Author's Note: The original character Teen Titan Noel "Savior" Collins was created by Legend Maker and her brother. I own nothing. Jump City is in Florida in the Legendverse due to Legend Maker getting her oceans confused.
Noel, Noel
Chapter Two: Of Christmas Yet To Come
Danny 'parked' the Specter Speeder in the clouds above Jump City—he knew that Titans Tower had defenses and those defenses probably weren't going to let the Speeder fly in unscathed. Danny turned intangible and flew out of the Speeder down towards Titan's Island, becoming invisible as well.
He only hoped that the Titan he'd planned on seeing lived up to his namesake.
Danny hovered into the room of Savior, the sixth teen to join the team. It was instantly clear that he shared the room with his girlfriend Raven, judging by the dark décor that adorned the shelves and walls, and the fact that there were two dressers—one the pinnacle of practical functionality and the other exactly the opposite, decorated in ornate gothic design.
The young man himself, a tall youth of around twenty-two who wore a white jacket and white pants over a blue T-shirt—all of it disguised body armor— framing a complete package of spikey white hair, sat typing on a computer at the far end of the room, oblivious to Danny's presence. Or so he thought.
"Hello, rookie," Savior said without even looking over his shoulder or missing a single key on the keyboard.
Danny goggled, becoming visible and letting his shoulders droop. "Aw, how'd you know I was even hear, let alone it was me?"
"Raven sensed you coming." Savior stated plainly. He saved and closed the file before Danny had a chance to read it, and turned to regard the rookie. "Hm, the emblem on your chest is new," Savior observed.
"I knew it! I knew there was something Sam wasn't telling me about this thing!"
Savior just regarded him very oddly. "You don't remember not having an emblem?"
"Long story."
"Fair enough. Mind explaining why you thought trespassing at our Tower on Christmas Eve would be a good idea? Beast Boy already sedated himself because he couldn't wait for tomorrow."
"Actually," Danny said, "I came here to talk to you."
"I thought I was an—"
"Water under the bridge," Danny said, referring to the epithet Danny had labeled Savior with at their last face-to-face meeting.
"Considering you were the one who insulted me, I think that's for me to decide." Savior turned and walked to the bed, pulling out his Titan Com. "Robin, it's okay. It's just the rookie—Danny Phantom."
"That's what I meant when I said water under the bridge," Danny muttered.
"What does he want?" Robin's voice came over the communicator.
"Apparently he just wants to talk—about The Lord knows what."
Robin nodded. "Considering what he went through, I'd like to talk to him myself. Otherwise, if you trust him, hear him out."
Savior sighed. Occasional co-Leadership or not, Robin usually got the final say in things.
"So what is so important that you traveled 2000 miles just to talk to me?"
"Well," Danny said, "I just needed to get away from my parents for a while."
"That's… understandable," Savior smirked.
"And, well, this might be broken logic, but I generally get in a foul mood around Christmas, and since your real name means Christmas…" Danny gave an awkward shrug. "Well, I guess I thought you might have some sage wisdom."
Savior then did something that greatly unnerved Danny, something Danny had never, ever seen Savior do before on TV or in person. Something that made Danny's spine tingle…
He laughed.
Savior actually laughed—not just a bitter chuckle—Savior let out a stifled but genuine belly laugh. And the world ended as hell froze over and the pigs flew away. No, no, just kidding. But Danny wouldn't have been surprised.
Still, that laugh was so unexpected, so unnerving that Danny wasn't sure what to think. "Um… Are you okay, Noel?"
Savior looked up and shook his head. "Sorry."
The apology echoed in the empty room for a minute, before Danny broke the silence. "What was so funny?"
"You've come to the wrong person," Savior said, getting up and walking to the door, and motioning for the younger man to follow. "Why do you think I'm shut up in my room working on boring computer stuff?"
"Don't tell me you hate Christmas too!" Danny blurted.
"I don't hate Christmas." Noel opened the door and led Danny through Titans Tower into the ops room, explaining as they went. "I just hate the way it makes people act. I hate the fact that some people will literally trample an old woman to death in order to get their spoilt brat a shiny new WiiBox 580—or whatever the heck is coming out this year. I hate that people become so obsessed with themselves and what they get that they utterly miss that the point of the holiday is about what we give."
In ops, Beast Boy and Cyborg were playing their GameStation470 in glorious high-definition and drinking something that looked like Eggnog mixed with way too much artificial sweetener.
"Dude, you totally missed me!" Beast Boy celebrated as Cyborg's Cogs of Conflict character missed him with the rocket launcher. Beast Boy returned fire with his shotgun and blew Cyborg's character away.
As the game ended, Cyborg and Beast Boy rose from their seats and greeted Danny Phantom. Cyborg had met the young halfa during his previous encounter with the Titans, but Beast Boy had not. "Nice to meet you, Phantom," the green teen greeted. Beast Boy was the only Titan who could still validly be called a teen, and wore it as a badge of honor.
"Hi," Danny greeted him, shaking Beast Boy's hand with the enthusiasm of one still relatively new to the hero scene. He looked away and hovered over towards Savior. "Well, do I get to stay here until Christmas is over?"
Savior sighed. "Phantom, think about it for a minute. Your parents may be dense sometimes, but they're going to notice you're gone, and they're going to be worried about why. What are you gonna tell them? 'Sorry, mom and dad, I sneaked out and went to spend the night with the third most prestigious group of superheroes in the world'?"
"I'll think of something. I'll tell them I was at Tucker's house."
Beast Boy shook his head. "Man, if Elastigirl and Mento taught me anything, it's that parents check their kids' stories. Unless you wanna tell them about your powers, you need to get home."
Danny glanced at the clock. 3PM. Ugh, time seemed to be going so slow. Maybe he could have Clockwork just send him ahead two days. Of course that would still raise alarm in his parents.
Cyborg pulled a large jug of milk out of the fridge and began drinking it, drawing a grimace from Savior. "Why exactly do you want to stay here so much?" Cyborg asked. "What about your parents makes Christmas so unbearable there?"
"Every year since I've been born, they argue from the start of December to the end of the year about whether Santa Claus is real. My dad insists that he is; my mom is too scientific to even consider the possibility. So they go at it for days on end, driving everyone crazy."
Noel and Cyborg facevaulted, but Beast Boy offered a suggestion. "Dude, you should totally haunt their argument. They can't argue scared."
"No way," Danny said. "One, my parents hunt ghosts to dissect them. Two, I've barely been able to keep people convinced that Danny Phantom is a hero. The last thing I need is another round of being public enemy number one."
This last admission caused Noel to scowl. "You're publicly going by Danny Phantom now? Isn't that a bit risky given how similar it is to your real name?" His tone was one of unveiled disapproval.
About this time, elevator door at the end of the ops room slid open and none other than Robin himself came in, carrying a couple of large wrapped gifts and dropping them by the Christmas tree. Though he completely ignored the newcomer at first, he turned and extended a green-gloved hand to him after depositing the fits. "Phantom, I presume."
Danny just stared at Robin's hand as though it belonged to Yuri Gargarin himself himself. "You're… Robin. Can I have your autograph?"
Robin frowned, but then
gave the younger hero a light smirk. "At least you didn't ask me
for Batman's autograph.
A key fact one must remember about the young man given the birth name Noel Collins but known to most of the world as Savior: he cannot stand stupidity, he cannot tolerate ignorance. Shortly after hearing of Maddie and Jack Fenton's yearly argument, Savior resolved to end it personally. No two grown adults should be allowed to engage in such public displays of stupidity, Especially year after year, with no resolution, over and over again, he reasoned.
So with Robin's help, Savior contacted the JLU Watchtower and convinced Mr. Terrific to teleport both Danny and Savior to Amity Park Mall. Danny had already set the auto pilot on the Specter Speeder to return it home, but teleportation would get the two heroes there faster than the Speeder and less conspicuously than the Titans' jet craft. In the parking lot, Savior and Danny found a private place, where Savior detransformed from his tall, spiky-white haired persona into a slightly shorter version of himself with long red hair, pulled back in a ponytail.
"It's not all it's cracked up to be," Savior said when he saw what he mistook for wonder in Danny's eyes. "I have to take at least two showers every day if I want to keep both bodies clean."
Danny shook his head. "Noel, I can transform too. I was really just curious how a beneficial nervous system mutation also translates into the ability to conceal a second functional body in a space-time pocket and call it up at will."
This only drew a dismissive glare from Noel.
He and Danny entered the mall to see a writhing mass of people on both levels, scurrying about with last minute shopping, and most of them trying to avoid the crowd massed around the Santa Claus booth in the middle of the mall. Typically, that was where Maddie and Jack had taken up their argument yet again—right where the young children would be the most effected.
"If there's no Santa Claus," Jack said with a smug smile, "then who hired this guy to impersonate him at our local shopping establishment?" Jack pulled at the beard of the fake Santa next to him, causing some of the younger children in the audience to burst into red-faced tears.
"Actually, I freelance," the Santa said in a surprisingly high-pitch voice.
Danny buried his face in his palm.
"If it makes you feel any better," Noel began… "I'd trade my dad for yours any day of the week."
The argument only got louder, and that only made Noel get fed up faster. "Come with me, Danny."
Noel found a locked janitor's closet and made sure there were no security cameras watching, then used his talent—the Shimmer, a nervous system mutation that manifested as a semi-sentient energy rope that could extend from any point on his body—to pick the lock. A flash of light lit the inside of the closet, and Savior emerged.
Danny followed the Titan as he walked back out into the mall where Santa's ears were suffering the brunt of Maddie and Jack's argument.
"If Santa has to visit every house in one night, he'd run out of time. Night is too short for a visit to every home in the world!" Maddie's common sense logic again came with uncommon vitriol for her husbands 'position' on the issue.
"Santa can freeze time!" Jack shouted back. "Time has no meaning for my Patron Saint Nicholas!"
Suddenly, Savior leapt atop the raised platform where the two were fighting and gave both of them a withering stare. "End this. Now."
"Look, it's Gregor!" Jack smiled broadly. "Tell us how everyone in Hungary believes in Santa Claus and how I'm right in this argument."
"Gregor?" Savior muttered confused.
"No," Maddie said. "From his cynical, world-weary, withering stare it is clear that Elliot here is an intelligent—albeit deceitful and poorly dressed—American who does not believe in Santa Claus."
Savior gave her a stare that said he was about to rip Maddie's arms off. "Who is Elliot?" Savior spat. Then, deciding that he didn't care who Elliot was, Savior lashed out two strands of Shimmer that tore the two megaphones from the Fentons' hands and held both of them up to his mouth.
"EVERYONE HERE WHO DOESN'T CARE WHETHER SANTA IS REAL AND JUST WANTS TO FINISH THEIR CHRISTMAS SHOPPING IN PEACE SHOULD IGNORE THESE TWO IMBECILES WITH THE IQ OF A JAR OF MAYONNAISE AND LEAVE THEM BE."
Savior finished his tirade by snapping both megaphones in two with the Shimmer and hurling them into one of the mall's penny fountains across the atrium.
Danny watched Titan swing away, and moments later, Noel, back in civilian form, appeared near Danny. "Well, my work here is done."
The younger hero, however, was not so satisfied. "Man, that wasn't funny at all. My parents may be embarrassing, but I don't appreciate you insulting them like that."
"If people want to repeatedly act like retarded nine year olds, and in public at that, then the public has every right to react as they see fit, and we're part of that public." Savior said, perhaps more tersely then needed. "You requested a solution, I provided it."
"What are you talking about?" Danny blurted. "I just wanted to spend the night at the Tower—you volunteered to publicly humiliate my parents."
"Danny, your parents were humiliating themselves. What I did was take that, and actual make some hay out of it. You think it would be any less humiliating if they were arrested? Or thrown out to cheers? I doubt it, but they would have learned nothing from that. But this? Maybe at least it will penetrate your mother's skull how utterly pointless this argument is. Unless too much of your dad has rubbed off on her. Sorry Danny, he's a good guy, but he's about four items short of a picnic."
Danny turned to walk away glared back at Savior over his shoulder. "You know what, I take back that water under the bridge thing, Noel. You really are a—"
KRAKABOOOM!
Danny's insult was cut off by a massive thunderclap that echoed throughout the mall, shattering the glass skylights. A cacophony of screams started as the shoppers began fleeing throughout the mall, and green lightning arced through the upper section. And Danny gasped as a strong burst of ghost sense escaped his mouth.
"No! What about the Truce!" Danny shouted.
"What truce?" Savior asked.
"On Christmas all ghosts share a Truce—even with me. No ghosts are supposed to fight, and no ghosts are supposed to attack Earth until the twenty-sixth of December."
Noel ran behind a column and once again transformed into Savior. "Sounds like someone didn't get that memo."
Then, the foe revealed himself—a circle of green fire erupted in the center of the food court, acting as a portal from the Ghost Zone. And the being that emerged from it was like the Grim Reaper, cloaked in black, its face permanently hidden in the deepest shadows.
Danny made sure nobody was watching him. "I'm going ghost!"
The white rings slid up and down his body, cloaking him in his trademark hero costume; and Danny blasted off into action, firing a series of ectoplasmic energy beams at his foe. But the specter just deflected the shots with his hand, and when Danny tried to follow up with a punch to the face, the villain batted him down with a single hand…
Danny Phantom crashed into the ground next to Savior, and stood up. "You know who this is?" Savior asked. "It looks like Death."
"No way," Danny said. "Death is totally a hot gothic babe. I don't know who this is."
The Ghost before them waved his hand again, and more green fireballs flared into existence and flew out, striking seemingly random places in the mall, though it became clear after a few shots that the creature was aiming directly at Christmas decorations.
"A ghost is wrecking the Christmas stuff at the mall?" Danny said. "Why does this have to be so bittersweet?"
Savior gave him a soul-searing glare. "Stop praising the bad guys and do something. You know ghosts better than I do. If you think you can keep him busy, I'll handle the crowd. Deal?"
Danny nodded. "Deal."
The Phantom blasted off to do his thing as Savior swung away on a Shimmer strand to do his.
Danny flew towards the Ghost again, again, deflecting the attacks back towards their source, though the fire probably hurt him more than it did its creator. Danny tried to close enough for one of his more damaging attacks like the ghost stinger, but every time he came close, a powerful chill wind blasted him away.
The Ghost turned and demolished a massive statue of Frosty the Snowman and then shattered a stand selling Nativity woodcarvings.
"What is your problem?!" Danny shouted. "You can hate Christmas all you want, but I won't let you hurt people."
Danny unleashed a Ghostly Wail, shattering glass and blasting the enemy back towards the nearest Hot Topic. It was just as short blast, just enough to do the job, though. The last thing he needed was to exhaust himself.
But the Ghost exploded from inside the store, demolishing the cheaply made, overpriced clothing and sassy emo teen punk gear in the process.
"Okay, you can smash Santa and frag Frosty all you want, but when you start messing with Hot Topic, you're on my hate list," Danny charged up a double-handed ectoplasm attack and hurled it at the Ghost…
But the Ghost blasted away, then fired a couple more of his trademark fireballs at Danny, even as Danny's attack further demolished the establishment he was trying to avenge.
Danny dodged the fireballs, and then was surprised when a nutcracker flew in out of nowhere and slammed into the Ghost. The Ghost and Danny both turned and saw Savior, standing with the Shimmer ready to attack, and the mall now deserted behind him.
"Remember to conserve energy and take the path of least resistance and least collateral damage" Savior coached. "In other words, no screaming with that weird sonic cry unless it's absolutely necessary."
"Ghostly Wail," Danny corrected.
Savior facepalmed, even as Danny and he regrouped. "Ugh, do all of your attacks have to have 'creative' names?"
"I didn't name it…" Danny said, but then decided explaining who did would just be confusing.
By this time, the Ghost had finished destroying the Nutcracker statue that Savior had tossed at him and raised his hand again…
And another portal appeared in front of him, this one sucking everything, as well as everyone. Danny tried to fly against the flow of the portal, and Savior tried to anchor himself with a Shimmer strand. But before he could find a suitable anchor, a shard of broken glass flew by and slashed the Shimmer—its greatest weakness.
Pain wracked Savior's body like a million tiny pinpricks on every nanometer of his skin, and he lost all strength and dexterity in his body as it fell into the Ghost's portal.
And despite his efforts to escape, Danny knew he had to go to, because he had to rescue Savior from an afterlife he wasn't quite ready for.
Danny turned, his eyes flaring green as he plunged in.