I, Halfa Chapter 5: 10 words starting with B, a danny phantom fanfic

A/N: Same deal here as the last chapter, only all the words start with B.

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

A/N: Oh my gosh! I just realized that I used an exact line from another person's fanfiction in word #1. Before anyone reports me for abuse, you should know that I went back and fixed the problem as soon as I realized it was there, it should be ok now. Apologies to Epona Harper, I swear it was a total accident. Also, kudos for giving me the inspiration for word # 1 in her excellent fanfiction, 'The Ghost and the Machines'. If you haven't checked it out yet, you totally should!

#1-Ballistic

To this day, Danny can't figure out how his parents got the school to buy Fenton ectocookers for the cafeteria. Never mind that the bugs were far from worked out, or that those same ectocookers had turned last year's Christmas turkey into a rampaging ghostly monster, now they were going to feed several hundred teenagers a day.

Screams and crashes greeted Danny as he entered the room. Everywhere he could see, people's lunches had suddenly grown fangs, feet, and an aggressive personality. In short, pandemonium. In the corner, Dash and the rest of the jocks were trapped on their table, while their own burgers snapped at their feet. Paulina was making impressive amounts of noise while fleeing her pizza slice, and Mr. Lancer was trying desperately to restore order.

Sitting at the trio's regular table, Sam watched with amusement as Tucker wrestled with his sandwich. Smiling broadly, she took another forkful of her salad.

#2-Barren

Concerning the Guys in White, there was an interesting distinction between their opinion of their chosen colour scheme, and the opinion of those whom they hunted. For the GIW, white was the colour of purity, of good. White was the colour the winners always wore in the old westerns, white was the colour of the knight that would rush in and save the day. In short, the white colour scheme marked them as the good guys. Even though the uniforms were almost impossible to keep clean and were far from practical, the metaphorical value of the colour made those in charge loath to change it.

Ghosts however, had a different take on the immaculate attire of their enemies. White was the colour of bleached bone in the desert, of salty plains on which nothing would grow. White was cold and dispassionate, like the protocols the GIW were so concerned with. White was winter. It was a common saying among ghosts (especially those weak enough to be threatened by the GIW) that they might be dead, but the Guys in White were the ones without life.

#3-Belated

Danny tried to be on time for class most days, he really did. Unfortunately for him, the realities of his life as a halfa rarely allowed him to do so. It had been bad enough in the beginning, but it was even worse now. The ghosts had somehow discovered that anywhere between 9 AM and 4 PM was particularly inconvenient for Danny, and so had made every effort to attack the town between those times. It was getting so bad that Danny sometimes thought that going to school at all was a waste of effort. Last Thursday he had missed at least part of every single one of his classes. Besides the obvious problem of missing his education, it was also getting very difficult to have his teachers accept his excuses.

After the first little while, Danny had thought to simply leave the ghost's alone while he was in school, he would deal with them after four. But when he came home to see his father's arm in a cast (he had gotten hurt fighting Skulker while Danny had been in Geography), he changed his mind.

Sam and Tucker tried to help as much as they could, but there was only so much they could do. Besides, there was no point in all of them missing their education.

"Mr. Fenton! Late again! See me after class."

Danny sighed in resignation before making his way to his desk. Some days, it just didn't pay to be him.

#4-Benign

Mr. Lancer was halfway through his weekly essays when he heard a giggle behind him. Every muscle in his back tensed. He was alone in his apartment, and as far as he knew, the door was locked. Whipping around to face the intruder, the lecture died on his lips. There was no one there. Passing it off as his imagination, Mr. Lancer turned back to his essays. Later that night, he was getting ready for bed when he could've sworn he heard it again. Once again he whipped around, and once again, there was no one there.

Now, despite popular thought, Eric Lancer was neither stupid nor oblivious. Living in the ghost capital of the world, such events inevitably led his thoughts to a ghost. But no, he decided. A ghost would've attacked by now. Putting the matter from his mind, the overweight teacher went to sleep.

Outside the apartment, the spectre of a little girl watched Mr. Lancer sleep.

"You had enough fun yet?" Phantom's voice called from behind her.

The girl sighed. "Do I have to go back already? I just like watching them you know."

She turned to see the halfa floating behind her. His expression was not unkind.

"I know." He smiled. "But you should go home, your parent's will be worried."

Taking the young girl's hand, Phantom led her gently toward the portal. Kitty and Johnny would have his hide if anything happened to their daughter.

#5-Bituminous (burning with a smoky flame)

Danny choked on the smoky fumes. "Where are you?" He yelled, despite the smoke trying to suffocate him. Flames rose up on either side of him like some hungry monster as he flew down the apartment building hallway.

"Come on," He whispered frantically. "Give me something."

He wasn't concerned for himself, with his ice powers and intangibility, he should be fine, but he knew that whoever was trapped in the burning building wouldn't last much longer. The fact that the initial cries had gone silent was not a good sign.

He flew through another door, examining the room as quickly as he dared. He was about to give up and try the next one when he noticed a large lump next to the window. Rushing over, he picked up the young man, but he knew it was too late before he even took off. He had failed, he hadn't been quick enough!

For the next few days and weeks, Danny pushed himself harder than ever before. If he wasn't at school or patrolling, he was training, pushing both his body and powers. His friends and sister were worried he knew, but he couldn't find it in himself to care. He had failed and some innocent had died because of it. He wouldn't fail again.

#6-Blatant

Danny leaned on the wall, looking down at his friend. The techno geek was fully focussed on the paper in front of him. "Aren't you being just a little obvious?" He asked Tucker with a raised eyebrow.

Tucker looked up from his work in righteous indignation. "For your information Danny, there is nothing obvious or cheesy about this. This happens to be a classy method by which young men (such as myself) can find a potential date."

"Uh huh," Danny sounded less than convinced. "You're telling me that this will help you get a date with the girl of your dreams."

"Without a doubt dude." Tucker then proceeded to return to writing his classified ad. "How do you spell sophisticated?"

"D-E-S-P-E-R-A-T-E." Danny deadpanned.

"Thanks man...Hey!"

#7-Blip

Clockwork made it a habit to stay out of normal temporal affairs as much as possible, it took a pretty significant event to get him out of his tower. Most of the time, he simply watched. It was amazing how many people lived their entire lives, raised families, and died, all without causing a single ripple in the time stream. Most people were like this, indistinct from the millions like them, ordinary. They did nothing of appreciable merit, and would be forgotten quickly. Such people did not even garner the time master's attention, not even for a minute.

Other people, however, were world-changers. These were the people that stood out, these Clockwork watched and sometimes, even, interfered. It had been so with Churchill and Washington, and so many others. Despite what the Observants liked to believe, he had been paying attention to Danny Phantom long before they came to 'discuss' the boy's future. Danny was one of Clockwork's specials. In fact, he was more special than most. His presence in the time stream did more than just stand out, it was like a depth charge in the flow of time. He was the first of his kind, a powerful entity. He would do more than just create ripples. Danny Phantom was going to change the world, and Clockwork was going to enjoy the show.

#8-Botanical

Danny had never been the most environmentally minded person, which was interesting considering that one of his best friends was probably one of the biggest tree huggers out there. Between him and Tucker (who was even less environmentally minded than Danny was), Danny was surprised that Sam didn't just go crazy.

Danny had never really paid the natural world much thought. He was an urban raised kid and, honestly, he had more to worry about with all the ghost attacks that whether or not some forest thousands of miles away was being cut down. Maybe it was selfish and naive, but he could never understand why the natural world was so great.

Then he took a walk with Sam through the park. Listening to her describe the plant and animal life around them, watching her eyes light up with a passionate sparkle that made the usually dour Goth glow with beauty, Danny thought that just maybe he understood.

#9-Brunt

Sam and Tucker were the best friends I guy could have, Danny thought as he flew away from the school. He was technically supposed to be in class, but the ghosts usually didn't respect school hours. He would've been stuck, except that his two best friends in the whole world had covered for him.

It wasn't fair really, Sam and Tucker's lives had both turned upside down just because their best friend had been stupid enough to check out the unoperational portal. This wasn't their fight, or at least, it shouldn't be. The fact that they often took the greatest hits for him really made him guilty. Not physical hits of course, those were solely his domain. Although Sam and Tucker sometimes got hurt, it was minor compared to the abuse Danny took on a daily basis. If he wasn't a halfa, with incredible durability and healing powers, he would probably be dead. No, the hits they took were the social kind. It was always them who lied, covering for him, it was they who helped him patrol, even though the risk was much greater to them and they should've been doing homework instead. And whenever Danny made a mess during one of his fights, it was usually Sam and Tucker that had to clean it up.

He didn't deserve them, he really didn't.

#10-By-line

It was a first in world history, an event that had never happened before and will probably never happen again. The day after the Disasteriod crisis, with everyone just getting over the idea that they were still here and not floating around as random pieces of space dust, every newspaper, in every city around the world, had the same front-page story.

In more languages to count, the story was told, of how a single teenager coaxed the entire ghost nation to his side, and by his side they saved the world. It told of courage, insurmountable odds, and a previously unappreciated hero that had helped the human race over and over again, with few rewards in return. It was something out of science fiction novels and comic books.

In short, it was newspaper gold. In almost every city in which the story was run, newspapers sold out. Everyone wanted to know about this mysterious ghost-boy to whom they now owed their lives. Danny Phantom was a household name.

Meanwhile, back in Amity Park, the famous hero hadn't even looked at a paper. He was too busy enjoying time with his family, his best friend, and newly turned girlfriend. Although he had never really put much stock in karma, or any of those 'what goes around comes around' concepts, he was glad that, at least for the moment, fate had decided to give him a happy ending.