Sorry this took so long but the past 2-3 weeks have probably been the most stressful in my life. (Hockey playoffs, university applications, end of term and started allergy shots)
And next week I have a geography mid-term, a math cumulative and a HUGE history project...all next week!
But anyways... I'd like to thank everyone who has read the story, reviewed, put this on their favourite and/or alert list. Everyone's advice in the beginning of the story was a huge help to my writing and everyone's support for the story makes me feel so honoured. Thank you so much!
Now, onto the story...
Chapter 18
Time was passing by. That was the perfect way to describe it.
Since returning back to Hogwarts, Danny continued to watch and observe Danny. Just like always, he had to report anything strange. But lately there hasn't been anything strange. 'As ordinary life can be when you have magical powers.' Danny thought sarcastically.
Though to be fair it wasn't exactly boring at the Order anymore. The other members of the Order were treating him with some more respect and with the recent breakout of all the Death Eaters in Azkaban; the meetings have become increasingly important.
Dumbledore had also told Danny that he may get more responsibilities with the Order, which had Danny very excited.
But until then Danny still had to watch Harry from time to time and have some shifts in the Department of Mysteries.
Danny time in Hogwarts may have been boring but Danny still had his books to entertain him. He'd recently moved on to reading about some of the magical plants that existed.
It was now lunch time in the castle. Everyone was going to the great hall to fill themselves up for the rest of the afternoon.
Danny went down into the kitchen and got his usual meal from the house elves. He thanked them like he always did and flew back to his tower.
Danny's ghostly tail swirled as Danny flew over the expansive towers of Hogwarts. He passed over one of the lower roofs when Danny's ghost sense went off. Danny got himself into a fighting stance when, he was suddenly struck straight into the stomach. He spun out of direction from the great force used by his unknown foe.
With practiced ease Danny got himself balanced and quickly scanned for his combatant. To Danny's surprise there was nothing around him, making it seem like nothing had hit him at all.
But Danny knew better. He continued to look for the person who had hit him knowing that they were still near him as a blue mist continued to emit from his mouth. Danny looked over at roof in front of him and found the remains of his lunch everywhere on the roof.
"Oh man, there goes my lunch!" Danny groaned.
"So sorry." An unknown voice said from behind.
Danny quickly turned around sparking the ectoplasm in his hand but found the opposite side empty as well.
Just when Danny let the ectoplasm back into his palms he felt something slimy wrap around his chest. Danny looked down and saw a scaly green body had wrapped Danny's arms and legs together, making him unable to move.
Just as Danny started to go intangible to escape, an electric shock coursed through Danny's body.
Danny screamed and thrashed around as the electricity went through his body. No matter how much Danny moved, the strong snake like body had kept Danny in place.
Eventually the electricity stopped, Danny slumped in his captor's hold, unable to move his body.
"Sorry big boy, did that hurt your little, itty bitty body?"
Danny turned his head to face the unknown voice. He looked into the face of an abnormally large electric eel. The eel grinned with its long sharp teeth poking through its mouth. The eel's eyes shined dark red with malicious and murderous intent as it stared at Danny.
"Bertrand?" Danny said confused.
The eel smiled even more as it noticed the amount of pain Danny was in. "Oh boy you do remember me" Bertrand said as he slithered his head above Danny.
"Now hold still" Bertrand said with mock enthusiasm.
He opened his gaping, teeth infested mouth as he slowly went in to bite at Danny's neck. Danny struggled in Bertrand's grip until he finally got one finger out. He shot an ectoplasmic blast from his finger first hitting Bertrand into the mouth until finally making its way into his eye.
He hissed in pain, wiggling his head to try and dull the pain. Danny noticed that Bertrand's grip had loosened giving Danny the opportunity to put in a full blast into Bertrand's scaly hide.
Bertrand flew into the roof, destroying some of the tiles of the tower. Bertrand slowly turned himself into his normal green blob form.
"You little brat, you're going pay for that"
Before Danny's eyes Bertrand started to morph again. His blob form started to grow taller, hair started to grow all over his body and his teeth became thick and pointy. When Bertrand was done morphing he was now in the form a 7 foot tall bear with drool dripped down out his lip as he snarled at Danny.
Bertrand pounced at Danny grabbing him and putting him in a giant hug as he pulled Danny down several stories. Danny quickly turned himself intangible going through Bertrand's huge body.
Bertrand landed in the courtyard below with a loud bang. Dust flew out everywhere, clouding over Danny's vision of his opponent. Danny flew into the cloud of dust and landed in the crater resulted from the crash.
Danny couldn't find Bertrand anywhere.
'Where is he?' Danny thought distressed.
Suddenly Danny felt something grab him by the throat and lifted him in the air.
Before Danny could do anything to get himself released from Bertrand iron grip, he was thrown into the hard courtyard tile below.
Danny was lifted again and thrown into the ground again. Danny quickly turned intangible, going through the ground. Danny whizzed behind Bertrand expertly grabbed his shoulders and using his enhanced strength, Danny twirled Bertrand's big bear form and threw him in the air.
Bertrand flipped and twirled in the air as he tried to right his flight. Just when Bertrand got himself level he felt something sting his back. He turned around and met Danny glaring at him with his hands raised. His hands held fiery balls of ectoplasmic energy, dancing in his palms ready to be fired at any moment.
Bertrand lunged without any hesitation. Reacting quickly Danny shot his ectoplasmic rays into Bertrand's chest. Bertrand went through the barrage of ecto rays brought his fist into the Danny's chin.
Danny head cocked back from the impact. Bertrand took advantage for Danny's delay and quickly swiped his sharp claw straight through Danny's chest. Danny hissed in pain, the claws had cut through Danny's jumpsuit as well as his skin. The cut destroyed any recognition of his signature DP logo and the cut through the skin dripped droplets of green ectoplasm.
Bertrand quickly grabbed Danny and dug his claws into Danny's back. The claws scrapped right through Danny's back muscles. Danny chest wound was also suppressed by Bertrand's powerful grip.
Danny screamed in pain as ectoplasmic blood came leaked out of his wounds. Danny desperately tried to get out of his grip by going intangible, but the burning pain was too much.
Bertrand's bear face was smiling with evil contempt as he watched the ghost teen squirming in his arms.
Bertrand continued the hold for ten more seconds before he loosened his grip and took in his claws out of his back and then reinserted them higher in Danny's back.
The sharp claws pierced through right into Danny's upper back. The pain was indescribable it burned through his battered body and made his muscles spasm as he slumped into Bertrand arms.
"Hey Spectra, I got him!" Bertrand exclaimed.
Danny was idle, breathing deeply, trying to ignore the pain. His world twisted and turned as he continued to ooze blood from his back.
Appearing from below Bertrand and Danny was a flaming black ghost with piercing red eyes. Spectra came towards Danny with a sinister smile across her face.
"Long time kiddo, how's it been?"
Danny glared at her with as much bravado he could muster, though it was pretty pathetic considering how wounded he looked.
"Oooooo scary" Spectra said mockingly.
Spectra moved her way forward put her hands around Danny's chin. Danny tried to pull himself free, but Spectra's grip was too tight.
"Just when I thought it was easy to understand your insecurities, you do this. You leave Amity Park. With no reason at all. And your parents go into depression trying to find you"
Spectra kept Danny's eyes fixed into her heartless red ones as she continued to speak. "They cry every day when you're away. Your sister hates you for what you've done Danny."
Danny wheezed as he tried to ignore Spectra.
"Even your loyal friends hate you!"
"No, that's not true." Danny said in pain.
"Believe it Danny. You have no one. No friends, no family. But, who would love you? You are just some insignificant little freak trying to desperately fit in." Spectra said cruelly.
The words stung as much as the claws still implanted in Danny's back. 'Had his parents gone into depression? Did his friends really hate him?' All these thoughts went through Danny's head, making him miserable beyond belief.
Spectra smiled as all of Danny's pain and sorrow coursed through her hand and into her body.
"Your pathetic" Spectra said venomously. "Why would Vlad want you so much? Your just a worthless piece of teenage scum"
At the mention of Vlad's name, Danny became furious.
'Vlad must have sent them! Just like every other ghost!'
New found energy and adrenaline surged through Danny. Ectoplasmic energy started to crack in Danny's palms. He coursed all his energy into his palms and placed both his hands on Spectra and Bertrand.
The two spectres screamed in pain. The ectoplasm coursing from Danny's looked like a burning fire.
The ectoplasm fried and burned the flesh of the two evil ghosts.
Spectra let go of Danny's chin and wrenched his hand off him immediately. While Bertrand turned himself intangible to get his claws out of Danny, once they were out Danny put both of his hands together and blasted Bertrand with a wide ectoplasmic ray.
Bertrand was pushed several feet back, hissing in pain. Danny wasted no time and quickly flew away from the two ghosts.
'I need to get back to the tower and get the thermos!'
Danny flew as fast as he could but his injuries from before had made him significantly slower.
Just as Danny turned behind one of the surrounding towers of the school he saw a green beam whiz by his head.
Danny turned his head and saw the two spectres furiously pursuing him.
'I got to lose them!' Danny thought frantically.
Danny went down towards the castle and fazed through the wall going into the school's halls.
Using all of the knowledge Danny had available of the castle, Danny went through a very complicated route through the castle, trying to confuse his ghostly enemies.
Danny continued doing this strategy until he was at the base of his tower.
"When I catch you kid, you won't have a human half anymore!" Bertrand yelled furiously.
Danny ignored his foe and shot straight up through the interior of the tower. Danny whole body burned in agony as he was making it to the final stretch of his plight.
Danny flew through the pain, trying to desperately make it to the top. When he was halfway to the top Spectra phased through the wall of the tower and hit Danny in the side.
Danny flew into the wall, fazing through it. Danny righted his fall and shot up again trying to make it.
But something sticky had latched onto his ankle stopping Danny's progress. Danny looked below him and saw a gigantic green spider trying to pull him down. Danny shot an ecto blast into the web line with one hand and shot another ecto blast with his other hand into the eight eyes of the spider.
The web broke and the spider shrieked in pain. Danny turned around to start his flight again, but instead he quickly dodged the angry bull that was Spectra.
Spectra growled in frustration as she missed her target. Danny tried desperately to fly away from Spectra but his worn down body was just too tired. Spectra quickly caught up to Danny and grabbed him by the feet and threw him into the wall.
Danny choked in pain as he impacted into the hard wall. His previous back wounds now stung with excruciating pain. The impact had completely cracked the wall, making some of the bricks to fall out of its cement hold. Danny lay in the wall, desperately panting for air in his bloody lungs.
'I can't let them get me!'
Danny gritted his teeth and with new determination as he turned himself intangible and fazed once again into the interior of the tower.
Danny gritted his teeth as he battled for every inch of up the tower as he could. He ignored the pain coming from his aching upper body. He pressed as hard as he could in his vertical climb.
He heard a violent screech come from behind him. On instinct Danny turned towards the noise and fired an onslaught of ectoplasmic rays into the fast approaching Spectra.
The rays hit their mark and pushed the female down the tower.
Danny finally had it to the top of the tower went over to the desk and quickly grabbed the Fenton thermos.
Danny smiled in relief as he held the familiar cylindrical container.
Having no time to spare, Danny flew through the ceiling of the tower and looked around for Bertrand and Spectra.
Bertrand had just crawled up to the top of the tower, still as a spider. Bertrand shrieked at Danny, Danny kept the thermos behind back, trying to look as calm as possible.
Bertrand angered by Danny's lack of any fear jumped towards Danny.
Danny smiled as he opened the thermos and turned it on. The blue light surrounded Bertrand giant spider form and slowly started to suck him into the thermos. Bertrand shrieked as he tried to fight the pull of the thermos. Eventually the thermos did its work and completely sucked Bertrand inside.
Danny capped the thermos relieved but frowned at Spectra's disappearance.
"One down..." Danny said softly.
Danny scanned the area, but found no sign of Spectra.
Without warning, Danny felt something get implanted into Danny's back. Danny yelled in pain as the unknown object went slowly deeper into his back wounds. Now a hand wrenched itself around his neck and started to tighten.
Danny realized what was piercing into his back, it was Spectra's nails.
Danny's already wounded back burned and spasmed in pain as Spectra forcibly tried to burrow into Danny's tissue. The pain was too much for Danny to hold the thermos which plummeted down below. Danny watched as the thermos flew down below, dropping down a multitude of stories below.
Spectra smiled in victory as he watched the thermos fall. "It's over Danny. You fought valiantly but it just wasn't enough."
Danny gritted his teeth in frustration. "Why do you want me so bad?"
Spectra dug her nails out of Danny's back and turned him around, doing the same to his chest.
Danny tried as hard as he could to not make a sound under the pain of Spectra's hand digging into his stinging wounds.
"Vlad offered me the thing I wanted the most of all. A new beautiful body!" Spectra said in triumphantly
"Vlad won't give you what you want. He's using you! Like he uses everybody else." Danny said in anger.
"Oh not this time Danny, he's desperate enough."
Spectra took her idle hand and cocked it back ready to punch Danny.
Danny in an act of instinct made his face go intangible, making the fist go through his head. Spectra's full weight went right into Danny's body disorienting her.
Danny used this to his advantage as he sent his own fist into Spectra's head. Spectra's nails ripped out of Danny and went flying feet back. Danny using the last reserves of his energy dived down to find the thermos.
Danny flew down as fast as he could, letting Spectra's ecto rays sail past him. Danny didn't waste his time with silly loops, or any mocking banter. Danny had one goal right now and that was to get the thermos and end this.
As Danny neared the bottom he noticed a silver tint reflect in the grass field below. Danny angled his dive to swoop in and grab the thermos. Danny was just a few feet away from grabbing the thermos when one of Spectra's blasts had hit him from above into his outstretched arm.
Danny held his stinging arm as he flew over the thermos. Before Danny could turn around and retrieve the thermos, a black speeding blur impact into Danny, creating a deep crater in the ground.
Danny was spent beyond belief, he practically had no more blood to bleed, no more adrenaline to pump. His whole body was bruised and beaten to a pulp, like raw piece of meat. Danny's vision spun like some sort of drugged up dream.
Danny lied in the crater, trying to desperate not change back into his human form when a black shadow came up above him.
Spectra grabbed Danny's jumpsuit and dragged him up into a standing position.
Danny eyes were blurry and couldn't make out just how angry Spectra was. Danny blinked multiple times trying to clear his vision. Spectra glared with a look of pure hate before she raised her fist and punched Danny across the jaw.
Danny's slack jaw recoiled back like a limp doll. Spectra brought Danny's head back straight so he can stare into her evil red eyes. Danny's head was slack and emotionless as he took another into the jaw.
Ectoplasm started to drip out of Danny's mouth as his limp head was lying on his shoulder.
"Why do you never give up?" Spectra shrieked as she punched Danny again in the jaw.
Spectra let go of Danny's body and he fell lifelessly in the crater. Danny's finally closed his eyes and the transformation overtook him. The green ectoplasm leaking from all his wounds turned into copper red. His snow white hair was replaced by raven black hair; his jumpsuit was replaced by an ordinary white shirt and jeans. The feeling of cold escaped Danny and was replaced by the blanket of warmth that illuminates from his human body.
The pain in Danny's wounds became worse when the transformation was complete. It felt as though he had been hit by a train.
Spectra grinned as she stared out Danny. She slinked her arms around him and started to pick him up.
'This is it. I've fought as hard as I could, but it just wasn't enough.'
Spectra breathed in the pain and misery springing from Danny's limp body.
Danny had completely lost hope as he started to plunge into unconsciousness. But suddenly he heard a humming sound come the side.
Then a bright blue light engulfed Spectra and Danny but the light then targeted Spectra specifically and started to pull her towards the source.
Danny fell with a thump into the crater coughing up dark blood out his shirt because of the jolt.
'Someone's using the thermos!' Danny thought as hope sprung from his heart.
Danny smiled happily as he watched the black flaming ghost shriek and scream as she got pulled into the thermos.
Then the light disappeared.
Danny looked over to where the thermos light had come from and saw someone with brown hair before Danny finally blacked out.
Told you this chapter was awesome! Probably one of the most important ones in the whole story.
Who do you think saved Danny?
What did you think of the chapter?
Review what you think! (Don't be shy ;P )
Spectra was hard to do for dialogue! While Bertrand was so fun to write!
His bear from is supposed to be a throwback to the episode 'Maternal Instincts' and the spider form was a throwback to Aragog.
ALSO! Please cast your vote in the poll on my profile. There is a currently a three way tie so I need everybody's vote!
Until next time,
Prophet =P