Here, this is a bit later than I originally intended… But the important thing is that it's here, right? Exactly.
Thanks to all my reviewers, especially for answering my question. Good to know for future reference…
As it goes… The show only mentions the names of a handful of students who are currently with Danny on the island, so I'll be making some names up for the random unnamed students who flock the halls of Casper High. Which, I'm sure, you won't be too bothered about.
And so we have the third chapter…
Chapter 2: Tempest-tossed
The hurricane raged full force against the decrepit wreck of a plane.
Inside was little better, but the plane, whatever else it was, kept the small bedraggled group of jocks, cheerleaders, and Danny dry (mostly), warm (enough), and safe (if not afraid).
The amount of work they had accomplished in the short time was amazing; broken and intact windows alike had been boarded up with fallen branches and bamboo rods, the chinks filled in with mud. The inside was little better than had been, but the broken glass had been swept away, and the items which were so useless and decrepit that it would have been a sin to not burn them had been left to the mercy of the hurricane. The rest of the items in the plane were piled in a corner to await use or disposal as was necessary.
The stranded students now sat upon the cushioned seats, jumping at thunder, wind gusts, and the creaking plane.
Danny sat drumming his fingers upon a cup holder, sitting near the front of the plane and towards the cockpit and its closed door, through the chinks of which wind whistled and combined with the deep drum-like booms of thunder and the pattering of rain, mingling to create a symphony of the storm.
Danny was restless. It was perhaps because of his heroic nature that he disliked waiting; sitting and not taking action. But there was nothing to do during a hurricane but to wait it out.
Danny got to his feet and clasped his hands behind his back, pacing in the most stereotypical method imaginable up and down the aisle of the plane.
He was worried, to say the least, preoccupied perhaps being the more correct word. He wasn't terribly bothered about the hurricane. He had, after all, faced worse than a little thunderstorm, and the plane was a stable if not pleasant shelter. Still, when the occasional gust of the roaring storm caused the plane to sway and the cheerleaders to scream, Danny tensed until the fuselage settled, creaking and groaning and pattering with the rain, once more.
Danny did not have his ghost powers, though that was perhaps both blessing and curse. Blessing for the fact that, if he didn't have his powers thanks to the Fenton Ghost Disabler, Vlad--wherever he was--didn't either. That, and also the fact that he couldn't slip up by accidentally phasing through something. But Danny had never been without his ghost powers since the accident, except the time when he had been stranded in the Colorado Rockies at the mercy of Vlad and his Plasmius Maximus. Danny felt somewhat...empty, without his ghost powers, as if part of himself were missing. That part of himself was numb, like when one's foot has fallen asleep from lack of circulation, and cannot be felt but for the funny tingling feeling of pins and needles as the numbness slowly recedes.
Danny turned sharply at the end of the aisle, with a briskness that was almost military, and turned to pace back down to the front of the plane.
Then, without warning, his foot caught, and he tripped. Danny knew who it was before he looked up.
"Dash, you moron!" he muttered angrily as he got to his feet, rubbing his elbow where it had collided with the floor of the plane. He rounded on Dash furiously.
"We're in the middle of a hurricane, on a deserted island, and you can't lay off of me for five minutes!" Danny shouted, with such sharpness that Dash actually cringed. Danny continued, venting on the unfortunate bully. "No! Of course you can't! We could be stuck here for the rest of our lives, we could be eaten by snakes or lions or who knows what else, even attacked by ghosts! For all I know, my family could be dead... Drowned, eaten, struck by lightning, whatever, and all you can think of doing is tormenting poor helpless Danny Fenton like you do every day at school!"
The plane was entirely silent, even the storm seemed to have been quieted by Danny's outburst. Then, without warning, one of the cheerleaders, whose name Danny didn't know, burst into tears. If anything, Danny seemed more surprised by this than the students had been by his verbal assault on Dash.
"W-w-we're g-going to b-be stuck here f-forever! W-we're going to d-die on th-this island! I j-just want to g-go home!" the girl sobbed.
"There, there," Star comforted, patting the girl on her back. "It's okay, Veronica."
Danny bit his lip and looked away. He'd never seen a girl break down like that and start crying. It rather unnerved him, and he didn't know what to do.
"N-n-no!" Veronica cried, pulling away from Star. "D-Danny's right! W-we aren't g-going to s-s-survive. It's h-hopel-l-less!"
Danny shook his head, and moved over to the crying girl, his heroic nature and innate sense of protection and survival taking over. How many times had he faced down danger, stared certain death in the eyes? Been in a hopeless situation, and struggled out on top? He was, after all, the hero, ghost powers or no.
"Star's right," he said, in what he hoped was a compassionate voice. He hadn't really had much experience with this sort of thing, and was really just winging it. "Everything's going to be fine." Veronica gave one watery-eyed look up at him, before burying her face in her arms again.
"H-how do you know? You s-said it yourself, w-we could be k-killed, or eaten, or d-d-drowned!" she said, her words muffled from a combination of tears and her arms obscuring her mouth.
"You're right," Danny said, looking down at his feet. "I don't know. I'm fourteen, I really don't know much of anything. But," he said, his voice growing more confident, "I do know that if you give up, losing is practically inevitable. But we'll find a way off this island, one way or another. I mean... While there's life, there's hope, right?"
"Of course!" Paulina said. "Danny Phantom fights giant evil ghosts all the time, and he doesn't give up! He even beats them all single-handedly. Why, I bet if he were here, we'd be off this island like that." Paulina snapped her fingers as she said 'that'.
"Oh, the irony..." Danny muttered to himself.
"What did you say, Danny?" Paulina asked inquisitively.
"Oh, uh, um...nothing! Anyway," Danny said, trying to casually brush off questions, "Veronica... It is Veronica, isn't it?" A nod from the girl. "Well... Paulina's right, too. I- uh, Danny Phantom has faced down all kinds of evil ghosts bent on destroying him and wreaking havoc on the town, and I was...Uh, I'm sure that he was afraid a few times--a lot of times--but the point is that even when I- he, was trying to get rid of the Fright Night, he didn't quit! And he didn't give up either when Pariah Dark was invading the town with his skeleton army, and, uh, I'm not sure if I would have had the courage to get into my parent's ectoskeleton when it hadn't been calibrated. And when he was facing down his jerky future self with the lives of his family and friends at risk, he never- oh, wait, uh... Never mind that last one." Danny sighed at the confused faces. Thunder rumbled somewhere outside, but it seemed detached, otherworldly, as if it were merely on television. "Ah, anyway, the point is- well, it's that, we can't give up, because if we do, we'll never get off this island."
Danny stopped, feeling as if he should say more, or end his speech with a catchy and encouraging phrase or slogan. He looked around the plane, purposefully staring anywhere but the faces of the students, and subconsciously rubbed the back of his neck, wondering if he had overdone it, or let slip too much. The occasional slips to 'I' in reference to his secret identity, coupled with his description of the horrible encounter of a few months back which Danny Fenton should never have known about seemed just a little too suspicious... Then again, he was possibly being paranoid...
A clap rang suddenly through the plane, and Danny jumped, at first thinking it to be thunder. But then it was repeated again, and again... Danny blinked and looked up; Veronica was clapping, the faint shadows of tear streaks running down her face, her eyes red but dry, and clapping. Then the clapping became irregular as it was picked up by first Paulina, then Starla, then Kwan and another cheerleader whose name Danny did not know, several more of the jocks, and soon the plane interior was resounding with applause, which drowned out the roar of the hurricane. And Danny looked over to see that even Dash had joined it.
Whether it was minutes, hours, or days later that the clapping finally died down, Danny didn't know. He was too bewildered by the fact that the most popular students in Casper High School were applauding him--him, Danny Fenton, C-student geek, freak, and nerd.
The room was quiet, and expectant. Tense and charged with energy, just as it had been before the lightning strike, but this energy did not have a hard metallic taste, nor did it make Danny's hair stand on end. Danny felt a brief twinge inside himself, like the hand of a friend on his shoulder, and knew somehow that it was his ghost half, encouraging him just as he had encouraged the students: with hope, and courage, and reassurance. And then it was gone, and Danny was left unsure whether or not he had imagined it.
"So, now what, Danny?" Veronica asked. Her voice quavered, but was strong and expressed complete confidence in Danny.
"Uh... Well, I guess we should decide what to do when this storm ends..." Danny suggested.
"Good idea, Danny," Paulina approved. Danny couldn't help but blush. What could he say, old habits died hard, and, considering that he used to blush every time Paulina glanced in his general direction, that was an improvement.
"Wait, who said Fenton should be our leader?" Dash protested.
"I do," Paulina said pointedly.
"Yeah, but shouldn't we, you know, make it official? Like, vote on it, or something?" Kwan suggested.
"Okay, let's vote on it," Star said, climbing up onto a seat and showing an aptitude for leadership none would have formerly thought the satellite possessed. "All in favor, say 'aye'!"
A chorus of 'aye's rang through the plane.
"All opposed?"
Not a single 'nay' was uttered.
"There you have it! Danny has the floor," Star said, getting off of the seat and indicating that Danny should have the seat--and the floor.
"Okay," Danny said, climbing atop of the makeshift podium. "So, uh, any suggestions?"
Blank stares. Then one of the cheerleaders timidly spoke up:
"Well, I uh, was thinking, that in all those movies where people are like, stranded on islands, they start a fire so someone will see them."
Danny nodded, and could have slapped himself in the face. It was so obvious; why hadn't he thought of that!
"Okay, good idea, uh... What's your name?"
"Ashley," the blonde girl who had spoken said shyly.
"But what about things like food, and water?" Kwan asked. "I think I heard somewhere about people not being able to survive for a few days without water."
Danny nodded. "So, we need a fire, and food, and water..." he said. "Hey, does anyone have some paper, and a pen?"
One of the jocks near the stack which had been made from the intact items from within the plane rummaged around until he came up with a notepad labeled 'Fenton Paper', and a pen which had been Jazz's. He handed them to Danny.
"Thanks. So, uh..." Danny uncapped the pen and prepared to write. But he hesitated before the pen touched the paper. "Actually, I don't have that great of handwriting. Does someone want to be like a secretary, or something?"
"I will," Veronica said. Danny handed the paper and pen to her, and she listed fire, food and water.
"Okay," Danny said, turning back to the group. "Now what?"
The assembly of students debated for a long time. The list of suggestions and necessities grew longer as the discussion continued on, several of the less attentive people drifting off to sleep, until, during a lull in the discussion, Danny halted the group.
"Hang on, do you hear that?" he asked.
"What?" several people replied, cocking their ears and fearing the worst.
For the record, I got more than just a little carried away with this chapter. Oh well. We all know how great Danny is, right? Really, how many of us don't have Danny shrines in our closets? Um, I'm not saying I do, of course, heheh… Well, actually, I don't, because there simply isn't enough room in my closet for a shrine of any size… But if there was…
Uh, right. So, I'm off to go write 'I am not a rabid fangirl,' over and over again. Heheheh…heh…heheh…
Bonus preview for next chapter, which shall be called 'Evacuation':
He reached for the vine as the branch cracked and creaked...then snapped!
Danny lost hold of the vine, and it swung out of reach. The plane hung, supported only by two branches on the opposite side. Then it leaned, angling the side Danny was on downward.
More creaks and groans, and the sound of popping. The plane tilted even more, Danny barely keeping his balance.
Another loud crack, and the plane, supported now by a single branch, leaned forward even further.
The final limb snapped with a deafening crack, just as Danny jumped…
There, I think that's enough evil suspense for one day. My work here is done. Mwa-ha-ha-ha-ha! (Oh, and by the way, do you like my evil laugh? I've been practicing ;)
-E.P.