Vlad Masters had always been a fruit loop to Danny. He never guessed that the older halfa would go as far as to drop a normal human from the sky to simply give Danny a clue as to why he had even shown up.
Alex's plummeting form was answer enough, and Danny was already flying as quickly as he could to save him.
"Alex!" he heard himself shout in a voice that didn't sound like his at all. Alex twisted to face his voice, and his eyes widened. The ground was rushing to meet the two, too quickly for comfort. Danny quickly sped up to meet Alex, grabbing his outstretched hand to slow the both of them down. Looking up, he noticed that Plasmius had vanished.
"Hey, Danny?" Alex asked.
"Yeah, what?" Danny replied before mentally slapping himself.
"Don't drop me, ok?" Alex continued. Danny smiled weakly at him before hooking his arms under Alex's and crossing them to make sure that he didn't drop him.
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Alex Rider hadn't even been in America that long and already he had had enough to do with ghosts. He mentally cursed himself for agreeing to go on this mission in the first place.
"It's not even a mission really, but more of a field trip." He could hear Blunt's voice in his head.
Yeah, right.
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A minute of silent flying brought the two back to the safety of firm ground, minus the splat of being dropped. Alex couldn't help but frown. He had no idea where he was.
"Hey, Danny, could you possibly tell me how to get to the Fenton's?-" he asked.
Silence. Danny Phantom had vanished. Sighing, Alex looked around, trying to find someone to help him. A child, no older than five, playing alone across the street was his only option.
"Excuse me," Alex began, walking towards the small girl. She looked up, smiling.
"Hi! I'm Megan! Wanna play dolls with me?" she said brightly, jumping to his feet and shoving a small Bumblebee transformers doll in his face. Alex took the toy blankly, not really knowing what to do. The child scooped a toy plane off the sidewalk and pretended to shoot missiles at the transformer.
"Bang bang! KA-BOOM! I win!" she cheered, knocking the yellow toy from Alex's hand to land next to an abused Barbie. He assumed that she had killed the little guy.
"Usually I let Bumblebee win, but today is Tuesday."
Alex failed to understand why Tuesday would make any difference. He decided to cut to the chase before she asked him to play another game.
"Hey, do you know where the Fenton's house is? They have a big silver thing on their roof." He added the last part, hoping the child would understand. Instead, she giggled.
"You don't have any shoes."
Alex sighed, turning to walk away-
"Wait!" Megan said loudly. Alex spun around to face her, expecting her to tell him how to get back to the Fenton's.
"What's your name?"
"…Alex."
"Ok! Bye, Alex!"
He turned, walking away. Megan went back to her "dolls". As Alex turned to walk down another street, the small girl's voice could be heard, making small noises as she had Barbie and Bumblebee team up against the plane.
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Ten minutes of walking had proven futile. Alex turned off to another street full of shops. He saw groups of people up and down the street. The closest were two people turned out to be teenagers, two tall and muscular guys. They were congratulating themselves on finding "Fen-turd" and throwing him into a dumpster. Alex chose to stay on his side of the street and avoid wasting his time with them, instead keeping his eyes out for a dumpster. A dirty side rode hosted the first dumpster, and Alex made his way towards it, careful to avoid the junk on the ground.
Someone inside the dumpster flung the lid open before angrily climbing out. Alex went over to help him. Danny muttered thanks. He would have been better off if he hadn't been found; that way he could turn intangible to get all of the grime off of him. He shrugged the thought off.
"Sorry that happened to you, mate," Alex began as they emerged back to the main street. Dash noticed the raven- haired boy and immediately roared with laughter. Danny curled his fists angrily, turning and walking away. Alex assumed he was going to his house, so he followed.
"Do they do that often?" Alex asked. Danny made a noise in his throat.
"Only if you lack a social life." He mumbled. Alex flicked a mustard packet off Danny's shoulder. Danny thanked him, keeping his eyes ahead of him on his destination. He was correct on figuring that Alex was following him to get back to the house.
I shouldn't have just left him there…
At the moment, Danny had panicked, and flew away to change back into Fenton and run back to meet the British visitor.
"Oh, hey, Alex! Up already?"
The idea sounded like a failure, but it was better than Alex finding him covered in trash.
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The rest of the walk back to the Fenton household was mainly silent. Alex was still tired and wished he was still in his bed.
"Do ghosts drop people out of the sky often around here?" he asked. Danny shook his head no. Alex sighed, and then yawned. He was going to ask who had dropped him in the first place, since he didn't get a good look, but he doubted Danny would know.
"I saw Danny Phantom, I think. Black suit and white hair, right?"
"Yeah, that was him. What did he do?"
"He yelled my name, grabbed my arm and flew me back to the ground. Standard saving stuff I guess." Alex glanced at Danny, an accusing look in his eyes. Danny pretended to not notice.
As their destination grew closer, Alex decided to drop the subject. Climbing up the steps, he jokingly asked Danny,
"Is it safe for me to go back to my room?"
Danny took the question seriously, and offered to put the ghost shield up. Alex laughed, walking into the house. Danny followed. As Alex went back up to his room, Danny pretended to go to the kitchen and get another snack. When he was sure that he was alone, He turned into Phantom and flew up to the window of Alex's room, which was still empty. Phasing in, yet choosing to stay invisible in case Alex came in, Danny quickly searched the room for any scanners or recorders hidden by Vlad or some other ghost. He walked past Alex's bags and shoes neatly set on the floor to a picture frame on the wall as a last check of the room. There was nothing hidden in or on the frame.
The doorknob began to turn as Alex opened the door and stepped into the room. Danny phased out the way he came. He missed the phone going off on Alex's bed.
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Danny flew into his old room, changing back into Fenton and kicking his shoes off before grabbing a clean set of clothes and heading off for the nearest bathroom in the house to take a shower.
As he walked down the hall, his sister walked out of her room, a book in hand. Three feet away her nose wrinkled in disgust.
She knew what had happened without having to think about it. Offering her little brother a smile rather than a pat on the shoulder, she brushed past him and headed down the stairs.
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Alex scooped his phone, noting the screen and it's "NEW MESSAGE!" He sat on the edge of his bed as the new message opened for him. He assumed the phone would send him a message by itself if anything odd came up again, and pushing a button to view scans would still be about the same, just manual and not automatic. The message was from his shoes, which informed him that two ghosts had been in his room.
The scan revealed that an unknown ghost and Danny Phantom, the ghost that had just saved him minutes ago, had been in his room.
Alex sighed in annoyance, pulling his filthy socks off and fetching a clean pair from his bag. As an afterthought, he slipped the ring, given to him by Smither's, on his finger. His cell phone was thrown into his pocket as an afterthought.
As he went back down to the main floor, he gradually became more aware of the voices in the basement. The Fenton's could have something to ward his room from ghosts, so he went to talk to them, slipping into his shoes before leaving. He wasn't going to take any chances of being caught barefoot again, not if could help it.
"Why, of course we can loan you something!" Mrs. Fenton said happily, seizing an object from a nearby table and quickly wrapping it around Alex's waist. There were several other items exactly like it on the table.
"There!" she said cheerfully, blissfully unaware of Alex's expression of embarrassment. She then handed him a key to the belt, which Alex silently accepted and slid into his pocket.
"The key will activate the belt. I'm surprised that you're taking the initiative to protect yourself like this on your own so quickly; have you had a run- in with a ghost already?"
"No, I just don't want to take any chances. Can't allow myself to be attacked with my back turned, right?" Alex said with mock enthusiasm. Jack turned away from the Fenton's to hide her smirk. Alex quickly thanked Maddie before returning to the main floor and walking out the front door. As he walked to the front door, he locked the belt with the key.
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Danny flew through the skies, searching.
"This has got to be the first time that I went and searched for Vlad… creepy." He thought to himself, dodging a flock of birds. Usually, the fruit loop would just show up whenever he felt like it. Danny hoped that he hadn't returned to Wisconsin just yet; he had a few questions to ask. Vlad had said that Alex was his reason for being in Amity Park, for the moment at least, was Alex hiding something?
Danny would have to find out soon. The camp would start soon. Once the other eager and young ghost hunters came in it would become difficult to talk to Alex, he would be too busy.
"Hey, Vlad!" Danny yelled. He was met with only silence. Grumbling, he turned around to search elsewhere. Flying just above the roofs of the tallest buildings, Danny began to scan the city around him. Surprisingly, the streets were pretty empty, and quiet. A dog barked in an alleyway, and its noise echoed. The ghost boy flew lower until he was a few feet above the ground. By doing this, he quickly spotted Vlad Masters in a nearby café window, sipping some tea. The older man smirked at him before walking out of the store and to the side of the building, away from people. When Danny appeared moments later, Vlad had already transformed into his ghostly half. A single eyebrow was raised in mock curiosity.
"Why, little badger, how have you been? Staying out of trouble, I hope?"
"Whatever, Plasmius. Why are you here, really? And if drop anyone else from the sky I swear I will-"
Plasmius chuckled, cutting Danny's words short with a wave of his gloved hand.
"You teenagers are all the same!" he chuckled, "Always so paranoid."
"And with good reason, fruit loop!" Danny said angrily, "You dropped an innocent kid from the freaking sky for crying out loud!"
Danny's retort was met with silence. A shark's grin began to grow on the older man's face.
"Ah, but Daniel," Plasmius said, vanishing through a wall,
"How can you be so sure that the child is innocent? After all, you just met him; how can you trust him?"
"W-What?" Danny began to stutter, but the man was already gone.
Danny hated to admit it, but Plasmius had made a good point.
The younger halfa quickly looked around before taking off into the air.
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Happy that he had some protection against the ghosts, Alex began walking the streets around the Fenton house. He quickly ran into a girl. She was dressed in an array of black, lime green, and purple, with strange green earrings to finish the outfit. She had seen him leaving the house, and was already close enough for her to introduce herself. As she walked up to him, her combat boots made dull thudding noises on the concrete.
"Hello, I'm Alex," Alex said, beating her to the punch of introducing himself.
"I'm Sam, a friend of Danny's. Have you seen him lately?"
"Not lately, sorry."
"Oh well. I guess he is at Tucker's house then." Sam said more to herself.
"You want to come along?" she offered, smiling when Alex shrugged.
"Sounds fine to me."
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Within ten minutes Sam and Alex were talking with Tucker in his kitchen. His parents were away at their jobs, so Tucker had the run of the house for awhile until they showed up. The half eaten pile of food in the room was the only proof needed. Sam made a face.
"Tucker, you ate at the Nasty Burger an hour ago-"
"Hey, that was just a snack, Sam!" the tech nerd said, grinning. Alex almost smiled.
"Oh, hey! Are you new around here?" Tucker asked.
"Straight from England. I'm Alex. I guess you could say that I'm here for the small convention the Fenton's are having."
Tucker and Sam exchanged a glance. This new guy didn't seem the type to be into ghosts. Then again, Danny didn't look like the type to fire ecto energy from his hands. Sam pointed to Alex's hip. His shirt had shifted from his walking, revealing the belt.
"You having trouble with ghosts?" she asked. Alex smiled weakly.
"Only once; it's an experience I'd rather not relive."
"What happened?" Tucker asked, instantly curious.
This isn't a mission, so I don't have to worry about any enemies just yet. Explaining what happened wouldn't cause any harm. I'm only here to observe ghosts, after all.
"A ghost grabbed me when I was sleeping and dropped me out of the sky-"
"What?" his audience cried out.
"I'm sorry?"
"No, that just surprised us."
"Which ghost was it?"
"… Now that I think about it, I think that there were two. I have no idea who or what the first one was, but the other one was Danny Phantom."
Sam and Tucker were surprised that Alex even knew about Danny's other half. If people across the ocean talked about him so easily… that would be kind of cool. Sort of.
They weren't so sure about Alex knowing so much though. They wanted to help Danny keep his secret for as long as possible, and Alex seemed to be way too observant. The fair-haired boy blinked his eyes, looking at each of them with a piercing gaze.
"Danny isn't here," he said absently. Sam and Tucker exchanged a glance. "Why don't we go look for him?"
"Sure, why not?" Sam said finally, "He's probably looking for one of us anyway." Tucker nodded and the trio left the house, Tucker locking the door behind him and stashing a spare key in his pocket. They were already near the Nasty Burger, so they went there first.
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Dash Baxter smiled at his reflection in the metal spoon he had held out in front of him.
Man, was he good. So good, that even his reflection was good. Yeah.
There were few things that could easily distract The Man from himself. One of the best ways was to have some nerd walk within punching distance. Fifty points if you hit one between the eyes. Kwan, looking at his own spoon which was actually a spork, put his makeshift mirror down to scan the area for any "babes".
"Hey Dash," he said, nudging the jock in the side, "Triple dork."
With a jab of his finger, the dark haired teen revealed three other teens standing in the doorway of the restaurant. They were clearly looking for someone. Dash and Kwan knew who two of the losers were; friends of Fen-toenail's. The third guy was a mystery. Dash was feeling pretty good about himself though.
"Three bucks says the new guy is really Fenton. I'm going to go see."
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"Hey, Fen-turd! New look?" Dash said loudly, messing up Alex's hair with his hand. Alex glared up at him.
There goes three dollars.
"What's your problem, mate?" Alex grumbled.
Oops. Well, he was already over here, and Dash wasn't leaving until he hit someone. The goth was out of the question; he wouldn't hit a girl. He couldn't stand the shame if the girl were to beat him. It would have to either the new guy or the techno geek.
"Let's see what the new guys' got!" he thought, throwing a punch at the kid.
Alex would have knocked the guy out cold in a second, but he wasn't stupid. Starting a fight in a burger joint would end up with him getting arrested. He feinted dodging to the left before knocking the fist away lightly instead. Dash lost his balance and fell to the ground. As laughter filled the restaurant, Dash's would-be prey walked out, along with the goth and techno-geek. The latter two were laughing their heads off.
The new guy just looked bored.
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"That was cool!" Tucker cheered. Alex smiled. He really hadn't done anything though.
They kept talking about it for the next few blocks, until the scene began to change. Sam was about to say something, until she looked up to the sky.
"Look out!" she cried, shoving the two guys out of the way as a figure slammed into the pavement.
Danny frowned angrily as he stood, not yet noticing his small audience as he took off after his enemy, who was none other than Plasmius.
The older halfa fired a beam of energy at Danny, who dodged the attack and let loose off his own attack. The pink energy from Plasmius's hands shot down to slam into the ground, a few feet away from the trio. The force behind the blast knocked them back and to the ground.
"You're really starting to make me mad, Plasmius!" Danny yelled, sending a volley of ecto energy at him. "Why don't you just go back to your little castle?"
Plasmius replied with a sneer, copying his body two times. Alex cried out in surprise, gaining the attention of the two ghosts.
"Hey!" Danny yelled to them, "Get out of here before you get hurt- ahh!" Plasmius rammed into his back, knocking him once more into the ground. The first copy followed Danny, punching him further as he made to get up. The last copy went for Alex, Sam, and Tucker. They scattered as the copy landed on its feet. Sam ran over to someone's house, grabbing a baseball bat left out by a kid as Tucker somehow found a thick stick on the side of the road. Alex figured that the belt and ring he wore would be enough. Tucker and Sam were next to him as the copy flew at them.
With a cry, Sam jumped forward, swinging her weapon with all her might. The metal rod hit its mark with ease, causing the copy to falter. Alex aimed the ring at him, firing three shots. Tucker charged, bashing the ghosts head and causing it to melt back into the original. Danny had destroyed the other copy by himself, and was dealing with the real one. Sam and Tucker kept their distance, knowing better than to get too close. Danny was bleeding from a gash above his eyebrow, and several other places. Alex decided, against his better judgment, to get in the fray.
He aimed the ring at Plasmius, firing five shots. Danny immediately tried to move Alex as Plasmius grinned and went towards him. Both halfas received a painful shock as the belt around Alex's waist went into effect.
"Sorry, Phantom!" Alex said, punching Plasmius in the jaw, following up with a kick to the chest.
"That is very impressive, boy." Plasmius said. Alex felt his eyes widen in shock, he knew that voice!
"This boy is my reason."
This was the guy. He was the one who had grabbed him earlier and dropped him out of the sky.
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