Chapter 4 - Power Loss

It was only about fifteen minutes into the movie, and already Danny was sweating.

No, not from the action. It was from the thought of rejection.

Sam...her hand was right there...and his was about a few inches away, resting on his lap. All he had to do was lift it up slightly and on top of hers...

He could place his hand on hers if he wanted to...but for some reason, he couldn't bring himself to do it. It was as if there was some invisible wall that blocked him from doing it. And that wall, he knew, was from the current terror in his mind.

"Am I really this lousy?" he thought. "She's right there...and I can do it...it's only one small gesture..."

But that was a lot of courage. Sure, she was his best friend, but was she willing to go some extra mile?

Echoes from the previous night continued to pass through his mind...Sam blushing after he smiled at her...Jazz's comment on doing something about it...

Danny took a deep breath. He knew he had to do something. And it had to be done now...

He lifted up his hand, shakily. His heart, in a split second, went into rapid beating motion. His palms were starting to sweat as he saw that his hand was about a few inches above hers...he was almost there...

But it never touched...Sam's hand jerked up and she sneezed into it.

"Oh, gross," she said, quietly, looking at her hand. "I should have used a tissue!"

She got up from her seat. "Danny, can you watch my seat for me? I have to go to the bathroom to wash my hands."

Tucker also got up. "I have to go, too. Way too much soda."

"OK, guys," said Danny. "Hurry up. People are still coming in late, and they'd kill to have your seats."

As Sam and Tucker left, Danny slowly put his hand back on his lap.

"Dang. Maybe I can try again later..."

00000000000000000000

"Not bad," said Tucker as they left the movie theater. "In fact, we may have a series of horror movies that may actually be considered scary."

Danny agreed. Many movie nowadays were concerned only with some person who fought off crazy villains who had some random grudge on the world.

But then again, that was his current life, fighting ghosts who had some random powers...

And another thing about his current life...he wasn't able to get that chance again with the hand gesture...he was pretty annoyed with himself right now.

"So what are we going to do now?" asked the goth girl.

"I don't know," said Tucker. He turned to Danny. "What do you want to do?"

Danny snapped out of his world and answered him. "Huh? Oh, yeah...something to do...umm...how about going to the pier?"

"Sure," said Sam. "In fact, there's something going on down there right now. Everyone's been flocking over there lately."

"What for?" asked the half-ghost.

"Only one way," said Sam. "Why don't we check it out?"

"No problem," said Danny. "I'll fly us over there right now."

Danny's friends smiled. Danny could sense that they were happy that it would save them a good amount of walking. The pier was, after all, almost a mile from where they currently were.

They walked into the alleyway behind the movie theater. Positioning himself in between his friends, he shouted his catch phrase.

"I'm going ghost!"

He closed his eyes as the blue transformation ring surrounded him. He waited as it split in half and each ring traveled in the opposite direction.

When the rings disappeared, and his costume replaced his outfit, he was ready.

"Here we go, guys!"

But as they took off, something peculiar happened. No sooner had Danny left the ground, his ghostly form disappeared and he had turned back into Danny Fenton.

Danny Fenton couldn't fly, so all three came back down with a sudden crash.

"Wha-?" said Tucker, rubbing his head. "What's going on?"

Sam also questioned the sudden change. "What's wrong, Danny?"

Danny was a little confused. "I...don't know..." he said. "Let me try again."

Repositioning himself, he yelled, "I'm going ghost!"

He turned into Danny Phantom once again. "OK, let's do this again."

He took off for flight...but the same thing happened! Danny fell down again, harder this time, because he had gotten further up.

Bruised, Danny stood up with a strange feeling in his head and on his ego.

"I don't know what's going on!" he said. "When I fought off Technus, I was doing perfectly fine!"

"Look man," said Tucker. "You fought off Desiree last night, and then you had to deal with Technus, less than a day later. You're probably just winded from all the activites you've been doing."

"I agree," said Sam. "you probably just need a rest right now."

Still a little confused, Danny wondered about the statements. He felt all right...but it seemed to make sense. When he was on his first fighting assignment with the ghost lunch lady, he was exhausted and he turned back into Danny Fenton...

But that was the thing...he didn't feel exhausted...he felt fine...

But then again, ever since his life changed, he had learned to expect the unexpected...

"I guess you're right," said Danny. "Do you guys mind walking over there?"

"No, I don't mind," said Sam, "but I have a better idea. Let's take the bus."

It was then Danny and Tucker noticed that they were in front of a bus stop, and the vehicle was there for pickup.

"This is convienent," said Tucker as they boarded.

00000000000000000000

The distance to the pier wasn't long, but it seemed that it took forever...nearly everyone had to make a stop along the way. It took almost thirty minutes.

"We should have walked!" said Danny, exasperated from the long ride.

"OK," said Sam, "not the best idea, but we're still here, aren't we?"

"True," said Danny. "But we still could have walked."

"All right, all right," said Tucker. "The point is we're here. No sense in arguing over it."

"Weird," thought Danny. "Usually he loves watching us bicker a little...it's his sense of enjoyment..."

It was then Danny heard some faint music in the air, and a large banner that hung as far as the eye could see, reading in impossible-to-miss block letters, "FREE CONCERT TONIGHT."

"A concert?" asked Sam. "So that must be the reason everyone is coming down here. I wonder who's playing?"

"Beats me," said Danny. "Let's go check it out."

As the three friends strolled further down the boardwalk, the music got louder and clearer.

An amphitheater was packed to the limit. Whoever this person was, it was someone probably very popular. There were people screaming so loud it hurt his ears.

And it also hurt...his throat?

Danny felt as if he was going to choke... he let out the thing blocking his airway passage.

His ghost sense...

And as Danny heard the words, it was quite reasonable to believe that everyone was chanting for a different reason.

Ember, you will remember,

Ember, one thing remains...

And the worst parts were, his friends didn't have the Fenton Phones, and his powers were diminished...

End Chapter 4