Animorphs: The Phantom Chronicles
By Son of Zeus0001 and Ani-DP-TT-PJ-H-Ben 10 Fan
The Prologue(Part One of Three)
"Talking"
(Thoughtspeak)
Emphasis
Talking to things in your own head and them talking back
Timeline: This happens after the episode "One of a Kind" in DannyPhantom, and starts Pre-series for Animorphs.
Note from Son of Zeus0001: Hi all! I hope you enjoy this. Also, I'd like to give a HUGE thank you to Ani-DP-TT-PJ-H-Ben 10 Fan for agreeing to co-author this with me.
Note from Ani-DP-TT-PJ-H-Ben 10 Fan: Hi everyone! I hope you enjoy the chapter!
Disclaimer: Is this really necessary? The website has the word fanfiction in the name!
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The room was small, with one door that took up almost half of the far wall. It was lined in metal and other materials, making it undetectable from the outside as well as giving the room a look not unlike that of a spaceship. To emphasize that feel, a large machine sat in the middle of the room. panels filled with buttons were visible on one side of the machine – a holographic communicator of sorts. To the side of the holographic terminal, squeezed into one side of the already cramped room, was a desk with a faintly blue glowing laptop computer resting on top of it.
Iniss 577 waited frustratedly next to the projector, impatient for the Visser to show himself. Their meeting had been scheduled for 7:45 and he was two minutes late. It infuriated her. She would never remark upon it to his face. One simply did not do that to a superior officer, especially one in command of the invasion of a planet. Well, one did not do that if they wanted to keep living. That didn't change her mood though.
No. She wasn't stupid. She knew what would happen to her if she offended the Visser. She would end up on the floor of a room similar to this, dead. No, she wasn't that stupid.
Have I mentioned how barbaric and disgusting your people are?
Iniss 577 rolled her host's eyes in response. It was a human gesture, not holding any weight to anyone who hadn't controlled a human host before. It gave off a sense of annoyance or mild amusement. An odd combination in her opinion. Oh, be quiet human. The least you could do is allow me to control your body without inane comments every thirty seconds. It isn't like your opinion matters anymore.
Go to hell!
Iniss 577 chuckled to herself at the human's reaction. Did I strike a nerve? Just think what it will be like when your children have been infested? Your daughter is intelligent for a human. She might actually be worth something to us. Your son though is a great disappointment. She suppressed a burst of glee at the human's instant fury. It was far too easy to torment her host, though she didn't mind that.
If you dare touch a single hair of their heads, I'll –
Iniss 577 cut her off with a cruel laugh. You'll do what? Watch me bring them to the Yeerk pool to be infested? Yes, you will. It is time for you to face it Madeline, you aren't in control anymore. You never will be again, no matter how hard you fight or struggle. You're my host. I control you. You have the honor of being mine to do with as I please. Do not think otherwise.
There was a long silence from her host, along with a sense of hurt and sadness. Iniss 577 did not see what the woman had to be sad about. It was the simple truth. The woman should be honored to be a host to any Yeerk, no matter what their rank. It was an oddity about humans that she did not understand. True, other races fought their control. But, humans fought, and never seemed to tire in the deliverance of their insults or complaints.
It was enough to – as the humans would say – drive her up a wall. The saying didn't make sense to her. Why would anger force you to climb a vertical surface? But, it seemed to be understood by her host as a flash of amusement and triumph flared up in the woman. Silence!
I didn't say anything. The woman sounded smug, perhaps a little contemptuous. Humans were frustrating. That was all there was to it as far as Iniss 577 saw it. She would much prefer one of those walking weapons, even with the speech impediment that they occasionally posed. They were so much more useful, and deadly.
Silence human! Or I shall order the infestation of your husband and children immediately and make you watch as their heads are forced under. Just think, your little Danny as one of us. Maybe I'd try to see if I could get him assigned to fight off-world. He might die in the line of duty, serving the will of the Yeerk Empire. I'd give him two days at most. I could make it happen. I will, if you don't shut up.
The woman fell silent as horror stole through her at the thought of her little boy, enslaved to a creature as vile as the one in her own head. The woman wanted to cry as images of his broken body flowed hauntingly through her mind. Why the woman found her vile, Iniss 577 didn't know. It was something about "taking away free will." But, it was just what her kind did. They controlled a host. It was natural. The host should relish the opportunity to be of such use.
Iniss 577 laughed. Would I really do that? A flicker of hesitation went through the woman at the question. Hesitation and… hope? Iniss 577 curled the woman's lips into a pleasant smile. Yes, I would. So, shut up!
She turned her attention away from the human, tapping her foot impatiently against the floor. The meeting had been set for 7:45. It was now 7:50. The Visser was testing her patience. Even if he was infinitely greater in rank than she, a commanding officer should be punctual. Being where you were needed, when you were needed, was part of what made a good soldier. If a squad took to long in getting somewhere, or was too early in arriving, it could blow entire operations. Punctuality was important.
The terminal flickered, and an image appeared above it. Iniss 577 could instantly feel the disgust and horror from her host. The image in front of her was an abomination as she saw it. A thing that should never have existed. Personally, she had to agree with her host, though for very different reasons. Andilites – in Iniss 577's opinion – should be irraticated. Every one of them should have a dracon beam leveled at their heads, and fired. They should not be hosts. Not after everything they had done to fight against the great and powerful and right,Yeerk Empire.
The image was of a quadruped that resembled something akin to the earth legend of a "centaur" with a few key differences. First, the tail wasn't that of a horse. It was far more like that of an earth scorpion, with a long and dangerous looking blade extending from the end of it. There wasn't a stinger. The creature didn't need one. The blade would be far more effective, able to cut straight through substances even as durable and unbending as metal. Also, its fur wasn't brown or any other color a horse would normally have. It was blue. If that didn't make it strange enough, there were four eyes. Two normal ones, and two on eye-stalks poking up above its head.
There was an instinctive hatred in Iniss 577, overridden only milliseconds after she saw the thing by the almost tangible feeling of contempt and dislike that the creature gave off. It was Visser Three. The Visser in charge of the invasion of Earth. The only Andalite controller in existence. Iniss 577 would be lying if she denied that part of her was green with envy – another human saying that didn't make any sense to her.
Envy was the next gut reaction. An Andalite host… the imagination could go wild with such possibilities. True, they should all be irradiated. But… the escafil device. Iniss 577 supposed that there were, despite her initial reaction, benefits to an Andalite host. To hold one of the most feared creatures in the Yeerk empire as a host would give influence and power that few others held.
The Visser fixed both stalk eyes on her host body, the contempt in his gaze skyrocketing – for once a saying she understood. (Report Iniss 577.)
Iniss 577 forced her host to nod, ignoring the irritation that the woman felt. "Yes Visser. We have managed to engineer dracon beams from this primitive earth technology. I have managed to convince the fool of a man that this host calls her husband to keep the information under wraps." There was a flare of anger from her host. Iniss smirked mentally at her and continued her report. "He will not expose any of this to the public, and will continue to build more of whatever we ask. He is not aware of the invasion and I see no reason to infest him. He is not worth the trouble, considered an incompetent crack pot by almost everyone who knows him. The children are also unaware of the invasion, though it is impossible to keep the technology secret from them. I expect to have another eighteen functioning dracon beams by the next human year if we can continue to obtain materials as we have."
The Visser noddedslowly. (Your progress is slower than I would wish Iniss 577)
She forced her host to bow, feeling a bead of sweat appear on the woman's forehead. It was a reaction to her own nervousness. A sign of weakness that she would have to conquer eventually. "My apologies Visser. It is not easy with these primitive tools. If I had the equipment available at the Sulp Niaar pool, it would progress faster."
The Visser's eyes sharpened, a menacing light dancing in their depths for a moment as he watched his subordinate. Perhaps she had been too obvious, too reckless in her desire to escape this backwater town. (The invasion must progress as planned.)
Iniss 577 nodded worriedly. Her host was finding a distinct pleasure in the Visser's treatment of Iniss 577, and she didn't like it. This host, even after all this time, had a shockingly strong will. Perhaps – to teach the woman a lesson, she would have one of her children's friend's infested. Perhaps the computer novice. He might actually be useful. Though, the rebellious, purple-eyed girl would be easier to trap. "I agree Visser. But, I would serve best at the Sulp Niaar pool, with the proper supplies and equipment. Besides, our other projects aren't going smoothly here either."
The Visser's image nodded again, both eye-stalks focusing on her more intently than they had before. (And what of the Askrai device?)
Iniss 577 felt a stab of panic at the thought of what she was about to report. It was not good news. It was not something the Visser would enjoy hearing. And, he did have a tendency to kill those who told him things he did not wish to hear. "Our first test subject revealed that the difference in DNA structure is too great for the Askrai device to work successfully on a human – even though their DNA is uncannily similar to that of the Khanassin warrior strain on Thaull. The first subject did not react well to its effects. The human Vladimir is unfortunately not a valid host any longer." She paused for a moment, organizing her thoughts, deciding not to reveal why the man was an invalid host. It was safer for both her and her host that way. "Our second attempt failed miserably. It activated on its own while we were not present, solidified, and opened a gateway to an unknown location through Zero-space. We were forced to seal it, though my host's husband insists on 'studying' it. It has caused several incidents, though none that were not containable." She willed her host to lick her lips. She was nervous about this next part, unsure how the Visser would take it. it was hard to tell sometimes what he would do. That was why her report so far had only revealed part of the full situation. But this was, probably, even more dangerous an act than concealing the aforementioned information. "I would not suggest continuing the project. It will only damage more potential hosts."
There was an almost physical sense of fury clogging the air as Visser Three answered. (WAS THAT AN ORDER INISS 577?!) All four of his host's eyes were directed at her now. Both the uncanny, too-large set, and the stalk-eyes were focused directly on her.
Hah! I hope he orders your death for that!
It took Iniss a moment to re-order her thoughts. She was treading into extremely dangerous territory now. It was best to be cautious in all dealings with any Visser. But, Visser Three… he was far, far, more intimidating than any of the other Vissers she had worked for. Or, at least, when he thought you were challenging his authority, he was. Directing a quick, half-hearted reprimand towards her host, Iniss 577 tried to suppress her own overwhelming terror. "No Visser."
The cloud of anger and rage lessened slightly as the Visser's drifted away from Iniss 577, his attention shifting to the screans that were not visible through the communications terminal. (Very well. Your chances are growing slim Iniss. Do not fail me again. You are to relocate to the Sulp Niaar pool Immediately and continue your work there.)
"Thank you Visser. I will not fail in this."
The Visser gave a derisive snort as the Z-space transponder dimmed, and his image vanished. That snort, Innis 577 thought, was quite the achievement given that his host body's anatomy was so unlike that of any being who used such a gesture as to make it a near impossibility.
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The Fenton living room was – for once – quiet. As usual, it was stuffed to bursting. Pieces of scrap metal, wires, screws, and half-complete inventions lay strewn across the floor. Small, gyrating machine parts that protruded from numerous small apparatus whined softly, stuck or tangled in the blue-grey carpet. The news on the television – usually blaring at a volume audible from the basement lab – was muted.
The room was simply, quiet.
"What?" Jazz shouted – more of a shriek really, if all present were being honest or uncharitable – as her textbook hit the floor, crunching a small motor under its weight. "B-But what about school? You can't just up and move us to some random town! Danny has friends here! And what about…" The young woman trailed off as her father paused in taking a bite of fudge. This was something that, in any normal conversation, wouldn't have effected anyone. It probably wouldn't even register if most people paused in eating to respond to their teenage daughter's angry outburst. But, Jack Fenton wasn't just anyone. Fudge was the fuel by which he lived his life. It was even part of his battle cry – the one he'd made up "incase he ever needed one."
The previous silence of the room was now shattered.
"Now Jazzerincess," The large man grinned exuberantly, his smile stretching from ear to ear. "You know your mother and my job is far more important than all that school stuff. Besides," Here he paused, stuffing the last of his bar of fudge in his mouth and swallowing it whole. "You and your brother can always make new friends."
The auburn haired girl spluttered for a moment, annoyed both with her father's proclamation that school wasn't important, and with his etiquette. Honestly, and they wondered why Danny hadn't been doing well in school the past few weeks. If they'd spent any time out of that stupid lab, her parents would notice his jumpiness, and almost constant nervousness. Her father had never been very observant of that kind of thing, but even her mother hadn't noticed anything. It just…ugh! They could be so oblivious sometimes.
The young woman opened her mouth to protest again, but was cut off by a stern look from her mother. "Jazz, sweetie." She paused, her eyes softening. "I know it's hard, but your father is right. We can't turn down a job offer like this just because you and your brother have friends here. Plus, there are some great schools out west. In fact, an old friend of mine is the vice principle of one of the best schools in that area. Please, just, give it a chance?"
Jazz grit her teeth, suppressing another outburst. It wasn't the idea of moving that she minded. Heck, the young auburn haired girl would usually welcome a chance like this. It would mean getting away from Casper High, getting away from her old "friends." The same friends who had disavowed any friendship towards her simply because she took her studies seriously. True, Dash was still interested, but sometimes it bordered on creepy.
No, the reason she was annoyed wasn't because of the moving itself. It was because of the short notice. Two weeks notice was not the way to tell your family that they were moving. Personally, she doubted they could even get everything packed in two weeks, much less move it to the other side of the country.
That, and her brother's recent behavior.
Jazz sighed, frustrated. Her parents had a number of very valid points. The job they had been offered, from what she could tell, was an incredible opportunity. They wouldn't tell her any details. She'd caught on to the significance of the job though, through slip ups that they had made. Apparently it was some extremely hush-hush project. Who's project though, she hadn't been able to ferret out. Currently, she suspected some high-up government agency.
Jazz glanced over at her brother, sitting nervously on the other end of the couch – as far away from everyone as he could get. Over the past couple of weeks, he'd been jumpy, secretive, and nervous. She'd seen him and his two friends whispering together in corners. She'd caught him sneaking into the house late one night.
… and still their parents hadn't noticed anything.
The teenage girl grimaced, annoyed at what she was about to say. Bracing herself for the inevitable, she licked her lips and nodded. "Fine. But I maintain my right to change my mind," she warned, raising a finger to point at her parents warningly. "If the school isn't a good fit, I want you to promise that you'll allow us to switch schools."
The following moment was a confused blurry mess of reactions. Her mother looked mildly upset, as if Jazz had just overstepped some boundary that she was unaware of. Danny opened his mouth to shout something, obviously upset by the family meeting's outcome. Neither of them were able to voice their objections however as Jack grinned widely and boomed "Why of course that's okay Jazzy-pants! Neither your mother or I would want you to stay at a school that didn't treat you nicely!"
"But, don't I get a say in this?" Danny shouted, jumping up from his seat on the couch, only to yelp and trip over his own feet, landing sprawled in a pile of unidentifiable machine parts.
The family thought they could hear an "Ow…" grumbled into a particularly odd looking metal… thing.
Jazz let out a slow breath. She'd have to look up this school. It wasn't like her mother to be so enthusiastic over something like this. Was it really just that good? Or, was it that her old friend was the Vice Principle that made her so enthralled?
Finally, nodding to herself, decision made, she picked her textbook up off the floor. "Hey mom?" She grimaced as she spotted a few noticeable tears in the pages – the result of one of the spinning whatsits that stuck out in odd places on the… admittedly strange looking, motor. Not whatsits, she scolded herself. The auburn haired girl made a mental note to spend less time around her father. Much less time. She would not start using words like "whatsits" or – the auburn haired teenager shuddered internally – "thingamajigifier" ever.
"What sweetie?"
Jazz jumped, startled out of her thoughts. "Huh, what?" She stared blankly at her mother for a moment, confused.
"You wanted to ask me something?" her mother pressed, sounding worried. Her concern was justified. Jasmine Fenton was not usually one for zoning out, unless she noticed similarities between herself and her parents, or discovered she was wrong about something. Than she was quite prone to being horrified, and missing what was going on around her.
Remembering her previous question, jazz nodded. "Right. What did you say the name of the school was again? Or, if you gave me your friends name, I could look it up."
Her mother seemed to frown in thought for a moment, as if trying to decide if she should tell her daughter, or just shrug off the question. After a few seconds, the older woman shrugged, coming to a decision. "Chapman. His name is Hedric Chapman. We went to high-school together."
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The past month had been something of a roller-coaster ride for Danny Fenton and his friends.
It had started with the accident. the trio had been doing homework when Danny's mother had told them that she and Danny's father were running to the store to pick up some groceries. Jazz had been out at the library, studying for an upcoming test. And that had left the three alone in the house, an opportunity that neither Sam, nor Tucker, were going to let go of easily. And, they hadn't. They'd convinced Danny to give them a tour of the lab – the lab he wasn't supposed to go in unless he was doing chores and had to clean.
That's when they'd convinced him to go inside the portal… And he'd gone along with it. Sam had called him a chicken! There was no possible way he could say no. And it had turned on. The raven-haired teen didn't really remember much about what actually happened. A bright green light. Lots of pain. His throat had felt raw. He'd heard screaming, like someone's soul was being ripped from their body. A cold, endless sweetness that had seemed to flood through him. It had spread with the pain.
That's when he'd tumbled out onto the metal floor of the lab.
And he was different.
Very different.
That's about all he remembered of the incident, his next memory being at about eight-thirty the next morning in the middle of breakfast. He'd been told the rest by the other two though, and hadn't liked what he'd heard. Thankfully, his parents coming home and discovering what had happened to their son was not part of the story. Ghost powers? Glowing? The jumpsuit he'd been wearing having inverted in color. It was a lot to take in.
Disturbingly enough though, that wasn't even the weirdest part. The truly bizarre part was that – apparently – he could go back and forth between the two forms at will. On top of that, the powers hadn't faded away. They'd stayed. Danny could walk through walls. He could turn invisible. Completely invisible! He could, he could do a lot of things that humans just couldn't do. He'd even almost gotten used to the occasional random and unexpected intangible limb, or invisible appendage – a side effect of the event, it seemed. It was still strange. But, it was something that was manageable. It was something he could keep hidden from his parents and Jazz, or at least he'd managed to so far.
Than the ghosts started showing up. The weird, green, glowing, red-eyed octopus things weren't even the strangest ones he'd seen. There was a weird dude wearing overalls who seemed to have an obsession with boxes and crates… anything square really. Some grandma-lunch-lady obsessed with meat, who'd tried to get Sam to eat meat. And, more recently, a bounty hunter that wanted Danny's pelt hung up on a wall. That particular incident had ended in a fiasco that left Danny as the main subject in an article about purple-back gorillas.
So, yeah, it could be said that their lives had been something of a rollercoaster recently… which just didn't seem to stop. Following the gorilla incident, had been one of the absolute strangest moments of the trio's life, when Star Rocklight and Paulina Sanchez invited them to attend a meeting of The Sharing.
Only Tucker had ended up going, and now couldn't stop talking about how absolutely incredible the organization was. Sam had rejected it out of hand, probably because of who had invited them to attend in the first place. And Danny, he'd been too busy to actually make it because his parents had called a family meeting. A meeting, in which they'd announced that the family was moving to some town in California. A decision, in which, neither he nor Jazz had gotten any say whatsoever. Their parents had just decided that they were moving, and that was that.
"So, you're just… moving?" the goth asked, kicking her feet at the box in front of her in frustration. The momentum of the kick sending her seat on the child-sized swing-set backwards a few inches. The park was mostly empty except for the three friends. A few kids played here and there, watched over by half-asleep parents, but none of them ventured near the three teens.
"Yeah," Danny stared down at the ground, his raven dark hair a messy curtain in front of his bright sapphire eyes. He'd been trying to work up the courage to tell his friends for about a week now, and hadn't really found a good time. Each day had just seemed too cheerful, or too soon, or too… something. He had always seemed to find reasons to put it off just one more day. It had been Jazz – finally – who'd tipped the scales and forced him to just tell them. She'd stared at him in that "I want to be a psychologist and am too awesome to fail" older sister kind of way that she always did and spouted off something about not wanting to burn bridges if he didn't have to. Then she told him that she'd already called both his friends, and that they'd meet him at the park in half and hour.
"They can't just do that!" Sam growled, frustrated with the whole situation.
"Yeah, they can. It's a good job that they've been offered. From the hints they've dropped, it's good money too. And…" The raven haired teen trailed off unhappily. It was so unfair! His parents get offered a dream job, and both he and Jazz get yanked half-way across the country to California! With two weeks notice! It just wasn't fair!
"Why?" Sam was angry now. "Parents don't listen! Worse, they don't understand! Why can't –"
Danny tuned out of her rant, poking at a rock on the ground with the toe of his sneaker. Tucker had been pretty quiet throughout the whole thing, not voicing his opinion one way or the other. Though, he had seemed to grow slightly paler when Danny mentioned he was leaving. The blue-eyed teen waited, letting Sam rant. When she was done, he sighed and turned to look at Tucker, who had also apparently zoned out. "What do you think Tuck?"
His voice came out steadier than he thought it would. The young man was thankful for that. He didn't want his two best friends to actually see how nervous he was about moving. The last time he'd moved was to Amity Park, when he was two years old. He didn't really remember much of it. But he couldn't help but worry. What if his new school was full of people like Dash. Who loved any excuse to toss people in a locker that they were offered? What if he couldn't find anyone there that had something in common with him? What if –
He cut that line of thought short. Jazz had told him that there was no use in worrying. It hadn't helped… much. But even that little bit was comforting, not that he'd ever admit that to Jazz. He couldn't give her the satisfaction of knowing that her attempts at Playing psychologist actually worked. That would ruin the fun.
"Dude! I'm just sad you won't be able to come to the Sharing with me." The techno-geek wiggled his eyebrows and grinned suggestively. "Star looks awesome in a bikini." He'd told stories about Sharing meetings before, and the numerous hot girls he'd met = and, surprisingly, talked to – while there. Apparently the pool parties were well worth attending, according to Tucker.
Sam made a disgusted sound and started to get up out of her seat on the swing-set. The goth was not fond of the blonde cheerleader. She wasn't really fond of any member of the A-list. But, Paulina and Star held a very special place of hatred in the young woman's heart, though she'd never told them why. Maybe it was a girl thing? She also didn't like the Sharing – if only because her parents had tried to make her attend. "To make some decent friends," she'd claimed was their reason.
Personally, Danny wasn't sure or not. Sam's dysfunctional relationship was common knowledge in Amity Park. And, his friend had a tendency of exaggerating a lot of the "horrors" that they forced upon her. And, it was true that they hadn't been overly friendly towards him, but her parents hadn't really been hostile either. They'd seemed pretty lukewarm on the subject of his friendship with their daughter, last time he'd overheard their parents talking.
Fear evident on his face, Tucker flinched away from the goth girl and raised his hands to try and defend himself. Sam's anger was another thing known across Amity Park. Known, and feared. Or, at least, the two boys liked to believe that others feared their goth friend as much as they did. "Just sayin'" Tucker flashed a grin at Danny, most likely hoping that Sam hadn't seen it.
She did, and made a grab for the boy's red beret and missing. Her claw-like hand faltered for a moment, clenching into a loose fist, before impacting against the side of the young techno-geek's face.
"Ow!" His face grew more serious however, a moment later, and he glanced at Danny. "But, seriously dude, what about the ghosts?" he asked, rubbing his cheek and glancing at Sam worriedly. At least she hadn't hit him on the forehead. Both boys were far too used to that particular punishment for their friendship to be entirely healthy.
Danny shrugged noncommittally, kicking at another rock to try and relieve some of the tension he was feeling. "Apparently their new boss is gonna get some guys to haul it down for them, with just about everything else in their lab. But, if you're wondering, they closed it off already. Mom didn't think it was a good idea to just let it sit there without locking it…" which was mostly true. It had been Maddie who'd convinced their dad that it would be a good idea to seal it off. Though, it hadn't exactly been her idea to begin with. Why they hadn't just done that from the beginning, he'd never know.
Glancing around, desperate for something, anything, to change the subject, the young dark-haired, pale-skinned boy's eyes landed on the box that Sam had kicked at earlier. It was large, like the box that the lab's mini-fridge had come in, and wrapped in silver paper with a black, lace bow tied at the top. It looked like something Sam would give for a birthday present, but about fifty or sixty times bigger. Seizing the opportunity to direct the conversation away from Tucker being a pervert, or his imminent departure from Amity Park, he decided to finally ask about it.
"What's in the box Sam?"
Turning, his amethyst-eyed friend stared at him intently, letting him know that she knew exactly what he was doing. Her "I know what you're doing" stare was one of the first he'd learned how to ignore… for the most part anyway. It was an achievement that Tucker still didn't think was actually possible. But, having known Sam for about ten years did grant one a level of inoculation towards her various death glares. Finally, her shoulders drooped and she sighed. "I was going to save it for your birthday, but didn't want the parental units to see it. I had a hard enough time explaining it away when I bought it."
Both boys perked up slightly. Something that Sam had to explain away was extremely rare. Her parents didn't necessarily approve of a number of her choices. But, they had long since reached the phase of "I don't even want to know" when it came to the odd things that their daughter bought with her allowance. And, her giving such things as presents was something that was almost unheard of. There had been a magazine a while back that she'd given to Tucker – one of the few times she'd indulged his occasionally perverted attitude – but that had been because she didn't want her parents to find it.
The two boys watched as Sam walked over to the box and picked it up, seemingly with little difficulty. In fact, it seemed more awkward than actually heavy. When they asked if she'd like help carrying it, the young woman just shook her head, saying "Nope" and walked off, clearly expecting the duo to follow.''
The goth lead the two boys through the park, drawing the occasional odd look from parents as they saw the large, strangely wrapped box in her hands. The stares of confusion lessened as they started down one of the more secluded and unused walking paths, headed towards… somewhere. The boys exchanged nervous glances as they followed Sam, not quite sure what their female friend had planned for them.
Finally, after a good ten minutes of silent walking through the more dense foliage near the less-used center of the park – a prospect that involved more tripping over roots and Tucker complaining that "his babies" weren't getting Wi-Fi service anymore, than actual walking – Danny couldn't take it anymore. "Come on Sam, what's with all the secrecy? It's not like you bought a nuke or something!" He paused for a moment, considering some of the things that he knew she'd bought in the past. "You didn't, did you? I mean, where would you get the money for something like that?"
Sam scowled, obviously annoyed with both the boy's antics and complaints, and dropped the box on the ground. Turning, she crossed her arms. "Just because you two don't seem to get how serious this is, doesn't mean that I'm as naïve."
"Huh?" Now, both boys were confused. What the heck was she talking about?
In response, the goth girl rolled her eyes. Honestly, the occasional obliviousness of both her friends was one of the things that she both loved and hated about them. And oh, how she hated it. Why Danny couldn't just – The young goth girl cut off that line of thought abruptly, her cheeks turning slightly rosy. Forcing her thoughts back on the topic at hand, she fixed her two friends with a glare. "If you're going to keep up this hero thing, you can't just go around in a jumpsuit."
"Umm… why?" Danny seemed honestly confused.
The purple-eyed girl sighed in irritation. He could be seriously oblivious sometimes. "Because Danny," She stared right at the ground, not wanting to look at those bright blue eyes. "What you can do…" She trailed off, again not really sure how to put what she wanted to say into words. Screw it, she thought. It wasn't like she hadn't tried to get through to them before. But, Danny seemed just to want to ignore his powers, and Tucker kept trying to get him to overshadow girls so he could get a date. It was time for someone to act serious about this situation. "Because there are people out there who would want to use what you can do to hurt people!"
Both Danny and Tucker were shifting nervously, obviously uncomfortable with this line of conversation. Tucker kept looking between Danny and Sam like he'd get hit again if he made a comment. Danny spent the time rubbing the back of his neck, like he always did when he was uncomfortable. Neither of them were ever really comfortable when Sam brought up the fact that Danny's powers made him a target – or would if people knew about them. But, it was also something that neither could deny was true.
Hesitantly, Danny removed his hand from the back of his neck and stepped forward, trying to catch Sam's eyes. "Sam, no-one's going to find out. And, really, what could they do if they did? It's –"
"Ugh!" Sam threw up her hands, cutting off whatever Danny was going to say next. "You're not invincible Danny! You've been beaten up in ghost fights before! Someone could use a sniper, or mind control you, or… something!" The young goth girl scowled at her friend.
Danny, taken aback by his friends vehemence, glanced at his computer-savvy friend for support. But, unusually, the techno-geek in the red hat was curiously solumn. He looked thoughtful, as if he were trying to decide which of his best friends to support. Or, perhaps, if supporting Danny was worth risking the wrath of his other friend. In the end, his self preservation apparently won out, and the techno-geek shook his head. "I hate to admit it, but Sam's got a point Dude."
Sighting in defeat, the raven-haired teen turned back to the goth. "Fine, so… how does the box fit into this? And…" The ghost-powered teen paused for a moment, realizing something. "Hey, what's wrong with the jumpsuit?"
Grinning, the satisfaction of her victory clear on her face, Sam turned to the box and dragged it a couple feet over, leaving it in a new resting place only about a foot in front of Danny. "Open it and find out."
Curious, the raven-haired teen approached the box and started tearing away the wrapping. The silvery paper was well secured with duct tape, and layered so that when the young man tore away at it, another layer showed under the previous layer. This continued, Danny growing more and more confused as he went on. Why would Sam package something so securely? Somone could get bored trying to open this thing. Maybe that was the point? To discourage people from tearing into it unless it was offered to them? The teen couldn't guess as to why Sam would do that… unless she'd been understating what had happened when she'd said she'd had to explain some stuff away? But why would Sam get him anything like that? Why would he need anything like that?
When he finally pealed back the last layer of wrapping, and opened the box, he was even more confused. Inside was… some kind of clothing? It looked like a bunch of thick, white, cloth plates over a light cloth outfit of some kind. He stared down at it blankly for a moment, before reaching down into the box and pulling it out to take a closer look. Underneath the strange outfit was a pair of steel-toed boots, and heavy gloves that looked like they were made of the same material as the clothes. Perhaps the most disturbing feature though was that all of them were white, a color that Sam tried to avoid almost as much as pink. "Uhh… what's this?"
Sam grinned wickedly, making note of the bewildered expression on both boys faces. "Body armor," she stated simply. "I had to do some research, but it should work for the superhero thing." Noticing the blank stares that both Danny and Tucker were now giving her, she continued. "The plates are boron carbide covered in Kevlar and Nomex, secured over an elastic underlayer."
"Which means what exactly?" Boron Carbide? Nomex? Probably the only thing the boy had heard of from that list was Kevlar. But, he'd thought that was for vests, like cops wore? How had Sam gotten this? Heck, how had she afforded it? He'd always assumed body armor to be expensive, and strictly monitored, not something an average teenager could get their hands on easily, if at all. Which still left the question: How had Sam gotten this?
Surprisingly it was Tucker who answered his question, reading off of his PDA. "Boron carbide is an extremely hard boron-carbon ceramic material used in…" He trailed off, choking slightly and staring up at Sam as if seeing her for the first time. "How did you…?" He choked off again, still apparently struggling to come to terms with what he'd read.
"What's it used in?" Danny asked, slightly annoyed at both his friends now.
"Ghm, right." Tucker cleared his throat and continued reading. "… extremely hard boron-carbon ceramic material used in tank armor, bullet proof vests, and numerous industrial applications. With a Mohs hardness of about 9.497, it is one of the hardest materials known, behind cubic boron-nitride and diamond." Tucker stopped there, apparently having read all the important bits already. Again he stared weirdly at Sam, joined this time by Danny.
"Umm…" Danny looked slightly uncomfortable. "Sam, I hate to pry, but…" He rubbed the back of his neck nervously for a few seconds. After the silence had grown slightly awkward, he finally spit out his question. "How did you afford this?"
Now it was the Goth's turn to squirm uncomfortably under the gazes of the other two. She had never revealed her family's wealth to her two friends, dreading that they would treat her differently if they knew. Dreading, to some extent, that they'd start looking at her like she was better than them. Like they looked at the A-list. No, she was not comfortable with this. But, she'd made the decision when she'd first bought the body armor, recognizing it as an impossibility that they would find out.
So, she told them.
It was horrifying.
Worse than she'd expected, though mostly because of Tucker. He wouldn't stop peppering her with questions. Could your family buy a bowling alley? Could your family buy a yacht? Could your family buy the packers? The questions just kept coming. And the techno-geek just wouldn't stop! Finally, after about twenty or so minutes of questions, the goth was fed up.
"Enough! Can we please get back to the matter at hand?"
"But –" Tucker tried to object, but stopped when she leveled one of her most fierce death glares at him.
After a moment more of awkward silence, in which both boys looked ashamedly between themselves and Sam, Sam decided to direct the conversation. Clearly, they weren't going to get over the revelation that she was filthy rich immediately, so she had to force them onto another subject. "Try it on," she stated.
"… okay!" Danny seized onto the subject after only a moment, realizing what it was. A way out of the awkwardness. A blessed, blessed way out of the awkwardness. But, that was when a thought struck him, and he stopped, placing the main body of the armor back in the box and turning to look at Sam. "Are you sure? I mean, this was probably pretty expensive…" The young man trailed off, cursing himself. There was the subject again.
"Try. It. On." Sam said simply.
Right…
Danny turned back to the box, but halted as another thought struck him. Avoiding the obvious question out of a desire to avoid more of Sam's anger – Why is it white? – he glanced up at his two friends. "Human or ghost mode?"
Tucker grinned, glancing up from his PDA. "Ghost mode, dude! That'll look sweet!"
Danny nodded and searched for that presence, that place that lay just beyond some imaginary point at which everything expanded. Taking a deep breath, he let the blue-white rings appear at his waist and wash over him. He could feel the change, like always. That cold, endless, sweetness spreading through his veins as the rings of energy moved across his body. His lungs and heart and other organs seizing up as the light passed over his chest and moved further upward. The brief moment of absolute terrified horror that he felt before the seemingly endless energy filled him, sustaining him even though he couldn't breath, even though none of his organs could function. And the urge to move, to act, to do something with that energy.
He clamped down on that instinct as soon as it appeared. It wouldn't be a good idea to go zipping around the park where everyone could see him. He didn't want to know how people would react to that. Some glowing, white-haired, green-eyed kid flying around would definitely end up on the news if he wasn't careful. Then what? It was probably best not to think about that.
Glancing up at his friends, he smiled, hoping they didn't see his nervousness. Hesitantly, he reached for the zipper on the back of the jumpsuit, before stopping and grinning. Instead, he… well he wasn't really sure what he did exactly. But, he did something, and his jumpsuit fell through his body to the ground. He'd made himself intangible, bringing the light clothes under the jumpsuit with him, and just letting the suit fall way.
The trio paused for a moment, staring down at the jumpsuit as Danny stepped away. It was pure black with white highlights. The boots, gloves, and belt the same white color. They were opposite what they'd been when he'd first put them on – before the accident with the portal. But, as they watched, the colors seemed to fade back into their original scheme. The gloves, belt, boots, and collar regained their dark, black hue. The body of the jumpsuit seemed to leach away, bleaching to a stark white. It all happened gradually, over about thirty seconds as the teens stared at it.
"Umm… is it supposed to do that?" Tucker asked, prodding the jumpsuit nerviously with a foot after a few more minutes had passed. It didn't try to eat him. It didn't wrap around him and strangle him to death. It didn't do anything. It just sat there on the ground, back to normal.
After another long pause, Danny shrugged. His white hair glowed quietly in the bright afternoon light filtering through the trees. "Maybe…?" He wasn't really sure. He'd never thought about what might happen if he took the jumpsuit off. There hadn't really seemed like any reason to think about it. Maybe it was a side effect of the material touching him while in this other form? Would the same happen to the body armor that Sam had gotten him? Setting his jaw, the young man decided that there was only one way to find out.
He reached down into the box and gripped the suit with a pale, glowing hand. Picking it up, he stared at it for a moment, trying to figure out how Sam had expected him to actually put it on. There was no zipper in back, hidden under the cloth-covered plates. There wasn't a series of buttons either. Grimmacing, he glanced over at Sam. "How exactly am I supposed to put this on?"
The goth rolled her eyes, annoyed at her friend's lack of imagination. She seemed to be doing that a lot recently, rolling her eyes. Could it be one of those coping mechanisms that Jazz had ranted about last Wednesday? "Turn it intangible and slip into it."
"Right," Danny said, blushing slightly. Why hadn't he thought of that?
Turning back to the body armor – That thought was still weird inside his head – he turned it intangible. It took several tries to get the armor on. Even though it was intangible, it was still elastic cloth, and as a result foled and bent like any other object. After the fifth try, he had the suit more or less on, except for a couple pieces that had folded into his legs or arms. Groaning in frustration, the young man tried to correct the problem. It took a total of twenty-four minutes to get the armor on properly, by which point he still wasn't any more comfortable with the concept.
Body armor was the kind of thing that he and Tucker argued over while playing Doomed. It was the kind of thing that gave their characters stat bonuses and protected them from Chaos, the one other person who seemed to know how to play, and kicked their butts every time! Body armor wasn't something that he wore. It wasn't something that random teenagers had given to them as going away gifts. It just wasn't!
When he'd pulled the boots and gloves on, he turned back to look at his friends. "How do I look?" he asked, not really wanting an answer. In his own opinion he looked like a bright, white, eye-soar. It felt like he'd be easily seen by anyone who even tried to look. It felt… uncomfortable.
He wasn't used to being the center of attention. He was used to being shoved into lockers, or trampled by the football team. He was used to being walked on by people who were both richer and more popular than himself and his friends. People who actually had influential connections in the town. Or, if he were being more honest with himself, being pummeled by ghosts that came out of a portal in his parents basement lab.
He was snapped out of his thoughts by a quiet gasp from Sam. Frowning, he focused back on his friends. Both of them were looking at him strangely. "What's wrong?" he asked, once again cursing himself, though this time it was because his voice had cracked when he'd spoken. Guys wearing body armor, who had superpowers, weren't supposed to be nervous enough for their voices to crack when they talked.
The only response he got was a slightly limp hand, raised by Sam, to point at his chest. Confused, and now more than a bit worried, Danny glanced down. Spreading outward from his waist, from approximately the same place that the rings usually appeared, was a dark stain of black. He watched, partially fascinated, partially nervous, still not breathing, as the cloth plates of the armor changed, their bright whiteness fading and darkening to a pitch black. He watched as it spread over the plates on his chest, and down those covering his legs, until the entire suit had turned completely black.
His head snapped up as Tucker snorted and quipped, "Yeah, 'cause that's not ominous. On the up side, you look like Batman."
DPADPADPADPADPA
General information: Both Boron-carbide, and Nomex, are real things. Boron-carbide, as mentioned in the chapter, is used in body armor. It's actually quite amazing stuff. I've heard stories of it stopping a sniper bullet every once in a while. Nomex isn't generally used in body armor as far as I'm aware, though I could be wrong. It is, however, used in the suits worn by most – if not all – firefighters to make their gear fire resistant.