Wow, great response on the first chapter! Keep up it up! Let me know how my writing's improved, and how it could improve further. Please? Thanks to Sasia93, Snickerer, linkmaste, wfea, YumeTakato, Sunshine Silverjojo, The Sorceress of Light, Shadow Crystal Mage, and Celestial Maiden Sukira for reviewing, faving, alerting, etc.
Chapter 2: Snow
I don't own Danny Phantom, Salem's Lot, or The Grinch Who Stole Christmas.
A week after Lancer's Protection Lecture, the merriment that had come with the first snowfall of the year had mostly faded. It hadn't really stopped snowing since that night, and while everyone was glad that they would definitely be having a white Christmas, it was beginning to wear on their nerves. The citizens of Amity Park weren't used to snowdrifts as tall as themselves.
The layer of snow covering everything that night lent an air of calm to the town, except for the area near the jungle gym in the park. Anyone watching the scene would have seen a blue-clad, glowing figure engaged in battle with a white wolf with red ears. Neither seemed able to defeat the other, though it was only a matter of time before the wolf inflicted enough injuries on the man to take him down.
When the wolf leapt on top of him and the blast of blue ectoenergy fired in defense missed, the humanoid ghost, Will Spirit, had a brief moment of panic before using the canine's momentum against it and flipping it over his head onto its back. Spirit sprung back to his feet to face the wolf and grabbed a silver cylinder from his belt, opening it in a movement that came with over a year of practice. A blue-white beam shot out of it and encompassed the stunned wolf, sucking it into the container.
As Spirit placed the cap back on thermos, another glowing figure, this one clothed in black with white hair, stepped out of the trees. A gash in his left arm showed the bright green of his ectoplasm.
"Why do they always come at the same time?" he asked Spirit. "Why can't we ever have a night where there's only one animal attacking?"
Spirit paused from where he was applying pressure to a bite mark on his leg and sighed.
"I don't know, Danny. No one ever said being a superhero was easy."
"Hey!" the boy said, slightly offended. "I know that better than you do." Spirit snorted.
"Just because you've got more experience at fighting... I'm a lot older than you, Danny. I've seen the way the world works." A wisp of blue ectoplasm escaped his mouth, and a similar one, Danny's. "Salem's Lot! Will this night never end?"
"They never do." Danny rose up into the air to try to discover where this new ghost was.
"You're looking too hard, Danny," came a sugary voice from beside the jungle gym. "I'm right here. William! It's marvelous to see you again. I'm glad you've followed your dreams."
"Spectra..." growled Danny. The female ghost whose picture had been part of the last GEIST lecture was standing on the snow, smiling pleasantly. "What's your plan this time? Going to play Grinch this year?"
"No, although that's not a bad idea. I'm just passing through, that's all."
"So where's Bertrand?" Spirit asked. Spectra never travelled without the shapeshifting ghost, but he was nowhere in sight.
Suddenly there was a screech and a giant green eagle crashed into Danny's back, claws extended. The boy hit the ground with a thud.
"I think we found Bertrand, Will!" he yelled as he pulled himself up again. Spirit and one of his duplicates were already fighting off Bertrand, so Danny flew at Spectra, planting both feet on her chest and knocking her into the monkey bars. She dodged the Thermos he had pulled off its strap and ran behind the slide, which repelled the ectoblast Danny sent after her. Spectra started laughing.
A moment later she gave a shriek as the tractor beam of the Fenton Thermos engulfed her, then Bertrand. Danny gave a whoop as he slammed the cap on and another Danny landed beside him.
"I did it!"
Spirit floated over, laughing out of happiness for the boy. Danny had been trying to duplicate himself for just over two years now and he'd finally done it.
"Want to test how many you can do? Maybe you'll beat me," he said encouragingly to the boy. Danny closed his eyes and concentrated. The older ghost watched as each Danny began to split apart, then got stuck at the waist. He sighed.
"Danny, you might want to open your eyes. It's not working."
The teen opened his green eyes and groaned.
"Oh great." He let the two spare torsos recombine with the regular bodies, then reabsorbed his duplicate. "Man, that's got to be the weirdest feeling ever."
"You get used to it. Come on, I'll finish driving you home. I think we're done for the night." A ring of light appeared at the ghost's waist, divided, and changed Will Spirit back into William Lancer. A similar ring changed his companion into Danny Fenton, a high school junior.
"What a way to end a tutoring session, huh?" he asked the former teacher. "Thanks for the help with the Shakespeare, by the way."
"Any time, Danny, you know that." Lancer began walking towards a small green car parked nearby, and Danny followed, sliding into the passenger seat once he got there. He strapped himself in, then took a small first aid kit from the glove compartment and began bandaging his arm. Lancer turned his keys in the ignition and pulled out of the parking lot.
Several minutes later, he pulled over on a residential street to drop Danny off. The boy got out of the car and crossed the street to his place. Lancer waited until Danny shut the door behind himself, then drove off through the snow towards his own apartment.
---
Danny pulled off his winter coat and hung it on a hook beside the door, then went into the kitchen for a snack. His sister, Jazz, back from Yale for Christmas vacation, was sitting at the table reading a textbook and making notes. Danny took a seat beside her after grabbing a cookie jar off the counter. He set it between him and his sister and took out a piece of shortbread.
"How can you study in the middle of vacation?" he asked incredulously, peering at the open textbook.
"I've got to get ahead, Danny. I want to do well."
"Jazz, you'd do well even if we deprived you of sleep for a week, blindfolded you, and gave you a dead pen for the exam." He pulled the book away from her. "Come watch TV with me. Hang out for once."
"TV rots the brain, Danny," Jazz said exasperated, snatching the book back. "Get your homework and join me."
"I finished everything with Lancer. Now I know you're a month and a half ahead of everyone anyway, so you can afford to take time off to bond with your little brother." He stole the book again, and Jazz yanked it back violently. "Oh, come on Jazz, it's not good for my mental well-being not to spend time with my sister. And it's not good for yours either."
Jazz didn't even react to his psychological teasing. She simply moved her nose closer to the book and start scribbling faster.
"You're making me behind, Danny. Go away."
Danny tried to take Jazz's book one last time.
"Would you stop that?!" she yelled, rising out of her chair and hitting Danny on the side of his head with the book. Then she opened it and went right back to taking notes.
Danny stumbled out of the kitchen slightly dazed and massaging his head.
Okay, that was weird. She usually apologizes if she hits me that hard.
---
If Danny had wanted to see weird, he should have gone to see Sam instead of heading to his room. The goth had replaced her purple wallpaper with a stark black, onto which she'd plastered environmental and animal rights campaign posters. All other traces of colour in her room had vanished, and she'd done the same to her wardrobe.
Sam was happily spending the evening making a list of all environmental harmfully items in her mansion and removing any trace of animal products as well. There was already a pile of brand name labels, products tested on animals, and similar items spilling out of the dumpster at the end of the road, despite the butler's protests that there wouldn't be anything left in the house by morning. Her parents were at the opera in New York and wouldn't be home until at least noon the next day, but when they walked in the front door, they were going to be greeted by their fiercely independent daughter standing on a pile of furs with a list as long as her body held out in front of her. Sam was really looking forward to it. She hadn't had a good environmentalist rant in months.
---
When Lancer got home, he was greeted by hysterical chaos. His live-in girlfriend, Cathy, was trying to fend off a flock of books that had apparently flown off the bookcase and sprouted teeth. Dani, the clone of Danny who he and Cathy had taken in, was attempting to catch the table lamp, which was engaging her in a game of cat-and-mouse. Both women were alternating between swearing and laughing at the situation. Various other objects in the living room were floating or glowing, clear signs of possession, and judging by the crashes in the background, this wasn't the only room affected.
Lancer groaned and uncapped the Thermos he held in his right hand. Pressing the ON button, he activated the tractor beam and swept it around the room, sucking the excess ectoenergy out of his belongings. Cathy stiffened, then relaxed when she recognized Lancer and thermos. Dani, who'd made a lunge for the lamp, fell onto the floor with a crash. She burst out laughing again.
"Thanks, Will. You'd better do the kitchen too." Cathy pushed an errant strand of hair behind an ear. Lancer nodded and crossed the hall, Thermos held in front of him. He returned half a minute later to find Cathy in the bathroom fetching the first aid kit for his earlier injuries. Dani was lying on the floor and staring at the ceiling dreamily.
"What's wrong, Will?" Cathy asked, crossing the living room towards him. "I haven't seen you that worried in a while. Sit." Lancer did and started talking as Cathy dressed his wounds.
"Danny and I just spent an hour fighting off about six different ghost animals. Then a ghost who hasn't been around for a while showed up, and that's more worrying because she tends to attack children in an attempt to become more 'human.'" Lancer hissed as Cathy dabbed antiseptic on his leg. "And then I get home to find half my possessions possessed without a single ghost around. Something's up, Cathy. Activity levels this high only happen if some major ghost is around, and that's never a good thing."
Dani stood up, looking serious. "We should warn Danny."
"I think he knows something's up. He saw this sort of pattern a few times before I even became a halfa. And I might be reading things into the situation that I shouldn't be."
"You're not," Cathy said bluntly. "Some of my clients today were acting oddly too, taking things to extremes. I thought something might be going on as well."
"You mean they were obsessing, like ghosts do?" Lancer shot Cathy an alarmed look. She nodded.
"I think so." Lancer stood up, ignoring the pain in his leg that resulted from the action.
"Then we've got to tell Danny. I doubt anyone in his family will have noticed that. If regular humans are obsessing, this is getting really bad."
He grabbed the phone from its cradle and hit speed dial. Jazz answered, and hurriedly brought the phone to Danny. She didn't even attempt to make conversation with her former vice-principal.
---
The snow gradually stopped falling in the wee hours of the morning and the clouds lifted, allowing a wan winter moon to bathe city in silver light. On top of the clock tower, an impossibly thin figure stood and smiled, his midnight blue robes flapping around him and his red eyes gleaming in the darkness. Cyclone's plan was working. He could feel the difference already.