And now come a series of pointless chapters as we try to defy the inevitable. Yep…I'm that lame… This one's kind of short but oh well, I can't think of a lot of stuff right now.
Nine: Death to You, Boy!
"In the moving crowd, of a faceless town, I need to feel the touch of a friend. In the countryside, I wander far and wide, the isolation gets me again."
"Come on! Do you have to watch all the stupid programs!?" Tucker whined, spinning around in his chair, so he could glare at Amethyst who was starring intently at the television screen in his room, "I mean, at least switch it to Comedy Central or something a little less foreign!"
"What's wrong with foreign TV shows, Tuck?" Sam gave him an evil smile, "A lot of the technology you're using is foreign…!"
Tucker sputtered in his seat, finally threw his hands into the air, and faced his computer again, slapping headphones on and turning up the music so he couldn't hear the program.
"What's wrong with Yu Yu Hakusho?" Danny wondered aloud, "It's awesome!"
"I don't know where to go when I feel like crying! Oh my, it's time to open myself up! Do something new! I want to stop and grow up a bit!"
"What's wrong with 'Smile Bomb'?" Sam muttered, referring to the theme song.
"Other than it's crazily happy for a Goth!" He raised his eyebrows at her and she rolled her eyes, drawing her knees up to her chin and facing the TV again in a huff. Amethyst hadn't said a word, to intent upon the screen.
"And suddenly my power and confidence comes swelling up, magically erupts! And it's all because the kindness that feel from people I don't even know!"
"FOX!" Amethyst screeched as Kurama flashed across the screen, making them all jump. Then she settled back to starring at the TV like nothing had ever happened. She'd done that every single time Kurama or anything relating to a fox had shown up. It made Danny laugh.
Sam rolled her eyes, pushing her hair from her face, it being down from her usual style, and hid a grin in her arms. The Yokai Fox girl was hilarious and annoying at the same time.
"And suddenly my intuition and my wisdom go! And then I know, that most of all I sense compassions real from the strangers wherever I go! Thank you for waking me up!"
"You know, I've been wondering about something…" Danny muttered aloud, noting that the episode was a re-run, "That one time we were fighting that one Yokai Tabby," He got glares from Amethyst and Sam (Tucker still had his head in his computer), "Okay, okay, well, the thing was about to bite me and Amethyst, you freaked out like it was pointing a gun to my head. What was that about?"
Amethyst bit her lip and looked away, turning back to the TV screen. Sam picked the remote up and turned the TV off. The ghost fox snarled at her and then subsided, pouting in the middle of the couch because she didn't know how to work the remote or the television. After a moment of silence, she realized she wasn't going to get what she wanted and sighed.
"Every human has a Yokai Ghost buried deep inside them because every human has some sort of inner guardian or something like that." She wasn't looking at anyone but rather was starring blankly at the carpet but even Tucker had removed his headphones to hear what was going on, "Humans don't have sub-clan ghosts, though, only the main twelve and a regular Yokai Ghost can tap that power, bringing it out in the human…by biting them."
"Ah, I see why you didn't want the Tabby biting Danny." Tucker nodded and then paused, "But hey, wouldn't having a Yokai power make him stronger?"
"Yeah, I mean, having the power of one of the twelve Zodiac animals at your finger tips…sounds pretty cool to me!" Sam said and Danny nodded enthusiastically, wondering if he could get Amethyst annoyed enough to bite him.
But the Yokai Fox shook her head,
"Yokai power isn't just something you get." Her violet eyes locked with Danny's blue ones and he realized how serious she was being, "You have to control it. Otherwise it will control you. A Yokai Ghost power is corruptive on a human. My father told me of a case where the human was completely taken over by the Yokai Ghost and never became human again…"
"What a horrible fate…" Danny whispered and then a grin split his features, "Like it could ever happen to me! Heh," He puffed himself up, "I bet I'd be a Dragon!"
"I highly doubt that." Amethyst snickered as Sam poked Danny in the side, making the boy deflate and giggle, "Only pure-hearted beings have a Yokai Dragon inside them. And from what I've seen, Danny Fenton, you don't fit that description!"
"You'd be a Rat, Danny!" Tucker laughed from his chair, spinning it around in circles, "And I'd be the handsome Tiger!" He pretended to preen himself, much to the others' amusement.
"So that would leave me with the Snake then." Sam grinned wickedly, leering over Danny who'd fallen to the floor, the Goth girl perched on top of him, "Prepare to suffer!" And she started tickling him.
"Ahahahahaha! No! Ahahahahahahahahahahaha!" Danny rolled underneath Sam, pushing her away, laughing, "Fine, fine, fine! I'm the Bull! I'm the Bull!"
"Winner: Sam Manson." Sam held her hands in the air, still sitting on top of the Fenton boy, "By forfeit!" And she poked Danny's nose before tickling him again. Danny squealed with laughter, twisting around like a worm on a hook, tears forming at the edges of his eyes, pushing at Sam's questing fingers, and screaming mercy at the top of his voice.
Amethyst and Tucker roared with mirth, the Yokai Fox hanging off the arm of the couch, shaking, and Tucker slid half-way off his chair, clutching his side, barely breathing he was laughing so hard. Danny finally managed to squirm his way out from underneath Sam and dash around to the other side of the couch, making faces at her, only to be tackled by Amethyst who then leapt away and bounced across the room to Tucker who found himself pinned to the floor by the girl. He chuckled at her and shoved her off and the two got into a squabble which Danny and Sam quickly joined in. A half hour later, the four of them sat panting on the floor, grins splitting their features, still letting out the occasional breathless giggle of delight.
"Enjoying yourselves?" It was a whisper on a breeze through the open window of Tucker's room, lightly ruffling the curtains but they all froze and shared a horrified look; Trice was watching them, "I'm sorry, did I interrupt something?"
"Trice…" Danny said warningly as he got slowly to his feet, eyes scanning the room angrily, "Where are you? What do you want?"
"I thought we'd established that?" Trice's whisper of a voice ruffled the curtains again and Danny stuck his head out the window looking around for the bad cat, "I want the Yokai Fox girl. Dead. And then your friends. Dead. And then your family. Dead. And then, maybe, I'll kill you. If I'm feeling merciful."
"Where are you, you stinking cat!?" Snarled Amethyst, a slight red glow lighting up her figure, the gem on her neck glowing, "Where are you hiding!?"
"Doesn't matter," Trice chuckled as Danny withdrew his head back into the room and starred around, looking more like he was pouting than he was angry, "I'm going to play with you some more. A ball of string, no? Have fun with my little friends."
They waited in silence for a moment and then Danny turned to Sam.
"You heard that, right?"
"The freaky voice-on-the-wind-thing? Yeah."
"Good." He turned to Tucker, "You heard it too, right?"
"Oh yeah!" The techie adjusted his glasses, looking about ready to wet himself, "Scary!"
"Okay, then I'm not crazy." Danny muttered, running his hands through his black hair, "But how the heck did he do that!?" He looked at Amethyst but she shook her head, "Aw, man, we're totally screwed."
"I think screwed is an understatement, Danny." Sam muttered, brushing her hair with her fingers, "We've been on his hit list from the beginning and the only thing that's holding him back now is because he wants to play."
"Play, play, play…!" Tucker whined, "Why do they always have to play!?"
"If Trice wants to play…" Amethyst's voice was just above a whisper, fox ears pinned back, tail bristling, her rage taking control of her, "Then let's play back…!"
Danny grinned darkly, his eyes flashing briefly to green.
"I think I like the sound of that…"
Next Time on 'Melody in Red'
Danny: (singing a random tune) Mirror Phantom! Rules the world! Yeah! Mirror Phantom! Gonna make your hair curl!
Sam: That has got to be the most horrible thing I've ever heard.
Danny: Yeah, you got anything better?
Tucker: I do! I do!
Sam and Danny: What?
Tucker: Ahem! "The Lombax shall die, A fiery horrible death, Cupcakes are yummy."
Amethyst: What is a cupcake?
EmptyHeart: I apologize for that. I've been playing 'Ratchet and Clank Future: Tools of Destruction' and I'd almost forgotten how much I love Ratchet and Clank. And that stupid little haiku is from Emperor Tachyon or however the heck you spell his name.