Rather long chapter, having more than half the amount of words than the previous three chapters combined. Next chapter will probably be short, though. 3 reviewers.
Hope you enjoy:
Chapter 4: Mean Mr. MentalTucker Foley ran down the sidewalk, trying to catch up to his best friend, who had left for school without him.
"Danny, wait up!"
Danny stopped, letting Tucker catch up to him. When the techno-geek arrived, he put his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath.
"Tucker, you are so out of shape." Danny teased.
"I don't fight ghosts all the time like you do, Danny." Tucker retorted quietly. He started walking, and Danny followed.
"I don't fight them all the time, Tucker. In fact, it's been kinda quiet lately."
"I bet that means the next one that shows up is going to be really nasty."
"Thanks for the support," Danny said dryly.
"Did you and Sam make up yet?" Tucker inquired, smirking as he did so.
"Will you give that a rest already!" his friend snapped.
"Okay, okay!" Tucker relented. "Did you find out where she went?"
Danny swallowed forcefully, then sighed. "She was in one of the science labs with another guy." He could feel his heart twist in pain as he said it, screw his 'voice of reason' who said it didn't mean anything.
Tucker caught this, but was still afraid of being pounded into the sidewalk if he made mention of Danny/Sam. So, he took refuge in talking about Danny's other crush.
"Don't worry about it, man. There's always Paulina."
"Enh, I really don't like her anymore."
A loud ping reverberated through the morning air as Tucker, in shock from Danny's statement, ran into a streetlight pole. He was flat on his back, rubbing his forehead.
"Tucker, are you alright?" Danny asked, although he couldn't supress his laughter. How the hell does someone run into a pole? It's a stationary object, and they weren't moving fast at all.
"Are you alright, Danny?" Tucker replied as Danny helped him up. "Because I could have sworn I heard you say you don't like Paulina anymore."
"I did."
Tucker faked having a heart attack. "Why!" he asked/shouted.
"I only liked her for her looks, and now that I think about it, there's other girls in the school that look just as pretty as her and don't hate the ground I walk on." Danny replied, choosing to look at the houses they were walking by as he talked.
"Like who?" Tucker inquired.
"S—none of your business." Danny snapped, his cheeks touched with red.
"Uh-huh. Right," Tucker replied. The two walked the rest of the way to school in silence. Even without the Freudian-slipped-S, Tucker knew Danny was talking about their mutual friend. That was the only girl Danny wouldn't have mentioned to Tucker – even Valerie would have been, considering she was trying to get all buddy-buddy with the blue-eyed boy.
The two entered Casper High with little to no problems with Dash and company. They first stopped at Tucker's locker so he could drop off his stuff. When they went to Danny's, they found Sam waiting for them. Danny fell back a bit while Tucker walked up to say hello. The blush on the halfa's face was evident.
"Hey, Danny! Get over here and talk to us!" Sam yelled to him.
"Just like I thought – I hate myself," Danny thought as he walked over and put his things away.
"Danny, is something wrong?" Sam asked.
"N-no...nothing's wrong!" he stammered.
"You're not still mad because I spent yesterday afternoon with a guy, are you?"
Danny sighed. So much for having saved himself. "No, I'm over it. I mean, it doesn't mean anything, right?" he asked.
Sam chuckled. "Right."
The first bell then rang, saving Danny from further interrogation. "Let's get to class," he said hastily, before walking off to class.
Sam looked at Tucker. "What's his problem?"
Tucker just smiled slyly. "I'd tell you, but then he'd kill me." Tucker turned and walked to class as well, leaving Sam by Danny's locker.
"Does he like me?" she whispered to herself, before heading to class herself.
Soon, it was time for lunch again. Danny was pleased to see Sam walk over and set her body and her lunch at their standard table. Being an Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian must be doing her good, he thought, as her skin, although pale, was soft and nourished. His eyes drifted from her arms to her small body, then her head, which was bent down over her salad. He was so busy taking it all in, he didn't have time to react when her head snapped up and her eyes locked his in place.
"What are you staring at, Danny?" she asked, her voice hard.
"Um... I... uh... I was just thinking. I didn't know I was staring at you."
Sam let the obvious lie slide. If she pressed further, Dash and cronies, who were already sneaking looks at the table, would defnitely get involved.
"What were you thinking about?" she asked instead. Bad move, Sam.
"I...was wondering if you wanted to do something tonight."
"Hey, look over here! Fentina's asked his loser girlfriend out on a date!" Dash yelled to the whole cafeteria. His posse laughed.
"...Do something tonight with Tucker and myself as friends." Danny amended, glaring at Dash.
"Not tonight, Danny. I'm going to play at the arcade with Tal." Sam replied softly.
Danny looked down, abashed. "He's the guy you hung out with yesterday," he stated. He assumed it from her tone of voice.
"Danny, I'm so--"
"--It's okay, Sam. You deserve to have a life."
"Haha, Fentina got dumped."
An uneasy tension settled around the table, and stayed there until the bell rang. The three friends walked out of the cafeteria in silence, each of them wondering what the hell went wrong.
"I fail to see how stomping on a pad in time to arrows constitutes as a: dancing, and b: fun." Sam deadpanned. It was 6-ish, and she was at the arcade with Tal. She was glad no one else was here since it was a school night, since his "best game ever" happened to be Dance Dance Revolution. She had heard about it, and she wasn't impressed.
"So it doesn't necessarily look like dancing unless you make it look like dancing. Still, it's loads of fun and a good workout." he replied. He figured she'd shoot him down on the 'good workout' part, but if he didn't say it she might suspect something.
"I'm a goth. I don't do sweat." she replied.
"That's a shame. 'Cause, y'know, all the guys I've talked to say that it's rather hot when a girl does well at it." he wheedled.
Sam thought about that for a moment, before making her decision. She jumped onto the other pad.
"Versus, please."
Danny was laying on his bed, his back to the door, rather depressed. The voice was wrong; this was something. You don't go to the arcade with people on the second day you met them unless you really like them. You just... don't! He was bored, angry, and depressed, and the knock on his door certainly didn't help matters any.
"Danny, are you all right?" came the voice of Jazz Fenton through the door.
"Leave me alone, I'm fine!" he yelled back.
"When you came home, you went straight to your room, slammed the door, and haven't been out since. Don't tell me something's not wrong!"
"Stay of this, Jazz! I don't want to talk to you!" Danny shouted angrily.
"Well, too bad. I'm coming in there!" she replied. She turned the doorknob, but she couldn't push the door open. She tried a few times, before stopping in exasperation.
"Daniel Fenton, open this door!"
Inside his room, Danny smiled. He had taken the liberty of rearranging his room when he got home. Blocking the door with his bed was a nice touch. But before he could reflect on his moment of triumph over his sister any more, he felt frozen air escape from his lips, and saw blue mist rise.
"Took long enough. At least I have something to do," he muttered to himself. He got off his bed and ran to the window.
"I'm going ghost!" he yelled with enough restraint so Jazz wouldn't hear him. When he became Danny Phantom, he phased through his window and flew away, leaving the poundings on his bedroom door behind him.
He flew around the skies, invisibly, mind you, looking for the phantasm. His eyes darted around the ground, looking for any sign of ghostly activity.
He didn't expect to see what looked like Sam knocked unconscious, with a trademark neon green ghost looking like he was about to inflict physical harm on her.
"SAM!" Danny shouted in fury. He rushed to the ground, trying to save her...
...but when he reached where he saw her at, he was greeted with nothing. No Sam. No ghost. No anything.
"Where did she go?" Danny said out loud, manically searching for where she might have gone. In his mania, he noticed the large, green-glowing orb floating towards him too late. His cries of pain were smothered as he was crushed into the ground. The orb quickly shot into mid-air, before becoming stationary as the halfa phased back through the ground, looking angrily at his attacker. He was about to go vent his frustration on it when the orb dissipated. In its place was an odd-looking ghost.
The ghost seemed to have on a velvety-looking suit and pants of the same quality, which fit rather well on the ghost's wiry frame. The ghost seemed to be wearing leather slippers on the feet, and square-rimmed glasses on the face. Short hair covered the top of the ghost's head, his eyes were directed squarely on Danny, and his face wore a rather smug look. Of course, all of this was neon-green.
As Danny was busy evaluating his enemy, the ghost was doing the same. The black-and-silver jumpsuit fit the boy's body nicely; the ghost could see some of the developed muscles. This coupled with the tanned skin, snow-white hair, and glowing green eyes, made the ghost wish he hadn't already started playing matchmaker with the ghost and the goth.
Breaking the staring contest, the ghost said, "That emblem is atrocious. Just looking at it would corrode the soul. Provided I had one."
Danny swiftly replied, quite tired with all of the insults he was getting this week. "I'm not the one who's all green."
"Hmm... you're right. Green isn't my color. Purple should work quite nicely." The ghost's clothing changed to the said hue.
"... If that's your power, I'm going to have a field day with you."
"Just because my unique abilities don't consist of zapping things doesn't mean I'm weak. After all, I'm not the one who's seeing visions of his girlfriend."
Danny gritted his teeth. "She's not--"
"I really don't care. Bottom line is, you're not going to be able to touch me, kiddo." the ghost went on.
"We'll see about that!" Danny, thoroughly angry, yelled. He rushed at the ghost, and promptly ran headfirst into an ectoplasmic barrier. Green, of course.
As Danny shook off the blow, the ghost took the opportunity to get under Danny's skin again. "Told ya you wouldn't be able to touch me, Phantom."
"You're getting really annoying, you know that?" Danny replied through gritted teeth.
"Yeah, that's what everyone in the Ghost Zone says. And then they call me mental. Other popular nicknames include 'psychopath', 'jerkface', and 'asswipe'. I figure since I'm called mental so often, I'll just take that as a name. So call me Mr. Mental. Actually, make that Mean Mr. Mental, after that one song by The Bugs."
Danny snickered. "You mean The Beatles?"
"Does it look like I care? Now are you going to just float there or are you going to prove me right?"
Danny glared at the ghost, and tried to rush him again. When he neared the now-visible barrier, he tried to phase through it. That failed.
"Try again, Phantom."
Danny tried again, blasting the appearing barrier with energy as he approached it.
"Fail."
Danny tried once more, picking up more speed.
"You suck at this game."
Danny stared at Mental, his frustrated, furious eyes meeting Mental's amused ones. Danny rushed again, not noticing his fists glow green.
As Danny rushed at the barrier, he pulled back his right fist. He punched the barrier...
..and it shattered. Mental, responding quickly, bend backwards. Danny sailed harmlessly over him. Danny spun around, smirking.
Mental smirked as well. "Well, it's been nice playing with you, Phantom. But you tried five times, and didn't hit me once. I think that's enough for today."
"What? You're just going to leave?"
"Oh, trust me, Phantom, I'll be back. And I assure you, my games are much more interesting the second time around."
Mental just vanished, leaving Danny floating alone in the sky. The teenaged halfa blasted a nearby tree in rage, before flying back home.
"How far along are you, Mental?" Skulker asked through a small portal in the dust-caked science lab at Casper High.
"You say that like you expect me to be having a difficult time. Honestly, I fail to see how he's been giving you all trouble."
"Quit with the insults and answer the question!" Ember's voice, coming from the background, reprimanded.
"Oh, you're talking to me in front of the Council. Hi, Council," Mental said dryly. The Council, consisting of Walker, Skulker, Ember, Desiree, Spectra, and Vlad (who wasn't with the group), wasn't amused.
"Fine, fine. I'll have my report ready by Thursday evening. I sent an illusion of myself out today to test Phantom out."
"Good, good. Make sure you don't screw this up," Skulker replied, before closing the portal.
Mental frowned, before reverting to his human disguise.
"What is it going to take to get it through their heads that the master of illusions, mind-reading, and barrier-making doesn't screw up?" Tal muttered irately to himself.