Chapter Text
Disclaimer- Danny Phantom belongs to Butch Hartman, not me, yadda yadda, you know the rest. This Fanfic is rated PG by the Motion Picture Association of America for being fairly dark in spots, and TV-Y7 for fantasy violence. My apologies to Butch Hartman, Obi-Quiet, Ghost Cougar, Amy Phantom, and anyone else whose brain I may have accidentally plagiarized in writing this story, which has a clichéd premise slightly older than dirt. And thanks to the Danny Phantom Online Forum... I couldn't do it without ya.
Danny Shadow
Danny Fenton had almost forgotten what it was to be a heavy sleeper. After fourteen years in the often chaotic Fenton household, he'd become able to sleep through his father's bellowing, his mother's occasional lab mishaps, or his sister's lectures, to say nothing of one of Lancer's less than thrilling science lessons. Once he'd had his "accident," however... well, what with nightmares, random ghost attacks, and having to make sure he didn't accidentally phase through the floor in his sleep, he now snapped awake at the slightest sound... or waft of sudden chill. And his parents wondered why he never seemed to look rested.
Take this particular Saturday. Saturday was a day off, a day of rest, a time for him not to have to worry about school, assignments, and getting shoved in his locker. So why was he awake at eight thirty in the morning, staring blankly at the ceiling? Faintly from below, he could hear his parents' excited voices, though the words were rendered indistinguishable by the intervening floor and shut doors. Then he heard the whining of a gearshift, and things dropped into place.
FedEx truck. At eight in the morning, which meant a package sent via next-day mail. Which almost certainly meant that a cardboard box was headed for the lab. And that meant...
"Aw no." Danny pulled a pillow over his head. Maybe, just this once, the universe would take pity on him. Maybe he could go back to sleep, and nothing would happen. Maybe...
Icy breath crystallized against the cotton pillow-case as the lab's spectral alarms began to wail.
And maybe Sam will develop a thing for hot pink, Danny sighed, throwing off his covers as he shifted into ghost mode. Grabbing the Fenton Thermos from the table beside his bed, he went intangible, dropping two stories to the lab. Sure enough...
"I am the BOX GHOST!" The intruder declared to the (apparently) empty room. "Master of all things rectangular and... uh oh." Obviously far too familiar with the silver-white glow enveloping him, the portly poltergeist let out one rather resigned-sounding "fear me!" before disappearing into the Fenton Thermos. Danny screwed the lid on the device with a sigh, returning to human form as he did so. And just in time too, as his parents came barreling down the stairs, both armed with their usual ghost-catching weapons.
Scanning the room, Jack frowned, lowering the barrel of his energy cannon. "Danny? Where's the ghost?"
Danny shrugged, hiding the thermos behind his back. "Didn't see a ghost, Dad, but it looked like the portal might have leaked a little. Maybe that set the alarms off?"
"That could be," Maddie agreed, pushing her hood and goggles back. "We really need to recalibrate the sensors, make them less sensitive. This is the third false alarm this week."
"Mmm," Jack's response was surprisingly distracted, as he gave his son a searching look. Then he seemed to shake the mood off. "Well hey! You're up now... want to see what we got in the mail? We haven't even had time to open it, but the return address says Chicago Paranormal Labs!"
Danny blinked, startled. "Dad? No offense, but... what the heck would Chicago Paranormal send to you? I mean, they easily have twice the equipment, and if they wanted your opinion, why not ask you in to consult?"
"Danny!" Madison Fenton gave her son a delighted smile. "Have you actually been studying?"
That got an awkward shrug and a blush. "Well... you know, with all this... Inviso-Bill stuff... I thought it might be a good idea."
Slinging his bazooka over his shoulder, Jack shook his head. "Inviso-Bill... that really is a stupid name... Danny, why don't you go get dressed? Your mother and I will put away the artillery, and then we can see what's in that box!"
Jack and Maddie were already headed up the stairs, so neither of them saw the Thermos in Danny's hands twitch violently at the mention of the box. Taking a more secure grip on his cargo, Danny sighed, heading over to the input port on the ghost portal.
"Well, so much for going back to bed."
---
I've got a bad feeling about this, Danny thought wryly, as he joined his parents and sister in the lab. There was absolutely no reason for his foreboding, but it was there anyway, a low-level dread settled around the base of his spine. It was the same feeling he got right before Lancer delivered two of the most dreaded words in the English language- pop quiz. No one else felt it; that was obvious from the cheerful conversation going on in the lab. Though, he noted, his father HAD donned a face shield.
"All right," Jack boomed happily, voice muffled by the clear Plexiglas. "Let's see what we've got here!" With surprising delicacy, the big man slit open the tape holding the box shut and folded back the flaps.
Maddie let out a low whistle of appreciation as her husband lifted the item inside free of the clinging Styrofoam peanuts. "Oh MY... how beautiful!"
The gargantuan quartz crystal spire in Jack's hands glimmered icily in the lab's fluorescent light. The stone was easily as big around as a salad plate, in cross-section perfectly hexagonal. One end tapered to a needle-point, the other was still embedded in the black rocky matrix it had been mined from. Basalt, Danny guessed, one of Lancer's geology lessons dimly flickering in the back of his brain.
Warning Sign one- It's a gemstone, Danny thought tiredly, leaning against the wall behind him. Despite the excuse he'd given his mother, he HAD been studying. So had Sam and Tucker. Frankly, he was sick and tired of being caught off-guard by his enemies, and while getting control of his powers remained haphazard at best, getting better informed wasn't. And after his little encounter with Freakshow, spells for ghost control had been research subject number one. Much to his chagrin, he'd learned that crystals of all types were often used as focusing devices, for everything from control spells to transformations to very big explosions. Some of the harder stones could even be used to trap ghosts in, if properly prepared.
Not that he thought this stone had a ghost in it. He reacted to ghosts even when in the Fenton Thermos... he should be able to feel one locked inside a crystal. This stone wasn't setting off his ghost sense... it was just making him very, very nervous.
Flipping up his face shield, Jack examined the rough basalt base more closely, eyes lighting up. "Hey, there's writing here!"
Warning Sign number two. This one wasn't learned from study so much as from years of horror movies with Sam and Tucker. Artifacts only had writing on them to indicate that they were magical and/or the key to releasing some horrific menace from its centuries-long sleep to plague an unsuspecting populace. ... And he really had to stop the internal narration or he was gonna wind up sounding like the Box Ghost.
Taking the gem from her husband, Maddie peered closely at the incised characters on the base. "Hmm. I think this is a variant of Sumerian..."
"Can you read it?" Jazz asked, interested despite herself.
"In my sleep, underwater, and with the lights off," Maddie assured her blithely. "Let's see... a rough translation would be... 'Gem of Souls, purifier of spirits. Stand before me to see between the darkness and the light... the sacred and unholy flames.' There's more, but it looks like it's been damaged."
Danny nearly groaned. Strike three. The thing's got an incomplete warning label. Might as well hang a sign on it saying "Plot Device."
Blue-green eyes alight with curiosity, Jazz abandoned her pose of unconcern, moving a little closer to the center of the action. "May I see?" she asked, already pulling on a pair of gloves.
"Certainly," her mother agreed, carefully passing the heavy stone to her daughter. That's when it happened.
The stone had started off with Jack, in the center of the lab, and by hanging back against the wall, Danny'd managed to stay a reasonable distance from it. Each subsequent holder had brought it closer, however, and when Jazz turned to ask her brother's opinion on the item she held, it was finally within range. Brilliant light exploded within the crystal, searing away the vision of all four occupants of the room. At the same time, Danny felt a vibrating twang, as if his entire body were a suddenly plucked guitar string. Then there was a moment of excruciating pain... and then hollow cold, as he felt himself crumple to the metal floor.
For a moment, there was nothing but white darkness, as Danny tried to remember how to breathe. Then he felt a pair of hands turning him gently, checking his head and limbs with a brisk but compassionate touch.
"Danny?" The voice was familiar, but he couldn't place it. He knew he'd heard it before, but it wasn't either of his parents, or his sister, or Sam or Tucker, for that matter. It was male, sounded young...
"Come on, Fenton, snap out of it," the voice continued, sounding a bit irritated now. "We kind of have a pressing situation here..."
Catching the note of well-hidden fear in the speaker's voice, Danny managed to force his eyes open, despite the pervading weakness he felt. A pair of green, almost luminous eyes gazed down into his, relief filling them as he watched. Green eyes which were very, very familiar.
"... Wh... But... how?" Had he been blown through the Fenton Ghost Catcher without realizing it?
"Later," his ghost self replied shortly, looking towards the center of the lab. "We've got bigger problems right now."
Fenton forced himself into a sitting position, aided by the hand against his back, and instantly saw what the white-haired boy meant. Jack and Maddie were sitting up as well, obviously recovering from the blast. Jazz still lay on the floor, but she was moving sluggishly, reassuring Fenton that she was probably all right. That wasn't the problem.
The problem floated in the middle of the lab, arms folded across his chest, regarding all of them with a contemptuous expression. The face was familiar, but the shaggy hair was ash-gray, and the eyes were blood-red, darker than the crimson stares that so many malevolent ghosts possessed. The suit, too, was a variation on a familiar theme, deep grey with scarlet boots, gloves, belt and collar.
Fenton swallowed hard. "Oh, NOT good," he murmured.
"Excellent deduction, Holmes," Phantom replied, helping him stand.
"You two make a cute couple," the third Danny replied, smirking cruelly.
Fenton rolled his eyes. "You sound like Dash," he shot back, and then had to duck as a sudden burst of ruby plasma nearly seared the top of his head off.
"Just a warning, Danny Fenton," the grey ghost said, tone frighteningly polite. "Stay out of my way, and life will be much less... stressful for you. Decide to get heroic..." Fingers aimed like a pistol, the red-eyed boy shot a sudden ball of energy at the box the crystal had been delivered in. The cardboard and papers immediately burst into flames.
"Just think of me as your friendly neighborhood... Shadow." Laughing cruelly, he ascended through the ceiling and was gone.
A moment of silence, then Phantom snorted. "Well... this is another fine mess Vlad's gotten us into."
Fenton blinked. "You think Plasmius is behind this?" he asked, acutely conscious of his groggy parents listening to every word.
"Well, let's see. A package with a strange artifact that practically screams 'Evil plot here,' sent from Chicago Paranormal so that there'd be no way my- your parents could resist opening it, oh, and let's not forget it's sent to the only guy in the continental United States with a working ghost portal so there's no shortage of paranormal energy for it to do whatever it did... And of course, THAT," Phantom jerked his thumb towards the ceiling, "had red eyes and red energy. Just like Plasmius. No, I think it's Skulker."
Fenton rubbed his forehead. Geez, was he really this sarcastic in ghost mode? Surely Sam would have smacked him by this point if he was. "Look, throwing out theories on who to blame isn't going to do us any good right now, you know?"
"Yeah." Phantom deflated slightly. "Look, you take care of... your family. I'll go see if I can't track down our Shadow friend and get more information." Then, quieter, "I'll be back tonight. Call Sam and Tucker?"
Fenton nodded imperceptibly. "Thanks... Danny Phantom." Might as well take the opportunity to pound another nail in "Inviso-Bill's" coffin.
The white-haired boy smirked. "No problem, Danny Fenton." Then he took off, phasing through the ceiling. Taking a deep breath, Fenton turned around to check on his family... and to start the damage control.
---
Entering Danny's room, Tucker didn't even clear the door before he stopped dead, causing Sam to ram into him from behind. "Tucker, would you MOVE it?" Sam cried, violet eyes rolling as she shoved past him. "What could possibly make you- oh."
Seeing Danny Fenton lying on his bed reading comics was nothing new. What had grabbed Sam's attention and obviously Tucker's as well, however, was his white-haired alter ego, sitting on the WALL as if adhered to it, a classic issue of Spider-Man in gloved hands. Simultaneously, both Dannys looked up from their reading and waved.
"Hey, guys," Fenton greeted them, putting his comic aside and sitting up. "Thanks for coming over on such short notice."
"You said it was an emergency," Sam replied, pulling Danny's desk chair out so she could drop into it. "I can see what you mean."
Finding his voice, Tucker focused on Phantom. "... Does the word 'gravity' mean anything to you?"
The half-ghost grinned. "What's the matter, Tuck, am I making you sea-sick?"
"Ignore him," Fenton instructed, blue eyes cast towards the ceiling. "I think he just likes messing with people's heads."
Sam blinked. "You THINK? Um, Danny, aren't you technically the same person?" The doppelgangers exchanged looks, then sighed in unison.
"Not entirely sure, Sam," Phantom replied, detaching from the wall to float in midair. "We started out that way this morning, but..." The white-haired boy quickly laid out the events of that morning, his twin occasionally throwing out corrections or opinions as he went. When they finished, Tucker whistled softly.
"Man, that's freaky. Where's the gem now?"
Fenton folded his arms, sighing. "In the lab, under about eight different security systems. Mom and Dad think it summoned Phantom and Shadow, or let them out of the ghost zone, or something. The fact that Shadow seems to have pyromaniac tendencies seriously freaked them out, though. Don't think anybody's gonna be getting near that jewel any time soon."
"So... this Gem of Souls," Sam mused. "It... what, copied you?"
Phantom shook his head. "Not copied. I can't go human and he can't go ghost. My powers don't seem to be much diminished, though, and Fenton's still got intangibility and invisibility, but that's about it. So..."
"We're split," Fenton finished. "Still half-ghosts, but... split somehow."
"Hmm. Danny, that inscription... was that an exact quote?" Tucker asked, fiddling with his glasses.
"As near as I can remember," the black-haired boy replied. "Why?"
Tucker shrugged. "Just a thought. You said the gem said it was a purifier... maybe it split you good from evil, like in that one episode of Star Trek."
One white eyebrow arched. "Shadow's obviously evil, but I don't exactly feel like a goody-two-shoes here, Tuck. Leaving aside the fact that there's two of us."
"Maybe it's because you're only half-ghost," Sam broke in. "I mean... it said something about sacred and unholy flames? A lot of old religions believed in incarnation, the power of a god being bestowed upon a worshipper. And demonic possession was also commonly accepted at that time, an evil presence taking you over. But your power came from an accident, morally neutral. So if that gem pulled out spirit influences... well, you've got the evil spirit and the good one... and the human left behind."
Realizing the three boys were staring at her, Sam blushed. "Hey, you guys spend your time researching all the tech stuff; I figured somebody ought to handle the historical angle. And it's not like anybody looks twice at a Goth taking out a bunch of books on magic, witchcraft, and demonology."
"Sounds like a good theory to me," Fenton agreed, then snickered. "Although I don't know if Snowy here really fits with the whole 'divine origin' part of it. Ow!" That last was in reaction to his doppelganger smacking him across the top of the head.
Sam rolled her eyes. "Don't you pay attention in English at all? Greek Myths painted the gods as just... larger than life humans, not like modern religion. Look at Zeus. He could be petty, jealous, easily distracted by pretty girls..." she trailed off pointedly, folding her arms across her chest to emphasize her point. Both Dannys blushed.
Phantom sighed. "Okay, so we've got a working theory. Not that it does us any good right now... our main goal being to get this UNDONE. And keep Shadow from barbecuing anything or anyone in the meantime."
"He said my life would be less stressful if I didn't interfere," Fenton said, troubled. "I don't think that was just supposed to be a threat, either."
"Well," Tucker answered, "We can't reverse this until we know what actually HAPPENED. And since running tests on that crystal is out, that means research."
"And hopefully hacking Mom and Dad's research notes once they've finished their testing," Phantom agreed. "That's gonna be your department, Tuck. Luckily, their computer security stinks."
Sam sighed. "And I guess YOU will have to spend your time doing damage control... you know how panicky this city gets when they see you," she told Phantom.
"Great. I'm fourteen and I have a full-time job," the white-haired boy complained. "Oh well, at least with Fenton concentrating on schoolwork for a while, we may get our grades to go up."
Fenton brightened. "Oh yeah, I may actually have time to STUDY now. Lancer'll freak."
"See," Tucker grinned. "Every cloud has a silver lining."
---
Time and tide wait for no man, the saying goes, and life goes on. Even when you have pyromaniac ghosts to worry about. Sunday had been fairly uneventful, if you ignored the fact that Danny Fenton jumped about ten feet at any and all sounds, or that Sam and Tucker seemed to have been glued to his side for the entire day. Or that Jack Fenton, of all people, had taken the ghost proximity alarms down for maintenance, and had yet to put them back up. When asked, he'd simply muttered something about them not having been much use and disappeared into his lab.
My dad is a really lousy liar, Danny thought wryly, as he loaded his books into his locker. Of course, the question was, what in the world would Jack be lying ABOUT? Danny honestly couldn't think of any reason for his father to take down the ghost alarms, especially given his near-paranoia on the subject... Shutting his locker door, he turned away, only to slam into something solid.
"HEY, Fenton, watch where you're going!" The screechy voice, higher than it should be in anyone already through puberty, could belong to only one person. Dash Baxter. Danny sighed.
"Dash, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there," he began, then stopped, startled to realize he WASN'T being held off the ground by his shirt collar. Instead, Dash was looking at him with a confused light in his blue eyes.
"You look awful," the quarterback commented, almost sounding human. "It's like you're not all there. You're not gonna get sick on me, are you?"
"As tempting as the thought is," Danny muttered, "no. I just... I haven't slept that well, okay? And I'm sorry for bumping into you."
Dash shrugged, then looked around quickly to see if anyone noticed he was talking civilly to one of the school's losers. "Yeah, well... just don't do it again, all right?"
"Don't worry," Danny replied, even as the blond teen disappeared back into the mass of humanity. From behind him, Sam's voice cut through the din.
"Excuse me... but did DASH BAXTER just express concern for you? I think the world is ending."
"Tell me about it," Danny sighed, shifting his backpack onto one shoulder. "He's right, though, I don't FEEL all here." He shrugged. "Well... I'm not really, am I?"
His friends exchanged glances, then Tucker shook his head. "Come on, let's just get to class before Lancer sees us out here and has a heart attack or something."
"Yeah," Danny rolled his eyes, "that'd be just what we need. A hall monitor ghost." With another sigh, he followed his friends to their first class.
---
Okay, that wasn't too bad of a day, Fenton thought, hurrying out of the school. He rarely walked home alone, but Sam had a Goth function she was hosting, and Tucker's parents wanted him home for some family thing. And since he hadn't collapsed or passed out during the day, his friends had grudgingly allowed him to leave school on his own.
If this mother-henning keeps up, though, I'm gonna go nuts. Sam's bad enough, but all of a sudden, Tucker's getting in on the act. Okay, so I feel kind of incomplete, and I'm cold all the time, but I'm not going to- Wait, did I just see a flash of red from the football field? Experimentation had shown that while Danny Fenton DID still possess his ghost sense, it didn't react to Danny Phantom, or, he guessed, Danny Shadow. It made sense... they were PART of him, not separate ghosts. Unfortunately, it made it that much easier for that pyromaniac to sneak up on him... which looked like it had just occurred. For a moment, Fenton considered just trying to sneak out of the area without being seen, but another volley of red flashes changed his mind, especially since these were accompanied by muffled explosions. It was fairly obvious that he wasn't Shadow's target this time... and there was no way he was leaving anybody else to that thing's "tender mercies."
Taking a deep breath, Fenton made his way to the football field, concealing himself behind the bleachers as best he could. When he arrived, the scene before him made his jaw drop. His shadow was floating above the goalposts at one end of the field, arms folded lazily over his chest. Below, Dash Baxter was half-kneeling on the torn-up turf, two of the craters near him still smoking slightly from impact.
"Talk about an extreme footwork drill," the blond grumbled to himself, breathing hard.
"I'm impressed, Baxter," Shadow sneered. "I wouldn't have thought you could move that fast with all those rocks between your ears."
Dash glared up at his tormentor, pushing himself up into a standing position. "I don't even KNOW you!"
"No, you don't, do you? Then again, I don't guess you keep a list of everybody whose LIVES you ruin, do you, Baxter?" Shadow extended a hand, palm up, and flames began to collect in his grasp. "Just say I'm a shadow of my former self... thanks to you."
"HEY!" Fenton yelled, stepping out from behind the bleachers. "You! The floating barbecue! Why don't you pick on somebody your own size?"
The quarterback blinked. "FENTON? Are you NUTS?"
"Probably!" The smaller boy shot back. "Just get out of here, Dash! I actually KNOW something about ghosts!"
For a second, the blond looked as though he was going to object, then he shook his head and took off running, quickly disappearing around the school.
From where he floated, Shadow regarded his double with disdain. "Why did you do that? We could have been rid of that muscle-headed idiot forever!"
"I don't WANT to be rid of him!" Fenton yelled back, fists clenching. "Not like that! Dash might be a jerk and a bully and a pain in the neck, but he's a human being... I think. No matter how miserable he made us, he doesn't deserve to die!"
"You're wrong, Fenton. He does. They all do. And I'm not letting you interfere!" A huge ball of fire came crashing down on the spot where Fenton had stood a second before.
At least the reflexes from ghost fighting carry over, the black-haired boy thought wryly, dodging a second blast. But I can't keep avoiding fireballs forever, and if he connects, I'm a French fry! I've got to come up with something... come on, Danny, time to prove you're Maddie Fenton's son too. THINK! Then he saw it, and his eyes lit up as he raced towards the tailgate area.
"Running? You ARE a coward," Shadow crowed, flying after his twin, still launching fireballs. Twice Fenton had to zigzag to avoid patches of asphalt suddenly turned molten by the heat. Finally, however, he reached his goal- an aluminum picnic table.
"You know," Fenton yelled, turning, "I've seen your fastball... but can you CATCH?" And slipping into intangibility, he grabbed the picnic table, phasing it out as well, just long enough to lob the suddenly weightless piece of furniture skyward. It returned to normal upon leaving his hands, allowing it to smack into its target with all the momentum its mass would imply. Even Shadow's flames weren't quite enough to deflect it entirely, and the grey-haired teen reeled backwards, even as the unrecognizable mass of melted aluminum crashed to the ground.
"Intangibility... I can keep this up all day, and all we'll accomplish is destruction of property," Fenton continued, arms folded defiantly. "Not to mention you'll run out of juice. So what's it going to be?"
Red eyes narrowed as Shadow regarded him with a growl. "This isn't over, Fenton. Certain people need to get what's coming to them. Don't interfere again." And in a ball of flame, the ghost-teen vanished, leaving only the odor of scorched turf in his wake.
And... I'd better get out of here before Lancer finds some way to blame this on me too, Fenton thought tiredly, retrieving his backpack. Sam and Tucker are never gonna BELIEVE this one...
---
While Danny Fenton was recovering from his exertions, and Dash was wondering just when his life had taken that left turn at Albuquerque, Danny Phantom was doing his best to canvass the city without being seen. Given that he could become invisible, this should not have been unduly difficult, except that most of Amity Park was beginning to catch on to the slight visual distortion and sharp drop in temperature that accompanied most supernatural beings, himself included. And since Fenton had apparently retained the "ghost sense" when they were split, he wouldn't know that a ghost was nearby until it jumped out and hit him.
Now... if I were an evil pyromaniac version of me, where would I be? He's obviously got an agenda and some self-control, otherwise the whole city would be in flames by now. The half-ghost shivered, images of possible destruction flashing before his eyes. You know, I would give SO much to be chasing Skulker right now... At least he keeps collateral damage to a minimum.
Wishing wasn't going to change the situation, though, and he'd spent most of the day searching Amity Park with no luck. Gas stations, the recycling center, the local power plant, any source of extreme heat and/or flammable materials, none of them had shown hide nor hair of the dark spirit so far. And that was just making Phantom more nervous.
He wouldn't try to burn down the school, would he? No, no way. Mom and Dad have that place packed with enough anti-ghost stuff that he wouldn't get ten feet without being sucked into a Fenton Thermos, or worse. Elmer's Ice Cream parlor? No, THAT is your stomach talking. Permanent ghost-form or not, he still needed to eat, and he'd only gotten a few hurried snacks over the last day or so.
Mind on the job, Danny, he scolded himself. Besides, it's not like you can carry a wallet in this suit anyway. But he was cruising over Elmer's, just in case. It WAS a common teen hangout, and if Shadow wanted to cause chaos and destruction, it might be a tempting target, even with the refrigerators. Hovering low, he was half-contemplating finding a way to snag a chocolate shake when a scream caught his attention from one of the nearby alleys.
Okay, that sounds like a good place to start looking. Hey, even if it's just a mugging, I can get SOMETHING done today! Zipping towards the source of the scream, he settled on a fire escape, still invisible, to try and size up the situation. And the situation, he saw, was going from bad to worse.
Paulina was backed up against a brick wall in the dead end alley, chest heaving with exertion, wide eyes locked on the figure in front of her. Smirking, Shadow watched her with cruel amusement, piles of burning trash at his feet effectively blocking the girl's escape route.
"Well, well... if it isn't Paulina, queen of the school," Shadow sneered, red eyes scanning her contemptuously. "You don't look so high and mighty now. In fact... I'd say you're just another loser. Wouldn't you?"
To her credit, Paulina had yet to fully burst into tears. "What... what do you WANT?" she asked tremulously, fists clenched tight.
"Lots of things. Things you can't even imagine, given the fact that you're about as smart as a block of Styrofoam. But if we're talking right now, with you? I want payback. I want to make your life as miserable as you've made mine. I want... to make you burn." A flame sprang to life in his outstretched hand, throwing the demonic smile on his face into high relief.
"And I want YOU to SHUT UP!" Phantom replied, plowing into his double in a full-speed power dive. Paulina, being a bit smarter than Shadow had given her credit for, immediately dove for cover behind some nearby trash cans, for once not caring about her appearance.
With a feral growl, Shadow managed to toss his assailant off, sending Phantom careening through some discarded boxes. "What IS it with you two? Do you WANT to go through the rest of our life stomped down by these idiots, treated as less than human on their whims, when we could have EVERYTHING? We could be POWERFUL, we could be on top of the heap, we could be-"
A jade energy blast slammed into his face, cutting him off. "We could be Vlad," Phantom spat, getting to his feet. "Is that what you want? Money, power, control... and totally ALONE. At least we have FRIENDS."
"Vlad's a moron," Shadow replied, red aura flaring as he picked himself up as well. "And as for our so-called FRIENDS..." He suddenly smirked, anger seeming to fall away like a discarded cloak. "Well. We'll just see about them, won't we?" Flaring red again, he sank through the ground, leaving Phantom alone.
Or not so alone, as Paulina promptly launched herself forward, wrapping her arms around him in a tight hug. He patted her back for a second or so, then gently detached himself from her grip.
"You saved me again," Paulina cried, blue-green eyes adoring. "If you hadn't shown up-"
"He would have lit you up like a Roman Candle," Phantom finished bluntly. "And you may be selfish, thoughtless, and shallow, but nobody deserves that."
The wind taken out of her sails, the girl could only stare at her savior mutely for a second. "You... you think I'm shallow?" she stammered, eyes widening.
"Like a puddle in the parking lot. You were willing to string a kid along- a kid with a huge crush on you, I might add, - just to get me to come to your birthday party. And then when you didn't need him anymore, you dropped him like an empty soda can! And you don't even know me! You and your friends dissect people's lives and friendships like it was a party game, and you never EVER pay attention to what it does to them! How many people have you humiliated in front of the entire school, just because they didn't fit into your cookie-cutter view of what's cool and what's not? Well, you should remember today... because that thing that came after you? That's what you made, Paulina. Every insult, every put down, every time you stomped on somebody on your climb to the top... it doesn't go away. And today, it came back to get you. I saved you because you don't deserve to die. Nobody does. But that's IT. So take those pictures of me out of your locker and get back to me when you're actually a human being."
A blaze of emerald light, and Phantom took off, leaving a speechless and shell-shocked Paulina standing in the alley, staring after him. He didn't know where his rant had come from, though parts of it had sounded like Sam, but... it had just poured out of him, from somewhere that he'd been keeping it deep inside. It seemed to have hit its mark, he thought, recalling Paulina's destroyed expression. He probably should have felt guilty for letting her have it so bluntly but he didn't. And THAT bothered him.
I'd better get home... he thought. Fenton, Sam, and Tucker ought to know about this...
---
"The shields are still down?" Phantom asked, as his boots made contact with the metal roof of the Fenton building. "Have we checked to make sure DAD isn't overshadowed or something?"
Fenton shrugged. "He reads normal," the teen replied, scooting over slightly. "You're not the only one to wonder about it, though. Mom actually took his temperature earlier."
The white-haired hybrid settled gracefully onto the roof beside his double. "Not that I'm complaining- I'd probably be trying to hole up in Tucker's attic or something otherwise, but... it's not LIKE Dad. You know?"
"Mmmhmm," the dark-haired twin replied. "Never thought I'd say this about Dad, but... you get the feeling he knows something we don't?"
"Yes," his double replied. "And it's freaking me out."
Sighing, Fenton hugged his knees, staring up at the stars shining above the house. "So, we both had encounters with Shadow today... what have we figured out?"
"Well, he's got a chip on his shoulder the size of New Jersey," Phantom retorted. "And he seems to be interested in taking it out on the people who've made our life miserable. Which reminds me... you know that crush we had on Paulina?"
"Yeah..."
"What were we THINKING?"
That got a snort in reply. "She's gorgeous. She's POPULAR. We've never BEEN popular. You do the math."
One dark eyebrow cocked at that. "Bitter much?"
"Actually... no. I'm not. I don't feel bad about it, honestly, just- We were never interested in her for the right reasons. And... I dunno, I just don't feel that way about her any more." He sighed again, gaze once more straying to the bright stars above. "You think we'll ever get up there?"
Phantom blinked for a second, startled by the abrupt change in subject. "What, you mean space? If you mean as an astronaut... No."
"You're encouraging."
"I call 'em like I see 'em. You know we're going to be doing this for the rest of our lives. The ghosts will keep coming, whether through the Fenton Portal or not. And we'll keep fighting them, because somebody has to and WE are the ones who can. Besides, with your math grades, you'd never make the cut."
"Hey, that's OUR math grades!"
His double shot him a grin. "Besides... We're half-ghost. We can fly in space without suits in ghost mode. Tell me that's not infinitely cooler than having to wear a Ziploc bag and do experiments for some pencil-pusher still on the ground."
Fenton shrugged. "Assuming we get back together, of course... What will you do if we don't?"
"Good question." Phantom rolled onto his stomach, propping his chin in his hands. "Guess I'll either hang around here and keep fighting ghosts... or heck, maybe go back into the Ghost Zone and make Walker and Skulker's afterlives miserable. That might be fun."
"Bitter much?" the dark-haired boy inquired, throwing the other's earlier words back at him."
"Vindictive. The word is vindictive," his double corrected him.
"Right. Lancer's vocabulary quizzes are paying off."
Phantom sighed. "But I wouldn't worry about it. We WILL get back together. Somehow."
"I really, really hope you're right." Then there was no more talking, as the two simply watched the stars.