Here's chapter two! Sciencefreak330, thank you for the review. I'm glad you like Mimic; hopefully you'll enjoy the rest of the story.
To everyone else, I hope you're enjoying it too. If you're not, I'm sorry and could you please leave a review saying why? Any and all reviews welcome! Anyway, last time I left you with Mimic telling Danny she knew his secret, so I'll get on with the story. Thanks for reading! DISCLAIMER: If it was in the TV show, it's not mine.
CHAPTER TWO: A Helping Hand?
Danny instantly began to deny it. 'I don't know what you're talking about!' He protested. Mimic just shook her head. 'Danny, I know about your ghost half.' She told him. Realising that there was little point denying it, Danny gave in. 'Okay, It's true. I didn't want you to know, but it's true. I'm Danny Phantom. You won't... tell anyone, will you?' He asked her in a small, helpless voice. Mimic shook her head, and smiled widely at him. 'Danny, you aren't the only one with a secret. I'll tell you mine, but... Promise you won't freak out?' Danny gave her a slightly bemused look. Was this secret the reason his ghost-sense was going off around her? Mimic pouted, and he realised he hadn't promised her yet. He almost laughed, but instead, he nodded. 'I promise... although you're kind of worrying me here, Antoinette.' He said, whilst surreptitiously trying to prepare himself for fight or flight. Mimic half-smiled, and licked her dry lips. 'Danny.' She said, feeling more nervous than ever: what if he did decide to kick her out? 'I'm a ghost.'
Danny's reaction was immediate. He was in a battle stance, ready to transform the second he needed to. But suddenly he stopped. 'How can you be a ghost? You breathe. You have a pulse. That's why I didn't come after you before.' Antoinette's answer to this statement was to stop breathing, and to hold out her wrist so he could check her pulse. Cautiously, not taking his eyes off her, he placed his fingers on her wrist, expecting to feel the steady pump of blood.
Needless to say, he felt nothing. He snatched his hand back. 'So this was some kind of plot?' Antoinette shook her head. 'No, Danny. Well, it's a plot, yeah, but I don't want to fight you. You're... scary. Seriously, Danny. Skulker may not have said so, but I bet he has nightmares about you.' She laughed. Okay, so maybe she was exaggerating a little bit. But Danny was sortof scary, and Skulker probably wasn't as tough as he looked anyway... 'Or he would, if ghosts actually slept... huh, you'd think I'd get used to the idea after ten years...' Danny gave her an odd look. 'You've been dead ten years? No, wait, that's not really important. If you're a ghost, how come you look human?'Mimic sighed, although she had been expecting it. She let her hold on 'Antoinette' go, allowing her own shape to come to her, although they weren't much different, apart from the clothes and colours. Dark brown curls became electric blue flames; blue-grey eyes turned glowing neon green, tanned skin became pale blue, and gained a ghostly glow. Her sky-blue t-shirt turned black, with a pair of white angel wings printed on the front, and she was now wearing a dark blue knee-length skirt and black shoes. A turquoise bangle appeared on each wrist, and a bright cyan choker-style necklace at her throat. Transformation complete, Mimic watched Danny's reaction warily.
'I'm a shape-shifter, Danny. I can look like anyone. I'm a pretty good mimic too.' To demonstrate this, she spoke the next part in Sam's voice. 'That's how I got my name, actually. In the Ghost Zone, they call me Mimic, although I haven't been around the Ghost Zone much for the past nine years.' Danny, who had tensed when she borrowed Sam's voice, looked annoyed. 'Stop that. And why haven't you been seen in the Ghost Zone for so long?' Mimic adopted her own voice once again. 'Sorry, just proving my point. And I wasn't seen much 'cause I was sulking. A couple of months after I died, it just hit me, y'know? Well, you don't, but still. I was Dead, Danny. And I was sixteen. Sure, it was cool to change shape and all, and flying's fun, and having a ghostly lair was just awesome, because you can do anything you like with that place, but... I was DEAD. And so I hid in my lair, sulking. Kinda dumb, now I look back, but, what can I say?' Danny nodded slightly. What Mimic was saying hit a chord. He'd felt a bit like that after his accident in the lab. Mimic, sensing that perhaps Danny wasn't just going to waste her and send her back to the Ghost Zone, plunged in. 'Danny, the reason I came here. It wasn't to get you on my side, or anything like that. Skulker told me you were a hero here, and Danny...' He looked at her, not sure what to expect. 'I want to help you. I want to do something more worthwhile with my afterlife than sulking in my lair. I want to help.'
Danny was out flying to clear his head. He didn't know what to say to Mimic. She was a ghost, and she'd lied to him, and heck, maybe she still was. She might be Amorpho or Bertrand, playing some stupid game. But...
That was what it all came down to, in the end. The real reason he'd ignored his malfunctioning ghost-sense. She was just too human.
He'd met ghosts like her before, but only in the Ghost Zone, never in the human realm. Living -if that was the right word- normal 'lives', apart from the fact that they glowed, and didn't eat or sleep. Just human. Not particularly good or bad, human. Most ghosts 'changed': massive trauma can do that to a person, and dying is definitely traumatic. Plus you really did seem to need some kind of hold here to stay around: Skulker's hunting, Desiree's wish-granting, his own human side and heroics. But some ghosts seemed to be rooted in their own... humanity, or normalcy, or something. Whatever it was, they were steady enough to exist without any obvious obsession or desire. He wasn't sure how. Maybe it was strength of character or something. But whatever it was, they were more human than any other ghosts. Oh, they were weird alright, and they caused more than their fair share of problems in the human realm, and they were a long way from being totally human, but they were still closer than the others. Mimic wouldn't have been able to maintain her disguise that well had she been more... for want of a better word, ghostly. But she hadn't seemed ghostly much at all. Cheeky, and maybe a little too fond of a prank, but not ghostly. She had seemed alive. Maybe that was what kept them here- a desire to remain human. Hadn't she said something along those lines earlier? About hating having had to die? Maybe ghosts didn't have to be obsessed to exist. Maybe they just had to want to exist. Because he knew that, while Mimic might not have wanted to die, she'd have hated the idea of oblivion even more.
Did this mean he trusted her? She had lied, but in all honesty, could he blame her? If she'd turned up in ghost form he'd have kicked her from here to next Wednesday. And heck, what was he going to tell Sam and Tucker? What if she really was good, and they didn't trust her? Besides, it was Antoinette's- no, Mimic'ssecret and she might not want them to know. She'd kept his secret, after all. But... They were Sam and Tuck. He couldn't keep something like that from them!
He just didn't know what to do. But he was saved from having to think about it further by the roaring of a jet board, and the whining of a charging ecto-gun. 'You're going down, Ghostboy!' shouted Valerie from behind her mask, and Danny sighed. The hunt was on.
Danny returned home, limping all the way. Damnit, she was getting better. A lot better. She'd really been bugging him the past month, and his wounds were getting more serious after each encounter. It's only a matter of time before she does some real damage, he thought, bandaging his leg. Pretty soon you're going to have to start fighting her instead of just running away. Sighing, Danny put away his first aid kit and made up his mind. He was going to accept Mimic's help. And just maybe, he was going to get Valerie to see he wasn't evil.
Danny met Mimic in the park, and began to explain things to her. The biggest problem he could see with their plan so far was the fact that Danny Phantom still wasn't completely trusted by Amity Park yet, and they might not accept a new ghostly hero. Even the fan girls might object to it: Mimic was a girl, after all, and kind of pretty at that, and as soon as she appeared with Danny Phantom the rumour mill was going to be working overtime. Mimic had a suggestion, but it was kind of drastic.
Her idea was this: She was a shape-shifter, right? Well, why didn't she just shape-shift into Danny Phantom? They'd make some kind of alarm, and when there was a late-night ghost attack, or Danny had something important to do, he'd ring his alarm and it would alert Mimic, who'd change shape and fly off to deal with it for him. They quickly discovered she had most of his abilities anyway, and was close to him in power levels. She couldn't do the ghostly wail, or use his ice powers, but the shape-shifting gave her a definite advantage, and she quickly got the hang of acting like Danny. After all, mimicking people was kind of her thing. She would rather not have to be Phantom, but if it meant she got to stay here and mess about with her powers, she was all for it.
But would it work? And surely Tucker and Sam would notice if he didn't disappear every time there was a ghost attack, yet Danny Phantom still showed up? He could tell them, but Mimic had looked distraught when he suggested it: 'Danny, I know it's just a fantasy, but it's kind of nice to feel alive again, y'know? Like I'm not dead, like none of that ever happened. It was a tough time for me Danny, and I know I shouldn't, but it's so nice to live my life again, to be me again... to be Antoinette Tanner again. Please, Danny, don't tell them. If they knew... I... couldn't be human anymore. Don't take that away from me, Danny. Please.'
He really hadn't had the heart to say no. He felt bad, definitely: It made him feel almost physically ill, the idea of lying to Sam and Tuck. But Mimic -no, Antoinette, he decided- had looked so forlorn. So helpless. 'I'll understand if you tell them, Danny.' But he couldn't. She'd already lost her life once. What right did he have to take it away again? He of all people should understand the desire for normalcy. He didn't want to lie, but looking at Antoinette's bleak expression, he just couldn't bring himself to hurt her like that. What right did he have to take away the humanity she wanted so much?
Mimic had maybe exaggerated just a little bit. Her story was true, but it wasn't the whole truth, as it were. She wanted to stay in the human world for the same reason any ghost did: it gave you energy, strength. Unlike other ghosts, she didn't see the point of terrorising the humans while she was here, and actually found it kind of annoying when humans automatically assumed she wanted to hurt them. So fighting off evil ghosts as 'Danny Phantom' wouldn't be too bad, as far as she was concerned. It gave her a 'get-out-of-the-Ghost-Zone-free' card with Danny, and it would be interesting to see if they could pull it off. She knew, after watching the way Sam and Tucker reacted to Valerie, that they were somewhat overprotective of Danny (who was even more overprotective of them) and that they probably wouldn't welcome her with open arms. Suspicion, maybe. And if Sam and Tucker got on her case, he would listen. He might not do anything, but the seeds of suspicion would be planted: something she definitely didn't want.
And anyway, it wasn't all a lie. She had gone into her lair in a sulk because she didn't want to be dead. But she had spent most of the past nine years shaping the lair, adjusting and perfecting it, (to the point that it was far more in tune with her than most ghosts' lairs are) not just sulking. She could remember all the disadvantages of being alive, and really, being a ghost was more fun. But... it was nice, to feel human again, so that had been true too. She hadn't really thought about it much, but now...
Yeah, helping Danny had its advantages. The chance to be human again was one of them.
And so it began. Whenever Danny sensed a ghost while he was in an important lesson, or in the middle of the night, Antoinette would go in his place. The ghosts quickly found out she was Mimic, not Phantom, but the people of Amity Park remained blissfully ignorant. Danny, for his part, hadn't felt this awake since he got his ghost powers: he was finally able to sleep uninterrupted, and he no longer missed tests when ghosts attacked. His grades and his mood rapidly improved. Antoinette, who didn't need sleep and had no issues with failing, (she figured it was a bit late to worry about grades now, ten years after she'd died) had no problems dealing with the ghosts when Danny needed her to, although she would sometimes call for his assistance with particularly tough opponents (carefully ensuring that there was no one around to see the two Danny Phantoms). In short, everything was going well.
Well, almost everything. When Sam and Tucker arrived in school that morning, they had a few questions for Danny. Sam cornered him by his locker at lunch. 'Danny.' She asked, face unreadable. 'How did you fight Skulker yesterday when I know you were doing a test?' she asked, holding up a newspaper. Danny's heart leapt to his mouth and Antoinette looked sick. And then, to their intense relief, the bell rang.
'Gottagobyesamseeyoulater!' he called back, and disappeared faster than you could say 'Ghost!'.
I hope you liked this chapter, and again, please review. Valerie will play a more important role in this in the next few chapters, by the way. Thanks once again for reading, please review, even if you hated it, I'd like to know why. I'll have the next chapter up soon: It's called Fights. –MayaAlexia