Ah! I'm sorry I took so long for an update! Please forgive me! I was really, really busy recently with life and all that crap so, yeah, you know. I think. So, all that aside, I believe you're eagerly awaiting the start of the next chapter, right? So, let's go!
Earthdance
--Turn around, stare death in the face, and say 'hello reality'.--
4: Earth's Confrontation; My Self Control
"Danny, come on, it's like we're walking into a war zone!" Sam groaned, glaring up at the drawn curtain over the loft where Danny was cowering, "Come out of your stupid plant and let's go!"
"It's not stupid," He grumbled but didn't come out, "I happen to sleep there, Sam, and I don't want to go outside, what if someone stares at me?"
"Daniel Fenton!" Sam snapped, stomping her foot on the floor, "Get down here right now or I'm coming up there and dragging you down, dressed or not!"
There was a moment of disgruntled silence and then some shuffling and then Danny started scrambling down the ladder only to slip and end up on his stomach on the floor. Sam hid a smile behind her hand and helped him to his feet. The streak of white still ran through his hair and his left eye was still that neon green but he still acted like good old Danny the Klutz, even with the powers of a Guardian inside him.
A faint blush crept into Danny's pale cheeks as he grasped her hand in his own, holding it tightly. His skin was icy, it had been since he'd woken up, and his breath was cool and fresh, and his features had been slightly altered; he looked like an angel, a beautiful marble angel without its wings that had come to life. Just for her. Sam pressed her forehead against his and he slowly wrapped his arm around her, pulling her close, cool breath whispering against her neck. Her skin prickled and she looked into his opposite colored eyes. They were inches apart…mere inches…a centimeter separated them…she leaned closer, her eyes beginning to close and-.
"Hey, Lovebirds, save it for the picnics in the Ghost Wood!" Tucker's voice made them jump apart, "Ha! You should have seen your faces!" He started laughing and Danny's face went from white to red in about the space of three seconds.
"Sh-shut up Tucker!" He stuttered, still clutching Sam's hand, "You big jerk!"
"Aw, cut it out, you two!" Sam tugged on Danny's hand and dragged him out the door, "Let's go already, the sun isn't going to stop in the sky for us!"
The sunlight was blinding to Danny, at first, since he'd spent more time than usual cooped up in his home but as soon as his eyes adjusted his spirits lifted and he forgot that he was no longer just Danny Fenton. He jumped ahead of Sam and Tucker, skipping down the path, leaping agilely over crevasses and mounds of rock.
"Danny!" Tucker shouted as he and Sam raced to catch up, "Danny, hold on, you're going to fast!"
But the boy hadn't seemed to hear him and was now walking along a low stone wall, his arms pinwheeling comically. Then, he vanished. Sam and Tucker skidded to a halt and looked around. He'd disappeared!
"Danny?" Sam called, "Danny?" She looked up, "Tucker! Look, there he is! How the hell did he get up there…!?"
Shielding his eyes from the sun, Tucker followed Sam's gaze up a metal pole that towered above some of the bigger houses. It had been, apparently, at one time the support beam of a huge metal building that had long since fallen and now rose out of the ruins like a memorial to the fallen. And standing on top of it, his hands in his pockets, leaning forward slightly, gazing out over the horizon, was Danny. There was no mistaking the wild tangle of black (and now white) hair that was being whipped by a wind the two on the ground could not feel and the familiar arch of the back, the way he moved, it was Danny.
"Those Elemental Guardian powers must be kicking in full force!" Tucker commented, readjusting his glasses and then going back to starring up at Danny, "Do you think he even realizes he's up there?"
"Who knows but I'd hate to call his name and make him fa-opps, jinxed him." Sam muttered, "What a klutz."
Danny was swaying on top of the pole, arms flailing wildly, one leg sticking out into space, the other trying franticly to keep his balance on the pole. It was all to no avail. He slipped and went tumbling head over heels through the air. Tucker and Sam screamed his name and ran forward, trying to get to him before he hit the ground in what would surely be a life-ending impact. But their help was not needed; Danny swiveled about in mid-air and landed silently on the ground on all fours like a cat.
"Danny, are you okay!?"
"Danny! Crap, what the hell was that!?"
"I…I…" Danny stuttered with his words, scrambling to his feet, looking from the ground where he'd landed to the pole he'd fallen from, "I…I dunno, I just sort of acted on instinct and…and I…I-."
"Hey Fenton! Nice hair! You look like a rat's rear end!" A hoot of laughter and Danny groaned, his shoulders sagging, as Dash Baxter, local bully who particularly liked Danny as the target, appeared around a corner with his lackey Kwan in tow.
"Get off of it, Dash!" Sam snapped at the bigger boy, grabbing Danny's hand as Tucker ducked behind both of them, "Leave him alone, he's had a hard day!"
Dash laughed,
"Got your little girlfriend to fight your battle for you, Fenton!" The blonde sneered, leering over the trio, "Oooooh, little wussy boy!" He reached past Sam and grabbed Danny's shoulder only to yelp in pain and let go, leaping back starring at his hand, "You little…what the hell did you do!?"
"Wh-what!?" Danny was starring at his shoulder where Dash had grabbed him, "What is this!? What's going on!?" A green thorn was protruding from his skin, sprouting up, sharp as a dagger, gleaming slightly with a bit of Dash's blood.
"You freak!" Kwan shouted, backing away, Dash almost running him over as he tried to run, "What the hell are you!?" And he raced off behind the other bully.
"Danny…" Sam turned around to face him and found tears trickling down his face, his hand grasping the thorn on his shoulder and pulling on it, "Danny, stop it!" Danny ignored her and snapped the thorn off his shoulder, screaming in pain as he did, a spurt if red blood sliding from the hole that he'd ripped in his skin.
"Danny!" Tucker started to grab at his friend but Danny shook his head, leapt to his feet, one hand still over the bleeding hole in his shoulder, and dashed off towards the forest. Sam and Tucker took off after him but he was definitely faster than he had been before and by the time they caught up with him in the middle of the Ghost Wood, they were completely out of breath.
"Danny?" Sam gasped, leaning against a tree trunk, "Danny, come on out, we're not scared of you…! You're hurt and need attention!"
"Come on, man," Tucker has supporting himself by resting his hands on his knees, doubled over, wheezing to get his breath back, "You know you're still our friend no matter what happens!"
"Danny's not here…!" A familiar voice muttered sullenly from above them, "Go away. Get out of my forest. I want to be alone."
"Damn it, Danny!" Sam scrambled up the tree she'd been leaning against and poked her head through the leaves, coming face to face with a pair of brilliant green eye and a shock of snow white hair, "Whoa…!" She composed herself as those glowing emerald eyes flooded with tears, "No, no, Danny, look, there's nothing wrong with you, come on down from there. I still love you…!"
"No." Danny Phantom muttered, turning away, and Sam could see the vines twisting down from the upper branches of the tree, curled all up his arm and shoulder, "I don't want to go back there, they'll all hate me for what I am."
"Your parents don't hate you!" Tucker shouted from the forest floor, "We don't hate you! Dash and Kwan are just stupid!"
Danny made noise halfway between a whimper and a growl and glanced back over his shoulder, those green eyes locking with Sam's lilac ones. Sam reached out and touched his cheek. It was like touching a frozen piece of glass and she lost feeling in her fingertips immediately but she didn't take her hand away. Danny needed them. Danny's hand, the one that wasn't covered in vines, grasped her fingers and spread the chill.
"Danny, we're your best friends and no matter what happens we're still there for you." Sam's cheeks flushed with how corny this was all sounding, "A-and we're not scared of you and neither are Jazz or your parents. We all love you, we don't care that you're the Guardian of the Forest now. You're still our Danny."
"I'm being stupid, huh?" The vines on his arm slunk back up into the tree, revealing the wound to be completely healed, not a scar left behind, "I'm sorry guys, I just…I'm just really scared by these, by what's going on." His vibrant green eyes faded into crystal blue, "I wish Phantom were here to help," A grin split his features as his hair went from white to gray to pitch black, "But you guys are twice as good as he was…!"
Sam smiled but it quickly vanished as Danny lost his center of gravity on the tree branch and tumbled off, knocking into her, and sending them both to the ground on top of the unfortunate Tucker.
--Guardian of the Forest--
Miles and miles away from Amity and the Ghost Wood, someone was pacing furiously back and forth in a dimly lit chamber, the most that was visible of them was their outline, a black silhouette in the faded light. The air in the room was thick and heavy, hot to the boiling point, but the figure didn't seem to notice, they continued to weave their way from one wall to the other, walking around a low table and a single chair, the only decorations of any kind.
Suddenly, as if struck by an idea, the figure stopped moving and looked up, a pair of glowing red eyes burning in the gloom. They stood stock still, gazing at something no one else could see, barely breathing. And then, a split second after they had frozen, they moved, this time towards one of the walls, and swept a hand over it, causing the wall to slide away, and they stepped into a hallway lit brightly by globes of light floating all over the ceiling.
"It's ready. For sure this time." Said the man that had exited the room, talking to himself since there was no one else, "And I must use it now."
Vlad 'Plasmius' Masters was tall and thin, whether his Guardian power was fully active or not. Currently, caught up in a rage and his mind working fervently, he was in the form he had obtained from Molten; black hair, a streak of dark gray in the middle, pointed into spikes, ash-gray skin, and flaming red eyes. But once the darkness in Vlad's heart had corrupted Molten, effectively making him Plasmius, he'd sprouted a nice set of fangs and claws to go with his hatred of the human race.
And it wasn't just humans he hated either. He hated Phantom. But that hate wasn't originally Vlad's, it had come with the package when he'd fused with Molten. Why Molten loathed Phantom with such a passion was something Vlad had never discovered but he had nursed that frothing pool of odium with his own malicious desires. Molten wanted revenge on Phantom for something, Vlad wanted power, and so, quite by accident, Vlad Masters and Molten the Guardian of Fire had become Plasmius the Guardian of Fire. Hate was his weapon, his drive, his motive, his reason, and his vision. Hate that went so deep it burned like the flames he controlled, taking down anything it came into contact with, as dark and twisted as Hell itself. And Plasmius loved it. The feeling of raw power seeping from the immense detestation within him sent chills through his body, made him feel invincible.
"And now vengeance will be oh so much sweeter…!" Plasmius hissed, his temper dwindling, his spiked hair falling back over his shoulders of its own accord, fading into a silvery gray, "But I must act quickly," His flaming red eyes flickered into turquoise, his fangs shrank back, "Just because it will be easier to catch the little rat doesn't mean I should wait. Someone else must have heard by now." The human formed Guardian swept into a huge laboratory, pinning his hair into a loose ponytail that swung down to the middle of his back, and readjusting his midnight black suit with clawless hands, "No doubt the idiot Clockwork is rushing over there as we speak, well I can't have him goading the little brat into being all goody-goody now can I?"
The man strolled up to a panel of steel and ran his fingers over it lovingly. Lost technology; over hundreds of years of it, buried miles beneath the ground and those moronic Guardians had failed to notice. Kudos to him for finding it…and making it his own. It had taken a while for him to understand how to use it but once he had he started his plans. The plans to capture Phantom.
"And now that the little monster is part human this will make things so much simpler!" Vlad clapped his hands together and started typing away, turning knobs, and pushing buttons, "As soon as this is set…you're mine!"
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Alright, time for some explanations. Danny and Vlad, both being one with Guardians, take on the appearance of the Guardian they 'fused' with (hence Danny's eyes and hair changing back and forth) but they can also use a little bit of power without switching forms (hence Danny sprouting a thorn from his shoulder). But their cloths do not change! Whatever they are wearing when they 'transform' is what they're stuck with! And the whole thing with Danny having the white streak and one green eye was because he still was not completely one with Phantom. Ah, and I couldn't remember what color Vlad's eyes were so now their turquoise. Shoot me.
And the truth is out…! Sort of. Whatever Vlad 'Plasmius' Masters is planning it can't be good, right? On a side note, I really don't think (and EmptyHeart agrees with me on this) that Vlad is a bad guy. I have a slightly unstable belief that he's a rich, bored guy with gone-sour-powers and too much time on his hands. And an unhealthy obsession with Maddie. Which does not present itself in this fic.
Whew! That's got to be the longest A/N I've ever done…! Please leave me a review! More chapters will magically spawn and it gets Tucker free PDAs:)
