Full Phantom: Episode 34

Full Phantom
Episode 34
Depression and Anger

Over the next week, Danny just continued to act out.  He became more depressed and angry with everyone and everything.  The Box Ghost made the mistake of antagonizing Danny during a particularly nasty bout of anger.

Valerie was surprised the ghost hadn't been put in traction.

The anger only intensified when the blob ghost appeared.  Each time it had different tricks, and each time, it vanished before Danny could break out the thermos.  An entire pharmacy had been trashed in one rather vicious battle.  Danny had eventually gotten so angry, his ecto-blasts intensified in power, burning white-hot.  One blast of it rendered a soda cooler a pile of scrap.

But the ghost had still gotten away, mocking, "I think that's enough damage for one afternoon."

Danny had surveyed the damage and hung his head.

"Great.  He got away again, plus all this damage…another RINGING endorsement for the town screw-up."

No one heard this soliloquy.  No one except for Sam.

Sam kept putting the pieces together, even during a ghost hunting training exercise.  After the battle against Pariah, Jack and Maddie had officially taken Sam and Tucker under their wing, better preparing them in order for them to continue hunting.

"SAM!" Maddie snapped, bringing Sam back to reality, "Are you okay?  That was your fifth missed target today.  You're usually a MUCH better shot.  Is something wrong?"

"Sorry, Mrs. Fenton.  I guess…I've got other things on my mind."

"Well, we can't have you distracted like that.  Hit the showers.  I think you're done for the day."

Sam nodded, trusting the professional.  As she walked out of the firing range and back into the lab, she heard Jack lauding his newest invention to Tucker.

"I'm telling you, Tucker, this baby will peel ghosts like an onion, stripping away power little by little!  It should even rip away any disguise a ghost has on."

"What do you call it?"

"The Fenton Peeler!"

'Of course,' Sam scoffed mentally, but filed the weapon away as potentially useful, 'Now, back to Danny.  He looks more and more bedraggled every time I see him.  I don't know how to get through to him.'

~~

The last straw came the next day.  It was a routine job.  A 'zap and trap' in Ghostbuster lingo.  Danny Phantom was on the scene, followed closely by Maddie, Tucker, and Sam.

However, Danny's mind wasn't on the ghost.  It was on what Dr. Spectra had said earlier.

"They can't understand you.  They never will.  You're unlike any ghost that's ever been.  A freak among ghosts, and not much better among humans.  They praise you now, sort of.  But only until they see something about you that makes them afraid.  Then, they'll condemn you and hunt you.  In the end, you can only trust yourself."

Danny was rewarded his distraction by a tail to his stomach by the large lizard.  Angrily, he shot a large ecto-blast back, but the lizard leapt out of the way.  However, it leapt right into a combined blast from Maddie and Sam, followed by a beam from Sam's thermos.

Tucker walked over to Danny to help him up, but Danny slapped his hand away.  Tucker recoiled, stunned, but drew up his courage.

"What is your problem, dude?"

"What ISN'T my problem?!  Every freaking day, its ghosts, ghosts, and MORE ghosts.  Never a moment's rest!  And meanwhile, I'm practically ALONE!  A ghost with human emotions in an amount unheard of.  No one else knows what I'm going through!  Not even Clockwork had ANY IDEA what it's like to be me!"

Danny started to walk off, but Tucker wasn't done.  He grabbed Danny's shoulder to stop him, but Danny whirled around and clocked Tucker in the jaw in one fluid movement.

Tucker stumbled back, mostly unhurt physically, but shocked at what Danny had done.  Maddie stared at Danny, her mind racing.  Sam only had her eyes on her ghost detector, studying the readings.  The meter finally showed the readings she'd been looking for.

Danny saw the look of fear in Tucker's eyes, as the boy was afraid of what would happen next.  Danny simply looked from Tucker to his own fist before leaping into the air with an anguished cry.

Maddie turned to ask Sam something, but the girl was already gone.

~~

Sam followed the Boo-merang on her scooter, the device zeroing in on Danny.  Her ecto-gun was still charged, and her thermos was ready.  On a whim, she had also grabbed the Fenton Peeler from the Ghost RV when she snagged the Boo-merang.

The readings from her detector didn't lie.  Danny was hot with the ecto-signature of a parasitic ghost.  And Sam was willing to bet her inheritance that this parasite was what was making Danny so irritable and miserable.

And if that was the case, Sam was going to blast it so hard, its ancestors would feel it.

~~

"You were right, Dr. Spectra!  I saw the way they looked at me.  They're afraid!  I…I can't trust them…they'll turn on me…"

"It's okay, Danny," said Dr. Spectra, placing a hand on Danny's shoulder and secretly relishing the look in his face, "I'm here.  I won't abandon you."

Energy crept up the doctor's arm, filling her with power.

'At least not until you're drained dry,' she thought wickedly.

Danny hung his head, feeling more miserable with every passing second.  A part of his brain pleaded not to listen, that they hadn't abandoned him.  He wouldn't listen.  That same part brought up Sam.  That gave Danny pause.

Suddenly, a green form flew into the room, breaking down the door.  It slammed into the wall, dazed from the blow.

"YOU!" shouted Danny, recognizing the blob ghost, "But what--"

A blue vortex slammed into the blob, sucking back out the door and into the waiting thermos.  Sam Manson stepped through the door, one hand on her ecto-gun, the other holding her ghost detector.  She assessed the scene for a moment before coming to the conclusion.

"DANNY!  Get away from her!  She's dangerous!"

"You see!" said Spectra, trying to maintain control of the situation, "Even now they hunt you down!  If you ever want to be free, you have to take them out of the game, starting with her!"

"Danny!  Don't listen!  She's tricking you!  That's why you've been feeling so depressed lately!  She's the cause of it!"

"That's ridiculous!  Danny, you know the root of your depression.  Failure to save what matters, and fear of being different.  All they will see you as is a ghost trying to fit in with humans, a creepy little boy with creepy little powers, a FREAK."

"DANNY!  Don't listen!  We've been friends since elementary school!  Who are you going to listen to?  Some crazy shrink, or me?"

"This 'crazy shrink' is the only one who can help you, Danny!  You know this!  Everything else is a lie!"

By this time, Danny had backed into a corner, trying to make sense of the conflicting information.  On one hand, the feeling that he could trust Spectra.  On the other, Sam.  He might have socked Tucker, but there wasn't a force in either universe that could make him raise a hand to her.  His mind warred with itself.  He didn't know what to do.

Seeing that Danny wasn't going to be able to do anything, Sam turned her ecto-gun on Spectra.  The woman dodged the blast with alarming speed, grabbing Sam's wrist and twisting it.

"You might have beaten Bertrand," she hissed in Sam's ear, "but you won't beat me."

Sam cried out in pain and dropped the ecto-gun.  A half-second later, a beam of green energy knocked Spectra away from Sam.

Both women turned their eyes to Danny, who glowered at Spectra, his eyes glowing like green fires.

"You just made a BIG mistake.  I'm tired of you dumping on me, and I'm tired of dumping on myself.  But Sam never did that, and never has.  I don't care WHAT is going on.  You hurt her.  You will pay.  DEARLY."

"I'll tell you what's going on," said Sam, "She's a parasitic entity, a ghost that feeds on negative emotions, probably misery.  She found what you were afraid of and kept picking at it, feeding off the misery it caused you.  She might have fooled you by using this room cold enough to mask your ghost sense, but she can't fool Fenton tech."

Sam waved the detector and smirked.

"Very good," said Spectra, her eyes now a solid red, "But I fear you missed a few details!"

A mist of raw shadow encircled her feet, pluming up until it covered her whole being, then merging with it.  When the transformation was done, they were looking at a living shadow.  But unlike Johnny 13's shadow, this one exuded an aura of misery.  A fanged smile leered at them from below red eyes.  The palms of the shadow even bore fanged mouths, which actually made Sam shudder.

"I feed on misery to keep myself looking young and to give myself more power.  Danny here is a waterfall of misery, and I'm NOT about to let him go.  In fact, I think the death of someone ELSE will give me enough power to keep him miserable and myself young FOREVER."

Spectra leapt at Sam, but Danny slammed his fist into her gut, sending her out the window.

"Are you okay?" Danny asked.

"I'm fine," said Sam, "Whatever she's been telling you, it's wrong.  We'll stand by you…I'll stand by you."

A blur of black slammed into Danny, knocking him into the other room.  Spectra held him against the wall, feeding on his misery, helplessness, and whatever other negative emotion she could find.

"You think you can beat me?  HA!  You're just a frightened little kid, one in WAY over his head!  You couldn't save Damon Grey, and you won't save her.  And by the time I'm done with you, you'll be sure that it was all…your…fault!  After all, why wouldn't it be?  You're a FREAK!  Unlovable, and forever alone.  Who CARES for a thing like you?!"

Spectra dropped Danny, who was too dazed by the direct leeching to counter.  The parasite loomed over him, ready to continue, but a voice interrupted her.

"Excuse me.  I hope it's okay if he gets a second opinion."

Spectra turned in time to see Sam activate the Fenton Peeler.  Metal coils erupted from the gun-like device, wrapping around Sam's arm before creating metal plates, which fit together into a suit of armor.  The armor on Sam's raised arm seemed to morph, turning into a large gun, which came to life with a whine before launching a large beam of energy that engulfed Spectra.

The shadow form was literally shredded away, followed by layer upon layer of ectoplasmic skin.  When Sam finally cut off the beam, an ugly old woman was standing in a pile of ectoplasmic skins.

"NO!!!  I'm nothing without my youth!"

Sam slammed her armored fist into Spectra, ending the fight.

"And by the way…I care."

Danny took off the cap of the Fenton thermos and sucked the screaming parasite into it.  The armor retracted back into the device, leaving Sam a bit disoriented.

"That…was weird.  You okay, Danny?"

"Not really."

It was true.  Danny looked like he had been dragged several miles by a truck.  Sam helped him to his feet, but he was dead tired.

"Lean on me.  Let's get you out of here."

Danny managed to grasp his cloak and teleport them to his nearest safe house.





Danny Phantom (c) Butch Hartman