A/N I told you I'd have this chapter up faster! I only half like this chapter, but on the bright side, Danny kicks Dash's butt! Enjoy.
Danny flew as quickly as he could, but could feel the strain of pushing himself so early in the day with the chemicals sliding through his veins. He was forced down to a height that he could be seen easily so he wouldn't have to constantly duck and dodge clouds, and he prayed that no news helicopters would be out this morning. He REALLY wasn't in the mood, not to mention wasn't sure what color his eyes would be. They were still sore, but it was more of a 'no sleep' sore then before. When he heard a nearly silent hiss, he spun around, whipping his head from side to side, paranoid.
Please don't be Valerie, please don't be Valerie… He saw nothing but a few trees rustling with the breeze. Phew. Danny checked the town clock tower far behind him, and could tell he only had about a minute to get to school, so he poured on as much speed as he could afford. When more icy sweat started pouring down his face, he finally slowed down. He didn't want to pass out or something like that. Then he'd be even later anyway.
Danny sighed in relief when he saw the building, but his wispy tail spit open into his legs as he suddenly felt heavy. Really heavy. He started falling, flailing his arms and legs. He bit his lip in an effort to not scream, and suddenly felt his normal weightlessness reappear approximately one second before hitting the bushes. The boy dropped down carefully into them, breathing hard. He squeezed his eyes shut, clenching his hands as he morphed back into Fenton just as the bell rang. Danny heard footsteps as he stood up, feeling the sticks and brush in his hair as a few kids pointed and laughed. Frowning, he tried to tug them out as he walked up the steps. Suddenly, he felt a large force shove him forward from behind, causing him to stumble into the stone steps.
"Woah!" Danny lost his footing, toppling over. Dash stepped out from behind him, and had a good laugh before sauntering the rest of the way up, making sure to kick dust in the fallen boy's face. As Danny pushed himself up, he suddenly had a thought.
I have one last chance to put him in his place. Why not take it? Ignoring the feeling he'd been in this position before, Danny stood up again and strolled right up to Dash, plastering a big grin on his face.
"Hey, Dash!" At the mention of his name, the bully turned around.
"What do you want, Fen-toad?" Danny held out his hand.
"I just want to return the favor." Dash looked confused as he stared at Danny's hand-it looked like he wanted to shake. By this time, the halls were pretty much empty except for the boys, so Dash stuck out a hand.
"I don't know what game you're playing, but- YAAAH!" Danny had grabbed his hand and, summing all of his energy up, flipped the bully behind him. The boy hit the tile with a hard 'thud', and Danny just wiped his hands together, his grin shrunk to half of his face. He leaned over above Dash's face. He looked into the bully's half-lidded eyes and pushed his hand under him, using the quarterback's torso to pick him up and set him into a standing position, leaning Dash's body against the wall.
He pulled him down to be eye level and said, concentrating on making his voice hold the slight echo it did when he was a ghost, "Dash, don't mess with those who look weak. You'd be surprised what they can do." With that bit of wisdom dispersed, he shoved his hands into his pockets and walked to class, leaving Dash to wonder what the heck had just happened. Putting the bully in his place had drained him, but he didn't care. If he was lucky, it would be a while before Dash bullied any nerds. Danny had no idea why he'd done that, but it sure felt good, no matter what his tired body said. He finally walked into Mr. Lancer's class, and everyone instantly turned their heads. Mr. Lancer shot him with a disapproving glare.
"Mr. Fenton, is there a reason you're late?" Danny opened his mouth, then realized how massively he would have to lie and just closed it again and shook his head.
"No, Mr. Lancer." The teacher sighed.
"Take your seat. One more late will be a detention." Nodding, Danny quickly sat down. Both Sam and Tucker shot him confused glances, but he just mouthed, 'tell you later' to them both. "Before Mr. Fenton interrupted, I was saying that the tests have been graded and I'll hand them back now." He picked up a thick sheet of papers, dropped them on the desk to get them organized, then started handing the names out alphabetically. When he got to 'Dash Baxter', everyone looked for him. Danny unconsciously slid down in his sheet. Shouldn't he be here by now? Shrugging, Mr. Lancer just moved on to the next paper. When he called Danny's name, he stood up carefully, walking over on halfway wobbly legs.
"Good job, Danny." Mr. Lancer muttered, pointing to the high 'B' on the top of the paper. Danny grinned, taking it. Mr. Lancer turned back to his sheet, calling "Tucker Fol-" Suddenly, the door creaked open. Dash walked in, glaring at Danny. The football player rubbed his letter jacket clad back, stalking over to his seat and dropping down into it heavily. Everyone stared at him for a moment before turning back to talking with friends. Mr. Lancer, however, beckoned the boy over as Danny sat down again. After teacher and student talked for a minute, he was handed his essay and sat back down. Danny braced himself for his name being called, closing his eyes tightly. Dash must have told. Why had he even done anything that stupid?
"Tucker Foley." Danny popped his eyes open. That was a relief. Suddenly he realized something-even if Dash wanted to get Danny in trouble, there was no way Lancer-or anybody else, for that matter-would believe that skinny Danny Fenton could pull off a trick even close to that. Not to mention, Dash had pride and a reputation to hold up. It didn't mean Danny
was going to try anything else dumb, but it was at least some comfort.
When Sam's name got called, Danny walked over to her desk with Tucker close behind. "What did you get?" Danny asked. She held out her sheet with 'A-' in red on the top. Tucker snapped his fingers and pulled out his own sheet.
"A 'B' for me. You, dude?" The techno geek asked Danny. The halfa nodded.
"Me too." He absently waved his hand over the red score on top of his paper.
"Good job Danny!" Both Sam and Tucker said at the same time. He grinned.
"You both did great too. I think this is probably one of the best scores I've gotten that's not a retake since I started fighting ghosts." They both nodded in acknowledgement. He wanted to tell them something else and cracked his lips open, but hurriedly shut them, biting his lower lip. Not yet. Both of his friends noticed, but decided not to push him on it. At least, not yet.
"So, Danny... How did your parents take it?" Despite Sam's casual tone, from the way her and Tucker leaned forward, they'd obviously been waiting for his answer since he'd told them he was going to tell his parents. Danny took a deep breath and glanced around the room.
"I'll tell you at lunch, okay?" Both of his best friends looked at each other.
"Fine." Sam said, checking over her paper. Tucker turned to Danny.
"Which ones did you get wrong?"
Danny spent the rest of the morning in a state of semi-terror that Dash or one of his goons would come after him, but surprisingly, nothing happened. By the time lunch rolled around, Danny had finally started to breathe easy. Today was some sort of turkey substitute for the meal. Sam gave it a disapproving glare, but turned to Danny. Both Sam and Tucker said to him at the same time, "Spill." Danny sighed, taking a bite of the 'turkey' and grimacing before swallowing it down thickly and starting.
"They're fine with it. I showed them an article on Danny Phantom from the paper, transformed, then flew them up to the roof. But you're never going to believe what happened this morning."
"What?" Tucker asked, with Sam a split second behind. He grinned at her before both of their attentions turned back to Danny.
"Vlad destroyed the portal." Purple and blue eyes widened. "Yea, he sent those ghost birds to do it. I think they used some kind of explosive, but by the time I got there, Jazz and dad were trying to get them, the portal was already gone." Suddenly, Danny remembered the note. "One of them gave me this." He dug it, crumpled but unharmed, out of his jean pocket.
"Well, open it!" Sam said impatiently. Danny did just that, reading it over. He whispered it out loud.
"'Dear Daniel, this was just so you don't get any ideas. We don't want you cheating, now do we?'" That was it-a short note in Vlad's neat cursive. Danny clutched it in his fist, narrowing his eyes. "He didn't want me cheating? Me?" Sam reached over a hand to Danny's shoulder.
"Danny… um…" Tucker just came out and said it, albeit in a worried tone.
"Dude, your eyes…" Danny instantly dropped the note and raised a hand to his eye.
"Not again…" At his friend's confused glances, he explained in a hurried tone. "This happened this morning too…" He got up and rushed out of the cafeteria, into the bathroom. His fears were confirmed when he glanced into the mirror and his eyes were red like before-but it was worse. Now, not only were they red, they were fully red, like Vlad's. Rather than just being a color of the pupil like his normal blue or ghostly green, the red completely covered his eyes. It felt odd, and everything was starting to tinge a light shade of scarlet. Danny splashed water on his face, trying to calm down. When he heard noise behind him, the halfa instinctively whipped around. His fingers gripped the wet sink when he saw the culprit. Oh… crud…
"H-hi Dash…" The larger boy just took a step forward, his eyes narrowed.
"How did you do it?" Danny gulped, laughing nervously.
"Do what?" At those two words, Dash practically leapt forward.
"You know what I mean!" He pinned Danny against the wall. Danny gulped again.
"Well, uh…" He looked up at Dash, and suddenly felt his eyes burn for a moment, everything turning deep red for a split second before fading back to the light tinge of red. "Ah!" Dash stumbled backwards.
"What the he-how did you do THAT?" Danny had an idea, and prayed that Dash was superstitious.
"I'm your… demon. Dan-the kid has nothing to do with this. I'm a… warning, Dash Baxter. Don't hurt too many kids, unless you want to… meet me face to face!" He was making it up on the spot, but Dash seemed to believe it, His face was terrified. Danny would've laughed if his butt wasn't on the line. "Now, leave." Danny grinned as Dash turned to get out. A parting gift, for all those years of bullying. He shot an ecto-blast at Dash, and it hit the bully right on the behind. He yelped loudly, making his name true as he dashed out.
When Danny turned back to the mirror, his good mood evaporated when he saw that the red was still glowing strong. Ducking into one of the stalls, he tried to turn into Phantom, hoping a change would help. A quick check in the mirror revealed his normal ghostly self, but with blue eyes.
"Well, it's better than red... what's up with my eyes anyway? It seems to be honing in on those alone…" Shrugging, he checked that no one was around before making the switch again. This time, his eyes were green, but a normal shade-they weren't glowing. "I guess this will have to do." He exited the men's room and went back to the cafeteria. Danny headed right back to his table, but Sam and Tucker were both looking at the popular table. Dash seemed to be telling some sort of story, with large arm motions. When Danny passes, he looked up, and his eyes widened. The quarterback half-scooted back, his face almost scared. Danny dropped his gaze, feeling too tired to put up more of a show. He heard Kwan say,
"Dude, Fenton looks like he can't hurt a fly! Are you on drugs or something?" Danny smiled a little at that-one advantage of having a secret identity? No one believes those who glimpse the truth. He dropped himself down back into his seat with his friends, who looked at him with one eye raised.
"So, what happened?" Sam asked. Danny pointed to his eyes.
"My eyes scared Dash, so I had to make up something fast. Now he thinks I was a vessel for his 'demon'. On the plus side, he won't be beating up any nerds for a while…" Tucker high fived him at that. Sam gave him one of her 'you're going to get in trouble for this' looks.
"Danny, you-" He waved it off.
"Sam, it won't matter. The other popular kids think he's crazy now." He decided to tell them. No use delaying it, if he'd already decided. Danny leaned forward, and Tuck and Sam did the same. "Besides… after today… Danny Fenton's going to be pulling a disappearing act." Sam gasped and Tucker gulped.
"Are you sure about this, bud?" The geek said slowly. Danny nodded.
"I'm sure. Who's better for the town, Danny Fenton the unpopular nerd or Danny Phantom, the hero?" Sam grabbed his hands.
"It's not the town that's important. What do you want, Danny Fenton?" He blushed slightly and gently pulled his hands away.
"I want to help people. If I need to become full ghost to do that, then so be it. If there's a cure, I'll take it, but if it comes down to it..." She nodded slowly.
"Well, it's your choice… hero."
A/N And, there's chapter 7! It seems boring to me, despite everything with Dash… hopefully it'll pick up next chapter. Danny has more reasons then 'the town needs me' to stay a ghost, but I'll bring those up later. I hope you enjoyed, and please rate and review! I want to know what everyone thinks, critiques welcome!
Edit: I just want to say, if you review anonymously and you have an account, could you mention it, so can I know what it is and respond to your review? If you ask something, then I can answer it. If you don't have an account, well, thanks for the review anyway, I still appreciate it no matter what.