The late July breeze ruffled the messy raven locks of the young twelve-year-old boy. As his bangs lightly tickled his ice blue eyes, the boy briskly combed his fingers back through his hair in a vain attempt to tame the uncontrollable bird nest. Cold, empty eyes set in a permanent glare and expression similar to that of a stony wall, the look was perfected from practiced use. His confident strides focused solely on his destination. He was undeterred by the surrounding stores with stocks full of tempting games, clothing, and toys; items that would catch the attention of any other teen. The boy's demeanor effectively warded off any attempt of friendly conversation.
The crowd of shoppers recognized the well-dressed boy walking with purpose and they quickly moved aside to make way for him. The boy was indifferent to the occasional looks of pity shot his way. Catching sight of the store of interest, he quickened his pace and roughly pulled open the door.
The bell chimed as the boy entered the shop, alerting the storekeeper of his presence. The man at the front casually looked up from his newspaper with disinterest, sneaking a small glance at the potential customer. The man's eyes crinkled as a small smile played across his face when he recognized the child.
"Ah Danny, you're here early today!" the man greeted.
"Good morning Mr. Abernathy." Danny politely answered, the boy had his hands clasped behind his back with his head tilted slightly up. The boy radiated an air of guarded confidence.
"Has it already been a year since I last saw you. It feels like yesterday since you first came to my shop 2 years ago. You are doing well, I hope?"
"I'm fine." Danny curtly replied, not delving into details.
Mr. Abernathy grew silent for a brief moment, saddened that the boy still hasn't opened up to him. Looking back at Danny, the man sighed, knowing that the boy still needed more time to recover from the emotional scars and pain that he carried. All the man could do was hope that the poor boy would someday move on from that incident and pick up the broken pieces of his life to find his happiness again.
Walking out from behind the counter, Mr. Abernathy walked over to the rows of colorful bins. Knowing exactly which bin to go for, he turned his back on the boy, reaching a hand into the container.
"You want the usual, I suppose?"
"Yes, sir."
Mr. Abernathy quickly picked 5 pristine stalks from the bin. Expertly trimming the ends, he carried the bundle to the counter. He then proceeded to roll the fragile goods with crisp white paper. After inspecting the quality of his work and nodding his approval, he handed the bouquet of white lilies to the boy. "Here you go."
Danny delicately took the flowers from the man and paid him with the money he owed. After a brief exchange of goodbyes, Danny placed a hand on the door, the other firmly gripping the lilies to his chest.
A wisp of cold air escaped from the raven-haired boy's breath. The boy closed his eyes and let out a slow sigh. Scrunching eyebrows in annoyance, he turned back to the man.
"Mr. Abernathy, do you mind doing me a favor?" Mr. Abernathy looked up, briefly confused on why the teen had not left in a hurry like he usually did.
"I have some business that I need to attend to. Do you mind holding onto this for me?" Danny walks up to the counter and holds out the precious bundle.
"No problem." Mr. Abernathy takes the flowers from him, "Why the sudden rush? Is everything ok?"
"Everything's fine, just remembered some "annoyances" that I need to take care of beforehand. It shouldn't take too long." Danny replied vaguely, he gave a small reassuring smile that didn't quite reach his eyes.
The man frowned, shrugging his shoulders, "Alright then, go on and do your thing, whatever you teenagers do. Don't worry, I will keep these safe for you for when you return."
"Thanks."
"Don't mention it." The older man shooed the child out the door.
-PotC-
Danny sped through the street, past shops, and narrowly missed colliding into a large man. Danny shouted back a quick "sorry" and the man returned a glare, muttering crossly about bad parenting.
Another chilling smoke left Danny's mouth, the cold was significantly stronger than before, signifying the closer range of his target. The blue wisps of smoke were his Ghost Sense, alerting him whenever there were ghosts near. Slowing down his pace, he scanned his surroundings. Spotting an isolated alley, Danny quickly ducked in and dumped his bag next to the trash can.
Certain that there were no one around to see him, Danny closed his eyes and concentrated. He mentally reached for the ghostly core inside of him, he pulled it forward and a chill spread through him. Two white rings of light surfaced on his waist and silently traveled across his body. The lower ring went down while the top ring transversed his upper body. Danny underwent a transformation when the light passed. His heart stopped beating and he no longer needed to breathe. His body no longer pumped blood which was replaced with the toxic green of ectoplasm and he no longer had any of his organs and bones. Effectively "killing himself", Danny was now an ectoplasmic entity, a being composed entirely of ectoplasm. A ghost.
His appearance also underwent changes. His former attire was replaced with a black jumpsuit accented by white gloves, boots, belt, and collar. His chest bore a stylized DP, signifying him as his ghostly persona, Danny Phantom. His tight fitting suit effectively showed what his usual clothes had hidden. His deceiving skinny build was, in fact, well-built with lean, toned muscle molded from the constant exposure to battle. The most notable change was that his blue eyes were replaced with glowing neon green and his raven hair was now snow white. His pale skin was now tan, making his hair more prominent. As Phantom, Danny had a more humanoid appearance than that of other ghosts. If it weren't for the slight echo in his voice and the eerie glow that he gave off, he would be easily mistaken as a teenage boy with dyed hair. This can be accredited to the fact that Danny is half ghost or a "halfa" as most ghosts tended to call him. Not quite dead but not fully living, a being that should not exist. He wasn't born a halfa, it was a side-effect from the lab accident that occurred two years ago.
Now as Danny Phantom, he hovered off the ground. Floating toward his bag, he turned his hand intangible and reached in. Grasping the cylindrical container (also turning it intangible) he pulled it out of the bag. The item he held was a metallic soup thermos. The Fenton Thermos, against all appearances, is a handy ghost hunting device that his parents had invented. Capable of capturing a ghost by sucking it into the small, compact container. After several encounters with unfriendly ghosts, Danny now never left home without it.
Changing his legs into a spectral tail, the halfa flew out of the alleyway back into the busy streets. Fangirls squealed and children looked up in awe as they recognized the town protector known to the public as Danny Phantom. A police officer tipped his hat to him as he flew passed.
A woman grabbed her child close to her and spat at Phantom to keep away from her child. Well, you can't please everyone. When Danny first started his secret side life, the people didn't know what to think of the alleged vigilante. Even though he was a ghost, he protected the citizens from the other specters' onslaught. The media had called him "Inviso-Bill" before they managed to learn that he went by Danny Phantom.
In the beginning, the Amity Park residents were split on whether they viewed him as a "good hero" or a "menace to society". The children and teenagers saw him as a superhero who risked his afterlife to save them, while the adults could only see a nuisance who caused more damage than help from the constant destruction of property he left from the aftermath of his fights.
For a while, he was labeled "Public Enemy Number One" when a ghost named Walker, framed Phantom for the kidnapping of the mayor. The warden ghost ran a large prison in the ghost zone (the place where the dead spent their afterlife) and had once arrested Phantom. The halfa had organized a riot and managed to escape with all the prisoners. Walker wanted vengeance against Phantom for the prison break and tried to make Amity Park a prison for the halfa by using his minions to overshadow the citizens. Walker overshadowed the mayor and although he was defeated, he still managed to damage Danny's reputation making it appear to the public that Danny Phantom had kidnapped the mayor.
It wasn't until Danny defeated the ghost king, Pariah Dark, did his image finally began to change for the better. The evil ghost king had led a huge invasion of skeletal ghost army into Amity Park. Danny made a truce with his ghostly enemies and united the ghosts to fight against Pariah. With the ghost king's defeat, the townspeople recognized Danny Phantom as the hero of Amity Park. No longer "Public Enemy Number One" he had an approval rating of 64%. Granted the truce with his enemies didn't last and he was back to the regular daily battles with the ghosts that came to cause trouble to society or simply torment him to blow off steam.
Danny touched down at the park before he could react to what set off his Ghost Sense, a pair of slender green hands covered his eyes.
"Guess who?" The female voice playfully asked from behind him.
Danny relaxed as he recognized the owner of the voice, he diminished the green ectoblast that he was forming in his hand to shoot at the surprise entity.
"Kitty, what are you doing here? You know you're not supposed to be in the human realm." He turned to face the female ghost.
Kitty was a red-eyed ghost with shoulder length green hair. She wore a black tank top, red leather jacket, red mini skirt, and green leggings. She died in the 80's with her boyfriend in a motorcycle accident. Kitty and her boyfriend, Johnny 13, were Danny's enemies in the beginning. After Kitty had a fight with Johnny and she overshadowed the prettiest girl in Danny's school to date Danny and make Johnny jealous. When Danny caught on to her act, Danny secretly worked with Johnny to bring the couple back together again. Now Danny was on friendly grounds with the two ghosts.
"Boo, you're such a stick in the mud, Phantom." Kitty pouted as she stuck her tongue at him. "And no, I'm not here to mess with your town. I need you to hide me."
"What, you had another spat with Johnny? You know I'm busy and I don't have the time to mediate your lover's quarrel all the time." Danny frowned, crossing his arms in front of his chest.
"But Johnny was being such a big jerk. We were on a date here in the land of the living. It was supposed to be special, just the two of us. Then that stupid wishing ghost, Desiree, had to show up and ruin everything! Johnny, he...he wouldn't stop ogling her breasts!!" She burst out into tears. "I mean who does that? We were on a date! He's supposed to be only looking at me. What if he is cheating on me?" She sniffled and fat beads of tears rolled down her cheeks.
Danny put his arms around the crying girl in an attempt to comfort her. "Well Johnny, he's- well -a guy. And guys can't help but stare at things like that. Heck, I probably would too. Johnny is just thick-headed to not know that it hurt you, but that doesn't mean he is cheating on you. He still loves you, didn't he tell you that you mean the world to him? Just tell him how you felt and ask him before you assume that he is cheating."
Kitty nodded her head but whimpered, "I know, but that wasn't even the worst part..." She started bawling again, then she angrily exclaimed, "Johnny he-" The familiar roar of a motorcycle caught her attention. "Crap, he's here. Hide me!" She quickly ducked behind Danny's back as Johnny 13 approached on his trusted black motorcycle.
"Johnny 13, what can I do for you?" Danny levelly eyed the blond ghost. The ghost had green eyes and gray acne covered skin. He looked like an older teen with his bad-boy biker look. Johnny 13 had the power to cause bad luck with his shadow that he controlled.
"Cut the act, Phantom. I know Kitty is with you. Just give her up and I will leave." Johnny revved the engine to intimidate Danny. The halfa refused to move and assumed a fighting stance.
"Fine then, we'll do this the hard way. Shadow." A black form with menacing emerald eyes materialized out from Johnny. It bared its teeth in a growl and a clawed hand swiped at Danny.
Danny charged his energy into a ball and threw it at Shadow, blasting it into Johnny and throwing him off his bike. Johnny picked himself off the ground and wiped the ectoplasm dripping from his nose. Before he could retaliate, Kitty was between him and Danny.
"Stop this! It's not Phantom's fault! I asked him to help me."
"Babe, why did you storm out from our date? Why do you need Phantom, did I do something to upset you?"
"Of course it's your fault that our date is ruined!"
"What? Just because I'm dating you doesn't mean I can't look at other girls."
"I'm not mad about that, it's what you didn't do!" Kitty threw up her hands in a show of disgust.
"Just what did I not do?" asked Johnny, genuinely confused.
"You seriously don't remember what today is?" Tears threatened to spill from her eyes again.
"What's so special about today?" Johnny demanded completely clueless.
Wrong answer.
"I can't believe you!!" Kitty screamed in frustration. She turned her back on Johnny and stomped over to Danny. "Can you do me the honors?" She asked Danny, her voice dangerously low.
Danny sighed, knowing that it was useless to refuse her. He took out the thermos and faced it at Johnny. "Sorry man. Try and reflect on what you done." Danny pushed the button and blinding light reached towards the biker, sucking him into the container.
"Noooo!" The ghost screamed as his body was stretched and distorted to fit into the compact thermos. The wind tugged at Kitty threatening to suck her in too, but Danny made sure to keep her behind him. Danny capped the lid on the device.
Danny walked back to the female ghost, "You okay?"
She cast her eyes down, "I've been better. I'm just upset that he forgot. Today was an important day for the two of us...Today is our Deathday. I'm sorry for dragging you into this."
"It's OK, I understand. I'm sorry about Johnny and happy Deathday."
Kitty returned a smile, "Thanks...Danny. I'm going to head back and discuss with Ember on how to punish Johnny. Do you mind sending Johnny back to the ghost zone later today?" Danny felt a twinge of sympathy for Johnny as he imagined the punishment that the girls had in store.
"No problem, I will do that."
Kitty gave him a small hug, "And I want to say my condolences, I know what today means to you. Feel free to come to me if you ever want to talk about it. You helped me a lot with my relationship troubles." Kitty flew off with a wave of goodbye.
Danny returned to the alley and grabbed his bag. Changing back to is human side as Danny Fenton, he raced back to the flower shop to retrieve his item. After a brief exchange of pleasantries and another goodbye, Danny headed to his next destination.
The teen made his way to the Amity Park Cemetery. He brushed off the wrinkles in his suit as he walked to the center of the cemetery where a large marble statue stood. Danny's mask of confidence shattered, revealing a timid, insecure boy wrecked with grief.
The memorial statue had the bust of a man and a woman with three teenagers. A boy and two girls. Danny placed the lilies by the plaque. The five names were engraved on it with the description: Gone but not Forgotten.
"I'm back guys. Miss me much?"
-PotC-
Whew, finally done with the first chapter. I don't know if the other chapters will be as long as this one. I hope you guys enjoyed this as much as I have.
last edited: 1/9/17