Danny Phantom - The Next Chapter

Silent Night

It was pretty common knowledge that Danny didn’t really like Christmas all that much. All of the mishaps and fighting in the past had put a constant dark cloud over him throughout the entire month of December. Any time he saw the flashes of tinsel or that awful music, his mood darkened and he closed in on himself. Of course his friends and family knew this, the former giving him space when he needed it. His family, on the other hand, were going out of their way to try to bring him into the Christmas spirit, despite Jazz’s insistence against it.
Since last year, they were no longer fighting about the existence of Santa, but were now developing devices that would be able to track down and capture the ghostly sleigh they had seen last year. Of course Danny didn’t particularly care to much to mention he had been involved in that particular incident, rebuffing their efforts and keeping his contact with everyone to a minimum.

It was Christmas Eve and he had effectively barricaded himself in his room. Jazz was downstairs reading while their parents had moved to the Ops Centre to begin monitoring the sky. For the first time since he could remember, Danny was left alone on Christmas Eve, making it the first time he might have actually enjoyed himself during the season. He knew there’d be no ghosts around thanks to the truce, which made it almost peaceful as he glanced up from his computer out the window to where a blizzard seemed to be gathering its strength.

He grinned and pulled his headset back on to return his focus to his game. This might actually turn out to be the most peaceful Christmas yet.

Naturally, the universe just had to prove him wrong.

He didn’t hear his phone ringing through the headset, the screen lighting up from where he had tossed it on his bed. He didn’t notice that it went to voicemail then promptly started ringing again. And again. And again. Finally, after five attempts, the phone fell silent. Then he jumped in fright as a loud pounding on his door finally caught his attention.

Grumbling to himself he yanked off the headset and pulled it open.

‘What do you–?’

‘Here,’ Jazz said, shoving her own phone into his face.

‘Huh?’ he asked, accepting it and saying, ‘Hello?’

‘Dude, where have you been?’

It took him a moment to recognise the voice over what sounded like howling wind distorting the connection.

‘Dash?’ Danny asked, ‘What’s going on?’

‘It’s my cousin. My whole family has gotten together and we were all out in the snow like sledding and junk? And it started to get windy so we decided to call it a day but we can’t find Ashton. You’ve got to help us!’

Danny had already transformed partway through his babbling and glanced at Jazz.

‘I need to borrow this,’ he said and before she could reply he shot through he roof and into the blustery night.

‘Where are you exactly?’ he called over the wind.

‘Down at the park. There are cops all by the entrance so you can’t miss us.’

Sure enough, a few minutes later Danny spied the red and blue flashing lights of five police cars parked outside the entrance to the park, the officers bundled up in their winter uniforms as they scanned their flashlights across the area. Deeper into the park, Danny saw Dash and the rest of the Baxter family, all spread out, their shouting voices whisked away by the wind.

He landed in a spattering of snow, making Dash yelp in alarm.

‘Where was he last seen?’ Danny demanded, already scanning the area.