Breaking Dawn
A Danny Phantom Fanfic by Quill N. Inque
I do not own Danny Phantom.
"The power of the Enemy...is growing."-Galadriel, "Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002)
Chapter 13: Love and Lasers
The Amity Park Shopping Center was, to be frank, the last place in the world Danny Fenton would have expected to take his girlfriend Sam on a date.
Through the subtle encouragement of his friend Tucker, Danny had rushed over to Sam's house with the misconception that the Manson girl had grown to resent the way that the Society's machinations and life in general had cut in to her ability to spend time with him. True, Danny may have overreacted somewhat (for his unnaturally panicked response to Tucker's proclamation was out-of-character with his usually easygoing nature), but the stress of returning to public life, as well as Brody's abduction and subsequent rescue, had run Danny positively ragged and thus elicited a more emotional response from him than was typical. Sam, to her credit, had positively guffawed upon seeing Danny's distress, and it took several moments of soothing words and gentle kisses for her to reassure him that she was in no way feeling neglected or unwanted.
Danny, though relieved, had nevertheless almost fiercely insisted on taking Sam with him for a social outing. He did not say as much, but Sam guessed at how ragged his nerves had become over the past few days, and thus concluded that a few hours of fun would do Danny a world of good. If anyone on God's green earth needed a proverbial break, it was he.
Of course, the fact remained that this was still technically Danny's first date, and, consequently, he had no idea what he was doing. And though the mall was not his first choice, it had been high on Sam's list of priorities; though tough-as-nails and fiercely protective, his girlfriend very much enjoyed shopping, though her tastes were somewhat…different than those of other young women her age. Rather than glancing over the racks in Liz Claiborne or GAP, Sam instead anticipated a happy afternoon browsing the shelves of GameStop and Hot Topic.
Danny, in contrast, disliked the mall as a general rule. The place was packed with people, loud, and chaotic, and the occasional pickpocket or shady-looking vendors enhanced Danny's distaste.
After his exposure, however, Danny now found the people that herded around him like groups of buffalo to be almost a blessing in disguise. With his face on the news and in every paper, it was much harder for those who wished to ogle at him to pick Danny's profile out in a crowd. It worked almost as a buffer against the media that constantly hounded him, a constantly moving human shield, and thus it was here that Danny and Sam could enjoy the simple pleasure of each other's company in relative peace.
Danny's nostrils quivered as his sneakers squeaked and slid on the scuffed floor underfoot, an armada of smells and sounds assailing his sensory organs as he clutched Sam's hand in his. From the food court came the smell of fresh pretzels and burgers sizzling on the grill, of Chinese takeout and steaming-hot pizza piled high with searing-hot mozzarella. From the shops one could smell the sweetness of a hundred different brands of expensive perfumes, and these mingled jarringly with the reek of the chlorine and disinfectant that the janitorial staff sprayed everywhere. A thousand simultaneous conversations combined to create a constant droning not unlike that of a massive bumblebee, and a cheerful smile that had long been absent from Danny's features now returned in full force as Sam caught his eye playfully.
Danny rubbed the nape of his neck nervously, racking his brain so as to find some reference material as to what a young man should say in such situations. "So, uh, do you want to…play video games or something?" he asked, inwardly slapping himself and cringing for sounding like such an amateur.
Sam felt a tingle of excitement all the way down to her toes, and a wave of affection for him washed over her as she saw how nervous and anxious he was to make her happy. Danny was obviously taking the role of "boyfriend" quite seriously, and the fact that he cared so much about her made Sam's heart speed up ever so slightly. He's so sweet, the Goth thought, smiling to herself, but aloud she replied, "Depends."
"On what?"
A challenging smile split her face in twain. "On whether or not you think you can beat me."
"I absolutely think I can beat you," Danny smirked back, beginning to relax as the tension of the past few days began to lift from his young shoulders. "No one plays 'Street Fighter' better than me."
"Wanna bet?"
"I most certainly do."
"Fine, but if you lose, you're buying me lunch," Sam warned him playfully. "And I don't order cheap food."
"In that case, I think I'll go to the bathroom first," Danny's gaze was lovestruck. "I don't want any distractions holding me back."
"Just goes to show that those Super-Glugs come back to haunt you quicker than you think," Sam laughed. "Hurry, okay? The urge to thrash you and mop the floor with your tears is getting overwhelming."
Danny's eyes never left hers as he vanished inside the men's room. She is so cute when she talks like that, he thought, grinning foolishly as all men do when hopelessly infatuated. So great, in fact, was Sam's effect on Danny's cognitive functions that he ended up passing right through the door.
The distraction would prove costly, however.
Neither Danny nor Sam noticed the shadowy observer that, several feet away, glanced ominously over the top of his newspaper…
Much Later…
Danny's face looked almost sullen as he followed a very smug Sam Manson from the dark and noisy old-fashioned arcade. He was still quite stunned at just how thoroughly his girlfriend had defeated him in cyberspace…for the fifty-sixth time. Sam had utterly thrashed him, despite his display of bravado earlier, and now a somewhat disgruntled Danny was bound to treat her to a lavish lunch that would surely deplete the number of bills in his wallet.
"You cheated," Danny muttered, though there was no malice in his words.
"I did not," Sam defended herself with equally false vigor. "It isn't my fault that you suck at gaming."
"I do not suck!"
"I have fifty-six good reasons that tell me otherwise," Sam retorted, tapping her finger on his nose and half-turning as she did so. Danny followed her gaze-
-And, upon glancing back the way they had come, the ghost boy did not like what he saw. Realization hit him like the .22 slug that had punched through his shoulder a month previously, and Danny gave a nervous twitch as worry, not for himself, but for Sam, made his gut wrench.
Danny had a bad feeling about all of this, and if Brody's example was any indication, the young hero knew that one should trust his gut in such situations.
Though he had only a single hunch to go on, a suspicion that could likely be a mere coincidence, Danny instinctively knew.
He and Sam were being followed.
She instantly noticed the flash of distress that rippled across his face, and the carefree atmosphere that had thus far pervaded her outing with Danny dissipated like sobriety in a booze factory. "What's wrong?" Sam murmured.
Danny clutched her hand tightly, making an effort to appear oblivious to the stalker that had, until now, remained under his radar. "See the man on the bench, outside the arcade?"
"The guy reading the paper? What about him?"
"Does he look familiar?"
"Should he?" Sam made no attempt to hide her confusion.
"He was also outside the parking lot when we got here," Danny elaborated, "And, now that I think about it, he was also outside the restroom a while ago before we went to the gaming room. I think he's following us!"
"Is he one of the Society?" Sam murmured, scarcely moving her lips. "Maybe he was there when you rescued Brody! Have you seen him before?"
"No idea," Danny admitted. "Maybe I have seen him before, but I can't be sure. It was too dark in that base to see much of anything. In any case, I think it's better to play it safe; let's just walk away, casually, and see if we can lose him."
"What if he gets up?"
"Then I turn invisible and we get the heck out of here. I'd rather not use my powers in front of so many people, obviously, but I'd rather that than put you at risk. The Society isn't afraid to hurt people; they almost got Brody already. I'd sooner shove myself into the Fenton Thermos than let them even get near you, Sam." And this afternoon was going so well, Danny added mournfully, crying on the inside. Why does this kind of thing always happen at the least convenient of times? Is the entire universe conspiring just to keep me from being alone with her?
"R-right," Sam's tone trembled a little as the dire nature of the potential threat dawned upon her. "Let's go, then."
"Don't even glance at him," Danny advised. "Trust me: when you're trying to lose someone without that person knowing it, you should never look them in the eye or even hint that you're on to him."
"Did Brody teach you that?"
"In a way," the ghost boy's smile was bitter as he took her by the arm and slowly began moving in the other direction.
The stalker's eyes followed their every move, but he made no attempt to pursue them. Instead, his hand inched toward a certain device that was concealed within the lining of his blazer.
From within the pocket's confines, a miniature spy camera clicked.
A grim smile of satisfaction graced the stranger's face, despite the fact that he'd lost the young couple within the milling herds of packed humanity. The man made one last, desperate attempt to locate Fenton. His sharp, hawk-like eyes narrowed as he searched for his quarry from the comfort of his bench-
-But the only trace of Danny Fenton that he could find was a flash of raven hair before it disappeared completely.
This was not a metaphor. Danny, in a flash of inspiration, had ducked into a nearby alcove and phased from the visible spectrum altogether. Sam, per his instructions, had begun walking in step at a convincing angle to another black-haired boy so as to fool their pursuer. Unseen and unnoticed, Danny floated above the bobbing heads of his fellow man and made landfall, without a sound, not five feet away from the back of the stranger's head.
The pig-like squeal that the man let out as Danny's arm suddenly wrapped around his throat was actually somewhat satisfying.
"Why are you following us?" the ghost boy whispered, knowing full well that it would only be a matter of moments before someone noticed that he had strong-armed the man by his windpipe. "Who are you? Tell me!"
"Argagghhh…" the older fellow gurgled, clawing at his throat.
Danny saw the problem and relaxed for only a moment, allowing his prisoner just enough air to speak.
"My name's…hukkk… Sims," the stalker whispered hoarsely. "Paul… Sims."
"Are you with the Society?" Danny hissed, tightening his grip again like a vise.. "Speak!"
"Glargggh….No, Jesus, no, I'm not!" Sims cried, now genuinely afraid as the slightest tinge of blue crept into his cheeks. "I'm…reporter…for the Amity Herald! I wanted…hu-k-k-k…a scoop on the personal life of…Aiieeerrrggh!"
The hapless man writhed like a snake, his tongue waggling furiously as Danny's elbow tightened around his windpipe, much harder than before. Anger long repressed threatened to boil over and tinged the ghost boy's vision red at the sheer indignity of it all: this man had been trying to intrude upon the most private and cherished part of Danny's personal life!
"Get out," he hissed. "And I swear to God, if you come near me or Sam again I'll break you in two."
"Glark-k-k! Y-yes!" Tears of terror streamed down Sims' face as he nodded like a bobble-head. The reporter was partially convinced that Danny was about to snap his neck like kindling.
But the ghost boy had no such intentions. With a savage wrench he freed the pinioned Sims from his clutches, and before he could glance around again, Danny had once more vanished from sight.
The camera, however, remained.
Epilogue
Paul Sims' throat was bruising rapidly as he glanced furtively over his shoulder. With blatant disregard to the sign that designated the alley behind the mall for "Employees Only," Sims slipped through the back exit and found himself standing in the dingy lane that separated Amity Mall from its business competitors on either side. A piece of newspaper swirled among Sims' ankles as his shoes crunched on the gravel, and his pudgy face now looked somewhat malevolent as he opened his mouth to speak.
"I've got it," he said aloud, seemingly to no one in particular.
From the shadows that cloaked the adjacent walls, a second man, his face hidden beneath the high collar of his coat, smiled in satisfaction.
"Our bargain?" Sims demanded. "I don't work for free; that cover identity was expensive!"
"True enough," the other man agreed, handing over a slender envelope stuffed to the brim with Ben Franklins. "You seem a bit worse for wear, though."
"The kid was on to me," the "reporter" snarled. "I'm lucky he didn't tear my head off."
"Does he suspect?"
"Nah, he bought it like a sale at Macy's," Sims' evil smile mirrored his companion's as he fished the camera out of his lapel.
"I thought you actually did work for a newspaper," the shadow man arched an eyebrow.
"I did," Sims growled, "before I got fired for hacking into some guy's email to get a story."
"That's just the sort of originality we need. Should you seek more…meaningfulemployment, I'm sure the Light will have need of your services."
"Sounds good to me. I don't care about personal boundaries as long as I get paid. I make three times my old annual salary each month working for you guys."
"And now, thanks to your, ah, unorthodox methods, we now know the Dark Child's greatest weakness. The girl is his Achilles heel; it was a mistake to target the agent first."
"You want me to go after her, then? I could break into her house or something."
"No. Our Order is already at risk of being compromised now that the ghost child has discovered the location of one of our bases. Now is the time to prepare for our next crusade, to rest, regroup, and resupply."
"The kid didn't bug you, did he?" Sims asked nervously.
"Of course he did," the stranger laughed softly. "He wants to gather information…so we might decide to give him some. Faulty intelligence, naturally, but he'll never know the difference until it's too late."
"Well played. So did I make the cut or not?"
The ominous figure extended his hand. "You most certainly did. Welcome to the Society, Mr. Sims. Come into the Light…"
A/N: THAT BASTARD! I knew Sims seemed like more than he claimed to be! What will happen now that his photos are in enemy hands? What vile plot does the Society of Light have in mind? And will Danny EVER get a moment alone with Sam? Find out in coming chapters! As always, PLEASE REVIEW! If YOU have ANY ideas or suggestions on how I can make this story more enjoyable, LET ME KNOW! YOUR OPINION COUNTS! ^^
Finally, on a more personal note, I wish to send my humblest and most sincere thanks to all of you who wrote in to express your condolences following my last update. Your letters were a source of happiness and comfort in a time of great sorrow for me, and your words of caring were at the forefront of my mind as we laid Aunt Janice to rest in the family plot. The outpouring of compassion and understanding has earned you all my undying gratitude, and thus I wish to say thank you, ALL of you, for giving me the privilege of having such warm and caring readers to write for.
God bless each and every single one of you.
Your humble servant,
-Quill N. Inque