Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom. Butch Hartman does. I would never dream of making money off his work, this is but one fanatic's homage. So please don't sic the rabid lawyer hordes upon me, there's not much for them to sue out of me.
Chapter 1- Fenton
My story begins before I came into my current existence. The first deaths that I witnessed, and while I was at fault, I didn't have to lift a finger. I'll never forget that day, the rush of the heat as the explosion sent my stunned body flying backwards, the smell of burning wood and flesh, overlaid with the oddly sweet scent of burning Nasty Sauce. The blast, the shockwave ripping my anguished cry from my lips. They were all in there, killed so quickly that I only briefly heard a scream from her... from Sam.
Just like that, they were all gone. Dead. Mom, Dad, my nosy older sister Jazz, and my two best friends, Sam and Tucker. Oh, and Mr. Lancer, but I can hardly say that the fat teacher would be missed. All consumed by a massive fireball of violently explosive sauce. That left me, the final Fenton, the only survivor, the only witness to the tragedy. Such was the reward for my actions, using my ghost powers to filch the answers to that pointless Career Aptitude Test. I find it terribly amusing, really. That test did determine my future after a fashion.
I recall being terribly upset that night, after the police investigation, after being questioned as to what had happened. An endless flow of tears, wandering aimlessly through the house, listening with half an ear to the silence that I broke periodically with tormented wailing. I remember that night being terribly long and terribly lonely in the mostly darkened FentonWorks, roaming in the dark like a lost ghost. Yes, I did just make that joke. I spent several of those dark hours down in my parents' lab, contemplating the wide variety of painful ghost hunting weapons they had built, staring at the portal that started it all.
If I hadn't wandered into that portal, if I hadn't pushed that button, none of this could have happened. I wouldn't have been a half ghost, I wouldn't have been able to cheat on the exam, and the Nasty Burger wouldn't have exploded. Unable to stand the familiar sight, I spent the rest of the night roaming aimlessly over the rooftops of Amity Park. I was weak then, and trying so hard to get away from the maddening guilt that plagued me.
For lack of anything else to do, I did go to school the next day, exhausted with useless grief and from lack of sleep. I didn't even bother to change out of my filthy soot-smeared clothes, I ignored the odd looks and quiet whispering. Of course the explosion had made the news, everyone had heard about it, and those stupid school faculty members had decided to cancel class so that the students could talk to grief counselors and such. What a waste of time.
On my way to my locker, I passed her. Valerie Grey. Generally a nice enough girl when she wasn't trying to kill me. I ignored her, opening my locker while trying not to look at the picture taped up inside. Me, Sam, and Tucker, carefree and smiling. I heard her come up behind me quietly.
"Danny, you okay?" She asked softly. What a stupid question! Everyone I cared about had just been turned into so much charcoal the day before, but no, I was just fine!
"No." Was the only response I could marshal myself to utter, my throat tight from my grief.
To my mild surprise, she put her arms around me in a tight hug, full of concern for me, for the ghost she was always trying to shoot down. "I know it's got to be hard, Danny. If there's anything I can do, you just have to ask, okay?"
I froze as a thought hit me while I stood there in Valerie's arms. I couldn't go on like this, all alone and carrying the burden of my secret. Sam and Tucker had always been there to help support me, and without them I was alone with my secrets and my guilt. "Valerie-? Could you... um... would you meet me after school at the park?" My throat hurt as I stammered out the words, deciding it was time Valerie knew the truth. I did like her, she seemed to like me, aside from the thing about ghosts. I should have known better, that the little witch would betray my feelings, but I was weak and stupid, and thought I could trust her. "There's something... important, I need to tell you- I mean, show you... ur... well..."
She smiled at me, her expression full of sympathy. "I'll be there." She said simply as we disentangled.
"Thanks, Val." I whispered, anxious to be away from the school. I ducked into the boys' bathroom, checking around briefly to make sure I was alone before I transformed, the ghostly chill no longer carrying the sort of refreshing thrill it used to. I was full of grief, guilt, and now anxiety. I didn't know then how Valerie would react to learning I was the ghost kid she'd been trying to destroy for the past few months, so I was worried it would go badly. I had a few hours to fly around invisible before locating the area in the park where I would introduce her to my alter-ego, when she would meet Danny Phantom and know him for who he really was. Once I found the place, I returned to the house and finally cleaned myself up. I found myself staring long and hard at the black grit that I scrubbed out of my hair, the ash and bits of unidentifiable debris that had been blown everywhere.
When I returned to the park to wait for Valerie, I was presentable, wearing a clean shirt and pair of jeans, my hair brushed into its usual mop. I still felt terrible, but at least I was clean. I didn't have to wait long before she found me, sitting limply, my back against the side of one of the fountains.
"Sorry if you were waiting. What did you want to tell-" She apologized as she joined me.
"Follow me." I interrupted her, getting quickly to my feet, setting a brisk pace for the secluded area I'd scouted out earlier. She hurried to follow, her expression confused and concerned. I felt my trepidation building with every step closer to that shrouded area, each step closer to my confession. I was an idiot then, clinging to the fool's hope that she would be understanding, a poor replacement to fill the void left by Sam and Tucker. We stopped once we got to the hidden grove, and I turned to look her in the eyes, hoping to find some indication of how she might react. "Val, before I tell you... you've gotta promise me you'll let me finish. Please, don't freak out on me, please..."
She grabbed my shoulders and gave me a good shake as my voice cracked on my plea. "Danny, calm down! Relax. Whatever it is, I swear I won't freak out or anything. We're friends, right?"
Trying to fight down a sense of panic, I took several deep breaths, forcing myself to calm down, if not to relax. Once I felt I could continue, I stepped away from Valerie, took one more deep breath to steady myself, and I began. "Okay. Y'know how my parents are...were-" I choked then on the correction. Mom and Dad were gone, dead, past tense.
"Danny... I'm sorry." Valerie gave me a reassuring hug at my distress. "It's okay to cry."
"You don't understand!" I jumped away from her as if I'd been burned, or maybe shot by an ecto-gun. "It was my fault! I couldn't-" I stopped then. How could she possibly have known how much I blamed myself for that beautiful explosion? For those deaths? I struggled to keep from bursting into tears, but the things slipped free despite my efforts, though I did slowly recover most of my composure. "They hunted ghosts."
She nodded quietly, and I continued. "You've seen the portal they built. But it... it didn't quite work at first. There was an accident-"
"An accident? What accident?" She interrupted, surprise in her voice, and concern. It was strange, explaining my transformation. I never had before. Sam and Tucker had seen it happen, and I hadn't told anyone about it.
"They gave up on it. But Sam-" Ah, Sam. Beautiful, dark, independent, dead Sam. "-she and Tucker talked me into taking a look inside it, to see if maybe we could make it work. So I put on one of the hazmat suits... safety first, and went in. While I was poking around in it... I accidentally hit a button. I don't really remember what exactly happened."
Valerie stared at me, worry plain on her face. It's true though, despite everything, my memory of the accident is fuzzy at best. All I can remember, both of my accident and dim impressions from Plasmius' own accident are fleeting sensations and images. Bright light, blindingly green, a coldness that threatened to burn everything it touched, a feeling like the worst shock of electricity ever conceived, surrounding the most excruciating agony possible. Death itself was probably more pleasant than that. "There was a bright light, and it hurt... I thought I was gonna die. I thought I had at first... Oh please, Valerie, don't hate me for this, please-"
Valerie continued to stare as I got one more good look at her, my eyes glowing green already from my agitation as I stood in the familiar stance and uttered in a pathetic voice my old battle cry. "I'm going ghost!"
Her jaw hung wide open as the familiar energy rings scanned the length of my body, changing me from my weak human form to my more powerful ghost form. I stood there, watching her closely, glowing green eyes locked onto her grey-green ones, which were growing impressively wide with her shock. A flurry of emotions flew across her face. Shock, confusion, fear, and then the one I should have seen coming before she pulled out her weapons and activated her suit and jet sled, pointing the weapons at me, anger clear in her voice. "It was your fault! YOU did this!"
"Valerie-" I yelped, cowering away from her as the weapon charged. She didn't let me finish my plea.
"You LIED to me, ghost! You ruined my life, you lied to me, you USED me!" She shrieked, firing wildly at me. I ducked and dodged through the storm of pink blasts, frightened and betrayed. Really, I should have known she would react like that and betray my trust. But then, I was a sappy idiot those days. I know better now.
"Valerie, you promised-!" I yelped uselessly, as if her worthless promise would make her stop her attack. She gave chase as I ran and then flew away, trying to get away from her, and feeling absolutely alone, heartbroken. I'd staked everything on that silly confession, and she'd thrown it in my face along with every ghost hunting weapon she had on her person at the time.
She chased me for several miles above the rooftops of the city, throwing shots and accusations about what I had done. The blasts I was able to dodge easily enough- she was so rattled by my confession that her aim was worse than normal, but her accusations hit every time. I knew I could no longer stay, the girl was hell-bent on killing me. Now that she knew my true identity, I wasn't safe. I didn't know at that moment where I was going to go, but I knew I had to leave.
Valerie was gaining on me, her shots starting to get uncomfortably accurate. I couldn't bring myself to return fire then, though I really ought to have. It would have saved me a great deal of trouble in later years. Instead, I shed useless tears as I poured on the speed, trying to lose her. Finally, I pulled a trick I hadn't used much, a sort of short-range teleport to throw her off my trail. Hey, it worked against Tucker, why wouldn't it work against her?
I retreated to the temporary safety of FentonWorks... funny that I couldn't think of it anymore as "home", isn't it? I spent the better part of that evening cowering in my room, the lights all turned off, contemplating my options. The dark didn't bother me much, really. In ghost form, I could see well enough in the dark not to kill myself on the household clutter. I couldn't stay in Amity Park, but where could I run to? Who could hope to understand the multitude of twists and secrets of my existence?
I slumped as the only plausible option my fourteen year old brain could conceive of hit me. I didn't like it, but I had little choice, no where else to turn. Besides, with both my parents dead, there wasn't much left to fight over with that cheesehead. I spent the better part of that night packing my things before I could steel myself to pick up the phone and dial the call I was loathe to make.
The phone rang several times before it was finally picked up, the voice on the other end sounding groggy and terribly annoyed. "Who do you think you are, calling me at this hour-"
"Vlad." I interrupted the irked billionaire, my voice flat with the sorrow I felt then.
"Daniel? Is that you?" In an instant the man's tone changed from irate to a sort of sly surprise. "Whatever are you calling me for, my boy? And in the middle of the night, no less?"
I felt myself rebelling against what I was about to ask of the man, hating the idea. "Look, I'll get straight to the point, Plasmius." I couldn't even marshal the distaste to snap out the name of Vlad's alter-ego. I slumped further, my tone horribly pathetic. "Look... can I... stay with you?"
There was silence on the phone line for a full minute before Vlad managed to respond. "Stay with me? I saw the news but..." Somehow the cheesehead managed to sound giddy and depressed all at once. "You want to come here? To Wisconsin?"
"Yes."
"I shall send someone to fetch you and your belongings right away." Vlad declared. After a brief pause, he added, sounding truly sympathetic. "I'm sorry about what happened, Daniel. Truly, I am. Your mother will be dearly missed."
"I'll see you later then." I hung up the phone and sat in the darkness of the deserted kitchen, rocking back and forth.
I was going to move in with my arch-enemy.