Help (a Danny Phantom story)

Chapter 1

"Oi, Fenturd, get over here!" Dash yelled during lunch, causing Danny to sigh and begrudgingly walk over to the popular table. As much as he didnt want to, he'd get socked if he didn't listen to Dash.

"What?" Danny said, annoyed.

"We've got a group project, Val, Kwan, Paulina and me, and we need an extra person to do the work. That means you, and we're dropping off the work at your place after school."

Danny gritted his teeth, "and what makes you think I'll do it?"

"Because if you don't," Dash stood and got in Danny's face, "I'll kick your ass and give you swirlies for a month."

"Swirlies, Dash?" Danny laughed humorlessly, "well aren't you creative."

Dash glared at him and smacked the lunch out of Danny's hands, "don't test me fenturd, we'll be seeing you at 5."

Danny rolled his eyes and didn't even bother to pick up the fallen lunch, he wasn't that hungry anyway. He met up with Sam and Tucker underneath a tree.

"Sorry about the wait, guys. Ran into Dash." He explained.

"What'd he do now?" Sam asked.

Danny scoffed, "threaten me with a month of swirlies if I don't do a project for him."

They both nodded in understanding and they all went on to enjoy their lunch. That was until a shriek caught their attention. As their heads turned to the source of the noise, a glowing figure rose into the air.

"Skulker." Danny cursed under his breath, "guys cover me."

Sam and Tucker took to shielding Danny as he transformed and flew off to fight the ghostly hunter.

"Well, well, well, if it isn't the halfa. I was expecting you." Skulker gleamed as he pointed his gun at Danny.

"Let me guess," Danny stated sarcastically, "you want my pelt on your wall. Well go ahead and try you oversized tin can." He spread his arms and stared down the ghost.

"Wait, you're not gonna fight?" Skulker was genuinely confused, his gun lowering slightly as he inquired about the ghost boy's decision.

"You get one free shot, and it better kill me if you don't want a fight." Danny said, a hint of challenge laced in his words. The hunter was taken aback the boy, but aimed regardless. A shot of energy hit Danny square in the chest and knocked him out of the sky. He was winded, but otherwise unharmed. As Skulker flew down after the phantom, he realized Danny was getting up, and readied another shot.

"You missed," Danny smirked, which was a fairly unsettling sight to the hunter. He'd never seen such a sadistic look on someone with such emptiness behind their eyes. Especially from the ghost boy, who was usually an annoying ray of sunshine. It unnerved Skulker, and threw him off guard. This benefited Danny as he threw ectoblast after ectoblast at him, knocking Skulker on his back. Danny opened the thermos and sucked Skulker in, closing it back up and transforming back before returning to his friends.

"Danny! Are you ok? We saw you get shot out of the sky." Sam ran to her friend and fretted over any possible injury, but Danny just shrugged it off like it was no big deal. The bell had rung a few seconds ago, and the three headed off to their respective classes.

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It was nearing 5 as Danny heard a knock at the door. Sam and Tucker had stayed with him after school to help with whatever project Dash had. They answered the door to find not only Dash, but Valerie, Kwan, and Paulina as well. They walked in and Kwan dumped a stack of papers onto Tucker while Dash told Danny what the project was.

"We need to come up with an invention with all the science behind it. Pick something from your parents weird collection of stuff and make sure everything is perfect. I need an A on this or I'll flunk the class, and it'll be your head in a toilet."

"Would you at least pick the thing you want the paper on?" Danny complained, and to his surprise, they agreed. Once the moment of shock wore off, he lead the 4 of them to the lab and let them search.

Sam appeared behind Danny and asked, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

Danny shrugged, "Hey, if they don't pick something I'll intentionally pick the easiest thing in here."

"Which would be..?" Sam trailed off, leaving her question open.

"The Fenton bat." He and Tucker laughed.

"Oi fentoad, what's this?" Dash pointed to the invention they saw last night.

"Um I don't really know if it works. My parents made it last night, supposedly can read minds." Danny quickly explained. Dash grew an evil grin as an idea flashed in his head.

"Well let's test it out." Dash picked the scrawny teenager up and put the headset on. Danny, Sam, and Tucker yelled in protest, but Dash hit the obnoxiously labled ON switch and a bright green light flooded the room. Everyone felt themselves get sucked up off the ground and into the unknown.