Cupid's Arrow of Doom, Chapter 9
A Danny Phantom fanfiction by Dustin M. Dixon
A couple of acknowledgements before I start this chapter officially:
To those reading the reviews for this on FFN: you might notice Living_Encyclopedia's review pointing out Danny shouting "Plasmius" at the top of his lungs at the end of Chapter 8. "But wait!" you might say. "He says 'Darn you Vlad'!" Well, Chapter 8 originally HAD him shouting Plasmius instead of Vlad. So I want to officially thank Living_Encyclopedia for pointing this out so I could make the proper edit.
To guest reviewer Matt: Timmy will show up during the season, just not for Cupid's Arrow of Doom. This fic is only a VERY slight FOP crossover. There will be more significant FOP crossovers down the road.
To Hitamukiissekiwa: Thank you for helping this fic's later chapters see the light of day. Your help has been MOST appreciated.
To everyone else: Thank you for your continued reading of my fanfic! The next chapter will wrap up this story, hopefully very nicely. I hope you've enjoyed reading this so far and before long, I will be starting "Flame War", which I hope you all will ALSO enjoy! Now let's get on with the penultimate chapter of Cupid's Arrow of Doom!
Danny frightfully rounded the corner into an alleyway to duck and cover, only for his great idea to be blown by the long line of teenagers from the football team standing on the other side of his only way out.
"FENTON! 'Sup?" Kwan laughed, oblivious as usual, before a fellow member of the football team poked him, causing him to turn his head. The other teenager simply responded by shaking his head in disappointment. "Oh right! It's payback time for taking all the girls, Fenton!" he growled, raising a large fist.
"Oh great…" Danny closed his eyes. 'I can't go ghost here either, they'll know my secret identity!' He prepared for the beating of his soon-to-be-drastically-shortened life.
Meanwhile, Sam staggered across the street to Pretty in Pink Spa and Massage Parlor. As she approached, she groaned.
"NO… MORE… SPA TREATMENTS…" she looked on the verge of fainting, at least until she saw a tall person who matched Danny's general description of Cupid walk out of the spa. She ducked behind a trash can, then after a second, started to chalk it up to coincidence before the man began to change shape before her eyes, becoming much smaller and sprouting wings, trading in his pink trousers for a cloth diaper. He looked like he was about to fly off or vanish, so Sam made herself known to the fairy before he could traverse off to God-knows-where.
"Cupid!" she shouted.
"Huh?" Cupid turned and saw Sam running up to him. "You're that goth kid that hangs out with Fenton… the one with the crush on him."
"Crush?" Sam blushed. "What crush?"
"I'm the God of Love kid, you can't fool me. What the heck do you want? I suppose you're here to get me to break the spell over the ghost boy as well!"
"Yes I am."
"Well tough cookies!" Cupid smirked. "Vlad's paying me a VERY hefty sum to make sure your little friend ends up miserable on Valentine's Day!"
"That's just IT, though!" Sam cried out. "You're freaking CUPID! You're not supposed to pull crap like this!"
"For the right price, I'll do anything I darn well please!" Cupid turned around with a huff as he overheard Danny's scream of horror. "Ooh! Whatever's happening to your little friend sounds way more interesting than whatever you have to say!" he poofed off toward the sound of Danny's scream, Sam taking off after him full-force.
*STAHAHAHAP!" Danny laughed, as Star tickled his feet with a wicked grin. "AHENYTHING BUT THAHAT!"
"Now you're gonna go out with me instead of Val, right?" Star laughed.
"No way Star, he's going with me!" Paulina argued, brandishing her perfectly manicured nails and beckoning to Star, who responded by brandishing her own nails. The two clawed at each other as the other girls firmly held Danny in place, the guys from the football team all laughing in response.
"Great… I'm never gonna live this down." He sighed, awaiting the torture to resume.
"Hey, wait up! Look, you need to stop this!" Sam insisted as she caught up with Cupid, who huffed and disappeared once more. "He doesn't deserve to lose happi—" Another vanishing act by Cupid prompted her to turn toward him again. "You can't possibly get enjoyment out of—" Another vanishing act prompte her to raise her voice tremendously. "WOULD YOU STOP DOING THAT AND TALK TO ME?!" she screamed.
"Fine fine, you have five minutes." He eyed Kwan punching his left hand with his right. "And judging by that kid's enthusiasm, so does your friend."
"Look, this is crazy! You're the God of Love! Your freaking JOB DESCRIPTION is to go around and spread love! Won't that peeve your higher-ups?!" Sam made one argument. After pausing for a second, Cupid cupped his chin in his hand. "Hmm… NOPE. The higher-ups don't care WHAT I do as long as it's related to my job!" Looking down at his watch as Danny continued to laugh, Cupid grinned and spoke up again. "Three minutes."
"The fairy ladies actually love a guy who plays by the rules?" Sam suggested with a grin, causing Cupid to click his tongue as he shook his head back and forth.
"Wrong! You wanna know what fairy girls actually love?" Cupid smirked. "Whatever I tell them to love! I hold dominion over ALL worlds on Valentine's Day! I can make people fall for whoever I want them to! And then I can make them hate whoever I want them to!" Once more, Cupid looked down at his watch. "You still haven't convinced me, and your friend's about out of time."
"Danny…" she looked down at him as Kwan advanced slowly on him, seemingly forgetting what he was doing at first until his friend reminded him again. She saw Danny visibly sweating, scared for his safety because he couldn't go ghost and fly out of there. She closed her eyes tightly, teeth gritted, before she finally let out a sigh.
"I like him." She whispered.
"Huh?" Cupid put a hand to his ears. "I can't hear you."
"YOU KNOW WHAT I FREAKING SAID." Sam grumbled loudly. "You were right. I do… have a crush on Danny."
"Well then this shouldn't bother you a b—"
"I'm NOT done. Just because I like him though doesn't mean I want him to end up with me. I want him to be with whoever makes HIM happy."
"R…" Cupid's eyes widened. "Really?"
"Yes. Right now he has a crush on Valerie Gray, one of the girls affected by your powers. If midnight falls and she hates him, he'll be devastated. And… and that'll devastate me knowing that HE'S devastated." Sam looked as though she was on the verge of tears.
"What if he never chooses you? Won't you be hurt?" Cupid pondered aloud.
"Of course it will! I'll be upset at first that he didn't choose me, but as long as he's happy I can grin and bear it! That's what love is! It can bend! But never break! You know this, you preside over ALL matters of the heart!" she finished as she started to shed tears. Cupid noticed this immediately.
"…" Cupid looked down with a frown. "You really like this kid, don't you? I mean… this isn't just some silly schoolgirl crush. You LIKE-LIKE him."
"We've been through a lot, Cupid. We've grown up together. I just want him to be happy." She repeated. Another short pause from Cupid prompted her to speak up again. "I know it's a lot of money… but can your conscience really allow this to keep going?!"
"…No." Cupid spoke up in a whisper. "It can't." Just then, Plasmius descended from the sky, landing between Sam and Cupid.
"Well, Cupid? How's our little plan going, hmm?" he laughed.
"It's NOT!" Cupid suddenly shouted, the bag of Plasmius' money appearing in his right hand as he threw it at the half-ghost, half-human. "KEEP your stupid money! I'm the God of LOVE, DARN IT! I hereby break every gosh darn spell you've had me cast today!" He then made his bow appear as he nocked an arrow, taking aim into the sky and…
Meanwhile, down below…
"OH CRAP!" Danny shouted, squirming in the girls' grip, when suddenly, he could hear the moan of every collective girl there. More importantly, he felt Star and Paulina's grips on him loosening, and he ducked just in time to avoid being punched by Kwan, making a mad dash away from Kwan and the A-list football team. "I should probably help the girls out, but I'll worry about that AFTER I kick Vlad's lonely single old-guy BUTT!" he shouted, diving into a dumpster on the next street corner and transforming. As he did, he felt a wisp of smoke drift lazily from his open mouth. "And it looks like I don't have to go far!" he then rose into the sky just as the football team rounded the corner.
"Whoa! Danny Phantom!" Kwan exclaimed. "Did you see where Fenton went? We kinda have to take out our combined frustration… on him?" he looked to his friend, who smirked and nodded, flashing a thumbs up.
"Uh… he ran that way?" Danny shrugged, pointing to his right, but as the football team took off that direction, he quickly added. "But that doesn't make him any less cool! You should totally not pick on him and stuff!" Sighing, he reached the top of the adjacent building and landed, seeing Plasmius grasping Sam by the shirt.
"You little rat!" he nearly shouted. "Do you know what this has done to my plans?!" At that moment, Danny blasted him away with a powerful ectoplasmic beam.
"Hey, LONELY OLD MAN. Keep your grubby claws OFF of her!" Danny's eyes narrowed angrily. Without missing a beat, Plasmius' frown changed into an evil grin.
"I WOULD say you ruined them, but really, all you did was take the bloodlessness out of the picture! I was content just to humiliate him and make him miserable, but since YOU…" he pointed at Sam, then sweeping his finger to Cupid. "And YOU insist on making this as drawn out and tedious as possible, I guess it's just going to get rather bloody then!" A pause. "AND I! AM! NOT! A! LONELY! OLD! MA—" he was cut off from his shout by another ectoplasmic beam from Danny.
"Yeah, keep telling yourself that, Plasmius. Maybe the Wizard will send you back to Kansas!" Danny walked threateningly slowly toward Plasmius, who just responded with a laugh.
"Oh Daniel, must I CONTINUE to humiliate you by proving my absolute superiority?" Plasmius grinned wickedly. "Very well… but remember, you asked for it, young man." He then blasted Danny with his own ectoplasmic energy bolt, but instead of sending the young half-ghost, half-human flying, it coiled around him like a rope, and Plasmius pulled his arm up quickly, causing Danny to rise into the air. Without a moment's hesitation, he slammed Danny back down with enough force to break apart the stone roof. Danny moaned in pain as Plasmius continued. "Shall we go for t…GAAHH-!" he shouted, suddenly reverting to his normal form. He glanced down and noticed that he was now wearing the Specter Deflector, courtesy of a now-smirking Sam.
"Never leave home without it!" her eyes narrowed in smug satisfaction as she gave Vlad a hard shove, causing him to topple over. Just then, the rope of ectoplasmic energy around Danny dissolved.
"Wow, that was AWESOME!" Danny said, running over to Sam as he reverted, giving her a great big hug. As she hugged back, she smiled contentedly. "Thanks Sam… you really pulled my butt out of the fire…" he turned toward Cupid as he broke the embrace, acknowledging him. "More than once today, actually. Speaking of… how DID she convince you to break that spell?" Cupid glanced over at Sam, who silently held up her hands and shook her head comically fast. Cupid simply responded to this silent gesture with a smile.
"She made me realize that some things are more important than money, kid. You're all right." Cupid held out his hand. "No hard feelings?"
"No hard feelings." Danny smirked, shaking Cupid's hand.
"This… guh… this isn't over…!" Vlad groaned, struggling to his feet. "I will BRING YOU TO YOUR KNEES YET!" he shouted, in a mix of anger and pain. He limped toward the nearby door and opened it, crawling down the stairs. Danny started after him, but Sam just put a hand on his shoulder, smiling as she did.
"Eh, let him go. I think he's done for a while, anyway." Danny just smiled back at her. Just then, he saw Cupid start to fly off. "Hey, Cupid! Where are you going?"
"Oh, well…" Cupid sighed dreamily. "I'm just gonna let things play out this Valentine's Day on their own! See you crazy kids around!" and with that, Cupid vanished, leaving the two teens there, content with the way things had turned out…