I know this will be confusing, but it'll all be explained later. Promise.
As for the OOC-ness, Jazz has her period. Deal with it.
-Juni
I flew above the night clouds of Seattle, sighing is I read the now sweaty piece of paper I had unraveled from my palm. The thing had been in my pocket for days, but I had never gotten the time to actually read it until now.
90230 Misty Front Way, Apt. 369 it read. An address. An address someone wanted to meet me at, according to the words of the person who gave it to me.
I zoomed over King Street, right past Amelia's Pizza Parlor and Bucky's Music Store and onto John Avenue. You could say that I knew the city by heart by now, seeing as how a family friend had moved back over here in the last six months. She was gone now, of course; but that was a different story.
The apartment building described in the note was old and raggedy, almost up for sale after a fire had hit it, half of it still in shambles form the flames.
In truth, I didn't even know why I was doing this. Why the hell was I following some strange note given to me by stranger?
I sighed. Being reckless was something I'd been doing a lot lately. Maybe Jazz was right. Maybe all this stress really was getting to me. I was hot and sticky, not from my indecision, but from the temperature in this place.
It was freaking hot in here!
I led myself down the hallways, stopping cold in my tracks as I reached my destination. The room's door was propped full open, little light entering from it as I realized that half the wall was charred off. A lump of misplaced belongings was huddled in the corner.
"You're here." A voice told me from my side. "Good. I don't have that much time."
"Who— What do you want?"
"Listen closely." It said, items shuffling to reveal the form of a man.
"Your ghost powers were never gone, Daniel." He told me. "they were only dormant."
"Who are you?" I asked. "What are you talking about?" I was freaking out. Beads of sweat ran down my face, my breathing hard as I moved closer. Now I was nervous.
"Tell me Daniel," he said. "how is it possible for one to live once more if they have already died?"
My voice came out in a whisper. "Died?" I croaked. Had I misheard what he had said?
"Yes." He said soberly.
"You're lying."I said, but a part of me knew that he was telling the truth. Horrible memories of pain erupted in my mind at the thought of evidence that he was.
There wasn't any. Whoever this guy was, wherever he came from… he obviously knew a lot about me. More than I knew about myself. With a sudden jolt, I broke from my reverie.
"I could be," he said, voice low. "But then again, I guess only you would know… my situation was different than yours, after all." He stood up from where he'd been sitting in the rubble, letting me see his tattered jacket and fedora. I still couldn't get a view of his face.
"Who are you?" I repeated in a strong tone.
"Oh, I think you already know, my boy; but that's beside the point. Time is running out."
"Time?"
"They won't be safe for much longer, Daniel." He said." Do you really think that only your mother and father's skills will save them? They won't, Daniel. Rest assured that this is something much larger than you can comprehend. This isn't just the world, it's the universe. The very fabric of existence will shred unless you act fast! Open your mind, Daniel!"
I did.
"…Plasmius." I said. The name rolled off my tongue smoothly, as if I'd been wanting to say it all along and it was just pining to come out. "How are you-"
"That's not important. What's important is that you use your skills, Danny… Your knowledge, everything that you have learned and use it for the better, or all will be lost."
"…What do you mean?" I asked slowly, this had to be another one of his schemes, it just had to.
"You must hurry, Daniel. It will be too late if you do not. It will be then that you will realize that you were the catalyst to a great catastrophe."
"Why are you telling me this?"
"Because," he said, his voice making it sound like his next statement was obvious. "sometimes the hero must save himself before he saves the world." He lifted his hat up, letting me see the unquestionable truth within his indigo eyes, before suddenly grabbing my shoulders.
"You must leave. Return to Amity. Don't come back here."
"But—" I protested, only to be cut off.
"Go!" His eyes burned an irritated red as he pointed to the sky. "Now!"
Without another word, I flew up towards the horizon.
It was freezing as a walked on the gray sidewalk, its color matching that of the dreary sky. Late November wind ran against my face, making the nearby leaves dance. My eyes darted up to the gleaming shine of the Ops Center as I reached the curb. Fentonworks.
Home.
All the questions I'd had in my mind suddenly vanished as new emotions overwhelmed me. It felt good to be here. I wrapped my had around the doorknob, a sad smile spreading across my face as I caught the familiar aroma of Mom's homemade cookies in the air. Another scent came along with it, this one familiar, too. Ectoplasm.
"Mom?" I called as I slowly swung the door open. She glanced over at me from the entrance to the kitchen, dark bags hanging below her eyes.
She half-smiled. "Danny." She said. "How was that meeting?"
"It… didn't go as planned."
"Well, I'm sure it wasn't that bad, was it?" setting a tray on the table, she walked over to where I was slumped in the foyer, and started fingering with my hair, which she didn't even have to reach up to touch. I hated it when she did that.
With a sigh, I asked her where Dad was, though I already knew the answer.
"He's in the basement. We've… met some complications with the ectoplasmic residue samples that we've been studying. They've been acting up."
"What do you mean?" I asked, voice nervous. "How are they acting up? I thought that you and Dad had solved it all—"
"We don't know, Danny. Everything we've tried just makes it worse! Nothing, not even the Ecto Dejecto shows any positive reaction towards the samples! "
"You've got to be kidding me!" I exclaimed. They'd spent so much time, so much effort and sweat into their experiments these past few months, and it all came out for nothing?
"No, Danny. " she said, "I don't think we'll ever be able to find a solution at this rate."
My anger melded into a mix of fear at her words. I suddenly couldn't stop thinking about all the things that could go wrong if… if…
"Mom…" I whispered gravely, fists clenching, "You can't give up."
"I know we can't, Danny. If we do, it could be worse then we'd ever imagined in the first place!" I felt her shiver as she thought of the possibilities, and it almost passed onto me. Almost, but I kept still.
"…What can I do to help you, mom?"
"Danny, sweetheart…"She mumbled "You've already done enough."
"No, I haven't."
"Danny." Mom said sternly, "You've been off and on to the Ghost Zone at least 20 times this month, and you've done all you can there,that's what matters."
"But I…"
We heard footsteps come and approach us, no doubt the ones of—
"Danny!" Dad exclaimed. "You're home!" He sat down next to me on the couch, slinging an arm around my shoulder. He gave mom a strange look.
"Hey, Dad."
"Why don't you go up to your room, Danny? I'm sure the cookies will be done soon."Mom said. The expression on her face told me to obey.
"Erm… okay." I replied.
I knew when I wasn't wanted.
Why do they have to do that? ! I mentally exclaimed as I nearly slammed the door to my room. This happened a lot lately, especially when I got home. Each time, I craved to know what they were talking about.
Of course, there was a way to do that, but…
No. I couldn't.
Yes, you can .Why not? You used to do it all the time.
My conscience was right. I used to do that all the time. But not anymore. I'd feel too guilty if I did. I sat down at my desk, sighing as I tried to backtrack on my day, but couldn't. My entire week was jumbled together from lack of sleep. I was surprised I was even awake, as a matter of fact…
But that didn't matter. What mattered was that I focused, and tried to figure out what the hell Vlad tried to tell me this morning.
He wasn't making any sense. Why, after so long, would he just pop up out of nowhere? Did he expect me to be all, "Hey, Vlad! Glad you're back! Did you have a fun time in space?" when I got there? Why didn't he attack, and why did he seem so… dire? What was he talking about when he said my ghost powers had been dormant? That was complete bull… it had to be…
But most importantly, how did he know about this? He couldn't have possibly known, not with him being gone. I shivered.
The guy was always messing with my head, out of the planetary range or not. My forehead slammed down onto the desk as I groaned. Why couldn't he have just stayed up in space? Why couldn't he have just-
"Danny?"
Jazz. I heard the door creak open, not moving my head from its designated spot on the wood.
"Are you alright?"
"Honestly…" I moaned, "Not at all."
"What's wrong?" she asked, "Do you want to talk about it?" I could feel her hand clasping my shoulders.
I sighed. "Maybe in a little while, Jazz. Just not now."
"You know I'll get it out of you eventually,"
I gazed up at her smirking form. "Why couldn't I have had a sister that majored in something other than psychology?"
"Because you didn't. Look, Danny, if you don't want to talk about it, that's fine; just be sure you don't… keep it in, you know? You're my little brother, Danny, and I hate to see you like this."
"Like what?"
" You know what I'm talking about," she retorted. "Look at all of this, at all of the little white lies that you keep telling me! You're not, fine, Danny! You haven't slept since who knows when! You're so uptight with Mom and Dad's work, when you should be focusing on your own!
"Jazz," I whispered. "Stop."
She did. Completely.
Can anyone guess what'll happen next? I'll give you a cookie if you guess right!