12/8/2011

The Hallowed

Chapter 26

It was currently the day of Halloween and Jack and Maddie Fenton were once again in a fetish fit about protecting their home, town and Country from Ghosts. Danny didn't have the heart to tell them that their efforts were pretty much wasted, considering that the Ghosts were already aware of their "Route of Demolition."

Considering that Halloween was more or less a Ghost'sChristmas, he figured it would be ok to let them have one night of fun and he could have a well earned vacation. The deal was; that as long the Ghosts didn't cause any damage, try to take over the World and were back inside the Ghost Zone by morning, he wouldn't bother them.

Needless to say, they had all agreed to his terms and so far he had only had to tell the box ghost off once for tormenting people whose costumes appeared rather – square-ish. As for the people of Amity Park, they actually didn't seem to care, considering that over the years Ghosts had become a regular occurrence. In fact anymore they were really more like penny's, numerous, annoying and hard to get rid of. Scary? Not so much!

Danny, Tucker and Alex were currently putting the finishing touches on their pumpkins, while the girls had managed to already finish theirs and had left the part of hauling them out to the front porch to the guys.

"Ha," Tucker declared suddenly making them jump and turned his pumpkin around so they could see.

"Ahhh, it's a –– what is it?" Danny asked, looking precariously at the glowing red light showing through the part of the pumpkin that he could only guess was its eye.

"Darth Vader," Tucker explained.

"Who," Alex asked confused as Danny leaned back to get a better look, now that he mentioned it, it did look like the Star Wars Antagonist.

"I like it," Danny proclaimed, impressed.

"Ah, what do you know," Tucker quipped, picking up his masterpiece and headed for the front step.

Danny just laughed and turned back to his work, which featured 4 different angry looking faces, one on each side of his rather square pumpkin. Alex's was slowly starting to look like a fuzzy, somewhat cartoonish looking spider. Jazz had transformed hers into an owl which looked questionability like the one from the Tootsie Pop Commercial. The only way he could explain Dani's was to say that it was a Tiki, Valarie's was rather clever, as she had taken a pumpkin that had grown to look rather squished and carved a melting face into the top, using the stem as its nose.

Sam's was actually stillgiving him the creeps, it looked so life like that every time he looked at it; he could have sworn he was really looking at the face of rather angry snake. In fact, they had actually been forced to turn it around, for Achilles had refused to stop growling at it, even thought they had explained to him that it was harmless; (the girl had talent.)

Several minutes later the three of them, haled the gourds out to the front porch and lit the candles. Tucker took a few pictures with his PDA then hocked it at Danny so he could take one of Tucker doing his best Darth Vader impression, which in the Ghost Boy's opinion only made the Techno-Geek look like a total idiot, but he managed to hold in his laughter long enough to take the picture. Of course Alex was a different story entirely, as he was burying his face in Danny's pant leg, in the midst of a fit of giggles.

Everything was going perfectly, until the clearing of a throat caused the Half Ghost to look up and take immediate notice of none of then –

"Mr. and Ms. Manson," Danny greeted quickly, pushing Alex behind him, while still keeping a firm hold on his wrist. The last thing he needed was for the kid to pull another 'Grandma/Grandpa' thing,

"Where's Samantha," Pamela accused, looking at them as if they were a plate of broccoli she didn't order.

"I'm not sure," Danny stated truthfully, snapping his fingers behind his back to get Tucker's attention and pointed at Alex, which was Team Phantom short hand for 'enemy at 12 o'clock, get him out of here.' "But I'm sure I could find her, would you like to come inside and sit down?" Danny offered as his best friend managed to pull off a total miracle and listen to him as he ushered the kid into the house.

"No, that's uh – generous, but we have a party to get to." Mr. Manson declared, casting a weary glance at the house in question. "We're just here to drop off the little ones."

"Little ones," Danny asked confused, before noticing three young kids behind the Manson's, two girls and a boy, who were all decked out in dresses and a tuxedo (of all things) and were obviously not very happy about it.

'Poor kids,' Danny thought to himself before plastering a fake smile on his face and said, "Of course," somewhere in the back of his mind he briefly remembered Sam saying something along the lines of them having to take her little cousins Trick or Treating.

"Now you kids be good!" Ms. Manson ordered, fixing the boys tie as her husband got back into the huge limo parked on the street. Danny was just wondering how he had possibly missed it pulling up when he heard the strangest thing come out of Pamela Manson's mouth. "And remember no candy."

Danny blinked at that, as she gave each of the kids a peck on the check and turned to leave. The teen held back a laugh as all three kids reached up to wipe their checks in unison. "Oh and Daniel," Pamela declared looking back at him.

"Yes," He said a little too quickly.

"Will you please remind Sammy that she needs to be at the Hamilton's mansion by 9:00? It's very important."

"Of course," Danny stated.

"Thank you," She murmured as if it hurt her lips.

"Always a pleasure," Danny said cheerfully, smiling brightly until the limo sped off.

"Death is a pleasure, when life is a pain." He muttered under his breath and looked down at the kids who looked up at him with questioning looks. 'Great, I can't even take care of the kid I've got; now I have three more.' Danny thought to himself, as he led them all inside.

"Make yourself at home and – I'll be right back." He said waving a hand toward the couch as he bolted up the stairs to locate his girlfriend. "Sam," He asked knocking on Dani's bedroom door. He was about to move on, thinking no one was in, when it suddenly opened reviling his little sister, who was in the middle of putting on some dark purple nail polish.

"Is Sam in –" He started to ask, before he took in what she was wearing. "What are you supposed to be?" He asked suddenly, she just gave him an annoyed look and did a little pose.

"A Witch,"

"Original,"

"You got a better one, Normal-ton?" She asked putting her hands on her hips and looked him up and down. 'Ok, so he didn't have a costume yet, was that a crime?'

"How about something a little less – skimpy?" He asked giving her an equally annoyed look. But he couldn't help it; he was getting some serious bad vibes here, especially about the kind of men she was going to be attracting with this outfit.

She had on long, black leather pants that fit her form (a little toowell) and were wide around the ankles, with a wide black belt that was certainly not doing its job, showing much more of her stomach then usual and the high healed sandals certainly didn't help. She also had on an insanely short shirt, that he had serious droughts about it even qualifying asa shirt and an incredibly see through, spider web netting over it, with long wide sleeves. She had on a reasonable amount of make up; her long black hair lay in waves around her shoulders and was fitted with a tall black Witches' hat.

"Aren't you at least going to wear a coat?" He asked, agitated.

"No, dad, I am not going to wear a coat." She stated, obviously getting irritated with him. "I want to look nice, I have a date." She coed and he could have sworn that he heard his heart shutter to a screeching halt.

"What, with whom," He interrogated.

"If you must know, his name is Chad," She quipped.

"He sounds like a jock," Danny growled, "What does he do, where does he live?"

"He is nota jock and he doesn't doanything, he's in high school and I'm not telling you where he lives."

"But if you don't tell me where he lives, then how can I haunt him in his sleep?" He asked seriously, determined to find out as much about this kid as possible.

"Danny, leave her alone." Sam demanded suddenly behind him.

"But she—" He started to argue, before he was nearly blinded by all the whitethat she was wearing. "Please don't tell me you're going out in that!" He begged, considering that the only thing that she was wearing was a long, white dress slip.

"Don't start Danny, we're not finished yet." Jazz declared leaning in the doorway of her room, waving a pear of scissors at him threateningly.

'Oh thank God,' Danny thought loudly to himself, as his heart started beating again.

"Now what do you want?" Sam asked, irritated at being out in semi-public in such an unflattering color.

"You're parents were just here." He stated, looking between his two sisters and girlfriend, trying to keep his mind on the subject at hand. "They said you had to be somewhere at sometime and – your cousins are here."

"Anything else," She asked in a bored tone.

"What am I supposed to do with them?" He growled quickly, making it sound like one long word.

"Danny, their just kids, entertain them." She said walking back into Jazz's room and closed the door in his face.

"How," He begged the oak wood obstacle.

"Figure it out," Jazz yelled back and Dani snickered, closing the door to her own room, leaving him alone in the hall.

"But," He started, really hoping that there was a manual or something on the 'Confusing-ness of Women,' "Fine." He stated and started back the way he had come, but no before knocking on Dani's door again and declared. "We're not done yet."

"Oh, but we aredear brother." Her voice floated out sounding a little occupied, as if she were putting on lipstick or something.

"Why me," He ask miserably as he started back down the stairs, where he literally ran into Tucker, who was giving him a big grin, "What?"

"You got to see this." The Techno-Geek proclaimed, dragging him down a few more steps and tackled him to the ground.

"Tucker, what are you –" He started to ask, before his friend clamped a hand over his mouth.

"Shhh" Tucker ordered and pointed into the living room through the bars of the staircase railing and Danny immediately stopped fidgeting at what he found. Sitting on the floor in the living room, were Alex and the three other kids, all talking and laughing like 4 ordinary kids, or more accurately like 4 ordinary friends.

Danny smiled as Tucker took his hand away and asked "Seem familiar?" Danny's only response was a bigger smile. Yeah, it was familiar; in fact looking at them he could almost see himself and his two best friends all those years ago after they'd first met.

It only took a few minutes of watching this before Danny was absolutely giddy and threw his arm around his friend's neck and started pestering him. "Yes, yes, yesyesyesyes."

"Ok dude, I get it, your happy." Tucker choked out, trying to breathe again.

"Friends are very important for a child's development." Danny educated.

"Then why are you trying to kill yours?" Tucker asked clenching onto Danny's arm for dear life.

"Oh, sorry," The Halfa stated letting him go before getting up to step over him and head down the stairs. "So guys," He said getting their attention, "You excided for Trick or Treating?"

"Yeah," Alex practically wailed right off the bat, but soon became confused as to why he had said it alone. Danny gave Tucker a look when the other three kids actually appeared depressed.

"What's up guys," Danny asked them.

"We're not allowed to Trick or Treat," The little boy said.

"What," Tucker quailed disbelieving.

"Our parents said that Trick or Treating is a 'Diminutive from of Uncivilized Business Edict.' And in order to improve ourselves and become the Best Future Industrialists, we need to learn at an early age to ignore subliminal advertising and focus on our goals." The eldest of the two girls proclaimed.

"What," Tucker declared again totally lost.

"We made flyers to hand out instead." The little boy stated, handing Danny a small packet of papers stapled together, which appeared to be a pamphlet from a locale business firm.

"What," Tucker stated again before Danny stuffed the pamphlet in his mouth.

"Is this really what you guys want to do?" Danny asked, though he could already see the answer in their eyes. It was pretty obvious that that they were not happy. "Because I was just thinking that with all of the other kids out tonight you'd never make a good impression unless you had really good costumes – I mean business suites. Don't get me wrong, you do look stunning, but it just doesn't scream 'look at me!' Right Tuck?" He asked and winked when his Techno Friend looked curiously in his direction.

Tucker gave a knowing grin and laid it on thick. "Absolutely, you'll never make an impression like this, we need to deck you out and lucky for you; you've come to the right place. I'm sure we can find something around here to make you Business Edict Worthy."

And thus they spent the next half hour, decking the three out with all manor of strange clothing, all the while laying it out as a business tactic. Though by the time they were finished the eldest two were well a where of what was really going on, but curiously had nothing to add. By the end the little boy, (whose name they learned was Tommy) had become a Dead Teacher, his sister Marry (the eldest girl) was now sporting a Angel Halo and Wings and Alex had cut eyes out of a bed sheet and become a Ghost (appropriately enough.)

"Now remember, for the ultimate chocolate – I mean; business payout, we mustbe at a different doorway every 38 seconds." Tucker educated holding up his PED which featured his up-to-date route for the ultimate candy payload.

"Tuck, this isn't school," Danny groaned at his best friend, causing the kids to laugh.

"What, I'm just doing my part to improve the next generation."

"Uh huh," Danny said with a yawn, but then noticed something was missing, or rather someone. Curious he walked into the kitchen to find the youngest of the three kids, playing with Achilles, who was currently on his back thumping his back foot on the floor as she scratched his belly. After a few seconds Danny coughed to get their attention, Achilles just looked at him up side down while the little girl stopped what she was doing and stood up to straighten her dress, (which she still hadn't changed.) Not to say they hadn't tried to find her a costume, it was just that this particular little girl was extremely shy and had actually kind of avoided them the whole time.

"I think he likes you," Danny said scratching the Ghost Dog behind the ears as he lowered himself to her level. "So, you decide what you want to be yet?" He asked her, but she just looked away from him and shook her head. "You don't have to go as anything if you don't want to, you look fine just the way you are." Danny assured her.

"No I –" The Girl said but quickly blushed and hid her face, before she finished, Danny blinked, that had been the first time he had heard her speak.

"It's ok you can tell me,"

"I –" She said again in a little voice, but Danny just waited patently for her to continue. "I wanted to be – Dani Phantom."

Danny smiled at that, "Is that right?" She just blushed and nodded quickly. "You know I think I might to able to help with that." He said thinking it through.

"Really," She asked suddenly excited, but quickly became embarrassed again.

"Have you met me sister?" He asked after thinking it over for a minute.

"Uh uh," She whispered shaking her head.

"Well that just wont work," Danny said faking seriousness and quickly started out of the kitchen and up the stairs with her right on his heals.

"Dani, you still here," He asked as he knocked on her door, (which always felt weird to him, since he was basically knocking on the door to his own room.)

"What is it this time," She growled opening the door again.

"I have a proposition for you." Danny quailed.

"Mazel tov," She said dryly, before taking notice of the little girl hiding behind his leg.

"My new friend here wants to be Dan-I Phantom." Danny stated giving his sister a smile when she looked back at him. "Think you can help?" He asked causing her to light up like an instant sun.

"Of course I can help," She said kneeling down to the little girl and looking her over, "Good choice, you would make a good Dani Phantom. What's your name?"

"Well," She said shyly looking back at Danny who nodded for her to continue, "Danielle."

Danny and Dani looked at each other in shock before smiling and looked back at the newest Danielle.

"This is going to be so much fun," Dani squealed ushering the little Dani into her room. "You out, girls only," She ordered to her brother and slammed the door in his face.

Danny just laughed and turned to leave but unfortunately for him he didn't get very far.

"Heeey—" he yelled as his feet were literally pulled out from under him by a glowing green rope, before he was quickly dragged down the hall and into a guest bedroom, where the door was quickly shut and locked.

He was able to quickly self defense his way out of the noose and land on his feet where he took up a fighting stance and prepared to change forms but was just as quickly shocked into staying in his human form when he discovered his opponents.

"Ok Hero," Valarie declared with an evil grin on her face. "We can do this the easy way."

"Or the hard way," Jazz finished for her, snapping a length of Fenton Fisher Linethreateningly.

"Why can't we just not do it atall, why is that never an option?" He asked, fairly certain he knew where this was going. But let out a pathetic yelp and backed up into the door as his sister zeroed in on him. "Easy way," He stated quickly.

"Cool," Jazz stated and floated over to a table to collect a few things as Val stood watch, giving him an incredibly scary look.

"Help me," Danny begged of anyone who was willing the listen, but he already knew that this was one fight that he would never win.

_Line Break_

"Don't you look Sharp," Tuck stated sarcastically, when Danny walked back into the kitchen an hour later and gave his Techno-friend a look that could have melted steel, causing the Mary to giggle.

"Have you been sitting there this whole time?" Danny asked evilly.

"No," Tuck said simply. "Only for about 15 minutes, obviously," He muttered sourly, motioning to himself, as he was now adorned with a Pirategetup, complete with sword and eye path. "This is going to slow me down to noend." He declared angrily typing away on his PDA, "I'm going to have to completelyre-route my map."

"You could just start earlier, ever think of that?" Danny stated, but he was glad that hewasn't the onlyone that had endured the Halloween sufferings.

"Out of the question," Tuck declared, "Cause then you hit the idiots that have completely forgotten that it's Candy hour, so they haven't picked up any and there fore they give you stupid things like mints or gum to atone for it."

"Whatever." Danny muttered walking further into the kitchen, but stopped when he passed the large mirror on the wall and backed up.

He actually gaped like a fish at what he saw, he did look sharp. They had outfitted him with a black, silk dress shirt and black pants, a red vest with black and gold spider web designs, as well as a gold pocket watch and chain. The shirt was left open around his neck where his gold chain shone in the light perfectly matching his earring. His hair was slicked back and he had on a long black dress coat and vampire fangs to complete the look.

"Don't you look dashing," Dani said plucking some lint off his shoulder as she walked into the room with a perfect mixture DaniPhantom behind her.

"Isn't everyone going as a vampire?" He asked as Jazz and Valarie walked in as well.

"No, everyone is going as you." Jazz whispered in his ear.

"Good point," He stated, looking her up and down. "Where's your costume?"

"Working on it," She said flipping her hair over her shoulder and walked down the stairs to the basement.

"You know there is no way that I'm going to be able to ––" Tucker started to say, before he seemed to realize that his girlfriend was present, "Whoa ––" He said lifting his eye patch to watch her as she held her arms out showing him her Gypsy costume, which was a short brown velvet skirt, black knee high boots and a tight black and gold corset, with a sash of gold around her waste, fitted with coins around the edge. As well as large golden loop earrings and a chocker of dangling coins. Her hair was also puffed up and curled with little streamers of gold laid into the strands.

Even Danny had to admit, she looked good, "D," Tucker said in a breathless voice.

"Yeah," He laughed, looking at his friend.

"Pinch me,"

Danny laughed again and looked at Valarie, "I'll let you handle that; my lady." He said with a bow and excused himself.

Once back into the living room, he spotted Dani peeking out the window and was reminded of something. "Now about the Coat," He stated, causing her glare at him.

"You weren't this protective with Val," She protested.

"Val isn't my little sister." He declared.

"Danny, leave her alone." Sam demanded from the staircase suddenly.

"Sam, she—" He started to protest, but immediately forgot what he was about to say at the sight of gorgeous Greek Goddess of Darkness that was currently descending his staircase.

Even Sam, the Master of Goth gloom and dome, could not help but blush as he watched her descend from her perch. She had on a classic 'Little Red Dress' designed with golden spider webs and was veiled by a long black, mermaid style dress made of spider web netting, that flared around her feet. Her high healed lace up black and gold sandals entwined themselves up past her knees and around her neck, she wore a wide black chocker with a bright red gem set into a gold design in the middle, while her hair was done up beautifully with more gold and red clips. Her shoulders and back were left bare, with long sleeves covering her elbows and flared around her hands, made of the same spider web netting as her dress.

Danny was so mesmerized by her that he hadn't realized he had been walking toward her as if she were an angel come to take him to paradise.

"Hello," Dani's voice said somewhere behind him, but he couldn't pin point where it was coming from. "We were talking here." She said waving a hand in front of his face, but he didn't even flinch.

"Go away," He said, as if in a trance.

"Fine, be that way." She said grumpily and walked out of the room.

"Hi," He said stupidly once he stood in front of the dark Goddess who had graced his decrepit home. For with her standing there nearly glowing, everything else just looked so dull and meaningless in compression.

"A man of many words I see." She said in a velvet voice.

"Uh-huh," He nodded stupidly, never once seeing the meaningful sarcasm behind those words. Sam laughed and blushed a deeper shape of red, which only made her that much more beautiful to him, (if it was possible.)

"What about you," She said fingering his jacket, trying to take back her Gothic moodiness, but she was so caught up in his look of wonder that the closest she could get was 'giggling school girl.' "You look good enough to eat." She stated, (appropriately enough.)

"Ok," He agreed, though towhatshe had no idea.

"Gees Ghost-Boy, need a reality check?" She asked sarcastically.

"I think I left it at home." He stated mesmerized and she couldn't help but laugh, it was obvious that he wasn't hearing a word she was saying, she almost had to wonder if Ember had cast another spell on him while she wasn't looking, as unlikely as that was. But all the same she was really enjoying this one.

"Well," She said steeping around him to walk into the kitchen, "Come on," She motioned and he followed like a little lost puppy dog, making her laugh again.

"Oh wow," Valarie said as they walked in. "I like it."

"So does he apparently," Tucker stated with a laugh as Danny was obviously unable to take his eyes off her.

"He just needs a good whack," Val instructed and Sam laughed upon seeing the large red mark on the side of Tucker's face.

"Actually I think I'll leave him like this for a little while." Sam stated amusingly, "Like maybe until after he feeds me grapes and does all my homework."

_Line Break_

"Alright guys you ready?" Valarie asked the kids as they descended the front steps of Fenton Works and this time they all proclaimed excitedly that they were.

"Now remember 38 seconds," Tucker educated, earning himself a hard smack over the head from his girl friend.

"It's their first time let them enjoy in." She demanded.

"But the school dance starts at—" Tucker started.

"Midnight, its 8:00, we have plenty of time." She finished for him and helped Danny and Sam usher the kids down the sidewalk toward their first destination.

Tucker more or less took the lead from this point on; walking with the kids up to every door and trying to beat them to the punch of who could say Trick or Treat first, while the others took up the rear getting a few peaces of candy themselves and handing over a business pamphlet in return, which usually left the individual confused and befuddled, but it was worth a few laughs.

Dani traveled with them up until about 10:00 when they had somehow U-turned and made it back to Fenton Works, where Jack Fenton was currently standing on the front step with a look of horror on his face as he was bombarded by 2 dozen little Danny Phantoms; all begging for candy. Jazz (who was now sporting a female version of Willy Wonka,) agreed to drive her little sister to her date's house, much to Danny's annoyance.

But he when he was faced with the on slot of 4 sets of children's puppy eyes, one real puppy eyes and the look a pure pity from Tucker, he caved in and agreed to let them Trick or Treat for another hour and a half, which was well over the towncurfew for anyone under the age of 12.

But by 11:20 the little business peoples were exhausted anyway and had to be carried home where they were set up with sleeping bags and a tent made out of blankets in the living room. After which Tucker, Valerie, Danny and Sam, made their way back to Kadic Academy on foot, where they quickly blended in to the Halloween Dance where the majority of the Tricksof Trick or Treating seemed to be taking place.

Since between the hours of Midnight and 3:00 A.M. the occupants of the dance were coated in disgusting orange slime, scared out of their minds when Skulker and several other Ghosts made the whole auditorium float for a minute and Danced non-stop for about an hour when Ember and her Posse decided to play "I Put a Sell on You." Strangely enough the event that actually ended the party turned out to be the Head Master finding an empty bottle of Whiskey in the punch bowl.

The four friends were making their way back to Dorm 13; Tucker all the while complaining that he didn't get enough chocolate, (or punch for that matter,) when Danny's Ghost sense went off again for 12 billionth time that night, but was quickly followed by some screaming and a loud crash.

"Wonderful," Danny said dryly, "And they were doing so well too." He had almost gotten through the whole night without having to bother any of the other Ghosts, their pranks had been scary and a little dangerous at times, but they had managed to the code, until now, "I'll be back." He said turning around, before leaning heavily on a rail.

"I think I'll go with you, you could use a designated walker." Sam suggested smiling at him,

"Ha ha," He stated, before changing into Danny Phantom which strangely seemed to clear his head of the alcoholic fluff that infested it. "Shall we," He asked he offering her his hand and pulled her into his arms before phasing them through to roof and out into the night sky.

It didn't take them long to discover the source of the commotion, which unsurprisingly was the Box Ghost again, who had found a large collection off boxes labeled 'BreakableStuff' (of course) and had begun hurling the contents at anyone wearing circular costumes.

But remarkably this actually didn't last very long as several other ghosts had stopped him and stuffed him into a – well – a box, before they proceeded to hide the mess and wave at Danny innocently, like nothing had happened.

"You know I think they like this new truce," Sam said from his arms.

"I think they do to," Danny agreed, watching as they quickly fixed what was broken and went on their merry way.

"So I guess that means we have a little time and with us being all dressed up." Sam stated tracing the symbol on his chest.

"What did you have in mind," Danny asked, raising an eyebrow when she gave him a look that almost made him forget how to fly.

"Well." She stated sweetly, raising up give him a kiss, before whispering in his ear, "How about a dance?"

This Story HAS ended... I will not be continuing it...