Hello guys, I'm back with another update. This has to be the longest thing i have ever written; it's over 4,000 words!
I am working on Chapter Four at the moment, and I will probably post that soon. But for now, please enjoy the fragile delicacy that is Chapter Three!
Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom or Trollhunters; these shows belong to their respective owners.
Enjoy the extra-long chapter, and as always, please review!
Danny narrowed his eyes at a sign that laid before him on a vacant road.
The sign was elevated about one foot above Danny's eye level, and it had two long, white poles holding it up. Contrasting with the white, the bold blue lettering on the elevated sign read, "Welcome to Arcadia Oaks". Danny had to squint to be able to read the small lettering; super-sight wasn't in his big book of ghost powers.
There were teenagers of all races and genders surrounding him, also taking in the lettering of the quaint sign. Some students were even taking pictures with their phones, which wouldn't be something he would normally notice, because the bus driver had confiscated all of thiers. Granted, he didn't give his up, so this whole thought was pointless.
Leading his eyes away from the white sign, Danny saw that he, in fact, was elevated. This spot on the town's borders allowed him to glimpse over the little town with awe. The sun, being noon it was already so high, shone gentle rays of light over the many shops, schools, and suburbs the town held. Danny gripped his overpacked duffel tighter; excited at the prospect of entering a new town! He hadn't left Amity in what seems like forever; his ghost duties tended to keep him rooted in his home city.
Speaking of ghost duties, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker have agreed to managing the ghost problem in Amity Park while he was away. Sam wasn't too happy with that, though Danny knew she'd have to warm up to Jazz at some point.
They've created a story for the public, saying that "Danny Phantom" has to leave Amity under some serious circumstances. Jazz thought that if they had told the press about the actual circumstance, they might do more research on it. She says it would buy them some time.
Danny knew they had it all under control; he made them promise that they would call him if there was a problem they couldn't handle. Specifically, Vlad, but he has been pretty quiet for an evil ghost who wants to kill his dad, marry his mom, and make him become his apprentice, or whatever.
"Okay, everybody, back on the bus!" A gruff voice yelled, disgruntled and annoyed. Danny instantly recognized him as the bus driver, because he wouldn't shut up in the bus, constantly yelling at everyone for making such a racket, but that only made it worse. He didn't even tried to hide that he didn't want to drive 50 high school students on a smelly bus 60 miles north.
All the students, including Danny, reluctantly shuffled back on the bus, Danny glimpsing behind his back at the town one last time before he climbed up the steps. However, he only got a swift glance at it before he was shoved into the sliding doors by some jock, stumbling and falling in the process. Growling, Danny picked himself back up, and jumped into the aisle before that same guy could do anything more.
Locating his seat, (it was at the very back, right next to the bathrooms) Danny plopped himself towards the window. Just as soon as he had sat down, the bus's doors closed, and the bus driver began the engine. Danny pressed his face towards the window, not all the way, because the bus was dirty and grimy and smelly like he had mentioned earlier. Gaining speed, the bus lurched and rumbled as the Casper High students (and driver) entered the town.
Danny silently wished for a normal week, with no ghost attacks, or anything for that matter, but Danny knows he does not have the best of luck.
Get ready, Arcadia, because here comes Danny Fenton!
Jim had to push past a million students clamoring at the front entrance of the school to get to Toby and Claire. He saw them talking calmly in the chaotic mess, and quickly hurried to them, accidentally bumping into a couple people. One being Steve Palchuk. Strangely, instead of calling Jim a 'buttsnack', or shoving him into another unfortunate soul, he just stared at him. Stared. Jim assumed it was because of what happened a couple months ago with the goo monster at the rock exhibit in the local museum.
Thankfully, Claire had spotted him stuck in the mass of students, and immediately pulled him to where she and Toby stood. On her face was a wide grin, crinkling her perfect face. Jim blushed momentarily.
"I'm so glad I found you! And right on time!" Claire announced, gesturing to the road in front of them. Jim directed his attention to it, noticing a long, white bus pull up in front of Señor Uhl. The sliding doors opened, and an overweight man stepped out. Yelling could be heard inside the bus, the students in there seemed excited, or frightened, Jim couldn't really tell. The amount of noise was deafening.
"Claire, can you finally tell us who we got? I want to know if it is a hot chick!" Toby whined to Claire. Claire scoffed, and pulled the bag from her back, and plopped it into Jim's skinny arms.
"Here, hold this. It's time I finally tell you who we got assigned!" Claire squealed, eyes and hands rummaging through her navy bag. Jim laughed nervously, like Toby, wondering who they got assigned to show around the school to. Claire had kept his, or her's, name a secret, so they would be surprised the day that the Casper High transfers arrived.
Claire, after an interminable amount of time, pulled out a thin sheet of paper, that was rolled up and held together by a rubber band. Swiftly, Claire ripped off the band, letting the paper roll out on its own, revealing neat letters colored in Arcadia oaks High's school colors.
As soon as she had removed the band, Toby snatched it from her hand and expectantly read the name. Jim noticed that his face fell considerably as his eyes skimmed the paper. Claire grabbed it back, and handed it to Jim, so he could read the name. Jim held the paper to his eye level, and squinted. Claire's handwriting was tiny, even i she was creating a sign.
"Danny… Fenton?" Jim read, realizing he has heard this name before. "I feel like I heard his last name before."
"Yeah! So did I!" Claire exclaimed, causing Jim to flinch. "After a little bit more digging on the web, I realized we got assigned to the son of Amity Park's leading ghost experts, the Fentons!"
Toby's eyes widened in realization. "This is good… right? He can give us the information we need!" Toby began bouncing up and down. "We can beat Gunmar!"
"Woah, easy there Tobes. We don't know how we are going to get this information from him without it drawing suspicion to us," Jim explained, slowly. He then nodded to Claire. "But it's a start."
Uhl's voice rung out from where the bus stood, drawing all of Arcadia Oak High's students' direction toward the Austrian teacher. Uhl held a ginormous megaphone, projecting his voice far and wide. Next to him stood the oversight bus driver they had seen exit the bus earlier, looking very annoyed. Uhl seemed to ignore the obviously disheveled man, and continued to speak through the megaphone in his thick European accent.
"Calm down, and listen to me; yes, you will listen because I am your current guardian Mr. Palchuk," Uhl commanded, glaring half-heartedly at said student. "The students from Casper High have arrived, and I expect good behavior coming from you. I want You to show these students how excellent our school's education and extracurricular systems are, so we may continue to partner with this school."
"Those students who have been assigned one or more student from said school, please make your way to where I am. We will be. Pairing all of you up before we do anything else."
Jim, Claire, and Toby all casually strolled to the front of the mass, along with some other kids from Arcadia Oaks High. Jim stole a glance to the bus's now closed doors, wondering who this 'son of ghosts experts' would be like. Would he be secretive? Smart? Neither of the two? Jim had no idea.
"For the rest of you, please follow Ms. Janeth into the auditorium, where we will be joining you shortly."
Jim watched as the rest of the students reluctantly entered inside the school's main building, drastically decreasing the amount of people now on the grass. Uhl fumbled with his megaphone a bit before he set it down next to him, and addressed the remaining students.
"Okay, lets begin," Uhl said, unfolding a sheet of paper. "You got your signs? Okay. We are ready."
The bus driver grunted at Uhl, and climbed back inside the bus. Soon after, a bundle of students emerged one by one from the bus, looking for their respective groups. Jim, still holding the sign Claire had handed to him, held it up in front of his chest, eyes wandering for the kid they were assigned with. One eventually walked up too them, and greeted himself.
"Hi, I'm Danny Fenton. Am I assigned to you?" He asked politely, making an effort to be polite despite his disheveled and tired appearance. Jim nodded, using his free hand to stick it out in a welcoming manner. Danny took it and gave a firm handshake.
"Yes, in fact you are! I'm Jim Lake Jr, and this is Claire Nuñez, and Toby Domzalski." The mentioned duo welcomed him and shook his hand. Jim notice that Danny seemed to relax as he shook hands with them. He did seem tense before.
"Okay, so now that we found each other, we are supposed to be heading into the auditorium," Claire announced, gesturing to the pack of students entering the school. She began walking, leading the three boys towards the school. "You see, our school was founded by the great Roberto Rodriguez in the 1800s, long after our town was named and founded by General Lester Arcadius Grant of the Union-"
Jim zoned out by this point, directing his attention to the boy they had been assigned to. His hair was matted with grease and dirt, and his clothes were wrinkled. Jim noticed his large bags under his eyes, colored black with hints of purple and red. His posture was stiff, and his back was tense. He took in his slight, hardly noticeable limp, muttering ever so softly:
"He's hiding something."
The rest of the school day went fine, in Jim's opinion. Danny was adjusting just fine, joining Jim, Claire, and Toby at their classes, finally separating at the afternoon to join Claire in her final periods, while Jim and Toby relaxed, and discussed their mini-plan a bit. When the school day ended, Danny had joined the rest of his Casper High classmates in settling in an apartment paid for by the school board. They separated just as he left for the bus, waving goodbye, and disappearing without a trace.
Jim was content on how successful the day went, and prepared himself as he joined Claire and Toby in walking over to Jim's house to meet with Blinky and Arrrgh, because Trollmarket wasn't the safest for them to be at the moment. The trio had done tons more research on Amity's ghosts and even managed to weasel a bit of information from Danny during the school period. Overall, they had some of the information they needed, but still lacked the expertise of Blinky and his arsenal of books.
As soon as Jim unlocked his door, he scanned the room from his mom, but more importantly, Strickler, but he found neither of them, even after scouring the rooms by hand. The three rushed down the stairs, bags and all, into Jim's basement, Toby switching the dim light on. Upon their arrival in the underground room, Jim was instantly greeted by an big, blue, four-armed friend.
"Master Jim!" Blinky exclaimed, coming into the light Toby had switched on. His face was contorted into a smile they hadn't seen in a long time. A rumbling emitted from behind Blinky, and Arrrgh stepped out into the light, muttering a slow, 'sorry', as he pulled a broom from his green hair. "I hope you are here to discuss these ghosts you talk about!"
Jim nodded, clutching his backpack.
"Yeah, we did a bit of research from the human point of view, but we could really use a troll's perspective on the ghosts. Do you have anything?"
Blinky smiled even wider, receiving strange looks from everyone present in the room.
"Why yes or course! This new assignment has succeeded in distracting me from Dictatious," Blinky muttered, his grin turning into a scowl they recognized and saw so often. Though as soon as it appeared on his face, it was quickly replaced by the grin he was bearing at the beginning. "Ghosts happen to be a very interesting topic, for not much is known about them. Master Jim, you I and Arrrgh know first hand about the Void, where the deceased ghosts of Trollhunters lived to teach and instruct the coming Trollhunters, though that is all I was able to gather from Trollmarket."
Jim's face fell as Toby sputtered, exasperated.
"That can't be all! You trolls should know more about these ghosts than we do!" Toby complained, receiving a 'wait a minute' look from Blinky.
"I have other sources as well, Tobias," Blinky explained, now slightly peevish. "I managed to salvage a book on these creatures from before we migrated here, though it is written in a language that is unreadable to both troll and human. I retrieved it among my belongings as I searched for more, current information." Blinky said, revealing a dusty, leather-bound book in his lower two hands. He showed the cover to the four, not letting go, as though it might escape from his stony grasp.
Jim lurched over forwards to be able to read it; on the dusty brown cover, there was a single symbol on it, traced with glittering green lettering. It began with a thin line vertical, but then lurched sideways and progressed up in a zigzag fashion. It ended with a stroke of ink connecting the two lines at the bottom. He gambled over at Claire and Toby at his right, who both wore identical expressions of confusion. Jim cleared his throat.
"Blinky, do you know what it means?" Jim asked the troll. Blinky paused for a while before nodding his gigantic head slowly. He dusted off the book, causing the green symbol to glitter even more radiantly, despite the amount of light in the room.
"This is a book I acquired while conversing with an old friend." Blinky shared with the four, causing Arrrgh to snap up and stare intently at Blinky. Jim arched an eyebrow. "All he shared with me is the title, which is an ancient symbol of honor through death; ghosts."
The multi-eyed troll patted the book's leather cover, as he took in everyone's reactions. Claire gasped a brief, 'of course!' And Toby gaped. Jim, however, was reactionless. He knew there was more to the story.
"And?" Jim inquired, eyes desperate. All Blinky did was shake his blue head. Arrrgh spoke up as Jim's face fell.
"Can't read," Arrrgh replied, solemn. "Not Troll."
Jim noticed that Claire's brow was furrowed, revealing her in deep thought. Toby continued gaping, which did not go unnoticed.
"You may stop gaping, Tobias. It is a book that has all the answers, but it is unreadable unless we find one with the knowledge and experience to decipher it." Blinky concluded, facing Toby. Realizing he was still gaping, Toby quickly shut his mouth.
"We might have the answer to that," Toby said, reluctantly. Claire perked up and continued his train of thought before Toby could decide on what to say next.
"That's right! We are hosting a school exchange with Casper High, a school located in a ghost-infested city! Better yet, we were assigned to help and show around this kid called Danny Fenton-"
"Who is the son of the two leading ghost experts there." Jim cut in. Claire shot him a swift glare. "He might know how to decipher it!"
Now Jim was excited; it seemed like the universe actually liked them. Everything was working perfectly; things might actually work out for once!
Blinky cut into Jim's thoughts.
"That's perfect!" Blinky exclaimed, thrilled, but quickly regained his composure. "You three will be able to get the information from him, is that correct?"
Claire spoke up, saying, "That's where the problems truly begin; how will we get the information from him without it appearing weird or suspicious? We certainly don't want to throw another human into this situation." All four of them nodded in agreement. Jim wanted to keep as many people out of this, including his mom, but that didn't work as well as he had hoped. They would have to be careful with Danny; not letting anything slip. Jim replayed his thoughts to them.
"You're quite right, Master Jim. Since we all know that Fair Claire is more than capable in weaseling information but not giving away any, I believe she should attempt first," Blinky announced, nodding at Jim. He turned to Claire, who blushed slightly at the brief flatter. "Is that right?"
Claire simply nodded her response, and Toby grumbled, unhappily. Blinky continued.
"Sorry Tobias, its true. But perhaps you may be able to-"
"Arrrgh?"
All three heads whirled towards Jim after he had acknowledged Arrrgh's presence. Jim gulped nervously, but continued nevertheless.
"Something's wrong," Jim said, quietly, all the while staring at Arrrgh. Blinky, Claire, and Toby all glanced over at Arrrgh.
Arrrgh's back was tense, and his posture stiffened. His hair stood on end, and his arms shook with a fierce awareness. His nose was pointed towards the small window about three meters away from where they were talking, and his face contorted into one of curiousness and anxiousness. The remaining four's heads whirled once again at Jim, who was staring intently at the window.
"Uh, Jimbo?" Toby asked Jim, frightened. "What's going on?"
Before Jim could even think about a response, the window shattered open, and two familiar bodies went crashing down. Tinted plastic covered them from head to toe. The four in the room backed away, but Jim strolled, a bit apprehensively, to the squirming bodies gasping for air on the floor.
"I think we got something from that Creeper!" A nasal voice cried out from the smaller of the two bodies. Jim recognized it immediately.
Eli?!
"We got some green goo! And some major cramps," A burly, half-matured voice replied.
Steve?!
Jim motioned for his friends to join him where he stood. Jim took a deep breath.
"Steve? Eli? What are you doing here?!" Jim yelled, still shell-shocked at the fact that two of his classmates from school crashed into his home, while he was in it. Both Steve and Eli rose slowly from the debris and dusted themselves off, covered in dirt marks and the occasional blob of glowing green goo. Eli squeaked.
"Jim! We came here as fast as we could!" Eli stuttered, trying to find the right words. Jim noticed from behind him that Claire and Toby were the only ones who remained; Arrrgh and Blinky had fled as soon as Jim had acknowledged them to be humans. He had wanted them to stay; after all, Steve and Eli already knew. God thing it was nighttime, or the sewers would be full with construction workers.
Steve whimpered, but Eli slapped him in the face as hard as he could.
"Get it together, Steve! That Creeper stands no chance now that we found Jim! He'll help us!" Eli turned to Jim, desperation clearly written on his face. "Right, Jim?"
Toby popped up from behind Jim, scaring him so bad he shifted into a defensive position. Jim slowly retreated back to a standing form as he realized it was just Toby. Claire then appeared next to Toby, whose face was expressionless. Toby spoke up.
"Wait, what creeper?" Toby asked, skeptical. In response to his inquiry, Eli snapped off a small blob of goo on his right shoulder, and jiggled it in his hands. The goo glowed brighter than it should have in this dimly lit room, closely resembling the green entering of the book Blinky had showed to them earlier. Jim took a mental note of this, as Eli shuddered at the feel.
"Whatever it is, it dropped this. It can out of its body through a cut we managed to give it, like blood." Eli explained, whimpering. He pulled out a plastic bag out of seemingly nowhere, and placed the goo inside of it. "But it's definitely not blood."
Steve continued with a detailed description of the supposed, 'creeper'. He said it looked humanoid, so Jim ruled out 'troll', from his mental list of possibilities. Eli added on to Steve's description saying it glowed brighter than the sun. (Which was probably an exaggeration) They weren't able to catch anymore significant characteristics, except it had white hair and green eyes. It didn't sound like anything Jim had seen before.
Glancing momentarily at his watch, Jim concluded it would be best to continue with this in the morning, given they had school tomorrow.
Jim repeated his boughs the to the four humans in the room, who nodded, and ventured up the stairs. Eli and Steve, however, were more reluctant in going; they had just made it to Jim, they didn't want to lose him again.
After a bit of swapping numbers and talking about meeting dates and times, the self-dubbed, Creepslayerz, ventured out Jim's front door. Not long after, Jim's mother pulled up into the driveway, having just gone off from work at 8:30. She wished him a good night, and Jim fell instantly asleep in his bed, all the thoughts that aroused from Steve and Eli's 'breaking-and-entering' leaving him.
How could he have been so stupid?
Flying around a town he knows nothing about right after sunset in his ghost form? Yeah, pretty stupid.
Danny had been spotted by some teenagers in black by the local park, where he had to fly for his life to avoid being identified. He failed; they sure got a good look at him.
After about a minute of staring at each other, when he should have been bolting all the way back to Amity Park, they attacked. Danny's talking pebbles, slingshots, even friggin ninja stars were thrown at him without end.
Those stupid ninja stars sliced through his skin, spilling ectoplasm on them.
It wasn't a lot, but it was enough.
They had his ectoplasm! A ghost's power source! He had really messed up big time.
Now he was flying for his afterlife in a town full of people. Danny had to maintain his ghost form a secret in Arcadia, (in case there were more wacky hunters) just so he could have a break from ghost fighting.
That didn't work out at all.
Danny emerged in a remote pace of the town, underneath a bridge that connected Arcadia's suburbs with the city. He was sure he heard someone mention it at school that same day; 'canals', was it?
Yeah, it was. Now Danny is is the canals.
Despite the late hour, buses and cars continued to drive across the bridge, so Danny had to press himself against one of the slanted walls of the canals underneath all the traffic. Danny glanced left and right, before allowing the familiar rings wash over him, transforming him back to Danny Fenton.
"Who's there?"
Danny stopped cold in his tracks, pressing his face flatter against the wall, hoping whoever had seen him didn't come closer.
No such luck.
In the distance, Danny could faintly see a silhouette of a man, with a flashlight. The figure neared to Danny's hiding spot, flashing his light, before resting it on Danny. The man was too far away to realize that he had found the culprit, so Danny remained very still. The man inched closer, and closer, and closer….
Danny was no longer staring at the underside of a bridge, he was staring at a stone wall.
Danny blinked confused, feeling the wall, concluding that it was solid. Danny mentally thanked his instincts; he went intangible and phased through the wall, now nowhere in sight of the man. Danny quickly turned around, facing the room where he had phased into, a let out a gasp of awe. Before him, there was a crystal spinal staircase, spiraling downwards into a tavern. The crystals appeared to be releasing their own light, shining rays of all colors and gradients.
Danny, curious, ventured down the staircase, stepping daintily on every crystallized step, until he reached the end. The large crystals changed into small stone steps, leading Danny to an opening, which shone a bright orange light in the dark staircase. Now excited, Danny jumped down the stone steps one by one quickly, and entered the tavern, wondering wildly about what he had discovered.
So… do you like it? Hate it? Write down your thoughts in the review box.
I am really happy with how this turned out! Next chapters probably won't be this long, because I want to keep a consistent update schedule, but you never know! Fanfiction is a wild thing.
Happy reading, and see you soon!
-TheZanyMaker