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Battle of the Century
Chapter Three- Is Everyone All Right?
Half an hour later, I blended in with everyone else. My raven black hair was now a bold brown. My once blue-purple eyes were now emerald green, like my dad's eyes when he used to go into ghost mode. Grandma and Gramps had added a little dirt to my hair and mixed it in so it looked natural. They tore up some old, colorless clothes and gave them to me to wear. When I looked in the mirror, I saw the same look as the people outside on me. It looked like I had lived like this for years.
"There," Grandma said, giving another small smile. "Now you can go and check upon Sharon, Travis, and Leo." I slightly nodded my head and walked out the door. The minute I stepped outside, I wanted to gag. The air smelled foul of rotting corpses, blood, and sickening smell of fire that had burned forever. When I saw the people, they looked much worse up close. They had dark, dark circles under their eyes, their eyes were bloodshot, and their breath smelled of vomit and the coppery smell of blood.
How could he done all of this in one day? I wondered. Maybe Grandma and Gramps were out for longer than they thought.
"Sir?" I called out to a man passing by me. "Sir?" He turned around to look at me, and shock registered my face. "Mr. Lancer?" I asked.
"Yes, that's me. Now what do you want?" he snapped.
I cringed, surprised by his extremely edgy attitude. "How long has this been going on?"
"Over a week," was his short reply. "Is that all?" I nodded my head and watched as he walked away. Over a week? Grandma and Gramps have been out much longer than they thought. I'll have to talk to them about it later. I walked over to the house that used to be Travis's. A couple of walls had been knocked out, its windows were shattered, and it looked deserted. I walked around the house a couple of times and was about to leave when I saw a dim light. I crawled into one of the gaping holes and called out for anyone.
"Travis? Mr. Foley? Mrs. Foley?" I yelled, pausing between each name, praying for an answer. I listened, and I heard a faint reply coming from my fight. Walking in that direction, I peered in each room. There was no one in Travis's bedroom, no one in the living room, and no one in the bathroom. When I looked in the kitchen, they were all there, huddled around a candle.
Travis looked up and gave me an odd look. "Who are you?"
"It's me, Lily," I said. "I'm checking to make sure you guys are all right."
"Prove it," Mr. Foley said. I thought for a few minutes until I thought of the most convincing proof I could give them. I closed my eyes, focusing on my alter-ego. The blue-purple rings encircled me, giving me my whole new look that I was used to.
"Lily!" everyone shouted, hugging me all at once.
I laughed and said, "It's good to see you guys, too. Are you guys all right for the most part?"
"Yeah," Mr. Foley answered. "Valerie and I have been shooting any ghosts that come too close to the house.
"I have, too," Travis said, upset that he was excluded.
"Yes, honey, you have, too," Mrs. Foley said, ruffling Travis's brown hair.
"Hey, watch the hair," he warned holding up his hands. I smiled, glad to see that even though this war was going on, they could still act like the family that they are.
"Well, I have to go now. I need to make sure Sharon and Leo are all right. Are you guys going to be okay?"
Mr. Foley smiled. "Yeah, we'll be fine, Lily. Go ahead and make sure they're safe, okay?"
I smiled back and nodded my head before transforming to my human self.
"What's with the get-up?" Travis asked.
I shrugged my shoulders. "Grandma and Gramps said it would help me blend in with everyone. They also said Drake would kill me if he saw me in my natural human form or my ghost form." I sighed. "It's just safeties I have to take."
"Oh," Travis said. "Well, you better get going. Later, Lily. Tell Sharon I love her."
I laughed. "I will. Later, Travis." I turned on my heel and followed the path out that I followed in. I crawled outside to the place filled with the smell of death. This time, I did gag. The scent seemed to be much stronger than the last time I was outside. It soon overwhelmed me and I threw up behind a dead, brittle bush.
"Ugh," I moaned, wiping my mouth with the scrap of a sleeve that I was wearing. I started to walk once again in the direction of Sharon's house. With a look of longing, I saw, to my right, people standing by the remains of their houses, still trying to survive. Some had miniscule fires going, trying to keep warm. Others looked like they were eating an animal for food. On closer inspection of one family, I saw they were eating a fawn. (A/n: I have nothing against fawns, I swear. I'm strictly against killing innocents as well, but they need some form of food to eat.) I squeezed my eyes shut and stuck my tongue out in disgust when I was away from the family. Brother or not, I hated Drake for what he did to these innocent people. They were just by-standers in this war, yet more and more of them were dying each day. I sighed, frustrated and disgusted by it all. A little ways away, I saw the site where Sharon's house used to stand. I gaped at it and the area surrounding it. It looked as though the houses had been wiped clean off of the ground. When I got closer, I saw Sharon and her family huddled together around a small fire. I ran as quickly as I could, hoping that they were still alive.
"Sharon!" I called. She gave me a curious look, like the one Travis gave me. I finally reached them and sat beside her.
"Excuse me. Who are you?" she sharply said. "Go find your own fire."
"Sharon, it's me, Lily," I quietly said, "your best friend."
She scoffed. "Prove it." I knew I couldn't transform in front of all these people, so I did the next best thing. It'd drain me of a lot of energy, though. I focused as hard as I could, trying to put all of my ecto-plasmic energy into my hand. Finally, an amethyst ball was glowing in the palm of my hand. Sharon and her family gasped.
"Lily?" Sharon asked, her voice cracking. I dropped the ball back into my hand just as she tackled me with a hug. "Oh, my God, it's you! I thought I'd never see you again!" When we pulled away from our hug, I noticed Sharon's emerald eyes were brimming with tears.
"Well, you're seeing me now, aren't you?" I smiled as I said. "Oh, yeah. Travis told me to tell you he says hi and he loves you." I then remembered the task at hand. "Are you guys all right? No one's tried to kidnap you or anything?"
Sharon and Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson laughed. "No, sweetie," Mrs. Parkinson answered, "we haven't."
Mr. Parkinson spoke for his family when he asked, "Why?"
"To make a very long story short, Drake said he has leverage on me, and I'm trying to figure out who he took. Travis is all right, though," I said quickly, noticing Sharon's eyes were filled with worry. She breathed a sigh of relief before I continued. "That's one of the reasons I'm dressed like this," I pointed to my dirty scraps of clothing. "I have to stay incognito or else Drake and his army will recognize me and kill me on the spot."
Sharon then grabbed a lock of my hair, noting the new color of my hair. "What happened to your hair, Lily? It used to be midnight black, and now it's a light brown." She then looked at me and saw the change in my eye color as well. "And your eyes are emerald green, like mine. Where are your amethyst eyes, Lily?"
This made me more upset about the disguise, but I brushed my doubt off. "Grandma and Gramps put temporary," I used emphasis on 'temporary', "hair color and contacts in so I wouldn't be recognized at all. I know black hair is pretty common, but purple eyes would be a dead giveaway to my identity. Grandma and I are the only ones with this eye color, and I'm not as old as Grandma, so they'd know who I am instantly."
"Your mom used to have it, too," Sharon stated. I, for some reason, grew angry.
"I know. That's where I got it from. But, in case you've forgotten, Sharon, my mom is DEAD!" I snapped. I was furious at Sharon. I'm not really sure why, but something about her talking about my mom, even though it's good, is making me mad.
Sharon recoiled in fear before pointing to my face. "Lily, your eyes." I realized she meant my eyes were glowing a green-yellow color. It usually happened when I was really ticked off. That was one thing I inherited from my dad that didn't change at all. My ghost eye color may have been different from his, but our angry ghost eye colors were still the same. I closed my eyes in an attempt to calm myself and took deep breaths. When I felt that I was calm enough, I opened my eyes slowly. Everyone was staring at me intently, making sure I was all right. Sharon nodded her head, telling me that they had gone back to the contact-induced green.
"Sharon, I'm sorry," I apologized. "I shouldn't have gone off the deep end like that. Just…something about you talking about my mom ticked me off really bad. It may be from being in this war."
Sharon smiled at me. "I accept your apology, Lily." She then looked like she remembered something. "Hey, shouldn't you go check on Leo to make sure Drake hasn't kidnapped him yet?" I smacked my hand to my forehead hard.
"Thanks for reminding me, Sharon. See you all later!" I smiled, waving goodbye before walking in the direction of Leo's house. I counted in my head the people that were all safe. Gramps, Grandma, Jazz and her family, Sharon, and Travis are all safe. It has to be Leo that he took. At this, I took off in a running sprint for his house. Soon enough, Leo's house was seen just a ways away. I was surprised it was standing- for the most part- but I knew it'd be much worse inside. His door was still standing, so I knocked on it as hard as I could.
"Leo!" I shouted. "Are you in there?" Shortly after that, Leo came to the door. I was in shock when he opened the door because I had expected him to be gone.
"Who are you?" he asked, one of his eyebrows rose in question, showing his beautiful light brown eyes. I sighed, knowing I was going to be really weak after doing this again. Once again, I focused my energy into the palm of my right hand until an amethyst ecto-ball appeared.
"Lily?" he asked. "Is that you?" I smiled and nodded my head weakly. I let the ball be absorbed back into my skin, giving me a slight bit of my energy.
"Are you all right?" I needed to make sure no one had tried anything yet.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Why?" I was about to answer, but he cut me off. "Never mind. Just come in and you can explain yourself there." I started to walk in, but stumbled because of my light-headedness. Leo quickly grabbed my arm before I fell. "I'll help you in." He put my arm around his shoulders and grabbed my waist to make sure I didn't fall. I blushed at the close contact, seeing as how I like him a lot.
"Thanks," I said. His sandy blonde hair gently tickled my cheek as he said it was no problem. I smiled again. As I looked around the house, it looked pretty much the same as Travis's. It wasn't torn to the ground like Sharon's, but it wasn't in perfect condition, either. Thick layers of dust covered the floor and the collapsed walls, probably from the drywall. I looked behind us and saw a well-worn path in the dust. When I turned around, I noticed there was a path in front of us as well. Soon, we reached our destination; Leo's family's dining room. I saw Mr. and Mrs. Collins sitting around a make-shift table. Their original table looked like it had been incinerated.
"Hi, Lily!" Mrs. Collins was still her chipper self. "How are you, dear?" She then flashed me one of her bright smiles.
I smiled back at her. "I'm good, Mrs. Collins." Leo set me down just as he sat down. "How are you guys?"
"Good," everyone chorused.
"Anyways," Leo started, "why did you ask me at the door if I was all right?"
"Well, you remember Drake, right?"
Leo nodded his head. "He's the one that destroyed half of the town. I remember that he's also your brother."
"Right. His new plan for revenge to get back at me is to get some leverage," I stated.
"What do I have to do with this?" Leo interrupted.
I glared at him. "I was getting there. Don't interrupt me."
"Sorry."
"Basically, he's either out for my family or my friends. Seeing as how Grandma, Gramps, Jazz and her family, Sharon, and Travis were okay, I figured he had taken you. You're here though, so I can't figure out what leverage he has on me," I finished.
"Isn't there anyone else?" Leo asked.
I shook my head. "No one that I can think of."
Leo thought for a few minutes. "Maybe it was just an idle threat."
I agreed with him. "Maybe." I then realized that I should be getting back home. "Leo, I need to get back home before Grandma and Gramps start to think I've been kidnapped." We shared a nervous laugh about this.
"Do you think you have enough strength, Lily?" Leo asked worriedly.
"Yeah, I do."
"I'll walk you to the door, just in case."
"Bye, Lily!" Mrs. Collins cheerfully said.
"Goodbye, Lily." Mr. Collins voice, compared to his wife's, was flat and dull. Leo headed out of the dining room first, and I followed shortly after. I kept looking around as we headed back to the door, a part of me still in shock from finding out that Leo was okay. I figured that Mrs. Collins must have decorated the house because the wallpaper and carpet used to be bright and cheerful colors. Because of the war, the gloom and darkness soon made everything dull and colorless. The wallpaper and carpeting were now morbid colors, looking like they'd been that way ever since they were put up.
I really hope this war ends soon, I thought sadly. We arrived at the door a few minutes later.
"Well," Leo said, "I guess this is where we say goodbye."
"Yeah," I said with a disappointed tone in my voice. He opened the door and I stepped out onto the stoop. "Bye."
"Bye, Lily," he said. I walked off the stoop, ready to go back home. "Wait, Lily!" he called out. I turned around to face him, curious of what he wanted. He ran to me, appearing hesitant. He then leaned over and kissed me on the cheek. "Be careful, Lily." Leo then turned around and walked back into his house. I stood there in a daze, my hand slowly rising to my left cheek. When I realized it had really happened, that it wasn't a dream, a giddy smile came over my face.
Thoughts swirled around in my head. He kissed me, he actually kissed me! Even though it was only on the cheek, he still kissed me! And he told me to be careful! Maybe he likes me the same way I like him, as more than a friend. "Yes!" I shouted excitedly, and a dreamy smile came over my face. I then started to my walk home, feeling as though I was walking on air. Even through all the gloom and morbid mood around me, I was still able to keep my grin plastered on my face.
Whew! There you go, a little over 7 pages for you guys. I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I had to add a little fluff in there. Yay for fluff! Also, if you want to help save Danny Phantom, go to www. xanga. com/ savedp (without the spaces.) You can post any ideas you have there to help save him. I have a few of my own posted there as well (of course, it is my site.) Save Danny Phantom!
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