It's been awhile! It's nice to meet my lovely readers again ehe. I might be slower than how I originally was in writing though. I have had so much to do orz. Also the doctor advised me to take a rest for a few weeks.
Thank you for all the positive reviews and criticisms that I have received when I'm gone. I never knew this fanfic would even receive likes, and I never expected that I'd never lose interest at around 3 chapters because of the lack of reviews, but I get to see the number, and damn, 44. Thank you so much.
I don't want to rush this story even when I'm busy, so I might have an idle time in between random chapters.
Anyway, enjoy reading and, continue giving me reviews!
A Grasp at a Distant Memory
Chapter 11: Drifting Away From Me
®® - Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman - ®®
The ghost boy hurriedly flew to Casper High, eager to see both Sam and Tucker after two whole days of sulking in the Ghost Zone. Another part of him also wants to know how a human school would look like, his death actually clouding his memories of his past life in education.
"I wonder what Sam and Tucker does in school…" Phantom said, clutching his chin in a thinking manner. It has not been too long till he saw a somehow big institution with a flagpole. His eyes lit up, and he skedaddled to reach his two human friends.
However, disappointment washed over him when he saw a lot of students looking so glum on the corridors. He frowned, thinking of how dead they look. 'They look deader than me', the young ghost thought, and he could've snickered along with Tucker if he was with him.
However, his musings were cut short when he saw a shadow disappear at the crook of his eye.
"H-Huh?" he said as he turned around to see a familiar face. Gasping, he squinted to see if he was just dreaming, but it was all clear.
"S-Spectra!? What is she doing here?" Phantom gulped. "I… I was sure I got all those ghosts back in the ghost zone!"
The shadow ghost turned around, but the boy cast invisibility just in the nick of time. When the female ghost phased through a wall, Phantom reappeared, smacking a hand on his face.
"Damn it, damn it all! That woman just don't feed on the ghost core, now she preys on humans too!"
He followed the woman, determined to send her back to the ghost zone for her treachery.
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"Mr. Lancer?" Jazz said as she found her teacher by the auditorium, setting up the decorations. The middle-aged man looked back, slightly surprised, and gave her a smile afterwards.
"Jasmine, I thought you're touring the campus with your mom. What brings you here?" the man said as he put up another letter on the 'Casper High' lettering.
"I am, but something tells me there is a lot of things wrong with the students today…"
"Don't worry about them, Jazz." Lancer said. "Those kind of expressions happen every year, most students against what we call 'a productive day of summer vacation'. All they want was to watch movies all day."
"But, Mr. Lanc-"
"Mr. Lancer!" a female voice greeted. "How's the decoration going?"
"Ms. Spectra! I'm doing fine right now." the teacher greeted back. "How are the kids doing?"
"Oh, great, Mr. Lancer! Extremely great!" she said with enthusiasm, by which Jazz found highly overreacting. "There are lovely smiles etched on each faces, and everyone looks so bright! I bet you'll have the best ceremony in no time, and all these future students of Casper High are gonna reach the top."
"Oh, that's great Ms. Spectra! Thank you so much for all you've helped today!" the man beamed.
'What does this woman mean? Is she… being sarcastic or what? I haven't even seen a single smiling teen the whole day', Jazz thought to herself.
"And who's this lovely young lady?" her thoughts were pried when Spectra looked at her.
"This is Jazz, Jasmine Fenton. She just graduated a few weeks ago, but she willingly agreed to be the key speaker of this ceremony. She's the brightest kid I've ever known!"
"Oh, really?" Spectra said, putting her hand on Jazz's shoulders. "That's wonderful, sweetie!"
"Ah, thanks." Jazz replied, feeling a bit uneasy. She then noticed something behind the woman. "What… Are those dominoes?"
"Oh! While you are speaking, these dominoes are supposed to spell up 'Casper High Spirit'. Then the last domino will hit the button that will trigger something." She then pointed to the bunch of dominoes formed around. "You know what that is? Fireworks! Does anyone dislike fireworks? Not at all!" she chuckled, and Jazz secretly raised an eyebrow.
"Ehehe, that's a… Cool idea, Ms. Spectra." The 16-year old girl chuckled nervously.
"Now if you don't mind, I have a lot of students to cheer up. I'll be looking forward on your speech, Jasmine!"
The woman walked away with her small assistant who frowned and sneered at Jazz.
'What a weird duo.' Jazz thought to herself.
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"Damn! I lost Spectra!" Phantom hissed, looking around to see signs of the shadow leech, only to be met by nothing but depressed teenagers. He floated around invisibly, glancing at their tired eyes and painful expressions. Spectra must be harvesting a lot today. And that wasn't so close to a normal bad news. She could trigger a casualty among these humans, and that will make them more in contradiction of the ghostkind.
His thoughts were cut short when he saw two familiar faces he hasn't seen for 48 hours now.
"Sam! Tucke… Hey, what happened to both of you? You look like you've died 50 times." Phantom was startled at how depressed the two look. Sam may look like a rebel who can frown a lot, but she wasn't this low in spirits. And Tucker would crack a joke at every single opportunity. Where the hell are those people?
"Oh, it's Phantom. Bad day, Phantom! Are you gonna ask how miserable my life is?" Tucker said, the ghost boy shocked at how unusual he looked.
"Sam, Tucker, did Spectra do this to you?" he raised an eyebrow when they didn't answer. "I'll ask again", he made his voice firmer. "Did Spectra do this to you?"
"Fine, fine." Sam grumbled. "She told us the truth about how lucky we are to be even born as failures. I'm such a bad child to my parents."
"My parents should've aborted me." Tucker looked like he's sobbing. He held both his best friends in their shoulder.
"Don't worry. I'll teach that woman a lesson not to take advantage of other creatures." He said as he bid farewell at his friends (and getting a dejected look when they didn't return the gesture) and turned around to fly. However, he came face to face with Maddie, holding what seems to be an ecto gun in her hand.
"I knew it. Something was wrong with this school. Why is such a putrid creature here?" Maddie said, venom dripping from her voice. "What the fuck did you do to these children?"
Startled, Phantom slowly raised his hand.
"I'm sorry, M-Ma'am. I don't know what you're talking about. I'm confused as well!"
"Don't play ignorant with me, Ghost Child!" she squeezed the trigger lightly, as Phantom winced. "You have something to do with what is happening here! Tell me what the hell did you do!"
"Idon'tknowSpectrajusthappenedtobehereandsuckedthespiritsofthestudentshereinCasperHigh!"
"What?" Maddie raised an eyebrow. "Are you trying to joke with me, kid? Because I'm not in the mood for jokes now!"
"C-Calm down, Ma'am, I haven't hurt anyone!" the boy said in a shaky voice. "Damn it, when will the humans believe that not all ghosts are bad?"
"When you finally leave our dimension and stick on your own?" was Maddie's response, as she earned a chuckle from the dead teenager.
"That was… a nice comeback, Ma'am. But seriously though, can you at least watch how I do it before you shoot me with those things?"
"How you do it? How you suck the spirit out of these teenagers as you still remain as human as you look? Sorry, kid, looks won't deceive me."
Just as she was about to pull the trigger, she heard a familiar voice.
"Mom!"
Jazz sprinted in front of the ghost, and shielded him from the upcoming attack, throwing her arms in both sides as a protective stance.
"Jazz! G-Get away, I'm shooting that vile piece of ectoplasm and I don't want you to get hurt…" Phantom has concluded this woman was Jazz's mother, and Jack's ex-wife according to his friends' stories.
"No, mom! You won't hurt Phantom because he absolutely have nothing to do with this!" Jazz shouted, knowing very well that her mother won't dare hurt a single strand of her hair.
"Phantom!?" Maddie exclaimed upon knowing her daughter knows this ghost very well. "Haven't I told you to keep away from them, dear? And now it seems this dead kid is using you as well! Don't worry, I'm gonna rescue you sweetheart."
"No mom." Jazz said with a stern expression, enough to make Maddie grimace. "Phantom did not control nor brainwash me. I trust him because he's a good friend, and he rescued us a lot of times. Not all ghosts are as bad as you think…"
"That's not true! Remember what they did to our family!" Maddie said, her slender form trembling. She had never argued with Jazz like this before, ever since the day she laid out the divorce papers.
"Mom! Stop letting the past cloud your judgment!" Jazz pleaded.
"Oh really now, Jasmine? You're going to let all those ghosts go after all they did? I'm just wanting to protect you!"
"MOM YOU'RE BEING UNREASONABLE RIGHT NO-"
Slap. Maddie wasted no time as she lunged forward and slapped Jazz, pushed her away and turned to the ghost boy. But what met her was a chill that said the boy just escaped. She then looked at Jazz and tried to help Jazz get up, but her motherly hand swatted away as she saw the girl's eyes glaze over with tears, then the liquid falling to her reddened cheeks as she turned away and ran away from her.
Oh, how she regretted what she just did.
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"I'm sorry Jazz, I just had to find out where Spectra is… Bertrand!?" Phantom came to a halt as he saw a tiger-like ghost, gritting his teeth at him. He gulped.
"I thought I sent you back in the Ghost Zone!" Phantom shouted at him. When the shapeshifter in tiger form just growled at him, he realized it was a bad move.
"Err… Can you hear me out first?" he tried to negotiate, but was met with a louder growl. "Ok, ok, damn it!" that's when he took the cue and started to fly away from him, eventually getting to the Nasty Burger. The teenagers just stood in shock for a second, before scramming away. Due to Phantom being invisible, Bertrand looked around and happened to spot Paulina doing her makeup, oblivious to what is happening around her.
"Geez, why is everyone so noisy?" she babbled, pressing the powder puff in her face. "It's not like there's a wild animal that will attack us out of nowhere!"
She heard a loud growl, stopping her in what she is doing. Slowly turning around, she realized her face is already inside the tiger's mouth.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Paulina screamed. Phantom gasped, as he flew quickly to Bertrand, held him by the tail and threw him to the store glass nearby, as it broke into shards.
"A-A ghost boy saved me?" Paulina blinked away the tears from her eyes. Phantom looked at her, and blushed.
"H-Hi." He twiddled his fingers, as the Latina girl stared dreamily at him.
Their interaction was briefly cut as Phantom tensed, hearing Bertrand's snarl once again.
"Quick! Run!" he motioned Paulina to run away, by which she complied quickly, screaming and running away from Nasty Burger. Phantom then turned to Bertrand, as he dashed away and hid using his invisibility.
Confused at how the boy suddenly vanished, the ghost just leapt away, an invisible Phantom following closely.
The store owner just appeared from under the counter and sighed.
"I hope I get compensations for all of these."
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Phantom came to a halt as Bertrand went in the guidance counselor's office. Peeking inside, he stifled a gasp when he saw Spectra on her human form, as well as Bertrand.
"Oh, look at how all these children's spirits made me youthful!" Spectra said as she looked at her compact mirror. "Imagine their disappointed faces when they finally attend the opening ceremony!" the woman laughed.
'Ceremony? She plans to gather all the students at one place to harvest their spirits?' Phantom thought.
"And after the last domino hits the button, the most optimistic girl in Casper High will be reduced to ashes! Everyone will be devastated!"
Phantom balled his fists. Not only she was taking the teenagers' optimism, she also planned to kill one of the humans. The Ghost Zone would be mortified by what humans would think of them after this.
"What was the girl's name again? Jasmine?"
That's it. Phantom heard their plans about killing Jasmine. And he wouldn't allow them.
"As if I'd allow you to do that, Spectra!" he casted away his invisibility and went behind Spectra.
"If it isn't Clockwork's kid, Phantom… You'd make a wonderful snack as well."
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Jazz huddled her knees and sobbed, still upset with what her Mom did. She just tried to talk her into sense, but the woman just flat out refused to trust any ghost, not even Phantom, who saved her twice already.
'Is she really a different person now? Is she really… drifting away from me?'
"Really? Are you talking about your Mom?" Jasmine gasped as she heard Lancer. Realizing that she thought out loud, she fought to hide a blush.
"I-I'm sorry Mr. Lancer!" she wiped her eyes. "I-"
"Hush, there's no need to be sorry at things you have no control of, young lady. However, I do believe your mom is just trying to protect you with all her might. You're the only thing reminding her that she used to have a perfect family once."
"Yeah, and it's all my fault…"
"What?" the teacher raised an eyebrow, wondering why Jazz thinks it's all her fault.
"N-Nevermind, Mr. Lancer!" she stood up, and dusted her pants. "Thanks for everything, Mr. Lancer! I'll try to be my best at my speech."
As Jazz ran away, Lancer thought about the things he probably won't discover about the girl she treated like a daughter he doesn't have.
"You're such a hard egg to crack, Jasmine Fenton."
A/N: Ayayyayayya I think I'm just delaying the speed of this story lmoa. I don't really have a plan on how this story will work, but I just want to show how Phantom helps ghosts reach heaven. And yeah, if you're wondering, Spectra wouldn't. Probably. Can't think of a way for a villain to reach heaven.
Suggestions are welcome! Review please! Thank you! ~AyaPie
