Chapter 1: Vacation

Phanniemay 2016: Day 8

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"Uhh...this isn't really what I had in mind when I said I needed a vacation," Danny Fenton said, staring up at the tall, colourful yet dark display in front of him.

"Nonsense! Can you imagine how much fun we'll be having?" his dad shouted back over the noise, his hulking figure looming over most of the other people walking around. "Besides, isn't this what you children like nowadays? Roller coasters and game booths?"

"I was thinking more like a beach, some towels, and waves," Danny replied, slumping a little. Going to the amusement park was the last thing he wanted. He was too exhausted for anything, and that included roller coasters.

A hand landed gently on his shoulder and he looked up to see his older sister smiling down at him. "Oh, cheer up, Danny. We don't have to go on any of the more energetic rides if you don't want to."

He smiled back. "Thanks, Jazz."

She turned to their father. "We'll split up and meet back here in two hours, okay? You and Mom can go wherever."

Maddie Fenton gazed at them, brow furrowed. "Be careful, okay?" she said.

"We'll be fine, Mom," Danny promised.

"Alright. Come back right here in exactly two hours! No later, okay?" She leaned over and gave both her children a peck on the forehead. "Bye, kids! Have fun."

They waved before dashing off to some of the game booths nearby. "I bet you can't win me a prize," Jazz challenged.

"You're just saying that 'cause you know you can't win anything yourself." Danny smirked, paying the man who ran the stall and grabbing some of the plastic balls he offered. He began firing them, but the target kept moving. After a couple of attempts, he growled, "This thing is rigged!"

"No, it's not," the man said, smiling. His green eyes seemed to flash red briefly but when Danny blinked again, his eyes were back to normal. "You just don't have a good arm, kid."

He frowned at the man, but Jazz placed a hand on his arm. "Hey, calm down, li'l bro. I got this."

He stared incredulously at him, but then she winked and jerked her head toward the target and he understood. Grinning, he nodded back before saying loudly, "Fine, if you think you can win this lousy game, then go ahead! I'm going to get some cotton candy." He stalked off.

Jazz watched him go, smiling, before preparing her arm to throw. She waited until she saw a flash of green near the target, and then she tossed the ball. At first it looked like the target was moving away again, but then it lay perfectly still.

The man, who'd been counting money deviously, was now taking a double-take. Gawking, he spluttered, "B-But that's impossible!"

"Why, because your game is rigged after all?" Jazz asked smugly.

"N-No!" he stammered back. "It's just that... You would've totally missed that! Your throw was way off."

"What? No!" she scoffed. "The only way I would've missed is if the target moved out of the way, which it didn't and shouldn't be able to do."

The man fell silent and grumbling, handed her a glowing green teddy bear. "Take it and move on, kid."

"Thank you," she said irritably, snatching it away. As she walked, she was joined by Danny, who was munching on cotton candy.

He grinned. "You owe me one."

"Okay, so you used your ghost powers to stop the target from moving. But the thing was obviously rigged anyway and I would've gotten the shot if it were a fair game," she responded, rolling her eyes good-naturedly.

A puff of blue mist left his lips and his eyes widened. He turned back to the game booth but the man running it had vanished. He shuddered. "I've got a weird feeling about this place."

"What do you mean?" she asked, taking her own cotton candy from a nearby stall. The woman running it glared at her until she tossed a few coins onto the counter.

"I thought I saw that guy's eyes turn red for a second," he explained. "What if he's a ghost?"

She laughed. "A ghost running a game stand? Oh sure."

"Jazz, I'm serious!"

She paused, frowning. "Oh, come on, Danny. I'm sure there's nothing wrong. He may have been evil, but probably not that evil."

"My ghost breath doesn't lie," he shot back.

"Just relax, Danny. I know you've been pretty busy these past few weeks dealing with ghosts, so maybe you're just being paranoid?" she suggested gently.

"'Paranoid'?" he spluttered back. "Jazz, you should know better than to say that to me! Don't you remember Youngblood?"

"Hrmmm..." Jazz hesitated, furrowing her brow as she averted her gaze awkwardly. "I know, but..."

"Darn it, Jazz—why won't you just trust my own judgement? Things don't really work out when you try to run my life. What about Spectra?"

"Danny, I'm sorry, okay! But it's hard not to be worried about you, considering all the stuff you get into!" She then lowered her voice and added, "I just want you to enjoy yourself for today, okay?"

He frowned, staring up at his sister, before relaxing. "Sorry, Jazz. I just... I'm sure there's something off about this place."

"I know. It's not that I don't believe you. But..."

"You don't believe me."

"No!" She paused. "I just... I don't think we can quite jump to conclusions right now. Let's just relax, okay, Danny?"

He took a deep breath, turning away. "Okay. Whatever. Let's just go on one of the rides and forget about this, alright?"

Jazz sighed, following him towards the rides. When they neared the one he was aiming for, her eyes widened in realization. "Are you sure you want to go on this one?" she asked, rushing up to him and grabbing his arm.

He shook her off. "It's fine. We're supposed to be here for 'fun', right? So why not go on the big scary ride and just get it over with?"

"But a roller coaster? Are you sure you're up for it?" she continued. "You don't seem to be in the mood for it."

"I'm not." He narrowed his eyes at her. "But you are, aren't you? You wanted to forget about all my paranoia so we can just have fun. So let's do it—let's have fun."

"Danny, why are you so difficult—?"

"I'm difficult?" he scoffed. "You're the one who won't trust me!"

"I do trust you! I just don't want to stress you out with that stuff when we're not even sure it's something to be worried about or not—"

"Whatever! Let's just go on this stupid thing and get it over with." He stormed over to the roller coaster cars, seeing as there was no line. The place was practically deserted. He slid into a seat and folded his arms, glaring straight ahead.

Jazz sighed and joined him slowly, as a teenage worker said in monotone, "Please strap yourselves in and keep your hands and feed inside at all times. Have fun." Then he pulled the lever.

Danny's eyes widened. Did that guy's hand just go through the lever? But then the ride was already starting and the car began climbing the tracks.

"See, isn't this nice?" Jazz offered, trying to break the silence. "There's nothing wrong."

"Yeah, except that worker guy's hand went through the lever," he retorted.

She fell silent. Then: "Are you sure?"

"I'm sure," he responded. "What? Don't trust me on this, either?"

"No, I'm not—!" She trailed off, hesitating. "Come on, it's not really easy to confirm if someone's hand went through something."

"I know something's up," he insisted. "Why won't you just believe me?"

"I do!" she exclaimed. "But I just don't want—"

Before she could finish her sentence, the two began plummeting down the tracks, and Jazz and Danny began shouting. This went on for some time, and each time they climbed a hill, they were too exhausted to speak. But the whole time the ride went on, Danny couldn't help but wonder what his sister had been trying to say. She believes me, but—but what? Why isn't she willing to take this seriously? he wondered bitterly as they continued up and down the roller coaster. Some vacation this is turning out to be.

When they reached the highest peak, the ride suddenly gave out at the top. Jazz looked around wildly. "What's going on?" she panted.

Danny followed her gaze. Something's up, he thought. "Stay here," he told her, "I'm going to check it out."

"Be careful!" she gasped as he transformed into his ghost form beside her.

He gave her a nod to acknowledge her concern before turning invisible and floating into the air. He glanced around, trying to pinpoint anything weird. He could see his parents at the haunted house section, looking as if they were yelling about ghosts because they were blasting Fentonworks guns at fake ghosts as people ran around in terror. Danny shook his head, half-amused and half-embarrassed at his parents' behaviour. Jazz always worried he was too paranoid, but both of them knew that Jack and Maddie Fenton were impossible to beat in terms of their paranoia—or eagerness—of finding evil ghosts.

But wait... Are they actually fake? Danny squinted at the ghosts his parents were shooting at. They looked like they could go... Intangible! His glowing green eyes widened. I knew it! I knew there was something weird about this place. But why didn't my ghost sense go crazy?

He flew towards the haunted house, his snow-white hair blowing in the wind. He made it halfway before he heard screaming. That was Jazz! He spun around and his eyes widened as he saw his sister plummeting downwards—without tracks to support her! The entire tracks after the highest hill had suddenly vanished.

Danny flew forward as fast as he could and dove underneath the roller coaster, turning his body visible. Grunting and grimacing from the effort, he began pushing the roller coaster cars back up inch by inch. His sister sat in one of the seats, shaking and breathing heavily with wide eyes.

The cars violently lurched forward as his arms nearly gave way and Danny gave up on trying to lift them back onto the tracks. That would be too risky anyway, if they started falling again. So instead, he began descending as slowly as possible while carrying the roller coaster. It was painfully difficult, but after an excruciating five or so minutes, he finally set the cars down.

He flew towards Jazz's seat. "Jazz? Jazz, are you okay?" he called.

She sat there, eyes fixated ahead as she breathed deeply. In. Out. In. Out. Finally, she stepped shakily out of the car and he caught her. "I-I'm fine," she stammered in a soft voice, almost too scared to speak loudly lest she began falling again. Sweat dotted her brow. "Just thought I was going to die for a second there." She smiled weakly, as if brushing it off would be easier as a joke.

Danny, who'd been staring at her in concern, now got a determined look in his eyes as he frowned. "I'm going to get the guy who did this. And they're going to regret ever messing with my family." He spun around. "WHO'S THERE? SHOW YOURSELF, GHOST!"

At first silence greeted his demand as every head in the park turned eerily at the same time. "Ahhh... So you figured out my plot," a thick voice began, resonating throughout the whole park.

"Yes, and I want you to get out here so I can kick your butt." Danny was feeling angry now. He'd already been irritated his sister was denying his claims of paranormal activity at the park, and he was even more miffed now that someone had tried to off his sister.

"I sensed...there was something unique about you, child..." the voice hissed, slowly growing more echoey. It had gone soft, but was now creeping in volume. "I didn't realize...you were such an interesting specimen... A half-ghost child?"

"Yeah, and I fight guys like you on a regular basis. So you can just show yourself now and get your butt handed to you and we can all move on."

Silence. Then: "Child... Foolish... Foolish child... You don't know...who I am..." The voice was joined by faint but haunting screeching now, growing louder as if they were a whirlwind of violent fear.

"I can guess. You have some sort of amusement park theme going on. Are you perhaps a Freakshow rip-off? You ever heard of that guy? Real creep right there. Tried to mind-control me and bend reality to his will. Tried to kill my family with a roller coaster of death sorta like this one. I bet you're not nearly as scary as him, not that he was all that scary to begin with. You're probably just some pesky ghost like the Box Ghost who thinks they're scary. Don't think I haven't seen your goons. The guy that runs the stand and the guy that runs this roller coaster were both not scary at all." Despite his confidence, Danny could actually feel himself becoming nervous. This new foe sounded big, even if he hadn't shown himself yet.

"Fool... I am...not any of that. You don't...realize, do you...?"

Danny turned to his sister for help in deciphering the ghost's claim, but she was staring up ahead with wide, scared eyes. "Jazz, what's wrong?" he questioned.

She just pointed upwards with a shaky hand.

He followed her gaze and his mouth immediately fell open. A giant hulking silhouette of a shadow without form or shape suddenly loomed above them, surrounded by whirling wind. The wind looked like screaming spirits. The ghost had a pair of white, glowing circles for eyes. They looked hollow and yet also so deep they seemed to grab onto you and dig into your soul, refusing to let go. A pair of long, twisting horns sprouted out of its head and down its back, and Danny was startled to realize they were the roller coaster tracks. Various other rides dotted the giant black glob, and it seemed to have long, gangly arms with long, sharp claws that vanished into its body when it moved. And it moved in slow, haunting movements, as if in broken slow motion.

"Those...weren't my minions... They are...a part of me," the ghost boomed. "I am...this whole amusement park. It is all...a part of me."

Danny whispered out one single word in response as he took a step back: "Oh darn."

"I am...Amuzo."

This really isn't what I had in mind when I said I needed a vacation.

To Be Continued!

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