Danny Phantom's HA-HA-Halloween (Patreon)

       Danny wrinkles his nose at the ‘organic’ candy Sam hands out to trick or treaters. He told her to at least hand out candy corn because it has to be healthy, it has corn in the name! Instead, she went off on a tangent about how… whatever it is she’s handing out is better for kids. It seems pointless to remind her that Halloween is about being unhealthy.

       A chill creeps up his back and a puff of gas escapes his mouth. He groans, helping Sam run the a stall at the school’s trick or treat function was not his dream Halloween but they were supposed to pick up Tucker and watch scary movies together after and that is going to be a lot of fun. Now some ghost is going to ruin that. He taps Sam on the shoulder so she can give him some cover. Once changed, he sets off in search of the ghost.

       It doesn’t take him long to find a cowboy riding on a skeletal horse, holding a plastic pumpkin head in one hand.

Youngblood, scaring candy givers and takers alike as his horse leaves trails of blue fire.

       Danny heaves an annoyed sigh as he settles down in front of the ghostly child. Youngblood glances at him and says, “All I wanted was to trick or treat but these guys are all scared of me! It’s so unfair. These party poopers always ruin everything!”

With a shriek of rage, Youngblood’s eyes glow and Danny shouts, “Wait. Wait!”

Youngblood, eyes still glowing, faces him expectantly.

       “We can make a deal. You don’t freak out, and in exchange…” He starts to hesitate, not sure what the ghost wants that he can safely offer.

“In exchange, you play with me!”

       There’s a gleam in Youngblood’s eye that promises problems, but at the risk of a town leveling temper tantrum, Danny agrees, with one condition.

“Without lasers!”

“Nope. No lasers at all.” Youngblood says in a sing-song voice.

       They fly to Youngblood’s ship, ominously moored over the city. Once on board, Youngblood disappears and returns, brown leather jacket and robbers mask having replaced his old costume. He pushes clothes into Danny’s hands, a sheriff’s costume. This seems… okay. It goes on over his black jumpsuit easily enough.

And then Youngblood attacks him.

        Attack might be too strong a word… one minute Danny is fixing a sheriff’s star to his new coat, the next he has a ghostly lasso wrapped around him too tightly to get off.

“Yer not welcome around these parts, Sheriff.”

“I think that’s my line.”

Youngblood glares at him and hisses, “Stay in character.”

“Umm I think that’s my line, bandit?”

       Youngblood’s smirk returns as he says, “Nope. I think it’s mine, but since you came here. You’re going to give me the combination to the bank safe!”

Warming up to his role Danny replies, “Never. You’ll have to take it from me!”

       “I plan to.” Youngblood’s smirk now has a hint of malice to it and Danny wonders how smart of an idea this was as the ghostly boy lands, the lasso moves, forcing Danny to sit down so they are more or less eye level. Youngblood advances and continues in character, “Say Sheriff, you wouldn’t happen to be ticklish would you?”

       Danny gulps but a glare from Youngblood has him reply, “If you think I’ll give up the combination cause of a little tickling, you’re mistaken.”

       “That’s what I was hoping you’d say!” a way too excited Young blood shot back, instantly sending shivers down Danny’s spine.

What has he gotten himself into?

        With little time to ponder his predicament, Danny finds himself knotted up in a position much more suited for cattle.

“Uh...I’m not sure I like where this is going...”

       With Youngblood too caught up in his game to notice the response, the boy plunges his stubby fingers deep into the teen’s, defenseless sides.

“Gauaahhh,wahahahahit!!” Danny bellows, momentarily halting the ghost child’s assault.

       “Don’t tell me you’re throwing in the towel already, law man?” Youngblood ridicules with a raised eyebrow.”

“In your dreams, convict. I'd never surrender to an outlaw!” Even Danny is surprised by the response wondering if his survival skills are somehow totally defective.

“       Haha I knew you’d be one tough cookie to crack, Sheriff,” thrilled with his game the mischievous ghost boy quickly gets back to work, diving deep into his captive’s compromised torso.

“AAAAHHHHH, NOHOHOHO,” was all the ‘Sheriff’ could muster.

“Ahh no? Well that doesn't sound like no combination to me,” Youngblood mocked as he grabbed handfuls of  Danny’s scrawny sides, kneading them as if he were doing laundry.

       Danny thought to rattle off a random set of numbers in hopes of ending his ordeal, but he struggled to formulate anything other than laughter as Youngblood continued his relentless assault.

       Just then, Youngblood’s chubby digits began to slip past Danny’s tender sides threatening to torment his flat, unsuspecting tummy, which had only managed to avoid most of the onslaught thanks to his positioning.

Sensing the attack, Danny begins to buck like a powerful rebellious steed. “NOHOHOHOHO, COME ONNN!”

Youngblood holds on tightly tickling every step of the way, “YEEEEEHAWWWW!” he exclaimed, adding further humiliation to the older boy’s endless suffering.

       Struggling proves futile however, with Youngblood gaining the upper hand swiftly. The ghost boy uses his leverage to quickly hoist Danny into the proper position, working over his previously untouched, toned belly with a childish disregard for his captive’s sanity.

Danny is nothing more than an instrument in his captor’s grasp as each poke produces streams of different tickly melodies from his lips, but none sounding like the combination Youngblood claimed to be looking for.

       “Aaaahaaahahalllrriighhtt!!” Danny pleads. “I surrender, I’ll give YOHOHOHOO the combination!” His face a bright red mess of sweat and tears he begins to prattle off numbers hoping they’ll be his salvation .

       Expecting his intimidate release, Danny is taken aback when Youngblood first mimes himself putting in a combination before declaring it wrong then stating “Oohohoho, you sly dog you, I should’ve expected a wrong combination!”

Danny’s eyes widened in disbelief.

“Now it’s time to play my favorite game, tic..tac...TOES!”

“Youngblood!”

      His boots disappear off his feet, seemingly at the behest of his eternally young tormentor and several ghostly feathers float up, dripping ectoplasmic green ink.

They rise up to his feet and slowly, with agonizing tickling, draw a massive tic tac toe board over each of his feet.

“If I win three games, you tell me what I want. If you win, I’ll let you go, maybe.”

      “That doesn’t seem fair!” Danny giggles out in the aftermath of the first taste of foot tickling. The ink on his soles feels funny and he doesn’t like it but he has more things to worry about.

       “Doesn’t matter. I'll go first!” The ghostly quill draws a big circle on the center of his heel arch, causing him to giggle and try to kick but his legs are now bound tighter leaving him unable to do that.”

“Your turn!”

       Just as Danny is about to say he can’t see the game, a ghostly image of it appears in front of him and he says glumly, “Bottom right.” He then braces himself as the tickling starts again.

He cackles madly as an ‘x’ is drawn on the side of his heel.

Youngblood and him place several more marks, each one tickling more than the last until the tiny ghost crows, “I win!”

As if to add insult to ticklery, a line is drawn across the winning shapes on Danny’s feet, causing more laughter from the teenage ghost.

“Next game! Careful, Sheriff, I’m going to beat you soon! It’s be a shame if our game ends too quickly.”

       Youngblood's tone has Danny assuming that if the ghost is unsatisfied, he’ll pretend it’s a wrong combo again. Danny frowns trying to remember how Tucker always beats him when they play in class.

       His musings are cut short when another circle is drawn on the center of Danny’s other arch. It doesn’t tickle any less than the last time, actually it might tickle a little more since he wasn’t ready for it, but now Danny is ready. He calls out the same move again but he has a plan in mind this time.

      Youngblood places his next move and then Danny calls his next one, and puts Youngblood in a trap. He sees an annoyed look cross the boy’s face as his opponent realizes what happened.

“Well played, Sheriff.” The ghost child’s voice is anything but congratulatory. “Guess we’d better reset for the next rounds.”

Danny frowns about to ask what needs to be done when two brushes start floating in front of his feet.

“Wait-”

Any plea he might make is cut off by the scrubbing which leaves him in hysterics and pleading, “EhEhEHAStAHAHap!”

“Sorry, we have to continue our game somehow.”

       He doesn’t sound the least bit apologetic as his face is split with a huge grin. Danny howls as the firm bristles scrub up and down his soles, leaving him laughing maniacally, especially when the bristles bully their way under his toes to clean the pads and undersides of the green ink.

        Danny is panting and exhausted as the brushes disappear and are replaced instead by the feathers, redrawing the boards. He’s too tired at this point to do more than squirm a little and giggle.

       As they start playing, he realizes Youngblood is cheating, the boy moving their circles and ‘x’s around to favor him.

“You’re cheHEating.” He jumps a little when a circle is drawn

“Am not.”

“AHAre ToHo!”

       Youngblood smirks instead of getting angry and replies, “You must be going crazy from the tickling. I’m not cheating, but I did win again! That makes two for me. One more and you have to tell me the combo!”

       Danny watches as the ghost takes the first move again and he plays the game out, but it’s pointless, Youngblood cheats but Danny isn’t trying anyway.

“Now then Sheriff, what's that combo?”

       Danny rattles off a series of numbers and hopes Youngblood will take it. Once again the childish ghost mimes entering the combination and this time, Danny heaves a sigh of relief as Youngblood flings open the imaginary door and says, “There now. I knew you could be reasonable.”

The ropes fall away and Danny’s boots reappear on his feet.

“This was fun! You should come back and play again some time.”

       Danny groans at just the thought but considering Youngblood seems in a good enough mood to not fire on the city, he’ll take it. Instead, the young ghost lets him leave and once off the ship, it disappears. Danny returns in time to help Sam finish packing up. They grab Tucker and meet at the Fenton house.

       A  half hour later, popcorn is made and TV is on, they’re stretched out lazily to watch when he starts giggling, his soles tingling suddenly. He tries scratching through his socks but from giggling, it grows into laughter while Sam and Tucker watch him confused.

“Danny what’s wrong?

“The movie’s bad but it isn’t that funny.”

       Tingling turns to the feeling of dozens of tickling feathers passing over his soles, maddening and getting stronger by the moment and he realizes he never had the ectoplasm ink scrubbed off after the second round.

He rips his socks off, the glowing goo shine on his soles as he continues laughing.

“BrAHusHeS!” He yells out hoping one of his friends is able to find them for him.

       Sam and Tucker jump up and run in opposite directions as he rubs his feet on the floor hoping for any relief but it doesn’t come, not until he can get the plasm off better which will undoubtlably involve more tickling. Throwing his head back he laughs out, “YoHOhuNgBlOhohOad!”

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       Across town, the young ghost smirks at the angry laughter and says to his assistant, “You didn’t think it would work.”

The skeletal horse watches the direction the laughter is coming from as he replies, “I didn’t. I don’t think he’ll want to come back and play with you again after this.”

“Maybe not. But this was a great trick for Halloween!”