It was about five o'clock in the afternoon, the wind was blowing, and the leaves were a bright, crisp green. Sam and Tucker were behind me as I stood in the center of a clearing in the woods, looking at my right hand. I was trying to turn it intangible, but it stubbornly refused to be anything but a normal hand. But finally, it began to shimmer, and glow. I focused all of my energy into my right hand, staring intently at my palm.
"Come on, come on, yes, yes, FINALLY!" I cried as my hand continued to shimmer, before I felt the energy beginning to build up again. "Wait, what the-" A small red blast shot from my palm, and into my face. I yelped and stumbled back, though it seemed my energy couldn't do more than singe my forehead. My left foot turned intangible, and I fell right into Tucker's chest. Fortunately, Tucker managed to catch me just fine, as I whined about accidentally shooting tiny blasts of energy from my palm instead of going intangible, or going intangible when I was trying to shoot tiny blasts from my palms.
"Oh get over it and try to go intangible, maybe your method of turning intangible is actually what you should be trying to do to shoot blasts!" Sam said rather optimistically for a goth girl. "Yeah yeah." I growled and tried to turn my whole arm intangible. My arm sizzled with red sparks for a moment, before they seemed to backfire, shocking my arm badly. "Ow!" I cried out, waving my now smoking arm in pain. "Why do my powers keep backfiring or doing the wrong thing?" I yelled and smacked the ground. I tried to consciously fire a small energy blast, focusing my energy on the center of my hand, then trying to let it spread through my whole hand so I could release it. Instead my hand turned intangible, and I slipped it into Tucker's pocket and pulled out the beef jerky he had tried to sneak without me noticing. It returned to tangibility at the same time my hand did, and I yanked it open.
"Dude!" Tucker cried out as he tried to snatch the jerky from my hand. Yet again, I tried to turn it intangible, but only succeeded in firing a tiny blast of energy from my palm and frying the jerky to fresh-bacon like heat. Tucker looked at me like I had become a hamburger, so I quickly tore the meat in half and tossed it into his mouth. He caught it in his mouth like a dog would a frisbee, chewing and smiling like a Giraffe with gas.
"You look like a Giraffe with gas." I told him, poking him in the ribs. "Oh shut up you shady bacon boy." Tucker tried his lame comeback, poking me back. I stood up and tried to lightly zap him in the gut, but my hand turned intangible instead. Again. Still, what I was about to do was way better.
I stuck my hand in his gut, and wiggled my fingers. Tucker's face instantly turned green, his cheeks bulging, and I jumped back as he puked uncontrollably. I smirked as he finally quit his heaving, panting, he looked up at me. "You. Son. Of. A. Bitch." He hissed at me. I laughed, "You don't know the half of it." I chuckled.
"You shouldn't talk about your mom like that." Sam frowned at me. I flat out ignored her, looking up at the sunset. "We should get back soon, it's getting dark." I sighed out sadly. I didn't want to leave, I wanted to keep hanging out with Sam and Tucker. Life was always ten times better when they were around. I loved my mom and dad, but they are always so obsessed with the Negative Zone, that they didn't usually pay a whole lot of attention to me or Jazz. I mean, they do take perfect care of us, but lets just say I wish I could see them more often. They're usually in the lab. Sometimes they would just flat out forget about us. But anyway, that doesn't matter right now. What happens next is what matters.
I felt something... heat up. Like a flash of heat up my spine, as a jet of red mist escaped my nose. My instincts told me to go on high alert, I stood up, looking back. I clenched my fists, widening my stance just slightly and keeping my head a few inches down. I could feel it, something bad was about to happen. I pushed both of my friends behind me, facing the danger I knew was there. Don't ask me how, I just knew it. "Danny? What's wrong?" Tucker said nervously. "Something is here. Something bad, don't ask me how I know. Just stay back." I told him evenly.
"O-okay..." Tucker said, backing up slowly, tugging Sam backwards with him. Two large squid looking things, blood red mixed with puke green in color, glowing, floated through the bush. I knew it immediately-they were from the Negative Zone, and they had come through the portal back home. I gritted my teeth, feeling something deep inside take hold.
The one on my right, the larger one, shot forwards. I charged forward, throwing myself down to the ground and grabbed one of it's tentacles. That was a stupid, stupid idea. Because the thing whipped it's arm forward, I tried to fry it's tentacle like I fried the jerky, but instead I turned intangible and was sent flying. I passed through my friends, landing on the ground behind them and grunting in pain. Actually, it didn't really hurt that much, but who cares?
I stood up and pushed my friends out of the way right before another tentacle swipe sent me flying again. I landed on my back this time, clenching my fists as I stood up again. I charged forward, swinging my fists as hard and fast as I could. Every few punches, I would connect, but it only pushed them back about a foot. I needed to stop fighting like a human, cause I didn't know how to fight at all. But maybe if I could fight like them, I could beat them. I tried to turn myself intangible to avoid a tentacle attack, but red energy burned across my body instead, shocking me to the point of falling over.
Every time I tried to use either of the powers I had any idea how to use, I triggered the wrong one. I needed to reverse my methods if I wanted to win this fight and protect my friends. I heard a scream. A piercing, scared scream.
Sam.
I looked to see the smaller of the two monsters wrapping her up in it's tentacles and beginning to fly away. Oh hell no. I tried to run after the squid holding Sam, but the one I had been fighting wrapped me up, holding me back.
Something in me... snapped.
"Let. Me. GO!" I roared as heat flooded through me, and I could feel the black rings form and transform me. I had squeezed my eyes shut, but now I shot them open, knowing they were bloody red and full of power.
Easily, I threw the squid off of me and charged forward, moving faster than I ever had before. I extended my right hand, focusing all my energy to my right hand, and a much larger blast of energy shot fourth. Like a red lazer, it shot past the squid holding Sam. Startled, the beast dropped her. I shot forward like a bullet, my feet leaving the ground yet still I moved, crashing into her just before she hit the ground and sending us both tumbling. The black rings returned me to normal, as I lay there, forcing my eyes open again. I felt drained, like I could barely move.
I had shot a blast, a big one with little effort. Just by focusing my energy into a single point in my hand and letting it go. I felt strong in that other form... Really strong.
The squids were reaching for me again, I rolled to the side, staggering to my feet and cocking one fist back, punching with all of my might. It only pushed it back a little, but I kept coming. I kept punching, before placing both hands just above it's eye. I needed a blast, just a small one. I prayed that I wouldn't screw this up... and instead of trying to shoot a blast, I tried to turn my hands intangible.
And I got a small blast of energy, which burned the scales above it's eye and caused it to fly backwards in terror. I ran at it, before I jumped at it. Again, I tried to turn my hands intangible and was granted another tiny blast of energy from my palms, which hit it in one of it's tentacles.
My palms were starting to burn, and go numb. I guessed human me couldn't take a whole lot of power. I needed to switch. I concentrated, it wasn't hard to feel the same feeling I felt when I changed before. Heat, then straight up change.
The black rings formed again, and before I knew it, I was in my Negative Mode. I clenched my now gloved fists, glaring my piercing glare at the squids. "Get out of here!" I yelled as my hands lit with red energy for a moment, as I charged at both creatures. My feet left the ground...
And they fled, at speeds I knew I couldn't match, yet. I let them go, though I could have shot blasts. My aim was still horrible back then though. I probably would have missed. I had only just figured out how to shoot blasts at all, after all. "Danny?" Tucker had hidden behind a tree, though it looked like he had been a bit beat up to. One of the squids must have beat him up a bit. He looked mostly okay though.
"Yes?" I asked, tilting my head just slightly. "You're floating." He informed me. "Wait what?" I looked down to see that my feet were, indeed, off the ground! "Holy crap!" I panicked, waving my arms frantically for balance. It wasn't long before I was hovering upside down, trying hard to regain balance. Then, the rings formed again, and I fell down, head first. Now THAT hurt.
"Ow." I said as I pushed myself to my feet, rolling my right shoulder. "That was rough." I stated, running my hand through my mostly black hair. "It looked like it was rough." Tucker patted my left arm. "Looks aren't always deceiving." I told him dryly. "That they are not, dude. That they are not." Tucker grinned at me, and I shot him a tiny smile. "Danny!" Suddenly I was crashed into by one hundred and three pounds of relieved teenage girl. AKA, Sam. I hugged her back, causing both of us to blush a bit before we both backed off, scratching the backs of our heads in embarrassed unison.
"Heh... Glad you're okay.." Sam coughed out, chewing her bottom lip. I resisted the urge to do the same, nodding with a small smile. "You to." I took a deep breath and exhaled, trying to blow out some of the tension inside me. You would think that after fighting two evil squid monsters I would be really calm and collected, but nope. I was wound up tighter than my dad's speedo he wore at the beach when I was eight. And that thing split in half. (Which was gross.) That day scarred me for life.
My watch beeped, and I looked at it in alarm. It was six thirty, if I didn't go home now, I wouldn't make curfew!
"Holy crap!" I yelped, turning to run home as fast as I could. "I gotta go!" I cried.
That was a long, long night.
