OK and the moment none of you have been waiting for, chapter 2! Thanks for the reviews on the last chapter you guys, I appreciate them so very much. It's nice to know someone's actually reading this :) On with the story!
As Danny flew off through the roof of the building, he stopped and hovered in the air. He took one look at the shabby dump he had called home for a year. No, he hadn't even called it home. He realized that his home was, and always would be in Amity Park, with his family. Or, if his family moved, it would be wherever they went. Home is where the heart is.
Then Danny froze. His parents hadn't moved again had they? What if they no longer lived in Amity? What if they had left and he'd never be able to find them again. He ceased the thoughts and took a deep breathe. No, he would not think about that possibility, he wouldn't let himself. They had to be there! He had to know for sure if they really missed him. The heartfelt card his mother had written had peaked his curiosity.
Danny still had yet to decide whether he was going to return for good. It would be too hard to just confront his friends and parents and try to patch things up like nothing had ever happened. However, he had to know. He had to go back, whether or not he'd let them know he was there he'd decide in due time. He had plenty of time to think on the way there after all.
So Danny began his flight back to the town he had once called home. He felt as if he was on autopilot, as he paid almost no attention to where he was going. He had a pretty uneventful trip. Besides having to dodge an oncoming airplane he hadn't seen until the last minute, there was no trouble. Before long, and much sooner than he'd expected, he was staring at that familiar billboard that welcomed visitors into Amity. He took a deep breath to calm himself, and he pressed on.
He entered Amity and floated back a bit to survey the town. It really didn't look much different than it had when he'd lived there. Of course, there was a layer of ectoplasm covering some things, and a few building seemed to have been reduced to rubble, but those were the only difference. He supposed that someone had been keeping the ghosts in check well enough while he was away. He supposed maybe his parents had risen to the call of duty. Had they noticed the sudden disappearance of Danny Phantom along with Danny Fenton? Nah. They were too dense to make a connection.
The town seemed very quiet right now, but Danny supposed that was because it was sill pretty early, but late enough for school to have started. Anyone who had to get to school or work was already there, but the people who had no where to go had not yet awakened. Once and a while a car would pass down the street, but save for that and the sounds of birds chirping the town was eerily quiet.
He continued on, flying further into the town in search of familiar land marks or familiar faces. He first passed the local supermarket. He could remember going there with his mother when he was little. He'd run around the aisles, helping his mother collect items from her grocery list. Then, when they'd finished, he'd beg a quarter or two out of her for the little gumball machine outside the shop. He smiled at the recollection.
He flew on, and soon came to a building he didn't recognize. It was large, and it was painted a bright shade of red. On the front it read 'Amity Arcade'. It took Danny only a few moments to realize that this was where the old arcade had burned down. They must have rebuilt a new arcade in its place so Amity's youth would once again have a place to hang out. It didn't seem to be opened right now, for the lights on the front were not lit and there was no one inside. He continued on his way.
He kept going in the same direction. He wasn't sure exactly where he was going, it just felt good to be seeing such familiar sites. He flew over the park, and past the library. He passed the technology shop, and memories of spending his after school hours playing DOOMED with Tucker in his freshman year came back.
Technus, Skulker, Ember, he hadn't seen any of his old enemies in as long as he'd seen his old friends. He couldn't even remember the names of many of them. Gee, what was the name of that annoying one, that ghost that had been obsessed with boxes? He couldn't quite place the name. It wasn't like he was complaining though; he didn't exactly miss his enemies. He knew some of them might have stopped coming to Amity after his leave. Especially Skulker, whose main purpose for coming was to hunt Danny.
Then he wondered again who'd been keeping the ghosts that were still coming to Amity in check. They were obviously doing a decent job of it, since the town was still in one piece, but it still did look a bit worse for the wear. However, no ghosts seemed to be around right now, or Danny's ghost sense would have been going off. Once again, he supposed it must be his parents. Perhaps they had produced more ghost weapons and employed more people to help them in the hunt.
Danny continued on, now passing the zoo. He remembered staking out all night at the zoo one night in freshman year. He'd been trying to raise his grade on a report he'd written, which had received a D, by writing a new report about the purple back gorilla at the local zoo. It hadn't been the most wonderful time of his life, but now, as he was floating by himself over the little town of Amity, he would just love to be able to turn back time and be there again. To be the innocent 14 year who had just recently acquired his ghost powers, and was steadily getting the hang of it with his friends by his side.
Still Danny pressed forward, shaking these other thoughts from his head. He flew forward, not even realizing where he was going. He soon found himself in front of the old house he'd moved out of in his freshman year. He stopped only when the site of orange paint and heavy machinery did not meet his eyes, and he realized he'd flown toward the wrong house.
He was about to turn and head to the house he hoped his parents were occupying now, when two small children burst from the front door of the house. They were a boy and a girl, and their sudden appearance broke the silence of the early morning. They looked too small to have yet started school. The girl seemed older than the boy, Danny supposed the boy was three and the girl was four. The boy seemed to be carrying a rubber ball, and they stopped on the sidewalk in front of the house and began to play catch. Not long after, the mother came out to keep an eye on her children.
Danny felt a tug at his heartstrings as he watched the two children playing. How many times had he and Jazz played that same game, in that same spot when they were younger? He could even remember his parents taking shifts watching their kids to make sure they wouldn't dart out into the street to chase the ball, should it bounce in the wrong direction.
Danny remembered those carefree days of playing with his sister. Jazz had been his best, and only friend when he was little. She'd played with him all the time, and they'd been very close, even if they would fight like all siblings will on occasion. Jazz. He hadn't had any luck making friends in elementary school, so Jazz had always hung out with him, and even let him hang out with her own friends. Then, when she was in high school, and he in middle school, she'd begun to do her own thing and forgot about Danny. However, by then he was in seventh grade, and had already met Tucker and Sam, so he hadn't paid it much mind.
Over the next two years, they'd grown further apart, until it reached the point where he felt as though he and his sister were strangers. She'd become a stuck up, overbearing know it all who was constantly getting on his case. Of course that had changed when she'd found out his secret. After that, their bond had started to reinstate itself, growing stronger than before as she battled ghosts along side him. Jazz. She'd be in college right now, as it was somewhere in late September. If she heard that he'd returned would she even want to see him? They'd grown to trust and look out for each other, but that trust had been broken when he'd gone. Could he ever rebuild their brother sister relationship again, or was it lost forever?
Danny sighed as he hung his invisible head and turned around, about to fly off toward the other house. Then he stopped, as something else caught his eye. Caper High was in clear view from where he was floating right now, as if trying to make itself look more intimidating. It was still pretty early, and they should only be in first period about now, second the latest. Maybe he should stop their first before school let out for the day, he could visit home later.
Making up his mind, Danny instead turned in the other direction. He took off for his high school, not knowing what he was going to find their, or if it would be a good thing.
OK, I know that chapter was kind of short and pretty uneventful. It was basically just Danny's reintroduction to Amity. After that the chapters should be a bit more interesting. I hope you think so anyway.
Well, thanks for reading this far you guys! Please, if you don't find it too much trouble, leave a review. Believe me, it'll get the next chapter up a lot faster because it motivates me to write! I actually put this one up way earlier than expected, since it wasn't supposed to go up until Monday. Well bye until next time!