Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom or Ultimate Marvel
Chapter 08: Music and Mayhem (Edited)
"Hey Mary Jane." Danny said as he looked her over under the light of the streetlamps. "The others waiting inside?"
Mary Jane was wearing a black shirt and skirt combo that had blue flames on the shirt. Her red hair was hidden underneath a bright neon blue wig. He had to admit that it looked really nice on her.
"Oh yeah we were just waiting for you." Mary Jane said as he walked up the steps and helped her up. 'Don't focus on his face. Or his eyes. That is how you got distracted during history class.'
"So, Peter's Aunt May is taking us now?" Danny asked as he knocked on the door.
"Yeah. It was the only way our parents would accept us traveling to Manhattan after the Hulk's rampage." Mary Jane said.
"Did you see it happen?" Danny asked.
"Online recordings. "Mary Jane answered as she shuddered. "Watching as that monster launched cars through the air and smashed through buildings had been terrifying."
He would bet good money that many of their classmates were going to use that footage as their assignment for history class.
"It is a good thing that the Ultimates had arrived to take him away." Danny said.
"Where do you think that the Ultimates are going to place him?" Mary Jane asked.
"Hopefully a very strong cell." Danny answered.
Peter opened the door wearing a brown jacket that matched his hair. He had a nervous grin on his face. Looking behind him Danny could see the reason why. Gwen like Mary Jane was wearing a black shirt but her pants were made of leather and hung to her body very tightly. Her mascara trailed down her face like a masquerade mask and brought attention to her face.
"Are Harry and Liz still inside?" Danny asked as he leapt backward down the steps to make room for the people inside to come outside.
"Harry and Liz are not coming." Gwen said surprising him.
"What do you mean?" Danny asked.
"Harry came down with a cold and Liz had gotten a fever." Peter said 'I hope that Harry is doing better tomorrow. He has been going through a lot lately. His mom had died a month earlier in some weird accident at Oscorp that his dad still refused to talk about with him.'
"Is he alright?" Danny asked.
"According to Harry it is nothing too serious. He has people that will look out for him." Peter said. 'I hope his dad lightens up on him though.'
"What about Liz?" Danny asked.
"Liz said she is going to be just fine. Just needs bed rest." Mary Jane said. "I am planning on checking up on her after the concert."
"I hope they feel better." Danny said as he stared at the sky wondering if this was part of the plan or just cosmic coincidence.
"This is why you kids need to eat properly and take care of yourselves." Peter's Aunt May said as she closed the door to her house and started walking to her car.
Danny walked to Mrs. Parkers car and took a seat at the left end. Mary Jane sat next to him leaving Peter and Gwen sitting next to each other with Peter having the window seat.
"So Danny I have yet to meet your parents." Mrs. Parker said gaining his attention from his phone.
"My parents are rather busy with work, so they are not with me." Danny said as he dragged his finger across the screen and sliced another fruit.
It was true as it part of his backstory. Vlad was busy running his tech company.
"You live alone?" Mary Jane asked and turned towards him.
Danny thought he could hear the envy in her voice. He understood why she would feel that way. During a return trip from patrol, he had heard arguments coming from Mary Jane's house. Her dad had been yelling at her mom over dinner. The next day he had a duplicate overshadow the man and learned that it was a constant thing. Her dad was always yelling at either Mary Jane or her mom.
The only reason he had yet to involve himself was that it did not involve physical violence. Otherwise, Mary Jane's father would be getting fed to one of the creatures in the ghost zone.
No one would ever find his body.
"I live with a butler. He is serving as my guardian for now." Danny said.
The butler is a robot, and it was stuffed into a closet until it was needed.
'With parents like Danny's and Harry's, it makes me really grateful for growing up with Uncle Ben and Aunt May.' Peter thought to himself. 'Looked like all that money could not buy happiness. Or time for parents to spend with their children. I wonder how Danny's parents would react to learning that he was a superhero that had fought the Hulk?'
"If you ever need anything know that you can come over." Mrs. Parker said to him while turning the car.
"Thank you, Mrs. Parker." Danny said. "I am really glad that I met such kind people when I moved here."
0-0-0-0-0-0
"Bye" The groups of kids waved off May Parker as she drove off with the promise to be back in three hours to pick the lot of them up.
"Let's go." Mary Jane cheered drawing attention to them from all the other people on the street.
"That was one way to make an entrance." Gwen said as Mary Jane blushed.
"This is so embarrassing." Peter said lowering his head.
'How can he possibly swing around the city in bright spandex and still feel shame? I would have thought that one would have prevented the other, but I guess that Peter needed the mask to hide his nerves.' Danny thought as he walked to the booth to trade the tickets for their bracelets. "It is only right that we have all of their attention. We did come with two beautiful girls."
"You really know how to charm people masters." Gwen said while Mary Jane just avoided his gaze.
"Here you go." Danny said as he handed them each their own admission bracelets.
"The concert won't start for a while. What do you guys want to do?" Peter asked.
"Let's go see what they are selling." Mary jane said in an excited whisper.
"That sounds alright." Danny said as the group began to walk around the area.
The theater in the center was where Ember was going to be playing but as she was a diva at the best of times Ember had a huge arena filled with souvenirs and booths selling her stuff. There were T-shirts, key chains, dolls, and more. It was a good way for her to earn her fan's worship. The city was agreeing to all this as they needed the money Ember was sharing with them to fix everything that the Hulk had broken.
"What do you think Gwen would like?" Peter asked Danny as they walked behind the girls.
"You could probably get her one of those Ember bracelets. It is safe and does not look like you tried too hard. She can look at it constantly and remember this night." Danny said knowing that it was the type of thing Peter should get.
He was going to try and help Peter tell Gwen that he liked her, but this was not even their first date. Freaking out and acting awkward would probably just ruin his chances.
"That is a good idea." Peter said as he walked to a booth.
Now while Peter was focused on that he had to find Mary Jane and complete his task. He left a duplicate behind to keep an eye on the two lovebirds.
"What are you doing?" Danny asked as he appeared behind Mary jane causing her to jump in the air.
"Don't you know better than to scare a person like that?" Mary Jane asked.
"I am sorry I just thought that it would be funny, and it was." Danny said.
"You are such a jerk." Mary Jane said.
However, given the smile on her face he doubted that she was really angry.
"I am very sorry how about I make it up to you?" Danny asked as he turned to look at what she was thinking about buying.
It looked to be between an Ember phone case that had her face on it and a charm bracelet that had the charms painted in Ember's colors.
"I would like you to buy me something." Mary Jane said.
"Pick it out and I will get it." Danny said.
"Then I want the phone case." Mary jane pointed out to him.
"Very well." Danny said as he took out the money.
"Thanks Danny." Mary Jane said as she looked at her new case whose flames were the same color as Ember's hair. 'Is he buying the charm bracelet for Gwen? Is he buying it for Peter to give to Gwen?
He could see a stunned look on her face when he put the charm bracelet on her.
"The case was for scaring you, but I do believe you deserve something for being such a good friend." Danny said with a smile.
He watched as a smile grew on her face.
0-0-0-0-0-0
(Duplicate)
Danny frowned as he watched Flash Walk behind Peter and Gwen. He was moving behind them in a trench coat and a hat. He was hiding behind a group of people that were walking behind them but no matter which way they walked Flash was following behind them.
'I wonder what he wants?' Danny thought to himself before deciding to overshadow him and find out what his goal was.
He did not need the jock messing with Peter while he was working up his way to telling Gwen how he felt.
"Seriously." Danny in Flash's body said once he went to scanning the blonde's mind.
Turns out that Flash had a crush on Gwen. It started when Gwen had threatened Kong a few weeks ago when he picked on Peter thinking he was Spider-Man. That was something he was going to have to tell Peter about. Too many people were starting to figure out who he was. The Kingpin knew what he looked like and his age. It was a good thing he did not know what his school was or he would figure out Spider-Man's identity in three seconds flat.
His ghost sense went off.
'Great. What now?' Danny wondered.
He looked around and noticed three teenagers reveal themselves with glowing green eyes.
They waved him to come closer. Two of them were wearing purple hats and the one behind them was wearing a red one. He believed they were part of the group that met him when he first arrived in this world.
"What do you want?" Danny asked as he looked at them.
He hoped that anyone watching them would probably think they were pretending to be in some sort of spy movie. Or that he was selling them tickets to this concert at an inflated price.
"Clockwork sent us." The overshadowed leader in red said.
"What is your purpose here?" Danny asked wondering what Clockwork was up to and how it might interfere with his task tonight.
"We are not here for you. We are here to find your original and give him the opportunity to save Mary Jane from us." The purple one on the left said.
"We want you to contact the original so that he knows what to expect." The purple one on the right said.
"Is this going to mess with the concert?" Danny asked.
"No, we are just here to give the girl a little scare. The concert is going to go on just fine." The leader in red said.
That was good but there was still something that he wanted to know.
"What gang do these humans belong to?" Danny asked.
He wanted to check on them later as these racist punks could be involved in something dangerous if Clockwork had sent them to be the meat-puppets that he was going to be beating up today as if they were punching bags.
"They belong to a group known as the Purple Dragons. They work for someone named the Kingpin." The leader in red said.
Good to know.
0-0-0-0-0-0
'Need to look into the Purple Dragons when I get home.' Danny thought as he received the information from the duplicate.
He was looking at Mary Jane who was walking on the street near an alley with her focus on her new phone case being held in the same hand that held the charm bracelet. Part of him felt a bit bad about what he was doing but he reminded himself about what he had seen in Clockwork's lair.
Dead bodies and monsters prowling through the streets.
'Looks like it is starting' Danny thought as his ghost sense activated.
"Help." Mary Jane yelled as he watched her be pulled into an alley.
"You look lonely out there you want to hang with us?" The overshadowed leader in red said as he stood in front of Mary Jane.
She had her back to the alley wall and was surrounded by his two purple sidekicks. Which was strange when he thought about it given that the gang was the Purple Dragons. Shouldn't the leader be the one wearing purple?
"What do you want punk?" The purple one on the left asked.
"You are holding my friend and I want you to let her go." Danny said as he ran up and punched the guy in the face sending him onto his back.
"You wanna mess with us? Do you know who we are?" The purple one on the right asked as he and the one in red left Mary Jane and started to walk to him.
"A bunch of clowns that missed the train with the rest of the circus." Danny said as he gave an uppercut to the one in red before following it up with a spin kick that sent the other one in purple to the wall.
"Let's get out of here." The one in red cried out as he and his followers ran down the alley.
"Thanks for you help Danny." Mary jane said as she moved from the wall and brought him into a hug.
"No big deal." Danny said as he pulled back from Mary Jane and gave her a look over to make sure that she was okay.
Even though it was staged he did not want those guys to rough her up to bad and besides her clothes being rumpled she looked for the most part okay.
"Let's go find Peter and Gwen." Mary Jane said. "We have been waiting for months to see this concert and I do not want my friends' night ruined just because of a couple of creeps like these two."
"Sure." Danny said as he let Mary Jane exit the alley first. "You know Peter is really nervous about his almost date with Gwen."
"I could tell as soon as he knocked on my door. Peter has never felt this way about a girl before so i makes him nervous." Mary Jane said.
"He always seems nervous to me." Danny said as they found where their two friends were.
They were sitting on a bench sharing a pair of headphones and listening to a cd player probably playing one of Ember's songs. They were being handed out for free by teenagers working here.
"They look adorable." Danny said taking a picture of the two of them.
"You better send a picture of that to me." Mary Jane said.
"You kidding? I am going to be posting them all over the school." Danny said with a smile.
"The concert is going to start soon." Mary Jane said looking like she wanted to pull her hair out.
"Then let us go and shake those two up." Danny said as he walked to the bench and tapped the two on their heads.
"What's going on?" Gwen asked. 'This was one of the rare occasions that she got to hang out with Peter without him having to rush off someplace with a terrible excuse.'
"The concert is about to start, and Mary Jane looks like she wants to drag us all there even if she risks ripping our arms out of their sockets." Danny said.
0-0-0-0-0-0
"That concert was awesome." Mary Jane said as she and Danny stood on the sidewalk and watched as Mrs. Parker drove off Peter and Gwen to Gwen house.
Danny was carrying the stuff that Mary Jane had bought after the concert as an apology for letting her get attacked. Mary Jane thought he was overreacting but he knew better as he had known what was going to happen and let it play out.
"Peter really likes Gwen." Danny said with a smile.
"Was that not obvious?" Mary Jane asked.
"Gwen dad is going to interrogate him like he just robbed Stark Industries and he is willingly walking into that mess with a smile on his face." Danny said.
He had memories of the original taking Paulina to a dance and meeting her dad. Even with his powers that was not something he would want to do.
"For love any hardship can be overcome." Mary jane said. "I believed that with true love anything is possible. No problem is too big to overcome."
"I hope that is true." Danny said as he started walking Mary Jane up to the steps of her house.
He could hear that the television was on which meant that either her mom or her dad was waiting for her to knock on the door.
"Well, I guess I will see you tomorrow." Mary Jane said as she moved to knock on her door.
He moved to hold her free hand.
"Danny?" Mary Jane asked.
"You know that if you are having a problem that you can talk with me." Danny said but just like with Rogue he had no idea what he was going to say until after he finished speaking.
"Where is this coming from?" Mary Jane asked.
"Let's say I have this fortune-teller I talk to. He says that when I feel sad, I should rely on my friends and do the same for them." Danny said. "I feel like you try to hide your sadness behind your smile. Looking out for everyone else.
He could hear Mary Jane's dad beginning to move and see the door's curtains starting to move.
"How often do you feel that way?" Mary Jane asked moving to hold both his hands.
"Every once in a while, it feels like the world is trying to crush me." Danny said with a frown.
"I am fine but it's sweet that you are worried." Mary Jane lied taking the bags and giving him a quick kiss on the cheek before dashing inside the house.
Just as she went in Mary Jane's dad walked out.
"Who are you punk?" Mary Jane's dad asked him.
"Mary Jane's friend." Danny said as he turned and walked to his house.
He had to leave, or he would have felt the temptation to hurt this man.