Chapter 3: A little dancing…a BIG mistake
Danny looked at himself in the mirror, dressed in his tux that he had gotten yesterday. He shook out his nerves and smiled as he left his room, making sure he stowed the Fenton Light Blade in his pocket. He practically leapt down the stairs and was about to take off when he heard "Danny, come on into the kitchen, we have something for you!"
Danny sighed, guessing that his parents wanted him to take more ghost fighting tech. Imagine his surprise when he walked in to find them seated at the table with a small box in front of Maddie.
"Danny, I know that this is your first date with Sam, but I also know how much you really care for her. I want you to give her this when you see her." Maddie pushed the box into his hand and he cautiously opened it up. Inside shone a sterling silver necklace with an amethyst worked delicately into the rose that marked the center. He smiled and kissed his mother on the cheek, "Thanks mom, I won't forget this."
He stowed the box in his coat pocket and as soon as he was out of sight, he turned intangible and flew off towards Sam's home.
Meanwhile, Sam had finished her preparations and placed her Fenton Light Blade in her purse. She stared at herself in the mirror and sighed. She knew that Danny would love to see her this way, she was just nervous about what she would do. She found that she experienced difficulty talking to him coherently in normal situations, what on earth would she do at a dance?
Danny stood outside the Mason home for a minute or so, going over lines in his head. "Sam, you look LOVELY tonight. Sam, you LOOK lovely tonight. Sam, YOU look lovely tonight." He resigned to his fate as he knocked on the door, bracing himself for the usual disapproving stares of her parents. Instead, he sighed in relief as Sam's grandmother appeared at the door. "Hello there, Mr. Bond! Welcome to the Manson home!"
"Hah-ha, it's good to see you Mrs. Manson. Is Sam ready?" Grandma winked and said, "I would say so, young man, please come in!" Danny walked inside and whistled nervously as Grandma Manson wheeled along her ramp upstairs to fetch Sam. He smiled as his eye caught a picture on the side table of Sam and him last summer. Nothing huge, just them smiling as they leaned against each other on the beach.
Danny heard a foot step, and jerked his head up to find Sam. As she came into the light more, his jaw all but dropped through the floor. Her hair, usually up, was down and shining in the light of the grand chandelier. Her makeup was soft and subtle, but very intricate; Danny noted that she seemed to work especially hard on that. But the thing that really set him off was her dress. Danny knew Sam was attractive…but now she was just…he couldn't even think of a word to describe her.
Sam smiled nervously as she stopped right in front of Danny. He sputtered like an idiot for a second, then managed to stammer, "Sam, you are SEXY!" he quickly slapped a hand over his mouth and blushed profusely. "Sexy! Why on earth did you say sexy! What happened to lovely? Well, it's not exactly a stretch of the truth…"
He was relieved slightly to find Mrs. Manson giggling madly, and seemed even more surprised to find that Sam was blushing just as impressively as he was. "He thinks I'm sexy…THIS IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE!" Danny finally found his voice again, "Wow…you look beautiful, Sam. But there's something missing…oh yes, I believe this will help."
Danny handed Sam the necklace and she opened the box slowly. Upon seeing the gift inside, her eyes widened and she hugged Danny tightly. Danny clasped it around her neck and said, "Well, the night is young, let's fly!" Sam giggled as he took her arm and led her out the door. They both flew into the sky as the door shut. Grandma Manson chuckled and said, "Of all men to find my little Sammy attractive…it had to be a half-ghost hero…funny old world, isn't it? You take care of her, Danny Phantom…"
Danny and Sam landed at the Blue Palm, the ritziest and most sought after event venue in Amity Park. How the prom committee managed to book the prom here, neither of them knew.
They exchanged nervous glances and finally opened the large doors inside. Two teachers, Mr. Lancer and Principal Ishiyama, were checking in people as they arrived. The nervous couple approached Lancer and he said, "Well, Mr. Fenton and Miss Manson, how wonderful to see you two so bright eyed…for once. Here's your table number, have a nice evening."
They stifled back laughs as they got through the next set of doors…Lancer in a suit was just too funny.
Even Sam had to admit she was impressed with the effort put into prom. The entire room had been done over to fit a theme of a night on the town. People were all seated and waiting for their friends to arrive, cameras flashed everywhere. Danny and Sam finally found the table matching their number and sat down. Somebody had left their tux jacket, so they obviously were not the only ones that had arrived.
Danny and Sam reached for the water pitcher and brushed hands. They quickly glanced at each other and both their hands shot back, a nervous blush creeping across their faces. Danny could feel the awkward silence between the two of them, until his eyes traveled upon a very interesting sight…
"Sam, you might wanna see this…" Sam followed his eyes straight to Paulina, sitting across the room. "Oh great, the queen of pompous jerks is here…" Danny said, "I know, but look at her face." Sam looked hard and failed at stifling her satisfaction. Paulina had attempted, and failed, to cover the blooming black eye she now had with her makeup. Paulina finally saw Sam and quickly turned the other way, visibly scared.
Danny and Sam both started laughing. "Sam, I gotta hand it to you, for all the crap she's given you, you can sure figure out great ways to pay her back. A black eye for prom…genius." Sam laughed nervously and said, "Hey, she made me angry…you know how I get when I'm mad. Besides, under that pretty face, there really isn't much to her…"
Danny nodded, "Yeah, the only one I've seen here that has the looks and the brains to back them up is…well…you." Sam blushed deeply and said, "Thanks…you…really think I'm pretty?" Danny blushed slightly as well, but continued. "Pretty? You're not just pretty Sam. I think you're…"
"So, you two finally showed, eh? Nice to see you weren't too busy playing hard-to-get." They turned to find Tucker seated at the chair with the discarded tux jacket. The big surprise to them was the girl seated next to him…it was none other than the ghost hunter do jour of Casper High, Valerie Grey. "Danny, Sam! I hardly recognized you two! You clean up pretty well!"
Both of them chimed, "Thanks, so do you!" They instantly blushed again and made quite of show of drinking their water. Valerie and Tucker exchanged sarcastic and almost mischievous looks and Valerie turned to Danny. "So, Danny… caught any tough ghosts lately? I hear the Lunch Lady was really irritating last week…"
Both Danny and Sam spit out their water and yelled, "What are you talking about!" This brought another round of blushing and Tucker nodded to Valerie. "I knew it, Tucker was right! You are the ghost kid, aren't you!" Danny turned to Tucker, struggling to keep the immense anger out of his voice. "Tucker…you…WHY DID YOU TELL HER!"
Tucker calmly said, "Because I knew that if I did, then two things would happen. A: Valerie would stop hunting you and finally make your peace. And B: I'd finally get a date to a dance…"
Danny and Sam glared at Tucker when Valerie started laughing. "Danny, look. I know we've been…err…rough towards each other in the past…" Danny said, "If by rough you're referring to how you tried to shoot me…then yes, I believe you."
Valerie continued. "But if you can still forgive me, I promise never to hunt you again. Heck, I might even help you hunt ghosts occasionally!" Danny looked her over suspiciously, and eventually smiled. "Alright, I believe you for now. But I still have my eye on you…"
The music changed suddenly and Tucker said, "In the meantime, Val and I have some rugs to cut! Let's dance!" Valerie smiled and eagerly followed him out to the dance floor amongst the crowd.
Sam and Danny's horrified stares followed them and they both shrugged confused at what had happened. Dancing seemed out of the question as neither one really liked rap. So they in turn talked about anything they could think of. They laughed at fond memories of ghosts captured, pants lost in embarrassment, and the general stupidity of the popular crowd. Eventually the music shifted to another style. Danny's ears perked up and he found that a waltz had come up. He stole a glance at Sam and noticed her hand drumming to the beat of the music, it seemed as if even the Goth girl enjoyed a good waltz.
"Hey Sam, let's dance."
She looked at him incredulously, "Since when do you know how to dance, much less waltz?" Danny smiled and chuckled as he took her hand and led her to the dance floor. Much to Sam's surprise, Danny did know the waltz…quite well, actually. "I never knew you could waltz! Have you been holding out on me?"
Danny chuckled and said, "Sam, you might find that this little halfa is full of surprises tonight." Sam blushed slightly but smiled nonetheless; she knew of a surprise or two she would've wanted…
Danny did everything right, up to the dramatic dip in the end. Sam failed at stifling a giggle as she straightened back onto her feet. The dj then blasted out another song, one much louder than the last. They smiled at the choice of song, specifically The All-American Rejects' "Dirty Little Secret". They jumped and twisted all over the floor with the entire class in the room. Sam couldn't remember the last time she had enjoyed herself more. As the song ended, she laughed as everybody whooped for more, including a now very enthusiastic Danny. She managed to bring him back to the table to catch their breath.
Unbeknownst to them, an unwelcome visitor was watching from above. Right above their table floated an invisible Skulker, with his scope set on Danny. He muttered, "You're all mine, whelp…" But just before he fired, his aiming scope went fuzzy. He whacked it a couple of times, but no improvement occurred. "That's impossible, there would have to be an enormous amount of ecto-energy in this room to interfere with my systems!"
He produced a small scanner and noticed that a spike in energy had indeed appeared, and it was focused right around…Danny? "That's impossible; this scanner reads that the whelp has ten times as much power as he had before! No half-ghost can produce that much energy!" Sam rose and left for a while, supposedly to find a bathroom. Skulker's jaw dropped as Danny's power instantly dropped to what he remembered it as before.
Skulker positioned himself for another shot at Danny, but Sam had returned before he fired. His scope once again grew fuzzy and his scanner read that Danny's power had grown even stronger than last time it spiked. He was about to smash the scanner when his device picked up another ghost reading, one just as powerful approaching at high speeds…
The two teens eventually made their way back to the dance floor as a slow song came up. Sam wrapped her arms around Danny's neck as he slid his around his waist. He couldn't help but become lost in her shining amethyst eyes, they seemed to glow with some ethereal light. She felt entranced by his icy blue eyes, which seemed so cool and sharp, yet inviting and refreshing.
A small blush crept across their faces as they slowly came closer and closer. Danny could feel his heart in his throat as he approached ever so slowly, now feeling Sam's light breath on his face…
That's when things fell apart…
Before anyone knew what had happened, the lights suddenly went dead. This wouldn't have stopped Danny and Sam, except a familiar wisp of blue mist escaped Danny's mouth. A very familiar laugh rang through the darkness…he heard a pair of feet land right near him and a sly voice say, "May I cut in, Daniel?"
Danny felt a fist connect with the side of his head and he went down. His vision blurry in his painful haze, he noticed a blade of green energy pierce the darkness, Sam must've activated her light blade. There was a sound of the blade swinging, and it connected with something. The voice yelped in pain, but then screamed in anger. It yelled, "That's it, you're coming with me!"
Danny whipped his light blade from his coat and lunged forward, he felt his weapon cut through something. But when the lights came back on, he found that he had merely brought it down through one of the tables. He put away his sword and quickly realized that something was amiss…Sam was gone. He looked around frantically and there was no sign of her.
A girl suddenly screamed, and everybody's gaze turned to the source. One wall of the room was covered in a glowing message of ectoplasm, magenta ectoplasm…Danny recognized the color and realized only one ghost could've done this…
"ATTENTION DANNY PHANTOM:
I KNOW YOU ARE IN HERE. IF YOU EVER WANT TO SEE YOUR LITTLE GIRLFRIEND ALIVE AGAIN, MEET ME IN MY CABIN OUTSIDE THE TOWN. WE HAVE BUSINESS TO FINISH, ONCE AND FOR ALL. BE HERE IN AN HOUR, ALONE AND UNARMED, OR SHE DIES.
PLASMIUS"
Tucker and Valerie made their way over to Danny as everyone chatted heatedly of the mysterious message. "Danny, this is a tender situation…you should wait until Val can back you up." Valerie added in, "I could call my weapons provider, Vlad Masters! He'll know what to do."
Danny merely said, "That won't work, because Vlad is the one behind this." He didn't talk further; he couldn't out of the extreme hate he was feeling. His eyes flashed a malevolent green and he tore out of the room as fast as his legs would carry him. As soon as he was out of earshot, he yelled "I'M GOING GHOST!" As the two rings of light finished their course, Danny's transformation was complete. He shot into the air and off into the sky, muttering, "He's taken this too far…I'm coming for you, Plasmius, and this time, we end our fight once and for all!"