Disclaimer: Danny Phantom, and its characters and/or ideas are the creation of Butch Hartman. The show does not belong to me nor will it ever.
7
The silent one way street that led into the city of Amity Park was surrounded on each side with what appeared to be a desolate flatland covered with prickly, dying greenery and dirt filled lands. Lancer was unimpressed with the whole area, even when he, Danny, and an unresponsive Ernesto drew closer and came upon the welcoming sign, 'Amity Park, a Nice Place to Live!' before reaching the city's entrance.
The city itself, however, was decent looking as they rode through with its moderately large vast of masterfully constructed buildings and skyscrapers. The grass from before altered into a nice, healthy green trim and the early afternoon sky above them was cloudless and bright. Still, the near absence of people roaming about in the vicinity of the city was disconcerting. There was an eerie aura seeping from the outside that brought a chilling sensation to the older man's body.
"So, where are we stopping?" Lancer asked, wanting to break the present awkward silence that had befallen between him and the dark haired teen.
Danny seemed to contemplate the question before he said, "I need to somehow get in contact with my friends. They should be able to help me."
"Where do your friends live then?"
Danny didn't answer as his eyes went wide in his sockets and he absently rested the palms of his hands against the car's back passenger window to glance outside. "Stop the car," his command was so haunted that Lancer couldn't have disregarded it even if he had had the strength to.
With the screech of his tires, the vehicle came to an abrupt stop right in the middle of the street. Edward didn't get a word in edgewise as the younger boy bolted out of the Hyundai and raced his way to the remains of charred brick, rumble, and lawn in an isolated area. Danny fell to his knees in front of the blackened space, his hand reaching out to grasp onto a single burnt piece of plastic that was amongst the debris.
Lancer stalked over to stand behind the distraught teen, yet Danny ignored his presence for a time. Danny tightened his hold on his find as he clenched his eyes to keep the tears at bay. Bittersweet memories assaulted his mind in a warring haze, making it that much harder to control his emotions. The sudden guilt of all that had happened to him and his family in the past almost was too much.
With a shaking breath, Danny reopened his now glowing green eyes and stared ahead at seemingly nothing. "My friends and I used to come here all the time. The Nasty Burger was the most popular food place to eat at after school." He paused and gave a humorless laugh before saying, "My friend Tucker always had said the word 'nasty' was one letter away from the word 'tasty'."
"W-What happened?" Lancer said softly, not sure he even wanted to know after he had asked.
Danny slowly, almost hesitantly, looked back over his shoulder to peer at the other with his green eyes changing into a vulnerable sapphire gem. "It was an explosion," he murmured as he then stood up and released the light piece of plastic into the wind. He watched as it fluttered effortlessly in the air before he focused on the high school teacher once again. "We should go to the library, and use one of their computers. They have internet connection."
The black haired boy quickly walked back to the car with Lancer a step behind him with a bewildered expression, the both of them hopping into the vehicle and fastening their seatbelts. Ernesto was still passed out in the front seat; Lancer made sure to check and see that the other man was still breathing before placing the automatic into drive and racing down the road. Lancer wasn't too worried about maintaining his speed on Amity Park's highways, but he still kept a reasonable pace. Once he had gotten the directions to the library, he headed toward downtown through one of the city's back roads.
"Wouldn't it have been easier to just call your friends instead of going through all this hassle?"
Danny and Lancer were stationed at an assigned computer inside the city's library, the sitting black haired teen hastily pressing keys and trying to access a rather familiar instant messenger. Danny had been swift to remove himself from the vehicle the minute Lancer parked the car into an empty space, but the older male had to convincingly remind him that he was still a wanted fugitive who was the prime suspect in his family's death. He would be caught by the authorities if he didn't have some type of cover.
With quick thinking, Danny had rushed back to Montez's car and poked around in the backseat where he had seen a heavy coat and fedora-like hat on the floor. He had then put on his improvised disguise, the boy looking more like a miniature version of a detective than anything else; but nonetheless, was unrecognizable. Danny had made sure to keep his eyes lowered so that he didn't make eye contact with anyone.
After the two had gone inside, they had strolled over to the check out stand and had obtained permission from the librarian to use one of the six available computers that was secluded from the rest of the stock. There were less than five people reading and/or renting out books so Danny didn't have to be concerned about how long he spent on the net. It was just so frustrating to have Lancer questioning him and not being able to log into his IM account. Eventually, a blank screen with the word 'forbidden' popped open after his nth attempt of trying and failing to sign in.
"You shouldn't doubt me, remember?" Danny said with a bit of dejection moments later. "And yes, it would be easier to call my friends, but contacting them through IM is much safer."
"How so?" Mr. Lancer watched on curiously as Danny clicked into the system's files and typed diligently.
"For one, they're still at school and won't be let out for another hour or so. But more importantly, I know for a fact that they are being watched and that their phones are tapped."
"But couldn't the internet be tapped as well?"
Danny didn't respond right away; he was skillful with his fingers as he typed with patient speed and opened window after window on the desktop as he entered in unknown information. Lancer observed for awhile before he figured out what the clever teen was doing. It only took another couple of minutes before Danny was able to log in completely. A satisfied smile overcame the said teen's face as he tricked the computer into gaining him access.
"If anything is tapped through the internet connection, it would take longer to decode," Danny was referring to what the older male had asked beforehand, "this way, I could send my own encrypted message to Sam and Tucker."
Lancer couldn't help but be proud of how sharp minded this boy was. "You know what you did was probably illegal, right?"
The raven headed male shrugged. "Probably," he agreed nonchalantly, "I have my friend Tucker to thank for that."
Danny finished with the computer five minutes later, safely shutting down the PC through the start menu. He and Lancer then stood up from their appointed chairs and departed from the library. Lancer had wanted to browse through some of the shelves that encased the books, but he knew neither one of them had time for that. They were both surprised to see that the former mayor of Amity Park was still slouched downward unconscious in his seat of his vehicle.
"Wow. He's still knocked out," Danny muttered.
"Like me, he's probably had a traumatic day."
Lancer drove his two traveling occupants to the parking lot of the Amity Park Mall. Danny had reasoned that it would be best for the both of them to be in a public place, a threat was less likely to attack them in front of bystanders. The educator and teenager left the car wordlessly, leaving the keys in clear sight for Ernesto as soon as the man decided to wake up. The towering structure of the shopping mall wasn't all that impressive, though it did have a sense of simplistic style for the entryway.
There were a lot more passersby in and around the interior of the building than there had been from the outside. The hustle and bustle of the regular customers coming in and out of various stores was of a typical setting, although the looks of wariness and apprehension on the majority of their faces was much to be desired. Edward and Danny effectively stayed inconspicuous within the crowd. No one became alarmed as the concealed black haired boy walked onward. He was just another kid with no fashion sense to them.
But even with how smoothly everything was coming along at the moment, Lancer continued to feel the ominous stirring that was settling all around them. He didn't know if that was his growing paranoia or something more evil heading their way. He consciously could admit to himself he thought it was the latter.
"You feel it too, don't you? That foreboding feeling."
The heavyset male snapped his head in the direction of the ebony haired teen's voice in shock. Danny was currently several feet away, gazing at a closed off section of the mall. The opening of a specific store was trashed with graffiti and yellow colored tape. On its stained window was a 3-D picture of a teenaged boy superhero in a fighting stance with snow-white locks and shimmering green orbs. The black hazmat suit the teen was wearing showcased the small amount of muscles on his torso, even though the rest of his body was lithe.
Lancer ambled forward and came to stand on the side of the younger male. His jade eyes followed Danny's line of vision, and his eyebrows furrowed when he inwardly read the name of the superhero above the aforementioned photo: Danny Phantom. A sudden revelation clicked in his mind as the man began to look back and forth between Danny and the pale headed crime fighter.
"Th-That's you, isn't it? You're this Danny Phantom character." The teacher was stunned.
"It doesn't matter. It's not who I am anymore," was the whispered reply after a long pause.
Taking one more look at the picture, Danny shoved his hands in the coat's pocket and walked away, his mood somber. Lancer trailed behind, questions formulating in his mind. He still wanted to resume probing Danny about some of his thoughts, but thought better of it when he caught the look of seriousness on the younger male's countenance. Lancer had to wonder about this boy. If Danny hadn't been the one responsible for his parents' murder, than who was? Running footsteps halted the older man's mind process as a frightened young woman ran past he and a startled Danny.
"Keep your eyes peeled," Danny cautioned. Lancer unsteadily nodded his head in affirmation.
Somehow, the two of them distractedly stumbled upon a trinket shop. Lancer was searching through a pile of mundane ornaments when he sensed the telltale sign of somebody watching him. He lifted his head upward and saw a minuscule camera attached in the corner of the wall. The small lens of the device seemed to zoom in everytime either he or Danny made a slight move. That is very disturbing...
xxx
A green skinned ghost hid in the shadows and kept his eyes focused on the older male and teen a distance away. He was internally giddy with the mass of damage he would be indulging himself in. He couldn't wait! Just a few more minutes...
xxx
Danny and Lancer sauntered side by side, narrowly evading the hordes of people that were standing in front of the Orange Julius stand. Both males had departed from the trinket shop hurriedly, neither one being able to pinpoint exactly what was going on. And because Danny's ghost sense hadn't been triggered, the black haired teen couldn't specify why he was feeling the way he was feeling. All he knew was something was bound to occur.
It was around a quarter to three when the pair arrived at the food court, the allotted meeting place Danny had set up between them and his friends. Danny just hoped that his friend Tucker still had his PDA and that he and Sam would meet up with them sooner rather than later. The ebony headed boy found a round table at the edge of a passageway where he and Lancer could sit at while they waited.
Both took a seat, dragging their chairs across the patterned linoleum on the ground. As soon as they got comfortable, the lights that illuminated all the stores blew out, causing surprised gasps and shouts to erupt from several of the shoppers. Lancer tensed his body in alarm whereas Danny stood up and looked around their surroundings in awareness. Some of the more fearful people ran about, screaming their heads off, but Danny paid no mind to them.
An unidentified hand unexpectedly clapped on his shoulder from behind him; and at the same time, the same bluish breath left his lips in all its creepiness. Then a familiar female voice whispered delicately in his ear.
"Danny..."
It's been a while, huh? And of course, it ends on a cliffhanger...haha! Until next time!
