A/N: Another fun chapter to write. With school over, permanently, I've had so much time to write. For the first time in months, I was able to sit down today and write for like three hours straight. It was heaven. Anyways, hope you guys like the chapter. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I don't own any Danny Phantom characters or ones from CHERUB.
Chapter 14 I'm Too Young For This
Gasping, I woke up from a nightmare I didn't remember. There was a layer of cold sweat on my back, and my heart slamming hard against my chest. For a moment I thought that I was waking up in that room in the mine and I was still strung up on that hook, waiting for my death. I took in the dark and gloomy hallway I was in now, confused.
"Danny, you're okay," Sam's reassuring voice told me from my side in a soft but concerned tone. "You fell asleep as soon as Seph and Eric went back to the camp for the book and the tools to get that collar off you."
Hearing her seemed to calm me down. As she said this, I leaned my head back against the craggy rock wall of the mine tunnel we were sitting in. I reached out with my hand for hers and she let me take it with a sad smile.
"You okay?" she asked me.
"No," I answered truthfully. I paused before saying quietly, "I seriously thought I was going to die. You know how scary that was, to know that you were going to die? To know that you'd never see your family or friends again? To lose...everything?"
"I'm sorry," Sam whispered. She scooted closer to me and rested her head on my shoulder. She was scared, but she was holding it together so well. She was so strong. I needed some of that strength.
Tears came to my eyes before I admitted, "Maybe I'm too young for this."
Sam didn't say anything at first. She squeezed my hand that was in hers, but she didn't speak a word as she thought about what to say or how to react. Finally, she asked, "Why do you say that?"
"I...I'm only fourteen years old, Sam," I said. "And already I've seen death, people getting killed, you and Tucker almost being murdered by various ghosts, and almost died myself numerous times. Today I almost died again, and I seriously didn't know if I was going to see you or anyone else again. I've been through all that and I'm only a Freshman in High School. Its just...wrong. Maybe I'm too young to be Danny Phantom."
Sam sighed after hearing this. After a moment of thought she asked, "So what age is it right to be Danny Phantom?"
I looked down at her. At the same time she took her head off my shoulder to look me in the eyes. We were both dead serious about this subject. She of all people knew my feelings about being a ghost superhero. She knew how much I didn't like it...and how much I loved it.
"Danny," she said firmly, "The world needs you, no matter what age you are."
"But what if some time in the future I can't take the pressure?" I said, my voice cracking. "What if some day I break down and fail? Today I gave up! I gave up, Sam. I didn't want to save the camp, you guys, or even myself anymore. Don't you get that?" I paused as tears threatened to escape my eyes. Quietly, I said, "I gave up."
"Then how did you get out?" Sam asked.
"I remembered that Eric knew where I was going and that there was hope he'd help me, so I tried to break free with the pocketknife you gave me," I explained.
She laughed while pushing some tears out of her eyes. "Then you didn't really give up," she said. I was too stunned by her words to say anything on my own. "I know you, Danny," she said. "You got tired of fighting, but you never gave up on us. You'd never give up."
"How can you say that?" I asked weakly. "You don't know that."
Sam gently took my other hand in hers. I watched her with wonder and interest. In any other situation like this with her, I know I would be blushing profusely. But somehow this felt natural. Sam and I had grown up together. We had endured everything with each other. She was one of my best friends. As we held hands, I felt like the bond between us was strengthening.
"I know that you'd never give up because you're here with me now," Sam told me. Her voice wavering with the passion behind those simple words.
She was right. She was right this whole time. She had been with me, cheering and helping me on through every up and down of my entire life. And I believe I had done the same to hers as well. I didn't want to lose her again. I didn't ever want to give up, because that would mean giving up on Sam.
In my passion, I lightly took her head in my hands. Slowly, to make sure she wasn't giving me any sign of protest, I brought her close to me. We hesitated, afraid to commit for a brief moment as our breaths brushed gently against each other. Then we took the plunge, our lips coming close...
Only for us to pull away real quick when hearing the startling shouts of Seph and Eric calling for us from down the tunnel. In our embarrassment, we looked away from each other with cheeks turning red. Why couldn't Seph and Eric had taken just one more minute?
"You guys won't believe what's going on down at the camp," Seph said as he and Eric came running around the corner. I struggled to my feet then helped the still blushing Sam up with an outstretched hand. She gave me a shy little smile when making eye contact with me.
"Why are you both red?" Eric asked curiously when noticing our faces in the bright light of all four flashlights we carried now. This seemed to make Sam and I redder and speechless. What would the angel say if he found out we were about to kiss? This was awkward.
"Leave 'em alone, dude," Seph said with a knowing, sly grin. Oh joy. Could this situation get any worse? Sam and I returned his grin with uncomfortable laughs. Seph let us go, I'm glad to say. But I think he destroyed any chance of Sam and I kissing for a long time.
"Where's the book?" I asked Seph once I got the nerve to talk. "I thought you said you hid it really well so Vlad couldn't find it."
"I did," Seph said, sounding annoyed, "But Masters has that beast of his prowling the camp ground. The whole camp is dead. Eric and I were lucky just to get to the tool shed next to the Mess Hall without being detected. We thought it better to go back and get the GPS disabled on your collar before returning for the book."
"It seems like Vlad is trying to find it," Eric said. "You must have hid it really well."
Seph smiled evilly. "Of course I did," he said. "When you're starving in basic training, you find all kinds of ways to hide food from Mr. Large."
"Basic training?" Sam asked. "Is that like boot camp for you kid spies?"
"You could say that," Seph said with a laugh. "Just in boot camp you get to eat at least once a day and you get some hours of sleep every night."
"Oh," Sam and I said in union. Note to self: don't become teen spy. It might suck.
"As the saying goes, 'once you pass basic training, everything is easy'," Seph said. "Or something like that."
"So did it train you for this kind of situation?" Sam asked.
"We don't train for urban legend attacks," Seph informed her. "Who do you think I work for? The Guys In White?"
"I thought you did," I said with confusion.
"No, they are borrowing me," Seph said. "And they're doing one hell of a job of keeping me safe. I should have stayed at the summer house with Kerry." At this thought, he grew silent. He almost looked homesick. Can a spy get homesick?
Eric was the one to break the silence. "Well," he said with a hopeful smile, "We better disable that GPS system in that collar of yours, Danny. You really think you'll be able to do it?" he asked Seph.
"This is right up my alley," Seph said, snapping out of the depressed mood. "The only tricky part will be getting the collar open without blowing ourselves up."
"You sure you want to do this?" Sam asked me nervously.
To traverse the camp grounds without Vlad knowing where I was, I couldn't have the GPS giving out signals of every movement I made. With Seph's experience with technology as kid spy, he said he could disable it for me with the tools he and Eric got from the tool shed. But then there was that C4 explosive in there that could kill us all. I had decided to take the risky chance and let Seph poke and prod in the collar, but now it looked a bit scary.
"Not really," I answered Sam's question, "But I'm dead anyways if I don't get this thing off my neck. Maybe Seph and figure out how to fix it. Its worth a try."
"Then lets get to work, Fenton," Seph said with confidence. He lifted up the small, rusty toolbox and I swallowed hard. Man, I was crazy, wasn't I?
He sat me down and he stood over me to access the collar from behind. He was smart to never tell me what he was doing or let me see what was going on. He worked slowly and silently. Eric and Sam tried talking quietly to me to distract my thoughts from drifting to the sever situation at hand. Seph ignored everyone as he worked.
I don't know how long I sat there, waiting to explode, but I'd say it took about twenty to thirty minutes for the teen to finish. Seph was pretty quick. Again, I was glad and terribly thankful to have the guy there with me. Where would we all be without the dude?
"The GPS is gone," Seph announced suddenly. He clicked the piece of collar he had taken off back into place. How he figured out how to open it, I have no clue. "Also, I changed some things with the C4. If you ever do manage to yank the thing off you, you have five seconds before the explosive goes off."
"You did all that in such little time?" Sam asked in amazement.
"I told you, basic training makes everything else seem easy," Seph said with a laugh. "I had to have to do stuff like that, but more complicated, in like ten minutes. Just this time it was real, so I wanted to make sure we didn't die."
"Good call," I commented. Quickly, I got to my feet to discuss the plan I had formed while sitting there. "We have to work fast now," I told the group. "Vlad might come back to check up on me soon. He's too paranoid to let me alone. So we need to get out of this mine before he finds us here."
The others nodded in agreement. Briskly, we started to find our ways out. I was dying to get out of the dark and foreboding surroundings, but I controlled my want of fresh air by relaying my plan to the others as we walked along.
"Although this beast is all mystical and stuff, I still feel that it has some ghost properties," I said. "Maybe some of our ghost gadgets will hurt it or at least defend ourselves from it."
"Ghost weapons will work against it," Eric piped up. "When the alchemists made the stone, they fused some ghost matter with it."
"So do you still have Fenton's parents' ghost gadgets with you, Sam?" Seph asked.
"Yeah," Sam answered. "I hid them in the back closet in the Infirmary Cabin. I thought Vlad would find them if I put them in my own cabin."
"Okay, when we get to the camp, we will split up," I said. "Sam, you and Eric go to the Infirmary Cabin and pick up the gadgets. Avoid the cameras there. Seph and I are going to get the book. We need to meet up somewhere."
"The cabin by the pond we used to go to," Seph said. "Its the only place near the camp without cameras and we can be hidden."
"Then its a plan," I said with a nod.
-Later-
"The bathroom?" I asked Seph in disbelief.
"You heard me," Seph said. "I hid the book in the main boys loo. It is a perfect place. And from what we see, it still is. Masters hasn't found it this whole time. He's probably so pissed right now."
"Good," I growled in a flash of anger. "And he can freaking stay pissed for all I care."
As you can see, I wasn't too happy with the man. He was the root of all my problems, especially recently. I had the right to be mad with the guy who had tortured me, threatened my friend and I, killed my sister and an entire camp, and planned on killing me at the end for ultimate power. Once I thought about it, I think I was more pissed than he was at the moment.
But it wasn't the time to punch a wall in or anything. We were all in danger because of Vlad. Even if I found out that we couldn't save the campers with their stolen souls, we still needed a means of escape. Vlad had us all locked in with his ghost shield. We needed to find what was powering it and turn it off before doing anything drastic.
"Okay, we're free to move," Seph told me. He had been looking out around the corner of a cabin we were hiding behind. The beast had just passed us a few minutes ago as if it was Vlad's faithful watchdog.
Gravel crunching under our feet, Seph and I ran for the bathroom a few yards away. The sun had just risen. It sat blazing warmly on the horizon. A light fog cascaded past our running legs that had come off the lake. If our lives weren't in danger, I would have enjoyed the beautiful scene. But at the moment, the fog was just kind of creepy.
We entered the large, cement building in low crouches. This was the first place Vlad and I had bumped into each other and he had almost broken my leg. I hated that man! A leaky shower head dripped eerie droplets of water, giving the open room a spooky feel to it. We didn't dare turn on the lights. Small windows near the ceiling gave us enough light anyways.
Seph entered the first toilet stall on the right side of the box shaped room. I followed him in and locked the door behind him out of paranoid reasons. I turned around to find Seph taking the lid of the back of the toilet off. He set it on the toilet seat and put his hands into the cold water there. Smiling slyly, he pulled out the old, faded book which was perfectly dry in two zip lock bags.
I laughed. "You're a genius," I said, shaking my head. "Why did you hide it here in the first place?"
"Because we were already in enough trouble with Masters," Seph explained as he took the wet plastic bags off our prize. "Plus, secretly I thought this had more importance than what I led on at first. The Guys in White told me to look out for anything ghostly, especially with Vlad. They wanted to prove that he was involved with hostile specter activity, and a kid spy at his kid camp was a perfect means to get that kind of information. But I think I've had enough of ghost encounters for one life time, if you ask me."
The crunching of gravel alerted us to the intruder coming up to the bathroom. Seph and I looked up at each other, faces going pale in fear. Seph hurried to put the toilet cover back into place. To not look suspicious, I unlocked the already closed door. Quickly but silently, we both jumped onto the toilet itself and balanced there just as someone came strolling into the room.
Heart pounding wildly against my chest, my mind jumped to horrible conclusions and outcomes. I had to listen to the person walk steadily to the middle of the room. I knew it had to be Vlad. Who else could it be? He was just making Seph and I jumpy. But I didn't have to worry about Seph. It was me I had to fret over.
"Seph, I know you're in here," Vlad called out loudly. I watched Seph tense up. He locked his jaw with a frown crossing his features. He hadn't expected to be found out so soon.
"If you and that little Goth girl come quietly, I might consider sparing you both," Vlad said. His voice was confident and smooth. He thought he had it all figured out. It was almost comical.
BAM!
Both Seph and I jumped at the startling noise just a few stalls away. Vlad had slammed the door open loudly. Oh man, he was going to find us! If that happened, Vlad would find the book, kill off Seph, take me back to that dreaded room in the mine, and eventually kill me, sealing the fate to the entire camp.
BAM!
It was getting hard to breathe. Flashes of that horrible nightmare of being strung up to that hook came back to me. I didn't know if I'd be able to pull off another escape stunt if I was captured again. This couldn't be happening!
BAM!
I couldn't go back to that room! I wasn't going to allow that. Seph and I needed to get out of there. My wild eyes scanned the stall for a weapon, anything. Seph tried to catch my gaze. He knew I was freaking out and was trying to calm me down before I did something stupid.
BAM!
Vlad had one more stall before the last one, which was ours. My brain went into a desperate mode when the possibility of getting put back in that room crossed my mind. That's when something came. I gritted my teeth and started to yank on my collar.
Seph saw what I was doing and freaked. He didn't want to get blown to pieces, I guessed. The teen vigorously shook his head no as I kept pulling at hard as I could. Soon he was mouthing no to me and trying everything in his silent vocabulary to try and stop me.
BAM!
With a final yank, I got the collar off. Grinning inanely, I bent down and threw the thing under the door. Vlad paused to watched the unknown object skitter across the cold floor. Seph found this a great time to get out of there. He grabbed my arm, used a shoulder to bust open the door, and managed to knock Vlad right off his feet. The man had gotten in the way of the door when Seph had forced it open so suddenly.
"Run!" Seph screamed. He pulled me out of the stall behind him. We sprinted out of the bathroom, not caring where we were heading because it really didn't care. The place was going up in flames at any second anyways.
BOOM!
Screaming, Seph and I were pushed forward from a massive heat wave. We tumbled head of heels as the explosion hit our backs. Thankfully, the collar didn't have much C4 and we didn't catch on fire or have any unwanted toilets flying down from heaven and crushing us. I wasn't so sure about Vlad, though.
"Come on, Danny!" Seph shouted down at me as he scrambled back to his feet. "Get up! We gotta get out of here!"
I coughed on the black smoke enveloping my body as Seph pulled me to my feet. "Thanks," I muttered weakly. He had a few cuts from random debris, but he looked good enough to keep going. I was a bit shaky, but was okay too.
"You're crazy, Fenton!" Seph said to me with a laugh as we ran away from the smoldering bathroom building that was still on fire.
"I kind of panicked, actually," I admitted.
"Who cares?" he said. "We got the book and I don't know what happened to Masters. At this point, I don't think we should care. He's caused enough damage at this camp."
We rounded the corner and watched as Vlad Plasmius phased up from the ground right in front of us. I put on the brakes with a shout of alarm and grabbed the sleeve of Seph's singed Camp Happy Hills shirt to pull him to a stop too. He was too stunned to really react. This was going to be his first real ghost encounter.
Vlad stoically looked us over with a cold, hard frown on his face. His narrowed eyes were like ice piercing through me. I only stared back up at him in fear. It was all I could do. Running from Vlad when he was ghost was impossible at this point.
"Daniel," he finally said with distaste. His stare was unbearable. "What a surprise."
"You're not going to get away with this, Vlad," I seethed.
Vlad's eyes widened in surprise before he let out a bold laugh. "My dear boy, you are in no situation to talk like that," he said with an evil chuckle. He leaned down so we were nose to nose. It took everything in me not to take a step back, but he could tell that I was scared. "I preferred you as that stupid little boy stumbling around in the dark woods from a few hours ago," he said. "But I'm sure it won't take much to return you to that state." He turned to a gawking Seph and said down to me, "Maybe the death of your friend will put you back in your place."
"No! Stay away from him!" I screamed while rushing forward. Vlad caught me with one hand. He grabbed a bunch of the front of my shirt and firmly held me away as he confronted Seph.
"Give me the book, boy," Vlad ordered with an outstretched hand.
"How did you do that?" Seph asked. "Are you a ghost?"
"Yes," Vlad answered with some impatience, "But you're not going to live long enough to give that type of information to the Guys in White. Now hand over the book."
Seph frowned darkly. The initial shock of Vlad's alter ego was gone. Sure, he was scared, but the old Seph was back. "Hell no, old man," he growled back at Vlad.
"I have no time for this," Vlad hissed before lunging forward with a hand. Seph brought up the book to block the grab for his neck. With a battle yell, Seph spun on one foot for a roundhouse kick to the man's head. Vlad easily caught the foot, brought the kid up in the air, and flung him down upon the ground with no pity.
"No! Just let him go!" I yelled hopelessly at Vlad, still in his hold. He ignored by cry, focused entirely on the teen sprawled out before him groaning in pain. I struggled in his grip. I had to help my friend.
Vlad shoved his foot onto Seph's chest, making the teen wince. "You've been a problem since day one," Vlad growled down. He smiled sardonically before saying with some satisfaction, "At least now I won't have anything to worry about." He put out his glowing pink palm at Seph, aiming for his face. One blast from this distance would kill him.
I wasn't going to allow that to happen. Letting the white rings flash across my body, I set my sights on the man before me. The second I turned ghost, I phased through Vlad's hand, threw my arm and fist back, and laid everything out in that one burst of fury. My fist violently collided with the side of Vlad's head before he could even comprehend that I had changed form.
Plasmius pitched forward, blown away from the power of my punch. I watched him fall to the ground with my disgust for the man clear on my face. I was breathing hard from the effort. My whole hand throbbed too.
"Danny!"
I turned around at the shocked whisper of my name. Seph sat there on his butt, his eyes staring up at my floating body in a mix of fear and wonder. His eyes traveled over my snow white hair and connected with now green eyes. Wow. This was going to be hard to explain.
"Um...Danny, behind you!" Seph shouted, pointing for emphasis.
"Move!" I commanded while flying to the side. Vlad's blast of energy was inches from hitting me. He growled in frustration and blasted for me. Frightened beyond belief, I saw him coming. Instinct took over. I did a backwards dive into the ground, phasing right through it. Vlad was right behind me.
I came back up to grab Seph. He gave a fearful scream as I blasted up from the earth right under him, grabbed him around the waist, and kept flying upward. A short glance behind told me Vlad was right on my tail. I needed to shake him. This wasn't going to be easy with Seph as luggage.
"The book!" Seph called out to me after he got his head together. "I left the book back there!"
Keeping in a swear, I shot into a upside down arch in the air and came right back at Vlad. The move surprised my pursuer and I was able to phase straight through him. I put on the speed as I flew back to the spot were the book would be.
"I'm not slowing down," I told Seph. "You pick it up."
"Got it," Seph said with a nod. I changed my handle on him so that my arms looped under his arm pits so I could go faster. We came close to the gravel pathway. Seph was nervous about hitting the ground, but he didn't know that I was in complete control. After years of ghost fighting, flying fast in a straight line is nothing to worry about.
We were only a few feet away from the book when Vlad blasted out of the earth under the wanted object and picked it up with a triumphant laugh. Seph swore in either surprise or anger of the unexpected ghost. I only gritted my teeth and kept flying. I couldn't slow down. Not now. Vlad would get us.
Vlad had not expected me to move on, so he was slow to chasing me. Maybe that was what saved us in the end. Maybe it was because I flew faster than I had ever did in my life of being a ghost. Maybe it was a combination of the two. What matters is that after a few minutes of a crazy chase which consisted of a lot of turns and phasing through whole buildings, we lost him.
Setting Seph down on the tiled linoleum floor of the Mess Hall, I realized I was totally out of gas. Gasping for air, I had to sit on one of the tables in the darkened room to catch my breath. Sweat dripped off my forehead and onto the floor as I greedily took in ragged breaths.
"It seems like you won," Seph said after a long pause. He was out of breath too. I'm sure he wasn't used to high speed ghosts chases like that. I guessed that would be his first.
"Won what?" I asked while looking up at him. Maybe he was delirious. I had no clue what he was talking about.
Smirking, Seph answered, "The bet of course. You said that if I stayed by your side I'd see a ghost. Well, I'm looking at one right now. So I guess I'm jumping off the diving board naked."
"You also owe me fifty bucks," I said, grinning despite the grave situation.
A/N: I think Seph is taking Danny with ghost powers quite nicely. But then again, he kind of has to. Oh well. Blowing up the bathroom was fun. I really do enjoy blowing up things, either in reality or in my writing. Wow. I sound like a guy, don't I? Anyway, expect the next update next weekend. Yay for updating once a week!