Chapter two as promised, and I'm not unconscious to usher it in! Yippee! I forgot to mention something in last chapter, and I don't think Mushi did it for me… This story will (hopefully) be told entirely in the Third Person Limited perspective, and will follow Danny and Danny alone. Please try to keep me to this, okay, my reviewers? I usually write in the Third Person Omniscient, and if I accidentally stray into the thoughts of others, please keep me in check.
Also, I generally make it a habit to tell what inspired me with the random idea, which sparked this fanfiction idea and brought about the developed plot, and yadda yadda yadda. Well, toobad for you, this was brought aboutby a number of random elements, which I am too lazy to list here.And I'll pretend to ignore those random cheering sounds from the background ;)
Chapter now. I didn't put a disclaimer in this… But that's alright. Y'all know what I do and don't own. And if not, you should by now, being rather obvious.They get boring after a while.
Oh, and ignore the awful pun in the chapter title. I couldn't think of anything better, so I guess that's the way the cookie crumbles, hm? Note that homophones make for great puns, though!
Chapter 1:In Plane Sight
"Danny..." a gentle voice crooned through the boy's consciousness.
"Dan-ny..." the voice said again, clearer this time.
"Fenton! Wake up!" a harsh voice barked. He felt pain on the side of his face, and he opened his eyes, only to raise a hand against the bright sunlight. He could see the shadows of palm fronds above him.
Slowly, Danny sat up. "Unh... I... What?" he asked groggily.
"Oh, good, you're awake!" the first voice he had heard said happily. Danny looked around to see none other than Paulina Sanchez kneeling before him.
"Paulina?" he asked with surprise. "What are you doing here?"
"Well, during the storm, our ship kind of crashed. It was so exciting, just like the Titanic! But then we washed up on this island. Who knew those hideous life jackets could be good for something? But all that salt water must be horrible for me skin!" Paulina said.
"Right," Danny answered, thinking that maybe Sam had a reason to dislike Paulina after all... Even if she was practically a goddess. "So, uh, how did I get here?"
"When we were in the ocean you just fell down on top of us. But what I don't get is how a loser like you ended up out here in the first place!" Dash said.
"I was on an airplane, with my family, and Tucker and Sam. And then we crashed..." Danny closed his eyes, trying to remember. "There was a flash of light, and a loud noise, and lots of heat..." His eyes snapped open. "I- I didn't... I couldn't have..."
"What?" Paulina's satellite, Starla, asked.
"I think I was struck by lightning," Danny said quietly.
"What! But, wouldn't that, like, kill you or something?" Dash asked bewilderedly.
Danny shook his head, not knowing what to say. He thought that he had most likely survived because of his ghost powers, although he couldn't voice these thoughts aloud in present company. Instead, he replied with, "I don't know... I think it's possible to survive being hit by lightning..."
The jocks and cheerleaders of Casper High surrounded him with awe in their eyes; clearly, anyone who could be hit by lightning and survive was worth their respect.
Danny looked around, taking in his surroundings. He was on the edge of a dense-there was no other word for it-jungle. It was just like a picture from National Geographic, or a scene from one of those movies in which people are stranded on desert islands. And with a sinking feeling in his stomach, Danny realized that was exactly what had happened to them.
Danny got to his feet, looking around. The blue ocean was sloshing with waves, the sand was golden and sparkling in the sunlight upon the long, sloping beach. It was like a Hawaiian paradise.
Except, Danny thought, shielding his eyes from the glaring sunlight so he could look to the horizon, Hawaiian paradises never had so many thick dark clouds on the horizon. Wait, all across the horizon?
Danny puzzled this over, than ran to the edge of the beach, ignoring shouts of, "Fenton? Where are you going?" He was knee-deep in the shallows, his pants soaked, but he didn't care. He looked around. The entire island was surrounded by water and, as far as he could see, dense black clouds.
Danny ran back to the group, which was staring at him.
"Are you crazy, Fenton?" Kwan asked. Danny shook his head.
"The hurricane," he panted. "How long did it last?"
"A few hours or so," Star supplied. "It just kind of ended."
"No break in the middle? No space between the storm?" he asked, grabbing her by the shoulders.
"N-no," Star said, clearly scared by Danny's actions.
"Why, is something wrong, Fenton? The hurricane's over!" Dash exclaimed. Danny shook his head and looked at Dash.
"Haven't you ever heard of the eye of the hurricane?" he asked. The blank looks were answer enough.
"No? Then we need to find shelter," he said.
"Why?" Paulina asked. "It's such a nice day; I was hoping I could work on my tan."
"The hurricane isn't over," Danny said.
"What?" everyone asked. Danny nodded grimly.
"So, what, it's coming back?" Star asked fearfully.
"Are there two hurricanes?" Kwan asked.
Danny sighed; he couldn't spend all the time explaining hurricanes to them! Seizing a stick, he drew a large circle in the sand.
"Here, pretend this is the hurricane," he said. He drew a smaller circle inside the larger one. "This," Danny narrated, tapping the circle with the stick, "is the eye. We-" he made an X in the center of the eye, "-are here. In the middle of the hurricane."
Fearful eyes stared back at Danny.
"So, what do we do?" Dash asked.
"You're asking me?" Danny asked.
"Well, sure," Paulina said. "You know the most about this. Besides, there was that time you helped us save our parents from those ghosts. Although," she added as an afterthought, "Inviso-bill helped us more."
"Danny Phantom," Danny corrected automatically.
"Oh, right. I forgot," Paulina said. Then she brightened. "Hey, maybe Danny Phantom will come and save us!"
"I don't think so," Kwan said. "Amity Park is miles away from here!"
"Yeah, but the ghost boy always shows up where Danny is," Paulina explained.
"Uh, right," Danny said, trying to steer the conversation away from such dangerous waters. "Well, I'm going to go look for a place where we can stay."
Danny marched off into the jungle, turning behind a very tangled tree once he judged himself far enough in to not be seen.
"I'm going ghost!" he shouted.
Nothing happened.
"Well, that's weird," Danny said to himself. He frowned, and placed a hand on the tree behind him, trying to phase through it.
Nothing happened. In face, the part of his mind that triggered his ghost powers wasn't there, as if it were asleep, numb, or...
"Paralyzed," Danny said to himself. The Fenton Ghost Disabler! Of course. It had disabled his powers... But how? The machine needed electricity to work...
Danny slowly pieced it together. He hadn't been hit by lightning; the Fenton Ghost Disabler had! The electrical charge from the lighting had powered it, and the device had lived up to its name and disabled every ghost within a one hundred-yard range, which included him. And Vlad, of course.
Vlad. What had happened to him? And the rest of Danny's family? Tucker and Sam? And Valerie? Did they survive? Or did he just fall out of the plane, leaving them to fly on...
Danny leaned back against the palm tree and slumped down to a sitting position. This was too complicated!
Danny glared up into the boughs of the tree... And something that looked oddly metallic. Frowning, Danny climbed up the tree to see what it was.
The piece of metal was very battered, but unmistakably a detached airplane engine.
Fearing the worst, Danny looked the large piece of metal over, then shoved it out of the tree in the hopes that it would be useful somehow. Then he turned to climb out of the tree. Which was when he saw the airplane.
It had not been visible from the ground, because it was propped up by several large, vine-entwined trees. One wing slumped to the ground, making an almost perfect ramp to the airplane itself. The other wing was detached and in the canopy of another tree; Danny noted that this was the one from which the engine was missing. The side of the plane bore Vlad's emblazoned insignia; it was definitely their plane. The tail was twisted—melted, from the looks of it, by what was probably lighting—and the glass on many of the windows had shattered, as had that of the cockpit. The entire plane was covered with vines, palm fronds, grit, and scratches. It was unfit for flight, but perhaps intact enough to serve as a shelter; certainly, it was large enough.
Danny practically leapt out of the tree and ran back to the beach.
The wind was beginning to pick up, blowing sand and making the waves larger. The dark clouds on the horizon had advanced noticeably closer to the island.
"I found a place to stay," Danny called to the group on the beach.
"What?" several people asked.
"My airplane. It's a wreck, but it might just be able to shelter us..." Danny said. It had certainly been high enough up in some trees that flooding wouldn't be much of a problem... Or so he hoped.
"Well, then, what are you waiting for, Fentina? Show us where it is!" Dash demanded.
"Okay," Danny said, throwing a dark glance at Dash for calling him 'Fentina'. "Everyone, follow me!"
Danny led them to the airplane.
"Are you sure that we'll all fit in there, Danny?" Paulina asked nervously.
"It's bigger than it looks," Danny said. He went over to the ramp formed by the remaining wing and scrambled up it. It was steep, but enough dents remained that Danny could find handholds. It still wasn't the easiest climb, and, having slipped more than once, Danny found himself wishing for his ghost powers.
Finally, though, he reached the top, and climbed out onto a thick limb, holding on to an overhead branch for balance, to the door of the plane which was conveniently located just above the fork of a large branch, making a porch that was steady and serviceable.
Danny opened the door, only to find that it was jammed and beaten shut; even unlocked, he couldn't open it.
Danny looked down at the assembled group of jocks and preps.
"Um... Dash, come up here and help me with this!" he requested.
Dash hesitated, then scrambled up the wing as Danny had done, joining the boy on the branch with mercifully no disagreement.
"Here, help me push," Danny said, indicating the door.
"Hah, I could do it alone!" Dash scoffed. "Only a weakling like you, Fentina, would need help!"
"Well, then," Danny said, moving away. "By all means, Dash, do it yourself!"
Danny hadn't realized just how much he liked the power of intangibility until that moment.
Dash heaved and pushed on the door, but to no avail; the door remained as unmoving as ever.
Danny watched smugly. "Now still think you don't need my help, Dash?" he asked.
Dash scowled, but relented. "Fine. But only 'cause I'm tired from the storm."
"Of course you are," Danny sighed, going to help the jock. Danny braced his shoulder against the door and shoved at the same time as Dash.
The door creaked in protest, then suddenly gave way, swinging in on its hinges and sending both boys toppling inside the plane, Dash on top of Danny.
"Get off of me, Dash!" Danny said, shoving the boy off of him.
"Watch it, Fenton!" Dash growled. "Or you'll be sorry!"
"What are you going to do, Dash? Stuff me in a locker? Shove my head down a toilet?" Danny asked mockingly, knowing that the island was unlikely to have either of Dash's favorite punishments available.
He left Dash to ponder that out for himself and looked around the airplane. The interior was in shambles, although it was not as bad as the outside. Debris and some broken glass littered the floor, but the plane was sturdy enough. It had been wedged in between the boughs of three trees, holding it firmly in place. The windows that had shattered would let in the terrible gale, although the door to the cockpit could be shut to prevent wind and rain coming in that way. Danny noticed the significant absence of the parachutes, hinting that the passenger's may have survived. Danny could only hope.
He saw, among the palm fronds and leaves inside the plane, several of the personal items of the passengers. Danny walked around. He found the still-tangled Fenton Fisher and the broken Jack-o-Nine Tails his father had brought along, as well as several of his parent's other inventions. There was the Fenton Machete, which Danny set aside just in case. The Fenton Ghost Disabler had gone, presumably fallen out of the plane and into the ocean. More personal items included Sam's hair-tie, the battered remains of a PDA, and Jazz's Bearbert Einstein. Under one seat Danny found the Fenton Thermos he had brought along; intact, but empty.
He bit his lip and ran over a mental inventory of the ghosts who had been inside. The Box Ghost, for one. There was also Skulker, as he remembered, Technus (although the lack of technology on a desert island was comforting in this case), Desiree, and the usual assortment of random nameless ghosts. Danny kicked himself for not remembering to empty it before they left. His only consolation was that the ghosts had probably been disabled by the Fenton Ghost Disabler along with himself. He could only hope.
Danny sighed and turned back to Dash.
"Well?" the jock asked. "Are we staying here?"
Danny nodded, then left Dash to climb back out of the door, where he took a sturdy dangling vine and slid down the wing like a slide.
"Okay," he said. "The plane looks like it'll work, but it's a little messy, and there're a few windows missing, so we'll have to do something about those."
"Are you sure we have to stay in that..." Paulina grimaced, searching for suitable words. "Dump?"
Thunder rumbled in the distance, causing several people to jump. Danny shook his head at Paulina.
"It's either that or get killed by a hurricane." He handed her the vine. "Ladies first."
And there you have it! Believe it or not, this was longer than last chapter, but the rambling author notes made that one seem longer than this. Haha, that's sad. It really is.
I honestly hope the characters didn't seem too OOC in this. Originally this and next chapter were one and the same, but I decided I liked this set-up better. Still need to work on my other stories… But now I'm in the eighth chapter of this, so does it matter? And I'd give you a preview of next chapter, I really would, but nothing happens in it that makes it so suspenseful you'll be tempted to kill and/or maim me, so that will just have to wait until next chapter, hm?
But for now, can someone answer this question? Everyone writes that Paulina's last name is Sanchez, and nothing else, but I can't recall actually hearing it in the show… So, I ask you, did I miss something, or is that just popular opinion?
I'll blabber your ears off later. See ya, my beloved readers, and even more beloved reviewers!
-E.P.