Thanks to all of the people who reviewed! This story is turning out great! This chapter was hard to write but I got inspiration from 'Virtuality' by Lateraina Wolf. I had major writer's block! Thanks to you!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or I would use the money to bail myself out of prison.
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Chapter 5
The Paths Of Faith
"Ugghh", groaned Danny as he tried to sit up.
He was incredibly sore. He looked around and discovered he could barely see anything at all. He transformed to his ghost mode and by the light of his ghostly aura he found the rest of his companions were barely waking up.
"Where are we?", asked a groggy Sam.
"I don't know", he responded helping her up.
"Do you think that ghost did a lot of damage?", asked Tucker while rubbing his head.
"I hope not", answered Danny.
"Did like, somebody get the license plate of that pizza truck?", murmured Shaggy.
The Mystery Gang was just waking up and at the sight of Danny Phantom Fred started walking toward him.
"Uhh..Thanks for saving us back there.", Fred said to him awkwardly.
"Yeah, we could have been fried!", Daphne said.
"Same here", Velma and Shaggy said in unison.
"Rank rou!", Scooby said.
"Don't mention it", Danny said smiling weakly while blushing.
In the six months he had his ghost powers he had been saving countless lives. Out of all those people, only Sam, Tucker, and Paulina(much to Sam's dissatisfaction) had actually thank him instead of screaming, running in the opposite direction, or a combination of the both. Sam and Tucker because they know about Danny's alter ego and Paulina because she is completely obsessed(to put it mildly).
"But one question. Why?", continued Fred.
"I couldn't let you get vaporize now could I.", Danny chuckled.
"You could've left us there like sitting ducks!", Daphne said.
"I thought you were evil Inviso-Bill?", asked Velma quizzically.
Danny sighed and answered, "Number one: I'm not evil. I just protect the town from evil ghosts. And number two: My name is not and will never be Inviso-Bill."
"So what's your real name?"
"Just call me Phantom", Danny did not want to say his real name in fearing they could put two and two together.
"I guess we made a mistake didn't we guys?", Fred turned to the rest of the gang.
The gang nodded.
""So truce?" Fred held out his hand.
"Truce"
They both shook on it and Danny could feel that at least something good had come out of all these.
"Do you think the crack is still open?", asked Sam looking up.
"I'll go check"
Danny flew up into the darkness above him.
"OW!", he said as he hit his head on the solid rock.
He felt along the roof of the cave but could not find any evidence that an opening ever existed. Danny used his ecto blasts but they could not penetrate the rock. It was as if the rock was enchanted. Danny flew back down, defeated.
"No go.", he said to them.
"How are we going to get out now!", exclaimed Daphne.
In the corner of the cave Sam and Tucker gave a little yelp. Everybody turned around and discovered a long dark tunnel lightened by torches on the walls. Apparently, when Daphne spoke the torches lit on fire.
"Like, how did that happened?", asked Shaggy.
"I have a feeling that this cave is enchanted or something.", answered Danny putting a hand on the cave wall.
"What are we standing around here for," inquired Sam, "lets get moving!"
They all shrugged and followed Fred . Fred got a torch of the wall so they would have enough light, and plunged into the unknown shadows.
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As they walked in the tunnel, all of them had an odd feeling that somebody was watching them. Even with all of the light, it was hard to see anything more than a foot away.
"Whoa!", Sam stumbled in front of Danny.
Danny immediately caught her before she fell. After a few seconds of noticing their awkward position, they let go blushing.
"Thanks", Sam said turning a light shade of red.
"No problem", Danny said doing the same.
Tucker, witnessing the whole thing, just chuckled and rolled his eyes. Sam and Danny glared at Tucker and he immediately shut up.
"Hey guys!", Velma said to the others as she was crouching close to the wall, closely observing something carved in the stone.
Fred handed the torch to Velma and by the light of the fire, everybody could see what was on the wall. Ancients characters were written on the walls of the cave. Some looked like swirls with lines running across them. Others looked like various shapes with dots on the inside.
"What kind of language is that?", asked Fred.
"I don't know. If I only I had a computer of something."
Sam and Danny looked at each other then at Tucker, wearing identical smirks on their faces. Tucker looked at them and figured out what they were thinking. The Mystery Gang looked at Sam and Danny wondering what they were up to.
"Give it here.", Danny said to Tucker with an outstretched hand.
"Funny story you know.", Tucker laughed nervously and pulled out a PDA from his pocket which was miraculously intact.
Danny grabbed it and gave it to Velma so she could decipher the ancient writing. Velma began typing furiously, looking up every now and then. Everybody was looking over her shoulder.
Velma noticed this and said hotly, "Excuse me please people?"
Everybody immediately stepped back.
"Thank you."
She resumed her typing and a ping from the PDA sounded followed by a triumphant voice from Velma, "I got it!"
"What you get?", asked Daphne.
"I managed to decipher this language. Made me used all my knowledge but it worked!"
She glanced back at the PDA and read aloud: The two magical tribes, the Wichitas and the Turks, started a war in 400 B.C. which lasted for hundreds of years. Both tribes were highly skilled in the art of witchcraft so the battle was extremely dangerous for whoever got involved. The leader of the Turks was Serenity Welsh.
"This is getting interesting.", commented Sam.
She was extremely skilled with weaponry. Everybody looked up to her. But that soon changed when they discovered she was giving information about tactics and plans to the Wichitas. The Turks were so enraged that they sent her to death in the most horrible way. Burning on wooden stocks. From that day on, even after the war, she haunts all the Turk's ancestors. Her soul is said to never rest in peace...
"That might be the reason she is haunting Amity Park.", inquired Danny.
"She is so bent on revenge that her afterlife will be full of rage.", said Velma.
"We should keep moving so we can stop her.", Fred said with a note of determination.
"Right", Shaggy said.
Tucker was reaching for his PDA when Velma said, "We might need this later on"
Tucker sulked.
"Come on Tucker, "started Danny, "it won't be forever."
Tucker nodded and kept walking, now just pouting. As they were walking they saw a faint white light in the distance. As they came closer they found it was a torch with white flame.
"Whoa", Tucker said with wide eyes.
Velma used Tucker's PDA to decipher the inscription on a silver plaque under the torch. She read aloud:
The Paths Of Faith
Each choose a path. The path you choose will determined your faith for the reminder of the journey. Be warned that no matter what you choose, an obstacle will cross your path.
They saw four tunnels, unable to see what laid in the depths. Beside each tunnel was a plaque. After Velma deciphered the writing they discovered that each tunnel was labeled. Bravery, Intellect, Cunning, Sanity.
"We should split up.", said Fred after Velma finished reading the writing.
They split up according to their talents: Danny, Fred - Bravery, Velma, Tucker - Intellect, Scooby Doo, Shaggy - Cunning, and Sam, Daphne - Sanity. With one last look at their companions, they split up to the unknown...
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This chapter was going to be shorter but I really got into it. I was originally just going to put only 1 tunnel but then I realized that this chapter would be really short and I don't want to disappoint you reviewers. I was going to put 3 tunnels when I was writing but I found out impossible to split 8 people in just 3 tunnels. Next chapter is called Intellect with Tucker and Velma. If you have a better "tunnel" for Sam and Daphne please sent it. Right now I'm not really happy with it. I couldn't think of anything okay!