Behind Unknown Eyes

02

Tucker and Sam ran as they followed the speeding van. She quickly took out her phone and dialed Jazz's number.

 "Hello?" Sam was out of breath but managed to speak. 

"Turn on the news-" 

"What?" Jazz was confused. 

"Just do it." Sam hung up and ran with Tucker until they saw a huge crowd.

The people huddled where they could just to get of glimpse of their famous hero in action. The crowd was in a 'U' shape from what Tucker could tell. As they made their way to the front, they spotted a newswoman and a camera taping her. 

"As you can see, Amity Park's ghost hero, Danny Phantom, has been fighting off a ghost for the past two hours. It's very impressive to see him go on this long. He seems to be getting tired but still manages to press on. We have no insight as to what the other ghost's name is, but are hoping to know soon. Stay strong Danny Phantom fans, he's still fighting for us."

 With that, the cameraman now focused on the fight.

Sam's eyes went wide as she looked into the fight, as well as Tucker's. The pavement had craters carved into it and the buildings around started to show some destruction. What really made the friend's hearts drop was when their eyes caught who the other ghost was.

Plasmius.

Danny was standing on the ground as Vlad hovered a few feet from it. It didn't look like Danny was hurt too bad, minus the scratch on the side of his stomach. Vlad's eyes burned with anger and persistence.

 "I could do this all day, ghost boy." He said with a sly grin.

 Danny's eyes narrowed.

 "What makes you think that I can't," Danny yelled as ectoplasm shot out of his hands with such force that it sent Vlad flying to the ground. 

They had been tussling for about two hours, so Danny was pretty fed up with the old man. Meanwhile, Vlad was in shock that Danny would make a move like that. What happened to the witty banter that he so used to?

The child seemed angry, but Vlad knew how to get him to break. He knew his weak spot. Vlad quickly got up out of the gravel that surrounded him and into the air. Danny flew up towards him and hovered there. His hands were glowing a bright green at his sides, ready to fire. Plasmius got a shot ready in his hand as well.

His friends just watched and hoped that the fight would end soon. Vlad's lips formed an evil smile. He glanced down at the crowd and saw the cameraman taping them. What also caught his eye was Sam and Tucker. Now he really had a plan stored, but that would have to be for later.

Danny glared at the ghost in front of him. He wanted this to be over with so he could head to school, try to blend in with the crowd and raise no questions. He had been dealing with this for almost a year and had a system going on. This event was now breaking his system, which he thought was strange. 

He could feel how this would go down: Vlad would shoot a few times, comment on his fighting, then he either would be sucked into the thermos or run off to his mansion in Wisconsin. Either way would be perfectly fine.

Danny caught Vlad glancing down at the crowd before looking up at him again. "Let me tell you something, Phantom. No matter how hard you try, you will always be the one who you so desperately don't want to be." Danny's look hardened. 

Vlad was talking about his future self. He was talking about Dan.

He clenched his fists that were glowing brighter. This earned a laugh from Vlad. "I see that I've hit a nerve. I didn't think that you could get so angry." Danny felt himself want to lurch towards him, to make him into nothing but ectoplasm.

 Plasmius wanted to push him to do the wrong thing, to make him and everyone here watching think that their so-called hero was nothing but evil. Vlad stared right into those green eyes as he said the next sentence, the sentence that he knew would send him off the edge.

"You are already him."

Before Danny even knew it, a purple ray was shot in his chest. He fell to the ground, sliding back towards the crowd. The impact was so hard that he had dug up the concrete as he slid. The crowd gasped as their hero laid before their feet. They didn't know if he was even conscious or not.

Everyone was dead silent. This was their protector and now he didn't look so good. Sam and Tucker could see Danny and did their best to make it to him, but they weren't able to.

Danny's eyes shot open and were now bright green. He slowly picked himself up from the ground. Everyone could barely hear what he said next. His voice was low and threatening.

 "You are wrong." 

He flew towards Vlad at the speed of light. His powers shot one big blow at Vlad. Then Danny shot one after the other with no prevail. Vlad fell to the ground with extraordinary impact. The whole crowd watched in suspense as to what would happen next.

Before Vlad could even think about fighting back, Danny froze him completely in ice. The still figure of his enemy right in front of him allowed him to breathe. It was finally over.

Danny took out the Fenton Thermos and pointed it at his foul opponent. Right before he could charge it up, a few people began to holler. It caught Danny's attention. He had almost forgotten that they were there. They were all shouting his name, screaming, yelling, celebrating. Danny activated the thermos and Vlad were sucked up into it.

"Thank goodness that's over." He mumbled to himself.

When the hooting and hollering stopped, it made him finally look over at the crowd. He hadn't taken his eyes off of Vlad for the whole two hours, so it surprised him that there were many people there, along with a film crew. Their faces were all pale and some looked sick. Danny wanted to ask them what was wrong but a man shouted out the answer. 

"Phantom, are you...okay?"

At this moment he had found his friends in the midst of the crowd. Sam and Tuck were right upfront, but they were supposed to be at school. They both looked a bit eerie as well. Another person from the crowd broke him out of his gaze. 

"You have to be in some pain, Phantom. Are you okay?" A woman yelled. He gave them a questionable look. He couldn't feel anything at all. 

What pain?

That's when the adrenaline started to fade away, and his heartbeat returned to normal. This was when he could feel the pain. It was on his chest and felt like a burning sensation. And it was also on his side. He looked down at his chest as calm as possible. 

You can be strong about this, Danny thought. 

When he finally saw the injuries, they looked as bad as they felt. There was a burn on his chest that was dripping ectoplasmic blood, and his side looked like it needed stitches. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. 

You're okay Fenton, just go home and wrap it up. You've gotten worse. 

He looked up at everyone and they all waited for his answer. Sam and Tucker watched from the crowd, wondering what was going through his head. They knew that he had been through worse, but all of this attention was sure not helping matters.

"Danny Phantom?" A little girl spoke up to her hero. 

Danny cleared his throat. "I'm a ghost, remember that? I can't feel anything." He looked down at the thermos in his hand after he spoke.

He quickly felt uncomfortable and remembered that he was on TV. 

Why in the world do they need to videotape everything I do?

 Danny was getting annoyed with that. As if on cue, the Fenton Assault Vehicle squealed as it rammed to a stop. His parents, Maddie and Jack Fenton who were ghost hunters, got out with ectoplasmic guns pointed at him. 

"You're not getting away from us this time, Phantom!" His mother did her usual battle cry before shooting at Danny, but missing only by a couple of feet. 

With one last glance at his friends, the ghost boy flew away at the speed of light.