1: This is it, a huge multi-chapter Danny Phantom fanfic. Those who've read my work before know the drill. One chapter per day until it's all posted, so keep checking back.
2: The chapters in this one are significantly shorter than in my other multi-chapter works. This is to hopefully help the pace of the story keep moving from scene to scene and character to character.
'Til Death Do Us Part Chapter 01: The Monster is Loose
Danny Fenton sat at the powerful science computer in the basement laboratory of his home, tapping away at the keyboard while the faces of his two friends, Sam and Tucker, shined back from the glowing screen. Behind the windows of their images was a world of science and magic... mostly magic though. Danny yelled victoriously as his virtual sword sliced through several 3-D images, which quickly vanished from sight.
"Yes! Six orcs and not a single point of damage taken! Think you can beat that Sam?" Danny grinned.
"Hmm, I don't know. I'll do my best." Sam rolled her eyes as her character waved a hand, sending a blast of fire in a wide radius to kill eight at once.
"Hey, no magic allowed in this challenge." Tucker whined. "That defeats the entire purpose of the game!"
"Hey, you get to use your magic sword. Why can't I use my magic powers?" Sam rebutted.
"Because it's cheating!" Tucker whined again.
Danny chuckled and shook his head, stepping into one of his friends' arguments for the thousandth time since they'd begun hanging out. "Come on guys, anything goes. That's what we agreed on. And I think it's the fair way to-" He stopped suddenly as a gasp of air escaped his throat. A soft blue mist rose from his lips, drifting only a few inches before dissipating into the air. His head jerked to the side as the heavy steel doors that blocked off the portal to the Ghost Zone began to open on their own with a heavy squeal.
"Danny? Are you okay?" Sam asked from her computer window. Danny pushed his chair back and rose from his seat, waiting to see what emerged. When nothing did he shook his head.
"Yeah, I think the Fenton Portal's on the fritz again. Give me a second." Danny set down his radio headset and turned to approach the ghost portal. The swirling green vortex that led into the other dimension looked as peaceful as it ever got. Danny looked into its depths for a few moments, still waiting for something to emerge and attack. Nothing did, though, and his Ghost Sense didn't go off again. With a shrug Danny reached out and pressed the large red button beside the portal, causing the large steel doors to screech and begin to slide closed.
"I have got to remind dad to oil those things." Danny shook his head and turned to walk back to his computer. The Fenton Portal doors closed behind him as he slid back into his seat and slipped his headset on. "Okay guys, let's get this show on the-"
Danny stopped speaking and his head jerked to the side when the sound of metal sliding on metal echoed from the Fenton Portal. A massive blade was sticking through the solid steel, easily the size of Danny's forearm. The teenager whirled to his feet in a surprised panic as the blade suddenly slashed across the length of the portal, slicing the twin doors in half along a horizontal line. They slowly collapsed inward in four pieces, hitting the floor in front of the portal with deafening metallic clangs.
"I don't know what you are..." Danny clenched his fists as the ectoplasm surged through his body, bubbling to the surface as his body began to change. His white T-shirt and blue jeans were replaced suddenly by a sleek black and white suit. His baby blue eyes pulsed with green energy and his hair faded into a snow-white hue. "But I know you didn't just make a mess in my dad's basement. He makes me work very hard to keep this place clean."
The portal remained still for a moment, but Danny could feel the air beginning to chill around him. His breath came in deeper, shuddering gasps and he could see his breath fogging the air in front of him. His arms wrapped around his torso for warmth, his heart beginning to race. He'd never felt a presence like this. It was as if sheer ectoplasmic power was radiating from the portal. He was used to facing beings of ectoplasm, but not like this.
Danny stepped back from the portal, ignoring the worried pleas of his friends from the computer screen to tell them he was alright. Their voices grew desperate, but Danny ignored them. He was transfixed by the sight emerging from the portal before him. It was a massive figure, little more than a cloak emerging from the Ghost Zone. It floated two feet from the ground without legs, and the cloak was easily two heads taller than Danny. A pair of frail skeletal hands were the only part of it that was visible as it floated forth, the fingers of one hand clutched around the pole of a scythe whose blade was as long as Danny was tall.
"W-w-w-well..." Danny's teeth chattered against the cold and his own nervousness. "I s-s-s-see you've studied th... the book of ghost clichés..." Danny's voice was weak and barely audible.
"Daniel Fenton." A deep voice spoke, though not from anywhere inside the room. It was as if it simply existed inside Danny's mind, like a thought forced into him from the outside. "Your time has passed."
"W-wait... what?" Danny asked in surprise, his heart skipping a beat. He didn't want to believe it. He never would have believed it before. But this presence was unbearable and unmistakable. "Y... you're... you're him..." Danny stuttered. "Wh-what do you want with me?"
"You are a spirit of the Otherworld." One skeletal hand raised toward him, beckoning him forward. "Your time passed long ago. It is time to come with me."
"What!?" Danny exclaimed in shock. "No, it's a mistake! I may be a ghost but look!" Danny allowed himself to drop back into his human form, looking down at his unexceptional body. "See? I'm still alive!"
"Your time has passed. Fear not, child. The next world is a world where you can become everything you could never be here. Truly happy." The specter held out one hand, as if waiting for Danny to approach. The cold aura continued to emanate from the depths of the robes, which flowed through the air on unnatural winds.
"No... no! I won't!" Danny stumbled back as his body became ghostly again. "This is a mistake!" Danny fired a pair of ecto blasts straight into the cloak, but the energy from the blasts spread through the cloak, as if infusing it and only making the ghost stronger.
"Eternity waits for no man, Daniel Fenton. You do not wish to resist, it can lead to only pain."
"Get away from me!" Danny stumbled back, firing several more ecto-blasts, which did little more than spread through the robes and scythe. Danny's eyes pulsed with blue light as a stream of cold energy flowed through the air and into the robes. But the results were no better now. The being hovering before him approached slowly, gliding over the ground in his direction. Danny could feel his teeth chattering as he slowly fell to his knees, trying desperately to hold onto the warmth of his body.
"S... so cold..." Danny stuttered. He could see the metal computer desk beginning to fog over, and the glass of water he'd been drinking shattered into hundreds of pieces leaving a block of ice on the table. The faces of his friends were gone since the cold had destroyed the electrical wiring of the computer. "I w-won't go! I won't go!" Danny launched himself into the air, phasing through the ceiling and up through the ground until he emerged into glistening crimson sun of dusk.
Danny whirled back to the ground, his fists glowing brightly at his sides. His breath came in quick gasps and his heart pounded the fear and adrenaline through his body. He waited for several agonizing minutes, but the figure didn't emerge to give chase.
His heart almost broke his ribcage when his cell phone rang. Shaking hands fumbled to lift it out of his pocket, seeing Sam's name on the front before he held it to his ear. "S-Sam..."
"Danny? What the heck? You just suddenly logged off." Sam said. "The Box Ghost giving you a hard time?"
"Sam, I'm coming over." Danny gulped, trying to keep his shaking voice under control. "I don't think I can stay here tonight. Call Tucker too."
"Danny? What-" Sam sounded genuinely worried now.
"Please, I'll be there soon." Danny slapped his cell phone shut between his palms and turned to fly through the air over Amity Park. The setting sun was usually beautiful from this height, but tonight it seemed to cast an ominous, blood red pallor over the city. A red that only grew deeper as the sun dipped further into the horizon.
Danny avoided the growing shadows as he flew, and made it to Sam's mansion without incident. He phased through the wall of her bedroom, landing on her soft carpet heavier than he'd intended. He stumbled from the impact into one of the bedposts that held the velvet black drapes over her bed. His body faded into its human form as he held onto it to gain his composure.
"Whoa, careful there... D-Danny? You're shaking." Sam rushed over to him from the stereo system set inside one of the far walls. When she touched his arm with her bare hands she gasped. "Oh man, you're freezing!"
"It was cold..." Danny told her.
"Here, come on, my blankets are warm." Sam pulled her friend away from the bedpost and pushed him into the middle of the bed, wrapping him in the thick sheets like a cocoon.
"I, I couldn't fight. I, my ecto blasts didn't work and, and I couldn't get close. It was too cold." Danny said through chattering teeth.
"Wait... it's at your place? What about Jazz and your parents?!" Sam said in alarm. "We should warn them!"
"N-no!" Danny's hand lashed out to grab her arm before she could reach the phone. When she looked back at him Danny nodded slowly, looking into her strong violet eyes. "He won't hurt them. He's after me."
"Who is, Danny?" Sam asked seriously. Danny didn't respond, his grip on her hand beginning to loosen. Sam moved away from the telephone and turned her attention toward him as he lay back in the thick blankets. "Danny, what the heck happened? Who came out of the portal?"
"I..." Danny gulped and shook his head, trying to remember it more clearly. His mind seemed strangely fuzzy at the moment.
Sam gripped one of his hands between both of hers. The warmth felt wonderful against his freezing skin. "Danny, who or what did this to you? We can help you beat it like we always do."
Danny sat up and put his free hand in his hair, trying to remember the tales he'd heard from the ghosts. "When people die, they don't go straight to the Ghost Zone." Danny gulped. "Someone has to collect their soul from here and take it there. By force if necessary. I've heard some of the ghosts talk about him before, but I didn't think I'd ever actually see him here in the real world."
"Who...?" Sam asked, her own voice shaking. She'd never seen Danny's face so pale, his tone so sullen.
Danny turned to look into her eyes. "They call him the Reaper. He thinks since I'm a ghost, I should be dead. Which makes sense but I'm... I'm not. Am I?"
"Of course you're not." Sam scoffed. "This guy sounds like an idiot to me." Sam suddenly shivered, a full body twitch that traveled up her back to her head. "Geeze. I thought dad had the A/C fixed yesterday."
"No... no, it's him. This place isn't safe!" Danny scrambled out of her bed, backing away from her toward the wall. "I've got to get out of here. You stay here and he won't hurt you."
"What? You can't be serious! Danny!" Sam shouted in anger. "You are not leaving me behind in this!"
"We don't have time, just trust me!" Danny whirled away from her, sprinting toward the wall as his body shifted into the black and white suit that accompanied his ghost transformation. He leapt at the wall, but was surprised when he felt a pair of arms wrap around his waist right before he went intangible, phasing both himself and Sam through the wall into the next room.
Danny stumbled to the floor on the other side of the wall, once again becoming solid. Sam was still clinging to his waist like a leech. Her eyes were vicious and her lip was curled up into a snarl as she stared up at him.
"Sam! Get off! This ghost is too powerful for you to face, just trust me!" Danny screamed angrily.
"No Danny!" Sam shouted back with equal fire. "This ghost did something to you that no other ghost has, and I won't let him do it again! I'm coming with you!" Danny opened his mouth to respond, but Sam grabbed his shoulders and shoved him onto the floor with a heavy thud. Danny yelped as he bit his own tongue from the force of the push. Sam glared down at him, panting heavily from her exertions. "We always trust you to help us, even when it seems hopeless for you. Let me do the same for you now!"
Danny had never seen Sam like this before. Well, not toward him at least. The only time she had this fierce, passionate expression on her face was when she was fighting for something she truly cared about. It was a face that meant whoever argued with her had better be prepared for either a lecture of a mouthful of broken teeth.
A silent nod was all Danny could manage, stunned as he was. It was then that he noticed the cold seeping into the room around them, causing them both to shiver against one another. They both climbed to their feet, standing side-by-side with their elbows touching as they scanned the empty bedroom. The ornate mirror lined with jewel began to frost over, until suddenly the mirror shattered, spraying shards of itself on the thick carpet. The sound of the window behind them shattering made them both whirl in time to see the voluminous robes from before hovering in through the window, the massive scythe glinting blood red in the little light that shown through the window. The skeletal hands and dark, faceless hood left Sam speechless for several long moments while they faced each other.
"I hope you don't regret this." Danny said through chattering teeth and wounded tongue.
"Regret later. Now RUN!" Sam gripped Danny's hand tightly in hers and ran for the bedroom door. This time the figure didn't fall back or pace them, it flew after them, the massive scythe arching through the air. The blade sliced through the doorframe and the wall behind it like they didn't even exist. The house groaned as if in pain, but Sam and Danny were already halfway down the hall toward the staircase.
Danny leapt forward, wrapping his arms around Sam's waist as he phased them through the floor to get away from the floating figure. The blade flashed in another arc that cut through the ceiling and floor without stopping. The blade shot through the floor after them, and Danny howled in pain as it cut through the muscles of his left leg. It bit deep, deep enough for Danny's concentration to break as he and Sam tumbled through the air to the first floor amid a shower of debris from the ceiling.
Danny groaned in pain as blood flowed from the wound, curling up to clutch at his leg with both hands. Sam climbed off of him and grabbed his arm, hauling it around her shoulders. "No time for that now, Danny. We've got to move!"
Another slash split the roof open over their heads. Sam barely pulled Danny out of the way of the falling pieces of the ceiling, pulling him roughly against the wall beside the door to the kitchen. The robed figure floated down amid the debris, visible only by the deep green glow of the scythe blade shining through the dust. The ghost was floating between them and the front door, so Sam pulled Danny toward the kitchen. He limped desperately behind her, leaving a trickle of blood with every step.
Sam pulled Danny roughly into the kitchen. She was the most physically fit of the trio of friends, but Danny was no lightweight and she was running on pure adrenaline now. Danny allowed himself to be dragged through the large kitchen toward the back door, though a glance back told him that the specter was still stalking them, the scythe now also glistening with Danny's blood.
"Leave me..." Danny said softly. He was beginning to feel faint, more than likely because of the rather large amount of his blood now spread across the mansion floor.
"Shut up." Sam replied, finally yanking him fully onto her back and taking off toward the door as fast as she could run. The robed figure stopped stalking them and thrust itself at them, bringing the scythe around in a shining arc. Sam yelled in a panic and lurched toward the sliding glass door that led out into the back yard. One foot slammed into the other tripping her up and sending her tumbling slowly to the ground. The scythe flashed overhead, cutting the air as cleanly as it sliced the glass door in half.
Sam grunted as her knees slammed into the kitchen floor, but with a grunt of effort she pushed herself up from the floor and slammed shoulder-first into the glass. The two large shards of glass popped out of the door, crashing to the ground in a shower of broken shards that Sam's boots crushed as she took off around the Olympic sized swimming pool built into her backyard.
Sam stopped momentarily in surprise when the white-gloved hand on her shoulder faded to a normal flesh-colored one. Realizing that the figure on her back had gone limp, her heart leapt in her throat. "Danny, don't you dare be dead back there! Or I'll kick your ghostly ass!" She grunted and continued to run around the pool, not daring to glance back toward her attacker until she had reached the forest edge.
A glance back showed that the ghostly figure hadn't moved from in front of the back door. Its robe billowed outward in the wind, but it did not move. It just floated in place, watching them with its hands clutching the scythe in front of its body. Sam didn't take too long to puzzle out why it wasn't following them, but thanked her good fortune and turned to run into the forest.
She ran until she her legs shook and her breath came in pained gasps, fueled by a stomach that began to burn with every pant. At last she collapsed to her stomach in the forest, gasping for air with Danny lying limp across her back. "D-Danny!" Sam rolled over from her stomach, carefully lowering Danny to the grass where she could bend over him to examine his face. She shook her head with relief when she saw he was still breathing, but he still looked paler than normal.
A cold chill swept down her back even though the wind couldn't penetrate the thick forest. She gripped Danny tightly to her chest as her gaze darted around the forest in alarm. Her body shuddered deeper as the cold grew colder, enshrouding her like a blanket. She held Danny's cheek against her chest, closing her eyes and pulling him closer. His body was quite warm, a heat source that kept her teeth from audibly chattering.
Between a couple of trees in the distance she saw a black cloak pass through the forest. For a moment she was sure it would turn their way. But in a few moments it simply turned and left, disappearing in a different direction. Her pounding heart slowly began to steady, the rush of adrenaline leaving her body as she clutched Danny close to her. They had both made it out alive. But that thing was still out there.
Pushing it out of her mind she turned her attention to Danny. The wound on his leg was deep, and though the bleeding had slowed it hadn't stopped completely. He'd lost so much blood she had to stop it now or she might lose him completely. So she began to treat it as best she could. She refused to lose him to anything. Not even the Reaper himself.
TO BE CONTINUED