A/N: Thank you for reviewing, people! If it continues on like this after this chapter, I'll start thanking by name! I'll need many different reviewers, however...I promise you I'll try to make this interesting as possible...I'll try not to let you down...
And another thing...unless I state something at the end of the chapter, I'll try to update every three to four days...
There I go again...talking too much! Second chapter!
Chapter 2 - A Figure from the Shadows
It had been only ten minutes, but it had already felt as if it was ten hours.
He screamed as the power of the ectoplasmic shot lanced into his already bruised ribs.
"YAAHHH!" said Danny, careening through the air. As he felt himself getting knocked backwards, time seemed to be slowing down.
And it became normal again as his back slammed into a wall behind him.
Trying to ignore the pain, he flew towards his opponent and tried to fire an ectoplasmic blast at the target, but his opponent was long gone before he could even shoot the ray out of his hand.
Instead, his opponent flew behind him and fired a series of rays from gloved fingertips.
Taking shot after shot to the chest, he could barely make any sort of move without getting pounded with another ectoplasmic blast radiating out of nowhere.
And each one hurt more than the last...it seemed that the blasts were hitting the most vulnerable points of his body...
Which meant he couldn't concentrate hard enough on going intangible...
He was plummeting towards the ground for seemed like the thousandth time during that fight. His badly-scarred face seemed to tell the whole story.
Danny Phantom was taking one hell of a beating...
As he clutched his chest, screaming in pain, he wondered how he even got into this mess. He assumed it had to have started with that bus incident...this was the ghost who started this whole thing...the one who made it careen out of control...
And it was the same one that was currently shutting him in a world of misery.
This opponent was clearly more talented than any other person or thing he had ever fought. This person was faster, quicker, and to Danny's ultimate dismay, merciless when it came to fighting. Danny could barely take any time to counter any moves before he was shot down with another attack.
It seemed that it was always one step ahead of him. Whenever Danny attempted to fight back, the figure was able to counter it with an attack of its own.
But the worst part was, since the opponent was so fast, there was one feature Danny did not know about...
...who it was.
Because his opponent was moving so quickly, he didn't know who or what it was. Thinking it was Skulker was completely beyond belief because the character was very slim...and thinking it was Desiree was also an unlikely idea.
And the Box Ghost was just a shot out of left field.
But he knew it was a ghost...his sense kept going off...
Whoever it was, he didn't care anymore. He was only concerned with taking the person (or ghost) down. He had to win...
The character spoke a few times, but the voice was extremely muffled through the clothing or whatever was on its body. It looked like it was wearing shining strips of black cloth.
But enough about what the character looked like. He was thinking about why this fight started, and it seemed that the theory of the bus was his only option.
Leaping from the ground and taking off into flight, Danny duplicated himself three times. Each Danny shot off a ghost ray.
The figure leapt out of the way of the first three rays, but the fourth hit the figure's head. It started spinning towards the ground.
Merging back with his duplicates, Danny seized his chance. Reaching his top speed of 112 miles per hour, he tackled the spirit while it was falling through the cold, late-November air.
The black figure flew another twenty feet before it smashed into the pavement below, not moving.
His heart was racing...perhaps he had just won the battle...
Danny flew down and attempted to suck the spirit into the Fenton thermos.
But that fall was a fluke...the spirit suddenly stirred and quicly flew out of the way of the blue light. It then blasted the thermos out of Danny's hand.
His hands bleeding, Danny dropped the ghost catcher and tried to hold back the addition to his woes, in the form of slowly unbearable pain taking over his whole body.
"YOU THINK YOU CAN DEFEAT ME? JUST LIKE THAT?" boomed the shadowy voice.
Unfortunately for Danny, the answer was currently yes.
The spirit flew overhead and knocked Danny to the ground.
As Danny spun into the ground headfirst, he watched as the spinning world was forcing him towards the metal manhole cover in the street. He knew that this was going to hurt...
Time slowed down again as he literally kissed the cold, hard metal...
The resulting crash gave him a nasty gash on the forehead, and several more scrapes to his face.
It took a lot of will power to stand up once again. He had been sent towards the ground many times already.
He wondered about his own condition. Did he dare look at himself?
He glanced down at himself, and he almost wanted to vomit. He was a bleeding, exhausted wreck. His costume had actually changed color from black to a dark maroon. There were countless scrapes and tears from being thrown into various objects all the time, and his insignia had actually turned color from silver to a glistening ruby.
Asking if he was hurt was seriously beyond an understatement.
He suddenly saw the figure heading towards him in a dead-on tackle. He leapt out of the way just in time and fired a series of blasts after it.
They all missed, as the figure spun around him in a circle.
Danny became dizzy as he stopped to regain his currently spinning, out-of-focus, sight.
When he regained consciousness, his eyes, slowly blurring from exhaustion, futilely attempted a search for his opponent...
He was hit in the back from a tackle. As he fell forward, his hands hit the cold asphalt, hard.
Struggling to get back up, he was met with another ectoplasmic blast that hit him dead-on in the face...
Danny was flown backwards in a dark alley, his back hitting a dumpster.
All the pain Danny had been trying to suppress suddenly gave way through Danny's mouth in a bloodcurdling scream. He could act as if his arm wasn't bleeding profusely, his face wasn't all cut-up, and his fingertips were bruised and swelling, but he couldn't suppress this.
His shoulder was broken.
Clutching his throbbing shoulder, he knew that he could no longer get up again.
He had failed.
Two blue rings appeared around his waist. He had transformed back into Danny Fenton.
A weak and vulnerable Danny Fenton...
His opponent, who was flying through the air, landed on the ground lightly, some twenty feet away from him.
Though Danny was looking at the figure with tired eyes, those same eyes were green with fury. Whoever this ghost, or thing, was, he loathed it to the ends of the earth.
The black figure chuckled. "Heh...you've got guts...you really did put up one hell of a fight...and you call yourself the hero of this town!" The figure laughed.
Danny's eyebrow involuntarily twitched. He'd heard of the term about putting salt in the wound, but that laughter and comment felt as if someone had dumped a truckload on top of him.
"You..." Danny managed to breathe out.
"What? You've got something to say to me?"
It seemed to take the rest of Danny's strength to speak out his words. "You...will...pay..."
"I will PAY?" asked the figure. "I beg to differ! You are the one who should pay for the things you did to me!"
Danny, in his exhausted and throbbing stupor, was a little confused. "But...who...who are you? I don't...even know who you are!"
"You know who I am..." said the figure. "I'll prove it to you! You are responsible for my death!"
The cloaked figure stepped into a streetlight. There was a large black hood and veil covering the face...with two evil, glowing eyes staring back at him.
The figure lifted its arm and slowly unmasked itself...when the black mask slipped off, Danny squinted in vain to see the ghost's features.
His heart literally stopped beating from shock...
He saw the telltale eyes...the ribbon...
...and the most defining feature...the long hair that trailed down to the waist...
But that hair was supposed to be red-colored...it was currently shining green...
It was...Jazz.
Danny backed away in on the ground in horror, clutching his mangled shoulder.
"No..." he said weakly. "No...it can't be...not you..."
Jazz!
How!
It made no sense...no sense at all...
Questions...pouring into his head...he attempted to come up with answers, but they seemed to pass out of his head as quickly as he thought of them...there were simply too many...
And he had no answers...
Danny choked out more words. "But...you can't be! You can't! It's not possible!"
His sister spoke. It was a far different voice that was well beyond the once, cheery voice he was used to.
"You did this to me! And you will pay!"
"Pay!" said Danny, somehow finding the strength to scream. "What happened to you!"
He was in desperate need of an answer...but she never gave him one.
"JAZZ!" he said, trying to get a response from her.
She didn't say a word. But she did start moving...
Danny's panicking eyes watched as she raised her hands. Out of the sky came green-colored lightning that condensed into a swirling, brightly, glowing sphere of ectoplasmic light.
Danny felt his back hit a wall. Looking behind him, he saw he was cornered by walls on three sides. The only way out was through his ghostly sister.
He tried, in vain, to go ghost, but it was to no avail. He was trapped.
There was only one way out of this...
"LISTEN TO ME, JAZZ!" he yelled. "PLEASE! I DON'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED, HOW IT HAPPENED, OR WHY IT HAPPENED! BUT PLEASE! YOU DON'T WANT TO DO THIS! PLEASE LISTEN!"
"I'm through with listening!" said his ghostly sister. "A LONG TIME AGO!"
The sphere of light was now glowing so bright that Danny could no longer see his sister, but only an outline of the same black figure he was fighting before. He watched as the black figure launched the sphere directly at him.
The ball of light reflected in his eyes, as it got bigger and bigger, its menacing warmth actually feeling like it was trying to burn into his skin like a mini-sun thrown directly at him...
"NOOOOOOO!" he yelled, trying to shield the brilliancy with his arms.
A force jerked him back violently...it was as if he went through the wall behind him, but he never felt it...
In fact, it was as if he was no longer in his body...he was dropping, spinning wildly in a series of light and shadow...
...through a tunnel!
Danny was being transported through a tunnel of strangely dark light...the light of the real world seemed to be disappearing as he entered a makeshift breach glowing from the shining shadows. It seemed to be a world where everything was reversed in terms of shining and dullness.
Suddenly his body stopped...he was gently turning over and over...
He was floating in the air...
As he looked around...his surroundings became clearer...more green light...billowing dark clouds...a endless cold freezing his body all over and chilling his spine.
It was an endless misery that delved deep into his mind...he didn't want to be here...he couldn't be here...he had to get back...back to reality...
A familiar castle in the distance confirmed his greatest fears.
Danny was in the Ghost Zone...
Before he could do anything else, a black hand appeared in front of his face...then more black hands...he was being pulled further into its awesome depths...
"NO MORE!" he cried. "NO!"
The transport tunnel disappeared...the real world's light was gone...he was locked away in here...he couldn't go back...
And his pleading fell on deaf ears, or whatever they were...he was falling further in the Ghost Zone...he was about to become one of them...another wandering spirit...
Danny reached out with his hand, desperately trying to grab onto anything...but nothing was within reach...
He was falling and screaming at the same time, his eyes clenched shut...
...falling...
...screaming, struggling...
...falling...
...onto...
...something...soft?
It was a bed.
Danny's eyes shot open, screaming...drenched in a cold sweat...he could see himself reflected in his bedroom mirror, his body covered by twisted ropes, which were at one time smooth, white sheets.
As his heart was pounding at a million times per minute, he checked himself for injuries...he felt his face, legs, chest...everything seemed to be perfectly fine...
He was in his PJ's...not in a torn-up, bleeding, ghost suit...
He went ghost...the two blue rings appeared and went in the north and south directions.
His costume was in perfect condition, and the D was shining brighter than ever...no scratches, tears, or different shades of color mixing with it.
Changing back into human form, Danny jumped out of his bed, ran up to the mirror and looked at his eyes. The blue eyes were blood shot red, the black, unkempt hair was even more unkempt, and his skin was extremely pale...paler than white...
Other than that, he seemed fine...
The fourteen-year old then looked down at the floor, his hands resting on the table.
He could actually feel a tear falling down from his eye. It sparkled in the moonlight like a fragile diamond as it fell towards the ground with a faint splash.
That was the first time he had cried in about a few months...
He looked at the clock. It was 3:00 in the morning.
Another memory...the bus he had saved hours ago...
...it wasn't the work of any ghost...black ice on the road caused it to loose control and careen towards a cliff...he was in the right place at the right time...no one could blame him for the accident...
He was there, everyone saw him save all the people on the bus, and the news made him look like a hero.
His ratings were sure to rise from that 64 approval...
And it seemed that no one else was calling him the name Inviso-Bill...
As he slowly found the answers to all the questions that were building up in his head...he realized that everything was as it was supposed to be.
He started breathing heavily...sighing...his heart was slowly reaching regular beating rate again.
He wasn't dying in the Ghost Zone...he was in his own house, in his own room...
...alive.
That was definitely one of the worst nightmares he had in a while...one that was making him cry...
...and his sister was somehow part of it...
The tears continued falling from his face, forming small rivers down his cheeks.
Jazz...
...why did it have to be Jazz? What did he ever to do her?
...and the haunting question...Why was she dead?
There was no answer for that, however, when he heard his door open with that familiar creak.
Jumping about three feet backwards into the air, his back landed on the edge of his bed. Obviously out of balance, he fell onto the floor.
White light poured into his bedroom from the hall light outside, greatly winning over the dark world that was currently Danny's room.
Danny quickly put his hands to his cheeks and started wiping away the rivers of tears with his clothes. Whoever the visitor was, he didn't want him or her to see him like this.
Picking himself up, and squinting into the blinding light, he tried to see who it was that opened the door.
"Danny! I heard you screaming! Are you OK?"
And as his eyes adjusted to the sudden change in light, his heart started racing once again...
It was Jazz out there in the hallway...
...the same Jazz from his dream...
...or was it?
His ghost sense wasn't going off, so she was alive...not some raging maniac bent on his destruction...
"Can I come in?" she asked.
Danny's mouth struggled to make a word. It was merely a question of four, short words, but it was one of the hardest questions he had an answer for.
The seconds ticked by...the clock's monotonous ticking was the only thing heard in the room...
His thoughts were the only other things he could hear.
"I can let her inside," he thought. "She did come through all this trouble to see how her younger brother was..."
No! You just had a dream about her trying to kill you!
"It was only a dream!"
Not from what I saw! You were CRYING!
"Shut up!" said Danny, out loud.
"What?" asked Jazz. "I didn't say anything to you!"
Danny suddenly looked at his sister in horror, his hands coming up to his head.
"Oh, my...I'm sorry...my thoughts...I..."
It was too hard to explain. He'd better just stop right there.
Jazz seemed to understand the whole thing. "...I see, Danny. I know how dreams can be. I have nightmares, too. I know they seem real, but just remember, they're only dreams. Dreams can't hurt you, no matter what happens."
Danny knew she was right...although his butt was literally kicked in his dream, when he woke up he was perfectly fine.
Jazz spoke again. "So...can I please come in? You don't have to, but seriously, make a choice...it's freezing out here!"
Danny looked at her. She was indeed freezing in the hallway...standing out there in her robe, looking miserable out there in the hall, far from her warm bed. She was tightly covering herself with the robe, trying to warm herself as much as possible.
There was only one thing he could do...
Despite all the protests of the other half of his screaming mind, Danny's left hand extended, turned over, and beckoned her in.
To be continued...chapter 3 coming soon...reviews, please!