Woot woot! Hey guys, I was kind of surprised that people responded so quickly to this story. I'm so glad though, thanks guys! :) I'll do my best not to disappoint. Here's Chapter 3
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom is the property of Butch Hartmen.
Manifest Destiny
Chapter 2: Evolution
17 years later
Present Day
"You cannot possibly hope to withstand such raw cubical power! Now mortal, prepare to face yo-" The Box ghost was cut off as a beam of blue light shot out of what appeared to be your everyday soup thermos but was in reality the Fenton Thermos, a device capable of capturing and containing ghosts.
"Yea, yea face my doom, beware of boxes. Seriously box ghost, why do you even try?" A voice asked as the Fenton Thermos was shaken and a very soft 'beware!' made its way to the voice's sensitive ears.
The voice belonged to seventeen year-old Danny Phantom, deputy of Amity Park, ghost boy and all around superhero. His outfit was still your typical negative hazmat suit, though with the addition of his DP logo, a white D with a black inner P on his chest. The suit grew with his physical being and to the delight of his fan-girls highlighted the muscles that came with fighting ghosts twenty-four seven. He had let his hair grow out a bit, it covered his neck in the back and there was just enough in the front to cover his eyes. He had grown over the years reaching a very decent 5'8". Danny quickly began flying back to his school, Casper High, as he spoke into a small headset in his ear,
"Hey guys, it was just the box ghost and it doesn't look like any other ghosts are out here. Looks like I might actually be able to make it."
"Dude, how many times do I have to tell you, whenever you say stuff like that something is bound to prove you wrong because the universe loves to torment you." Tucker responded in a condescending tone.
"Seriously Danny, knowing your luck Skulker will probably show up, and float ominously in front of the school and wait for you." Sam said as she joined in the conversation.
"Oh come on guys…seriously?" Danny asked in an exasperated tone.
"Yep, he's been floating there for the past 5 minutes; do you…want some help? Sam asked hesitantly.
As more and more ghosts poured into Amity Park, Sam and Tucker had begun to realize that Danny alone wasn't enough. So they began learning how to utilize all of Fentonwork's ghost-hunting technology. First there were devices like the wrist ray, ecto lip-balm, Jack o' Nine tails and so on, but as the ghosts began evolving, growing more powerful, more resilient to their weak level of anti-ghost weaponry…well…they had to evolve as well. Thus, the alliance forged between Fentonworks and the Guys in White (A branch of the government dedicated to the hunting, capture and research of all things paranormal). By using the conjoined mental prowess of Maddie, Jack and Tucker and combing them with the resources the GIW provided, they were able to create anti-ghost weaponry that were much more effective against Danny and the numerous ghosts plaguing Amity. Sam and Tucker had adjusted well to the new AG weaponry and just a year ago they were recognized as ghost-hunting experts, allowing them all sorts of privileges, the least of which being able to openly carry AG weaponry in public.
Even though Danny had been formally recognized as Amity Park's protector, his parents and the merciless Red Huntress still continued to hunt him. Both parties swearing they would not cease their activities until they ended his existence. It was kind of hard motivating himself to reveal his secret to his parents when they constantly swore to rip his alter-ego apart, molecule by molecule. He had already been through that unpleasant experience once, thank you very much.
He thought about his friend's offer and shook his head before answering,
"Nah, I got it Sam."
Sam sighed as she looked away from the window and focused her attention back to the class that was about to begin.
As he flew closer, a mist of frost escaped his lips and Danny sighed as he noted that yes, Skulker was indeed floating patiently in front of Casper High in all of his hunting glory.
Skulker was one of the ghosts Danny encountered daily. He was the self-proclaimed greatest hunter in all of the GZ and he had made it no secret that nothing would bring him greater joy than being able to hunt, kill and skin the young hybrid, sometimes he'd forego the whole hunting and skinning part and just try to blow him up. He was a small blob of a ghost working in a suit of hunting armor, rigged with traps, missiles; explosives….you get the point. His eyes glowed green and he had a green flamed Mohawk and goatee. Skulker's expression hardened as he observed the ghost child; like a predator watching his prey.
Danny made his way towards Skulker with his arms crossed and stopped about five feet away; the two regarded one another for a moment before they spoke,
"Skulker."
"Ghost child."
"Say you wouldn't mind rescheduling your attempt to skin me for…say…5 o clock?" Danny pleaded as he put on the most sincere smile he could manage. Skulker laughed aloud in response before pointing his right arm at Phantom. A small cannon the length of his forearm sprouted up and began whining, foreshadowing the ecto-ray to come,
"Sooo…" Danny let on hopefully. Skulker merely smiled a feral grin before finishing,
"No."
A rushed 'crud' was all Danny was able to say as he dodged the incoming ecto-ray, Danny looked up and saw four missiles speeding towards him. Danny flew in reverse as he shot down the four missiles, and shot towards the ground when an unmanned pair of ecto-cannons locked on to his ecto-signature and began firing ecto-beams relentlessly. Danny swerved this way and that to avoid the onslaught from the two cannons.
'How did I miss those ecto-cannons?' Danny mentally berated himself as he turned intangible and flew through the building, reappearing behind the cannons and used his fully-developed ice powers to freeze them solid.
"Hah. Stupid cannons."
A whining noise to his immediate left was all the warning Danny had before a powerful ecto-ray burned into his sides and send him flying off of the roof. Danny flipped in the air, correcting his body as Skulker gripped the halfa and threw him into the adjacent building. Danny hardly noticed the ruined cubicles or the shocked faces of the surrounding people as Skulker flew into the building and launched a rocket at his face. Danny was going to shoot the rocket when he remembered there were people in this building, hence why Skulker threw him in here in the first place. Reacting quickly Danny froze the rocket and sped out the building, shooting for the sky. As he noted Skulker launching into the air in pursuit, Dany looked down at the frozen rocket in his hands and hatched a plan that would distract his enemy long enough to suck him into the Thermos.
Avoiding Skulker's ecto-rays, Danny quickly flew into the nearest cloud he could find, as the cloud reduced his vision he melted the ice encasing the rocket and for a brief moment turned invisible as he suddenly changed direction and shot up and out of the cloud. He invisibly waited for the hunter to emerge below him. Skulker burst forth from the cloud a few moments later below him and looked around, trying to find Danny.
"Peek-a-boo." Danny said as he threw the missile at ghost hunter, who whirled around with an armed ecto-ray but froze as he saw the incoming missile.
Before he could react, Danny shot a tiny ecto-ray at the missile causing it to explode and send Skulker careening through the sky. Danny shot through the fire and in a flash brought his Fenton Thermos to bear and uncapped it; ready to capture. Skulker used his jet-pack thrusters, which were pretty useless seeing as he could float, to right himself and with a flick of his left arm unsheathed a blade forged from ecto-plasmic energy. As Danny descended on Skulker to suck him into the Thermos at point-blank, the ghost hunter whirled around and in one motion slashed at the hybrid. Danny cried out as the ecto-blade bit into his flesh but Danny's momentum drove him forward as he plunged the now active Fenton Thermos into Skulker's metal skull, sucking up the ghost in one fell swoop.
Danny sighed as he capped the Fenton Thermos. He hissed as he inspected the wound Skulker's blade had rewarded him with, a jagged line that began around the side of his ribs and traveled towards his stomach. Danny made his way back to Casper High before his teacher noticed he had been missing for too long, although he and pretty much the whole town could be really clueless sometimes. As Danny landed on the roof, he morphed into his human persona. Danny hadn't changed that drastically over the years, he had swapped his old white shirt with a black shirt that had a red pencil sketch of a launching rocket. He still wore the same faded blue jeans and sneakers. He now took to wearing a white fireman's jacket that had an inverted DP symbol on the right sleeve and left breast. Danny took off his jacket and lifted his shirt to inspect the wound and found that it had begun to bleed profusely. Clenching his teeth, Danny coated his hand with ice and slowly began to layer the wound with ice, the cold made him yelp when it came in to contact with his skin, but he persisted and soon he had a healthy coating of ice covering his wound.
Awhile back Danny had learned that his ice powers could be used for a lot more purposes than ghost fighting, he could create temporary ice structures, make it snow on a hot day in June or as he found out recently, use it as a temporary medical bandage. The ice prevented him from making a bloody mess out of his clothes and his ghostly healing powers healed the wound before the ice could do any serious damage to his human body. Wiping off any excess blood and putting on his jacket, Danny quickly burst into a sprint to hopefully catch the start of his class. Slamming open the door to the classroom, the students looked at Danny unsurprisingly, as they had grown used to his strange antics a long time ago. Mr. Lancer turned to regard the young man, taking in his usual unkempt appearance and he shook his head as he turned to the chalkboard,
"Mr. Fenton," the teacher began in his boring, monotonic voice that was infamous for putting anyone who listened to it into a deep slumber.
Danny opened his mouth, remembering the speech he had memorized for this moment, when he could finally tell Lancer that yes, he did do his homework; yes he did study for the test tomorrow and finally, after years of failing he was not late to class. But before any sound could leave his mouth, a bell chimed mockingly throughout the school.
"That was the late bell; I'll see you in detention Mr. Fenton." With that, Mr. Lancer began the lesson.
Danny jaw snapped shut and he slowly made his way to the back of the class,
"Crud...I was this close…stupid Skulker."
At the thought of the ghost hunter residing in the Fenton Thermos in his backpack he had to resist the temptation to inspect what would be his latest scar to add to his collection.
'These ghosts sure do make it difficult to keep a secret…a…well secret nowadays' Danny mused as he passed Tucker who patted him sympathetically on the back,
"Almost had it man, next time."
He glanced at Sam and pretended to miss the way her gaze observed everything but him as he sat behind Tucker. He struggled to stay awake as his teacher droned on but Mr. Lancer's reputation was well earned.
The day went by fairly quickly in Danny's opinion but then again time flied when you were hunting ghosts and of course, after his morning hunt with Skulker, the Lunch Lady was very upset that someone had dared to change the menu at the last minute, from tuna casserole to…mystery meat. So that was another ghost disaster that ended up with an irritable Danny drenched in tuna casserole and nursing a swollen foot while his two friends collapsed on the floor with laughter. Then throw in a couple disruptions courtesy of the ever tiresome Box Ghost and voila, a typical day for Danny.
The trio walked down the streets, Sam and Tucker stuck in yet another one of their debates concerning which food group was superior, Meat or Veggies. Danny stood in the middle, ready to jump in between them if there was a chance of violence erupting between the two (It wouldn't be the first time). He stayed silent and observed his two best friends as they continued ranting to each other Danny couldn't help but notice how much his friends had changed with him over the years.
Sam had grown to a decent 5'7" and had really filled out over the years. She still wore her signature black combat boots, though a more modernized style that allowed her the ability to move more nimbly yet she could still leave you in the hospital with a broken foot. She had traded in the purple leggings and skirt for a pair of black jean shorts outlined in purple that stopped just above the knee and hugged her hips quite nicely (A point that ¾ of the male population of Casper High has pointed out, Danny and Tucker included). She still wore a black tank top with a purple tribal bat on the front and a DP logo on the back, the tank top had one long sleeve attached while the other had been torn off, on the exposed arm she wore an arm guard that could create a miniature ghost shield on command. The most notable addition to Sam's wardrobe was a pair of holsters that contained two AG pistols (based on a familiar USP tactical design). Her hair was pulled back into spiked pigtails and her face was adorned with makeup and multiple piercings along her ears and one in her nose, completing the Goth-like appearance she prided herself upon. The constant confrontations with ghosts had strengthened Sam's body and mind, her stamina was seemingly infinite and her speed was impressive. She was easily the fastest runner in Casper High.
Tucker had gotten a surprising growth spurt that had him standing over Sam and Danny at 5'11". He traded in his long-sleeved turtleneck for a yellow pull-over hoodie with a large black DP symbol on the back. When Tucker had began learning how to apply his love for technology with the Fenton's ideas of AG weaponry, he had come across the blueprints for the Ecto-Skeleton (A suit of armor that increased a human's strength by one hundred fold but it drained the life force of the user) and over the years had built himself his very own fully-functional miniature Ecto-Skeleton, he called it his Anti-Ghoul Skeletal Safeguard, or the AGSS for short. The suit consisted of a breast-plate about an inch thick which acted as a ghost attack buffer and a hub for life support operations of the AGSS. It had gauntlets and greaves which protected their respective areas and granted Tucker temporary bursts of speed or intense instances of strength, and a segmented strip of titanium that ran along the length of Tucker's spine; thin sensory needles inserted themselves into the vertebrae of his spinal column, allowing his body's nervous system and the AGSS to communicate with each other directly, the segmented areas glew a dark blue in correspondence to his suit's power level. The AGSS ran on ectoplasm instead of using the life source of a human being. Thus, with a rebuilt miniature Ecto-converter built into the palm of his hand, he merely had to latch his hand onto a ghost's body and drain the specter of its' ectoplasm, a very effective strategy that helped keep his AGSS operating in battle whilst weakening the enemy for capture.
Tucker had changed his pant's color scheme to that of a more urban camouflage and wore tan army boots. He still wore his signature red beret, with a DP emblem on the front and thin-framed glasses, however his glasses had been modified to identify energy signatures as well as display readouts on their speed stamina and strength. When he brought his Anti-Spectral rifle (similar in design to a USG-50 Ultor Sniper Rifle) to bear, his right frame formed a cross-hair that increased his accuracy exponentially, though by this point in time Tucker had become an excellent marksmen, comparable even to Danny's mother. The AG rifle had a retractable barrel so when Tucker slung the weapon over his shoulder the weapon was half its usual length making itself less cumbersome to carry.
As Sam took a threatening step forward Tucker, Danny had decided it was time to cut in,
"Alright guys enough, seriously do we have to go through this every day?" Danny complained as he inserted himself between the two.
"He started it!"
"It's her fault!"
The two protested simultaneously before narrowing their eyes at each other,
"Well I'm finishing it." Danny's voice cut in finally, the subtle threat not going un-noticed by Sam,
"Well who died and made you King?" Sam asked sarcastically, itching for an argument. Danny however saw her ploy but before he could counter with a witty response a mist of blue escaped his lips and he sighed.
His friends threw him sympathetic looks as they ran into an alleyway and seeing the coast was clear, watched their best friend morph into Danny Phantom. He briefly floated in the air above them,
"Fine, tear yourselves apart. I'll catch up with you two later." Danny said irritably and before Tucker or Sam could apologize, he launched himself into the air and out of sight.
The duo sighed before returning to the sidewalk, their debate forgotten as they continued their trek home. It was Tucker, who spoke first,
"You really need to stop trying to argue with him Sam. I know he's being awkward around you but what do you expect? You broke up with the dude like, what a week ago?"
Sam sighed before rubbing her exposed arm,
"I know Tucker but its' just...I can't help but feel guilty when I look at him and I'm so sick and tired of it. I just snap on him like, acting on some sort of sick reflex and I know it's wrong but...Gah!" Sam explained, throwing her arms up in exasperation before slumping her shoulders,
"I'm a horrible person aren't I Tucker?" The Goth girl asked sadly.
Tucker glanced sideways at Sam before sighing and shaking his head,
"Nah, you're not a horrible person Sam you just don't love him anymore and…it's going to take some time for him to get over that."
As he continued to look at Sam he couldn't help but think of Danny, 'But when he does don't be surprised when it's not the way you expect it.'
Sam looked over at her friend before a smile made its way to her face and she slung her arm around his shoulder,
"Thanks Tuck, you're not so bad for a no-good pork killer."
Tucker laughed and he grinned as he copied her actions,
"You're not so bad yourself tree hugger."
The two friends laughed as they made their way home, their troubles put into the back of their minds as they enjoyed this moment of peace.
Alrighty so that's the second chapter. I'm finally glad I've gotten over the main changed, so tedious writing that out. I'm hoping I was able to describe their new outfits accurately, but if I didn't just message me and I'll try to explain it better to you.
Reviews are read with love :)