Sorry this took so long! I've had a long of stuff on my plate (plus a lot of procrastination), but I WILL keep working on this story until it's done. Also, what genres do you think would best describe this story so far?
Danny opened his eyes, only to see a swirling green vortex.
"Am I in the Ghost Zone?" He asked, glancing down at himself. What he saw was a familiar black and white hazmat suit.
"Huh?" He asked in confusion. "I don't remember changing..."
Danny Phantom started to take in his surroundings, just now noticing the path of floating rocks leading off into the distance.
The halfa took to the air, floating along the dark stone road through the ghost zone.
As he flew he noticed that the scenery changed. Large expanses of land appeared on each side. Both were covered in all sorts of whithered and dead vegetation. Willow trees with brown leaves hung over the path with a sense of forlorning.
Danny looked up. The sky was still an eerie shade of toxic green meaning that he was still in the Ghost Zone.
After floating for what felt like ages he found himself in a large clearing.
"Okay, now I KNOW I'm dreaming..."
A mammoth oak tree grew in the center, it's branches twisting and turning as it spread into the sky.
A small brown bird with a red chest flew into the picture by landing on a branch near the crown.
As The halfa was working his way closer to the brown bird to get a better look when a violet rose sprung up before the tree, briefly gleaming in a small shaft of after a large black bird flew into the branches, blocking out the light and stealing the spotlight for itself.
You would think that with a lack of sunlight the flower would wither away. This was not the case...
Instead it's thorns grew to the size of railroad spikes and it's stem became thicker and taller, effectively passing the tree and casting a shadow over the clearing. The now grotesque giant rose reached a monstrous leaf out to grab the black bird. The brown one saw it coming and jumped in the way, pecking at the leaf as it was captured and carried away.
Danny was about to fly off in pursuit when a very familiar and unwelcome face blocked his view.
Skulker smirked at his favorite prey. "Hello Whelp."
The halfa merely glared and turned to go around the metallic ghost only to find himself face-to-face with the rockstar ghost herself, Ember.
Glancing to Ember's left, Danny could clearly see Walker, holding a pair of glowing green handcuffs and smirking like he had already won.
To Skulker's right was Desiree and next to her was Technus.
Panicked, Danny turned his head to look behind him. This proved to be a mistake. Behind him was Vlad Plasimus, but something about him was different.
His black vampire-like hair was gone and in its place stood flickering white flames... This was the only difference, but this alone was the scariest thing Danny had seen all year.
It was the same hair he had seen on his evil future self.
Danny woke up panting. He had grown used to having nightmares about Dan ever since it first happened, but this time it felt– different...
He was snapped out of his thoughts by the smell of something good wafting into his room. A stomach growl quickly reminded him of his need to eat and the young halfa started on his way out the door... only to trip over something lying in the middle of the floor.
After managing to catch himself, he glared at the offending object, a leather briefcase which had popped open during the fall. A small photograph on which were four familiar faces (five if you counted the monkey) had spilled out and now layed in plain view. Danny only took one glance at the photo and almost burst into tears, before he managed to steel himself. After a few minutes of just staring, the halfa picked up the picture and newspaper article carefully placing them back in their correct places.
Over the last few days, Robin had spent his time observing his brother. A lot of things can change in seven years... and they had.
His little brother was no longer the care-free and optimistic kid he had been before. Instead he carried the air of a soldier who has seen many a battle and lived to tell about witty banter and wise-cracks he often pulled seemed to be the only semblance of the Danny he once knew, but even then a small flicker of sadness in his eyes betrayed his true feelings.
Robin couldn't even imagine the pain his brother was in. Losing a family once was hard enough, but twice? Poor kid probably felt like it was his fault, that all the needless pain and suffering could have been prevented if only he wasn't there. It wasn't true obviously, but if Danny really thought that...
The masked Titan snapped out of his thoughts at the sound of the door sliding open with a hiss. On the other side of the door was the aforementioned blue-eyed teen, a familiar leather briefcase at his side.
Danny walked over to his brother, tears in his eyes.
"I believe this is yours." He said sadly, thrusting it out. Robin briefly worried that it had only served to sadden the younger boy, but what he did next threw that thought out the window.
Danny leaned over and hugged him, whispering "Thank you."
Robin smiled gently and returned the hug.
The Tower shook with the force of the voices inside. Two warriors locked in a never-ending battle...
"WHERE'S THE BACON?!"
It was ironic actually, no matter where Danny went, this argument seemed to follow him.
300 miles from Sam and Tucker, yet the Meat vs Veggies War was still going strong.
Beastboy mumbled an angry response through a mouthful of food. After that insightful comment, everyone lapsed into silence inorder to rethink everything they knew.
Okay! Okay! That didn't happen. Instead, Cyborg and Beastboy got into a heated argument about how Cyborg shouldn't eat meat because blah, blah, blah... And Beastboy should because yadda, yadda, yadda...
The story still stays the same, no matter whose doing the talking!
Anyway... At some point last night after Danny had passed out in bed, the Titans had gotten together and decided on a way to get to know the young teen better.
The plan was that, that day, Danny would spend an hour and a half with each them separately. This way they could get to know him as an actual person and not just as Robin's little brother.
That is how he ended up playing video games with Beastboy at 9:00 in the morning.
Beastboy and Danny talked and played videogames, until it was time for Danny to move on. Danny effectively beat BB's high score, Beastboy decided that Danny was cool, and Danny decided that Beastboy reminded him of a green, less gothic, male version of Sam
Afterwards, Danny went to Star's room where she introduced him to pet mutant maggot, Silky. Star decided that Danny would make a good friend, Danny decided that Star reminded him of Jazz, and Silky decided that Danny would make a good snack.
Since Robin was being the oblivious one for once in his life, Cyborg had decided to take charge and become Robin 2.0. Complete with over-protective tendencies and wild accusations.
Cyborg had managed to convince himself that something was wrong with Danny, but couldn't find any evidence to back it up.
He spent his whole hour questioning Danny and making him uncomfortable, but despite this Danny couldn't help but think of Tucker what with all the electronics and carnivorious appetite.
And then there was Raven... She also reminded him of Sam of, in a way, but at the same time she reminded him of someone else.
She reminded him of himself...
"Azarath...Metrion...Zinthos..."
Danny peered over at the meditating empath I thought. This was his chance to find out if what he thought was true. If Raven was a halfa.
The one problem was... how to find out without giving away his own secret.
This would require the upmost tact and a ton of planning. It could take weeks! Months! Years! But he was determined to find out the secret that was Raven!
The halfa glanced over at her again. It had been ten minutes already and she had yet to say a word. This could be harder than he thought...
"Azarath...Metrion...Zinthos..."
Danny decided it was time to break the ice.
"What are you doing?"
The gray-skinned girl opened one violet eye.
"Meditating." she deadpanned.
"Cool! Can I try?"
Raven looked slightly surprised by this, but gestured toward a clear spot on the floor for him to sit down.
Danny walked over and sat down crosslegged in the indicated space.
"Okay, now close your eyes and repeat after me. Azarath... Metrion... Zinthos..."
The halfa followed her commands, and quickly found himself relaxing. All the thoughts of last night faded away, and he was the most relaxed he had been all year...
"How are you doing that?"
Danny opened his eyes and stared at Raven for a second before noticing that she was floating off the ground. And that he was eye level with her...
Glancing down at himself he realized what he had done. He was floating in mid-air in HUMAN form.
So much for tact and planning...
"Um..."
Raven held up a hand. "You don't have to tell me. I'll keep your secret if you agree to meet me here for meditation at four every afternoon."
Danny was slightly taken aback by this. She could have easily learned his secret, but chose to let him keep it, and was even offering to spend more time with him.
On one hand, it sounded like she was blackmailing him, but at the same time it also gave him more chances to find out what exactly she was...
The halfa floated back down to the ground and nodded weakly."O-Okay."
All the Titans were in the main room of the tower, talking about Danny.
"So," Robin asked, "What did everyone think of Danny?"
"He is glorious!" Said Starfire, "He even agreed to let me give him a make-over!"
"He played videogames with me, and didn't complain when I won!" said Beastboy with a slight hit of pride in his voice.
"Didn't he beat you?" questioned Raven.
Beastboy's proud expression fell. "No fair! You were eavesdropping!"
"So?" She deadpanned, a slightly angry look on her face. Beastboy decided to make a tactical retreat.
"He's really-" Raven paused to think of the right word. "nice."
Cyborg bit his tounge. He didn't know how Robin would react to his accusations about his brother. Besides, he didn't have any real concrete evidence to back him up.
"He respects my eating habits."
It was rather vague, leaving a positive note without suggesting that he trusted him.
Robin's smile, which hadn't fallen since Danny got there, seemed to grow wider each time someone had something nice to say about him.
Speaking of Danny, your probably wondering where he was during all this. No? Alright then, I won't tell you.