To any readers and/or reviewers, I again apologize if Chapter One was confusing. Chapter Two should clear some things up.
Thanks to Midnightmare, T.v-aholic, dArkliTe-sPirit, purpledog100, Riverfox237 and Inviso-Bill for reviewing the previous chapter. I love feedback.
Disclaimer: Mr. Hartman owns DP and all related characters, Otto Binder invented the 'double's' name and concept.
Remember: Leave a review and I'll leave a reply.
Paulina was in her room, combing her hair in front of a mirror. She had to look perfect. After all, how many girls go out with a ghostly superhero? None, that's how many. She had laid her dress out on her bed, along with a necklace and bracelets.
"You've waited a long time for this," she said to herself aloud. "You're finally going to be with him when there's no monster attacking you." She paused to think. "Though that would be pretty hot."
Her audible thoughts were interrupted when she heard a knock at her window, and since her room was on the second floor, she knew who it had to be.
"Just a few minutes; I'm almost rea-AAAAHH!" she screamed.
For floating at her window was not her deceased adonis, but a morbid ghoul with yellowed eyes and teeth and gray, fiery hair. That, combined with the fact that he was wearing Danny Phantom's trademark outfit, really freaked her out.
"Paulina," he said in a deep growl, while phasing through the glass.
"Who are you? Get away!"
"Paulina, please, it's me," he said, trying to calm her down. "It's Danny Phantom."
"No, get away!" she shrieked. "PAPA!"
"No! Please, you have to listen to me!" the specter shouted, grabbing her forearm.
"I'm coming, Sweetie!" a low voice from downstairs bellowed. They could hear feet rapidly ascending the stairs.
"Paulina, I'm begging you, you have to help me!" he said, looking into her face. "Something's happening to me!"
Paulina didn't know why, but she stopped screaming. Something in the back of her head told her that this ghost, although deformed, meant her no harm. Now try telling that to her father.
Shehad locked the door to give her privacy while preparing herself, so her father, being a somewhat impatient man, was left with no alternative but to bust it down at the hinges. And the first thing he saw was a hideous, jumpsuited creature grasping his daughter.
Once the initial shock of the intruder's appearance wore off, the patriarch lost it.
"Unhand my daughter NOW!" he ordered.
"Sir, please, I need to talk to her!" the ghost explained.
"I DON"T THINK SO!" he roared, lunging for him.
The ghost made himself and Paulina intangible, so her father made contact with nothing but the ground. The hero saw no alternative but to take her elsewhere. He took her up in his arms and flew her out the window and out into the air.
"PAULINA!" her father yelled after her.
"Honey, what's happening? What's wrong?" his wife asked frantically, now coming up the stairs.
"Call 911! Call the Army, the Navy, whatever! Some ghost just took OUR LITTLE GIRL!"
OOOO
The ghostly hero carried Paulina in his arms, looking for some place to land and explain himself.
He decided to head back to the park. It would be quiet there, and if the other Phantom was still there, he could show her what he was talking about. He found where he'd landed earlier; descended and then set her down.
She was just staring at him. It was kinda hard not to. Although rather hard on the eyes, this specter gathered attention very well. Paulina slowly looked him over and took in his full appearance. Build-wise, he was still the same as who he claimed to be: Slightly short, but lean and a bit muscular. And his uniform was still black with gray bits and the white symbol. But that was where similarities seemed to end. His eyes were very glassy and dizzy-looking, like he'd taken substantial amounts of blows to the head. His hair was gray, wild and fiery, and his mouth was slack with grisly teeth. And he was standing rather bow-legged, like he had a limp.
"Are you alright?" he asked slowly.
"Umm, yes," she responded, not sure how to react right now.
"Good," he said, smiling, which showed off his messy rows of teeth.
"Who..what are you?"
"I am Danny Phantom. I am this town's hero. Your hero," he answered confidently.
"Okay," she said, deciding to play along. "See, the thing is...you don't, umm, really...look like Phantom."
"I know. The other Phantom did something to me," he explained.
"'Other Phantom'?" she repeated, confused.
"The other Danny Phantom; he looked like me. He said he was me, and something was wrong with me," he said gradually.
Paulina couldn't help but notice that he seemed to be having more and more trouble speaking. She figured she should talk simply. Not that hard, since she did that anyways.
"Did he say what was wrong with you? The other Phantom, I mean," she clarified.
"No, he said he didn't know; he'd bring me to friends to help. But he had to be lying, because he did this!" he yelled, pointing to himself, now starting to get angry.
"Uhh, okay, okay," she said, trying to unnerve him. "Do you know where he went?"
"He went to find this guy," a familiar voice behind her answered.
She turned around and saw Danny Phantom, looking as she had seen him last: White-haired, co-ordinated and handsome. But she also saw that he looked shaken, like he'd been beaten up.
"Heard about our date, Paulina. Only problem is that you made it with the wrong ghost," he explained.
The more mutated of the two growled, and shoved Paulina behind his form.
"Keep back, Paulina. I'll protect you from him!" he proclaimed.
"Much as I hate to agree with this guy, he's right. Stay out of the way, until we sort this all out," the other advised.
"No sorting! Just punching!" the mutate bellowed, flying forward to nail his counterpart in the face.
The regular Danny dodged it and brought his own fist to the other's nose. The deformed clutched said nose in pain, and glared at his enemy.
"Listen to me," the normal one said, "we've been through this already."
"Yeah, and YOU LOST!" He tried to punch again, this time for the opposite's stomach. The other once again evaded and kicked him in the nose again.
"Oww," he groaned, once again cradling his proboscis.
"We can do this all day," the normal warned.
"I don't care," the wretch told, "as long as I keep Paulina and everyone else safe from you!"
He held out his hand and it again began to pulse with electric energy.
"Go away!" the creature ordered, and fired the built-up power.
"NO!" Paulina cried, grabbing his arm.
She managed to misdirect the blast so it just grazed the normal Phantom, but she got shocked in the process and fell to the ground.
"Paulina!" they both cried, running/flying to her side.
She was shaken but okay. When the morbid one reached toward her, she quickly flinched back in fear.
"Paulina..." he moaned, miserable sincerity in his growl, "I-I'm sorry." And with that, he flew off.
The regular Danny helped Paulina to her feet, making sure she was just jolted and not more seriously injured.
"You alright?" he inquired.
"I think so," she answered. "But..what was that thing?"
"I don't know," he answered, looking off in the direction his double had flown. "But whatever it is, it thinks it's me..."
OOOO
He had to keep going, flying to anyplace where there wasn't people, so no one would be in danger. How could this happen? He was the hero! He wasn't supposed to hurt people. They weren't supposed to be afraid of him, only the bad guys were supposed to be. He kept flying, taking no care of where he went.
"What am I?" he asked himself.
Since he couldn't answer that question, he decided to check his surroundings. He was now in a rather dark and dreary part of town. There were few buildings, mostly sparse trees and chubby shrubs. But then he saw something that caught his attention. Below him was a barbwire fence surrounding an abandoned hospital. There was a sign out front with its name that had once said 'North Mercy Hospital', as the imprints of letters showed. But now the 'R', 'T', and 'H' had fallen loose, so it read only 'No Mercy Hospital'.
He landed before the old establishment; some unknown impulse drawing him to it. He didn't know why, but something was familiar about this place. Something that seemed so long ago and forgotten; something locked away from the rest of his mind.
He tried to focus his thoughts on that fragment of an answer, and he suddenly got a jolt of repressed memories.
He was floating in some kind of tube, filled with some orangish-green liquid surrounding his body and seeping into his pores. There were three figures before him, just out of his sight, but he could tell that they were watching him. He clutched his head, trying to make sense of these images, when a chilling, blue mist escaped his lips.
"You're back already? We didn't expect you so soon," a smallish voice behind him said.
He turned around to face what appeared to be a short, middle-aged man.
"Dah!" he cried, obviously surprised by the hero's appearance. "Oh my, this isn't good. Definitely not good."
The hero had no recollection of this man, or was he a ghost, and looked him over. He was small and squat with a black suit, green eyes and neatly pressed, gray hair and mustache.
"Do you know me?" he asked the small man.
"Yes, now come with me! We've gotta get you inside!" he exclaimed hurriedly, pushing the hero in front of him through the hospital doors.
Once inside, the man took the lead and led him through a lengthy hallway. He looked at the man again. The man clearly knew who he was, but he had never met him before. What did the man and this hospital have to do with him?
"Who are you?" he asked in his deep tone.
"Bertrand. Now hurry, we don't have any time to lose!"
He finally stopped at a large set of doors and walked in, the hero following shortly afterwards. And he was taken aback at what he saw.
It appeared to be some kind of laboratory with glass tubes, the same from his memory, lining the far wall; a silhouette of similar-looking people contained in each one. To his left rested several large rays and operation tables that were used for heck knows what. But it was those tubes that gathered his attention, he went ahead of Bertrand to see what lay dormant within them.
They were clouded by fog, created by the heat upon the glass, so he wiped away at the fog until he could see within. That done, what he saw inside shattered his world and all he knew right then. For inside that tube, and all the others, were perfect duplicates of Danny Phantom: the Ghost Boy Hero of Amity Park.
He recoiled in shock, not knowing what was going on. He looked behind him and saw two people had joined the small Bertrand.
One was a very, very attractive woman with pointed, red hair; green eyes; green gloves that melded with her black t-shirt, which was not only very tight but had a plunging neckline and bare midrift. She also had green, fiery boots that also seemed to meld with her form-fitting pants. As not many people can pull that off, she had a nearly flawless body complete with a dash of muscle and gorgeous pale skin.
The other was another middle-aged man, who in body format was probably the opposite of Bertrand. He was a tall, thin man also wearing a black suit. He had perring, sort of creepy eyes, topped off with long, grayish hair tied down into a ponytail.
"I-I think something is..wrong," the warped hero gradually said.
"My deteriorated friend, that is most certainly an understatement," the tall man commented. "Please sit down on one of those tables."
The hero obeyed, not seeing any reason not to, and the woman began examining him.
"What...am I?" he asked again, half to them and half to himself.
"Well, your sure Bizarro in my books, honey," the woman said uninterestingly, peering at his discoloured pupils.
"Bizarro? That's...who I am?" he asked.
"It's sure fitting," muttered Bertrand, before the tall man kicked him in the shin.
"But why did I...he was..he looked like me, or I..was him...How?" the hero now deemed Bizarro stammered, trying to put the pieces together.
"What's happening to him?" the tall man asked. "Why isn't he stabilizing?"
"Hey, I told you that making him pure ghost wasn't gonna work for long!" explained the woman. "The original was a halfa, so taking away a half leaves him incomplete."
"Who are you?" Bizarro asked, feeling that they wouldn't be telling him what was wrong any time soon.
"I am Vlad Masters," the tall one introduced. "This is Penelope Spectra and Bertrand. Do you recognize any of us?"
"No..." Bizarro responded, "but this place is fresh. I've been here, but I didn't know that before. Why not?"
The three looked between each other, seeming to be silently debating whether or not to tell him.
"You are...an experiment," Vlad began. "You were bon from a manipulation of the real Danny Phantom's DNA."
"Huh?" Bizarro shrugged.
"Smaller words, Vlad. This guy's lucky if he's got half of his brain power left," Penelope advised.
"All right. We made you and these others from Danny Phantom's blood. With me so far?" Vlad inquired.
"Uh-huh." He nodded.
"We wanted a Danny Phantom on our side, since he tends to cause us trouble. We managed to make a copy made of only Danny's ghostly parts, that's you. But I guess that his ghost side, once manipulated genetically, became too weak to hold together for long and broke apart. You are the result."
"Man-ip-u-lated gen-et-ic-ly," Bizarro sounded out.
"Too many big words," Spectra warned again.
"No, I know what they mean," he explained, "but how did you, uhh, manipulate?"
"Well," Vlad continued. "there have been some, shall we say, 'unpleasant times' between us and we needed to strain them out to prevent resistance. Plus, we had to wipe all info about Danny's human life from your head too. So all those alterations probably triggered the breakdown."
Bizarro looked down at the ground sadly as it sunk in. "So..I'm fake...I'm not really Phantom? What about them?" he probed, pointing to the contained duplicates.
"They are the newest models, and unlike you, they are halfas, being half-ghost and half-human," Vlad told. "They are exactly like Danny except for a few things. For instance, to have unwavering loyalty, I erased all knowledge of Jack Fenton from them and reprogrammed myself as their father figure."
"Then why so much?" Bizarro continued to dig for answers.
"Ah, yes. Unfortunately, with clones they don't seem to last quite as long as the naturally born, so we've made several for when the previous one fizzles out."
"What about me? Will I fizzle out?"
"That remains to be seen. Since you've gone through such a monstrous transformation, it's hard to say how long you'll last. Could be a week; could be thirty years; could be an eternity. No way to tell."
Bizarro started to put together all that he'd heard. From the true Danny, from Paulina, from Vlad. Was it true? Was he just a puppet with an expiration date? Doomed to pop out of existence or live forever alone? No...NO! That can't be right!
"LIAR!" Bizarro boomed. "It's a lie! I am Danny Phantom! I AM A HERO!"
Not wanting to hear what they said, he jumped from the table, and ghosted through the ceiling. however he didn't do it quite right, and his flying was very clumsy, so he took a fair chunk of the ceiling with him when he left.
"This is not going as planned," commented Spectra.
"Maybe," Vlad snickered, "but then again, maybe not..."
OOOO
And there's the revelation, along with Chapter Two. Hope the confusing parts were worth the wait while I wrote up Bizarro's background story. He was one of my favourite Superman villains in the cartoon, so I thought, 'Hey, why not do a DP Bizarro?' And there you go! Don't worry, there's more to come, like Bizz trying to prove that he's a hero to a city that's terrified of him. Hope you didn't think Paulina was OOC by taking the blow for Danny, but in all fairness, she didn't know she'd be shocked. R&R! I love feedback!