Disclaimer: Danny Phantom, the world set within it, and the characters in it are not owned by me - that privilege belongs not only to Butch Hartman and Nickelodeon, but also just as importantly to the vast team of co-writers, co-directors, animators and all other staff who laboured over its creation and development. Without their efforts this fanfiction would not exist, and neither would a good portion of what struck me in the first place in one of the most childhood-defining cartoons in my life.
"Like, what a petty man-child," Paulina pouted, running a hand through her hair. "He really thinks he can blackmail me by taking me off the routine - like who will be suffering here, at the end of the day? I've already been part of every performance up till this point, and he wants to take me off 1 or 2 of them and sabotage the rest of the team? Who is winning here? Nobody, that's who."
"Doesn't he also have influence over your resumes and whatnot?" I queried, raising an eyebrow. "Like what if he goes around telling other cheer teams about you?"
"Papi will give him hell," she dismissed nonchalantly, her eyes staring ahead at the screen. "Perhaps then he doesn't remember who brought him from near-bankruptcy when Casper High's cheer team was in shambles."
I draped my arm around her shoulders, my index finger idly brushing in circles on her skin. "But you're okay with this?"
She gave me a quizzical look. "What do you mean? Of course I am, if I didn't want to sacrifice my time getting tossed in the air for this precious time with you… I'd be a moron, but if I didn't, I wouldn't, you know?"
"Paulina, I… if I could be honest? I appreciate you helping me so much, truly I do a lot. But I-, you know, I don't know how comfortable I am if you give up everything just for me, you get what I mean?"
"I… well, you have a point." she frowned, placing her hand loosely on my abdomen and trilling her fingers. "I do want to do this though. I can focus on my school life and continue to work out stuff for you and have you all to myself. I'm stronger than you think."
"I didn't mean it that way; I'm sorry."
"I know you don't. Honestly getting yelled at by some obese moron is peanuts compared to to this shit that you're going through. If not a single person would even remotely try to stick up for you, I would rather spend my effort paying your dues. And that's what I've chosen to do."
"Well… if that's what you want, then," I relented. "Seriously though? "Not a single person"? Aren't there- "
"Folks on the site? Would you believe that not a single person who got saved by you would be willing to stick for you in person? So much for all that support they claim to have in all their posts, huh? You strip away that razor-thin barrier of anonymity and the whole charade collapses…"
I grit my teeth together, and I put in some effort to mask the desperation in my voice. "What about the council?"
"Those idiots in the Senate don't know anything," she vilified, the acid distinct in her tone. "And even if they did, I guarantee they couldn't care less if your name was cleared. All they'll do is use you as a talking point based on how hard their constituency is clamouring for you."
She rested her head on my shoulder, staring ahead. "But even then, I don't even know how we can make them clamour for you… like no one seems to be interested in even trying to communicate with you, I just-"
"Pau," I interrupted, laying my head on hers. I could tell it in her voice - eroded down to a rasp - how worn down to the bone her patience must have been just worrying solely about me. Did I even deserve her almost religious devotion to me? Even that was a question I had no idea how to answer. "It's okay. We'll think of something another day, okay? Can't we just enjoy this time together?"
Her brow furrowed. "I thought we were just talking about whatever came to mind. Wasn't that the idea when we just pulled up Netflix?"
My eyes shifted forward, my attention shifting back to the movie for the first time since it started - Aladdin and Jasmine were riding past the clouds now, singing gleefully to one another as the world beneath them whirled by. "I don't get it, you know," I commented. "This is the big romantic moment of the entire film, right? She goes from disdain and distrust into this… weird sense of wonder in one carpet ride? How is that supposed to make sense?"
She exhaled sharply through her nose, and smirked. "I can think of a couple of reasons."
"You wouldn't just fall in love with me for flying you over the city, would you?" I quizzed, trying to mirror her smirk weakly. "An airplane could do that."
"Of course not," she laughed, lightly prodding me at the side of my torso. "And you do know it's not just flying over the world going on here, right?"
"Uh huh."
"It's because now Jasmine has found a new sense of freedom? Having now gone even further beyond the walls of her castle, and even so the borders of Agrabah? Now being exposed to the expanse of not only the world but the whole universe?"
"Uh huh."
"Which I mean, it's a little weird to think about gaining a new sense of freedom through another person, but I suppose that's what love does… fills you with true empowerment and fulfilled fantasies."
"Mmhmm."
"Danny, are you even paying attention, or are you going to keep letting your hands wander at my hips?"
"Mmm?" My attention barely snapped back to reality, still entrenched in the engrossment of how the curvature of her body felt against my hands.
"This is my hero, huh?" She chuckled, tousling my hair with both her hands. My fingers began to loosen the button and zip at her pants. "You're hopeless."
"Maybe hopelessly in love."
"Oh?" Gently she coaxed my hands back to my sides, rotating herself to sit on my lap facing me. "And what do you love about me?"
"Is this a pop quiz or something?" I joked, my fingers idly tracing the rim of her blouse. "How long do you have?"
"Of course it's not," she pacified. "I mean, I'm pretty sure you know why I love you, maybe it's just a bit of curiosity piquing in me..."
"That's fair," I concurred. A small feral part of me began to raise its head, the urge to just push her onto the bed and tear her blouse into shreds, but I took a deep breath, repressing it to the best of my ability.
"I mean… you're strong, you're determined, you can be pretty funny sometimes… you're beautiful, you make my heart race every time I see or touch you… and above all, you're way more courageous and smart than you think. That's what I love about you."
The smile that she gave in response was one that would have to treasure forever - the way she stared into my eyes, her turquoise irises gleaming and her lips pressed neatly in a perfect crescent-shaped line. "You seem satisfied with that answer," I commented, and she stifled a laugh.
"Definitely," she concurred, leaning forward and touching my forehead with hers. "Sometimes I wonder how lucky I am to have you. How many times have you saved my life and here I get the full agency to just, kiss you whenever I want."
"I'd say the exact same thing about you."
Her mouth twitched upwards in a blink-and-you'll-miss-it flash. "Turn off the TV, Danny."
It took me a little off guard, the very instant I had pressed the button on the remote, when she pinned me down to the bed, colliding our mouths together as if today was our last day. It left me with little choice but to lay there and reciprocate the animalistic urges her body was signalling, our limbs tangled with her hands gripping my hair in twin vices, our tongues in a fiery waltz, oxygen supplies be damned. She relented too easily for me to strip her blouse off, before she kissed me sloppily, the remnant of our mingled salivas coating the bottom sides of our faces, and then pulled away to work quickly on my jumpsuit zip. I had to control my strength to a certain degree in order to prevent myself from destroying the button from her jeans, as I practically tore it off her after she discarded my clothes.
The heat of her skin was like the surface of a volcano, and even in my ears I could hear my own heart beating away like a charm of hummingbirds. "You're awfully lively today," I whispered between gasps, nestling my jaw into the corner of her neck, my tongue grazing her skin on contact.
"I'd say the exact same thing about you," she rebutted. I let out a soft, gruff moan as I felt her hand delicately stroke me where I was most sensitive, her fingers rubbing the tip occasionally as her hand made its way up. My fingers hungrily worked on unclasping her bra as I sank my teeth into the space between her collarbone and neck. My mind couldn't even think of a remotely witty response back, consumed with just the desire for her and her alone.
"You just sit back, okay babe?" she said assuringly, pressing her lips fleetingly on my forehead. She bent down, pulling my boxers down to my hips and taking a pause to eye me closer. She slowly ran her tongue in a circle, just at the tip, and it was sufficient to send a cold chill down my spine. It set my entire body almost like in a pleasurable panic, perked up but pensive about the progress to the zenith.
I arched my back, seething as she let the tip enter her mouth; it was surprising how close the warmth of her breath and the wetness of her saliva made it feel to the actual thing, except she was more adept at moving her head, mouth, lips, tongue, as compared to her hips. The process was gradual - first just kissing the tip, even lightly breathing on it to make me quiver uncontrollably, and then letting her tongue spiral down to the base, and back up again, and then, almost agonizingly slowly, taking in the length from the top to bottom.
"Mmmm!" I could only exclaim, my hands gripping the bedsheet into taut bunches, as she retracted herself, until only the tip was in her mouth, and then, just as slowly, lowering her head, letting her tongue dance around my shaft. The electricity buzzing through my body made me just want to holler at the top of my lungs, if it weren't for the risk of her father eavesdropping on us.
She began to pick up the pace, and with every bob of her head, my hips unwittingly also thrusted in rhythm with her, one hand gripping her hair to keep it in tandem. It was becoming increasingly difficult to control the feral growls that rumbled out of my throat, interpolated with every curse word in my dictionary and her name, my breathing becoming heavier and heavier. The way she pulled out completely at times, letting her mouth make a 'pop' sound as she exited before sucking again, it was just unfair how sexy it was. My muscles were just getting tenser, all that consumed my thoughts were just flames of eroticism.
When she made eye contact with me, she didn't have to make a sound for me to understand how much she was goading me, how eager she was to make me reach my limit, even as I was letting up every restraint in me to prevent myself from just bursting right there and then. I wanted this to last for all of eternity, with her head moving up and down, treasuring this warm, sloppy feeling that enveloped around my member, the feeling of her tongue dance sending fireworks exploding in my head…
I could feel myself getting closer, with the tighter I gripped her hair, and the sudden acceleration of her movements, her mouth sucking even more forcefully, the beating of my chest getting louder in my eardrums, the more feral and guttural the moans falling out of my mouth were, the more I tensed all the muscles in my upper thighs, the hotter my breath was…
Suddenly, the temperature in my breath plummeted.
"Oh fuck," I exclaimed, as I forcefully lifted her head to retract herself from my cock, and scrambled to get my boxers and jumpsuit back on. A now more different, more sinister fire now raged through me, a dozen fire alarms of panic blaring in my head.
"Danny, what's wrong? What's going on?"
"Ghost," the word just fell out of my mouth carelessly in a hurry, when all that ran through me was anxiety and trying to get my clothes back on. But it was sufficient to make her understand, and her tone immediately dropped.
"Oh… fuck."
"I'm so sorry Pau," I scrambled to apologize, as I zipped myself up and readied myself to fight. "I gotta… you know, I-"
"No! No, please. Do your thing." she interrupted, searching for her jeans as she wrangled with her blouse.
"Love you."
"Love you too."
I knew that I was too late the moment that I saw the wreckage - several buildings had been already damaged with piles of rubble strewn across the street, black lines where ectoplasm had met asphalt struck across the road. Several people lay on their backs, spots on their body bright red where their clothes had been bled out. Screaming wailed in the background, some of it hauntingly muted and some agonizingly clear below me.
At that point I kicked straight into full gear, my eyes desperately scanning the area to see where the enemy was now. Every second I spent scouring the area in vain was a second that my head began to spin in worry. How could it be so fast?
My phone began to buzz, and when I saw Sam's number, my heart dropped.
"DANNY, WHERE ON GOD'S GREEN EARTH ARE YOU?" was the first response I got the moment I answered, and I internally winced. "Did your phone lose power or something?"
"Sorry! Sorry I'm at Fuji Street, where is he now?"
"Fuji Street?" Sam repeated, her voice now more shrill and infused with fury. "He left there almost two minutes ago! And you didn't even sense it?"
"I'm sorry, okay!" I retorted, now panicking, struggling with the conflicting emotions of the remnant dopamine fading away from my receptors and the alarm and fear that were ricocheting around my mind. I really must have been out of it. "I'll explain later, okay! Where is he now?"
"Revelation Park!" I heard Tucker yell. "He's coming from the north, just take the shortest path!"
"Roger!"
It takes only a few seconds to rush through the alley of destruction and rubble - closing my nostrils with my fingers to block out the smoke from entering my lungs at some point - before I spot him: and the moment I spotted it, my heart sank. Of course it had to be a kaiju-esque monster responsible for all of this havoc: obviously, a rational part would have been able to deduct that it had to be something like this, but still, the sheer awe-stricken terror of seeing it in person made me almost absolutely nauseous.
"Danny!" I heard Sam yell from below me. "Danny, where have you been?"
"That's not important!" I hollered back. "Any weak spot on this guy?"
"I'm not sure," she relayed, clearly with an undertone of worry. "Maybe its head or the neck. But Danny, you gotta know something, it'll probably-"
At this juncture my interest in any of the finer details had completely evaporated. I needed to deal with this fast, and so without hesitation, I flew as fast as I could to its head, and attempted to land as hard a punch as I possibly could muster straight at its jaw. However, before I could land the punch, it swung its tail at me, and the spiked appendage smacked me straight in the stomach, hurling me straight into another building so hard that it left the imprint of my body on the brick outer wall.
"Danny, let me finish!" Sam chided, as she ran to me. "It's super fast, so you can't just face it head-on, it'll notice you!"
I shook my head in frustration. "Sorry," I could only manage.
"Come on, Danny, this isn't the time. Get your earbuds out and stop fooling around, okay?"
At the corner of my eye, as I fished into my pockets, I could see Tucker throwing several homing shots in several haphazard directions, with trajectories that saw the miniature missiles scatter before honing in at various points of the kaiju's body. It roared thunderously, louder when the missiles encroached near its head. It swiveled its head around, getting more and more concussed and dazed in confusion in being unable to pinpoint the source of the attacks.
In that moment I knew what I had to do. I took off again, but instead of approaching it head-on, I circled it in orbit, firing off ectoplasmic spheres of energy towards the center of the orbit. The roars just became louder, which offered me a sense, albeit small, of triumph. My eyes continued to dart back and forth between the path in front of me and the monster, making sure to alter the circular path with every cycle for unpredictability's sake.
I misfired an orb, and in fleeting horror, I watched as it thankfully struck next to its foot, nevertheless leaving a crater on the greenery in its wake. I instantly winced. A quick extrapolation filled me with dread: I was pretty sure I was going to be the first one to get dizzy from circling the kaiju over and over, before I could properly confuse it from hitting it in the head.
"What now?" I communicated over the earbuds.
"I think it's going to lose its balance soon," Tucker remarked. "Aim for his feet again!"
It pained me to have to move so far away just to avoid the monster's range of damage - it rattled me on the inside, to have my vision of the monster to be so poor when firing the orbs. The asphalt burned beneath it, but with every shot it roared in agony, and combined with Tucker's homing missiles disoriented it to the point where it began to lash out into thin air - and, to my dismay, into nearby buildings as well. The screaming grew in decibels, the smell of smoke and the faint glowing heat emitting from the small fires ignited around intensified; the fact that only the streetlights, with the moon completely gone in the sky, were the only source of light besides the fires made the hairs on the back of my neck stand, like as if staring in the face of a thousand needles about to pierce your skin.
The adrenaline was pumping through my veins rapidly, and at some point that I couldn't pinpoint, my cup overflowed. I ignored Sam's cry of protest when I flew closer to him, firing more spheres as I got closer to it. One of the spheres struck its belly, and the response was immediate- it cried out in agony, and lurched forward further into the park, clearly losing its orientation.
"Tucker, you saw that, right?" I spoke into the earbuds.
"Yeah! Yeah, again."
"Together this time, okay? Ready on you."
"On the count of 3. 1."
I took in a deep breath, my eyes locking straight onto the kaiju's lower half. It was already spiralling deeper into its madness, but the window of opportunity would be small. I swallowed the saliva pooling at the back of my throat, readying all of my focus now.
"2."
"3!"
I deliberately syncopated my attack against Tucker's, his missiles launching milliseconds before I was able to focus and fire another orb, this time aiming straight at its stomach. The disorientation struck first before the blow to its stomach took it down, flailing around desperately as its sense of balance slowly sapped out of it, until it landed face-up into a nearby pond, the water displacing all over the nearby greenery in the park.
"Now, Danny!" Tucker yelled, seconds after I gathered all the energy I could, getting as close as I could before it could recover, and punched it straight at its belly, nearer to its feet. The final cry that it gave was deafening to the point where you could almost see the sound waves ravage the area, buildings adjacent to the park having their windows shattered. When I was sure that it was completely motionless, down for the count, I took out my thermos and promptly sucked it in as it groaned loudly in protest.
In a way, letting the blue ray illuminate the scenery around filled me not only with a sense of relief but also of tranquility, and of triumph and tyrannical power over a defeated foe, just wielding the thermos and capturing another foe at least a hundred times my size. But to my surprise, the satisfaction remnant from seeing it disappear into the thermos was short-lived, going as fast as it came. It was so incredibly strange, to feel like an inner part of you just disappear the moment you felt like you were at the top of the world, and for the moment to pass, and then… nothing.
And then, your eyes dart around, and you see the wreckage all around, you see the fire and piles of rubble and buildings damaged beyond repair, and you see some people desperately trying to bandage themselves and some calling 911, and you feel your heart just instantly shatter. At that point I just froze, tuning out Sam and Tucker trying to relay instructions to me over the earbuds, completely motionless in the air and my eyes having no choice but to be glued to the chaos that unfolded in front of me.
I wanted to help, of course - to ease the pain and suffering, to pledge to rebuild the city again, but at the same time, I knew what would happen. People would scorn me, accusing me of being responsible for this mess, some would probably want my neck in exchange for the suffering and injury caused to the innocent. And in some way, it was hard to blame them. Why would they want my help - a ghost, probably a direct kin from the monster that had wreaked all this havoc around? Wasn't I in on this act too? Wasn't I the mastermind behind taking down as much of this beautiful, pure community as I could into the hellish world that I had spawned in?
"DANNY!"
"DANNY YOU HAVE TO RUN!"
"What?" I blurted, confused, instantly snapped out of my stupor. My eyes darted around - another ghost to fight? Why would I run?
"Your parents, Danny," Sam explained, and my stomach sank. "They're here! With a bunch of cops and a lot of other people I haven't seen bef- just run! Get outta there right now!"
Instinctively I turned invisible, and the moment I did, I could see several police cars, as well as the ghost-hunting RV turned "assault vehicle" that I recognized my parents piloting. When they stopped, straight in the middle of the road in one file, my father bolted out of the car, an expression of vengeance blackening his face.
"This is the ghost hunting task force of Amity Park!" He announced, as the rest of the officers streamed out of the cars and cocking their pistols audibly. "Surrender now or be prepared to be blown apart, molecule by pathetic molecule!"
I could not help but remain rooted in mid-air, still invisible, staring in complete disbelief. The ghost hunting task force? That would have sounded completely made up if it weren't for the fact that there were police escorts and several armed personnel right before my very eyes.
Their eyes scoured the area, and a gut feeling told me that they weren't even looking for the monster that had ravaged the better part of the city. My mother emerged from the car, and the moment I espied her invisible-tracking goggles, the colour drained from my face. I jolted straight into action, flying away as fast as I could.
"Show yourself, you ectoplasmic heathen!" I heard her voice, trailing as I zoomed further and further away from her. "The more you resist arrest, the more inclined we are to shoot!"
My heart plummeted - so now the warrant is truly out now? Even if she was bluffing, there would be no way to go 2 ways around it. There would be a significant number of people who thought I was in conspiracy with other ghosts, right in the cabinet, waiting for an incident like this to push their agenda. And what more, in an election period as well, where of all people on earth, an 18-year-old half-ghost fugitive would be used as a tool for people to get in power.
I honestly had no clue where to even go at this point - I'd lost communication with Sam and Tucker as well, so I couldn't even get instructions on where to go and where the police were tracking me. My heart began to pound within my chest again, knowing that the moment my mother saw me it was a rat race that could only end badly. More so there was the fear that stray energy rays would just strike me in the air, and I would just be a pile of ash in seconds.
At this point my mind only could fixate on a singular place that would be safe enough to take refuge, even if momentarily. No idea was coming to mind in the slightest, and so away I went regardless, remaining invisible and praying to whatever god was out there that no one would notice me.
I should have perhaps prepared myself for this sensation, but the contrast between the sense of urgency and anxiety that bled into my skin with the police cars chasing me and guns pointed in my direction, and the emptiness and isolation of the island, jarred me again for the 2nd time today. Obviously the effect was immediate, like a wave of morphine finally connecting with my brain as I let the sight of the sandy expanse stretching into the black ocean, surrounded by the palm trees shielding me away from the rest of society. But at the same time, the reality was the same, no matter how much I wanted to escape it.
I collapsed into a sitting position, my head in my hands, the situation I was in starting to actualize around me. This was going to be a full blown event, by the time society has slept on the event and awoken to the mass destruction of the city. How Danny Phantom came, late enough for the monster to have already done more than enough to endanger lives, and swooped up the monster, and then just, left immediately. And why? If he wanted to flaunt his glory, he would have done his best to stay on the scene for as long as possible for people to take footage, but if he was an actual ordinary hero, why didn't he come earlier? What kind of person was this?
This refuge would not house me forever. I would have to go home and live my life as a high-school student, all the while thinking about finals and graduation and college and everything else that was coming up so soon, all the while having people discuss me like the second coming of Hitler. I wanted so badly to picture myself just, having a blank slate, in blissful ignorance, savouring my time with Paulina, feeling the heat of her body, or letting the taste of her linger on my tongue… to relive that day that she took me as well, above all.
But ultimately, she wasn't me. I had to do something for myself. I had to change the way things were panning out else I would just simply … perish.
But what? What could I even do?
The thought hung in limbo for me in the air, and before I could even resolve it, I heard a voice behind me, and at first, hearing a voice to begin with, made me instantly vanish and have the instinct to flee, fearing that they might have caught me here and were going to kill me.
"Danny?"
When I registered that it was Paulina, I immediately re-appeared, and she donned an expression that I absolutely needed, absolutely could not live without: the face of empathy, of understanding, that she knew exactly what had gone down, and that she was on my side. By my side. And all this without even uttering a single word.
When I looked at her face, down to her body, it felt like there was nothing else I really needed nor aspired to have anymore. If I could just… live like this forever, and just be in this way for the rest of my life, was that really all that bad? Having the girl of my dreams with me and only having her for my life? It obviously sounded borderline obsessive and unhealthy to a toxic extent… but at the same time, it was just reality.
I promptly bolted to her, to finish exactly what I had started.