Are you new here or something?"
"I'm from out of town. My parents and I came down from Washington to visit some family while I'm on fall break." I was getting better at lying as the conversation continued. The question was though: Would he buy my story?
"Cool," he said casually, but then he got this really weird look on his face that I recognized instantly. "By the way, the name's Tucker. Tucker Foley. Say, are you open this weekend?" I got an awful feeling at the pit of my stomach. Was he hitting on me? This was so wrong...
"Um, I gotta... go," I said nervously and I quickly turned away from him and started walking down the sidewalk.
"Hey, wait a minute!" he yelled and started to walk after me. I sped up my pace to a brisk walk. Ow, ow, ow, I thought every other step. "Don't go!" He started to run after me. Ack! I started to run too. OW. OW. OW. My thoughts became louder and the pain became more annoying. Why me? Why did I, of all people, have to be chased by the comic relief guy? I kept running until I could see the exit in the distance. Almost there... just had to hold out a little longer. Once I got into town I could hide more easily.
"Nyaaagh!" I heard Tucker grunt. I turned around a found him soaring through the air towards me. I had less than a second to react before he crashed into me and we both fell onto the ground.
"Ow!! What's your problem?!" I shouted up at him. It felt like there was fire running through my veins instead of actual blood. Everything ached about twice as bad now.
"I'm sorry. I do... really crazy stuff when I'm hungry," he apologized, although I think he did it on purpose. Suddenly his regretful expression flipped to a look of total disbelief. "Wait a minute..." He was looking very intently at me.
Oh, sheet (I do not swear, so please excuse my silliness if I change the curse words). My hood had fallen off as I was yelling at him. Danny must have told him what I looked like. Without even thinking, I kicked Tucker off me, jumped up, and ran as quickly as I could into town before he pieced the puzzle together. My pulse was thumping in my ears so loudly I couldn't tell whether or not he was behind me. Running from Tucker was probably the most sensible thing I'd done all day. I criss-crossed through the streets, hoping I could shake him off if he was following me. I didn't even know where I was going, but I swore I passed by Fenton Works at least once. I eventually found an open window down a back alley and crawled through it.
The room beyond the window was dark, but warm. Someone probably lived here, but I didn't care. At least I had gotten away. I let out my held breath and skidded down the wall until I hit the floor. I just wanted to sleep, to rest, to finally get away from everything and just relax. Worst case scenario: this house belonged to Danny, Sam, or Tucker. But then again, maybe that wouldn't be all that bad.
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Well, here it is, Chapter 2. This time the chapter was a little bit longer, since i decided to combine two chapters into one so it didn't seem so spazzy and lame. So finally the main character realized how stupid she was being by actually running away from Danny instead of letting him help her. Hopefully she'll be able to meet up with them eventually, and this time when she's not in imminent danger lol. I'm still trying to grasp the personalities of the real characters of the show accurately, so please, just bear with me for a while. I suppose Tucker wouldn't have chased and tackled a girl, but hey, like he said, he does crazy things when he's hungry. And no, i don't swear, so i have to replace the words with silly ones like "sheet" or "frick" or whatever.
Please review, and thanks for continuing to read :)
-Silver Sleet
