Disclaimer: I do not own Danny Phantom.
Destroy or Be Destroyed
Chapter 2 – Rubble
Danny floated above the burning wreckage of Sam's house. The shock had hit him so hard he had momentarily forgotten how to breathe. His mind went completely blank at the image before him. The entire place was on fire and it looked as if the entire house had collapsed into the basement. "Oh God, the basement! That's where Tucker and Sam are! That's where I left them," Danny thought in utter horror. Suddenly his brain kicked into overtime and Danny shot straight at the house, remembering to go intangible just before he would have impaled himself on a piece of rebar. "Sam, can you hear me? Sam! Please say something!" Danny yelled into the smoldering rubble of the once proud Manson Mansion.
Danny flew deeper and deeper into the wreckage as he got closer to where the basement should be. Only black smoke could be seen, dense enough that he was having trouble seeing his own hand in front of his face. An idea popped into Danny's head and, changing direction, he flew above the house and concentrated on the horrific inferno that suffocated the mansion. Using his newly acquired ice powers Danny proceeded to put out the fire. With nothing but rubble to impede him, he flew back into the nightmare come alive.
Danny quickly reached the basement and found nothing but crumbled concrete and charred wood. As he scanned the room, a small charred object caught his attention. He flew anxiously over to the object and picked it up. Tears began to well in his emerald green eyes, for in his hand was Tucker's most prized possession… his PDA. Tucker would never leave it behind. Danny picked up the speed and urgency of his search. At last he gave up hope, leaving the burned pile of rubble that used to be his best friend's house.
Danny broke down once he was outside of the building. He fell to his knees and the tears that had been stinging his eyes finally broke free. Twin streams of tears fell down his face as he collapsed to the ground sobbing uncontrollably.
Before the Fire:
Sam watched as Danny flew through the roof of the theater room on his way to catch another ghost. She smiled to herself as she watched him phase through the ceiling. God, how she loved him, she only wished that he felt the same way about her. Sam had felt this way about Danny ever since freshman year of high school. She watched as Danny fell head-over-heals for Valerie and Paulina. Every day in high school was heartbreaking for Sam; every day watching Danny flirt with Valerie or Paulina. Finally Sam had had enough and in sophomore year she started dating as a way to make Danny jealous.
Sam shot a look over at Tucker and Valerie, the later was still asleep in his arms and Tucker was giving her a strange look. "What," Sam demanded, her tone reaching a louder pitch than she had intended.
Tucker just smiled and lay Valerie's head down on one of the cushions and walked over towards Sam. "So, are you finally going to tell him," Tucker asked, taking the seat Danny had previously occupied.
Sam just hung her head and sighed. "I can't. I can't jeopardize our friendship because I fell in love with my best friend," Sam finished looked over at the TV. She seemed to Tucker to be accusatory towards herself; she was beating herself up for 'letting' herself fall in love.
Tucker mentally slapped himself at Sam's comment. "How much pushing and prodding are these two going to have to go through before they figure out they're prefect for each other?" Tucker wondered to himself as he looked over at Valerie's sleeping form. "Sam, what I am about to tell you I do just because I have watched this for years and I am getting damn tired of being in between you two," Sam turned her attention from the movie and looked at Tucker, her brows furrowed in confusion.
"Tell me what?" Sam asked, turning slightly to face Tucker.
"Sam, Danny loves you and has loved you since freshman year. He doesn't think you feel the same way and after the incident with Gregor he's been afraid to even attempt to get close to you when you have a boyfriend. He thinks that if you felt the same way you would have said so a long time ago." Tucker finished, looking cautiously at his best friend.
Sam froze at what Tucker was saying. Part of her wanted to stand up and shout for joy that Danny actually loved her; while the other half questioned whether or not Tucker was just trying to get a good chuckle out of it. Sam looked over at Tucker, her dilemma evident on her face. "Tucker, I have seen him fight Vlad, the Fright Knight, even the Ghost King and you're trying to tell me that he is afraid to tell his best friend how he feels?" Sam questioned, doubt present in her tone of voice.
"Sam, the way you feel about him will always scare him more than any ghost," Tucker said, trying to get his point across.
Sam smiled and looked down at her boots, "Well, maybe I will just ask him when he gets back from fighting whatever ghost was dumb enough to come this way," Sam said turning her attention back towards the movie.
BBBBBOOOOOMMM
The entire house shook and dust cascaded from the ceiling. The explosion was enough to wake Valerie from her sleep. "What's going on?" She yelped, sitting up and looking over at where Sam and Tucker had been talking.
BBBBBOOOOOOMM
Another explosion rocked the building as Valerie tried to stand. The force of it knocked her over into the popcorn machine. Sam watched as Valerie came towards them, stumbling every time the ground shook. Sam and Tucker remained in place as a huge crack in the ceiling formed.
"What's going on?" Tucker shouted as another explosion ripped through the Manson Mansion. The three friends stood facing each other, looking around, expecting Danny to show up.
"Where's Danny?" Valerie asked, looking around the room and seeing no sign of him. Sam and Tucker sent each other a knowing look then Sam turned and answered, "He had to go home for a few minutes." Valerie nodded and reached over, wrapping Tucker in a hug.
Sam sighed inwardly at the display of affection and wished that she was watching her and Danny, but now was not the time to entertain this train of thought. "Let's get outside so we can figure out what's happening," Sam suggested heading, towards the stairs. Sam turned her attention towards the stairs and for the first time she saw the black smoke pouring into the basement. "Oh my God!" Sam thought to herself, "My house is on fire!" "Guys," Sam yelled at Tucker and Valerie, "stay low and watch out! The house is on fire!!!"
Tucker and Valerie nodded towards Sam as their eyes widened at the black smoke. Valerie squeezed Tucker's hand as she led him towards the stairs, following after Sam. If she was anywhere else she would have used her ghost hunting equipment to get everyone out, but they didn't know and she hadn't even told Tucker. Valerie mentally berated herself for not telling him and not wanting to expose her biggest secret.
The group was on the stairs when a sudden explosion caused them to shake violently. Sam lost her footing and fell backwards into Valerie, who fell into Tucker. They all collapsed on the landing half way up. Looking up, Tucker watched in horror as the brace above them gave way and the ceiling began to collapse.
Before the Fire:
Vlad smiled to himself as Danny chased after Skulker. Everything was going according to plan. In a flash of light Masters was replaced with Plasimus. Floating above the mansion Vlad smiled evilly to himself allowing two large ecto-blasts to take form in his hands. "With his friends gone from this world Daniel will finally join me and I can take over this pathetic planet," Plasimus said to himself as he let the blasts fly free one crashing into the front door and the other the window of that Gothic girl.
The two points erupted in flames as two more equally powerful blasts fired out towards the Manson Mansion. An evil and maniacal laugh escaped Vlad's lips as the building began to crumple due to the stress of the fire and continuous barrage of fire from Vlad.
Deciding to not press his luck Vlad raised his hands above his head and allowed his energy to flood into a massive ball of ecto energy. Releasing it, Vlad hurled it at the mansion with the target being the center of the building. With a huge concussion the building collapsed into the center piling all the material into the basement. With a smirk and laugh Vlad disappeared in a whirl of smoke.
Present Time:
As tears poured down Danny's face twin rings of light encompassed his body, leaving Fenton where Phantom once knelt. Danny fought with himself over his feelings for Sam. She had been right beside him and he didn't tell her how he felt. Now he would never get the chance to tell her. A part of him hoped that she would come back as a ghost so he could tell her how he really felt, but the more logical part new that Sam would never come back as a ghost it just wasn't in her. She didn't have anything to be obsessed about.
In the distance Danny could hear the sirens of the approaching police and fire. Standing up he forced the transformation into Phantom and took to the skies, remembering to go invisible so that he at least wouldn't be blamed for this disaster. The sounds of the sirens faded as Danny approached his house. Phasing through the window he fell onto his bed letting the sorrow consume him once again.
Danny reached over and grabbed the picture sitting on his nightstand. Looking at it caused a fresh batch of tears to stream down his face. The picture was one taken by Tucker just last year. Sam and Danny were standing together, Danny had his arm wrapped around Sam's waist and her head was leaning on his shoulder. Danny smiled as he remembered that day.
Flashback
"Alright just a little closer together," Tucker said as Danny and Sam stood side by side.
Danny looked over at Sam; they were standing in front of the Nasty Burger and Tucker had suggested that he and Sam take a picture together. Danny really didn't know why he had agreed to the picture, it was probably because Sam had agreed first.
"All right guys smile," Tucker said as he steadied his camera on his two friends.
Just as Tucker was pressing the button on the camera an idea popped into Danny's head. Quickly Danny wrapped his arm around Sam and pulled her close to him. Sam taking the step she had always wanted leaned her head onto Danny's shoulder.
Tucker couldn't believe the luck he had today. He was happy just getting them standing together, but due to Danny's boldness here they were looking like the couple they should be.
End of Flashback
A single tear fell onto the frame as Danny brought it closer to his heart. He wiped the grievous stain away from the frame and set it back down on the nightstand. As he looked at the photo a blue mist escaped his lips. My work is never done. Danny thought to himself as he made the transformation again into Phantom.
Flying through his roof, Danny tried in vain to remove the evidence of his recent outburst. He looked around at the city skyline looking for any sign of the ghost that set off his ghost sense.
"Hello Daniel," Vlad spoke through an oily voice as he floated behind the younger halfa.
Danny spun around at an alarming speed in his anger, glaring at him and charging matching ecto-blasts, ready to fire at the threat that just presented itself. "What do you want?" Danny spat at Vlad the hate evident in his voice.
"My, my, what's wrong Daniel? Did you lose something important today?" Vlad asked with an evil sneer. Vlad pulled himself closer to Danny, leaning in and whispering, "I told you war was dirty business my boy."
Danny listened to Vlad speak, his eyes widening with each word spoken. "Wha… Wha... What did you do?" Danny could barely get the words out of his mouth. He looked pleadingly towards his opponent, begging for a different answer than the one he knew he was going to receive.
Vlad smiled at the younger boy floating in front of him; the look of pain and suffering evident on his face. Vlad leaned in once again, an evil smile gracing his features, giving him a horrific appearance, "I killed that little gothic girl you seem to love so much as well as those other meddlesome friends of yours."
As the last words escaped his mouth Danny quickly shut his eyes against the world. A rage of hate and anger swelled through him as he squeezed his fists together. Danny could feel his power skyrocketing as the pain of loss continued to sink in.
Vlad watched with delight as the boy trembled with fear, sorrow, and terrible anger. "Come, come, Daniel. Now there is no reason you can't join me," Vlad reasoned illogically, floating over and laying his hand on Danny's shoulder.
Danny opened his eyes and looked at the hand now resting on his shoulder. A smile spread across his face as Danny looked up and locked eyes with his arch foe. Vlad stumbled back in the air, his look of confident victory replaced with miscomprehension and terror. "Your eyes, what happened to your eyes? They're red!" Danny just smiled back an evil and malevolent look upon his face all the while keeping his eyes locked on Vlad's.
AN: Well, I hope you liked this chapter. I know you all think I am an evil human being for hanging like this, but worry not. I hope to have the next chapter out hopefully by the end of the weekend.
I would like to thank Writergirl713, flarey Phoenix, and Catgirlversion3.0otakufan for beta reading this fic.
Please press that little button down there and let me know what you think so far. I greatly appreciate it; till next chapter.