Boxed
is the sixth side story to Stranded written by NeoMark. Danny enters a boxing tournament for ghosts.
Tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Paulina is still this to Danny Phantom to the point he vastly prefers Ember's company over the annoying cheerleader.
- All for Nothing: As it turns out, had Danny said no to challenging Spike Bison, the ghosts would have left him and the baseball stadium alone, so Sam's plan to steal the belt and get herself and others caught taking the fake needlessly gave them a reason to make Danny fight.
- Anti-Villain: Spike Bison and his helpers Antello and Goatsly aren't evil. They only organized the boxing tournament so Spike can get a good fight and they leave Danny alone when it's over right after healing his injuries from his battle with Spike Bison.
- Bait-and-Switch: Just as it seems that Danny was going to get a Heroic Second Wind and keep on fighting, he gives into his injuries and passes out as the countdown reaches its end.
- Be Careful What You Wish For: Tucker wanted to win his bet with Dash and he did, but at the cost of having to watch his best friend get beat up by Spike Bison in a fight.
- Birthday Episode: Mr. Strong's birthday is one of the plots for this story.
- Combat Pragmatist: Spike Bison is fine with Danny using his powers during their boxing match cause he doesn't want their fight to be too easy for him.
- Crazy-Prepared: Knowing Mr. Lancer wouldn't always be around to enforce the new rules, Tucker took extra precautions like recording things with his PDA. One of the recorded things is the bet between him and Dash, as the latter would refuse to honor the bet had Tucker been unable to prove it to be real.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The Box Ghost is revealed to be excellent at boxing, even good enough to beat Skulker.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: Danny lampshades that he never had a chance against Spike Bison in a fight since he can push a land mass with just the force generated by one punch and destroy it when empowered by the belt.
- The Determinator: Danny refuses to yield or stay down no matter how outclassed he is against Spike Bison. This earns the Minotaur ghost's respect.
- Didn't Think This Through: Sam never considered that Team Phantom could get caught while trying to steal the championship belt, or that the belt presented would be a fake.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Even Ember finds Paulina unbearably annoying and doesn't hesitate to help Danny hide from her.
- Exact Words: Danny's match with Spike allows him to use more than just his super strength power, but the rules state they're only allowed to use physical-based powers. Spike reveals he can stretch his arm, pointing out when Danny calls him out he's not using it to blast him but to punch him. Danny then exploits the rule himself by creating 3 duplicates, with Antello and Goatsly both realizing that creating physical copies doesn't break the rules of only fighting physically.
- Fake-Out Make-Out: Ember does this to hide Danny from Paulina. He points out she could've just turned them both invisible, but she knows that and preferred kissing him as it's more fun for her.
- Forgot About His Powers: Subverted. Ember knows she could've just turned herself and Danny invisible to avoid Paulina but she thought it'd be better to do a Fake-Out Make-Out.
- Hidden Depths: Tucker, Jean-Luc, and the Box Ghost are revealed to be fans of boxing, with the latter having it as a hobby and being good enough at it to defeat Skulker.
- Honor Before Reason: The Box Ghost does boxing as a hobby and refuses to use something he does for fun as part of his villainy, despite how he's shown to be good enough to take down Skulker.
- Hopeless Boss Fight: Spike Bison is the most physically powerful character Danny has been shown to battle with thus far and it takes his punch that created a mini-hurricane to make it clear Danny was never going to win.
- Hope Spot: As Danny gains the upper hand and manages to land successful blows, it seems he's actually going to win. That's when Spike swings his fist with enough speed and force to create a powerful gale, the air pressure enough to knock Danny out.
- Invincible Villain: Subverted on the "villain" part but Danny fails to land any serious blows during his boxing fight with Spike Bison and receives a lot of really bad injuries from the ghost bull.
- Lack of Empathy: Colette, of course, doesn't care that Danny Phantom got beat really badly by Spike Bison during their boxing match.
- Not Helping Your Case: Tucker chooses to watch the baseball game at Sam's with a large amount of junk food. He says he watches it there so as to avoid his mother, who worries he's risking obesity and diabetes with his eating habits. He says this while eating chocolate and a hot dog without any awareness. Sam snarks about it.
- Meaningful Name: Danny realizes where Spike Bison gets his name when he finally sees him—he's an anthropomorphic bison.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had Sam, Tucker and Jazz not tried to steal the belt, Danny wouldn't need to fight the champ.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: Box Ghost is revealed to be a talented boxer who can beat Skulker in a fist fight.
- Person as Verb: Sam, giving away too much info, realizes she's pulled "a Tucker". He wonders why he's a verb and why it sounds negative.
- Perverse Sexual Lust: Not just with the previously mentioned Kim Possible. Danny has learned his comic book self has been paired with other fictional girls: Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Venus, Starfire, Mina Ashido, Hsien-ko, Lilith Aensland, and Yang Xiao Long, all of whom have been paired with him or shown interest in him in previous works by either FP11 or NeoMark. He seems somewhat intrigued by this, but insists to Star he's only ever read tasteful stories.
- Pet the Dog:
- Ember hides Danny from Paulina because even she thinks he doesn't deserve to be bothered by someone that irritating and clingy.
- Spike Bison has Antello and Goatsly take Danny back to his realm to heal him from the injuries he got in their fight, then they part with Danny on good terms.
- The Reveal: The Box Ghost is an excellent boxer but only does that for fun so he avoids using that skill for villainy.
- Shout-Out: Paulina calls Ryosuke a "Shredder knock-off". Danny later calls him Samurai Jack.
- Strong and Skilled: Spike Bison is a skilled boxer who's much more powerful than Danny.
- Tempting Fate: Dash tells his friends they don't have to dress up as cheerleaders because Tucker can't prove there was a bet. Mikey then tells them somebody recorded Dash and Tucker making the bet.
- Touché: Goatsly's response when his argument that he and the ghosts with him don't want to cause trouble is counteracted by Danny pointing out they ransacked a baseball stadium.
- Unwanted Assistance: Sam's plan to try to steal the belt not only fails and gets Team Phantom captured but forces Danny to fight the champion Spike Bison for their freedom, who delivers the ghost boy a VERY serious beating.
- Villain Has a Point: Even Danny agrees with Ember that she's way less annoying and unbearable to be around than Paulina.
- Villain Respect: Minus the "villain" part but Spike Bison grows to respect Danny for his spirit when he refuses to give up in their fight regardless of how badly he's hurt.
- Weak, but Skilled: The Box Ghost is one of Danny's weakest enemies but is a skilled enough boxer to beat Skulker in a match.
