Chapter 24: A Date Out of this World
Danny was at school and he could hear everyone talking about Starfire. It seems some reporter got their battle on tape.
"Can you believe it? Danny Phantom has a new partner." Someone said.
"She is probably a ghost too..."Another said.
"Who cares if she is a ghost. She's a total hottie." Some guy said and Danny tried not to feel jealousy.
Even the popular kids were talking about her... and Paulina is not pleased.
"Who does that red-haired flying girl think she is?! Trying to get closed to my ghost boy! "Paulina shouted one outrage and jealousy.
Danny blinked and then noticed the tabloids in her hand, which called him and Kory a couple. She crumpled them in her grip.
"Please Paulina, you got nothing on that super babe of his, she's smoking." Dash said as he drooled over the pic of Starfire.
Danny rolled his eyes at Dash's antics, remembering how rude he was to Kory and now he drools over her hero self...
"Idiot..."Danny muttered, feeling happy that his classmates saw her as a hero, but annoyed when boys made comments that were a little too flattering.
It was now he met up with Sam and Tucker. Sam looks displeased to see him while Tucker has a big smile.
"Oh! Here he is! It can begin." He drapes an arm around Danny. "So, how'd it go? Clearly, fighting Skulker was a thing, but what else? Give me the details."
Sam pulls Tucker off Danny and points a finger at him.
"Did she try anything?" Sam asked, sounding like she wants to find an excuse to fight Starfire.
Danny raises an eyebrow.
"Nothing I didn't want." He said.
"Good, because if she tried anything-"
"What could you do, Sam?" Danny pointed out. "We're talking about an alien who could break every bone in your body with minimal effort. The only reason she doesn't is because she's too bubbly and adorable to want to hurt anyone. Do you really want to get under her skin?"
Sam is about to speak up, but stops and has a moment of realization. One that makes her realize she's picking a fight she cannot win.
Danny just shrugs and smiles.
"So, I'm seeing her again this weekend. This time in her universe."
"Any idea where?" Tucker asks.
"I'm letting her decide."
It was Saturday and Danny arrived early.
There, he saw Starfire sitting on the building edge, looking out at the sunrise.
"Hey! Starbolts!" He greeted happily.
Looking back, Starfire smiles and flies to him, hugging him tightly.
"You have arrived." She said.
Once she lets him go, Danny rubbed his arm.
"I should let you know that you're famous now on my Earth."
"I am?"
"Yeah, the tabloids are calling you "The Redhead" and "Danny Phantom's girlfriend"."
Starfire blushes at that last one.
"Those are not very creative names." She admits.
"It beats the name they once gave me."
"What did they name you?"
Danny groans. "Inviso-Bill."
A brief pause. Starfire then giggles. Danny just shook his head and smiled.
"So, where are we going today? Since it's your universe, you make the call."
Starfire puts a finger to her chin and thinks.
"I would like for you to see Tamaran." Starfire admits. "To learn of where I call home."
Danny smiled. "Sure."
He takes out his hand. Starfire giggles once more and takes his hand as he holds the jewel. He then hands it Starfire. Realizing what it means, she smiles.
"To Tamaran."
In a flash, Danny and Starfire find themselves atop a cliff. Looking up, Danny sees the sky is completely different, with violet clouds, and he starts to get excited.
"Am I… on another planet?" Starfire nods with a smile. "AWESOME!"
Starfire giggles at his excitement, remembering his expressed desire to be an astronaut. She then walks to the edge of the cliff and motions Danny to look.
"Behold! My home world of Tamaran. Is it not the most beautiful place your eyes have observed?"
Danny walks to where she is facing and looks. His smile drops a bit when he sees a barren desert with odd rock formations.
"Um… yes?" He says, not wanting to sound disrespectful.
Starfire takes his hand.
"Come, I will show you the capital."
They fly. After some time, Danny speaks up.
"So, are you really a princess?"
"Indeed. Although, I gave the title of grand ruler to my k'norfka, Galfore. He said he would give it back to me if I choose to return home."
"What's a k'norfka?"
"In earth terms, he is essentially my godfather." She smiles as she looks forward. "We are here."
Danny looks and sees a city. And a palace atop a cliff. He smiles and notices what looks like fireflies floating beneath them. Though they glow brighter than on Earth.
"Fireflies?"
"Flanorgla Flies." Starfire corrected. She stops, causing Danny to stop with her. "Danny, though I abdicated the throne, I am still the princess. Outsiders are forbidden to touch me here."
Danny smiled. "What if they think I'm a Tamaranean like you and your sister did at first?" He pulls out his father's gadget. "This thing's blasts are why I couldn't return to human form, so I think this could help for once. I was gonna use it on ghosts I see, but this works."
Aiming at himself, Danny fires at is left glowing a bit.
Starfire smiles that he's going this far for her when the sounds of horns are heard. A loud, unpleasant sound that causes Danny to wince in pain.
Starfire smiles sheepishly at him. "Those are Glorka Pipes. It is music?" She looks to the city. "Strange to be hearing it on a day where there is no celebration."
"Is it supposed to be a holiday thing?" Danny says, lowering his hands from his ears.
"Perhaps… have I forgotten?"
Still, she takes Danny by the hand and flies to the palace.
Galfore, the current grand ruler, is at the throne. There, he sees someone fly in, someone who makes him smile.
"Galfore!" Starfire shouts with joy.
"Princess Starfire!" He gets off his throne and races to her.
The two hug.
Galfore notices Danny floating nearby and looks surprised.
"You brought a silver-haired Tamaranean?"
Starfire lets go and introduces Danny formally.
"Galfore, I wish to introduce you to Da-" She realizes she can't use his real name, as it's too human. "Phantom."
"Phantom?" He says. "Such a simple name."
Danny shrugs. Still, he gives his arm.
"Nice to meet you."
Galfore only stares at Dany's hand. Starfire whispers what it means, prompting him to grab Danny by the arm and shake the boy up and down with a hearty laugh.
"A pleasure, young one. It is rare to see one of your type on our world." He says, letting Danny go.
Dizzy, Danny puts a hand on his head to snap himself out of it.
"Don't mention it." He says with a friendly tone.
Starfire takes Danny by the arm.
"I wish to show him around Tamaran if that is the alright?"
"Of course." He says.
"Glorious!" She pulls her date with her. "I am jubilant to show you Tamaranean cooking."
As she takes her date with her, Galfore is left scratching his chin.
"Strange… I feel as though I forgot to mention something…"
In the dining room, Danny sits at the table as Starfire comes flying in with a dish that has a comically large pan on it to conceal its contents. Danny sniffs and actually likes the scent of the food.
"Darling." Starfire says. "I wish to present to you…" She pulls off the pan.
Danny's smile drops.
"Incinerated glorkaroaches, spudlings, glorg, pudding of joy, stewed grudthmec and zorkaberries!"
Danny just stared at the food as Starfire sits next to him, her hands keeping her head up and she beams at him.
Not wanting to upset her, Danny reaches for what looks like a cockroach. He takes a bite and a look of disgust hits his face.
"That is the glorkaroach! You have made the good call. They are burnt on the outside, yet runny on the inside." She said with a smile.
Danny struggles but manages to swallow it. Smiling, he puts it down and grabs a spudling.
"Uh… is this an animal or a vegetable?" Starfire is about to answer, but Danny cuts her off. "Actually, I'm not sure I want to know."
He places the odd thing in his mouth. He tries to chew, but it just squirms around in his mouth.
I don't want to know if it's alive or just very bouncy.
He does manage to swallow it. He sees the glorg and decides to take some in his mouth. He tastes it.
"Tastes like sushi mixed with ice cream." He says with a small smile.
Starfire blinks her eyes to show she's liking that he's enjoying his meal.
He looks to the pudding and looks around for utensils.
"Where are the spoons?"
"We have none present." She says.
Shrugging, he takes a small amount in his hand and puts int in his mouth.
The taste surprises him
"Pretty… overly sweet." He says.
"Indeed. The taste is the opposite of the pudding of sadness, where it is intentionally unpleasant."
Danny looks a bit surprised to hear that before he reaches for the stewed whatever she called it. However, one look of the insect legs sticking out causes him to shake his head and move on. He sees the berries and smiles.
"Something I recognize."
He takes a berry and puts it in his mouth. However, the taste is unpleasant.
"No being can resist the delicious bitterness of the zorkaberries!" She says with a smile.
I think I like the glorg more. He thinks.
Once she sees his reaction, Starfire gets sad.
"You do not like the food."
Danny realizes she's upset and straightens up.
"No! I do! It's just… hard to get accustomed to it."
"You need not lie to me." She says, still sad.
Danny looks away before figuring out what to say.
He puts a hand on her shoulder to get her attention.
"I just wanna make you happy, I don't like seeing you sad."
This did it.
She smiles warmly at him. She then saw the unfinished food.
"May I?" Danny nods. "Wonderful, I too am the starving."
Much to his surprise, she devours it all rather quickly. Within seconds, he saw it all gone, with Starfire licking the remaining food off her face with her tongue.
"Ah!" Danny says. "You ate my glorg."
Starfire looks to the empty plate before looking at Danny.
The two then laugh.
Once they stop laughing, they look at each other and smile.
They both inch closer, their faces ready to come close.
"Koriand'r!" A young woman's voice calls out.
Both of them look behind and see another Tamaranean female.
One who looks like an older Starfire. Starfire herself appears to be about 15-16, Blackfire appeared to 17, this woman looks around 20. Her hair was bigger than Starfire's and a darker shade of red. She wore a top similar to Starfire's, only it was green and had long silver shoulder pads. She had long bots like Stafire's, only her had pointed sides and her thighs rather than the silver folds. She also had a green loincloth-like garment at her waist. Her gloves were similar to Starfire's, only green with red jewels instead of the dark emeralds. She also had a circular window on her chest, showing some cleavage.
Do all Tamaraneans dress like they want to show off? Danny thought.
"Alisand'r!" Starfire says happily as she gets up and waves happily. "How are you cousin?"
"Fine. The Corps gave me some time off. Just in time for-"
She sees Danny, who gets up.
"Oh, um… hi." He waves.
"Cousin, this is Phantom."
Alisand'r just stares at Danny for a bit before a blush hits her face. She smiles and flies in for a closer look.
"Uh…" The uncomfortable ghost boy says. "What is she doing?"
Alisand'r kneels down with an interested look on her face.
"He's young, but that's not a deal breaker. He's a bit on the scrawny side but a good diet and exercise can fix that. Even without factoring in future growth he's still cute." She then hugs Danny tightly. "You'll do just fine!"
She nuzzles her cheek on his with a euphoric smile as Starfire stares, jealousy growing.
As Alisand'r continues hugging him, his father's device falls out. Nobody notices this.
"Um, cousin?" She asks, trying to be polite.
"Quiet!" She snaps. She then returns to happily nuzzling Danny. "Can't you see how happy I am?"
"I do not think he likes that." She says, noticing Danny how uncomfortable he is.
"Do not be silly, clearly he's shy."
Starfire shakes her head.
"Was I like this when we met?" She asks Danny.
"Somewhat…" He says, very eager to get out of the older woman's grasp.
Starfire pulls him out of her cousin's grasp.
"Forgive us! We must be going!"
She flies and pulls Danny by the arm.
Alisand'r just stares before a smirk comes to her face.
"Okay them… game on."
Danny and Starfire find themselves in the middle of town. Danny notices the houses look very stone-like, so he figures they were carved.
"Who was that?"
"My cousin from my father's side, Alisand'r." She says. "That was still strange."
She lets go of Danny's arm as they sit by the nearby fountain.
"Well, you said I'm attractive by Tamaran's standards, and my powers make Tamaranean emotions stronger."
"That still does not make the sense. Even if Alisand'r does find you cute, she is not normally this level of the boy crazy. Unless…" She cups her chin in thought. She gasps. "Is this the date?!"
"Uh, yeah? We're on a date." Danny pointed out.
"No, I mean the date as in the specific day on a calendar." She looks around. "Wait here." She flies off.
Danny felt worried when he didn't Starfire after she flew into the crowd, but he still smiled when found himself in the middle of the capitol. He took the time admire his surroundings. He was still in awe, this is the first time he was on another planet, an inhabited one.
"Well, this is one lifelong dream came true..."Danny said, still marveling over this whole thing as he sat down at the fountain.
He saw so many Tamaraneans, most of them in red, black and brown hair colors. He noticed even the men dressed like they want to attract someone. Still, he notices one other thing.
So many females.
Suddenly, he noticed two little Tameranean girls, both very small and looking about 5 or 6, staring at him. Both had red hair like Starfire, but violet eyes like Blackfire.
"Um...hi?" Danny said, as they continued to look at him, until suddenly.
"I LOVE YOU!"
"MARRY ME!"
The two kids said as they leaped on him.
"AH!" Danny shouted as the two little tameranean girls held onto his arms.
"Marry me, please?!"One shouted.
"No, pick me! I'll be the best wife ever! "The other shouted.
"Hey, get off!" Danny shouted as the two strong little girls started playing tug a war with his arms.
"He's mine!" One shouted.
"No, mine! Go find your own!" The other said.
Danny finally pulled his arms out of their grasps.
"What is with you two?" He asked before noticing something else.
This got attention from the others, especially the female side of the population.
"What's going on?" One female asked.
"Is that a silver haired tameranean?"
"It's a male one..."
Danny looked confused. "What's wrong with them?"Danny said before seeing his reflection in the water and saw that he is in his ghost form. "Oh, right…" he tried to change back but couldn't. "Duh, I used the gadget so they don't think I'm an outsider." He reaches for the device, but finds it missing. "Uh oh… I must have dropped it."
He felt dread when he finally noticed the other female tamaraneans looking at him.
They were doing more than just looking.
"It really is a silver haired tamaranean..."
"And a male one too!"
"And what a male!"
"I just love that baby face."
"Are you still single?"
"You are currently unmarried, right?"
"So handsome…"
"Oh, I want him..."
"Will you marry me?"
"Please father my children!"
Danny couldn't change back or become intangible or invisible, so he did what he always did when faced with a lovestruck alien girl.
He ran.
The females however, refused to be denied.
"He is not getting away that easily."
"Let us get him ladies..."
Soon they started chasing him.
Danny ran as fast as he could as what appeared to be a hundred females started chasing him. He turns a corner and sees another small crowd of females blocking his path.
"Why is this not as fun as I always hoped it was?" He asked.
Suddenly, a small Tamaranian child wraps her arms around his leg.
"Mawwy me!" She says.
Danny tries to shake her off, but then a taller girl pulls the child off him.
She speaks to him in Tamaranean. He looks perplexed. Suddenly, the grabs him by the collar and kisses him. Shocked, Danny pulls out and the young woman smiles.
"Apologies, I am K'li. My sister K'tten is very young… though I am not." She says, fluttering her eyelashes at him.
Danny blushes before flying into the air.
Once he looks down, he sees all of the females are flying with him.
"Right… they can all do that." He reminds himself.
Suddenly a pair of hands grabs him by the arms and pulls him away.
"She's stealing him!" One female shouted.
"No fair!" Another exclaimed.
Danny finds himself back on the ground as he and the Tamaranean hide in what looks like a bar. Once she lets go, Danny can see it was Starfire.
"Are you unharmed?" She asked.
"Yeah, but one of them kissed me!" He said.
"Tamaraneans learn other languages through the action of lip contact." She said. "Though we have become aware it also a sign of affection on other worlds."
"Why exactly are they all chasing me?! I mean, yeah, I'm apparently a stud by alien standards, but that doesn't totally explain it!"
"I believe I know why." She says as she walks to the wall and tears off a large parchment from it. She brings it to Danny, a look of concern. "Behold!"
Danny just looks at the alien writing and adopts a faux-horrified tone.
"Oh no! It's… squiggly drawn letter Q day!" He drops it and just speaks flatly. "You know I can't read this, right?"
Starfire blushes in embarrassment.
"Forgive me, I keep forgetting when you look like this that you are not a tamaranean…" She points to eh mentioned Q shape. "Today is the Courting by X'Hal. She is the goddess of Tamaran. Today is when females look for a male they wish to have as their partner."
"I'm afraid to ask but… partner in what?"
"Companionship, romantic companionship. They seek a male with potential to be their beloved and possible father of their children. In a sense, it is the mixture of mating season and our version of Valentine's Day."
Danny has a horrified realization by this.
"So…" He points outside. "Those girls want me… for more than just being their boyfriend?" She nods. Danny buries his face in his hands. "This has so turned my biggest fantasy into my worst nightmare."
"Perhaps if you returned to human form?" Starfire suggests.
"I think I dropped by dad's doohickey somewhere. I know I had it before I sat to eat, so maybe your cousin made me drop it?"
"We must return to the palace!" She says.
"But how? I'm pretty sure the planet's female population won't just ignore us. Is there any way to make them stop?"
"One way." She says, looking concerned.
"And that way is … ?" He asks.
"You must tell them you have a companion."
"So, lie about having a girlfriend?"
She nods.
"You will require the girl to be the girlfriend… namely me." She says, sounding a bit sad. "However, I will not lie on this holiday. Such a thing is disrespectful to Tamaran."
Danny frowns, not liking the idea either.
"Then we'll find another way to-"
"THERE YOU ARE!"
Looking back to the entrance, Alisand'r is there, pointing at him. Several females are behind her.
"Uh oh…" Danny goes.
"Though you could escape me?!" She says.
Both Danny and Starfire look to each other before running into the back entrance. The other women soon follow.
"How long is this crazy holiday anyway?!" He asks.
"It is an entire day on Tamaran!" She says.
"Okay, how long is a day on this planet?"
"40 Earth hours!"
Danny looks at her unbelieving.
"Great, that's another, what?" 38 hours?"
Danny's life has turned every straight teenage boy's fantasy into a nightmare.
Now this date has turned into him running for his life.
Can he and Starfire get off Tamaran?
Also, the names I used for the named female Tamaraneans are from DC comics.
Arisand'r wearing green is because she was a member of the Green Lantern Corps before being killed by Darkseid.
K'li and K'tten appear to be more recent names from DC though.
I wanted to go the extra mile.
But next time is more of them on Tamaran.
How will they get these girls to stop chasing him?
(Also, thank you FlowerPrincess11 for suggesting scenes from Girls Bravo)