Yurei

A Danny Phantom Fanfiction

by Az The Dragon
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Things weren't going well. Not one bit.

Vlad had come out from nowhere, literally, and even if his Ghost Sense had gone off, his enemy had been so fast that he had little time to turn towards the window before the entire wall exploded on him and several of his classmates. From there, thanks to the panic and people rushing left and right to reach the door as soon as possible, heedless of Mr. Lancer's orders to stay calm, it had been easy to just go ghost before his arch-enemy could have another free chance at attacking him.

He had managed to fly away from the class, but not too far away to have the entire school safe from any stray ectoblast, or collateral damage caused by stuff, namely Danny, thrown onto it, before the older halfa stopped him from putting further distance from the two battling ghosts and innocent people.

Then things just plummeted from bad to worse, and now the Ghost Boy was trying to just survive the onslaught brought by Plasmius and keep an entire school away from the line of ghostly fire that his opponent was unleashing onto him.

"You will pay for what you have done, Daniel."

Danny cringed visibly. He had never seen Vlad so furious and so full of malice before, and for the first time he found himself not feeling like doing his usual display of witty banter, knowing that it would only further infuriate his enemy.

"You have foiled my plan for the last time."

There were no screams of rage and frustration. Just a deadly seriousness in Plasmius's voice that promised a world of pain if the younger of the two didn't find a quick way out of that situation.

Avoiding another light purple ectoblast by swerving to the left, Danny tried to gain altitude, planning to use his faster reflexes and agility to his advantage, but was shortly stopped as a bone crushing grip grabbed his ankle and yanked him out of the air, leaving him to dangle upside-down in his enemy's clutches.

"Let me go!"

Green energy flashed in the palm of his white gloved hands, and with a loud battle cry, Danny pointed at his foe and let loose the strongest ectoblast he was capable of. Upon impact with the older halfa's chest, the hold onto his ankle was released and he fell through the air for a few feet before twisting expertly and bolting as far away from the mad half ghost. He knew that his heavy attack would do damage, but not enough to stop Plasmius from recovering quickly and retaliate.

Chancing a quick glance behind his shoulder, the Ghost Kid saw the smoke clear to reveal empty air. Not good. Not good!

And indeed it wasn't good. As soon as he returned his gaze forward, he was hard pressed to twist to the side to avoid a barrage of purple ectoblasts, narrowly missing being hit. Thankful for his expertise in flight – not even Plasmius, with twenty years of experience more than him, could surpass him – he curved into the air and headed towards his opponent's back, planning to attack from there. Not exactly his thing, but there was no space for straight attacks. He either used every trick, more or less dirty, to win, or he would find himself fully ghost instead of just half.

Charging a good amount of bright electric green ectoplasm in his cupped hands, Danny flew as fast as he could towards Vlad and threw his arms forwards, releasing the accumulated energy. The blast hit its intended target, but in his madness, the blue skinned halfa ignored the scorch on his back and turned around, bolting towards the white haired kid.

This time there was no chance to avoid the collision by swerving to the side and he soon found himself dangling again. The only difference was that the bone crushing hold was on his neck now. The pressure on his soft flesh hurt even more and he could actually feel his spine creak dangerously in his ears. However, Danny wasn't sure if he should be more worried about that awful sound or the fact that he couldn't breathe.

Then, as he grabbed at his enemy's arm with his hands, there was a rough jarring, and he found himself carried through the air as fast as Vlad could fly. The pain that came after the short flight was blinding and breathtaking and his grip on reality slipped for a few seconds, making his eyes glaze over.

"I'm tired of you foiling my plans, Daniel," Plasmius's cold voice sounded tiny and distant in his ears, as if they were a few blocks away from each other. "This is the last time you have meddled with my affairs, boy."

The young half ghost felt himself being lifted from the ground and slammed against what appeared to be a wall or something equally hard. For a moment he wondered how a simple wall could stand the onslaught without cracking and falling apart. Maybe Vlad had enforced it with one of his ecto-shields, or something. Then the pain settled in and Danny's mind lost what little focus it had.

The back of his skull throbbed heavily as Plasmius slammed him against the vertical surface again and again, increasing the strength behind each hit. He had lost count of how many times he had crashed against the wall when his vision darkened and he felt something wet trickle down the back of his head and onto his neck.

His hands, which until now were still unconsciously grabbing onto Vlad's wrist, fell limply at his sides while his eyes glazed over again and became half lidded. Unsatisfied, however, the older ghost kept slamming the inert body against the ecto-reinforced wall for several long seconds without stopping showing any sign of stopping.

When Danny was really close to passing out, Plasmius's hold on his abused neck was abruptly released and the white haired ghost teen unceremoniously plopped onto the ground. His breathing came in painfully slow and short, but as his lungs filled again with the much needed air, his senses returned, even if barely. Everything felt like he was enclosed in a giant, thick bubble.

"Leave him alone, you creep!"

Even if the voice sounded further away than when he had last heard Vlad talk to him, he would recognize Sam's voice anywhere. He wasn't sure what had happened to make Plasmius let go of him, but he had the distant hunch that it had been thanks to her, and Tucker, that he was now laying on the ground rather than being still brutally slammed against a wall.

"Danny?" His body shook gently, and even if he was laying face down with his head looking at his right, the pain in his skull still flared and made his conscience writhe in agony. "Dude! Come on! Talk to me!"

He had barely any strength left, however. Just enough so that he could hang onto his ghostly form. He couldn't even close his eyes and fall unconscious, as if his mind was completely disconnected from his body, and for some strange reason worry was a far away emotion, like everything else beside the piercing pain. Then a backpack dropped to the ground and black skinned hands frantically opened the top to fish inside.

"Hang on, dude!"

A white cloth appeared from the dark insides of the school bag, then disappeared from his limited field of vision only to be firmly pressed against the back of his head while one warm hand, placed on his forehead, held it stable. Not that it mattered since he couldn't move a single muscle in his whole body. It was a wonder that he was still breathing and his heart still beat, let alone still be conscious.

After a few moments, Tucker decided to take his hand away from Danny's forehead and use it to grab his PDA, frantically hammering at the buttons with his fingers and using the stylus to navigate through menus and options. All this while Sam was busily keeping Vlad's attention on her. She wasn't doing any damage with her small ecto-gun, but her agility was successfully keeping the old halfa focused on her rather than him.

That, however, wouldn't last for long. Plasmius was a raging ghost at the moment, dead set onto getting rid of his nemesis and anything that could get between him and his target, and the Goth girl was proving to be one huge obstacle in his path. He could feel the power of his attacks increasing every released ectoblast, and knowing the older halfa's powers so well, the Ghost Kid knew all too well that the 'stalling for time' tactic wouldn't work at all. She would be blasted before Vlad tired out.

Sam…

Loud barks filled the air and he heard the blue skinned ghost curse loudly as he was distracted again. He knew of only one dog that would attack a mad ghost hell bent on killing and destroying, and that was Cujo, his ghost dog. Well, he wasn't exactly his, but everyone thought so and the green furred canine seemed to consider him as his master.

The dog always followed him around, and while he was in his human form Cujo remained hidden, quiet and explored the surroundings, but was always ready to jump in a fight to protect him. His usual light yaps were replaced with deep growls and the ground shook under his larger form as he landed on the street after trying a tackle on the enemy.

Vlad wasn't impressed, though, and quickly blasted Cujo away with a well placed ghost ray, making him land on his side against a street lamp, bending it to the point that the top touched the asphalt. He could see him whine in pain, a large gash on his left shoulder oozing ectoplasm, as he tried to stand back up, but failed, too dazed to do it.

Then there was a scream and Sam crashed into the dog's soft side, sliding down onto the ground in a heap and holding her middle where an ectoblast had hit her. The two fighters were dazed and in pain, and were slow in regaining a clear mind. This gave the older halfa the chance to walk up to Tucker and grab him by and arm before he could do anything, lifting him off the ground and violently shaking him.

"If you want to live, I suggest you to stay out of the way."

The malicious hiss that accompanied those words made Danny shiver inwardly. Nothing good could come from that, and as expected, Vlad threw Tucker against Cujo and Sam, almost knocking him unconscious.

"Well, Daniel," the older half ghost stated, voice cold, as he grabbed one white gloved wrist and lifted his limp body up. "Where were we?"

His head lolled down against his chest and he found himself staring at a growing puddle of green ectoblood under his feet. "Ah, yes…" Plasmius sounded bored while he slipped his free hand under Danny's chin and curled his long fingers around his slim neck again, forcing his limp head to lift up and stare back at the blue skinned-red eyed face of his enemy. "You were going to pay for foiling my plans. Again."

Bloody eyes narrowed and the hold onto his neck tightened painfully, cutting his breathing and slowly crushing his spine once again. This time there was no strength to lift his arms up to try and fight back, but when Vlad released his wrist and used his now free hand to charge ectoplasm for one powerful ghost ray, something simply snapped in his mind.

He was not sure what had made this new feeling snap into existence. Perhaps it had been Sam and Tucker screaming his name while they tried to stand back up and fight, or the screams of the curious that had gathered to see the famous Ghost Boy fight, or simply his will to live.

Whatever it had been, however, Vlad just went flying backwards, hurled away from him by an invisible force, and crashed against a large truck with an angry and surprised scream. Finally free from the deadly hold, Danny's wounded body collapsed onto the ground feet first, slipping on the lost ectoblood and sending him to the floor with his back.

Pain flared anew as the back of his head hit the floor again and limp arms flopped heavily onto the hard surface at random directions. He felt his mind slip further towards the numb darkness of unconsciousness, and as his vision faded, he managed to catch a glimpse of the familiar shape of the Specter Speeder soaring overhead.

The last thing he saw was Sam as she crouched on top of him, face filled with worry and lips silently moving in a desperate attempt to tell him something, while Tucker fumbled with something at the edges of his vision.

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A/N: I've been looking around my writing folder lately, and amidst the several cancelled, on hiatus or forgotten pieces I wrote in over ten years of my career, I found this particular piece. It's probably really messy and confusing (not to mention old), and not to the point, but I've reread it a couple of times and decided that I can't do any more than what I already did.

It's a weird story, especially since it start with poor Danny almost getting killed by a very angry and homicidal Vlad. Don't worry, he'll live. I like to torture my favorite characters, but I don't like killing them... there would be no story then...

As for the title, "yurei" in Japanese mean, more or less, "ghost". Actually, it's a general word for them, as there are different names for specific types of spirits, but I've decided to stick with this one because Danny didn't exactly fit in any of the categories. And yes, there is a reason why it's a Japanese word.

I'm not even sure if I'll be able to continue this seeing as I have tons of other writing projects to take care of, but it's a waste to let it rest on my computer to collect virtual dust. Besides, there is another chapter ready, and a third one half done...