Chapter Two
As Danny arrived at school the bell had just rung. Rather than stopping off at his locker he ran straight to class. In the midst of running to class he nearly slammed into the Janitor, fortunately he had become much better at controlling his abilities and phased right through him. How did I ever get by without Ghost powers? Danny wondered as he bound into class, taking his seat next to Sam and Tucker. Without all of the constant interruptions by ghosts, Danny found that School had become much easier, and less of a hassle, to deal with. But now he had an actual excuse for leaving class unannounced. The day went on rather uneventfully as time continued it's slow crawl towards the end of the day, by the time the Lunch hour rolled around Danny found himself dreading the next classes. While lazily eating the cafeteria food Sam snuck up behind him. Placing her hands in front of his eyes she playfully 'blinded' him.
"Guess?" Sam laughed lightly as she held his head to her chest.
"Um- Guess what? Sam I know it is you, what do you want me to guess?" He felt Sam open her hands slightly to reveal a rather impressive looking cake that had been placed in front of him.
"Happy Birthday!" Sam shouted along with Tucker and Valerie.
Danny nearly burst out laughing at this. "Guys, you know it is not even close to my birthday." In spite of this he still wanted a piece of the amazing looking cake. "Seriously what is this about?" He looked at his friends faces in expectation of an answer.
"Dude, we know it isn't your birthday, but it is the birthday of your Ghost powers! Three years ago today you first got your Ghost powers and became Danny Phantom. Which in retrospect was a terrible idea for a name. I mean come on your name is Danny Fenton, anyone with half a wit should have been able to figure it out." Tucker absentmindedly mused to himself, which caused an uproar of laughter from his three friends. After thinking about it for a minute Tucker started to laugh too.
"Well seeing as it is my 'birthday' today, do you guys want to do anything special tonight?" He looked at them, hoping to get a positive feed back. However both Tucker and Valerie gave him downtrodden glances.
"Sorry dude, but I actually can't tonight. There is a council meeting that the mayor is required to attend. I wish I could, but it will be from 6:00 pm till 9:00 pm. After that I have to finish my work on what to Veto or let pass. I will not be able to do anything once the school bell rings." Tucker made as sad of a face as possible, which elicited a small laugh from Danny.
"It is okay man, we spent the day together yesterday. It is not a huge deal, honestly I wasn't even aware that today was my Ghost Day." Danny continued smiling. "What about you Valerie?"
"I wish I could Danny, but I am training on my Glider today. I have to keep in shape, just in case Danny Phantom needs any help." She smiled a small sad smile. Danny could tell that they both wanted to hang out with him but seriously couldn't.
"Look Val it is okay. You guys never had to do this in the first place. I am just glad that you thought to do this. What about you Sam? Any plans." Sam looked at him with a sad gaze.
"Sorry Danny, but I have an extensive art project I have been working on that I was hoping to finish this evening." Danny smiled softly.
"Well that is okay, then let's dig into this cake and have some fun today none the less." Danny made a small blade out of Ghost energy and sliced the cake into more manageable pieces.
"I am game for that." Valerie said as she sat down at the table.
"Dude, as if I would skip out on cake." Tucker stated gleefully as he pulled up the four trays he had brought for each of them.
"I would love to have some cake. Honestly it has been too long since I last had some." Sam smiled as she sat down, taking a tray for herself. For the next twenty minutes of lunch the quartet dined on delicious slices of cake. As the bell rang and the lunchroom emptied the four friends parted ways and started to return to their classes. Before Danny had a chance to walk to class he was pulled off to the side by Sam.
"Look Danny-" Sam paused for a moment, unable to formulate her words.
"What is it Sam?" Danny looked at her with a loving gaze, the same kind of gaze that told you everything was going to be okay.
"I lied earlier, I don't have anything going on this evening. I just didn't want Tuck or Val to hear because they might make assumptions. If you want, you can come over to my house later and we can play some video games." Sam looked at Danny hopefully.
"Sam Manson, I would love to." He smiled as he agreed to her proposal.
"Alright cool, I will see you after school then." Sam held back the urge to blush terribly.
"Yep see you then!" Danny shouted as he ran off to class. Later that day, after the four friends went their separate ways Danny flew home as fast as he could. He had only a couple of things to do before he went over to Sam's house. As soon as he phased into his room he got started on his homework right away. He finished it in a record time of only an hour and thirty minutes, afterwards he ran to the shower and cleaned himself up. Once his after school ritual was done he raced down the stairs to meet his family.
"Hey guys, sorry but I am going to be heading over to Sam's house. Don't wait up for me." Danny said as he quickly exited the door.
"Danny wait a minute..." Maddie called after him, but he was already gone.
"Oh come on Maddie, let him have his fun. Once he goes to college he might not get to see his friends as much as he would like." Jack returned to fiddling with the Fenton Fisher in hopes to get it working again.
"Well alright, I can't help but worry about him though. Even knowing full well who he is and what he can do I am still concerned." Maddie sat back down on the couch and picked up the book she was reading before Danny left.
"I know, I worry too, but we can't hope to know all of his where abouts at all times. So let him have his freedom while it lasts." Maddie looked at Jack in surprise, in all her years of knowing him she had never heard him say such profound or wise words. She laughed lightly, put down her book, stood up and walked over to him. Forcing him to put down what he was working on, she kissed him.
"Even after all these years Jack, you can still do things that remind me why I married you. Let's go to the bedroom." She winked seductively at him before dragging him along up stairs. Meanwhile, a few blocks away, Danny was just running up to Sam's door. After getting to the top step he rang the bell. At first no one answered the door, which Danny thought was a little odd. However, as he was about to ring it again, the door slid open. There in the door way stood Sam. But she looked a lot different than Danny was used to seeing. Danny's face flushed a deep crimson in color.
"Um, Sam, hi. What are you wearing?" As his eyes scanned her from head to toe, he noticed that she was no longer wearing her usual black T-shirt and purple skirt. Rather she had chosen to sport a fairly skimpy 'nurse' uniform, which helped to accentuate her most feminine features.
Sam was almost as red as he was, she thought she could do this but it was a lot more embarrassing than she had expected it to be. "Well I was not totally honest when I invited you over to my house. You see, my parents and grandma left for a week long vacation in the Bahamas this morning. They left me in charge of the house. Since I was in charge I sent most of the servants home for vacation for the week. The rest only work for about three hours a day keeping the house clean. So in essence, we have the whole house to ourselves. I had wanted to, well I guess you can tell what I wanted to do by looking at my clothes. However now that we are here I-" Sam's sentence was cut off as Danny placed his lips squarely against hers and pushed her back into the house. Sam at first was surprised, but let her emotions take control. As Danny walked in, he gently closed the door behind him.
By the time Danny ended up leaving Sam's house it was well past midnight, getting close to one in the morning. Danny didn't care though, this had been another amazing day for him. As he rounded a corner he heard a siren blaring in the distance. "Sounds like a fire engine." Danny whispered to himself. "Well, I don't really have anything to do, and my ghost powers might come in handy." Danny attempted to convince himself to go check it out, which, in all honesty, he didn't need much convincing. activating his ghost abilities, he flew off towards the sound of the engine. As he got higher up into the sky he noticed a building on the far edge of town, near where Freakshow had set up his Circus Gothica, fully ablaze. "I hope I can help." Danny said as he flew towards the burning building. A couple minutes later he landed next to, who he thought was, the Fire Chief. "What is going on here? Can I help?" Danny startled the Fire Chief slightly as he whipped around to find the source of the voice.
"Danny Phantom, in all my years. We aren't really sure what happened. This building was just recently constructed, even upgraded with the most high tech fire suppression system. Some how this thing still went up like a Roman Candle." The Fire Chief paused to shout orders to the other men in the Fire Brigade. "Look, from our reports there were twenty seven tenants in the building. However we only count twenty five, not including management. My men can't get close to the building, the fire is too hot, but perhaps you could get in there and see where the missing two tenants are." The Fire Chief looked, pleadingly, at Danny.
"I will do my best." Danny responded before flying into the building. Inside the building was a fiery hell hole. Danny had to phase through many objects just to not get burned. As he searched around he heard a small cry. Phasing through a burning door he found a small girl, clutching a teddy bear tightly in her arms, hiding underneath a marble table. Clever girl. Danny thought as he cautiously walked up to her. "Hi there, what is your name?" Upon hearing his voice the little girl looked up.
Noticing his snow white hair she immediately recognized him. "I- I am Sara." The girl paused and shrank back a little as the ceiling started to crack and buckle. Danny could tell the girl was terrified. Her voice trembled as she spoke. In an attempt to calm her down Danny tried to take her mind off of the current situation.
"So who is your friend there?" Danny said pointing to her raggedy teddy bear.
"His name is Mr. Tuffin, he protects me at night when I sleep." Danny gave her a big toothy grin at hearing that.
"You would never know it, but I had a stuffed animal just like him when I was your age." Sara's opened her eyes a little at hearing that.
"Really?" She said, her interest in Danny growing.
Danny smiled even wider, he could tell it was working. "Yep I called him Giant Man." Sara laughed at this.
"That is a silly name." Danny knew he had her then.
"Hey I was only five at the time." Sara giggled a little more then looked Danny square in the eye.
"Please, can you take me to my mommy. She told me to follow her but we got separated." Danny reached his hand out to her, and gave her his most relaxed smile he could muster in the current situation.
"Sure, grab my hand and we will go find her. Just hold on tight to Mr. Tuffin." As he spoke he made them both intangible and flew out of the building with her. Upon watching him exit everyone in the crowd cheered. The Fire Chief, along with a couple of Paramedics, ran up to Sara and took her out of his hands.
"Thank you son." The Chief went to shake his hand. However Danny refused.
"I can't there is still someone inside of the building. She only makes twenty six." As if on cue Sara started to cry. Wondering why, Danny ran over to her. "Sara what is the matter?"
In between the huge sobs and buckets of tears she uttered a few words. "Mommy... not here!" As she said this her crying became even more severe. Danny's eyes went wide at the realization. Without even acknowledging the other people around him he flew headlong back into the burning building.
"Hello? Is there anyone else here?" He called out into the inferno in hopes that someone would call back. To his horror no one did. "Can you hear me?" He called out once more in an attempt to find Sara's mother.
"I can hear you just fine Daniel." Danny nearly jumped at hearing his voice. The smooth, casual, tone in which he spoke was all too well known to Danny.
"Vlad! So I didn't just dream it." Danny said as he lunged at Vlad in the hope of catching him off guard. To his disappointment, Vlad caught his fist, and, as compensation for his attempted attack, delivered a punishing blow to Danny's abdomen. This caused Danny to buckle over in pain.
"Of course you didn't my dear boy. I meant what I said, and this building is only the start. Find me the objects I need and no one else will have to die." As Vlad said this he threw the corpse of a woman who looked to be in her mid to late twenties at him. Danny caught the woman only to realize how much she looked like Sara. "Believe me when I say Daniel, that the next one will be much, much, closer to home." Vlad let out another of his maniacal laughs only to conjure up rings of fire around him. When they fully surrounded his body he looked like a burning atom. Danny could only watch in vain as Vlad flung his arms wide, causing the rings of fire to erupt in every direction. The force of the attack was so great that it launched Danny through a nearby wall and onto the parking lot in front of the building. To everyone standing outside it was as if the fire had just hit a gas line as the whole building exploded in a blaze of glory that, to the fire fighter's distress, could not be put out. Everyone merely watched as the building incinerated itself. The Fire Chief and a few others witnessed Danny fly through the wall from the explosion and raced to help him. As Danny slipped from consciousness again he saw the Paramedics rush up to him in an attempt to heal any injuries he might have sustained. However none of their faces mattered, as his eyes fell upon Sara they both knew that he had failed. The last image he saw was that of tears welling up in Sara's eyes.