Finally got round to writing something with Lancer, which is nice because he's a pretty great character. It's been more than a week since it came out, but did anyone see the Hamilton movie, because it was amazing. I'm still gushing about it and I don't plan on stopping for a while.
Anyway, enjoy!
Mr Lancer is someone who likes to remain calm at all times. He has to in his job, being a role model for all his students to look up to, not that they do. He can't understand why.
Anyway, the point is, he's calm. The world is going to chaos around him and he's calmly escorting high school kids down a corridor to the school's football field/ ghost attack meeting point.
When he says that the world is ending, he really means that the ghost attack has been going on rather too long. Usually, Danny Phantom has finished it off by now, sucked it into his thermos thing and left to do whatever he does when he's not fighting ghosts.
Honestly, Lancer just wants to get out of here and back to teaching his lesson because he'd rather deal with a load of bored tenth graders than a load of screaming ones. Paulina is the loudest at the moment, although Kwan is a close second and followed not far behind by dash. Danny Fenton and his two minions aren't here at the moment, and by now, Lancer has given up on trying to find them. Technically he's supposed to be taking a register of the kids in his homeroom class, but the sheet of paper got blown up in a stray ectoblast, and it's not like they don't know how to handle themselves in a ghost attack anyway. Lancer doesn't say this out loud, because he would probably get fired if he did. Ishiyama's already giving him the stink eye – apparently she's noticed that Fenton, Manson and Foley are gone too. He shrugs at her and she glares back.
When Phantom brings out his huge scream attack (Lancer's heard Foley call it a 'ghostly wail' which is just ridiculous), he begins to get slightly less calm. When the ghost, who they haven't seen before, is completely unfazed by said wail, he begins to sweat. When Phantom is sent hurtling into the bleachers outside at a hundred miles an hour, he begins to panic.
"Holy …" and then his world goes to the dogs, because he can't think of a book title.
Mr Lancer is famous for his book title exclamations, which the students like to make fun of for some reason. He always has one. Always. Usually, they're cleverly linked to the situation as well – something he's quite proud of – and they never fail. His brain has never failed him before and if it is now, then the world really must be ending.
"Hey, Mr Lancer?" Mikey says, noting his pale face covered with a thin sheen of sweat. "You okay? You need water or something?"
"Yeah." Someone else comments. "You're usually quoting Shakespeare by now."
Lancer just shakes his head politely and turns away from Mikey, who shrugs. His heart is beating a jig in his chest, and he's completely unable to process the thought that he can't think of a book. He doesn't know how to function when he doesn't have books to keep him grounded. He always gets teased for his refusal to swear – always has been – but he finds that his titles have so much more meaning to them. He can really get his feelings across with hitchhikers guide to the galaxy in a way that 'fuck' just won't do. Lancer always has a book. If he can't think of one, the world is really ending.
The world is ending.
Danny grits his teeth and focuses on another attack to launch at the ghost. She's not giving up and none of the stuff he's doing is affecting her at all. He's tried everything from an ectoblast to his wail, and nothing's worked. The closest he's come to landing a hit is probably the mini blizzard he conjured up a while ago, but that drained most of his energy and he's almost empty now. He glances down at Sam and tuck who are positioned near the football posts, thermoses at the ready. He just has to get her there.
"You cannot defeat me!" she laughs. "I am all powerful! I am omniscient! I am all knowing! I am…"
"I get it, you're powerful." Danny shouts. "Any chance you could use all that knowledge to go read a book or something instead of beating me up?"
"I'm all knowing. I don't need to read a book." She points out, pausing in her barrage for just long enough for Danny to catch his breath and power up a blast to send her nearer the posts.
"Good point." He admits. "but what if there was a book you didn't know about?"
"Not possible."
"But if there was?"
It's worth noting that, while he's doing his best to keep her talking, he's also bombarding her with blasts of ectoplasm and ice and he's also getting really, really tired. He almost cries in relief when he sees Sam and tuck by the posts.
The huge swirling portal in the sky and the lightning that goes with said portal is also worth mentioning. Danny's hoping that it'll go away with the ghost, because if it doesn't, he'll have to pretend he knows how to get rid of it.
He hates apocalypses.
The all knowing and all powerful ghost is so distracted by the idea of a book she hasn't read – Danny's journal which he totally doesn't own – that her omniscient nature fails her and she doesn't see the two bright beams of light. She's sucked into Sam's thermos and Danny collapses on the ground, completely exhausted.
"Danny!" his friends rush over and do their obligatory 'you ok's. After he's reassured them that he's not completely dead, – he only feels like it – they all peer up at the giant portal in the sky which is definitely still there.
"Can the world just stop ending for like a day?" Tucker wonders, doing something on his PDA which will hopefully help them. When Danny risks a glance on the screen, he sees space raiders.
"Nah, it hates us too much for that." Sam says. Her arm is cut pretty badly, and she should probably get medical attention.
Danny hates it when his friends get hurt. He may have magical ghost accelerated healing and all that jazz, but Sam and Tucker don't. the number of times they've gotten hurt because of his own stupidity and he's been worried sick while they're in hospital. When Jazz gets hurt its worse, because he's good at hiding his own injuries and they're usually gone in a couple of hours anyway. Jazz is terrible at hiding anything and Danny's pretty sure their parents have noticed her plethora of scratches and scars from ghost hunting. Actually, he thinks mom and dad might have sat down with her at some point, giving her a talk about keeping safe and not getting killed, but they're so proud of their little Jazzypants, taking up her parent's interests. Not like Danny. He wants nothing to do with ghost hunting.
Danny actually snorts at the thought, although there is some truth behind it. He's sure that if he didn't have his stupid protection obsession and his stupid ghost powers, he would be quite happy keeping out of whatever madness his parents got themselves into.
As it was, he had a world to save. Again.
He takes the bottle of pure ectoplasm Sam shoves into his hands and takes a long swig. It took him a while to get used to drinking the stuff, because it's like what all ghosts are made up of and it's kind of disgusting, but he recognises that he needs it, and its effects are amazing. With just half a bottle, he's already feeling his energy seeping back into him, and he feels ready to take on the world. Or maybe just the box ghost. He does have a horrible sharp pain in his chest which he thinks might be a broken rib, and his leg is at an odd angle.
"So. Anyone have any idea how to stop that giant portal thing?" Sam asks, crudely bandaging her arm and wincing at every wrap.
"As far as I can tell, it should just close naturally at some point. It's not really dangerous, and I don't even know if it's connected to that all knowing chick. I mean, the ecto levels are pretty damn high, but I'm fairly sure it's just a natural portal to the ghost zone." Tucker responds. He's flicking around on his PDA and finally doing something that doesn't look like video games. "Don't know when it'll close though. You might want to do some damage control, Danny. Make sure people don't panic."
"Cause I'm totally in the condition to do that." Danny points out, gesturing to his mangled body. "Hey guys, look at the hero with the broken leg who can't even stay in the air! Just ignore the big ass portal above your heads. Nothing to be afraid of. Just a portal into another dimension. Absolutely normal!"
"That… is a fair point." Sam says. "But you do have to tell them something. After all, don't you want to get back to that riveting English lesson with Lancer?"
Danny stares at her, knowing she's being sarcastic but still unable to quip back. "What sort of question is that?" he asks incredulously. "Are you being serious?"
"When I sound enthusiastic, that's generally a sign that I'm being sarcastic." She says with total enthusiasm. "Work it out for yourself."
"I bet Lancer's wondering where we are." Tucker says thoughtfully. "Poor guy will be worrying his Danny Phantom boxers off about us."
Danny shudders. "first of all, ew. Second, he doesn't even care anymore. He's so used to us sneaking off. Third of all, ew."
"Honestly, that's fair."
As it is, Mr Lancer actually is worrying about the three kids. The ghost fight is over and done with – they should be back by now. Lancer has come up with the theory that they have something to do with the ghost fights, whether they are actually involved in the fighting, or they're just helping Phantom. There are millions of pictures of Manson and Foley with the ghost, and they're often seen with those strange thermoses made by Daniel's parents.
He's not quite sure where Daniel fits into the equation though. He's never seen with Phantom, but he's never seen apart from Tucker and Sam.
Lancer doesn't really have the brain capacity to think about that issue anymore. He has a load of panicked kids to deal with. He wonders, not for the first time, if they should get some sort of therapist in school to deal with trauma from the constant attacks. They can't be good for kids' brains and mental development.
"Citizens!" Lancer looks up to see a rather beaten Danny Phantom floating over the playing field. The ghost shouts, "Everything is fine. I know there's a portal in the sky, but that's totally normal and it will go away at some point. Nothing to worry about. Have a nice day, and stay in school, kids!"
From prior experience, Lancer chooses to take Phantom's words to heart and ignore what his eyes can see.
He still can't think of a book title so he's pretty sure the apocalypse is still going on, but if Phantom says it's over, then it's probably over.
He escorts the kids back to their English classroom and takes relief in seeing the familiar walls dotted with book covers. Danny, Sam and Tucker have joined them at some point, albeit looking very worn out… and is Danny limping? He'll have to keep him after class and ask him if he's alright. Maybe give him a nurse's pass.
"Well" he hears the boy say to his friends. "I guess this is where the world ends… again."
Lancer promptly collapses on his seat. Where the world ends – of course! He's going to ignore the 'again' bit, just like he ignores every slightly disturbing thing about Danny Fenton. Maybe one day, he'll find out what the hell Daniel is hiding. Then again, maybe he won't.
It all depends on whether the author can be bothered.
As that last sentence suggests, I may do a Lancer reveal at some point, and he may even get a first name.
Just out of interest, do you guys like these ones in the present tense, or do you prefer them written in the past?