Hey guys, I'm baaaaaaaack, here is a new story that I have been cooking up for the past few months.
I am super excited for this story, and I have some big things in mind for it.
As always if anyone has any suggestions, or ideas for the story please feel free to let me know I am always open to constructive criticism, and new ideas. I hope you guys enjoy the new story.
Aftermath
Chapter One: Popularity
DISCLAIMER: I do not own any characters in the Danny Phantom series, all rights go to Butch Hartman
…
...
….
…
..
.
It was 1 month after the disasteroid, and Danny was laying on his back in his bed, looking up at the stars on his ceiling, with Sam cuddled against his chest.
Danny let out a big sigh. Sam didn't move off his chest, she just looked up at him. "Is everything ok Danny?"
Danny hesitated before answering her. "It's just, things are going to be totally different now that everyone knows that I'm Danny Phantom."
"Is that a bad thing?" Sam moved her head from his chest and propped herself up on her elbow. "You don't have to worry about lying to people anymore, or hiding from your parents."
"That's the problem Sam, with everyone knowing about Phantom, I'm not going to have much privacy. Everyone will want to "hang out" with me now they know my true identity."
"Danny of course things will change, but they won't be that different. Your powers allow you to stay hidden if you want to."
Danny let out another big sigh, and sat up swinging his legs off the edge of his bed, his back facing Sam. "I don't want to have to use my powers all the time to stay away from people, and I don't want my room, and the ghost zone to be the only two places I can go to be alone."
Sam scooted closer to Danny wrapping her arms around his shoulders, laying her head on his right shoulder. "Give it time Danny, I'm sure things will calm down in a few more months."
Danny turned his head and locked eyes with Sam, in one swift movement Sam was on her back, and Danny was holding himself above her. He continued to make eye contact, when Sam reached up behind Danny's head, and lowered his lips to hers. Their lips interlocked with each other, when suddenly they were broken apart from a knock at the door.
"Danny, Tucker is here." He heard his mom's voice on the other side of the door.
Danny looked into Sam's eyes. "Doesn't he know he can text one of us?" Danny climbed off his bed, leaving Sam lying there. "I'll be back." Danny walked downstairs and sure enough Tucker was standing in the living room waiting for Danny.
"Dude, haven't you heard of texting?" Danny said annoyed.
"Dude, have you ever heard of turning your phone on?" Tucker replied.
Danny took his phone out of his pocket and saw missed messages and calls form Tucker. "Sorry must have forgotten to turn it back on after waking up this morning. What's up?"
"Do you and Sam want to go to the mall or go stuff our faces at nasty burger? I figured since things have sort of calmed down we could hang out, like the good old days."
"I don't know Tuck, I haven't been able to go anywhere without people crowding me all the time."
"When was the last time you went out?"
Danny shrugged "I don't know, I've lost track of time since saving the world."
"That's exactly why you need to get out."
Danny didn't respond to Tuckers last comment, he started to walk back upstairs, knowing Tucker would follow him. Moments later he was back in his room with Tucker behind him.
"Hey Tucker." Sam said still lying on Danny's bed.
"Hey Sam. How did I know you would already be up here? Oh yeah cause you guys are love birds."
"We are not love birds." Danny and Sam said in unison.
"Could have fooled me." Tucker walked over to Danny's desk and sat in the chair, while Danny walked back over to the bed. Sam was now sitting upright next to Danny.
"Sam isn't that one of Danny's jackets?" Tucker asked.
Sam glanced at Danny, then looked at Tucker. "Yep it is." She said proudly.
Tucker shook his head, and Danny kissed the top of Sam's head.
"Tucker don't you have a city to run?" Sam asked.
"Nah I resigned. I had my fun for the month I was mayor. It's too much work being mayor, especially since people know about Danny and his powers. It seems like that's all people wanted to talk about. I want to go back to being a normal teenager." Tucker confessed.
Danny looked at tucker. "That's exactly why I don't want to go outside Tuck, people don't want to talk to me because I'm Danny, they only want to talk to me because I'm Phantom. The only people who don't care that I'm Phantom are you guys, Jazz, and my parents, everyone else just wants to talk to me about me being Phantom. It gets annoying really fast." Danny hung his head, and his jet black hair covered his face.
"What if we did some type of "get to know you event" so that people who want to ask questions about you being Phantom they can. That way everyone will be in the same place at once, and you don't have to deal with people crowding you all the time." Sam suggested.
Danny laid back horizontally on his bed. "How do we know that will even work?"
"We don't unless we try it." Sam put her hand on Danny's chest feeling his heart beat. She noticed that his heart beat had significantly gotten slower, she didn't know why she didn't realize it earlier. "Danny, why is your heart rate slower than normal?"
"Probably because of the way I got my powers back. When all the ghost were shooting me with their ecto-blasts, it was more painful than when I got them from the portal, I imagine part of me died, but I'm not sure. That's a question for clockwork." Danny sat back up. "You really think having this event thing is going to help with people not crowding me all the time?"
"Like Sam said, we don't know unless we try." Tucker was now spinning around in Danny's chair.
"I guess it's worth a shot, but where are we going to do this event thingy?" Danny asked.
"We can hold it in the auditorium at school, now that school is out, the auditorium will be empty." Sam mentioned.
"That's not a bad idea, we just have to get permission from Mr. Lancer, or principal Ishiyama." Tucker proclaimed.
"Reserving the auditorium will be easy, it's getting the word out that might be harder." Sam said.
A smile slowly crept upon Danny's face. "Leave that part to me. Nothing attracts a crowd better than a celebrity."
"Well I'm starving, let's go to the Nasty Burger, and stuff our faces." Tucker stood up from his chair, and headed towards the door, followed by Sam and Danny.
Moments later the trio was at the Nasty Burger, sitting in their usual spot. Danny was surprised that hardly anyone was there, except a few people he recognized from school. Mikey, Nathan, and the rest of the nerds that usually hung out together. Danny made the mistake of making eye contact with Mikey, and quickly regretted his decision. Mikey got up from his seat and started to walk towards the trio, a few minutes later Mikey was standing in front of the trios table. Danny rolled his eyes as he got prepared for the bombarding of questions.
"D-Danny, I just wanted to say thank you." Mikey didn't sound like his usual self, he sounded very uneasy.
Danny blinked not expecting Mikey to say something like that. "Uh- You're Welcome?" Danny replied questionably.
"It's just that nobody really knew you were the one always saving the school or the town from all those ghosts, and you didn't get the recognition you deserved. With everyone knowing your Phantom now, they probably just want to be your friend just for the popularity. So I just wanted to personally thank you for always saving the school, and town, and I always thought Phantom was and is the best thing Amity Park needs." As Mikey spoke he got more confident talking to a hero, his hero.
Danny's cheeks turned a slight red after hearing Mikey's deep gratitude for him fighting ghosts all the time. No one ever really did thank Phantom for fighting ghosts, most people just thought he was a menace to the town, at least they did until his plan saved the world from the disasteroid. Danny looked at both of his friends, then looked at Mikey. "Thanks Mikey, that means a lot to me." Danny slightly looked down and the table. "It's been hard fighting ghost with the help of my only two true friends, and then watch the news turn Phantom into something I'm not. There were a few times I thought about giving up." Danny looked back at Mikey. "But it's people like you who kept me going. People who knew that Phantom wasn't any normal ghost. So thank you Mikey for always supporting me."
Mikey was about to answer back, when suddenly Danny and the trio turned their attention outside, where Paulina and all the A-Listers were gawking at Danny.
"THERE HE IS, LET'S GET HIM BEFORE HE CAN RUN AWAY." Paulina shouted, and started to lead the group into the Nasty Burger.
Danny's eye's widened, and without hesitation changed into Phantom. "And that's my que to leave. Sorry guys I'll text you later." Danny was flying through the Nast Burger roof in seconds, and he could hear the screams of all the people, one of which was Dash.
"Wait Phantom, will you sign Pookie's collar?" Dash yelled into the air.
Danny ignored the request and went invisible, so no one could follow him. A few minutes later Danny arrived at City Hall landing on the roof. Danny found a place to sit on the edge of City Hall, where he could see the crowd of teenagers and other residents of Amity Park searching for him. Danny let out a big sigh, and laid down on the roof, looking up at the sky.
"I wish things were back to normal, before everyone knew I was Phantom, before everything changed." Danny face-palmed. "Why did I have to save the planet?" Danny continued to lie there, and felt his phone buzzing in his pocket, he took it out and saw it was Sam calling.
"Hey Sam."
"Danny where did you go?"
"I'm at City Hall on the roof, I wasn't about to let that mob of people bombard me, hearing Mikey thank me was enough."
"Well we are coming to you."
"Just meet me at my house, I'll be there in a few."
"Ok, Tucker and I will head over and wait for you, and Danny I love you." Danny could hear Tucker making puking noises in the background.
Danny loved to hear his girlfriend express her love for him, when she didn't do it too often. "Love you too Sam."
"Be safe coming back."
"Always." Danny hung up the phone and floated a few feet above the ground.
"It's hard being a celebrity isn't it?" A familiar childish voice said.
Danny was caught off guard as he spun around forming a ball of ectoplasm in his hand only to see none other than Dani Phantom floating inches behind him. "Dani don't sneak up on me like that."
"Why not, it's fun."
"Danielle, I could have hurt you." Danny touched down no longer floating inches above the roof.
"Oh come on Danny, you're no fun." Dani also stopped floating and walked closer to Danny.
"I thought you were traveling the world, why are you back so soon?" Danny inquired.
"I decided to come back home for a while, traveling around the world is exhausting, especially for a kid like me. But more importantly, what are you doing up here?"
Danny gave Dani a "really? You have to ask?" look. "Ever since I saved the world form the disasteroid, and everyone knows I'm Phantom, no one will leave me alone. I can't go out of my own house without being bothered. Sam, Tucker, and I were eating lunch at the Nasty Burger, when Paulina spotted me. I had to get away while I could."
"It can't be that bad." Dani said
"Really?" Danny split himself into two Danny's and the clone flew down in front of City Hall, and changed into Fenton, causing a bright light to flash, grabbing the attention of the crowd. Once the crowd noticed clone Danny, they started running towards him, shouting all kinds of thing like, "You're my hero, and I love you, and Sign this for me." Danny then called the clone back to himself, leaving the crowd confused.
"He's got to be close. He can't be too far if that was a clone." One of the patrons said. The crowd then started searching all around City Hall, for any sign of the real Danny.
Danny looked at Danielle. "See, the popularity is too much, most of the town goes crazy when they see me, I can't go anywhere without someone bombarding me."
Dani looked down at the mob. "I didn't realize it was that bad, I'm sorry Danny."
"It's ok Danielle, you didn't know." Danny felt his phone buzz in his pocket, which reminded him that Sam and Tucker were waiting for him at his house. "I've got to go, Sam and Tucker are waiting for me, you can come if you would like." Danny flew up into the air and was flying towards his house Dani right by his side. Danny didn't bother walking through his front door, as he knew Sam and Tucker were already in his room, so he just phased through his window into his room, and changed instantly into Fenton.
"Hey man, we've been waiting for 30 minutes, what took you so long?"
"Someone decided to come for a little visit." Danny turned around facing the window, and Dani had just phased through it, and landed on Danny's floor.
"Hey guys" Dani said.
"What is your cousin doing here? I thought she was traveling the world." Tucker asked.
"I'm right here ya know, you can ask me." Dani sounded a little offended at the fact that Tucker didn't address her first.
Danny looked at Dani. "Give him a break Danielle, he's not used to having you around." Danny turned towards Tucker. "She needed a place to rest for a while. Flying around the world isn't as easy as it looks."
"Right, sorry Dani." Tucker apologized.
"It's ok. I'm still getting used to everything just like you. Apology accepted." Dani changed back into her human form, and sat on the bed.
"So what's next?" Sam inquired.
"We get this event thingy planned. If it works." Danny didn't sound like he really wanted to even attempt this event.
"Don't sound so disheartened Danny, we won't know if this will make things better unless we try." Sam encouraged.
Danny didn't respond, he walked over to his bed and flopped down on his stomach face in his pillow. Moments of silence went by when there was a knock at Danny's door.
"Danny, someone is on the phone for you." Jazz proclaimed.
Danny sighed and got up from his bed, and went downstairs, took the phone from his sister's hands and held it up to his ears. "Hello?"
"Daniel, this is Mayor Montez, I wanted to ask you a couple questions."
Danny was baffled as he responded. "What kind of questions?"
"I would like to have a meeting with you if that's ok."
"I guess that would be alright." Danny said apprehensively.
"Great, come to town hall in my office around 10 am tomorrow, and we can talk then."
"Ok." Danny sounded very unsure of the arrangement of meeting up with the mayor. He hung up the phone and went back to his room.
"What was that all about?" Tucker asked spinner in Danny's computer chair.
Danny stood at his door for a few seconds before answering tuckers question. "The mayor wants to talk to me." Danny said with a blank expression on his face.
"Why does the mayor want to talk to you?" Sam inquired.
"He wants to ask me some questions, he didn't say what kind, and he wants me to meet him at his office tomorrow at 10." Danny walked over to his bed and sat down, still holding his blank expression on his face.
"I don't know if I like this Danny. I'm going with you." Sam sat next to Danny and wrapped her arms around his shoulders.
Danny faced Sam and blinked his eyes, snapping out of his trance, and gave Sam a half smile. "I'd be ok with that, I don't know how I feel about this whole thing."
"Maybe he wants information on ghosts, and how they get into Amity Park." Tucker suggested.
"Or maybe he just wants to thank you for always keeping the city safe without being asked to." Sam implied.
"I don't know what he wants to know, but I'm not letting my guard down. I don't care if he is the mayor or how many security guards will be there, I've learned my lesson letting my guard down in the past, and I'm not going to let it happen again." Danny declared.
"We will be right by your side Danny, no matter what, like we always have." Sam gave Danny a tight squeeze, and kissed his cheek.
"We'll always stand by you Danny. That's what friends are for." Tucker stopped spinning in the chair and surveyed the room.
"We should get going." Sam said. "We will meet you at town hall at 10." Sam kissed Danny once again on the cheek, before she pulled away Danny turned his head, and locked lips with Sam, giving her a more passionate kiss.
"Ewwww." Dani exclaimed.
"Get a room love birds." Tucker said in disgust.
Danny separated from Sam's lips and looked at Tucker. "I am in a room, my room." Danny turned back towards Sam and kissed her passionately one more time before letter her leave.
"We'll see you tomorrow Danny, love you."
"Gross, I can't take this sweet talk, I'm out." Dani changed and flew out Danny's window.
Danny and Sam chuckled, as Sam was walking towards the door.
"I agree with your cousin, I'm out; see you at town hall tomorrow dude." Tucker left the room without another word, leaving Sam behind.
Danny chuckled once more and shook his head. "I love you to Sam." Danny got up from his bed, and followed Sam to the door.
"Where are you going?" Sam asked.
"I'm not about to let my girlfriend walk home alone." Danny put his arm around her shoulder.
"I won't be walking home alone, Tucker will be with me."
Danny gave Sam a we both know Tucker would hide behind you for protection if something were to happen look, and still had his arm around her shoulder.
Sam sighed expecting that Danny wasn't going to let her walk home without him. "Fine Mr. Protective."
"You know it." Danny moved his arm off of Sam's shoulders and held her hand, as they walked out his front door. Tucker was waiting for Sam, and was not surprised to see Danny with her.
Moments later Danny and Sam arrived at Sam's front door.
"No one ambushed us." Sam noticed
"They are all probably asleep, it is pretty late." Danny leaned in for a kiss, but was interrupted by Sam's dad opening the door. Danny was quick to stand straight, and make eye contact with her dad. "Hi Mr. Manson, I was just making sure Sam got home safe." Danny nervously cleared his throat.
Mr. Manson didn't say anything at first, he just glared at Danny. "I don't care that you saved the world, and you're a big hero, my wife and I still don't approve of you dating our daughter."
Sam turned towards her dad "Dad, leave him alone. If it weren't for Danny, we would all be dead." She turned back around, and kissed Danny on the lips, much to her father's chagrin. "I'll see you tomorrow." Sam turned on her heal, walking past her dad, not making eye contact.
A few seconds of intense staring went on between Danny and Mr. Manson, when Pamela called for her husband to come back inside. Mr. Manson turned his head inside. "Coming dear." Turned back towards Danny. "Watch yourself boy." Mr. Manson didn't wait for Danny to respond he shut the door, leaving Danny standing there.
Danny walked down the few steps, and backed up enough to see Sam through her window. He didn't care that her parents didn't like him, he saved the world, and almost everyone was thankful for it, he didn't need her parent's approval. Sam looked out the window, and saw Danny floating in front of her window, she walked over to it, and opened it up.
"You better leave before my dad see's you."
"Pfff, I'm not afraid of your dad, I've fought ghosts scarier than him. I wanted to give you that kiss before leaving." Danny replied confidently
Sam shook her head. "You're a dork." She leaned in for the kiss, and her lips met Danny's in seconds. They kissed for what she thought felt like forever, when Danny pulled away. "I love you Sam."
"I love you too, now get out of here."
Danny chuckled, and took off into the dark night, arriving at his house, in his room moments later, only to be greeted by his mom sitting in the chair Tucker occupied earlier.
Danny slowly floated down to the floor, changing back when his feet touched the floor. "Is everything ok mom?"
Maddie blinked, and shook her head. "I'll have to get more used to that."
"Sorry, I forget changing back causes a bright light."
"It's ok sweetie. I wanted to talk to you about some rules."
Danny just sat on his bed and listened.
"I know things are going to be a lot different now that everyone knows you're the ghost boy, but we need to declare some ground rules." Maddie stood up from the chair and sat next to Danny on his bed. "Your father and I talked about it and we have decided to extend your curfew. We now understand why you were always late for your old curfew. So with that said your curfew is 11pm, if for any reason you can't make curfew because you are fighting ghosts, then you need to let me or your dad know, just so we know where you are."
Danny nodded his head in agreement. "Mom I'm sorry I didn't tell you and dad about my powers earlier, I didn't know how you guys would react to your own son being the one thing you guys make weapons for." Danny hung his head, causing his raven black hair to fall over his eyes.
Maddie placed her hands around Danny's face, and lifted his head to meet her motherly purple eyes. "Danny sweetie, it's ok. We completely understand why you wouldn't have wanted your father and I to know about your powers. Your father and I feel responsible for the lack of being able to trust us with your secret." Maddie kissed his cheek, and let go of his head.
Danny sheepishly smiled at his mom, and blushed a little bit.
"By the way, how are you and Sam doing?" Maddie Asked
Danny's eyes got wide, he looked down at his watch and yawned. "Look at the time I'm pretty tired mom. I think it's time for me to go to bed." Danny stood up and walked towards to door in effort to escort his mom out of his room. Maddie took the hint and walked out of Danny's room.
Danny closed his door, laid on his bed and was asleep within minutes.