First order of business: answers to reviewers.
Fan reader: yep, you did, I've decided to go with Angie after all. A little depression is always fun, it makes you want to read on but sad; it's an internal conflict thing. Sorry you got sick, but glad you could read.
Bubbace: Glad you like it, Glad that the characters are believable I thought Danny was a little OOC, but he's has "grown up" he's been abandoned long enough his personality has changed. I hope you keep reading and reviewing.
Huge DP fan: I must review? Or you must review? Or … O.o Please don't go into convulsions, here's the next chapter already.
Done already, while I don't like lengthy author's notes I'm just glad I got reviews. But after getting so many on my other story I'm not feeling the love… Oh well, the other one has been out longer… here's the next chapter.
"Danny?" an African American woman asked looking at Sam and Tucker, "As in Danny Fenton?" She inquired.
"Valerie?" Sam and Tucker looked with shock at the woman.
"No, the red huntress, who'd you expect." Valerie asked.
"Actually Val considering that you use to be the re… OW!" Tucker was cut off when a loud thud and a glare from Sam.
"What he's saying is, no one has seen the red huntress since we left Amity Park." Sam smiled.
"You know Sam, while you may be a good liar and know how to keep your mouth shut, Tucker definitely does not." Valerie glared. Sam shrugged forcing a smile.
"Well, Tucker sure keeps his mouth shut about this mysterious Danny." An African American woman said.
"Sorry, this is Angie, she's my wife." Tucker said sheepishly.
"Wow you actually got married, you were such a ladies man back in the day…" then Valerie gave a fake cough, "Excuse me want to be ladies man." Tucker rolled his eyes.
"That was forever ago… come one, I only had my technology, besides I only have eyes for one woman now." Tucker stared lovingly at Angie.
"Oh I'm gonna hurl." Sam said.
"I see you haven't changed much." Valerie laughed, her boyfriend cleared his throat, Valerie turned to him, "Right, this is my boy friend Derek."
"Wow Val, are you sure you're life isn't too… how did you phrase it… complicated was it? For him to be a part of it?" Sam asked tone icy.
"That's not fair." Val said.
"You call breaking my best friend's heart fair?" Sam asked.
"Why didn't you just go out with him?" Valerie glared.
"I would have if I had a second chance at him… " Sam said she opened her mouth to say more but quickly closed it.
"I knew you liked him." Tucker smiled.
"Now is so not the time Tuck." Sam glared; Tucker raised his hands in a surrender position.
"Don't bite my head of, in fact don't bite anyone's head off, maybe you need more meat in your diet."
"Like that's gonna happen." Sam turned on Tucker, they started bickering, Angie turned to Val.
"Were they always like this?" she asked.
"Danny was the glue that held them together, the one that kept them from fighting, so mostly yes, but with a cushion in between really. They were good friends that trio, always closed off from everyone." Valerie was reminiscing.
"Why?" Angie asked, Valerie frowned.
"Not sure, they had a secret, but no one ever figured it out, and after the town burned no one wanted to think about it." Valerie said, "But back when the town was actually alive those three were inseparable, always getting into one form of trouble or another. Danny was always tardy and late, running out of class randomly, running and disappearing randomly. Sam and Tucker covered for him, Sam better at excuses than Tuck." Val smiled, "I think they thought it would go on like that forever. Just past graduation they were still up to their usual antics… until the town burned, and Danny died." Valerie concluded sadly.
"Wow, I wonder what it had been like for them?" Angie mused out loud.
"Freaking hard, that's what. Imagine one of your friend no longer being around, no longer seeing his face, his dorky smile, the way his eyes darted around the room as if looking for danger, the little quirk of his lips when sharing some insider's joke. The adorable naïveness and cluelessness, the endearing clumsiness and beautiful lies, all gone the next day with out even a chance to say goodbye." Valerie smiled sadly tears in her eyes, "if it was hard for me I can't have imagined how hard it was for them."
"You liked him didn't you?" Derek asked.
"He was cute, funny, nice, and adorably naïve, how couldn't I like him?" Val sighed, "I don't see why it matters now anyway."
"He said goodbye." Sam and Tucker said breaking out of their private conversation.
"I've regretted it ever since, I think knowing your best friend is doomed, and having to say goodbye to him while running in the other direction is worse than not knowing what happened, because then, you know exactly what happened. Well maybe not in detail, but you know how and why he died, damn that hero complex of his." Tucker growled.
"Tucker." Sam said warningly.
"Yeah, yeah." Tucker blinked away tears, it was uncommon for him to cry, but Danny… Danny was an exception, "He said he'd be back Sam, he lied."
"Tucker have you ever considered that he did come back, only to find an abandoned town? You ever consider once that he might still be there?"
"All the time, but what would I say? Oh, hi Danny, it's been a while, how has your life, been? Oh and by the way, for the last ten years I was sure you were dead." Tucker huffed, "For some reason I don't think that'd go over well."
"Tucker, we're talking about Danny here, I'm sure he misses us as much as we miss him." Sam said, the other watched this, Sam was talking like Danny was still alive, Tucker held it in his mind as a possibility, the rest of the group didn't know what to think, they all thought Danny would have to be dead.
"I know Sam, but think about it… how do we know he's even aged? For all we know, he's still fourteen, the same age he was when we left." Tucker said, Valerie looked at the two.
"Eighteen." Valerie corrected, "The town was attacked when we were all eighteen, barely out of high school." Tucker looked like he made a dreadful mistake.
"Slip of the tongue." Tucker forced out, Sam glared at him from across the table and began to dig furiously into her salad.
"You two are still hiding something aren't you?" Valerie asked, "Something about Danny."
"Why would you think that?" Tucker asked stuffing his mouth with a hamburger.
"You've always been a horrible liar." Valerie pointed out, Tucker shrugged it was true. Sam was still shoveling salad into her mouth.
"How could Danny not age unless he was a ghost?" Asked Derek, Sam hesitated for the slightest moment before continuing to eat as fast as she could without looking like a cave man… or Tucker.
"So… the ghost stories about Amity Park are real, even the one about the ghost boy?" asked Angie growing worried, to her regret Tucker didn't answer.
"Oh they're real alright," Valerie said gripping her fork tightly, the ghost boy, the reason she'd come, the reason Danny was dead, she would kill him, "Every last one of them."
"Ok, I'm gonna go… I plan on camping in Amity and hope to be home by sunset… so…" Sam drained her soda, "I'll catch you around."
"Why is she in such a hurry?" Asked Derek.
"Chances are she want to find Danny, ghost or not." Valerie said, "with ghost being the most likely." Tucker didn't answer but occupied himself with his burger, for the first time regretting it took so long to eat meat.
(ok, line break thingy… so enjoy)
Dash got tickets to the plane, it was only an hour or so flight, but nearly another hours drive to the hotel, then about two hours to get to Amity the next day. Dash sighed rubbing his neck, he'd been up all night making last minute reservations, and then Michael had gotten up with a nightmare and had spent nearly an hour keeping Dash awake trying to comfort the boy. Dash loved his son and all, but his patience was wearing thin.
"Come on Michael." Dash said as the four year old ran past him yet again, "It's time to go meet Daddy's friend." Dash sighed, "come on, you can do swimming when we get to the hotel." Dash bribed, the four year old smiled running up to his dad.
"Swimming?" he asked.
"Yes, swimming, we packed your swim suit and everything." Dash smiled at the four year old. Michael smiled.
"Ok daddy." Dash caught a glimpse of his wife, if there was one thing keeping them together it was his son. Dash picked up the boy tossing him over his shoulder, "Let go before the tickle monster wakes up." Dash smiled, then he wiggled his fingers like he was going to tickle the boy. Michael squirmed and laughed, Dash set Michael down before he could drop him. The boy ran out to the car jumping enthusiastically into his car seat. Dash then picked up the last of the bags and put them in the trunk then got in on the drivers side to drive them to the air port.
"Swimming, swimming, swimming." Chanted Michael in the back seat, Dash smiled at his son then put the car into gear.
(Line break… yeah… keep reading now.)
I flew around the town pretending I was on patrol with my two best friend below me.
"Danny, I don't know why you want to do this, we have to go to school." Sam said through the Fenton Phones I had manifested. I shrugged.
"Don't worry, we'll be back.." I said. Tucker snorted in the microphone.
"I remember the last time you said that." Tuck laughed. Actually, the replicas wouldn't remember the last time I said that, just the second to last.
"What ever Tuck, I did come back didn't I? " I reminded him.
"Come on Danny, your grades are already low as it is." I slowed Sam below me. I Dropped down beside her as she finished her sentence.
"I guess you're right." I agreed, "Lets go." She nodded I flew above her again. People looked at up at me as I passed. Sam was humming a song, it sounded like "Buried Alive" by Creature Feature. I sighed; I had actually liked that song when Sam was here. I took in the sights landing behind a tree and changing back coming out next to my two best friends. The school was busy, Dash noticed me and came over.
"You ready for your weekly beating Fenton?" he asked, I rolled my eyes, this is why I never 'played' school, because undoubtedly the sentient replicas still recognized themselves. That is what sentience means.
"Not really Dash." I said I looked away bored, "Should you go kick a puppy or something." I asked.
"Being smart with me?" he asked.
"You just think that because you are so dumb." I said, yes it was a horrible quip, but I really was a little lacking on my witty banter. I hadn't had to really fight ghosts since the town left, the only one I had to fight semi regularly was Skulker, who kept trying to steal things from my parent's lab, not that he ever succeeded of course.
"That's it Fenton you're going down." Dash swung his fist; I looked up my eyes glowing green with power. Dash's eyes went green then he ran away, into a tree, into Kwan, then he gave himself a wedgie, and danced a little, then Dash suck his head into a trash can and fell the rest of the way in. My eyes stopped glowing, Sam and Tucker looked at me.
"When did you learn to do that?" Tucker asked.
"Danny, what's wrong with you?" Sam scolded. I shrugged.
"I'm not going to spend the rest of my life being tortured by him." I stated. Tucker looked at me.
"But how did you do that?" Tuck asked.
"Practice, Vlad was right about having more years of it you can discover all kinds of tricks." I sighed hating that I was talking about Vlad. I looked at Tucker, he gapped.
"What?" I asked.
"I… uh. Well… I had no idea ghost's could do that, what other powers are you hiding?" Tucker asked. I looked at him debating whether or not to answer, when I felt a presence in my town, and not just any presence.
"Sam?" I looked up a the sky. She was here, not just her replica, Sam, actually here in the flesh, alive…
"What?" Sam said angry at me, then I looked at her.
"Uh… sorry about this." I said they faded, all of them, every one of the people in the t own I had manifested. Leaving it empty and devoid of life. I flew up into the air looking at the car driving thought the streets. I went to the power lines charging them so her house would have power. I closed my eyes lighting the town with electricity. This was it, if would finally see her again after all these years… she was twenty-eight though. I was too technically but… I hadn't aged. I flew to the park and sat in a tree closing my eyes feeling her energy. Sam… Sam.
(Yeah… line break)
Sam drove into town as she go to the buildings she was surprised to see people, wait was that Spike, he still looked fourteen. Sam gapped and looked around, there were people here, they weren't even ghosts, they were alive.
"Sam?" the words echoed in Sam's mind. She tensed up.
"Danny?" she asked, no answer, but after a couple seconds the people around the town winked out of existence like dying lights. Sam freaked out nearly drove into the sidewalk. She kept driving as if nothing had happened. The sun was actually higher than she thought it would be, but then again she had driven like a bat out of hell as soon as she got past any signs of civilization, it was barely two thirty.
Sam gripped the steering wheel as she came into town, her knuckles turning white with the effort. She pulled up to the mansion. Stepping out and setting her hand on her ecto gun she opened the door using the key, the door opened soundlessly. Sam peered inside, the place was perfect… too perfect. The door closed and Sam walked up the stairs to her room looking around. The room hadn't been touched, it was exactly how it had been when Sam had last seen it. Reaching under the bed for her photo album Sam was surprised to find no dust on it. She flipped rapidly through the pages, tears coming to her eyes. There was Danny, then Danny and Tucker having a food fight. Danny, Sam and Tucker in eighth grade. Tucker and Danny on the first day of high school making faces. Danny in front of the portal holding a mostly white and black jumpsuit. Danny floating in front of the portal the colors on the jumpsuit from before reversed, a DP on the front. Danny saving kids in a bus. Tucker with Danny at the Mall stuffing food into their faces. Tucker and Danny hugging. Sam and Danny hugging. Sam and Danny sleeping on each other on a bus ride. Tucker sleeping with his PDA clutched to him like a baby. Danny staring a the stars in a tree. Tucker spraying shaving cream at the camera. Danny as Phantom having a food fight with Tucker. Sam sleeping clutching a stuffed Alucard. Danny on graduation looking fourteen still. Danny smiling at the graduation dinner with their families. Tucker making a face at Danny. Tucker with gravy all over his face looking far older than Danny. Danny spraying Tucker with a squirt gun… why did Danny still have to look so young. The three of them arms around each other like in eighth grad smiling, Danny still not aged. A picture of the first fire, a picture of Danny flying toward it. Then nothing. The rest of the pictures were still in the camera. Sam looked around for the camera, it was tossed on the floor where she'd left it when she'd run upstairs to grab some clothes and get out of there.
"There you are." Sam said her voice sounding echo-y in the empty house. Sam picked up the camera and looked at it, surprised it still had battery. The next pictures were horrible, people screaming and dying. There was even a video, Danny flying people out of the blaze, trying to put the fires out. At the very end of the video he looked at her.
"RUN!" he yelled then looked up, some ominous clouds were gathered around. The video stopped after focusing back on Danny his child like eyes wide with fear.
"Oh Danny." Sam sighed. He was so young… he was eighteen in the video, but he still looked fourteen. Sam looked at the camera till it went black in auto shut down. Then Sam crawled on to the bed and closed her eyes, her heart pounding as she recalled the events of that day. Why? Sam asked herself, why did it have to happen.
(ok… next!)
Tucker pulled into town around sunset, a beautiful melody drifting through the air as he got closer to the center of town. What was that?
"Babe?" Angie asked looking at Tucker, "I'm getting a little freaked out." Tucker took one hand off the wheel to rub his wife's back. Navigating through the streets to his house Tucker sighed in relief and sadness as he came up to his old house.
"Here we are." He said, corn rose moving across his shoulders as he looked up a the building. Angie shivered, Tucker patted her arm and got out. Angie followed closely the hauntingly beautiful song in the back ground scaring her. Tucker opened the door, the lock undone as it was left. He looked inside the house… how could it be in such perfect condition? Tucker asked himself, there wasn't even dust. As if drawn by a string Tucker went to his old room. One of his old PDA's laid on the table halfway disassembled, it had gotten jammed up the day before the fires and he'd been fixing it when he ran out of the room. He'd only come back for clothes and a small lunch box that now resided under the drivers seat.
"This is creepy." Angie said, she looked around, the picked up a picture frame from his bedside table, "Is this Danny?" she pointed to the boy in the picture. Black hair, beautiful blue eyes, and a kinds smile on his face Danny stared back up at her.
"Yeah." Said Tucker trying not to choke up. He took his wife's hand, "come on, there's something I have to see."
(Line break, would say something random, but must keep typing.)
Sam awake with a start, it had gotten dim, the sun going down. Forcing herself out of bed Sam went downstairs and got into her car starting it and driving slowly to her destination. Put the window she heard a strange tune, beautiful, but strange. It was coming from the park, Sam didn't dare follow the noise though, she had only one destination in her mind at the moment.
The building loomed in front of her, taunting her with its perfection. Empty of course, but looking like it had just been left not two minutes ago, just like the rest of the town. The people she saw at the beginning of her journey coming to mind. Sam shivered and not with cold. Sam came up to the building, idling in front of it for a minute she pulled the key out of the ignition and walked up the steps to the door.
The doorknob turned easily in her hands. Sam stared into the house, the eerie feeling of time just having stopped still around her. There was no noise, no nothing, Sam didn't know if that scared her or not. Taking a deep breath she ventured upstairs. Danny's room was just right there. Sam thought, just right there, ten years ago Danny slept in that bed. Sam couldn't bring herself to enter… not yet, so instead she went to Jazz's room. Bearbert Einstein on the bed, a stack of papers on her desk, everything neat and tidy, just like Jazz.
Sam stood awkwardly in the room before leaving, going to Danny's parent's room. She looked inside; it was messy, yet with organization if that made sense. There were gadgets here and there, but most of the clothes and stuff were actually folded or hung in the closet, granted most of the clothes were orange and blue jumpsuits. Sam smiled sadly wonder what happened to the rest of the Fentons not for the first time either.
Sam waited a while then she too left this room. Standing in front of Danny's door she debated knocking or not. What if Danny was indeed still there, what would she do? What would she say? Sam opened the door, no Danny, her heart fell, she surveyed the room, it didn't look how he left it, and it looked clean. His bed was made, his clothes put away, things were organized not just haphazardly cleaned using ghost rays as he usually did.
Sam laid down on Danny's bed, it still smelled like him. She missed that smell, the smell of Danny; Sam hadn't even realized how much she had missed it until it was back. It made her feel whole, Danny… she thought, Danny. She closed her eyes pressing her face to the sheets, the blankets and his pillows. If Danny were there, Sam mused; he'd probably call her a stalker, and pretend to run away before coming back with a crooked grin.
"Oh… Danny, I've missed you." She said like he was there, even if he wasn't, she couldn't help it. Sam hadn't seen Danny in forever, she didn't even know if he was alive. Sam just thought if Danny had died, she would have felt it. Like the world would be a lesser place, her life certainly had when Danny disappeared.
The door downstairs opened and closed, Sam jumped off the bed practically flying down the stairs.
"DANNY? DANNY? DA…" Sam broke off when she saw Tucker and Angie in the doorway. Sam blushed a brilliant red, Tucker looked away rubbing the back of his neck.
"I… uh… thought maybe…" Sam said a tear rolling down her cheek, she quickly wiped it away.
"I know." Tucker nodded. He looked around the place, "This seem weird to you, the way nothing has been disturbed?" Tucker asked. Sam nodded.
"It seems like Clockwork, but I don't think it is him… if he timed out the entire town we would have froze when we got in the city limits… right?" Sam asked aloud. Tucker nodded.
"Right… so it's probably some other ghost."
"Do you want to…" Sam gestured to the kitchen. Tucker nodded.
"I want to see if it's still working." Tucker said, his wife just looked around wide-eyed not sure what was going on. The trio went to the kitchen then down to the basement, the eerie green glow of the portal lighting up the room. Tucker flicked on a light. The basement was a little more organized as well, weapons hung on walls, and new weapons the two old friends had never seen before on the table. The door upstairs opened and closed.
"SKULKER I SWEAR IF THAT'S YOU!" Danny's voice echoed down the stairs. Sam and Tucker grabbed each other, "THE LAST TIME YOU TIRED TO STEAL OTHER'S TECHNOLOGY YOU ENDED UP HAVING TO STUDY PURPLE BACK GORRILAS FOR A MONTH!" despite the situation Sam and Tucker snickered, leaving a vey confused and scared Angie out of the loop. The soft foot falls started down the stairs, "YOU BETTER NOT BE STEALING… OR RTHER ATTEMPTING TO STEAL ANY OF MY PARENT'S THINGS!" Danny's voice was a the top of the stairs now, "I'LL GIVE YOU TEN SECONDS TO KEEP FROM GETTING YOUR BUTT KICKED ST…." the black haired teen stopped at the bottom of the stair's eyes bugging out at the sight of Sam and Tucker, "Oh crud."
(Yeah, next!)
I came home, I had the feeling there was someone in the house. Small noise from downstairs confirmed it. Great it was probably someone to steal my parent's crap again. I rolled my eyes.
"SKULKER I SWEAR IF THAT'S YOU!" I yelled, he was the worst about trying to take my parent's things, I thought of something that might dissuade him "THE LAST TIME YOU TIRED TO STEAL OTHER'S TECHNOLOGY YOU ENDED UP HAVING TO STUDY PURPLE BACK GORRILAS FOR A MONTH!" Actually I bet if Tucker were around he'd be studying them again for another month, nothing like watching a gorilla majestically scratch his butt or rather her butt, "YOU BETTER NOT BE STEALING… OR RTHER ATTEMPTING TO STEAL ANY OF MY PARENT'S THINGS!" I fixed my sentence since he'd never actually succeeded in stealing anything. I gave him a change to get lost., "I'LL GIVE YOU TEN SECONDS TO KEEP FROM GETTING YOUR BUTT KICKED ST…."I cut off my words abruptly upon seeing Sam and Tucker in the lab, I said the only words that could come out of my mind, "Oh crud."
Tucker and Sam gapped at me I gapped back, they were… old, nearing their thirties, ugh, stupid not aging thing. There was another woman with them, an African American woman that hid behind Tucker. Sam took a step toward me as if to make sure I was real, I had actually hoped to avoid this whole thing and I froze.
Acting purely on instinct in the most animalistic way I bolted up the stairs, nearly tripping once then getting the door open only to have my foot grabbed, I tried to phase out of the hold only to find it unsuccessful. I looked back Tucker had on the ghost gauntlets and was holding onto my food. Doing something completely out of character I actually hissed at him tugging harder. With him tugging back on my foot we slipped down a couple steps, I was prone trying to hold onto the steps above me. Tucker grabbed my other foot making me loose hold of the top step.
I slid down a few steps before grabbing a hold of the railing and tugging up. I felt a pressure on my back and saw Sam with the Fenton Fisher. Sam tired to pry my hands off I growled at her and started cussing as she got me to let go. Tucker then reached up letting go of one of my feet, I used the opportunity to kick him, he grimaced in pain but didn't let go instead grabbing one of my hands and pulling me down till he could grab the other. Sam started wrapping the line from the Fenton Fisher around me, then once my arms were secured to my sides she brought out a chair and tied me down to it.
Still struggling I futile tried to go intangible to get out, but of course it didn't work. I hissed like an animal angry and getting angrier. I looked wildly around for an escape. I looked up at Tucker my eyes glowing powerfully green, Tucker then started to walk toward me to untie me. Sam grabbed by face forcing me to look away from Tucker and essentially break my hold I looked at her eyes glowing green hissing, and cussing, growling and struggling against the line that had begun to cut into my arms with my desperate jerks. I couldn't face this, not yet not yet. I pulled harder Sam still held my face, eyes boring into mine. I noticed the compassion in them, the fear, relives, sadness, and ever so slight exasperations. I slowed my struggles down. I closed my eyes refusing to look at her, Sam may have gotten older but her eyes were still the same soft, caring purple eyes I always loved.
I blocked them all out weakly pulling at the bond by now. Why me… no why now? I opened my eyes tears in them, they were baby blue again.
"You've changed." I said looking at Sam, she had, she'd changed a lot, grown up without me, left me behind. I felt so lost, wanting to tell her what I'd discovered and betrayed by the fact she grew up on me. I knew it wasn't like she could change the fact, but it still could take it. I couldn't face this, not now… but if I didn't do it now, when would I?
Third chapter, who knew Danny would put us such a fight? I feel so bad for him, forever young, I can only barely imagine how bad it was for him, so I'll have to do my best to portray that as the writer of this Fan Fic. So enjoy and most of all REVIEW!
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