Authoress Note: Here's the next chapter. :D
Sorry for the long wait. Horrible writer's block attacked me through some parts, so it was even slower to get done D: … Anyway, thanks again for all the feedback! I'm really happy to see you like the story so far.
By the way, I don't think I mentioned this: I'm placing the story sometime after "Life Lessons". That's to clear any confusion regarding the characters behavior towards others.
Disclaimer: Danny Phantom © Butch Hartman.
Chapter 4 'Ghost Hunt'
Consciousness came back to him. He slowly opened his eyes feeling dazed from the rough traveling. He blinked a few times trying to clear the blurriness in his sight. Once his vision was back to normal, he raised an eyebrow in confusion. He had a bird's eye view of one of the school's classrooms. It took Danny just a few seconds to comprehend he was actually floating against the ceiling. He could only let out a yelp of surprise before gravity took over and made him meet the floor below with a loud crash. He groaned standing up slowly.
"That would have been a perfect time for intangibility to kick in unasked…"
Danny looked around in hopes of finding Sam or Tucker in the room, but it was deserted. Whoever was having class in there, left hurriedly without a second thought. The desks were all moved around or even turned over, there were papers scattered all around the floor and personal belongings were left behind.
Deciding to move on, Danny walked out of the classroom finding a dark and desolated hallway. He walked just a few steps, when his ghost sense went off, making him stop in his track.
"Great, now what?" he asked with irritation. Making sure there was no one to see him, he changed into phantom, before flying through the line of lockers in search of the ghost he sensed.
Turning around a corner, he found a big green animal-like creature resembling some kind of wolf with red eyes, growling with sharp teeth at a helpless student that was cornered against the wall. Danny landed right in between the two and filled his hands with ecto-energy, standing with a challenging gesture.
"So Skulker let his little pets go free," he commented before raising his voice to the creature. "Hey, furball! Don't you know the rules? No pets in school!"
Danny directed his palms towards the beast, shooting a pair of ecto-ray that hit the ghost, sending it crashing against the lockers. The animal ghost just seemed to have gotten angrier and charged at Danny intending to bite him.
"You might wanna run," Danny suggested to his peer, who barely nod before running away screaming his lungs out.
Turning his attention back to the fight, Danny reacted in time turning himself intangible, but in the last second, his powers acted up again causing the intangibility on his body to flicker. The teenager gasped in surprised and pain when the beast threw him back-first to the floor; its sharp teeth scraping his skin and leaving a thin cut on his upper arm.
"Play time is over, doggy," Danny managed to say in an attempt to kick it off him.
The moment his foot connected with the ghostly beast, it went right through its stomach having turned intangible.
"Wha-?" Danny looked incredulously at his foot before turning back at the beast's face. It was growling at him with its head leaning forward centimeters away from his own nose. Danny just grinned nervously. "That wasn't supposed to happen."
Danny started glowing green for a second before a powerful blast hit the creature right on the chest sending it flying to the ceiling. It crashed against the lights receiving a zap before falling back to the ground completely staggered. Danny stood up looking at his smoking palm somewhat amused.
"Well, that's not what I had in mind, but it worked," he smiled satisfied before turning to the stunted ghost. "Now, back to the cage, Fido," Danny reached for his back and realization washed over him. "Oh, crud… I don't have a thermos with me."
He looked around thinking of a side plan when he noticed where he was.
"My locker should be on the floor below. I could-Whoa!"
The beast suddenly lunged towards him from the back, sending him to the ground. Danny closed his eyes in concentration and managed to make them both intangible, phasing through the floor into the hallway below and falling on top of something as hairy as the wolf-like ghost. He opened his eyes to see he had fallen on a, now knocked out, rabbit-like creature.
"Is Mr. Whiskers a friend of yours?" he asked to the growling beast.
Without warning, a pink blast hit the wolf making it stumble down next to the rabbit. Danny looked up in surprise to find Valerie on her huntress suite with a big gun resting on her shoulder.
"Hey, ghost boy! Long pass!"
"Sam?" Danny turned around to find Sam throwing a thermos at him. He flew to catch it and didn't waste any time sucking both animal ghosts into the cylindrical device.
"Were those more of your pets, ghost?" Valerie asked in an acid tone with her weapon ready and charged.
"What?! No! This is all Skulker's!" Danny defended with irritation, landing in front of her. "He's at it again, and unless we stop him, I don't think we can get the school out of the ghost zone."
"Why do you care anyway?" Valerie asked somewhat skeptical.
"Hero… complex?" Sam suggested next to them, gaining a slight glare from Danny.
"Look, I just wanna help, ok?" said Danny placing the thermos on his back; determination showing in his face. "Right now is not the time to be fighting each other when we have a bigger problem to handle."
Valerie looked at him in silence, as if analyzing his words and expression. After a short moment she sighed lowering the weapon and offering him her hand.
"Fine. You win, ghost boy," she said in resignation. "Let's be allies… for now."
Danny smiled at her nodding before shaking her hand to seal their deal.
"Okay, now that that's settle…" interrupted Sam walking in front of them and hanging her spider bag on her shoulders. " What's the plan?"
"We find Skulker and take the portal device from him," explained Danny.
"Well, that sounds simple enough."
"Let's get going. The sooner we get out of this, the sooner I'll be able to kick your ghostly butt when this is over," said Valerie walking ahead.
"So much for gaining her trust…" said Danny, crossing his arms in annoyance. Sam just smiled sympathetically at him.
"The Ghost Child and the Huntress, this just became more interesting!"
All three of them looked over their heads in time to see Skulker appearing from within one of his temporal portals, riding a bear beast. The creature landed with a roared at the sight of them and scratched the floor impatiently waiting for its master's orders to attack them. The mechanical ghost extended his arm towards them, taking a weapon out of his forearm.
"Having fun trying to control your powers, whelp?"
Before Danny could respond, Valerie entered into her 'shoot first, ask questions never' mode and shot a blast towards Skulker, making him fall from the beast's saddle. She didn't waste any time charging her weapon again and pointing it at the ghostly hunter.
"So, you finally decided to show up, ghost," she said in a challenging tone.
Skulker growled in annoyance and shot a missile in their direction. Danny grabbed Sam and turned both intangible. Valerie jumped out of the way activating her hover board. The missiles ended up blowing against the floor lifting debris and smoke all over the place; the force of the explosion sending Valerie flying a few feet away. When it cleared up, they could see a small smoking crater right on the spot where the missiles had blasted.
"At this rate, there won't be a school to save," commented Danny after turning their tangibility back. "We better lead him outside," he jumped up attempting to fly but...
Sam cringed at the smacking sound of her friend falling face first to the floor.
"Ugh…this is starting to get annoying," Danny raised his head reaching his forehead with one hand. He froze in place hearing a low growl right next to him. Turning around, he found the beast's face centimeters away from his own.
"Don't your pets know anything about personal space?" he asked rolling away from it and shooting rays of ectoplasm from his palms, or so he tried, but nothing came out. "Oh, come on!"
Skulker grinned evilly, commanding his beast to attack. Danny jumped to his feet and stood still in until the last second, he then moved out of the way allowing the creature to impact the wall behind him, creating yet another crater.
"What are you doing, Phantom? I thought you wanted to save the school, not destroy it!" Valerie yelled hovering over his head.
"It was me or the wall!" Danny exclaimed exasperated. "I rather have one more crushed wall, than me looking like a pancake…"
Skulker didn't give any time for an answer as he shot more missiles towards them. Danny reacted in time creating a shield around them and causing the missiles to explode right on its surface. The shield unexpectedly grew wider until it reached Skulker and plastered him and his beast against the wall in awkward positions, before it flickered out of existence. Valerie blinked twice in confusion, giving Danny a questioning look. Sam just looked at him blankly before grinning slightly in amusement.
"Um… I meant to do that…" Danny lied looking back at them with a goofy grin.
A growl from the beast made them remember their current situation and looking back at the ghosts, they found a very annoyed Skulker and an enraged beast glaring daggers at them.
"Come on, we don't have much time!" said Valerie reading her hover board's engines.
Danny tried lifting himself from the ground but his feet stood rooted in place. He groaned. "I can't fly…"
"What do we do now?" Sam asked.
Deciding to leave the questions for later, Valerie lowered her board to ground level. "Hop on, hurry!" she commanded.
"Thinking on escaping, ghost child?" Skulker asked starting to float using the turbines on his back.
Danny gritted his teeth and did as Valerie had said, when a sudden scream followed by an explosion distracted them all for a moment.
"You better say your prayers, ghost!" they heard a voice exclaiming.
"What?" Valerie looked through the hallway not finding anything abnormal.
"That voice! Mo-Maddie!" Danny exclaimed worried. 'This is bad…'
Something clicked on Sam's head and she started running towards the end of the hallway, were the commotion had come from.
"Sam! Where are you going!?" asked Danny with a worried frown.
"You go on ahead! I'll… guide her to the 'right' direction."
Understanding the hidden meaning behind her words, he just nodded and hurried Valerie into speeding ahead. In a matter of seconds, they were riding through the halls, making sharp turns every now and then, with the hunter following suit. Danny had created a shield behind them, preventing Skulker's attacks to do any damage.
"Couldn't you turn us intangible all the way to the outside?" Valerie suggested.
"My powers have been acting up; I wouldn't take any chances of becoming a sticker on the wall."
"We'll have to do it my way then."
Meanwhile, Sam continued running towards the battling sounds, but a sudden growl made her stop on her track and turn around. Just a few feet away, the bear-like ghost had been left behind, too, and was now looking at Sam with fierce red eyes. She flinched for a second before switching into a battle stand with determination.
"Wanna play, Yogie?" she asked in a challenging tone. "Come at me."
Feeling provoked by her daring stare, the beast headbutted at her. Sam waited for the right timing and rolled out of the way taking out a second Fenton thermos from her backpack and pointed it at the confused beast, sucking it in within seconds.
"Gotcha," Sam smiled satisfied at the thermos, while placing her free hand over her hip.
"Sam! Don't tell me you were taken by one of those portals, too," a voice from behind, made her jump and hide the thermos behind her back as she turned around to find Maddie and one of the students.
"Oh! Hello, Mrs. Fenton!" she greeted. "Y-Yeah… that's exactly what happened," she answered truthfully.
"Well, you better stay near me; we don't know when more of those horrible ghosts may show up," said Maddie sheathing her double blade ecto-weapon on her jumpsuit.
"T-Thank you, again, for saving me, Mrs. Fenton!" said the boy next to her in excitement.
"Oh, it was nothing, Nathan," said Maddie in a sweeter voice, as if it had not being such a big deal.
"So… where's Mr. Fenton?" asked Sam hopping to delay them a little more.
"I was waiting for him to return from the bathroom, when I caught sight of the beast that was attacking Nathan, so I ran after it," Maddie explained. "But he'll be alright on his own, don't worry," she added, while starting to go ahead. "We should keep walking and look for any other student that might have been pulled out of the gym."
Sam sighed inwardly and followed out of options.
Already a good distance away from them, Danny and Valerie had just reached the exit leading to the school's running track, only to find the door had been sealed, similarly to the doors in the gym. Valerie made her board turn around hundred and eighty degrees before continuing ahead meeting Skulker right on front. Danny shot a pair of ectoplasm blasts at the hunter that came out a little too big, making them unavoidable. Skulker was sent flying backwards into one of the classrooms, blasting the door into pieces.
"If you were going to destroy the place anyways, you might have as well just blasted the exit doors…" complained Valerie without stopping.
"Sorry, it came a little stronger than I intended," Danny replied sheepishly.
Even with that last attack, Skulker didn't take long to get back in track and continue giving chase. As they continue speeding through the place, they passed by different exit doors. All of them sealed with ectoplasmic goo. Turning a corner, they caught sight of two people standing in the middle of the hallway throwing nervous glances to their surroundings.
"Move out of the way!" warned them Valerie as they approached.
"City of the Beasts! What's going on here!?"
"Oh, my gosh! It's the ghost boy~!"
"Oh, great…" Danny just grimaced behind Valerie. "Tell me you have emergency breaks..."