Hi everyone! Long time no see. I hadn't really planned to take as long of a break as I did, but things got really crazy during the year, especially when school started up again. No, I am not abandoning this book, though I think a lot of you have moved on. I really enjoy writing for this type of thing just for fun so I can't really see myself closing it up anytime soon.
I do have some bigger things in the works for the future so this is just a little thing to tide you over and prove that I'm still alive. However, I will warn you, it's not much. I literally took this idea from another TV show and just used it. But sometimes, in order to get back into writing for something, you just have to write something. It was just for fun so please, enjoy!
Happy Holidays!
The morning had started just the same as every other weekday during the school year. Get up, cram for a quiz, meet your friends to walk to school.
"What the hell even is this thing?!"
The typical ghost fight. You know, normal, everyday occurrences.
"No idea," Tucker said, perplexed as he looked up at the scene above him, "I thought it was Johnny's shadow but direct daylight doesn't seem to be affecting it." With a huff, he looked back down at his PDA, trying to figure out exactly what this thing was. He only paused for a moment when Danny crashed down beside him on the sidewalk.
"Well whatever it is, it's making us all late for school," Sam grumbled through their communication devices, "South Street's clear of civilians by the way."
"Park Ave is clear too," came Elsa's voice as Danny launched back into the sky, though there wasn't much he could do. This thing was just a massive ball of black ectoplasm with radioactive green eyes. Ecto blasts did nothing since it regenerated and ice did no real damage to it.
Tucker hummed to himself as he looked at the little data that he'd collected during the duration of the fight. "These chemical compounds…" he paused before he gasped and he snapped his fingers, "Of course. Danny!" he called up to his friend, "Your ghostly wail! The frequency should dissipate the ghost's molecules!"
"Cover your ears!"
The three friends did so immediately as Danny drew a huge breath before letting out his most powerful and draining ability. A dulled, haunting, and inhuman sound still reached the three, but not to the point where it could hurt them
They watched as the creature began to implode before it began to melt, the ectoplasm flowing down the streets of downtown Amity Park. Once the creature was fully destroyed, Danny stopped, floating weakly to the ground and landing where Tucker, Sam, and Elsa were all gathered.
He was about to say something when he heard sirens begin to blare not too far off. Thinking quickly, he grabbed all three of his friends and used what little strength he had to launch them all into the air, leaving the scene just as the Guys in White showed up.
They all landed behind Casper High with a huff as Danny practically collapsed while changing back to Fenton. "Danny," Elsa scolded lightly while helping him stand back up, "You shouldn't use your powers like that. Your ghostly wail drains you enough as it is."
He waved her off, panting the whole time, "You worry too much."
"Well, now we have 10 minutes before the first bell," Sam chimed in, "I need to cram for Lancer's quiz."
"Me too," Danny groaned, standing up straight.
They all began to walk to the front of the school, dreading having to face the day ahead. As they entered the loud, crowded, obnoxious halls, Tucker spoke up. "Anyone else way too tired to deal with today?" he asked, earning a chorus of "yeses" from his friends as they made their way to their lockers.
They had stopped at Sam's locker first to grab her notes for the quiz. As they continued through the halls, a chorus of squeals erupted from the gym's doors, making the small group stop at the sudden burst of noise. The four glanced over a noticed a huge group of girls and a few guys huddled around a sign by the door, jumping with excitement.
"Ugh," Sam rolled her eyes in distaste, "Cheerleader tryouts."
"And here they come now," Danny responded, nodding down the hall at the small squad of cheerleaders that were marching towards them.
At the head of the group was Paulina, obviously, with Star at her right hand. The other two were the recent additions to the A-Listers after Valerie had left, Kimmy and Tara. All of them were dressed in their red and white Casper High cheer uniforms. While the unpopular trio used to idolized and even envy such a group, now they all brushed it off as stupid high school stuff. They had more important priorities in their lives at the moment.
So they just frowned at the group as Paulina straight up told a girl she was not going to make the team as long as she was captain. As the four girls continued walking, Paulina shoulder bumped Elsa, causing the blonde to stumble and the group of cheerleaders to titter as they walked on.
Elsa scoffed at the behavior, very much not in the mood for Paulina's immaturity, "What is her problem?"
"Maybe its that fact that your a threat cause you're pretty and smart and the only reason you're not popular is cause you actually have a heart, plus you hang with us and date Danny?" Sam deadpanned all in one breath.
"Hey!" Danny said in slight offense.
Tucker just patted his shoulder, "It's true dude."
"I am nothing like them," Elsa whirled around to face her friends as she protested, crossing her arms in a slight pout.
Tucker just shrugged, "I mean, you did win Homecoming Queen," he paused to laugh for a second, "Remember that fiasco."
"How could I forget," Elsa said with a roll of her eyes.
"In fact, you probably could even be a cheerleader," he laughed.
Elsa's eyes suddenly lit up. "You know Tucker," she said as a smirk came to her face, "That's not a bad idea."
"What?" Sam raised a brow at her, "Become a cheerleader?"
"Oh hell no," Elsa shook her head immediately, "But, I mean, I could still try out. Prove a point, you know? It's a game squad anyway, not a competitive squad. It's not like its a serious thing."
Sam gave Elsa an impressed smile, "Make a mockery of the entire organization that Paulina's based her life on? I support it."
"I don't know," Danny said, "I mean, wouldn't that just be feeding into it? Seems kinda like a waste of time."
"I'm just sick of being pushed around by Paulina," Elsa said, her frown returning, "Taking her down on her turf will be very satisfying."
Tucker smiled, "I like this tired and petty Elsa. She's fun."
Tryouts themselves were held through all three lunch periods, which meant that Elsa went to tryouts on her own while Sam and Tucker were in science and Danny was in one of Lancer's classes.
It was easy, really. Elsa had been doing a lot of training with Sam in order to get into shape, combat fighting, all that kind of stuff. Sometimes Danny couldn't always protect them, so they learned how to protect themselves. They used each other's strengths. Sam was literally very strong while Elsa was more agile, relying on her background in dance to learn more gymnastics based in fighting.
This made tryouts seem not so scary. Elsa stood in her gym clothes as she watched many others go before her, many of them being denied immediately when them stepped up in front of the judges table with Paulina and her three friends watching intently. So when it was Elsa's turn, she wasted no time begin her routine of kicks, cartwheels, and flips.
And she wished that Sam was there to see Paulina's face when she landed a perfect full twisting layout and simply shouted "Go Team!" after landing.
"Wow," Tara said softly, "She's actually good."
This made Paulina's frown deepen, and she quickly stood from her seat behind the judges table and stomped over to Elsa, who stood in the middle of the gym. "Impressed with yourself, aren't you?" Paulina taunted as she reached the girl, crossing her arms with an unimpressed look, "Just cause you can do some flips, doesn't make you cheerleader material," the girl smirked at the blonde, "There's only one way to tell if you are."
"What's that?" Elsa asked, knowing that Paulina was testing her.
"The pyramid," she spoke before clapping her hands. In an instant, the whole cheerleader squad was up and flipping onto each other, forming a pyramid of girls. Paulina took a running start and leapt up to the top with practiced perfection and a smile to go with it. "This shouldn't be a problem," she said before flipping back down to the ground and standing up, she smirk still on her face, "Right?"
Elsa's gaze hardened at the challenge. If she's faced evil alongside her best friends, she could handle this. She took that same running start that Paulina did before launching into the air. She landed at the top and wobbled only for a second before sticking the landing. Then she felt one of the cheerleader's legs move, causing the entire pyramid to collapse in a pile of squealing girls.
Elsa rubbed her head as she sat up from the floor, looking up at Paulina stood over her with a remorseful look. "You'll never be a cheerleader," she sneered, "People want to be us. Who wants to be like you?" Her posse of girls joined her before turning around and walking away.
The blonde simply sighed as she brushed herself off. She never wanted to be one, but even if she did want to rattle Paulina a little, it didn't seem worth it. "Danny was right," she huffed as she stood up, "This was a waste of time."
Her eyes widened as she watched the windows of the gym suddenly get covered, darkening the whole room as black pitch covered the glass.
Sam and Tucker immediately noticed it as they sat in their science class. They watched with mouths open as the whole school was soon consumed in darkness. "How is that thing still alive?" Tucker asked in awe.
Danny had needed to step out of class. While he should be in there catching up on all that he'd missed due to his midday ghost fights, his lack of sleep made Lancer's monotone teaching voice more boring than usual and he needed a break. He was walking the halls, hall pass in hand, when he saw the school get swallowed in black. As the lights in the school flickered off, Danny changed into Phantom silently, thanking the fact the halls were empty.
As he floated in the air, his ghostly aura illuminating the dark hallway, he heard a window shatter before replicas of that ghost from this morning gathered around him in a group, and they seemed to recognize him. "Oh geez, these guys again," he groans before he tapped the communication device that was still in his ear from this morning. "Tucker?"
"Danny?"
The ghost boy was thankful for the instant reply as he fired an ecto blast to stall the creatures. "Danny, the ghost from before is back," Tucker warned.
He grunted as he was suddenly punched back into a classroom door. "Yeah," he huffed out, "I figured."
"And we can't reach Elsa."
Danny's heart suddenly sank in his chest and ice cold fear shot through him. He knew Elsa could handle herself, but he doesn't know if she's even armed with a thermos and he'd never forgive himself if something happened it her.
His distracting thoughts and worries allowed the creatures to land a hit on him again, knocking him further down the hallway. He got up and instead of fighting back, he started flying towards the gym.
"The creature should be dead," Tucker pondered.
"I'm going to the gym to get Elsa, try and see if we can find another way to destroy it," Danny said as he flew through the hallways.
Elsa was hiding under the bleachers as the blob-like creatures were crawling around the gym, the kids from tryouts running and screaming, scrambling in different directions. Her eyes flicked to the locker room, where her communicator was, and she immediately made a break for it, using the crowd as a distraction. She quickly ran inside and slammed the door shut, leaning up against it with a sigh.
"What are you doing in here?"
She looked up to see Paulina, Star, Kimmy, and Tara all come out from hiding in lockers.
Before she could answer, the door was slammed into, jolting Elsa forward to fall onto the ground, and earning another whine from Paulina. "You've ruined our hiding spot," she accused.
But Elsa was more concerned by the fact that the ghost was seeping through the crack under the door. Thinking quickly, she grabbed a nearby trashcan and slammed it down on the creature as eyes began to form, stalling it for a while. "We don't have time for this," she said running to the locker where she stored her stuff, grabbing her communicator and stuffing it in her ear, "We need to find a way out."
"There is no way out," Kimmy said, her tone revealing she was terrified. It didn't help that the ectoplasmic creature was splitting the wood of the door of the locker room trying to get in.
Elsa glanced around the room and instantly spotted a vent. "There," she smiled, "That's our way out." She grabbed a bench and pulled to to right below the air duct. "Don't everybody help at once," she said with a huff before standing on the wood and reaching up to open the vent. "Come on," she said, "We can escape through here."
"We're not following you anywhere," Paulina shook her head with a frown, "You'll end up getting us killed."
She glared back at her before turning to pull herself up into the air duct. "Fine," she bit out, "Suit yourself."
The door snapping and splitting into pieces caused a chorus of screams before the cheerleaders jumped out of the lockers and hurried to follow Elsa. She quickly helped them up and into the shaft before closing it behind her.
As the locker room was swarmed with creatures, Elsa led the girls away from it in the ducts, repeated "ews" practically echoing off the metal.
Danny made it to the gym to find the whole place in shambles and the locker room overrun. He flew in quickly, hoping Elsa wasn't there and found the air vent slightly tampered with. Before he could see where it led too, a creature pounced on him, sticking him to the ground. Thinking fast, he phased out of it and left the gym, most of the creatures following him.
While he was being bombarded by ghosts that clearly had it out for Danny Phantom, Sam and Tucker were just sitting in the classroom as the class barricaded the door. Sam was able to grab a small sample of the creature in a sealed beaker and brought it back to Tucker in the back of the class, both trying to figure out something to try and save the school.
Danny was rounding the corner when he ran into more ghosts. Panting, he spotted the janitor's closet and quickly phased into it. As soon as he was behind the door, he fell to his knees, changing back to Fenton. His lack of sleep the night before and using his ghost wail first thing in the morning took more of a toll on him than he thought. Simple powers like flying, phasing, and invisibility were hard to maintain and he had to focus on getting to Elsa.
"Wait a second," he muttered to himself, "If they're after Danny Phantom then…" he smirked, "I wonder if they'll recognize Danny Fenton." He took a deep breath before getting to his feet. Bracing himself, he swung the door open and yelled as he ran past the monsters, pretending to be scared. He was thankful when they continued to search for Phantom in the closet and rounded another corner quickly.
He reached his locker and was able to phase his arm through and grab a small ecto gun he concealed in it for emergencies. But he rolled his eyes as he checked the battery. "Of course it only has a few shots left," he grumbled before tucking it in his jeans and continuing on.
Elsa was practically going insane from being in the ducts with cheerleaders for more than 30 seconds.
"This is so gross!" Paulina whined before glaring at the girl crawling ahead of her, "Only you would lead us to a place like this."
"Hey, I saved your life back there," Elsa reminded her.
Paulina just scoffed, "Please. You? Save us? Don't flatter yourself."
Star laughed at Paulina's words, "Yeah."
Elsa merely rolled her eyes at them before stopping, reaching up to turn on her earpiece. "Danny?" she asked, "Are you there?"
A laugh made her turn to look at the four girls behind her. "What is Fenton supposed to do?" Star giggled.
"Yeah," Kimmy added, "If he's our knight in shining armor, then we're doomed."
"You guys always seem to forget that he's a part of a ghost hunting family," Elsa pointed out.
Tara rolled her eyes, "Like that matters."
"If anything, that dork will run in the opposite direction," Paulina added with a smirk, causing the girls to laugh before the vent creaked under them. "You ate that french fry at lunch, didn't you?" Paulina yelled back at Star.
"It was only half a fry, I swear," Star replied with wide eyes.
But Elsa paused when she heard the low growls on the ghost echoing below them. "Sh," she was quick to shush them, and another growl made them listen. They all froze when suddenly a globbed head peaked up into the vent, thankfully facing the other direction. When it saw nothing, it left.
"Elsa?" came Danny's voice through the earpiece, "Elsa are you there?"
"Danny?" she asked before the entire vent was ripped and tilted by a ghost, emptying the girls out into the pool below them.
Thankfully, Danny heard the splashing and began running in the direction of the pool.
As the girls resurfaced, Paulina gasped. "My hair!" she yelled before she pointed a finger at Elsa, "Look what you did!"
"Are you for real?!"
Another growl made them all turn to see the ghosts diving into the pool after them. "Everyone out of the pool!" she called to the girls, all of them swimming to the edge to pull themselves out. They burst through the exit, slamming the door behind them.
Just then, the doors on the other side burst open to reveal Danny Fenton with nothing but a poorly charged ecto gun.
Meanwhile, Tucker and Sam were staring between the sample of goop they got and the information on his PDA. "I just don't understand," Tucker huffed, "All of the Fenton's research on ectoplasmic compounds means that this thing should be dead."
"Well it isn't," Sam sighed, "And it's attacking our friends while we're stuck in here. So-"
They both paused, however, when the ectoplasm started to react harshly to something, vibrating aggressively. They glanced around and saw Kwan on his phone.
"Mom?" he asked as Sam grabbed the glass to bring it closer, "Could you come pick me up? It's weird here."
Sam and Tucker shared a look as the creature reacted to the frequency of the cell phone. "Uh, Danny?" Sam called into her earpiece, immediately picking up the sounds of grunting and fighting.
Tucker quickly cut in, "Dude, can you believe it? Your parents were right and I was wrong. Me!"
"Sam? Tucker?"
The boy perked up at the sound of Elsa's voice. "Elsa! Can you believe it? I just thought Danny's wail was the wrong frequency."
"Great Tucker," Elsa whispered as she crotched behind the seats, avoiding the ghosts that were everywhere searching the isles, "Can we talk about it when the school isn't overrun with ghosts."
At the sound of her voice, Danny spoke up, "What are you?"
"The auditorium," she answered.
"A concentrated burst of low frequency radio waves is actually what we needed," Tucker rambled on.
Sam raised a brow, "And how exactly do we make sure we can send that through the whole school."
Tucker held up his phone, "People's phones! All they have to do is text me and I can send a frequency that will turn their phones into weapons against the ghost."
"How are we gonna get everyone to text you?" Danny asked through heavy pants.
Sam glanced around the room, her eyes landing on the speaker attached to the wall, "The PA system, in the main office."
"I'm close," Elsa said, "I can get there."
"I'll meet you there," Danny said, "You'll need backup."
"Tell everyone to text 1279 and I'll do the rest," Tucker said, preparing his PDA for the onslaught of texts he was about to get.
"Got it," Elsa said before turning to the cheerleaders that were crotched behind her, "Ready?"
Paulina sat up and shook her head. "Nuh uh, no way. We are not following you anymore. We are going to go find a safe place to hide."
Elsa frowned, "There isn't anywhere safe in the school."
"Whatever," Paulina scoffed, "You're not leading us into danger again."
"I am so sick of you!" Elsa bit out in a harsh whisper as she turned to face them, "I've done nothing but save your life and this is the thanks I get? You were right, I'm not like you, and I don't want to be," her eyes turned ice cold, "Cheerleaders are supposed to set examples for the school, but you're all terrible people, and I feel sorry for you," she turned back around and got on her hands and knees, "Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to save the school."
With that, she crawled away, leaving the cheerleaders sitting there in shock. The opening and shutting of the auditorium door was the thing that snapped them out of it. "Can you believe that? Who does she think she is?" Paulina said, crossing her arms. When she was met with silence, she turned to her posse, "Hello? Right?"
"Well," Star looked unsure, "She did save us."
Tara nodded, "Yeah, actually, she's been pretty cool."
"She saved you too Paulina," Kimmy said before crawling forward, "I'm going with her."
The three of them suddenly began crawling out the same way Elsa had, leaving Paulina behind.
Elsa snuck through the halls quietly to get to the corner of the hall in front of the office. Nothing relieved her more than seeing a head of unruly raven hair surveying the hall in front of him. "Danny," she smiled, calling out to him in a hushed voice.
He turned at the sound of her voice, beaming when he saw her. "Elsa," he said as he quickly pulled her into a tight hug. "Are you hurt?" he asked hurriedly, thought he wouldn't let go of her.
"No, I'm fine," she smiled at his concern.
He just shook his head,"I was so worried when you didn't answer your communicator."
She pulled away and cupped his cheek, "Well, I can't try out for the cheer squad with an earpiece in."
He let out a sheepish laugh before the sound of a familiar growl drew their attention away from each other. They looked down the hall to find at least seven large glob ghosts meandering about. As they were looking, Elsa felt a tap on her shoulder.
She turned to find Star, Kimmy, and Tara all smiling at her. "Okay, what do we do?" Star asked enthusiastically.
Elsa and Danny shared a quick confused look before Elsa shrugged, "I'm not sure. There's too many of them."
"And I don't have enough shots left to get through them," Danny said with a sigh as he pulled out his ecto gun, "But we've gotta get to that PA system and fast."
"The pyramid."
Everyone turned, shocked to find Paulina standing there. "We can use the pyramid to vault Elsa over them," she explained.
Elsa crossed her arms over her chest with a suspicious look, "I don't know. How can I be sure someone doesn't sabotage me this time."
"You won't be," Paulina admitted sheepishly, before taking a deep breath, "You nailed it the first time. You can do it again."
Elsa softened at this, and for a brief moment, her and Paulina shared a smile. "I can cover the girls once you're on the other side," Danny said with a nod towards the cheerleaders and a cock of the ecto gun as it hummed with energy.
She nodded. "Let's do it then," she turned to the girls, "Ready?"
"Okay!" they cheered.
Together, they took a running start down the hall before Kimmy and Tara formed the bottom of the pyramid with Paulina and Star in the middle. Elsa lept up into the air and landed on top perfectly. With one more push, the girls underneath her helped vault her forward and over the ghosts.
She rolled out of the landing and ran towards the door, as the girls fell out of the pyramid. She yanked on the doorknob, only to find it locked. She paused for a second before an ecto ray blasted through the wood, creating an opening for her. With a quick glance back she could see Danny give her a thumbs up.
She nodded before ducking into the room. She grabbed the mic system and pushed the on button, holding it down so feedback echoed through the school to get everyone's attention. "Everyone!" she yelled into it, "Use your phones to text 1279. It will destroy the creatures!"
As Elsa continued to repeat the message on the PA, Danny was trying to keep the ghosts back and away from the cheerleaders as much as he could. "Watch out," he called as he grabbed Kimmy and pulled her away just as a monster swiped at her. The four girls quickly pulled out their phones and started texting.
In a few seconds, Tucker's PDA was binging like crazy. With a few taps, he was able to send out a frequency to each device that texted him to weaponize their phones.
The sounds of text messages being received rang through the whole school at once and the students started using their phones against the ghosts. Windows soon were cleared and sunlight began to filter through the glass again. The cheerleaders even destroyed the ghosts that were attacking Danny.
He looked around as everything began to calm, with Elsa still yelling through the PA. He walked through the hole in the door and tapped her on the shoulder. "Uh Elsa," he said, "The ghost is gone."
Her cheeks immediately turned red as she set the microphone down. "That's going to come back to haunt me," she muttered before she was grabbed in another hug.
"I'm glad you're okay," Danny said with a smile.
Elsa just smiled back at him fondly, hugging him quickly before letting go. "We should probably leave before Lancer comes and finds us," she said.
"Oh yeah," he agreed before they both quickly left the office and made their way down the hall. Danny stopped at his locker to put away the ecto gun as students began to trickle out of their classrooms and outside to go home.
"Hey, nice announcement loser," a nasty voice came from beside them.
The two of them turned to find the four cheerleaders sneering at them once again. Star snickered, "Yeah, did you have to yell so loud? My ears are bleeding."
Danny's eyes narrow at the girl's change in attitude and stepped forward. "Hey," he began in a harsh voice, startling the cheerleaders. He was about to just go off on them, but a hand on his chest stopped him.
"It's okay Danny," Elsa smiled calmly, "it doesn't bother me anymore," she glanced back at the girls with a smirk, "Besides, I know I had some sort of affect on them. Otherwise, they wouldn't have helped."
As the four girls glanced at each other, Elsa simply walked past them, not really paying them much mind as Danny followed her.
"There you guys are," Tucker called as he and Sam ran to meet up with Elsa and Danny.
"So," Sam teased with a joking smile, "How was your guy's day?"
Danny shrugged, "Oh, you know. The usual."