OMG YES!

To those of you who haven't heard:

I'M BEING PUBLISHED! In an actual book that actually makes money! xD

For more information: http: // cordria. deviantart. com/ journal/ 31452127/ (delete the spaces)


Apprentice
A Danny Phantom FanFiction by Cordria

Based on the story 'Apprenticeship' by WingsOfMorphius
(Don't kill me, Wings, if you read this)


The phantom was strong, but this ghost was just too powerful. No matter what tricks he tried or how fast he moved or how distracting his chatter got, the huge ghost refused to relinquish the top spot in the fight.

She was watching from the ground, her eyes wide as she tracked both ghosts in the sky, her fingers tightening and loosening on the grip of the ectogun she was carrying. Could she make a shot from this distance? Possibly, but only at the risk of hitting the wrong spirit.

Silently willing the phantom to taunt the other ghost closer, she started to creep towards the fight. Darting from garbage bin to shadowed alley to parked car, she made her way unobserved by either ghost. When she finally stopped and rested her elbows on the trunk of an abandoned car, she aimed her gun at the bluish dragon coiled around the top of the Amity Clock. Was she close enough now?

Wait... where'd the ghost go?

Something dripped on her hand, so cold it burned as it evaporated into the night sky. She hissed and rubbed her hand furiously on her leg. After examining the small ectoplasm burn wound, for once wishing she had one of those glaring jumpsuits the Fentons insisted on wearing, she hesitated and looked straight up.

The phantom was hovering overhead, the normally steady glow of his body flickering and pulsing dimly. Almost like a heartbeat, she noticed with a surprised blink, then watched as he desperately dove out of the way of the sweep of the dragon-ghost's tail.

It hit her then, in a way that slammed straight to her gut and caused an almost physical pain: the phantom was loosing. This wasn't a fight. This was a desperate attempt at survival.

Her eyes narrowed and she set her teeth, raising the weapon as she watched the dragon laugh and chase the phantom through the sky. "This is what I trained for," she whispered, putting the ghost in the crosshairs and pulling the trigger to the halfway point. The ectogun whined desperately as it built up a charge, a small LED light near the sight blinking lazily for a moment before flaring to full brilliance. She was ready to fire.

"Come on," she hissed, the phantom darting anxiously from side to side as he tried to avoid getting hit. "Move it." She couldn't fire and risk hitting the heroic ghost, not with this weapon.

The dragon roared, its eyes narrowing in a mimicry of frustration as it was unable to land another blow. Blue light started to condense around the ghost, making it glow. It took only a moment for the ghost to be a second moon in the sky, wings outstretched, its voice still echoing eerily in the dark night. The stars vanished under the ghost's brilliance, the moon slowly starting to fade away as well.

She swore softly, her hands trembling slightly but her ectogun staying focused on the ghost. She didn't know what was happening, but it surely couldn't be good.

The phantom seemed to have a similar idea, his shape, almost invisible in the glow, darting away from dragon. He grew bigger in the sight of her gun the closer he got, she finally realizing he was flying straight towards her. Did he know she was there?

The release of the bent-up energy caused the world to shake. If she wouldn't have been braced against the car she would have stumbled to her knees. As it was, she had to raise her head or risk bashing her head on the ectogun. Moments later she had the gun back to her eye.

Now was the time to fire. Paying no attention to the phantom still streaking towards her or the wave of energy the dragon had released, she aimed and fired at the ghost's head. It sliced through the air, barely missing her phantom, straight on course.

Raising her head, her eyes focused on the phantom just as the blast of energy from the dragon slammed into him. "NO!" she screamed as she saw his eyes widen in sudden pain. The phantom was tossed a bit through the air... then he started to disintegrate. His fingers and feet were gone in an eerie swirl of light, followed by his arms and legs, then his stomach and chest, and finally his brilliant white hair and green eyes.

Behind the phantom, her shot hit the dragon-ghost right between the eyes. The dragon's blue ectoplasm reacted with the ionized chemicals in her ectoweapon and it dissolved, freezing and evaporating ectoplasm cascading down from the sky in a deadly rainstorm.

But her eyes were trapped on the spot where she'd last seen her glowing ghost. Her scream had barely left her throat when she heard the sound of something heavy and solid hitting the ground, heard it roll a few feet. Eyes finally adjusting back to the darkness, she could see the shape on the ground only a dozen feet away.

"Phantom?" she breathed, dropping the gun and racing to his side. She rolled the ghost onto his back, wincing at the burns and the cuts. A nasty gash on his side was making a pool of blood on the ground, huge rips and burns in his arm and leg evidence on him hitting the ground hard.

She pulled back in surprise when she finally had the phantom on his back. Black hair, not white. Familiar features. A white shirt, bloodied but very recognizable. "Danny Fenton?" she hissed.

Her mind was whirling. Had her phantom been carrying him? She hadn't seen...

But in a fight, would she have seen?

Danny moaned and twitched a little, one of his eyes opening ever so slightly. Green still sparkled in the irises of his eyes as he gazed blearily in her direction. His breath was hitching in his throat; he was obviously in pain.

Only now did she think to scramble for her phone. He needed help - she needed to call Mrs. Fenton and find out what to do. They hadn't covered this in her lessons.

Although she'd been convinced he was too hurt to move, his hand came up to grab hers as she held her cellphone, blood dripping onto her arm. The other eye opened and he blinked a few times, struggling to focus on her.

"I'm calling your mom, Danny," she said. "You're hurt."

"Ghost?" he breathed.

She leaned a little closer, gazing into his blue eyes - which, eerily, still held a few motes of green. "Gone. I shot it."

His eyes finally seemed to lock on hers, widening as he realized who it was he was talking to. His body jerked like he'd tried to sit up, but he was simply too hurt to do anything but lay there, so he settled on staring at her in blank amazement. "Paulina?"


Uploaded April 8, 2010
Sorry I forget to update here sometimes, you really should all follow me on dA. :)
Thanks for reading.