10Disclaimer: I don't own Danny Phantom, Static Shock, or anything else. Well…I'm back. I'd like to personally thank Alliee for being the FIRST person to review Destroyed Hero. Small comments like 'Please update' really go a long way to boost my confidence! Thanks Alliee! (I'll try to respond to any and all reviews that I have an answer to at the end of each chapter.)
Recap of the first chapter! Two people showed up in Dakota; one a boy with a talking bird, the other a 'ghost' boy, also with a talking bird. The ghost boy and Static got along instantly, right? Wrong! Tension's between the two, and they don't trust each other. Static and Gear don't know what to think of the ghost boy, not knowing if he's a good guy or bad guy, or if they should believe if he's a Bang Baby or not.
Chapter 2
Tension
:::Dakota, Early Morning:::
Virgil had been scowling all throughout the day, his face set in a firm glare at nothing. He walked with his shoulders raised, and his eyebrows scrunched up, his eyes narrowed dangerously. Not even the most notorious bullies would look to long in his direction. The source of the young African-American's frustration?
A certain hovering white-haired boy might do it.
"C'mon, V! So you don't trust you-know-who. Doesn't mean you should let it affect your 'Virgil life'. Keep that in Static's." Richie whispered during passing period.
"I know, Rich, but while we're stuck in here, that guy's out there, and could be…I dunno, blowin' up a daycare or a retirement home…or kicking a puppy!" An insane light began to filter through the dark onyx eyes of a certain Virgil Hawkins. Richie stared, his face comically blank.
"Virg, I don't think someone like Phantom would waste his time going around kicking puppies. Or blowing up daycares and retirement homes."
"You're right! Someone like that would go right for the Mayor, or the President, or-"
"If you say God, I'm leaving." Richie pointed over her shoulder where his class resided. Virgil closed his mouth with a quiet, hollow 'pop'. "Virgil, it's fine. I trust that guy. I mean, he was fighting that techno-guy, and that meat-lady."
"What if they were the good guys? Then what would you do?" Virgil accused.
"Eat a TV whole." Richie responded. "Look at what those guys were doing. I doubt they were good. You're blowing this out of proportion, V. Phantom's a good guy who's just misunderstood. You should know about that, right, Static?" Richie whispered the last as a group of giggling girls passed them by. Virgil's scowl softened as all the times he had been shot at by the police before he had made it apparent that he was trying to help the people of Dakota, not harm them, like the res of the Bang Babies were.
"He may be misunderstood, but I still don't trust that guy." Virgil responded, and turned to head to class before the bell could ring. He threw out one last attempt to change Richie's mind. "I bet he doesn't even make his bed in the morning!"
"Neither do you, Virgil."
:::Condemned Building:::
The un-ending sound of nails against flesh filled the condemned building in the run-down slums of Dakota. The source? The white-haired ghost boy who sat in the dark, dusty but otherwise empty room, that's who. The left sleeve of his hoodie was pulled up to his forearm, and his right hand was madly scratching away at the black tattoo that was burned into his tan skin. His eyes were narrowed, his glowing irises shedding a very small amount of light on the object of his current obsession. His skin was around the tattoo was red and raw, a few droplets of glowing green blood even beginning to seep through the small bit of skin that still separated his fingers from his veins. A black and red bird with two ribbon-like tails poked its head out of the darkness; the bird itself had to be at least half the size of the boy, if not a little taller. "It's not going to come off, you know, no matter how much soap you use, no matter how hard you scratch. I thought you figured this out already." The bird said, the words tumbling from its glistening beak. The boy growled as he attempted to throw his arm from his sight. It didn't work to well.
"I'm aware of that, Pallian!" The boy snapped. "But that doesn't mean I can't try! I mean, it's my obsession, and all ghosts need an obsession!"
"But you're not a ghost, even if your chosen name is Danny Phantom. You know as well as I, and half of the state of Illinois, that you do not need an obsession to keep yourself rooted to the Earth." The bird said, shuffling its large wings.
"I don't care! If one obsession is taken from me, then I just need to find a new one. Getting rid of this," Phantom waved his arm around to emphasize his point "is going to be my new one!"
"You're still pursuing your 'past obsession', though, Ezrel." The bird pointed out. "And it still confuses people." Phantom scowled as he stared into a dark corner of the small, dusty room.
"I wish you would stop calling me Ezrel, Pallian. I don't care if it's what the Elders have chosen to name me. I'm not theirs to name." Phantom paused. "Besides. It's pretty confusing. What should people call me? Danny? Phantom? Danny Phantom? Ezrel?"
"Danny Zerex?" Pallian added, raising what could have been an eyebrow; it was just a simple red streak over his left, silvery eye.
"You get my point. I'd rather just be called Phantom and get it all over with." Phantom muttered. The bird held back a snort of laughter.
"Then why don't you just kill yourself and really get it all over with?" Phantom glared, his dual-colored eyes seeming to look both through Pallian, and into his very being at the very same time. "I was kidding! God, and you say I have no sense of humor!"
"That wasn't humor, that was just plain insulting." Phantom said, turning his head away stubbornly. "And I'm pretty sure you were insinuating something."
"Hi, I'm Danny Phantom. My obsession is dry sarcasm." Pallian grumbled, turning away. A shoe flew from behind him, and smacked him in the back of the head. "Ow! And my other obsession is having no sense of humor otherwise!" Another shoe cracked him right between the wings. "OW! QUIT IT! GOD! YOU'RE AS HUMOROUS AS BATMAN!"
:::A Few Hours Later:::
Virgil and Richie walked side-by-side down the street, speaking about past and possible-future events, and laughing at the funny - or just plain pathetic - ones. School had passed by rather uneventfully; not one Bang Baby disturbance, so there had been no escaping Science class to use the 'bathroom'. The day had been one complete pile of peace. "C'mon, Pallian! Lift with your knees!" CRASH! "…you didn't lift with your knees, that was your ankles."
"So? The makeup of a human body is so stupid and complicated! AND YOUR 'KNEES' ARE BACKWARDS!"
"Not to us they aren't!"
Okay, so the peace was officially over. Richie paused at the screaming as they were about to pass the junkyard. "Uh…isn't Pallian the name of that one bird that the kid had at the Community Center?" The blonde asked.
"Eh, I dunno. But the thing about knees being backwards caught my attention. Let's check it out." Virgil responded, leading his best friend into the junkyard. Right near the entrance, the black-haired boy from the Community Center was crouched on one side of a dirt-covered couch, with a black haired, silver-eyed boy with blood-red eyebrows jumping around in a circle, holding his toes of his left foot. He was dressed in a plain pair of jeans and a black t-shirt…which didn't do much to help the black and red wings that were folded to his back. The black-haired boy, who was still crouching, was busy laughing his head off as the winged boy continued to hop, clutching his foot while singing an array of cusswords.
"You think it's funny, Ezrel! Go ahead and drop the couch on your own foot!" The winged boy yelled. "Stupid fragile human toes…!"
"Nah! I've dropped enough things on my foot ever since the portal accident, thank you very much." The other responded, before frowning in the direction that Virgil and Richie were crouched in hiding. "I can hear you, you know." He said oh-so casually. Virgil, being the smart boy that he was, jumped up.
"How'd you hear us?"
"You were breathing, weren't you?" The boy asked, raising an eyebrow. "Now, if you'll excuse me…Pallian, get your winged ass over here and help me move this couch!"
"Um…why exactly are you movin' a couch?" Richie asked.
"Well, I want a place to sit in my room, and the bed's kinda…well, I don't have one yet." The boy responded, pressing the palms of his hands underneath the right armrest of the couch. "Couch first, bed second."
"There's absolutely no logic in that." Richie pointed out. The boy with multiple identities blinked once.
"Maybe not to you, but I prefer couches. They can be used for a number of things; many more than a bed can. It might also be the fact that I have no idea where to find a flipping bed in this place that's not being slept on by a guard dog. And if need to question the 'logic' of something, how about you start with why someone would have a guard dog in a place full of trash anyway."
"For this exact reason. So somebody wouldn't come in and just take this stuff." Richie responded almost immediately.
"Well than answer this. If something is here, then it means it's the last stop. That nobody else wanted it. So then why should it matter? This stuff could easily be used by the homeless, or be sent to places where people are less than fortunate, instead of rotting away uselessly in some dump. For instance…" The boy tapped the couch. "…I could use this couch. And some other homeless man could use this." The boy lifted a pillow wrapped in a ratty blanket from a pile of trash. "People say that they're recycling their stuff by sending it to a place where it would decay harmlessly. But the real way to recycle something like a couch or a pillow or a blanket would be to give it to the homeless. God knows that we could use it."
"You seem to have put a lot of thought into something like that." Richie muttered. The boy smirked.
"Nah, not really. I just have a very open view of the world now."
"Is that why you're friends with a talking bird and a boy with wings?" Virgil questioned, lifting a single eyebrow. The boy looked between the two friends, and the winged boy, blinking innocently with slight confusion.
"You mean…you didn't figure it out? I thought the only reason you guys weren't asking why he had wings was because you already knew." The boy shrugged. "Well I guess not…"
"Know what?" Richie asked.
"That this boy here and the bird are the same person. Pallian is…a special bird, I guess you could say. He can alter his appearance and size quite easily. His easiest morph is just between bird and human, and he rarely changes his color, but he does. I needed a little extra help lifting this couch, so I pestered him into morphing." The boy explained, ignoring Pallian's poorly-covered-by-a-cough mutter of 'bastard'.
"Uh…so…why, exactly, an…Pallian…do this stuff?" Virgil asked. The boy stared blankly at the two boys, then said rather blankly:
"The dude's smokin' meth."
"The hell, Ezrel?" Pallian yelled.
"Well, what else am I gonna say? You're a giant talking bird that can morph! How do I even explain that?"
"Well, I dunno! Think of something!"
"Why don't you?"
"'Cause I'm pretty sure people want something told to them by a human when they are human, instead of some morphing talking giant BIRD!" Virgil and Richie glanced at each other with uncertain looks. On one hand, it was fun to watch a human and a human-bird screaming at one another. On the other hand, the yelling might attract others, and the last thing they needed was for people to start asking questions. On that hand, was the possibility of being fried if they tried to stop the two; who knew what other powers that bird had under its wings?
"Ugh! You know what? Carry your stupid couch back yourself! I don't need a couch anyway! I can just go into the form of a bird and sit there!" Pallian barked. His form shimmered, and melted into that of a bird, leaving the bird that the boy had had a while before standing in the humanoid's place. With a flurry of feathered wings, Pallian's form was vanishing into the sky.
"That stupid bird." The boy muttered, and began to ram his shoulder into the side of the couch, forcing the giant thing to scoot about three feet each time towards the entrance. He muttered to himself as he did so, occasionally wincing when his shoulder let out a loud crack. "You're the one that was complaining about sitting on the floor…I was perfectly fine on the ground, thank you very much…" The boy grumbled.
"Where are you even staying?" Richie asked. The boy turned a suspicious eye on the glasses-wearing blonde.
"You won't tell anyone?" He asked. "Not even if you think it's for my own good or whatever?"
"Promise." Richie said, holding up his hand to emphasize his vow.
"You know that abandoned building in the slums?" The boy pointed towards the south, where the slums were just a few city blocks away. "The place where homeless kids go to band together and whatnot? There. They had an extra room, and agreed to let me stay if I pulled my weight. I assured them that I could get my own food and clothes and stuff; all I needed was a dry place to crash now and then. I don't sleep to often anymore." He paused. "They don't really bother me, except for the really young ones who wont stop clinging to my leg whenever they spot me. I guess it's because the older ones don't really know what to call me, since I never gave them a straight answer…"
"That's another thing. It's kinda been bothering us…what do you want us to call you?" Virgil asked. "I mean…in case we ever see you again."
"Danny, if you want. Pallian calls be Ezrel…cause of reasons that I shouldn't really be telling you, or any government agent." He paused. "Or my friends. Especially not my friends. They'd kinda have a panic attack and probably start fussing over me as they always did after a fight."
"Did you get into fights back at home? Is that why you ran away?" Richie questioned.
"This is starting to sound like when we first me, you know. No, that's not why I ran away. To much stress started to come up. I left. Simple as that. The fights were something that were secret and off to the side. My parent's were to engrossed in their work to notice when I'd come home with a cracked rib or broken leg." Danny called as he was twisting the legs off from the bottom of the couch, and shoving the short wooden stubs into a large backpack he was carrying.
"They didn't notice when you had broken bones?" Richie asked with wonder. "How'd you every hide it?"
"I heal faster than…well, anyone, really. Unless you meet someone who can heal injuries in a split second, I'm probably one of the fastest healers on the planet. Or, at least, in the USA." Danny said as he was tying the cushions to the couch.
"Uh…what're you doing?" Virgil asked, pointing.
"Carrying the couch home, like Pallian said I should." Danny answered.
"How do you expect to be able to-HOLY CRAP!" Richie suddenly squeaked as Danny hefted the entire couch onto his shoulder with nothing but a grunt. Danny raised an eyebrow and looked sideways at them.
"And you're surprised why? You live in a city filled with Bang Babies…and you guys come from a place that actually knows who Superman is, while I, on the other hand, just learned about the guy when I came here. Strength like this shouldn't be something new to you." Danny walked towards a side exit of the dump. "Oh, and you'll be keeping this super strength thing a secret, considering I have something to hold over your heads…don't I, Static, Gear?" Danny smirked as he smoothly strolled out of the large garbage dump. "Later!" He called, leaving Virgil and Richie to pick up their jaws from the ground.
:::Hawkins Household:::
"We're dead, Rich! DEAD!" Virgil groaned once more as he paced in the room. "The guy knows our secret, and we just figured out his name! If he goes blabbing to the press, what're we gonna have to combat that? 'He's got a freakish talking bird'? I don't think that'll top the fact that we're Bang Babies!" Richie looked up from the comic book he was reading, not a hint of worry etched into his features.
"Virg, calm down. You're forgetting something important. He said that he has that hanging over our heads if we go and tell people that he's got larger-than-average strength. As long as we don't tell anyone that he can bench-press a couch, I don't think he'll bother us with the secret. If he has that over our head, then he knows that we have his super strength over his head." Richie said. "Plus, that'd pull to much attention to him, and I have the feeling he's the type of guy who really hates attention."
"First we have Phantom, now we have the possibility of being exposed? How come the superheroes in the comic books never have problems like this?"
"They do, V." Richie deadpanned. "Seriously, when was the last time you picked up a comic? Or, you know, stepped outside? Superheroes are the most popular thing today!" The blonde hero threw the comic he had been reading at Virgil. "And I thought you were all wrapped up in 'the mystery that is Phantom'." He waved his hands slowly and dramatically through he air with his swaying words.
"That's right! I was!" Virgil said, his eyes brightening as the thought of being exposed was apparently completely wiped from his mind. "…uh…how are we gonna go about this?" Richie groaned as Virgil began to pace seriously once more; that boy was seriously going to carve a moat around his bed if he kept pacing like that…
:::Outskirts of Dakota:::
"Why…" CRACK! "…you…" SLAM! "…stay…" THWAK! "…DOWN!"Yet another punch was landed on the giant black and purple ghost dragon, but every time its spines met the ground, its rage increased, as did its energy. Phantom, on the other hand, was starting to tire…and get very annoyed. Phantom propelled his right leg into a powerful kick, the toe of his white boot digging into the lower jaw of the ghost. Said ghost collapsed with a roar, its body falling in what could be called a wave; tail first, head last. "Stupid green-blooded dragon…" Phantom growled.
"You would know all about green blood, would you not, Phantom?" The dragon growled as it maneuvered himself so he could lift his body to his legs. "You would know all about all of that."
"True…" Phantom smirked. "But I'm not stupid." The dragon roared, and blew a torrent of fire in Phantom's direction. The white-haired ghost boy just flipped out of the way, twirling in mid air so his body would not be consumed by the flames. "I mean, come on, Aragon! You'd think that you'd be smart enough to notice some important stuff in this fight with that nose of yours, and your ears, but you've noticed nothing." Aragon snarled after slashing his claws at Phantom, only for the boy to turn intangible at the last second, the curved claws sliding right through his form, as if he wasn't even there.
"Oh? And what have I not noticed?" Aragon asked. "Your stupid bird friend is behind you!" Phantom looked over his shoulder, where the white-and-blue bird flapped his large wings to hover.
"True…" Phantom looked back to Aragon with his multi-colored eyes. "…there's me, and there's Pallian…so who on earth could be behind you, when there's only two of us? Is the answer A) Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, B) Your sister Dora, or C?" Phantom asked. Right as he paused in his little speech, a green blast of ectoplasm smashed into the back of Aragon's head, right between his horns. Aragon, roaring in pain and surprise, fell to the ground in a tangle of limbs. A second Phantom turned visible, hovering where Aragon's head had been seconds before.
"None of the above!" The second Phantom said, before flying back to the original Phantom, and merging with him.
"Since when'd you master that?" The bird asked with raised 'eyebrows'. Phantom grinned.
"Not mastered. That was pure luck." He answered. The bird seemed to pale, if that was even possible.
"Phantom, turn around!" The creature cried, right before a large paw swatted Phantom right out of the air. The boy's body careened at high speeds towards the ground, until finally, the earth broke his fall. "How do you expect to beat them when you can't even beat this buffoon?" The bird sighed.
"Maybe you'd like to shut up and help…" Phantom growled as he turned intangible to attempt a sneak attack. Sadly, his plan was ruined. Not because of him, and surprisingly not because of Pallian…but because of two certain superhero.
"Take this you over-grown lizard!" Gear shouted as he threw a Zap Cap, pre-charged courtesy of Static. The electro-powered hero, on the other hand, was flying circles around Aragon's head, trying to zap him in the eye; surprisingly small targets, his eyes were. Phantom's jaw dropped, his chin phasing right through the worm that was wriggling its way through the dirt, ten feet below the earth's surface.
What're they doing? If they couldn't beat Technus, they wouldn't be able to take on Aragon! Phantom thought. A chuckle was nearly brought to his lips when Gear yelped in victory when Aragon took a step back in apparent response to the Zap Caps that were being thrown, when in reality, all Aragon was doing was trying to avoid the small balls of flame that Pallian was managing to spit without being seen from the trees that he hid within. Even though he was a ghost dragon, unless the fire was his own, Aragon would rather not come near any type of flame. Phantom managed to smother the chuckle, though, at a single thought. The idiots are going to get themselves killed. He thought, before spurring himself out of the ground, forcing his body to become invisible and intangible at the same time. Right before Phantom would slide through Aragon's temple, he became very-much visible and tangible, and rammed his right shoulder into Aragon's left temple and left eye, receiving a loud roar of pain as Aragon tried to bring and arm up to cover his new injury, just to find that his arms were to short, and his neck was to long.
"Are you two glory-hounds or just mental? Get the hell out of here!" Phantom yelled, slashing a hand through the air. He turned the slash into a thin slice of ectoplasm that he sent at the stumbling Aragon, letting the 'blade' of green energy slash into Aragon's left shoulder, greenish blood pouring from the newly-opened wound. "Aragon is to advanced for such amateurs!"
"Amateurs? I'll have you know that we've been fighting Bang Babies longer than you've been fighting your own whacko guys!" Static yelled in reply. Phantom glared, his eyes flashing dangerously.
"I've been fighting ghosts for nearly half a year before your stupid 'Big Bang' even happened! And even if you had been fighting longer…ghosts and Bang Babies are two entire different thi-" Phantom never got to finish, because Aragon had suddenly wrapped his body in a clawed fist.
"You little peasant!" Aragon ruled. "You've meddled with my life for the last time! First you take my kingdom from me and turn it over to my sister, than you destroy my attempts at taking that human city as my new kingdom! You shall pay with your life!" Aragon inhaled deeply then released a blazing bath of flames, each and every flicker heading towards Phantom. The ghost boy's eyes flashed once more, but this time a brilliant icy blue. He took in a deep breath, just as Aragon had, and then blew out, a white mist circling its way from between his lips. The two forces crashed into one another, blazing heat against cooling chill. The polar opposites wrestled with one another, fire trying to melt ice, and ice trying to envelope fire. The winner would be decided by careful- ZAP! The sudden electric current that Static had released surprised Phantom, causing him to lose his grip on his cryokinesis. With a sputter, Phantom's mouth closed, his teeth clamping down on his tongue awkwardly. Aragon, however, managed to keep up his stream of fire, and, without the ice there to quench its thirst to destroy, the fire rushed forward.
All Phantom could do was try to pull up a shield without the use of his hands; it didn't work to well. Only part of a very weak shield was brought up before the supernatural flames reached him. With a scream, Phantom buried his face in his arm, trying to shield his eyes from the intense heat, praying that his shield would hold up. His prayers were for naught, though. First there were just hairline cracks. Then they widened until most of the shield was covered in thick cracks. Then, with the sound of breaking glass, the shield shattered, allowing the flames to rip at Phantom's exposed body and clothes. Shit shit shit shit SHIT! Phantom yelled in his thoughts, before doing something he didn't thing he'd have to do. Wiggling until his face was underneath the cover of Aragon's curled fingers, Phantom clamped his mouth shut, and began to gather heat in his stomach, feeling the power there build in response to his mental orders.
From outside, it looked like Phantom's body was collapsing in the heat. A grin of victory stretched across Aragon's maw, but it soon vanished as a silver glow began to make its way through his fingers. The silver glow gathered until it was burning red in the intensity. With a sudden yelp, Aragon cut off his flame attack, and uncurled his fingers. Two fires canceled each other out, and Phantom dropped to the ground, his clothes smoking and burnt completely through in some places - the hood of his hoodie would never be recognizable again - while Aragon shook his hand that he had used to hold Phantom, his scales melted together, with silver smoke rising from the now-melted scales.
"What did you do?" Aragon asked in a low voice. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"
"You said it yourself before the two Screw-Ups showed up." Phantom said, wincing as he spoke in his now-raspy voice, his throat raw and burning as he talked. "Why don't you talk it over with Lunch Lady and Technus?" Phantom whipped out the Thermos, which was finally charged after he had tried to use it at the start of the fight, and hit the trigger. The ever-familiar whirlwind of power sucked Aragon into the Thermos before he could protest. Phantom sighed in relief, looking down at his hands, which were covered in burns that would either take forever to heal, or would leave lasting scars. In a split second, anger flooded into him. With a flash, Phantom was in front of Static, their noses being only inches apart.
"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING?" Phantom roared at the top of his lungs, which was actually quite loud, the permanent echo in his voice just adding to the volume. Static winced, but didn't falter in getting a glare of his own.
"Helping. And protecting the town, unlike some people." Gear took a few 'steps' back from where he was hovering next to Static, whistling to himself in a 'I'm not hear' fashion.
"I WAS PROTECTING THE TOWN! AND DOING A DAMN GOOD JOB OF IT TO, UNTIL YOU BUTT IN!" Phantom held up his right arm, his tan skin covered in red and black burns. Gear winced at the sight and smell, but anger was fueling Static now; he would pay not attention to how gruesome the sight, and smell, actually was. "BURNS TAKE FOREVER TO HEAL, ESPECIALLY ONES MADE BY GHOST DRAGONS!"
"It looked more like you were just fighting another thing like you, not protecting the town." Static said firmly.
"Oh my freaking GOD!" Phantom yelled, throwing his aching arms in the air. "You're like Valerie! You know what your problem is? You can't accept the fact that outsiders might just want to protect your town! You don't think that someone would want to protect people without a reason! Well, here's a little bit of info for you, SPARKY! All ghosts need an obsession to stay rooted to the earth. You know what my obsession is? PROTECTING PEOPLE, BECAUSE I KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE TO NOT BE PROTECTED! IT'S BASICALLY WHY I DIED, HOT-SHOT!" Phantom was practically blowing steam from his ears now. "The point isn't who's protecting what! My problem with you is that you don't know when to back off! You know that you know nothing on how to fight ghosts, and you tried anyway! And look what happened because you were to stubborn to let an expert handle what their expertise IS!"
Pallain was suddenly behind Phantom, clearing his throat. "Um…Phantom? Might I remind you what your kind is partially venerable to?" The massive bird muttered, trying to keep the beak movements down to a minimum. For a second, it appeared Phantom wasn't going to respond to his friend's quiet words, but slowly, his scowl fell, and his eyes turned to where his clothes were singed in some places. He hissed in annoyance, and turned abruptly in the air, as if he was turning around stiffly on the ground. He began to float away, his face set in a firm mixture of a glare and a grimace.
"Next time, stay out of it." Phantom growled. "I don't need the help of anyone. Not anymore…" Pallian looked back and forth between Static and Gear, and Phantom, before twisting his body so he was following after them.
"Uh…we could help you…with the burns, I mean." Gear said. Static turned a glare that could melt through steel on the clad-in-green hero, but Gear ignored the hostile look. Phantom turned to stare at the boy, the right side of his chin lightly brushing his shoulder.
"I don't need help in a fight, and I don't need help healing burns. I wouldn't trust you anywhere near me with something that's meant for treatment, but could be used for a weapon anyway." Phantom grumbled.
"Like a scalpel! Phantom's been really bad with scalpels and needles ever since-"
"That's enough! C'mon!" Phantom called. Pallian almost started to glare at Phantom's retreating form.
"Secret-keeping little fire-breather…" Pallian muttered. "This is why you don't have any friends!" Phantom snorted over his shoulder.
"Yeah. That's why I don't have any. Hurry up, or I'm locking you out!" Phantom called, and vanished.
"No fair! No teleporting!" Pallian took off, his wings working up and down smoothly to carry him away. Static and Gear slowly looked to one another.
"What the hell just happened?" Static asked in his ever-observant way.
:::Condemned Building:::
"Well, we're officially on the road to making a superhero-hideout." Pallian said sarcastically, his black feathers nearly completely concealing him in the shadows. "We have a couch." Danny turned to glare at the bird that was half his size, before going back to bandaging the burns that stretched their way across his arms.
"Go ahead and keep being sarcastic, Pallian. When this place is really underway, I'll make you stay up here so you can say hi to all the crack-heads that come here to deal their drugs." Pallian stared blankly. "They'll be high, think you're a demon, and shoot you till you're dead."
"Oh…crap." The bird said rather blankly. "Uh…you need help with those?"
"How're you gonna help? With your talons? Uh, no thanks. That'll just hurt me even more." Pallian blinked slowly. "What?"
"You know, sometimes I begin to wonder why your kind is the one in charge."
"Who, the humans?"
"No."
"Well, ghosts aren't in charge of anything-"
"Not that one either. The other one." Danny opened his mouth to ask what Pallian meant, but then the answer hit him like a ton of bricks.
"Oh…right…that one." He grumbled, before ripping the white bandages that he was wrapping around his forearms. He threw the nearly-depleted roll at Pallian. "Put that in a safe place, would you? I'll have to go get some more later…" Pallian bent down, and picked up the cloth bandages in his beak. "You might want to get some sleep. First thing tomorrow, I'm heading out to the outskirts of Dakota. There's word of a escapee from DALV. At least, that's what I got out of Aragon before the guy started to freak out to much over what I did to burn his hand earlier…seriously, that guy knew already, so I don't know why he was so freaked-" Danny turned to Pallian, who looked like he was on the brink of falling asleep. "Oops. Right. Anyway, if there is an escapee, I might know him or her. If I do, that'll help my cause. If I don't…well, I need to capture it and find a place to release it that wont be destructive to cities or towns or whatever."
"So in other words, we're gonna go beat the crap out of an animal."
"Yeah, pretty much."
"Fun."
:::The Next Day:::
Danny awoke to the bright light of the sun filtering through the rotting boards that covered the window in his 'room'. He groaned, and pulled the shredded blanket over his head, using his head and feet to lift his back from the couch cushions so he could turn over onto his other side. "I thought you said 'first thing'." Pallian's voice called from somewhere above Danny's head. The black-haired boy groaned again, covering his eyes with his hands. "Get up, lazy-feathers." Pallian called, before dive-bombing the couch and its occupant. Danny gagged as the sharp beak drove its way into his side; surprisingly, it didn't puncture his skin, but that didn't mean that it couldn't hurt like hell.
"OW! WHAT THE HELL, PALLIAN! I'M NOT MADE OF TITANIUM, YOU KNOW! THAT HURT!" Danny screeched, his hand on his side.
"Sure. That's why you're not bleeding. C'mon! I'm bored in this human town! I wanna go beat the crap out of an animal!" Pallian was practically jumping up and down. Danny stared forward blankly.
"I thought you didn't want to fight an animal."
"Nah, you just thought I didn't." Pallian responded with a grin. "You took my answer as sarcastic! It wasn't!" Danny stood up, throwing his blanket away from him.
"Sure. Whatever floats your boat, 'Lian." Danny muttered. Blue and white sparks gathered around his waist suddenly, and shot outwards, creating a bluish-white ring around his waist. This ring split in two, one traveling up, and one traveling down. Between the rings, Danny's body was taking on a different look; similar build, but different clothes and colors. When the rings hit the floor and passed over his head, the just vanished into thin air. Gone was Danny, and in his place, was Phantom. By the time the change was done, Pallian was jumping up and down, rather awkwardly, but the door.
"C'mon! I wanna see what the DALV people came up with this time!" Pallian said. Phantom blinked, but followed anyway.
"I think I'm gonna call Lulian. I think he mixed up my partner order." Pallian's jaw dropped, and his wings slumped. Phantom ignored the bird, and walked right past. (A/N: I'm pretty much gonna be rushing a bit of this until I get to meetings and the war; running out of ideas, and I don't want the story to get boring!)
:::Far From Dakota:::
Phantom landed lightly, his feet making a quiet 'tap' on the ground. He looked down to the device that was clipped around his wrist like a watch. A green screen with a grid stretched across the surface of the device, with three blinking dots on the screen; two were Phantom and Pallian, and the other was their target. "Pallian, over here. 300 meters that way." Phantom pointed north, Pallian's head following his finger. "We have to walk. I don't want to scare this thing away." Phantom paused. "Where are we anyway?"
"Doesn't your fancy human gadget tell you?" Pallian asked. "And here I thought all things made by humans were superior. At least, that's what a certain entity told me." Phantom glared half-heartedly.
"You told me that your nose is better than my human technology. Does your nose tell you where we are?" Phantom asked. Pallian paused, breathing deeptly through the slits in his beak that served as a nose.
"…no…"
"Exactly. So get out the locator-thingy and figure out where we are." Phantom waited as Pallian dug through the bag that hung from his side, until, finally, the bird pulled out a round, CD-sized device that lacked the hole in the middle. It was made of silver metal, and one entire side was covered by a black screen. Pallian jumped over to Phantom's side, and held up his head, handing the disk to Phantom.
The white-haired boy tapped a thin button that was on the side of the disk, and watched as the screen brightened - not by much, though - and showed a rotating visual of the earth. Phantom tapped yet another button on the thin edge of the disk, and watched as the earth stopped rotating, and showed a green blinking square over a small section in the United States. The screen zeroed in until the area outlined by the green square took up all of the screen. Another blinking square appeared in the middle of the screen, zooming in on a picture of Nebraska, with some bits of Iowa, South Dakota, and Colorado. Yet another blinking green square appeared, and zeroed in on an area that showed the tops of many green trees, and a few small rock formations. Phantom blinked.
"Well, we're still in Nebraska." He muttered. "In the middle. Quite a ways from Dakota, huh?" Phantom chuckled. "Near a city called Gotham…"
"Isn't that a place that we read about when we were researching all the things that you didn't hear about in Amity Park?" Pallian asked. Phantom shrugged.
"I dunno, I wasn't paying attention." Phantom mumbled. "With my luck, though, we'll run into Static and Gear…Gear's okay, but Static…"
"Pisses you off, I know." Pallian finished for the white-haired ghost, rolling his silver eyes. "Let's get the show on the road before everyone gets bored!" Phantom raised an eyebrow, but followed the bird as he marched into the dense trees.
The two were silent for much of the short trip, careful to avoid fallen leaves that would alert their target to their presence. 300 meters later, the two stood before the mouth of a large cave, most of the entrance hidden by vines.
"Well, I'd hide out here." Phantom muttered, and looked down to the tracker on his wrist. And this is where the DALV thing is…must be inside…do I dare step inside to face untold dangers? Phantom slid the device from his wrist, and slipped it into a pocket. Damn straight I do. The ghost boy slid through a parting in the vines so the plants wouldn't swing around, which would cause the light to play differently on the wall; such a movement could give away the fact they were there, if their scent didn't already. Phantom took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself, before doing something that others probably would avoid doing.
He screamed.
"AHHHHHH" He yelled into the darkness, before turning tail, and running as fast as he could out of the cave. Pallian screeched in surprise, and raced after his friend, flapping his large wings to help him pick up speed. The two broke through the vines, made it back to the trees, and slid out of sight of the mouth of the cave.
"What was that?" Pallian hissed. "Why'd you scream?"
"What's the smarter option? Go into a cave where you can't see everywhere, or bring whatever's inside out where it might be blinded, and also where we have the upper hand?" Pallian blinked slowly.
"There were better ways to going about that, you know."
"Yes, but that was the fastest." Phantom was about to continue, but the loud crash of a clawed paw cut him off; the falling of the foot was so powerful, it sent a tremor up their bodies. Phantom slowly peaked around the tree he was taking shelter behind, and paled, his jaw dropping. As he stared at the massive creature, one thought came to mind. …what in the hell have I gotten myself into…?
I apologize if this chapter was, you know, totally crappy. I know where I want to go with this story, but some places are totally blah. So there might be parts that are boring, or, who knows, maybe I just think they're boring.
I'd like to say that this story is completely about…well, a few things. One is a large war. With what, you'll have to find out(so no, it's not Danny Phantom vs. the entire Ghost Zone.). Another is Danny overcoming the certain thing that made him run away from Amity Park in the first place. The third is Danny and his relationship with his new allies(he'll get them later), and him being recognized as an entire hero. That might seem like the entire plot, but trust me when I say that's not even 1/10th of it.
Now to reply to the reviews that I got(thanks you guys!)
Allie: Thanks for being the first to review, and here was your chapter! Hope you liked it(sorry if it wasn't what you wanted!)
KatKat 376: Thanks! I hope I'll be able to answer all the questions you have with the story soon!
Patient 1377291: Thank you so much! And I know, my spelling isn't the best. Not exactly a strong point of mine!
Thanks for reviewing, you three! Just to let you know, I wont update this story until I have at least ten reviews…or if I like the chapter to much to wait for that. Thanks for reading!
~Ookami-242