Here's the second chapter! Thank you to everyone who read the first chapter and are returning for more! I hope you enjoy :)
It was always the same...Him, Sam, and Tucker were enjoying a nice day together at the amusement park over summer break. Everything was perfect: no school, no parents, no ghosts. They were all just normal teenagers living it up over summer vacation before ultimately going back to the daily grind of Casper High.
It was the summer before senior year. They periodically talked about where they were all planning to go after graduation, trying to formulate a plan to stay together during college. Danny had always wanted to work for NASA, so he set his sights on studying aerospace technologies. Tucker the technology whiz wanted to learn more about computer programming, databases, hacking and the like. Sam was still undecided what kind of major she wanted to go for, but she was leaning more towards wildlife biology. The problem facing the trio was finding a university that could accommodate all three majors they wanted to pursue. There was a state university just two hours out of Amity Park, but they still had a full year to think about where they were headed.
"How about this one?" Sam asked excitedly pointing to the amusement park map. She had been eyeing the Fright Knight coaster since they had arrived. It was the park's tallest and fastest dive coaster, so Sam was eager to give it a try. Danny quickly agreed, much to Tucker's dismay, but they all filed in line and waited as they slowly approached the loading deck.
As Danny drifted into a daydream, he could just hear the screams of the coaster's passengers over the muffle of his thoughtlessness. He was trapped in a sweet dream, wishing he could freeze this very moment, a simpleton's paradise. Just spending time with his two best friends without a care in the world was perfect and he wouldn't change it for anything.
Suddenly, someone was yanking hard at his arm, and as he came back to reality the cries for help pierced his ears. With a harsh blink, the fog cleared from his vision and he could see Sam in front of him, desperately begging him to snap out of his daze as Tucker stared wide-eyed in a panic at the scene unfolding before them.
The sky seemed to open up, like a giant sword was arched across the clouds, slicing into some psychedelic purple dimension, and from that bizarre space came an army of ghosts. The hoard of green, zombie-like ghosts cascaded down into the theme park, causing a mass panic and stampede of people frantically trying to run for cover.
Danny finally jumped into action. He grabbed Sam by the wrist and pulled her alongside him as Tucker was following closely behind.
"Dude! We gotta do something!" Tucker called out to Danny over the deafening screams and stomping of people running as fast as they could.
"There's too many people here!" Danny hollered back, afraid someone would witness his transformation. "This way!" They took a sharp turn to the left, directly into the stream of panicking people. Danny shielded Sam with his body as people diverted their paths just in time to dodge the trio. Their momentum was significantly slower, but eventually the stream of people lightened up to a trickle of stragglers flailing about trying to escape the ghosts that were heading right for them.
Eventually, they came to a clearing towards the rear of the park, where everyone had since evacuated.
"Here," Danny announced as they came to a halt, doubling over in an attempt to catch their breath. They turned to look behind them at the ghosts that were just now descending into theme park. But the army of rotting zombies isn't what scared the group. They were just low-level ghosts that Danny Phantom could take out on his own without a problem. No, that's not what had them shaking in their boots, so to speak. Back in the rip in the Earth's atmosphere was a massive ghost that Danny had never seen before. It had to crouch through the portal just to fit! But once it finally came into view, Danny was able to take in the monstrosity in its entirety.
Its skin was blood red, with thick lines of black running across its bare chest, over both shoulders, and down its arms. Its hands were long and slender with black, dragon-like claws. No doubt the aftermath of an epic battle. Its tail was long and spiked with a massive spade at the tip. The ghost was bulkily built, but not like Jaba the Hut, more like the Hulk. And its horns...its horns weren't uniform, but twisted and arched in odd directions. They were pitch black, and definitely sharp. The thing looked like a demonic chimera: it had the chest of a man, the legs and arms of a lizard with claws and a tail of a dragon, the horns of a ram, and the head of one too. Danny didn't know what to think of it.
"Great, what does he want?" Danny mumbled under his breath.
The beast intently scanned the hoards of park-goers for the one he had come to seek out. His massive head came to a stop as he spotted three lone bodies just standing in a clearing towards the back of the park.
"Phantommm," His voice was so deep and menacing it seemed to shake the very ground Danny was standing on.
Immediately a swarm of minion ghosts surrounded the trio. Danny dropped into a defensive stance, taken off guard by their sudden appearance. He spun around to take in the full extent of the army blocking any chance of escape. Behind him he heard a sharp scream and furiously spun around to see Sam and Tucker taken hostage by two to three ghosts each.
"Let them go!" Danny began to charge towards the rear of the formation, but stopped dead in his tracks as the voice sounded again, this time much closer.
"Phantommm." The ghost must have teleported down from the portal it had just crawled out of because he was now standing directly behind the ghost boy.
Coming out of his crouch and balling his hands into tight fists as he slowly turned to face the chimera ghost, Danny demanded to know what it was he wanted.
"Why have you come to my world?" Danny spat, his carefully enunciated words coated with anger from the heat that was building up in his throat.
The beast was so massive that its words and movements seemed to play out in slow motion. He started to lean down with his 3-clawed deformed hand outstretched and heading straight for Danny.
"IIIII have commme for youuu, Young Phantommm."
But before Danny could speak or even transform, he was struck hard in the back by something unseen, and dropped to his knees. He could hear Sam screaming out, but she sounded so far away. He didn't understand why she was crying...He looked down at the gaping hole in his chest from where the spike on the chimera ghost's tail had just penetrated his body. His vision became spotted, his senses and balance seemed to disappear as he plunged into the darkness with nothing but the low rumbling cackle of the ghost reverberating in his head before everything went black.