Chapter 47
His nose itched, that annoying tickle of a sneeze about to come but was refusing to allow him that simple satisfaction. Danny glowered as he neared his class. He had hoped that the cold from yesterday would clear up by morning, but it was lingering. Vlad decided to let Danny have a day off from training after Danny ended up have a rather bad sneezing fit while they talked. Danny rubbed at his head as he remembered that one, which left his brain feeling rattled like someone grabbed him and shook him violently for several minutes. He was kind of thankful for that consideration, but he knew he still had a lot of training that he needed to do.
As he reached the door to his class, Danny heard that now familiar growling of the security program Cujo. "Oh, you have to be kidding me," he muttered, lifting his arm to frown at the watch. "There's a virus attacking right now?"
Cujo gave a deep throated growl in response as the translucent screen popped up from his watch. It was the map that he used to locate virus outbreaks before Vlad sent Cujo to him as a little spy. Danny still hated that Vlad chose to spy on him after their first meeting, but he grew used to having the dog program around all the time. Cujo was quicker at pinpointing where a virus was attacking than his old method.
Danny sighed when he spotted the blinking marker that indicated a virus that popped out of the NetZone right outside the school. He was rather enjoying the fact that ever since the attack in the gym when the spider virus stabbed him in the chest with its legs there wasn't any other attacks to interrupt his life. But of course, another virus would have to come and attack the school just to ruin his day.
Turning away from his class, he hurried down the hall to the nearest bathroom, which thankfully was empty since everyone had headed off to their classes already. His transformation happened as usual with a the familiar surge of electricity running through him, but something felt a little off this time. He sneezed, and it felt like the electricity raced over him, leaving his body twitchy where the sparks touched. Glancing at his reflection in the mirror, he saw nothing out of the ordinary beyond his white hair looking fluffier than usual.
"Okay. I'm going to ignore that weirdness," Danny mumbled, frowning over the strangeness of that whole experience. "Take care of the virus first. Then worry about that thing later."
With a nod, he rushed out of the bathroom, jogging through the halls to the front of the school. It was a short distance thankfully since his class was close to the front entrance. Throwing open the doors, he skidded to a halt when he spotted the giant spider virus looming over him. It reared up, wiggling two long and sharply pointed legs in his direction. Danny winced, recalling how much it hurt to be stabbed with those legs. Except this spider's legs were a lot thicker and would leave much larger holes through him if he didn't react fast enough to avoid having them pierce through him again. When the legs drove down toward him, Danny immediately dodged, jumping forward in a roll that landed him right under the virus.
"Let's hope this works." Danny summoned up his scythe like he did when he practiced with Vlad. It came to him easily, forming in his hands without much thought or concentration. Danny really appreciated Vlad's point about timing in a fight now. Without that long session of training to craft the weapon, it would have taken him a much longer time to summon the scythe, which would cost him as he knelt unprotected underneath the giant spider.
While the spider was still confused over missing its target, Danny swung his scythe, cleanly slicing through the underbelly with the glowing green blade. He swiped at it several times, hacking the virus quickly into pieces. The spider squealed and whined as the severed parts toppled to the ground with thuds. Danny jumped out of the way before a chunk of the spider could land on top of him and flatten him into the ground. He dispelled his scythe, placing his hands on his hips as he smiled down at his work. But the smug sense of victory fell flat fast as he remembered that he couldn't actually destroy the virus. He could chop it up as much as he liked, but the virus would still live to come back and fight again. His hands closed into tight fists as he ground his teeth. He needed a way to eliminate the threat that viruses posed.
When the doors suddenly opened, banging against the wall, Danny snapped his head around and tensed when he saw Valerie on the front steps of the school, already dressed in her black and red suit. I can't catch a break, can I? he wondered with a tired internal sigh. Viruses were bad enough without having a vengeful hunter on his tail trying to kill him. Valerie fired a blast of pink at him, and Danny quickly erected a shield that blocked the attack.
"It's not safe here," Danny told her, noticing out of the corner of his eyes as the pieces that he chopped the virus into were wiggling about and reforming into smaller spiders.
"Not safe for viruses," Valerie agreed with a dangerous note to her voice.
Danny realized with a sense of dread that Valerie placed him in the virus category. "Those," he pointed at the spider viruses quickly righting themselves and looking ready to launch an attack, "are the threat you should focus on." He put up another shield as Valerie fired upon him. Talking, apparently, wasn't going to fix anything between them. So much for the bet being a great step, he thought dryly, beginning to think Vlad's opinion on that point was entirely wrong.
A spider launched at him, and Danny managed to grab its bulbous body, keeping its deadly looking needle like legs away from piercing him in the chest again. Utilizing one of the skills Vlad taught him, he sent a surge of electricity through the spider, stunning it for the moment. When he glanced at Valerie, he saw her blasting one spider straight through its body. Unfortunately, even having a hole through it didn't stop the virus' movements for long.
Unless they figured out a way to permanently put down the viruses, this fight could go on forever. Danny ground his teeth in frustration at the endless battle. Shields went up to protect him whenever Valerie tried to fire at him instead of the spiders. They worked fairly well together, knocking back the viruses with them both blasting at the spiders. But whenever they got in range of each other, Valerie's attention strayed from the viruses and onto him. Danny made a mental note to thank Vlad later because their training in combat really came in handy at a time like this. Valerie hadn't lost any of her karate skills since the start of high school, and several times, she came pretty close to grabbing hold of him to toss him over her shoulder and slam his back into the ground or simply wrap her arms around his throat and strangle him. But he got pretty good at anticipating and dodging attacks when Vlad came at him, and he managed to twisted out of her grasp each time. It was almost like some strange version of a dance.
A beam of light flashed in the corner of his eyes, and Danny spun around, hearing the soft gasp of amazement and Valerie's surprised and questioning shout. His mouth gaped open, his eyes growing wider than he thought physically possible when he spotted Sam with his parents' Thermos in her hands.
"Hi," Sam offered weakly, but Danny's mind was focused on the invention. It had actually worked? Sam took aim, pointing the Thermos at another virus that was sucked up by the beam. Danny's mind felt blown at that moment because he didn't think the invention could actually contain viruses. He reacted almost on instinct, not thinking as he kicked a virus still stunned at his feet. The spider sailed in Sam's direction, and before it could figure out how to escape, the beam sucked it into the Thermos. Danny almost laughed out loud when he saw that, relief flooding him as it sank in that the Thermos gave them a way to capture the viruses and end an otherwise unending battle.
Green eyes glanced between the two women. Valerie wanted his head on a stick, and Sam was eager to meet Phantom. Danny decided not to hang around for either of those reasons, especially if Sam wanted to convince him to somehow let her team up with him. Danny disappeared through the nearest access point while the two women's attention was distracted from him. Dropping to the ground of the NetZone, he rubbed at his face as Cujo appeared, nudging his nose against Danny's side.
"I can't believe they actually got that thing to work." Danny laughed into his hands. "Oh, Cujo!" He picked up to the dog and grinned as Cujo licked his cheek. "This is great!" Until he realized a problem: how was he going to get the Thermos from Sam without having to meet her as Phantom? Danny groaned at that thought as he set Cujo down on the ground. He gave his body a look over as he stood, but he saw no signs of injury. "You know," he said, placing his hands on his hips as he stared down at Cujo, "if I had met your master earlier, it would have saved me a lot trouble stumbling through figuring out how to use my powers and fight against viruses."
Cujo barked happily, wagging his tail as his tongue hung from his open mouth. Danny smiled, his mouth stretching wide as he shook his head. Not too long ago, he wouldn't be able to imagine the thought of actually being happy that he met Vlad, but he was. He was learning a lot from Vlad, and when the man wasn't making snide remarks about him, Vlad could actually be fairly nice to him.
"There's something wrong with me when I keep thinking about a guy old enough to be my dad, isn't there?" Danny's smile fell into a frown. With a sigh, he decided not to focus too hard on that point. He still had to get back to class, though at this point, he was thinking he was better off skipping it. He groaned as he walked toward an access point that would exit out into one of the boy's bathroom. As much as he would like to skip class, he knew he shouldn't.
Danny passed through the access point and gave the bathroom a check before transformed back into his human form. His head swam for a moment, and he reached up to hold his head in one hand. Now was not the time for him to be getting sick. Not when some super virus designed by the Guys in White was out there trying to corrupt him with an army of spider viruses. Frowning as he walked to the bathroom door, Danny thought maybe he should talk to Vlad about maybe tracking down this virus. He was sick of waiting around for it to finally make its move instead of working from the shadows.
He was reaching for the door when he stumbled back to avoid having it smack him in the face. Today was definitely not going to be his day, he realized, when he spotted a furious looking Calvin Williams. Danny wondered if there was any way he could hide in one of the stalls before he was noticed, but it was already too late when Calvin's rage filled eyes landed on him. Backing up several steps, Danny wondered what he could possibly have done to incite the jock's rage. In the past, it was mostly only Dash that harassed him.
"You," Calvin growled, following after the retreating loser.
"Whatever it is, I didn't do it," Danny said quickly because he was fairly certain he hadn't done anything to the jock. In fact, he rarely ever had reason to cross paths with Calvin unless the jock purposely sought him out.
Calvin threw a punch at him, and Danny quickly ducked, the fist passing just inches over his head. Why did he ever think it would matter if he did or didn't do anything to someone on the A list? Calvin was going to use him as a punching bag regardless of whatever angered him. Danny tried to skirt around the jock, but Calvin grabbed hold of his arm. With a strong yank, Calvin slammed him into the wall, banging Danny's head against the side of the paper towel dispenser mounted there. The blow stunned Danny, causing bursts of white to bloom before his eyes. The punch that came next was accompanied with a crack that nearly made Danny shout out in pain. He didn't get much of a chance as Calvin continued his assault. Warm moisture dripped from his nose, which hurt to breathe through, as he tried to defend against Calvin's attack, but the jock's wild rage filled movements were harder to predict than Valerie's smooth and well practiced karate moves.
"Get off me!" Danny shouted, arm covering his head to protect his face from any more punches. "I didn't do anything to you!"
"Didn't do anything?" Calvin sneered at him before his hands seized Danny by the throat. "You're the one that twisted the two most popular A lists into loser loving freaks." Danny clawed at the hands squeezing around his throat, trying to pry them away as it got harder to breathe. "You've ripped the whole social ladder to shreds with your sick cross dressing gayness."
"What is going on here?" Lancer's commanding voice sounded distant to Danny, who thought he was going to pass out from lack of oxygen any moment.
Then suddenly he could breathe again, and Danny gasped in generous amounts of air, pressing his back against the wall and trying to stay on his feet, which felt like they were turning to liquid under him. Lancer had Calvin by the ear, glaring darkly at the jock through narrowed green eyes.
"Can you walk, Fenton?" Lancer gave him a brief glance before his withering look returned to the wincing jock.
"Y-Yeah," Danny said, his voice hoarse, though he wasn't entirely sure that he could.
"Good. Then please go to the nurse's office," Lancer instructed. "I believe Williams is due for a meeting with the principal now." Opening the door, Lancer shoved the jock out of the bathroom.
When they were gone, Danny let out a shaky breath through his mouth. His head was aching, and there was a metallic taste in his mouth. He grabbed some paper towels and pressed the bundle to his nose, which was still dripping with blood. Then he exited the bathroom, wincing at the throbbing throughout his torso. It never occurred to him when he made the bet with Paulina how that would affect the rest of the school. He only thought about helping Paulina and Valerie. Walking toward the nurse's office, Danny thought maybe he should have followed through with the idea of skipping class after all.
maltese: How strange! D: Maybe FFnet is just being weird. All the bonding! 8D
midnight: Haha. Shocking, isn't it? XD I imagine they share some similar opinions but disagree on the principal of not wanting to agree with the other. XD;;
Sammi: XD It is!
swagdanny: Finally, some sense has gotten through to Valerie! Woo! 8D
Just Will: Well, in the show they did make Danny Phantom public ghost enemy number one. I wouldn't be all that surprised if they had a whole team dedicated to hunting down and capturing Phantom. Then again, we also saw them trying to blow up the Ghost Zone... What kind of idiots are running the GIW? _ Haha, you forgot Lancer. XD;; Although, he's more of a confidant and advice giver than another fighter. XD;; I don't know. It looked like the Thermos could hold a lot, if that episode when Tucker let all the ghosts escape told us anything. I imagine there is a limit, though five small spider viruses isn't going to fill it up right away. XD;; I think the problem lies in: what do they do with the viruses they've captured?