Hey guys! Writers block has been very evil lately, so this didn't get written as soon as I would have liked. On the plus side, my lang and comp teacher doesn't care when I'm writing this during his class.
Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or "Bad Romance."
The next day, Danny got to sleep in thanks to his decision to leave Skulker and the Box Ghost inside the thermos for the week. Granted, sleeping in for him was not being awoken by his ghost sense until the sun was within an hour of rising, but this was serious sleeping in. Like, until noon sleeping in. Danny thought it was one of the most awesome things ever. But, the minute Danny woke up, he had a feeling that something was wrong, that something important was missing, and in its place was horrific nothingness. The house was abnormally quiet; no early morning explosions shook the house, only to be followed by a loud 'I didn't do it!' courtesy of Jack. Danny went downstairs apprehensively, soon realizing why the house didn't feel right.
His mom was not making breakfast (or lunch, considering it was noon).
After soaking in this horror, he went to the fridge and pulled out a soda, wondering where his parents were. He'd be able to tell if they were in the lab. He went back upstairs to ask Jazz; partly due to honest curiosity, partly because he wanted an excuse to bother her. After all, it is a younger sibling's job. He burst in without knocking, to find it empty. He was slightly nervous about this, backing away in fear that ghosts had lured them away (again), only to run into aforementioned older sister.
"What are you doing in my room, Danny?" She was annoyed. He put on his best innocent pout in response.
"Just wondering where mom and dad were." She wordlessly handed him a brochure with a note on it. It read:
'Hey kids! There's a Ghost Hunter's Convention going on in California that we were asked to speak at that will last about two weeks. There's money for groceries behind in the lab, plus a little extra for pizza. Don't give your sister too much trouble, Danny. Love, Mom and Dad.' It was taped to a brochure that read 'Modern Ghost Hunting and Paranormal Sciences Convention' and there were a bunch of little things on the front like 'This year hosted by Carl Willingham' and the dates and times of different events.
Danny shrugged and walked back into his room, about to take a nap when his computer binged at him, letting him know someone had sent him something. He opened up his email, to discover that several people from his gym class had sent him something along the lines of 'Danny, it's so cool that you're Phantom! Can I help?' The only one he responded to was Valerie's, telling her that he was free today to start learning martial arts. He sat back down on his bed, and next thing he knew, he was waking up to the doorbell.
"Danny! Get down here!" He walked downstairs, to see everyone who had emailed him.
"It's Danny Phantom! Woo!" This came from Kwan and Dash. Danny had to resist facepalming. He looked incredulously at Jazz, using basic sibling telepathy to say 'You really let them in?'
"One moment." He went back upstairs, and made a brief three-way call to Sam and Tucker, demanding- I mean requesting their presence at FentonWorks. They got there as quickly as they could, but it was still an uncomfortable fifteen minutes. They burst through the door, to be met with the stares of their classmates. "Sam, Tucker, back me up here." Danny then addressed his fellow students. "Listen, everyone. I know you want to help, but the only thing you're going to do for me is keep my secret identity a secret. With the exception of Valerie, I want you all to go home. Now." He was met with a chorus of 'why's' and 'aw man!' "Look! I don't want anyone getting hurt!"
"You let Foley and Manson do it! And why not Valerie?"
"I don't like any of them ghost fighting, but they're all too stubborn to listen to me." With this, Sam gave him a look that said 'damn straight!' Danny tried for at least an hour to try to get them to leave, but the rest of his class turned out to be just as stubborn as his friends. He was red-faced and almost shaking as he tried to get them to understand what it was like to be friends with him, to fight with him. "Sam almost died! If I hadn't shaken off the control Freakshow had over me, she wouldn't be here today! And, my friends and family would have died because of a stupid mistake, if a really strong ghost that happens to like me didn't save them at quite literally the last second!" He winced at the memory, tears starting to form, falling silent as he reigned in his breathing and emotions. Everyone stayed silent, and a lot of people filtered out, but there were still a few people left.
They included Dash, who was shaking at Danny's display, Kwan, who wasn't going to leave his friend's side, Paulina, who seemed not to have heard a word he said, Star, who was performing her role of satellite, Nathan, who was now conversing with Tucker about techie stuff, and Valerie, who was nodding in understanding. Sam pulled Danny and Tuck aside.
"Danny, I think this is as good as we're going to get. I know you don't want too many people in on this, but this might turn out to be for the better. Do you think we could make a few exceptions, and expand Team Phantom?" Danny sighed, his shoulders slumped, and agreed. He turned to the waiting teenagers, and told them what they wanted to hear.
"Before you celebrate, know that this isn't going to be easy. You guys need to learn how to use the equipment, and we need to set up times and places we can meet. My house won't always work, considering that my parents generally want to catch Phantom and tear me apart 'molecule by molecule.' This week though, my house should be fine." They then made their way to the basement, and wouldn't you know it? The A-lists wanted a demonstration. Danny reluctantly agreed, and Sam and Tucker moved everyone towards the staircase. They watched with interest was he stood in the middle of the room, feet shoulder width apart, and shouted his battle cry.
"I'm going ghost!" The rings slid up and down, gliding over him as easily as sliding his body into water. One slid down, obeying gravity; in the process, it washed away his jeans and Converse, leaving behind black hazmat and softly glowing white boots. The other moved upwards, disregarding physics as it washed away his shirt, and even his skin, eye, and hair color, gracing his hands with gloves as the ring moved. Where skin was pale before, now it was tan and glowing. Where hair was black, now it was shimmering white, as if there had never been any color at all. The most noticeable change, to those who really looked at him, was his eyes. Before, they were a soft blue, shining with life. Now, they were a vivid electric green, and held no life in their depths. A thousand times more intense, and so different from what they were just a moment ago.
Everyone was so transfixed by his transformation, they didn't see the rings that now hung from the ceiling, or the guns now aiming at him. They didn't see the panels moving in and out of their original positions quickly, or Sam with a stopwatch in her hand and Tucker at the controls of a computer. It was only when Jazz moved to the side, with a first aid kit in her hand that they realized anything was happening.
"Training begins... NOW!" Sam shouted. "Invisibility!" He fizzled from sight for a moment, then back into view. "Flight!" He flew loops through the rings. "Intangibility!" He flew through the panels that were coming at him. "Activate ectoguns!" The ectoguns started blasting away, and he managed to dodge most of the shots. "Ectoshield!" He put up a shield that lasted until Sam called out "ectoblasts!" The shield fell, and each of the guns (and the targets that popped up) were shot down. "Ice powers!" He froze some more targets, throwing ice balls and some while just blasting others with pure ice energy. "Duplication!" He split himself into two, but they slammed back into each other after half a minute. "Overshadowing!" At this, Danny grinned evilly and turned invisible, and Tucker tried to get out of the way. Fortunately for Tucker, Danny wasn't aiming at him.
Dash started singing "Bad Romance" and doing the dance, acting as sexy as possible. I'll give you three guesses why. By the time it was over, no one could control themselves, and Tucker was in the process of putting it on YouTube. Danny flew out of Dash, laughing his head off, while Dash just looked confused. "What happened?" No one said anything, deciding to hang this over Dash's head as long as possible.
"Guys, I'm done with that for today. I need to save my energy for Valerie's training." They got control of themselves as Danny changed back and walked over to the computer Tuck was typing things into. "So how'd I do today?" he inquired.
"Pretty good. Your speed's up to 190, and you cut ten seconds off the ectoblast and ice stuff. Duplication's the same, though."
"Darn it. I'm never going to get it down!" He moped for a little while, letting Jazz put some aloe on the few burns he got from the ectoguns. She was lecturing him about being more careful, and what if that was a real fight, and blah, blah, blah. Everyone else was baffled that he was disappointed with his progress. They got over it, though, when he went over to them. "That enough of a demonstration for you?" A few nods in his direction were enough. "Okay, we need to figure out what you can do."
He motioned for them to follow him, and gave each one of them a basic ectogun. Tucker set up targets, and after briefly explaining what the guns did and how to work them, he had them fire at the targets. Except for Valerie, that is. She was going around, working with them on aiming and shooting. Danny stood a safe distance behind them, which was wise, seeing as their aim was about as good as Jack's. After about ten minutes, most of them could at least get the target half the time, so Danny had them practice with other weapons.
Training went on like this for some time, as they all figured out what they were good at. Dash and Kwan were good with the Jack-o-Nine-Tails and using the Specter Deflector to turn themselves into human battering rams. Dash was excellent with the Ghost Gloves, and Paulina took to the ghost gauntlets (with the claw-things extended) a little too well for Danny's comfort. Star, surprisingly, was a great shot with the Fenton Bazooka. Nathan learned to use basic things like wrist-rays and the Fenton Utility Weapon, but he joined the Team Phantom Tech Squad.
It was time for dinner by the time they all finished with that, and people were curious about Valerie not getting any gadgets besides a Specter Deflector, Fenton Phones, and a Thermos. They made themselves comfortable in the kitchen, and ordered pizza. While they were waiting for the delivery guy, there was quite a demand for stories. Danny tried to refuse, but after Dash got a chorus of 'Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!' going, it got difficult. Finally, Danny gave in.
"So, what story do you want to hear?" Some kids shouted for something funny, others wanted scary, and others wanted stories with them in them. He was about to tell them all about how he got his ice powers when Val asked to hear how he learned about Vlad. Danny was silent for a little while longer, and he began to speak.
"Okay, so I was out on patrol one night, when I saw these three ghost vultures arguing about being lost. I was really confused, because I had never seen a ghost not attack me before. Anyway, so they come up to me, and show me a picture of my dad. One of 'em asked me if they knew where to find him, so they could kill and/or destroy him. I said no and blasted them. I was about to pull out the Thermos when they attacked me back, and I had to chase them around town. I did, finally getting them into the Thermos after about fifteen minutes, and flew home, only to be greeted by my very angry parents, who have not been happy about me missing curfew all the time.
"I got myself a wonderful lecture for my efforts. Nice, huh? I said something about them not understanding what I was going through, and my hand promptly turned intangible because at this point, my powers still showed up when I didn't want them to sometimes. Jazz said something about me not being able to relate to them because they never told us about when they were younger. Dad took that excuse to drag us all to a college reunion a friend of his was hosting. His friend turned out to be Vlad Masters. On the way, my dad told us about how they were best friends, until Vlad went through an accident with a Ghost Portal Prototype, and got Ecto Acne. He was in the hospital for awhile, and became a billionaire after that.
"We got there (barely), and not even one minute after arriving, Vlad starts hitting on my mom. Jazz really didn't care as long as mom said 'no,' because it meant we slept in nice beds instead of in the RV. He threw a bit of a temper tantrum at my dad, but got control over himself again.
"That night, I woke up to my ghost sense, and discovered that those vultures were in the castle, and trying to waste my dad again. I got him to safety after transforming, and was about to fight them when they screamed and ran off. I thought it was too easy, so I turned around, and one of the freakiest looking ghosts I've ever seen was there. He had hair pointed up like horns, red eyes with no pupils, blue skin, pointed ears, and fangs.
We fought for a little bit, but he overpowered me really easily. He was playing with me the whole time, too. He was faster, he was stronger, and he could do things I couldn't yet. We were sarcastic at each other for a bit, and he said that he knew of me, the ghost boy who used my powers for good. He didn't know I was a halfa, though. After telling me this, he resumed blasting me, and when I fired back, he deflected it. I couldn't make shields yet, so this was new. He duplicated himself, and I thought the four of him were going to beat me up.
"I hate it when I'm right. They all blasted me at the same time, and then pummeled me viciously. The last thing I saw before I passed out was him, in front of me. When I pass out, I go back to being human. I woke up, and Vlad said he found me asleep in the hallway, so he carried me back to bed.
"The reunion was the next day. My parents were dancing, and I was thoroughly embarrassed. Vlad asked me to go down into his lab and get a present for my dad. I didn't question the existence of a lab in his mansion, because he has billions of dollars and can spend it however he wants. When I got down there, I didn't find a present, but I found Skulker. He's after my pelt because of my half-ghost status, so him capturing me in something that canceled out my ghost powers, while frightening, wasn't too far from his M.O. Neither was him shocking me until I turned human again.
"He had a knife to my throat when Vlad stepped out of the shadows, and told off Skulker for trying to kill me. Surprise number one was Skulker backing down. Surprise number two was him saying I was the second ghost hybrid my dad's 'foolishness' created and transforming into his ghost half, which was the ghost from the night before. He then went into a monologue, saying that he's had his powers for twenty years, and would train me in their use and treat me like a son if I turned on my dad.
"That's when I started calling him a seriously crazed up fruitloop." That's also when the pizza arrived. Jazz got up to pay for it, Danny pausing his story until the guy left. "Anyway, I told him that would never happen. He just teleported out of there to go try to ruin my dad's life. I was struggling for a while, when I heard a voice. My ghost sense would have gone off if all of my powers weren't canceled out. The Dairy King's ghost showed up, and got me out of the power eliminator. I don't think he likes Vlad very much, but he's not strong enough to do anything about it, which is the only reason most other ghosts tolerate him.
"I went off to find Vlad, and saw him overshadowing my dad. I managed to force him out, and we fought for a bit, but I knew I couldn't beat him, so I threatened him. I threatened to expose him, and he said if I did, he'd return the favor. Then, my mom and dad burst through the door in the RV, and Plasmius phased my mom out of the roof. When I aimed some of the weapons in the RV at Vlad, he dropped mom. To make my dad look better, I overshadowed him and made him catch her.
"I forced Vlad into a truce after that. If he didn't agree to it, I would expose us both. I hadn't been framed for very much after that, and I knew my parents would accept me, but they wouldn't accept Vlad. He agreed, and pretended to be defeated. We've run into each other since then, and it's been an unspoken agreement that we don't expose each other. He may be a seriously crazed up fruitloop who has needed a cat for a very long time, but he's smart. I don't want anyone besides me and Valerie, who has proved several times to be one of the best ghost hunters in Amity Park, to go up against him, and only when he pulls something first."
As they ate the rest of the pizza, they decided to work out a patrol schedule. Danny, Sam, and Tucker would patrol on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, and Valerie, Dash, and Nathan would get Tuesdays and Thursdays. Danny and Val would switch off weekends, and everyone else would help with what was close by. After dinner, they went back down to the basement. Danny and Valerie to train, Sam Tucker and Jazz to watch, and everyone else was just following them, hoping to figure out why Danny mentioned 'always having someone in the air' on patrols.
They got their answer pretty quickly. As Danny transformed into his ghost half, Valerie became the Red Huntress in a swirl of purple.
A collective "damn" spread over most of the onlookers.
Whew! I apologize if it seemed like that one was unnecessarily long; the story Danny told took up a whole two pages. If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, you know how to let me know! Ciao!
