Well, just about everyone's reactions after reading the last chapter was an unanimous "WHAT THE HELL?" so I think I did my job! On another note, this story is COMPLETE! 24 chapters total, three more after this one, and I'll be posting them every second Friday. Though, if I get a lot of reviews, I'll post sooner. (hint, hint)
I never figured I would be one to change the rating in the middle of a story. Unfortunately, it's necessary, as I think I'm pushing the K+ rating more than it can be pushed.
Hold onto your seats, the wild ride begins...now...
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Teen Titans or Danny Phantom.
Chapter 21: Teen Titans, Meet Team Phantom
"No! You're having me on, aren't you?"
"And then, right in the middle of all those people, Raven's face shows up on an electronic billboard…advertising gum!" Beast Boy burst into laughter, falling off the sofa as he did.
"Gum?" Danny asked Raven, who was reading a book on the sofa next to the boys. "Seriously?"
"It was the only thing in English that I found and the only thing I could read," Raven responded dryly. "Besides, as gum went, it wasn't bad."
"How many languages do you know?" Danny asked.
"Six. But Japanese isn't one of them."
"Six?" Danny's mouth fell open. "I'm failing Spanish!" He made a face. "Though Esperanto probably counts, doesn't it?"
"It's a language that has a completely different grammatical structure and comes with its own culture. I'd say it's foreign."
"No way Lancer'll buy that." Danny leaned back into the couch, rubbing his face. "It's Spanish, French, or Italian at Casper High."
Beast Boy spluttered, popping up from behind the sofa. "Casper High? As in 'Casper the friendly ghost' Casper?"
Danny grinned amusedly. "It's Amity Park, the ghost city of America. I suppose whoever founded it had a real sense of humor and believed in ghosts. Not everyone did until my parents made that portal. My sister didn't until a giant green hornet attacked her in school. Even then she was kind of skeptical, at least until I phased the hornet through the wall." He shrugged, fondly reminiscing with a small grin.
Beast Boy blinked. "Your sister saw a gigantic green hornet—"
"That glowed," Danny added.
"—and she didn't believe it was a ghost?" Beast Boy goggled. "Is she dense or something?"
"Just really opinionated. I think some would call her a realist. Ghosts weren't something she could easily believe in, so she didn't. She just thought our parents were crazy."
"And you being half-ghost." Beast Boy shook his head. "Must have been a riot, huh?"
"Nah." Danny shrugged. "It was a relief. My parents were ghost hunters that were suspicious of everything. It was rather nice not to have to be afraid that Jazz would suspect I was a ghost. 'Course, when she found out it was even better, since I had someone in my camp who was able to give excuses when I was out way past my curfew because of a ghost."
"But you don't have that problem anymore?"
"Thank God, no." Danny screwed his face up and slid down to lie flat on the couch. "But revealing my secret resulted in other pains…like reporters." He shuddered dramatically. "I still can't go out to the Nasty Burger without worrying that someone's going to snap a photo!"
"Nasty…Burger…" Beast Boy sounded lost. "You guys go to a place called the Nasty Burger?"
"It used to be Tasty Burger, but someone stole the 'T' and replaced it with an 'N'," Danny explained. "It's been the Nasty Burger ever since, and it does its best to have the best burgers."
"Yeah, okay but…meat!" Beast Boy groaned in disgust.
"Better get used to it, BB!" Cyborg announced, dumping a picnic basket on top of Danny, who winced as the heavy basket bounced off his stomach; he clutched it before it could make a mess. "We're going on a picnic right now!"
Danny jolted upright. "What? When was this decided?"
"Since yesterday!" Cyborg chirped cheerfully. "We all figured that Raven needs a break and that we should show you more of the town. Just kicking butt doesn't show off Jump City's best, you know."
"I'm busy," Raven protested.
"You've been busy the last two weeks!" Cyborg pointed out. "It's time to relax and have some fun! 'Sides, Wulf agrees with me."
Wulf popped up next to him, wearing a chef's hat and a big grin. "Jes," the ghost agreed. ("Yes.")
"Have you been cooking?" Danny said incredulously.
"Is easy," Wulf explained.
"Yep!" Cyborg threw an arm around the wolf ghost. "He just about cooked everything that we're going to be eating!"
"Have you forgotten that there's a vegan here as well?" Beast Boy cried in protest.
"Relax, BB," Cyborg said. "There's tofu, too, though you'll be making that yourself."
Danny perked up. "A barbecue? Without ectoplasm coating the grill? Count me in!"
The others stared at him.
"Ectoplasm…" Cyborg said slowly, "…on the grill?"
"My parents are ghost hunters, remember? There's ectoplasm practically everywhere in the fridge. My mom made a Cake Ghost – the one that you guys fought earlier – and my dad made a Lemonade Ghost by infecting some lemonade my mom made. Both of them are a royal pain." At the end of his tirade, Danny made a face. "'Course, none of it was on purpose."
"I don't want to know," Beast Boy proclaimed. "I really don't."
"Best not," Danny agreed.
Cyborg shook his surprise off to plaster another grin on his face. "Yeah, well, we'll be rounding up Robin and Starfire from wherever they've gone. C'mon, Wulf!" He bounded off, the wolf in tow, conveniently forgetting to pick up the picnic basket Danny was still holding.
"Should I be afraid?" Danny asked, weighing the basket in his hands.
"Of Cy's cooking? Nah." Beast Boy shook his head. "But I don't know about Wulf's…"
Thinking of Starfire's attempts at cooking, Danny wasn't too sure he wanted to know how a ghost's cooking would be. "Neither do I."
Beast Boy grinned toothily. "Meet you downstairs in the garage, yeah?" He promptly transformed into a cheetah and sprinted off, narrowly avoiding slamming into the doors as they didn't slide open fast enough.
Raven flicked through the book on her lap. "You should go."
Danny cocked his head to the side. "So should you."
"I'm in the middle of finding a way back home for you."
"You've been looking for the last two weeks," Danny said. "I'm sure you're working as fast as possible, right?"
"I've hit a block," Raven admitted. "I was able to reach back and get Cyborg from five thousand years ago but that was in our dimension. I can even access my own, which is an entirely different dimension, but I was born there so I'm linked. Yours is unknown. The only factor that links any of us to that dimension is you and the ghosts you've caught."
"Jazz always said that if you can't figure something out after going at it over and over again, the best thing to do is sleep on it. Since I think you've already slept on this problem for the last two weeks, the best thing to do is probably kick back and relax." Danny raised an eyebrow, grinning as he flapped the top of the picnic basket back and forth. "I think a picnic will do that, don't you?"
"You do want to get home, don't you?"
"Well, yeah. But it's not gonna happen in the next five minutes. And it's not going anywhere." Danny shrugged. "Taking a break can only be beneficial, I figure." He pulled the book away from Raven. "So take the afternoon off and enjoy the sunny day."
"Do I look like someone who enjoys the sun?" Raven didn't even have to point to her black and purple outfit.
Grinning, Danny phased backwards through the couch, straightening. "No more than Sam. But I figure you'll be a better sport about it."
Raven narrowed her eyes. "And why's that?"
"Because you're not getting your book back otherwise." Smirking, Danny raised his empty hands, showing that he had secreted the book to some hiding place.
"Oh no, you didn't." Raven stood up, her cloak billowing around her. "Give. It. Back."
"You'll get it back tonight and no sooner." Laughing, Danny phased through the floor before Raven could grab him, leaving the picnic basket as he did.
"Danny!"
Raven didn't manage to catch Danny until she found him down in the garage with the other Titans. When she did, all she received was a cheeky grin.
"Here," she said sourly, dumping the picnic basket into Danny's arms. "You left this behind."
"Now that playtime is over," Cyborg announced, rubbing his hands together, "and everyone is here"—Robin and Starfire looked rather embarrassed as he said this; Danny wondered what they had been doing—"we can get going! Boo-yeah!"
He opened the door of his newly repaired car and hopped inside. Beast Boy hopped in with him and Wulf climbed into the back. He'd really bonded with the two Titans.
"We're all getting our own rides, are we?" Danny said dryly, transforming into his ghost half. He phased the picnic basket through the passenger door window and left it in Beast Boy's lap. "Good. I could use the fresh air."
"Me whooping your butt outside not enough for you?" Robin asked, grinning.
"To relax," Danny corrected, sending Robin a half-hearted glare.
In the meantime, Cyborg had been opening the garage door. He suddenly poked his head out of the window and yelled "Race you to the park!" before flooring the gas and zooming off with a screech of tires.
"How many parks are there in Jump City?" Danny asked Raven.
"Just the one," she said, smiling. "It's pretty noticeable."
His legs disappearing into an ethereal ghostly tail, Danny grinned mischievously. "I'd like to see him outdrive this." Without a sound and in a blur of black and white, Danny sped off, easily outstripping the top speed of Cyborg's baby.
"None of us are going to be able to top that," Robin commented, putting his helmet on, "but we can try to get Cyborg!" He kicked his motorcycle into gear and drove out, Starfire on his heels.
In the meantime, Raven considered the empty garage, no desire in her to participate in the inane race Cyborg had cooked up. 'Why…do I have this feeling like something is going to go wrong?'
Flying at top speed meant that Danny had some trouble making out various landmarks. His eyesight was good enough to catch the big picture, but he couldn't catch the small details like words on the billboards or the fact that there were only a few cars on the streets. He could tell that when there was a building or some other obstacle due to an undefined sixth sense and his ghost sense had developed to the point that he could tell where a ghost was without too much difficulty, but he couldn't make out many small details.
Either way, he didn't need to know the small details to know where the park was. It was the only large green area there in Jump City. Only two minutes after he'd sprinted out from the tower, he touched down in the middle of the park where a bunch of picnic tables were located.
Transforming back, Danny decided to practice his ghost powers a little more while he waited for his friends to catch up. Focusing, he floated in the air and took a sitting position, all while still in human form. He ignored the townspeople around him; two weeks of exposure to how the Teen Titans handled going out in public had changed his attitude a lot. He was no longer as shy about using his powers in public for one thing.
As he inhaled the fresh air, Danny closed his eyes and meditated, using another trick Raven had taught him to better focus his powers. As they had grown so rapidly (or rather "leveled up" as Tucker would be sure to say), he was unused to them. Meditating helped focus his center and made sure that he wouldn't accidentally punch a hole in a tree while in his human form if some of his ghostly strength leaked through (it had happened the second day after Raven's test run).
"Oh, dude! No fair!" Beast Boy's breathless voice brought him out of his meditation. "Teleportation isn't allowed in a race!"
Danny cracked an eye open, seeing Beast Boy and Cyborg panting in front of him, apparently having run after parking the car; Wulf was inspecting the picnic tables. "I didn't teleport; I flew. You forget that I can go over three hundred miles per hour and that I don't have to take the streets." He opened his eyes fully upon seeing Robin race up, followed shortly by Starfire.
"How much earlier did they get here?" Robin asked Danny, pointing to the two Titans and the ghost.
"'Bout a minute," Danny answered, placing his feet on the ground. "Where's Raven?"
Starfire shook her head. "I do not know."
"Hold your horses." Raven landed on the ground next to Danny. "Unlike the rest of you, I wasn't in a hurry."
"Since you came in last, you can set up the tables!" Cyborg shoved the basket into Raven's arms.
Raven glared daggers in Danny's direction, who gulped and grinned sheepishly.
"Would it help that I didn't know you'd come in last?" he offered.
"I wasn't even racing," Raven grumbled, stalking to the tables to begin setting up.
In the meantime, Cyborg had somehow procured an entire barbecue grill from somewhere. The laws of this world sometimes completely baffled Danny, though he found that he couldn't really say anything as – hey – he was half-ghost! And that came with its own set of rules.
"What do you guys normally do on these outings?" Danny asked Robin and Starfire.
"Depends." Robin flicked out a Frisbee he had secreted away on his person. "We usually play Frisbee." He raised an eyebrow. "Think you can play? Without your ghost powers?"
"What about the others?" Danny gestured to encompass Raven, Starfire, Beast Boy, and Cyborg.
Robin smirked. "You're half-ghost. It's an unfair advantage, especially since you can fly too fast for any of us to keep up with. Think of it as practice."
A devilish look came over Danny's face as his eyes flashed green. "Bring it on, boy wonder."
"Yo! Heads up!"
Hearing a slight whooshing sound coming from behind him, Danny sidestepped and lifted his hand to catch a flying football. "Watch it!" he called to Beast Boy.
"You caught it, didn't you?" Beast Boy said, unashamed. "Throw it back!"
Danny raised his eyebrows, shooting an amused glance in Robin's direction. "This enough practice for you?" Eyes flaring green, Danny held the football over his foot before letting it drop and kicking it directly over Beast Boy's head and sending it hurtling across the park.
Beast Boy's arms pinwheeled as he chased after the ball. "Duuuude! No fair! I can't fly that fast!" He morphed into a falcon and took off after the football.
"You did ask for it, Robin," Starfire told her boyfriend, who was goggling after the flying football, which was still airborne and not coming down anytime soon.
"I thought we agreed not to use your powers for evil?" Raven asked from the tables.
"He'll catch it," Danny said, watching Beast Boy frantically chase the football. "I think," he added rather more dubiously. "'Sides, this is more of a recreational use."
"Burgers are done!" Cyborg called. "Get 'em while they're – no, Wulf! Don't eat all of them!"
Danny took pity on the half-robot and went to help him rescue the burgers from Wulf. It would've been amusing if Wulf had eaten all of them but he was also hungry.
He stopped upon seeing how some of the burgers on the grill looked rather suspiciously on the greenish side. "Did Wulf help make some of these?"
Cyborg was currently holding Wulf off with a single hand while holding a platter full of burgers in the other. "Yeah. Why?"
"You don't want to eat these," Danny said, grabbing another plate and piling the green burgers on it. "They've got ectoplasm mixed in. Here, Wulf. These are yours."
"Senefikaj?" Wulf asked, blinking. ("No good?")
"Ah, no, that's not it." Danny looked down on the burgers. Personally, he wouldn't eat these even if they were the only food available; he didn't know what his half-ghost constitution would do. But he couldn't tell Wulf that, could he? "They look great. It's just that I don't think the others can eat ectoplasm."
"Ah." Abandoning Cyborg, Wulf took the platter of ectoplasm-infected burgers from Danny. "Thanks, friend." He licked Danny and bounded off to the table, sitting next to Raven. He promptly started devouring the meat, ignoring the condiments laid out around him.
Raven stared straight ahead, ignoring the ghost's bad manners. "Nice. And I just set the table up."
Wulf stopped eating for a moment to look at Raven. "Thanks," he informed Raven. He then licked her as well, causing her to stiffen and her hair to stick up as saliva clumped it together. He turned back to his food, not noticing stiff posture of the Titan next to him.
"Ew." Raven grabbed a handful of paper towers and began trying to clean her hair.
Stifling laughter, Danny put down some more burgers in front of her. "Want some?" he managed to ask with a neutral tone.
Raven glared at him, though it had no heat. "My hair is filled with saliva…dog saliva."
"I could wash it out?" Danny offered. "'Course, my ice will just freeze it first…"
"Forget it." Raven grabbed a water bottle and dumped the entire thing over her head, making sure to bend over to the side so that her clothes remained dry.
As the other Titans helped themselves to the burgers, Beast Boy finally landed next to Danny, transforming back from the falcon he'd been. The football was lying on the ground in front of him.
"Not cool!" Beast Boy complained to Danny. "Do you know how long that thing was flying for? It was over the town before it started coming down!"
"Really?" Danny blinked. "I'd been aiming for a round the world trip. Maybe if I'd kicked it in ghost form…"
"No!" Beast Boy clutched the football to his chest. "Do you know how long it took me to find a football that wasn't made out of the hides of animals? You're not sending this around the world!"
"BB, the tofu's in the basket whenever you want it," Cyborg said, cutting into argument and slathering his burger with ketchup, onions, lettuce, and any other condiment he could get his hands on. The only thing he couldn't touch was the mustard, as Starfire had confiscated it and was drinking it down like it was water. "Did we bring any extra mustard?" A large furry paw handed him a small mustard bottle. "Ah, thanks." He promptly drowned the burger in mustard, slapped the other half of the sandwich on it, and began chowing down.
As Beast Boy headed off to commandeer the grill, the "vegan" football still in his grasp, Danny helped himself to a burger. Having seen Starfire guzzle down the mustard like it was the best thing since the Nasty Burger he'd rather lost his taste for the dressing.
"Looking forward to an awesome game of Ultimate Titan Frisbee?" Cyborg waggled his eyebrows at Danny, having gulped down over half his burger in the meantime.
"You're on," Danny said, grinning maniacally as he empathically slapped his burger closed. He took a big bite to prove his point.
"It's not an eating competition," Raven commented dryly, taking smaller bites out of her burger. Her damp hair was shining in the sunlight but at least it was clean.
Danny managed to swallow his bite, making a mental note to never take that big a bite again. "Your point being?"
"Don't try to match his eating habits," Raven said, nodding to Cyborg, who was guzzling down a second hamburger like it was nothing. "I heard that he ate an old shoe filled with wasabi in Tokyo at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. He was eventually kicked out because he ate too much."
"It was all-you-can-eat!" Cyborg protested, thankfully swallowing his mouthful. "I was just living up to it!"
"An old shoe?" Danny said incredulously.
"It was food!"
"It's a shoe!"
"And?" Cyborg took in the rest of his burger in one bite while staring at Danny.
Danny stared at the impossible feat, as there had been half a burger left before the action had been committed. "I give up. If you ever meet Sam, I'll sic her on you."
Cyborg hastened to swallow his gigantic bite. When he managed, he gasped out, "No way! I admire your spirit, Danny, but I'm not going anywhere near her."
Danny glared at him. "What's wrong with Sam?"
"Nothing! She just seems extraordinarily opinionated!"
"So?" Danny threateningly pointed the ketchup bottle at Cyborg.
"I don't think I'm up to facing her," Cyborg said hastily, eyeing the red bottle with trepidation.
Danny grinned evilly, a glint in his eye. "Why do you think I'm going to sic her on you?"
Cyborg considered that for a moment before he apparently deemed the argument a lost cause. He suddenly filched the Frisbee from Robin and flicked it in Danny's direction. "Go get it!"
Not having any time to dodge, Danny flinched, closing his eyes as the Frisbee flew through him as he reflexively turned intangible. When he was sure the danger had passed, he snapped his eyes open and glared at Cyborg, eyes flaring green.
"You want a fight?" Danny stood up on the bench, burger still in hand. "I'll give you a fight."
Flashing an evil grin in Cyborg's direction, he held out a glowing green hand behind him and took hold of the Frisbee with his telekinesis. Not looking away from Cyborg, who was sporting a deer-in-the-headlights look, Danny twisted his wrist as if he was throwing the Frisbee.
Cyborg had just enough time to duck before a glowing green Frisbee hurtled through the air where his head had been a split-second before, having been phased directly through Danny. "Watch it!" He stood up, glaring imperiously at Danny. "We're not capable of turning intangible like you!"
"I thought that in a game of Ultimate Titan Frisbee that all powers were permissive," Danny said innocently, his glowing hand by his side. "Unless you're changing the rules?"
Cyborg stared at Danny for a solid moment before a small volcano erupted above his head. "All right, that's it! Titans, let's play!" He grabbed a stymied Beast Boy, who had just come over from the grill with his tofu, by the scruff of his neck and also hauled Wulf off.
"I haven't finished eating yet!" Robin protested. A moment later he was forced to leave his half-eaten burger behind as an extended blue hand snatched out and grabbed his cloak, yanking him off the bench.
"For the record," Raven told Danny, finishing off her food, "I blame you." She floated into the air before anyone could coerce her into joining the game.
Starfire slurped down the last of her mustard and beamed at Danny, who was quickly finishing his food before the game started (ghost fighting had taught him to take in nourishment whenever possible). "I look forward to playing the game with you!"
From his spot on the bench, Danny looked out at the Titans. Raven and Starfire were floating in the sky. Beast Boy had sulkily relocated himself to a tree, nursing the empty plate where his tofu had been located before Cyborg had accidentally thrown them to the ground. Robin had escaped Cyborg to situate himself opposite the half-robot. Wulf was crouched by the ground, under the Frisbee.
The Frisbee was now glowing in midair approximately in the middle of the Titans; Danny was slightly on the outskirts.
"Here goes!" With a small grin, Danny let the Frisbee rip with a random flick of his wrist, sending it loose in a wild erratic flight.
"I got it!" Beast Boy morphed into a hummingbird and tried to match the Frisbee's erratic flight.
He was nearly beaned by Starfire, who swooped down to catch the Frisbee. She twirled around and threw it to Robin, who jumped in the air to catch it. He ran forward three steps before leaping into the air and twisting around to fling it towards Cyborg.
"No teams?" Danny called, jumping off the bench to join the fray.
"There are teams," Cyborg said, throwing the Frisbee to Raven. "It's us against you!"
Danny's eyebrows flew up to disappear behind his bangs and he threw a glance towards Wulf, who seemed to be solely on Cyborg's team (the traitor). "Oh, really? Guess you're lucky I can't yet duplicate in this form!"
Focusing, he jumped off the ground to fly after Raven, who threw him a smirk before flicking the Frisbee to Beast Boy, who was on the ground. It took all of Danny's concentration to not just drop to the ground and break an ankle. Instead, he landed on the ground with a tuck and a roll, jumping at Beast Boy, who morphed into a cheetah, holding the Frisbee in his mouth.
With a thought, Danny teleported next to Beast Boy, who nearly jumped out of his skin with fright. The half-ghost yanked the Frisbee out of the changeling's mouth and ran off, dodging Wulf's pounce by ducking.
"Hey, three steps only!" Cyborg hollered.
"I'm a one man team!" Danny retorted. "I'm throwing that rule out the window!"
"Friend Danny," Starfire said, flying above the black-haired, "I have heard the saying that there is no 'I' in 'team'. Perhaps I can join you?"
"No fair, Star!" Robin shouted.
"The teams are the eclectic!" Starfire proclaimed.
"Thanks, Star!" Danny grinned, flicking the Frisbee up vertically to the alien.
"The rule is back in the window!" Cyborg demanded, pointing an accusing finger at Danny. He was promptly smacked in the face with the Frisbee.
"I apologize, Cyborg!" Starfire called. "I did not mean to aim it for your face!"
"Where did you aim it then?" Cyborg spluttered, reaching for the toy.
Before he touched it, it glowed green and whipped away, swerving around Robin, who stretched for it but missed. This time the Frisbee hit Beast Boy in the stomach and flattened him, as the green Titan hadn't been quick enough to dodge. Wulf screeched to halt next to him, snuffling the changeling's dark green hair.
"Sorry!" Danny called, wincing. "I thought you'd move!"
Beast Boy waved weakly from his spot on the grass, avoiding Wulf's sharp teeth. "I'm okay," he choked.
Suddenly the glowing green Frisbee glowed black, freeing it from Danny's control. Raven called the Frisbee to her hand, smiling unapologetically at the half-ghost.
"If you can use your telekinesis, mine is also fair play," she pointed out smugly, waving the Frisbee around.
Starfire swooped towards her, aiming to guard the half-demon and hopefully steal the prize.
As she did so, a gust of wind blew through the clearing, ruffling Danny's hair and lifting his shirt up. The sudden chill made him shiver and pull down his shirt, grateful for the black color and the long sleeves. He reached up to brush his hair out of his eyes – he really needed to get a haircut – and froze as he glimpsed something out of the corner of his eye. Something that was most decidedly not normal.
His attention off the game, Danny barely noticed as the Frisbee changed hands from Raven to Wulf, who had snatched it out of the air. He was more focused on the writhing black shadows by the trees. He'd never seen such a thing in nature; the only thing that even resembled that was Johnny 13's shadow, but that was a ghost, meaning his ghost sense should have gone off.
The wind blew again, chilling Danny and sending goose bumps along his skin. That was when his instincts really started screaming at him.
He never got goose bumps, especially not since he'd become half-ghost. He was pretty much immune to most creepy stuff by now.
When the Frisbee flew by him without him glancing at it, Starfire stopped above him. "Danny, what is wrong?"
"Am I the only one who sees something over there?" Danny pointed to the trees.
"The shadows?" Raven asked, floating by Starfire.
"They're…writhing." Danny unconsciously spread his feet in a fighting position. "That's not normal."
It happened in a instant. Danny barely had time to blink before part of the mass of shadows by the trees broke off, sprinting toward them. It leapt out of the grass and he only caught sight of a mass of gleaming white teeth before he flinched backwards and blasted a ghost ray at it.
The powerful attack tore through the shadow, leaving nothing but black shreds.
"What the hell was that?" Beast Boy demanded, breathing heavily from chasing the Frisbee, which lay forgotten on the grass by now.
No one had a chance to answer as that single attack seemed to be the signal for the free-for-all. It seemed like a tsunami as the entire shadow line of trees swept outward, headed directly to the Titans and the two ghosts.
Wulf growled low in his throat, drawing Danny's eyes to him. "Danĝera." The ghost's fur was rippling as the muscles underneath tensed in anticipation. ("Dangerous.")
"Whatever they are, we're not going down easily. Titans, go!" Robin cried.
"Robin, we can't just go in blindly!" Raven objected, her objection falling on deaf ears as Robin charged forward with a yell, throwing bombs at the ground.
Danny transformed quickly as the two bluish-white rings of light separated over his body. His ghostly glow flared briefly before he got it under control. Then he was off, diving into the ground to try and see if he could chase the shadows out.
He got only several feet ahead before he was met with an eyeless face and a mouthful of gnashing teeth. With a silent yell, he phased out of the ground, half a dozen shadow creatures on his tail.
"Jeez!" Danny craned his head around to see that he had an entourage of shadows behind him. "Not what I expected!"
Starfire screamed as a shadow jumped on her. She managed to fend it off with a blast of energy but it didn't dissipate the way the other had when hit with Danny's ecto-beam. It dove back at her, but met its demise at the hands of an ecto-beam Danny shot its way. The small but highly concentrated beam of energy fried it from the inside out.
"Thank you!" Starfire called to the ghost teen.
But Danny was unable to reply, finding that it seemed most of the horde had decided to concentrate its efforts on him, deeming him the greatest threat.
'Damn it. How am I supposed to get rid of these things without hitting everyone else?' Danny thought furiously, eyes scanning his surroundings. Using a widespread ecto-beam just to eradicate his stalkers wouldn't help because it would also hit his friends. The raw power he now possessed at his fingertips was still too new for him to be able to control it with the finesse he had had before.
Deciding that distance would do the trick and trusting that his friends could manage for themselves (Wulf was trying to fish the shadows out of the ground but not really succeeding; Robin's bombs were having close to no effect but he'd teamed up with Cyborg's sonic cannon; Raven was attacking them with black magic, though it was nigh impossible to see if her attacks were having any effect; Beast Boy was stomping on the ground in elephant form, which wasn't having any luck), Danny sped off, keeping his speed low enough that the horde on his tail could keep up.
When he was high enough, Danny twisted around, a powerful ecto-beam already building up in his right hand. With a yell he released it in a wide flash of green light, throwing it through the mass of shadow monsters. The entire horde released horrid shrieks of agony that seemed to echo through Danny's head as they tore apart into hundreds of shreds of black shadow, which then dissipated in the bright sunlight.
Breathing heavily as adrenaline (or the ghostly equivalent anyway) rushed through his ghostly veins, Danny brushed his hair back. Shaking himself mentally and trying to clear his head from the horrid shrieks that were still ringing through it, Danny headed back to the ground.
It took him a moment to realize that it wasn't because of him missing the small details that he was seeing the field as empty. It actually was empty.
None of the Titans were there. Not even Wulf could be seen and Danny stretched his ghost sense to try and sense if he was elsewhere.
His breath raggedly filling his ears, Danny frantically scanned the park. It was completely empty. The only signs that a battle had taken place was the scorched grass where Robin and Cyborg had attacked the grass, the singed treetops from Starfire's energy beams, and the missing chunks of ground where Raven had uprooted solid earth.
But there was not a single sign of the Titans or Wulf.
Danny shook his head in denial. No. No.
The last time something like this had happened, Phantom had attacked. But Phantom wasn't out; that thermos his parents had invented would guarantee it.
Then who?
The mist? How could mist – no matter how clever or insane – pull something off like this? Those shadows weren't ghosts, no matter that they possessed intangibility and the power of flight.
Try as he might, Danny couldn't think of anyone who could pull something like this off. Furthermore, he wasn't sure if he even could. Jump City was a completely different world from what he was familiar with. There was no Ghost Zone and no one he could ask. If he was home, he could just head into the Ghost Zone for his answers.
But he wasn't home. So now what?
Still breathing heavily, Danny almost didn't notice when the atmosphere suddenly chilled again. He did notice when his ghost sense went off, sending plumes of bluish wisps of cold air from his mouth into the atmosphere. Turning to the right, where he sensed the ghost to be, he froze upon seeing it.
'What…the hell?'
After Danny had left with a practical herd of shadow monsters on his tail, Raven quickly found that they were on the losing side. Before, it seemed like they were on somewhat of an even playing field. But the moment Danny had left for a wider area so he didn't have to worry about hitting anyone else, the shadow monsters apparently stopped holding back.
Suddenly, there was a loud trumpet from Beast Boy and he was shrouded in black. Whatever had blanketed him sank into the ground, taking the changeling with it.
Starfire had seen it happen and had frozen in shock. Before she could react, the shadows she had been fighting wrapped around her like a glove and threw her to the ground. In a moment she was gone as well.
Robin couldn't miss the sight of his girlfriend simply being swallowed by the ground like that. "Starfire!" A second later he yelled out in shock. A shadow had caught hold of his leg and was pulling him into the ground.
Within five seconds, Robin was gone and Cyborg followed almost immediately after, managing to hold off for only a second by firing his cannon.
Wulf turned intangible to escape his captors but one approached from behind and sunk him through the grass in a split-second.
Raven was the only one left, watching all this happen with a dry mouth and a frantically pounding heartbeat. She'd been holding her attackers off with a black shield that was surrounding her like a dome. But she couldn't hold it up for long as it was under stress from the countless shadows attacking her.
Her only hope was that Danny would finish his horde off and come back.
Just as she thought this, there was piercing shriek that pierced through her head. Shocked, her shield flickered for a moment.
That moment was all the shadows needed as they pounced on her. Raven scarcely had time to gasp for air before she was enveloped by something cold, slimy, and thoroughly disgusting. Her sixth sense felt something shift around her before the shadows covering her slipped away.
She found herself gasping for air and facedown in something that resembled concrete but not quite. It was far smoother and more like a stone. Her fingers convulsively grasped the ground and she pushed herself to her knees, trying to jump to her feet but failing as her muscles shook in shock. She fell backwards on her butt, finding herself in a transparent dome that flickered green.
"What…" she gasped, "…happened?"
"What happened to us," an unfamiliar voice said.
Raven whirled around to see a black-haired girl in a black sweater, black jeans, and combat boots. She had lilac eyes, purple lipstick, and her hair was half tied up in a green scrunchie. Next to her was a dark-skinned boy in a red beret, a yellowish looking sweater, and blue jeans. His hair was in a buzz cut and black while his eyes were a teal color that were framed by black glasses.
"Who are you?" Raven asked, noting that the rest of her friends had also made it here and seemed just as shaky as she was. The only person missing was Wulf, yet Raven had no time to devote to asking why he was missing.
"I'm Sam. This is Tucker."
Raven could hardly believe it. "Sam Manson? Tucker Foley?" She looked behind them to see a white-haired girl who seemed to be a ghost and clad similarly to Danny Phantom, two adults in jumpsuits, and another female teenager who was clad in an aquamarine jacket, sneakers, and what resembled a pair of dress pants. "I assume that you are…" She pointed to each of them as she named them, "Madeline Fenton, Jack Fenton, and Jazz Fenton?" She left the ghost girl nameless, not sure what her name was and not wanting to think it was something similar to Danny Phantom, especially considering the emblem on her chest.
"How did you know?" Sam sounded surprised.
"We have a friend in common," Raven said.
"Danny will be pleased to know we have found you!" Starfire exclaimed.
"Danny?" they all exclaimed in various tones of shock, worry, and surprise.
"You know him?" Sam demanded.
"Where is he?" Jazz demanded.
"How do you know him?" Tucker added.
"He's been staying with us for the last couple of weeks," Robin explained, looking as bowled over as Raven felt.
"I wouldn't say we found them, Starfire," Cyborg said. "It doesn't do us much good if Danny isn't here with us."
"Where is he?" Maddie demanded, her tone frantic with worry. "Where is my boy?"
The Titans were a bit gob smacked at hearing about the strong-willed teen they had become extremely familiar with called a boy.
Raven glanced around the dome for a moment to see that Danny really wasn't here. "Well, I guess he's the only one of us who didn't manage to get caught."
"Were they shadows?" the ghost girl piped up, eyeing them all a bit warily. "That's what got us, too."
"Yeah. Cold, slimy, and disgusting." Beast Boy shuddered for emphasis, though it wasn't faked.
"Who are you?" Starfire asked the girl. "You seem very similar to Danny, but you are not."
The girl straightened, her green eyes flashing. "My name is Dani Phantom; Dani with an 'i'. I'm Danny's cousin."
Extending her senses, Raven could tell there was more to that story. Her aura was far too like Danny's to just be a cousin. It was slightly different, but fundamentally it was the same, almost as if they came from the same…
Oh! A result from Danny's archrival? Danny had mentioned something about a cloning experiment during one of their many meditating sessions.
"Danny wasn't caught by them?" Dani sounded slightly proud of this. "How? None of my attacks had any effect!"
"His ghost ray fried them upon contact!" Starfire said exuberantly, demonstrating with a punch.
"He left because he had to take care of them somewhere else," Raven said. "It was too dangerous."
"Danny wouldn't do that!" Sam objected.
Raven shook her head. "He's been through several changes since you last saw him. Trust me, he did it to keep us safe."
"What happened?" Tucker demanded. "Sam's right; Danny wouldn't do something like that no matter how many ghosts are around!"
"It's not my story to tell," Raven said firmly. "When Danny gets here, he'll let you know."
"You're saying that as if you expect him to be caught," Jazz said, cocking an eyebrow.
Raven gave a smile. "Are you telling me that he won't eventually show up?"
There was a short silence.
"Point," Jack finally said, a grin growing on his face.
Raven could tell that he was the kind of man who normally grinned a lot; his face had the evidence as it spread into the grin with absolutely no problem at all. She wondered how slim and athletically muscular Danny had this huge and bulky father; then she glanced at Maddie's slim form and found her question answered.
"So what's the deal?" Robin asked. "You've been here longer, haven't you? What's going on?"
Danny's friends and family shared nervous glances, evidently unsettled by what had happened.
"It—" Sam started only to break off, shaking her head. "It makes no sense. He never gave us a name, but—"
"He looks almost like Danny!" Tucker blurted out.
Raven stiffened. "Bulky, flaming white hair, red eyes, and a cape?"
Sam gave Raven a sharp look. "No. But how do you know about him?"
Raven's lips pursed. "We ran into certain events that required an information transfer. Regardless, you're saying that this ghost isn't him?"
The other Titans and Dani glanced back and forth between Raven and Sam, not knowing what was being discussed.
"No, it isn't," Tucker said when it turned out Sam wasn't going to respond. "He's completely different."
"His body structure is like Danny's and so is his facial structure. But his eyes and his voice are completely different," Jazz described slowly. "And…it's like he has two completely different personalities."
"One manic and one more serious?" Robin suggested.
"Yes." Jazz looked at each of the Titans in turn. "You've met him then?"
"As a mist," Raven said. "Tell me what he said. What happened after you were brought here?"
"Raven's our expert on ghosts," Robin explained. "Aside from Danny, of course."
"And Wulf," Beast Boy added. His ears drooped. "But he's not here!"
"Wulf?" Tucker cocked his head to the side. "You mean Wulf, as in the ghost Wulf? Really big, black, and furry, wearing a jacket?"
"Yeah, he was staying with us, too," Beast Boy agreed. "I was really getting to practice my Esperanto on him."
"Never mind that," Raven interrupted impatiently, keeping her eyes on Sam. "Tell me what he said."
Looking back at the nods she was receiving from the others, Sam took a breath and began.
Flashback:
"Who am I?" The ghost's voice dropped. "I'm your worst nightmare."
Sam's hands curled into fists. "That doesn't answer our question! Who the hell are you?"
The ghost snickered, his mismatched eyes piercing through Sam's. "The girlfriend's got spirit. Do you…think…"—his voice had a sing-song quality now—"…that…you deserve…to know? Weaklings…that you are?" He broke into laughter, the sound sending chills down the spines of the Fentons and Sam and Tucker. "I'm…someone…intimately familiar with you." He opened his arms wide, brandishing the staff clutched in his left hand. It was silver and topped with what resembled a claw; in the middle was a smoky black orb. "I know your lives…I know your history…I know who you are."
"You're not Danny," Jazz proclaimed firmly, eyes narrowed at the ghost. "You aren't. If you were, you'd be rubbing our faces in it. But you're not, so you're not Danny."
"Then who are you?" Tucker demanded. "You've got Danny's emblem—"
The ghost suddenly roared, resulting in all of them flinching back, "DON'T SPEAK TO ME OF THAT!" Before their very eyes, the emblem seemed to reform, only to have the ghost dig the fingers of his left hand into the symbol and tear it off, managing half of it before the rest stuck. "Do not…"—his voice was ragged—"speak…to me…about…that." His mismatched eyes were manic, gleaming with insanity.
"Okay." Tucker spoke slowly, soothingly. "Okay… I won't."
"You won't tell us who you are, will you?" Dani said, her face stoic. Her green eyes were glinting stonily. "It's all just a game to you, isn't it? 'Let's see Danny Phantom's friends and family caged… Let's see what the ghost boy does next…' That's it, isn't it? Is that what it is to you? Just a game?"
The ghost simply smiled, revealing a row of gleaming white teeth that seemed at odds with the rest of his face. "Clever you… An unknown factor…yet a weak one…"
Dani bristled at that, but didn't say anything.
"You—" Maddie started, only to break off when Jazz grabbed her wrist, shaking her head firmly.
"Let us do the talking," Jazz whispered, not looking away from the ghost. "We've been doing it longer." She gave Jack a quick glance to make sure he received the message, and then looked back at the ghost.
"So if it's a game," Sam said, not budging from her spot, "then I presume Danny will join us soon?"
The ghost broke into manic laughter, the deep tone falling off into something more high-pitched. "Danny, Danny, Danny," he sang. "Danny Phantom, the half-ghost; Danny Phantom, the protector of the human realm; Danny Phantom, the clueless one"—Sam and Tucker flinched at their old nickname for their friend—"who is he really? Who…is…he…really?" The ghost twirled his staff, the smoky black orb in the middle of the claws swirling like a mini-whirlpool, and cocked his head to the side, a crazy grin on his face. "Why…don't we find out?"
"You're not going to answer any of our questions, are you?" Jazz said wearily.
"Won't we have such fun?" the ghost said in response, his eyes rolling up to the ceiling. The entire right half of his body flickered out of view for a second before solidifying. "Won't we…have…such…fun?" He pointed the staff to the right of him, opening a swirling vortex of darkness and sending a chill through the room; shadows dripped out and fell onto the stone floor, crawling around his feet. "See…you soon…"
Then, with a manic burst of laughter, the ghost slipped into the vortex, the portal closing behind him with a hiss. What remained were the shadows, but they crept off to the shadows of the vast area the captives found themselves in.
Jazz and Sam turned to the others, one stoic and one trembling with rage.
"Well," Jazz said wearily, "that didn't answer any of our questions."
End Flashback.
"That's it?" Raven asked once Sam had finished.
"We tried, you know," Sam said bitterly. "But he's a ghost and the rest of us are just humans, aside from Dani. But it's not like we could do anything."
"He was bonkers, completely and utterly bonkers," Tucker said adamantly.
"He never gave us a straight answer," Jazz added. "Just…word games."
"But he didn't know about me," Dani said. "He didn't. 'An unknown factor.' "
Raven pursed her lips, thinking. "He's not the only one. The other one didn't know about you either. That's because the accident happened before…"
"What?" Sam demanded. "You're saying they're linked? Danny defeated him! We saw him with our own eyes! He was the only one there! He wasn't the kind of ghost to share!"
"Okay, who the hell are you talking about?" Robin burst out, having had enough of this lopsided conversation.
"Someone Danny told me about weeks ago," Raven said, not looking in Robin's direction. "I won't tell you who; it's Danny's business."
"You're not getting anything out of the rest of us either," Tucker said firmly.
Robin threw his hands up in frustration. "All right! But if this lack of information results in something unexpectedly bad happening, I'm not taking responsibility for it!"
"We've been taken captive by an insane ghost with a split personality," Cyborg pointed out. "Isn't that bad enough already?"
Robin glared. "You know what I mean!"
"It is Danny's business, Robin," Starfire said, placing a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder. "We should trust his friends and family."
"Yes," Raven agreed. "Now, we need to—"
She was broken off as the ground underneath them began shaking. A loud noise was heard, as if the stone ceiling above them was cracking. The pillars in the area visibly vibrated.
But over everything was the horrible sound of hundreds of ghosts moaning.
With the gut sensation that had never served her wrong before, Raven had the sudden feeling that everything was just about to go to hell.
Well, now, what did you think? I get a feeling that there are a bunch of lurkers out there reading this (my counter says this but anyway...). Would more of you mind dropping a review? I'd love to hear from you! This story is winding down and I'd really like to know what you think of what's happening. So, please, drop a REVIEW and give me some input! See you in two weeks! I might update sooner if I get a lot of reviews. (hint, hint)
Note of caution: the next chapter's going to be a bumpy ride.
Thanks to HalfafanD, cocoa85715, kirara the great, bug349, ChristinCC, Kung-fu Blaziken, Wilona Riva, Leo112, Uuuuuuuh, SkyHorse32, and Mak8907 for reviewing the last chapter!