Shadow Rose
Chapter Two
Let's up the requirements shall we? Eight Reviews before I continue.
Rose Anderson's Narrative
He stared at me for a moment with his mouth open then seemed to realise what he was doing and closed it. "Who are you?" He sounded very familiar.
"I am the Shadow Rose," I told him, probably sounding a little stuck-up, "Danny Phantom." He narrowed his eyes suspiciously. Phantom tensed as I placed a hand on the back of his neck.
Now I know I'm talking a lot about myself but just in case any of you are thick; I'm a very impulsive person. This is why I am attributing the actions I took and the night I met Danny Phantom to the impulsiveness. And before you ask, it wasn't attraction; he's head over heels for someone else anyway. Now you're probably wondering what on earth I'm talking about. Putting it simply; I kissed him.
Phantom was pretty shocked at my actions. He was even more shocked than the two scientists I once pushed into a vat of unstable blood plasma. I wasn't shocked; it was a side effect of the experiments to do the most impulsive things. I used to get shocked, until the time I told my friend Will that he should write plays, forty years later, there he was, the most famous Playwright in London, and only I got away with calling him Will. For everyone else it was William, or Mr Shakespeare.
Anyway, back to Phantom. As I kissed him I felt a tremor go through his body, a sort of ripple, and he suddenly became, physically denser, if that's possible. I did not give him a second glance and fled around the corner. Back in my flat and leant against the door and let myself slide to the floor, still running on the adrenaline of experience.
The next day at school Danny was looking a bit shell-shocked, not surprising, what with his family. Spend two days in Amity Park and you're sure to be confronted by some Fenton-Mania. Whether it be Jack Fenton's driving or their attempts to chase a ghost, a confrontation was highly likely. "What's the matter?" I asked him "You're Dad drive you to school again." He looked kind of lost for a moment but soon nodded vigorously.
"I fail to see how that man ever got his licence," Valerie said, amused. I'd heard her voice just recently, hadn't I?
"Health Hazard," said Tucker, and we laughed.
Margot Blakeney shoved me as she passed and I would have fallen into the lockers were it not for Danny's reflexes in catching me. I thanked him and straightened up as the bell rang for class. "I'll join you guys in a sec," I told them before heading in the other direction, there was something I need to check out.
Daniel Fenton isn't the most co-ordinated of persons, scrap that, he's very clumsy, note the very. So how could he catch me when he was standing nearly half a metre away? Not only would he have to leap forward he would have had to have done it in 0.02 seconds to catch me when he did. Before you ask, yes, I skipped out on class to figure out a problem I could have easily done in the room where you don't do anything. However there was one other thing I needed before I could interrogate wonder-boy, and that was back at my flat.
I let myself in through the back way, up the fire-escape, useful thing. I had a drawer filled with samples of saliva. Disgusting, yes, but true, most of them were mine mixed with other peoples… that would be the frequent kissing I randomly do. I've got a few unusual people in there, I'm pretty sure Will's in there somewhere, he was the best friend I ever had. Enough about the past, I selected a small tube labelled Danny Phantom and spread some on a slide.
Normally under my equipment human saliva is clear plasma, mine appears as a dark burgundy colour and my blood is black. The one I was examining under the glass was dark burgundy mixed with a glowing green. Ectoplasm, so he was a ghost. Instead of answering questions the studies only raised more, I swore under my breath and headed back to school, manipulating the records to say I had been in the Nurses Office with physical trauma.
In the Cafeteria at lunchtime we were sitting at the end of our table. Minding our own business as usual, when Samantha Manson slammed her tray down and proceeded to ignore us for the next twenty minutes. The ignoring in itself is not unusual, the fact that she was in the cafeteria was. The thing about Sam Manson was, she always went missing around lunchtime, avoided the eating hall like it was the plague. We all looked at her, okay so we stared. After a while Sam raised her head and glared at us. "Do you want something?" Danny and Tucker hastily looked at their plates, Valerie rolled her eyes and turned away but I kept studying her.
"Rose," Tucker whispered and poked me "If you keep staring at her she'll beat you up." I averted my gaze to stare at him sceptically.
"It's true," Valerie cut in. "Sam Manson once knocked out Dash and she didn't have a scratch on her." I swivelled around to resume my examination; Sam slammed her hands on the desk.
"What Anderson?"
"I'm looking at you," I told her coolly, "do you have a problem with that?" She glared at me. "And my name's Rose, I would prefer it if you called me that." Valerie pulled me around.
"Don't push it Rose."
That evening I watched the people pass by the building where I lived, I do that sometimes, when people are out. I don't sleep, I haven't slept for years, and I just ponder on myself. The scientists didn't make a super-human, they made a monster. Half-past the second hour of morning I saw a shadow slip past. Curious I followed them; perhaps this was the Night Rider. There was no need to change into the Shadow Rose, I got into the habit of changing automatically when it was dark and I was alone so all I needed to do was grab my mask.
I watched the figure scale a wall and wait next to a partly open window. We didn't wait long as a pair of men dressed in black soon climbed out carrying bulging sacks. Typical comic book villains. The Rider kicked the first one in the head sending him flying to the ground and putting him out of action for the next twenty-four hours. The other was dispatched soon enough and the stolen goods returned to their owners, still asleep and blissfully unaware of the drama taking place just outside their window.
The Rider lightly fell to the ground and landed on their feet before taking off at a light jog through the shadows, I followed. I was led for blocks until the Rider turned around and faced me. "Who are you?"
"The Shadow Rose," I replied, crossing my arms.
"And, why, are you following me?"
"I have a few questions… Night Rider." The Rider tensed and crossed her arms.
Yes, I used the right gender there; the Night Rider was a she. She was clad in some sort of dark blue superhero suit and belt with cloth wrapped around her head and face leaving nothing but her eyes free. She looked like she was around my age, white skinned, with violet eyes that I could have sworn I'd seen before. I took a step forward; the Rider was completely alert by then, experienced then. But she still had a slight advantage over me; I had no idea where we were, she did, and she knew her way around. There were few options left open for me, so I took the most direct.
I leapt forward and grabbed her head covering, it was ripped off and her long dark hair fell free. I was a lot more surprised that I should have been to discover that the Night Rider was none other than Samantha Manson. She grabbed my wrist and we wrestled for a moment before she wrestled me to the ground and reached out to grab my mask. I was saved by a ghost wolf that pounced on us and we were soon joined by none other than Danny Phantom.
In the scuffle Sam had somehow managed to get her head recovered and she disappeared. Phantom seemed very surprised to see me, I say Seemed, because for all I know he could be surprised by nothing else after I kissed him. After he had sucked the wolf into a white metal thermos he landed in front of me, looking very nervous.
"I wanted to talk to you… about last night." I felt like smiling, I gave him a half-hearted one, something becoming more and more common lately.
"Sorry about that, side affect of my condition, I will do anything on impulse no matter the consequences." Phantom looked very confused but before he could say anything I fled around the corner only to be grabbed by the Night Rider who led me away before uncovering my mouth.
"We need to talk," she said fiercely.
"My hideout," I told her, "This way." I led her through the extremely useful Fire- Escape and through my window, deactivating the alarm system on the way in.
"Who are you?" Sam asked, ripping off her head covering "And don't say the Shadow Rose again because that isn't an answer."
"Why do you want to know?" Sam looked at me, and very seriously said.
"Because you fight like no one I've ever seen, like nothing on this earth, you have powers I could only dream of, and you're alive."
"I take it that's unusual," I said, smirking.
"Don't play games with me Shadow," she said fiercely, "Just tell me who you are." I crossed my arms.
"No, if you want the truth you'll have to get it out of me the same way I got it out of you." Sam growled in frustration and leapt at me. To tell you the truth I wasn't completely expecting it and she eventually got me pressed against the wall. By that time she was pretty angry and her long nails scratched the side of my face.
In the struggle my mask was ripped off and she gaped at me, "You!" Her face turned to that of amazement as I started bleeding like crazy. It had been tried to prevent me from bleeding at all but it was one of the few experiments that backfired. From the tiniest scratch I produced litres of blood unless it was stopped. Sam's amazement was mostly for the fact that my blood, was black. I scrabbled in the medicine cabinet and bandaged my face.
"What are you?" Sam said quietly, I gestured to the small table with two chairs and boiled the kettle, this was going to be a long night.
After that Sam was slightly more sociable around me. And by sociable I mean she actually spoke to me in a civil tone when I spoke to her. But the discoveries were not yet over, although I had an ally in this unlikely battle against the Protection Three but not even Sam knew who the Huntress was, or how Phantom died, if he really was dead.
I turned my attention to studying the Huntress, I even hacked into the Guys in White Database (courtesy of something I stole from Tucker) to see what they had on her, after a week of fruitless searching there was a great crash outside my building, it happened to be none other than the Huntress pulverising Phantom. I slipped out as the Shadow Rose and leapt on the back of her hover board.
"Get off me!" She yelled… Valerie?