CHAPTER 2: RAGE
Change is a natural movement in the life of man. Such a mortal being faces many of changes throughout his limited time; sperm and egg into cell, cell into embryo, embryo into infant, infant into child, child into teenager, teenager into adult, adult into senior, and senior into dust; his soul moved onto my realm and soon to face judgement.
The life of Danny Fenton, being only a teenager in his time, had been turned upside-down once before. This change occurring when he had first stepped into the Ghost Portal; a man-made gateway between the realms of the living and the dead. This chance had turned him into the half-ghost/half-human being calling himself 'Danny Phantom', an anomaly of nature self-proclaimed as a superhero.
For many months of his life, he had adjusted well to this change, and made his new name well-known among the people of Amity Park. With the help of his own colleagues, Tucker Foley and Sam Manson, he had defeated many vengeful spirits; defeating foes like the reality-altering Desiree, the vicious hunter Skulker, the technological genius Technus, and even the powerful tyrant Pariah Dark.
His life seemed to be back in order once again from his sudden change, but, as I see from my realm beyond time and space, the most basic rule of nature is that whatever falls into order will eventually come into chaos once again. Though man makes many attempts to delay the inevitable, and the young Danny Fenton was no exception, though an impressive attempt, he is still just a man, and still just as susceptible.
His change came into his life when his most loved ones were trapped in the dining room of his local Nasty Burger, leaving him time to save only one life out of the lot. His mind nearly collapsed under the sheer pressure of the choice, but it was not stopped from making a decision all the same.
Flying into the Nasty Burger and shooting back out, Danny Phantom returned from the deathtrap with his chosen life to save: Sam Manson, the girl who he had began developing more intimate feelings for. With the young woman in his arms, the two were left to watch as the Nasty Burger eventually detonated, with those inside perishing in an instant.
Now, Danny was alone, and left with but the comfort of one woman in his life. The hole in his life left by his parents were filled by Sam's own parents, with Sam filling the role of sister, though in a more intimate way. Her parents did not very much approve of their relationship, but the tragedy that faced Danny in his own life left them more lenient on the boy.
His time now is simple; he wishes to move past this period in his life with little contact and manage this issue alone. The answer as to whether the need to keep his issues to himself is vague: Does he simply no longer trust anyone else in his life, or is it his heroic personality that prevents him from spreading his pain onto others?
Whatever the answer is, it remains unclear to even me.
As for the Fenton boy, however, his actions make his words all the more estranging. There is one action in particular that puzzles me most; leaving me unable to truly comprehend whatever sort of mindset or inner thought that could have possibly occurred in his mind to drive him to this action.
On this point in his own time, during a small lunch recess at his school, Danny made his way to the lunch counter, retrieving his lunch as he usually does. He moves to the server in a dead silence, not even making so much as eye contact, then he moves to an isolated seat to be away from the others.
Typically, the others do not bother him. Who did decide to bother him on this day was Dash Baxter, the high school quarterback and almost sterotypical bully of the school. Danny was no stranger to their encounters in the past, but their cycle of abuse had reached a brief stopping point with the death of his family; a situation that even Dash himself would not seek to exploit.
Not until now, he decided. Stepping up from his seat alongside his own clique, Dash cracked his knuckles in preparation for his renewal of his abuse of Danny.
"Hey, guys, check this out. I'm gonna get Fen-turd. Maybe I'll shove his food down his back." Dash said.
"What are you, crazy, man? The man's whole family is dead, leave him be." Kwan said.
"So what? My grandma died 2 years ago, but I never used it as an excuse to stop messing with people, did I?"
"Well... No, but-"
"'But' nothing. Fen-turd is mine."
Making good on his own threats, Dash approached the solitary Danny Fenton, exaggerating a casual appearance by way of mocking him. His satirical swagger led him up to Danny's table, concluding his approach with a loud slam of his open palm on the table coupled with Dash leaning towards Danny's face with a smile on his own.
"Hey, Fen-turd. How's it goin'?" Dash said.
Danny ignored Dash; only focusing on his food, and barely picking at it. Not getting any sort of reaction out of his victim, Dash's smile dissipated, and his voice turned to a sound of false friendliness to aggression.
"Hey, Fen-turd. I'm talking to you! You deaf or something?" Dash said.
"Go away, Dash." Danny said.
Never before receiving any sort of fight out of Danny before, Dash's look of aggression turned to a look of confusion; the mind behind the face still trying to decipher this new event. Soon, that moment of thought turned back to dialogue, with Dash delivering his words with an amused smile on his face.
"Oh... So, Danny boy finally grew a backbone, huh?" Dash asked.
"I just want to be left alone. Why don't you go annoy someone else?" Danny asked.
The conversation might have only been in light territory for the moment, but it gained enough of a crowd's eyes to also gain the attention of Sam Manson, just now seeing the confrontation take place from her own table. Not able to stand by and see the encounter continue, she removed herself from her seat and moved towards the two rivals to try to defuse the situation.
"Hey, what the hell's going on here?" Sam asked.
Dash rudely shoved Sam away, allowing himself to focus on Danny exclusively. Such an act towards the girl would almost automatically gain an angry reaction out of Danny, but he made no efforts against him for his gesture.
"Beat it, goth. I'm havin' a nice time with your boyfriend here. Looks like he finally got some gumption to him. Ain't that right, boy?" Dash asked.
"Go away and I won't hurt you." Danny threatened.
The entire lunch room caught ear of Danny's threat; all mouths letting out a collective 'ooh' as all ears let in his words. Standing well over 6 feet tall and having more on his side by way of weight, Dash took this threat very lightly, even letting out a laugh upon hearing it.
"Oh-ho-ho-ho, starting to threaten me, now, huh? Listen, pal, I don't care if your family is dead, nobody talks to me like that!" Dash said.
Dash threw a punch towards Danny Fenton, aiming his knuckles to collide straight into his face. Almost everyone expected this encounter to end with Danny being sent on the floor, laying in pain with a bruised face, but what happened instead was nothing like anyone was expecting.
Acting with insanely fast reflexes, Danny caught Dash's fist in his hand, gripping it tightly and stopping its flightpath to his face. The surprise with Dash did not stop with his fist being caught in Danny's grip, but continued on with him being unable to remove his fist from the scrawny boy's grip.
Rising up from his chair, Danny began tilting Dash's fist downward, beginning to push his joints further than they were meant to go. Though his attempts to stifle his screams and preserve his dignity were paid off for a few seconds' time, they were eventually brought to an end, and followed up with Danny's own fist sending him flying across the room.
At this point, every eye was now on these two, but none believing what their eyes were telling them what was going on. Picking himself up from the floor, Dash dusted himself off, taking a good look at the opponent who sent him on his back. As Danny stared at him with a blank expression, Dash stared back with a scowl of rage.
"Alright, Fen-turd. I don't know how the hell you did that, but it doesn't matter. I'm gonna personally kill you... and send you to see your stupid family again." Dash said.
While there might have been some degree of mercy in Danny's defenses and attacks towards his opponent, this one line managed to wipe all sentiments of kindness or mercy out of his mind. Now, hearing this cruel comment, there was only one thing left on his mind:
Kill Dash.
The next punch Dash threw was blocked by Danny, leading him to throw one of his own to his enemy's face. Continuing to underestimate Danny's strength, Dash found the punch harder than he had thought, feeling his nose begin to poke into the inside of his skull and start to leak blood.
A lesser man would be dead from such a punch; Dash's large build the only thing keeping him alive from such an attack. However, he still did suffer a concussion and some minor brain injury from the strike, leaving his vision begin to blur, his mind begin to slow, and leaving him stumbling in place while trying to stand up.
Danny did not leave him the chance to support himself again. Pushing Dash onto the floor and on his back, Danny jumped on top of him, grabbed him by the shirt, and began punching him in the face repeatedly, intent on continuing what he started with his first strike.
Each blow of his fist, a heaping dose of rage behind it, drew blood and teeth from Dash's face, leaving not much of it left. Danny did not even care as to how much damage he was doing, or any consequences past this act of violence. The only thing on his mind is to make Dash stop breathing as quickly as possible.
"Die, you son of a bitch! DIE! Stop breathing already and die so I can kill you again as a ghost! You wanna see what the afterlife is like?! You wanna know how my family suffered?! I'll make you suffer like they did!" Danny shouted.
The initial reaction to Danny's actions were shocking enough to cause the observing students to watch the event to barely even move, but his insane ranting breaking the silence in the process of killing Dash is what finally brought them to put a stop to the violence.
The other members of the football team attempted to put a stop to the beating, but one by one they were pushed away by Danny; all once again falling victim to his surprise of superhuman strength. Following pushing off two more football players as they approached, however, there was one more who also tried to intervene.
Sam Manson, the only member of the student body that still held any sort of positive feelings for him, gripped onto him in a hug while trying to pull him off, hoping she could try to pacify him out of his rage. Just as the football players had no chance of moving him, however, Sam did not fare better.
"Danny, stop it! Please, stop!" Sam begged.
Not initially paying attention to who was grabbing at him, Danny tossed Sam aside, throwing her crashing into a table. As he took one brief glimpse at his disposed obstacle, however, he soon realized what he had just done, and could start to see the consequences laid across Sam's face.
Unable to believe that he would simply toss her aside like he did and continue attacking a helpless man, Sam looked back at Danny with eyes of disgust, fear, betrayal, and hate; unable to comprehend what had become of her significant other or accept what had just happened to her.
Feeling this judgement come upon him from the look in her eyes, Danny's pause continued on, leaving just enough time for the football players to all gang up and grab him; all holding him up by his arms. Danny struggled himself to try to get free, but knew there was no way of doing so without changing to his ghost form, something that he could not do here in the view of others.
Trying to put an end to this affair, Kwan stepped in front and grabbed Danny by the shoulders, putting the two face-to-face.
"Fenton! Calm down! You're gonna kill the man if you keep this up! I don't like this anymore than you do, and I sure as hell don't agree with him screwing with you, but I can't let you keep this up, and I'll make sure that you can't do it anymore if you don't stop! Just ease down, man! Just ease down." Kwan said.
Listening to reason from the more reasonable person, Danny began to catch his breath, at last slowing down on his rampage of violence and coming to a stop. Finally taking a moment to calm down again, Danny took a look to the rest of the room, watching the reactions of the others.
Each and every eye on him looked upon him like he was some kind of monster; staring at him in a mixture of fear and confusion towards this new man that was standing before them. Remembering all the times in which he was looked up to as a hero, this new perspective on himself turned to a sense of shame, causing him to face away from the looking eyes of others.
Though the room went silent for but a moment, the impact that was left upon this day would not leave any of the souls that witnessed what befell here.
As Dash was quickly hospitalized following his attack, the following result from this event led Danny to be sent to Principal Ishiyama's office, along with the rest of the students who had witnessed the event, each giving her their take on the story. Since no one could deny what had happened, the consensus of the event was unanimous in agreement and clear as could be.
While Principal Ishiyama questioned the students and other witnesses of the event, Sam Manson sat outside the school, alone, following her own interview, trying to get over the spectacle of violence that showed itself in the cafeteria. Though she sought out to be alone for a period of time, she was soon found to not be alone, with the appearance of a guest.
This particular guest was Danny Fenton, hoping to offer some apology to his actions in the cafeteria towards her.
"Hey, Sam? Look, I just wanted to say that I'm-" Danny tried to say.
"Save it, Danny. I saw what happened to you in there." Sam said.
"Look, I don't know what came over me, but I didn't mean to hit you like that. I just-"
"You were just trying to kill Dash. I heard what you said. I've tried to be helpful to you, I really have, but you've just turned into something really ugly. I saw it in your eyes. You wanted to kill him."
"You heard what that bastard said about my family, Sam. You think I could just let that go?"
"Dash's always been like that, and you've never stepped this far."
"Because he never made fun of my dead family before. I... I couldn't just sit there and take it."
"It doesn't matter. I saw what happened to you. God, you used to be such a hero, but you've turned so bad. You're not a hero. You're a goddamn maniac. Just get away from me, Danny. Get away from me before you decide that you wanna kill me, too."
The act of seeing his last loved one finally sever the bond between them drove Danny to a shock; finally giving him a sense that he was completely and utterly alone. No tears seemed to fall from his face, but his own emotions were well known to him; knowing that he was at last completely alone, and it was his own fault.
Respecting Sam's wishes, Danny walked away, carrying with him nothing but shame.
Eventually, following a conversation with all the students, Principal Ishiyama held a private conversation with Jeremy and Pamela Manson; Sam Manson's parents and Danny's current legal guardians. The Mansons were already apprehensive on adopting Danny following his family's death, but this event is what pushed their limits.
"It's... It's just been so hard to have to deal with him. We've tried and tried to be patient with him, but it's just not working out." Pamela said.
"You know, we only took him in because our daughter loves him, but... Well, you heard what he did to her, I don't think we can allow this to carry on." Jeremy said.
"I understand your frustration. Sadly, Danny's not the only case of a child becoming orphaned, though the situation on how that came about is a unique case, but, ultimately, there is only so much that can be done." Principal Ishiyama said.
"Mrs. Ishiyama, if we might be so bold... We really can't do this anymore. Danny's been a heavy burden on us, one that we've tried so hard to help, but we can't handle him. It really hurts us to ask this, but... we would like to hand over his custody to the state. We think he would be better off in someone else's hands." Pamela said.
Such words are never easy to hear coming from two adults meant to handle the welfare of a vulnerable child, especially not when the child is in its most hour of need such as Danny is, but Principal Ishiyama could hardly argue against the strain on the minds of the Masons.
"I... Okay. I'll see what I can do to help you in that department. I know some people in social services, I think I can pull a few strings for you." Principal Ishiyama said.
"There's no need for that." A voice said.
The door to the principal's office opened, revealing the visitor to be a tall and slender, middle-aged man with white hair, held back in a ponytail. Of course, as anyone aware of the millionaire would be, Principal Ishiyama recognized this man as the one and only...
"Mr. Masters. Uh, how can I help you?" Prinicipal Ishiyama asked.
"I was coming down to check on Danny when I heard the news, and I believe I might be able to help you. I can take him in and help him." Vlad said.
