Please note: Danny doesn't have the best set of priorities.
You wanted action well here it is.
Danny groaned in frustration as he fell face first into the ground where Undergrowth had planted himself. He had spent hours last night with Vlad searching for more information on these strange ghost insects and so far no one could tell them anything and the only thing they could find was more damage that was slowly spreading. If they didn't find out what was causing all this destruction soon something bad was going to happen in the Ghost Zone and Danny feared of the consequences it would have on both their worlds.
"Still nothing on the threat, Phantom?" Danny groaned again and looked up at the ghost plant that looked like he was tending to the tree.
"Nothing. We can't find a trace of these ghost insects and no one can tell us anything. Not only that, but we keep coming across more and more damage. We're getting really concerned with it all."
"You will find them, child, one way or another. They will either find you or you will find them. Of the two I am hoping for the second one though. There is no telling what they might do with a ghost if they dragged it back to wherever they came from."
"I know, I'm just exhausted. I'm so glad that its summer so I can sleep whenever I need to and I don't need to work on homework or anything."
"Here," Undergrowth held out a strange looking blue melon like fruit that was about the size of an orange, "This is a special fruit that grows deep within the jungles of the Ghost Zone. It gives those who eat it a boost in energy. I believe it is similar to your world's coffee beans."
"Is it safe for humans?" Danny held the strange fruit curiously and examined it.
"It shouldn't be harmful to you if that's what you mean," Undergrowth huffed before going back to tending to the plant life in the back yard, "You do not need to worry, Phantom, I am a ghost of my word and will honor our deal. Besides I am far too weak to try to attack you in any way."
"It'd actually be nice if you wouldn't try to take over the world again, you know." Danny sniffed the fruit and took a small bite. He chewed it some to get an idea of the flavor and blinked in surprise. It had an odd mixture of flavors in it that he had never had before. Danny thought about it a moment and after a few more bites thought it tasted like a mix of blueberries and kiwis with a bit of lime in it for a kick. It really was tasty and he quickly ate it all.
"Why shouldn't I try to take over your miserable planet? You humans have done nothing but decimate it!" Undergrowth bellowed and tried to tower over Danny who didn't look all that impressed.
"Dude, chill out or I'll do it for you," He raised his fist as an icy blue glow surrounded it. When Undergrowth settled down he lowered his arm and sighed, "And just because people have been destroying the earth doesn't mean we're all like that. We didn't realize over the centuries the long term problems we were causing, but people are working on it, and a lot of people care about protecting the earth. Remember Sam? She's all for planting trees, growing your own food, and all that stuff. Why not help the planet if you're so concerned about it?"
The green ghost was silent for several moments as he looked at Danny. He tilted his head back and forth for a moment before he sulked back down, "Maybe you are right. Regardless though, I just wish for the threat to the Ghost Zone to pass. I am not used to feeling this weak and powerless and I do not like it."
"Then maybe you'll think twice about bullying people and ghosts who are weaker than you," Danny smirked.
"And maybe I have good news for you," Danny looked behind him and saw Vlad standing at his back door looking as composed as ever.
"Vlad? Something going on?"
"We think we might have found a lead. One of my contacts just informed me of a swarm of praying mantis ghosts tearing up a field four kilometers west of Walker's Prison."
"Great! Then let's get going! Maybe we can find out who's behind all these attacks." Danny transformed and flew through the walls and floors to his parents' lab where they were eagerly typing away on computers. A moment later Vlad was behind him floating in his creepy as ever blue skinned ghost form.
"What have we got?"
Maddie looked back with a chuckle at her son, "Eager for some action are we?" She typed some more onto a computer and pulled up a map of the Ghost Zone, "From what we can tell there's a large swarm of ghosts that are attacking an area here. The signature is almost the same as the ghosts you found last time so we're fairly sure it is the same group. Add into Vlad's information from his informants and we are almost certain that this swarm of mantises is connected to the other insects that are plaguing the Ghost Zone."
"Great, so we can go there, try to scare them off and then follow them back to wherever they're coming from. If they're attacking in swarms that means they've got to have some kind of nest, or hive, or… whatever that they are coming from, right?"
"Which is why we have created these trackers for you," Jack held up some small discs that had a stylized F on one side in green, "Toss one of these babies at a ghost and it will stick to it like glue."
"I must say I am slightly impressed, Jack, what is the range for these little devices?" Vlad picked one up and examined it carefully.
"Here in our world about 50 miles, but taking into consideration that space, gravity, and most physical laws are different in the Ghost Zone I can only guess between 1 and 50 miles," the man shrugged helplessly, "There really is no way of telling until we test it out."
"So, tag one and then hang back and let them lead us back to their nest. Got it." Danny grabbed up some equipment and started to walk to the portal.
"Oh and one more thing, sweetie." Maddie went over to one of their work stations and retrieved the Space Shredder, "Take this in case you get into trouble, the button on the bottom activates it and should be able to tear a small portal back to the real world in the Ghost Zone, and vice versa for here."
"Awesome!" Danny stared at the sword in wonder with a grin plastered across his face, "I haven't gotten to use a sword since that time Vlad stole the Infi-map"
"Stole?" Maddie shot a look at Vlad who groaned at Danny's outburst.
"Infi-map?" Jack looked at his son, wondering what that was.
"Never mind, we will be going now," Vlad shoved Danny roughly into the ghost portal and flew in after him leaving the two behind to monitor the situation.
"Honestly, Daniel did you HAVE to bring up all of that?" Vlad flew beside the young man with his arms out in front of him as Danny flew on his back beside him with the sword strapped across his back and several weapons tied to the belt around his waist.
"I didn't have to, but it was still an awesome fight." He smiled and slipped his hands behind his head as the air passed by him as he flew.
"Uhg, I wish you would grow up some, Daniel, this isn't a game and you need to take it more seriously. You also need to get a haircut and shave but that's another story."
"Oh please, so says the man with a pony tail himself in human form and a beard. But what's wrong you don't like it?" Danny stroked the now black hair on his chin thinking for a moment. He thought it gave him a bit more of a mature look but maybe he was wrong.
"Never mind that, Daniel, we're getting closer to where the swarm is supposed to be. Stay on alert."
Danny turned over and looked around, the area they were flying over seemed familiar but he was having a hard time remembering why. There were some fields and forests around and in the distance there was what looked to be a castle, but when a load roar bellowed out from their left it suddenly hit Danny where they were.
"Oh no…"
"What?" Vlad looked around expecting an attack from some direction.
"I know where we are, who these bugs are attacking, and neither is a good situation. C'MON!"
Danny flew on ahead to find a giant blue dragon blowing green fire at the mantis swarm that was flying about sucking the life from the variety of vegetation in her domain.
"LEAVE MY HOME ALONE!" Dora bellowed in her dragon form as she swung her tail and knocked many of the insects back.
"This is Dora's domain, she's like a princess or queen here I guess and when she gets really angry or upset the necklace she wears turns her into this huge dragon and goes NUTS and can't control herself. Little advice: stay out of her way and just attack everything else while trying not to destroy her home and she MIGHT not try to kill us as well."
"Do I really want to know how you know this ghost?"
"Freshman year, came through the portal, beat her up, she lost her necklace, things happened, gave it back to her, more on the story later." Danny rushed forward and started blasting several of the bugs with ghost rays and punched several more as he got in close.
Vlad followed quickly behind, duplicating himself and shooting off balls of ectoplasm at all the bugs while Dora and Danny blasted them with fire and ice respectfully. The sheer mass of insects though was far greater than the two half ghosts had initially expected and even with a giant fire breathing dragon on their side and several other armed ghosts they were starting to see this as becoming a losing battle again.
"Glad tomorrow's Sunday," Danny grunted as he blasted the field with ice causing many of the bugs to slip and fall into each other, "There's no way I'm going to be up for swimming after this!"
"We are in the middle of a fight for this domain and you are concerned about your SWIM PRACTICE?!" Vlad shouted at him as he narrowly avoided being impaled by a mantis claw.
"Hey unlike you I'm not rich and a scholarship would be a GREAT help and I'm actually good at it so lay off!" Danny shouted as he sent more ectoplasm balls at more bugs before he took a look around him and ground his teeth, "Ah the hell with this."
Danny landed down on the ground and took a deep breath and let loose his ghostly wail. Over the past few years he had learned to harness its power and not get fully drained but still it took a great deal out of him. The results though were normally worth it, especially now as the mass of insects had quickly dwindled down to less than half of what it was.
Despite being able to harness its power the attack still took a great deal of energy for Danny to use against so many. The white haired ghost couldn't stop himself from falling to his knees after using his strongest technique and Vlad had to cover him for a moment so he could catch his breath.
"Well that hardly seemed to do us any good Daniel. And you wasted all that energy on a single attack!" The older halfling growled out as he shot streams of energy at the continuing swarm.
"Hey I got a bunch of them with one shot, didn't I?" He managed to pant out as he stood back up ready to go again, "Besides their numbers are dwindling, we keep this up and maybe we can-"
A loud roar erupted from Dora and interrupted Danny. As the two half ghosts looked up they saw the ghost dragon falling to the ground after one of the ghost mantises had managed to sneak behind her and slash at her neck. The cursed necklace that she wore quickly fell and the dragon quickly reverted back to her original form of the princess of the land.
"Dora!" Danny quickly flew over to her with Vlad giving him cover. The hero helped her to stand as she leaned on him for support, "Dora, are you ok? Can you still fight?"
"I… I do not know, Danny. I have not fought this long and hard in all my life, but I shall have to try for my subjects," she started to look around for her necklace and started to panic when she couldn't find it, "Where is it?! Where did my necklace go?"
"Princess!" A new ghost carrying a large battle axe across his back and an ugly scar crossing over his left eye flew over and helped Danny hold her up, "Princess Dora, you must flee. The citizens have all been evacuated and we need to get you away from here."
"No, I will not abandon our home. I will stand and fight! Find me the amulet and I shall fight for our domain until the bitter end if I must."
"That may be sooner than you'd think, your majesty," Vlad held his fingers to his ear and nodded as he heard something, "Jack just informed me that there are more heading our way. We need to fall back and regroup before we succumb to this attack. Daniel, throw tags at the swarm as we retreat; once they fly back to their nest we can plan a surprise attack to take out whoever is behind this."
"Right," Danny reached for the tracking devices and threw them out into the fray of bugs hoping that at least one of the several small discs stuck to one of them before he turned back towards Dora, "Do you think you can fly?"
"N-No… I am sorry but I have used too much of my energy and I am very weak." She tried to remain standing but it was obvious that she was in no condition to fly.
"Take the princess and get her to safety, Half Ghost! We shall cover your flanks to give you time. Hurry!"
"Right! Vlad let's get outta here!" Danny wrapped his arm around Dora and floated up before he started to fly back to the Fenton Portal with Vlad right behind him. The three did not get very far however before slices of energy flew by them in an attempt to take them down. Turning his head as he flew Danny saw that a part of the swam had started to follow them.
"We can't lead them back to the portal, if they get out or tell the others where it is there's no telling what could happen!" Danny growled out as he shot out blasts of ice from his free hand while Vlad threw ecto blasts as they continued to fly away.
"Well we can't continue to fight here either!"
"Guess I'll just have to hope this works," Danny huffed as he pulled out the Space Shredder and turned it on. A small rip in the air appeared as he swung it through the air and Danny quickly threw Dora through it and pulled Vlad by his cape back before doing the same to him. Before he flew through the portal Danny turned around and blasted the insects with a wave of ice energy as another ectoplasm ball headed toward him. The two energies met and exploded sending Danny hurtling back through the tear right before it closed up.
The teen tumbled backwards down a hill before he landed face first into what he assumed was sand. His feet in the air quickly fell over with a soft 'thump' and he groaned at how his body had moved after the explosion. He grumbled as he lay there for a moment only to hear groans from Vlad and Dora. Slowly getting up he shook his head and whipped his face of the sand that stuck to his face before he looked around. It looked like they were in a desert somewhere but he honestly couldn't tell where.
"Hey, Vlad, just where do you think are we?" Danny looked over to see Vlad offer his hand and pull him up.
"I believe we are in Egypt, Daniel." He said with half lidded eyes and a slightly exhausted tone to his voice.
"What?! What makes you think that-" Vlad's hand on his head forced the teen to look to his right to see more of the area he hadn't noticed before, "Oh… Yeah that's a pretty big clue."
Looking out over the miles of sand, Danny saw the classical shapes of the pyramids miles away with the ever present sphinx faithfully guarding the tombs of the long lost pharaohs.
Major points to whoever can spot the reference to another show I put in here
SilverAxe: Well I certainly love my fans I'll give you that, thanks. I'm glad you like how I've developed Dash. I never really had bully issues growing up. I was made fun of and mocked but I gave as good as I got but it was never anything like what the show was like. Besides, the problem with cartoons and shows is that they often don't develop a lot of characters and you're simply stuck with one dimensional people who are very shallow and real people are complex, capable of change, and tend to have reasons for what they do.
Guest: Was that enough action for you?
FallingNarwhals:Glad you liked the build up and epic fail of the cliche "Movie moment" there. Yes, Danny is still a bit clueless about Dash's affections and all, but to be fair Dash is trying hard not to be too forthcoming about them either. The great thing about Mr. Baxter never appearing in the show is that he can be anyone to us and we can make him be whoever we want. I figure Dash comes from a good home with parents who are well off and with a strong, healthy, son I don't doubt he'd be loving towards his son and proud of his athletic accomplishments. As for coming out Dash's dad would definitely be more accepting than his wife. I just hate how when people come out in stories and such that most of the time the mother is more accepting and the dad is all "Hell no!" or "WHY?!" and I kind of hate that, it seems sexist and uses the stereotype that women are more accepting than men and that's not really anymore true than the reverse.