Chapter LXXV
It was a combination of utter relief and total bewilderment that washed over Danny when he first encountered the flocks and packs and herds of paper animals that were roaming the halls of Casper High. The relief came from the knowledge that it couldn't possibly be the werewolf and if it was, then the ghost had gone insane with boredom.
"What the eff?" and the confusion . . . well that seemed to speak for itself quite nicely.
Of all the paper creatures that traveled together, Danny chose to follow a group of origami lemmings. The ghost child watched as the small representations of the idiotic animals flung themselves off of water fountains and benches and anything else that was above ground level, including himself. Some of them even floated into the air and dropped to the ground. The suicidal animals, while behaving in a somewhat erratic and randomized way, were heading for a predetermined destination.
Danny soon found himself outside the art room, where it looked as if the origami version of Noah's Ark had unloaded its cargo at least a hundred times over. Danny stepped into the room, carelessly stepping on those paper animals unfortunate enough to be under his feet. Once he moved on, though, the paper reassembled and continued on its journey.
The teenager looked around the room, seeing more of the folded paper creations than he thought would be possible to have in a school. Sure, there were books and notebooks and other sorts of paper-based school supplies in every classroom, but the never-ending wave of ghost controlled paper animals reached the ceiling in some places. Danny's bad feeling worsened as the door slammed shut behind him, and a menacing cackling filled the room. The irksome paper animals stopped moving.
Danny considered fazing through the wall, but figured it would not be worth the effort. If this ghoul could control paper, he wouldn't make it very far anyway.
"Who DARES to enter our lair?!" came the inevitable threat.
Danny looked around, seeing no ghost to assign the whiny voice to. Its spectral echo was almost a buzz, which made it quite annoying.
An annoying voice to go with an annoying power; I sure hope he's just that.
I have not encountered this one before.
Neither have I, although if I had, he would most likely be dead.
He is a ghost! He is already dead!
THEN I WOULD BEAT THE AFTERLIFE OUT OF HIM!
I'M SURE YOU WOULD, YOU BARBARIAN!
He said 'we', Danny offered, hoping to quiet the voices. Doesn't that mean there are two?
I can only detect one spectral energy signature.
As can I.
Then perhaps there is more than just one offending ghost. Your detection abilities are skewered beyond repair!
I shall skewer YOU and FEAST ON YOUR BLOOD!
I'D LIKE TO SEE YOU TRY, YOU GRUESOME BRUTE!
I SHALL! AND THEN DANIEL WILL BE FREE FROM YOUR IGNORANT AND BLASPHEMOUS INFLUENCE!
GODDAMNIT! STOP THIS RIGHT NOW, OR I WILL TEAR YOU FROM MY MIND MOLECULE BY MOLECULE!
The voices were silent, and Danny wondered if he was losing his mind.
I apologize, Daniel.
Me too.
We are at odds because neither of us has been able to make any progress in healing you. This toxin is too alien to us, so the creature that injured you must be a yet-to-be-discovered species.
And, as much as it will damage your pride, you and Tucker are wrong in assuming it is a werewolf.
Yes, I was getting to that. Thank you.
You are quite welcome. And I apologize for my outbursts as of late. I know we are both upset that our host has yet to recover.
Apology accepted. If we ever get out of here, I'd like to buy you a drink.
Danny shook his head. He wasn't losing his mind. He had already lost it. It was too bad he wasn't paying attention. The massive paper serpent that had been forming in the room wasted no time in attacking him.
Tucker and Sam had just met up outside the art room when they heard the startled cry of their best friend come from inside. Tucker was fast on his feet and opened the door as quickly as he could; just in time to see Danny get carried away in the mouth of an unusually large origami dragon. An equally unusual ghost was hanging on to the dragon's tail, laughing maniacally as his paper war beast disappeared around the corner.
"What in the world was that?" Sam asked.
"I have no idea," Tucker replied as he glanced in the art room. "We better go after them. Danny can't use his ghost powers, and we have no idea how powerful that new ghost is."
Sam reached into her book bag and retrieved a gun-shaped device. Tucker's eyes widened. "Are you mad, woman?" Tucker hissed. "Put that away!" He tried to cover it up as students began to fill the halls, wondering what the commotion was all about.
Tucker's demand fell on deaf ears. "Are you coming to save Danny or not?" Sam began to walk away, the gun safely collapsed into a small rectangle in her pocket. Tucker rolled his eyes and followed.
Danny screamed for a full minute before realizing that his ghostly captor wasn't actually taking him anywhere. The paper dragon flew through the halls; the ghost controlling it was hanging onto the serpent's tail.
The boy realized he was in no immediate danger and began to pound on the dragon's snout. Surprisingly, the paper gave easily under his assault and Danny fell to the ground, rolling to a stop several feet away. He grabbed the Fenton Thermos from his belt and prepared for the ghost's return.
Stupidly, he was facing the hallway the offending specter had disappeared through. He remembered the concept of intangibility too late as the paper dragon capitalized on his error, slamming into him as it emerged from the wall to his left. Danny smacked into a row of lockers hard, denting the ones his body came into contact with.
"Alright," Danny said as he stood from the floor. "Before we do this I think its only fair that we introduce ourselves. I'm Danny Fenton, and you are . . . ?"
"We are the Paper Shredder!" the ghost screamed, the buzzing tune that accompanied his voice reaching an unnecessarily high level. "Tremble before our awesome power! TREMBLE!"
Danny rolled his eyes. Another mistake the Paper Shredder took advantage of. The dragon disassembled and reformed into hundreds, possibly thousands, of paper blades. The Paper Shredder raised his hands and the blades began to glow with dark blue energy that matched the color of his gloves. The ghosts arms swung down and every blade sped at Danny. The boy realized what was about to happen and did what any ordinary human without ghost powers would do in the same situation. He fled through the halls, screaming like a little girl with his hands flailing in the air.
Sam and Tucker saw Danny running. Tucker started to laugh, but stopped as he saw the paper missiles that were chasing after him. Some of the blades caught up with the boy and tried to stab into his flesh, but failed. Not a very surprising result, seeing as how they were paper and all. But some of the blades, seemingly of their own accord, veered off course at the last second and grazed the exposed parts of his body. It might be less painful as being stabbed, but the desired results were achieved. Danny's forearms and neck were soon covered in paper cuts. Some of the worse ones were bleeding.
"GUYS!" Danny called out when he turned and caught sight of his two friends. For his efforts, the paper daggers sliced across his face, cutting his cheeks, lips and nose. One of the blades managed to nick his eye, which was much more painful than the other wounds. "Get my parents!" Danny was now covering his face to prevent any more attacks on his eyes.
Tucker nodded and turned to run. Sam dug into her pocket and retrieved the weapon she had been concealing. "Danny, catch!"
The boy caught the offered weapon in his outstretched hand and aimed at the bulk of the paper blades. To his surprise, a stream of green fire erupted from the barrel of the gun and incinerated most of the daggers. The Paper Shredder howled in anger and summoned more paper to join the fight. For every one bug-sized strip he destroyed, five more took its place.
Sam figured Danny had a better chance of holding his own now that he had a weapon to defend himself with. She turned to follow Tucker, only to find the boy running back toward her, fear evident on his face.
"Sam, move!" Tucker didn't wait for her to comply; he picked her up and, with surprising strength, flung the girl over his shoulder, entering an open classroom. Luckily, there were no students in there, as most of them had fled.
"Mind telling me what that was all about?" Sam huffed as Tucker set her down. As if to answer her question, Jack Fenton barreled down the hall, covered from neck to toe in what appeared to be some experimental body armor. Maddie followed, donning her usual teal colored jumpsuit. Both were armed to the teeth with a vast array of ghost weapons. "Oh," she mumbled, saving Tucker from an explanation.
The Paper Shredder was a little more than confused when the armored tank of a man stepped out from behind a corner and stood in front of his target. The ghost made a very irritated . . . and irritating . . . noise.
"Who are you?" the Paper Shredder demanded in a very accusatory tone.
The faceplate that covered the large man's head retracted, revealing a very unhappy face. "I'm your worst nightmare, spook. Nobody messes with my son!"
The Paper Shredder looked from Danny, who was peeking around the side of his father's rather large bulk, to the new human that stood in front of him.
"We don't understand!" the Paper Shredder declared. "Fat-Fleshy is Fleshy-Ghost's father?" The ghost summoned more paper to his person, surrounding his body in a protective paper shield. "We will destroy you all! Then headache will go away!"
The barrier stopped revolving around its manipulator. Each piece of paper folded into more deadly blades and aimed right at the large human before accelerating towards him. Jack Fenton merely stood his ground and let the paper blades bounce off his armor harmlessly. Once all the blades had retreated for a second run, Jack crouched down, allowing his wife to operate the large turret mounted on his back. The paper was quickly blasted away, leaving the ghost defenseless.
Danny saw one of his favorite inventions hanging from a sling on his father's armor; the Fenton Anti-Creep Stick. Danny grabbed it and sprinted at the ghost.
"Danny, stop!" Jack boomed.
His son ignored his warning, though, and was close enough that he leapt into the air and swung at the Paper Shredder. Either the ghost was too shocked to turn intangible or too stupid. Whatever the case was, the baseball bat connected with the ghost's head, knocking the monocle off its eye. Danny hadn't seen the wave of paper daggers as they started their second run, though. They tore into his side, right where his compact flamethrower was holstered. After sustaining too many hits to exposed circuitry, the weapon activated the self-destruct sequence that Jack had insisted to Maddie was necessary to install on all of their inventions.
The explosion engulfed the Paper Shredder and the whole fleet of paper blades in a fireball of green energy. Danny was sent flying back into a wall. The impact sent chunks of drywall in all directions. The teenager's eyes flittered shut and he slumped to the ground. Blood trickled down his charred face from a wound to his forehead and only added to the predominantly red color that covered his skin, as all the paper cuts were now bleeding profusely. Maddie, Jack, Tucker and Sam stood still for only a moment before they all brandished their phones and dialed 9-1-1.
To Be Continued
A/N: Sounds kinda ominous, don't-cha think? Almost as if I killed Danny Phantom off!
. . .
Anyway, there is the Paper Shredder. He may seem more like a formidable opponent, but let us not forget that Danny was unable to use his ghost powers. The whole "we" concept will be explained later. Danny's incapacitation will allow for me to develop a subplot to this arc featuring one character that we haven't heard from in a while and two new ones. I mean, they're not really "new". You know what I mean.
Thanks to all my reviewers, especially Begotten Hero, slyfoxx, Adran06, Writin' Dude, Fulcon, MissMeliss4251, The Golden Hat, and Hero07.