The Ghost Cleanser Incident: Danny

This day was the 1st of November. To most, a day to be spent fraught with regret from eating so much stolen candy— lazy, slow and ambling. That is how our resident ghost hero would like to spend the day after his most thematically appropriate day anyway. The little known occasion following Old Hallows Eve, which Danny dreaded each year, was the ferocious cleansing of the Fenton house which lasted for an entire week following all the evil that definitely contaminated them.

What really happened was Danny spent this time hiding elsewhere, since he definitely fell into the category needing to be "cleansed", and he would rather not be, well, you know. Really.

However, one of the more experimental practices this year, implemented by Jack exactly two seconds after thinking of it without consulting Maddie whatsoever, was letting the ghost portal "air out" for a night. When they all came downstairs the next morning, he was quite proud of himself. "Look at all those spooks go!" He said. "We'll get this joint clean yet!" He said. Then he got cuffed up the head and they covered the house in a giant quarantine bag.

(What his parents always seemed to forget was that they house would always be at least slightly haunted no matter what they did because of that big freaking portal to the underworld they had. Things like these just couldn't be helped! It didn't matter how much salt they put on everything this time of year—a practice, among others, that they did this time of year for the traditional value. This was because Jack was pulling out "all the stops!" and "hitting those spooks with everything that we've got!" It was exhausting.)

So the town was full of ghosts that were being caught but with nowhere to stick them at the end of the day because of the quarantine. Therefore an increasing pile of Fenton thermoses were tasked to pick up the slack of a never-ending barrage of fun.

This led Danny taking Sam (for "moral support") back to the very same house to stare at, more than a little daunted by how to dump a few ghosts in the portal without getting eviscerated.

From the driveway, the ops center towered above them, mockingly, because no way Danny was going to fly it. The brick face was smooth as well, no foot holds, hand holds. No trees. Not much of anything that they could use to climb. Jumping was kind of out as well. Maybe Sam was really there because she had more experience at breaking into places. Danny could run with that. The girl clicks her mouth, leaning on one foot in concentration while the boy just aggravated his dandruff.

"Ladders?" She asked,

"Nada."

"Any rope and grapple stashed someplace?"

He gives her a helpless kind of look.

"Are you completely dependent upon your ghost powers and of no use to anybody without use of them?"

He cringes. She reaches over and nods his head for him, "Yes Sam," she impersonates with a hand in his hair, "I'm a useless piece of shit," she rocked him back and forth until he has enough and shakes her off, scowling. She cackles,

Then with her hands, she spells out, "Good! You're finally getting it!" Until finally dotting him on the nose.

Danny sighed. "We weren't prepared for this at all," he says.

Sam gives her a 'no shit sunshine' look. She also takes the time to give a concerned look at her hands from their perilous time in Danny's hair.

He snorts, then takes another look up at the house. Then just down at his shoes.

Sam raises her eyebrow, but before she can respond a car pulls up behind them and their ears perk up. Doing nothing better, both teens amble around. Jazz's car, but squealing around the corner to the driveway, and as Sam looks at it and where they are, and how the thing is about to hit them. Suddenly Danny is grabbing at her, and she's grabbing right back, and they're tucking and rolling into the grass feet away, panting for their lives.

The car screeches to halt in the place they'd been second before (if not shorter). The driver, Jazz gets out with an amused look on her face, her door screeches closed. She raised her sunglasses to them.

"What are you guys doing here?" She asks,

Both teens, with their backpacks of thermoses and butts digging into grass, looked indignant. They do explain their situation to Jazz, who also longingly looks up the building.

Sam straightens herself up. "I should be asking you the same thing," she shoots back.

Jazz takes on a dark look. Another victim of the week. "I'll have you know that I'm going to get into that house." Danny looks at her and her blazing denial with amusement for a second. "You may have to stay out of there, but that doesn't mean they can keep me out forever."

"You've been voluntarily gone," Danny points out.

"Details." She waves her hand. "Point is, they may have driven me out, but that is where their reign of terror stops, because no matter how much they try, they are not going to break my spirit." She clenches her fist, looks up at the house and takes a cleansing breath.

"And you're going to do with without the door." Says Danny.

"The trellis, little brother,"

Out of the blue, Sam smiles and hits Danny on the back as Jazz marches away. The pair sort of drift after her as they circle to the back of the house

"Whatsatrellis?" He whispers to Sam.

She gives him another look, "It's a grate meant for creeping vines to latch on to and look pretty up a building."

"Ah," he says thoughtfully, and then, "Oh! That thing?"

In all likelihood, Danny never actually had use for the trellis underneath Jazz's window, and barely knew it existed. A while back, she had pleaded aesthetics and had gotten the thing installed. The vines were kind of pretty, weaving down the house, except for the conspicuous little holes dotting the façade. She'd also taken the liberty of securing it to the building a little tighter.

"I have one of these," Sam snorted.

Jazz expertly mounted it first and took only seconds to get up the building. As opposed to Danny who still looked at it warily. She carefully opened her window, but with an annoyed shout, found a plastic barrier separating her. This was the thick plastic which coated the entire interior, it was shrink-wrapped full of iron beads. "Agh!" She groans. Sam and Danny crane their necks from below to see what was going on,

"I can't see past your big butt!" Danny yells,

"Guys, there is a literal iron curtain here," Jazz calls back.

"Oh." Sam says, cracking a smile "Well that's unfortunate."

Danny looks blankly, having slept through that history class. He shakes his head. "I can fix that," he says, and with a quick look around, he's transforming and flying up to meet Jazz.

First, he tries to simply phase through. It ends with his face awkwardly squished against the surface. He shakes it off, giving the thing a wary look. Next he goes in with a finger, and a tiny ectoblast, which makes his comrades jump. There is just a light puff of smoke, but upon inspection no damage. Then he just jabs his finger into the plastic, and stubs it.

Jazz snorts at him.

He gives her a wounded look. Without much pomp, the boy lights up another ectoblast, except in a very fine blade across his palm. He looks at it, and with his other hand he shoves the plastic barrier, seeing it reverberate all along the inner walls. Then he slices the plastic, and it explodes open, little iron beads going everywhere.

It wasn't fun, but they were in. The teenagers pile through the window—Danny, of course, reverts back—and with Sam, they're heading out of Jazz's room, leaving her behind. The two carefully close the door behind them. Sam makes a habit of looking both ways since they can hear the Fenton's talking from downstairs.

They give each other meaningful looks.

They reach the top of the stairs, but Sam shoots a hand out to keep Danny from just wandering down the stairs towards them. They see shadows and motion, and creep to hide on a wall. Suddenly Maddie, looking far larger than usual in her contamination control suit, comes into view. She's turned away from them, and Sam (at least) can see that the suits severely limit her line of sight – good for them, except that she's carefully examining the railing, a mere flick of her head from noticing them.

"Hey Jack," she calls, "look at this residue. Why is it so thick on the railing, of all places?" She has the surface under a black-light of sorts, observes the bright green streaking trail up and down the wood.

To the teenager's plight, the large man does so appear. He wields his own 'black-light' and shines it in the same spot, "Ghosts don't use stairs," He says.

"I know they don't. So why does it look as though one has been wiping their—" She shudders, "their whatever, up and down our railing," She trails the 'black-light' up the railing. Up and up, until the hiding teenagers are skirting backwards, trying to stay very quiet. "Frequen—"

She stops in her tracks, because at the very top of the stairs the signature took on a dull, pulsing glow – i.e., Danny, with only a thin little wall for cover.

"Frequently." Maddie mumbles. She moves along the railing with her 'black-light', scanning the space. Indeed, the more she seemed to look, the more ghostly residue she found. In her mind, the cleansing came none too soon. She also found all varieties of handprints and dirty, green colored streaks across the wall, and more sudden violent splatters that matched the pattern of redone drywall. Closer now, the concentration of the pulsing glow steadily grew brighter going up the stairs.

Sam and Danny sat frozen together. The girl looks at the ghost boy accusingly, him back at her with panic. They both alternatively blame each other and lean forward a little to look at the stair's landing. It happened so quickly that Maddie simply poked her head up and saw them. She frowned, and they all stared at each other.

Until she finally said, puzzled: "Kids?"

Jack called up, "There are kids? I thought they all bailed?"

Sam and Danny were scooched side-by-side on the wall looking none too guilty. Maddie and her 'black-light' scrutinize them closely, a quick pass-over with the light shows that they are indeed dripping with residue. Her surprise turns to concern in a flash.

"Oh, look at you!" She scolds, "All of these contaminants!"

"Uh, I can explain," Danny starts,

But Maddie isn't listening as she looks at them under the 'black-light'. With a brief exchange of glances, they pick themselves up from the ground. "No, no," Maddie says, she clicks her tongue, looking conflicted at going over to attend them and getting some of the real cleansing gear she had downstairs. "Oh, how did you even come in contact with so much material. Now, Sam, you look reasonably ok apart from some smudges here and there, but Danny—" the boy cringes, "Danny you look awful—and your backpacks!"

Of course she would zero in on those. The two teens were backed up against the wall like they were at a stick-up. And the backpacks? Well they were practically glowing. The only possible upside is that they overshadowed the faint glow Danny always gave off.

"Are you trying to bring contraband in here?" Maddie exclaimed. She looked honestly perplexed and more than a little worried. Mostly, and what was causing the sinking feeling in Danny's chest, was the disappointment.

"What!" Jack exclaimed. He peeked up the stairs behind Maddie, while slung over his shoulder was one of the cleansing weapons. It was big enough that it looked better to use as a bludgeoning weapon than a vacuum. The nozzle was clutched in his hand. A cross between over exited and confused could describe his near pant.

"Kids," Maddie growled. Then, to Jack: "Go get the ghost-catcher, honey. We'll clean you guys up."

"What? We're not that bad," Danny objected, but his dad was already going down the stairs. "Maybe we did just step in something, we could just shower with ghost-repellent soap?"

Sam jumps in, "Yeah, it must be something in the water. You know there are a lot of ghosts in town these past few days!"

Now that just made Maddie's eye twitch. Sam drifts off her point.

Danny soldiers on, "That sounds a touch over-kill,"

"Just the very best," Maddie says tensely, then in her mom voice: "Now, bags."

She holds her hand out expectantly. From downstairs they could hear Jack fumbling around in who knows what. The only escape route was Jazz's room, which Maddie stood directly in the way of. Ghost powers were out of the question. Hesitantly, after similar deliberations in the heads of both teens, they handed over the bags.

"Thank you." She immediately popped the zippers, and it takes her no less than half a second to look back at them in disbelief at the piles of thermos's in one, and then upon opening and finding the same thing in the next, she puts them on the floor and straightens up.

"I—I," Danny tries again.

"Not another word, young man!"

His jaw shuts with a succinct pop, although his eyes are still ripe with protest.

Danny's mother then reaches down to grab one, and upon quick inspection, asks: "Are these all full?"

The boy nods.

Maddie considers the thermos in her hand, and definitely holds back a smile. Then Jack rushes back in, holding the catcher over his shoulder like a baseball bat. "What're we doing," he asks.

"Firstly, these two are filthy. But look at these backpacks," she says, rattling a thermos in her hand.

Jack looks down at the thermos, then back at the teens (still looking cagey), then down, and up again. He, for one, smiles broadly. He laughs: "What have you been doing with them, wrestling?"

Danny begins to answer, but gets a subtle elbow in the ribs from Sam. The kind of elbow that says, shut the heck up and let them come up with their own story. It also had a hint of, and that's because you have dumb excuses. The boy's jaw clicks shut again.

His father is still gleeful. "You have been wrestling with them haven't you!" He says in a mi casa es su casa kind of tone, "if so, good job." A quick look at Maddie, who looks disapproving on principle if not in spirit, "but keep it cleaner next time alright," he nudges Danny, and then goes to ruffle his hair. His hand is smacked away first.

"Ah! Catcher first, touching later. We're in a clean space." She reminds everyone.

"No!" Says Danny, who quickly realizes he came off too strong (judging from the suspicious looks he now received), "I mean, uh, how are we going to get that thing to work anyway?" He stutters out.

Sam gives him a sharp look (a 'Don't be Encouraging them' look). To his parents: "It doesn't look safe," she adds.

"NOPE, not safe. You're not going to make me go through that thing, really?"

Maddie raises an eyebrow, "Danny," she says, "You're going to be fine."

He looks at her. At the patient steel in her eyes in particular. He also figured out that resisting so much was only just causing a scene. They were going to ask why he was so opposed to going through, and guess what, make him go through. If not now…

With one more look at Sam.

Jack squares him up, and Danny moves to the spot (Maddie reached out and pulled Sam back, who was a little tense). He closes his eyes and jumps.

The wind whistles through his head. (Past his head?) There are a couple of seconds that pass until the boy feels the ground, and also that he is human. His ears are still ringing. (Jack has a good swing, it was a shame they'd never played baseball. Well, that wasn't quite true, they had played it, but with slightly modified rules, and cardboard cut-outs of ghosts on each base and guns… he couldn't quite remember how it went.)

Sam is above him suddenly, grabbing at his shirt collar quite urgently. A floppy hand of his tries to bat her away (but really just twitches on the floor.) He does manage to open his eyes and see the scene unfold in front of him.

While he was on the left side of Jack, Phantom was on the right. On his side, just as his he, his human counterpart (and didn't that feel strange) was coming to. Except something was wrong. Phantom was slower, his movements weren't as crisp as they should have been, being free of the mortal coil, or you know.

"GHOOOOOST!"

Why did Danny feel his blood pumping so wildly in his veins?

Jack and Maddie grapple for their guns. The ghost catcher gets flung, the room hardly notices as a metal spire pierces its fragile webbing, Maddie has a gun before Jack can flinch for his. Two guns while he's rooting in his back pockets. She snarls as she whips them out, pointing them square at Phantom.

Jack has his gun by now, plants Phantom in the sights.

"FREEZE SPOOK!" Maddie is screeching. The ghost groans at the sound. His hand rises to go through his hair, half a yawn stifled, then an eye opens. He realizes that the guns are pointed at him.

"HANDS IN THE AIR," Jack is yelling this time. "OR IT'S GOING TO BE MOLECULE BY MOLECULE"

And that seemed to be the words that did it, because much to their surprise, the ghost seems to be resuscitated into movement again, "Alright, alright," he's muttering. Jack and Maddie follow him up with their scopes, "You got me, I surrender!" He smiles.

Jack nearly drops his scope, "You what?"

Maddie smacks him with the butt of a gun, "He's giving up, finally growing some sense I see?"

"He's what!" Sam blurts out. She covers her mouth.

"I'm giving myself up," Phantom enunciates. He demonstrates this by holding out his wrists. "You may cuff me now, uh, ghostly warriors."

Jack looks concerned, "Uh, you're not really…" he starts,

"He's trying to play a trick on us, Jack!" Maddie cuts in. "This one never surrenders. He's too sneaky," she says to her husband. He looks at her sidelong, torn between her and the ghost.

"I'm choosing not to take offense to that."

"Always the wily ghost, huh? Well we're not falling for it!" She advances on him closer, nearly pinning the ghost with the barrel of her gun while he shrinks backwards.

"I'm—uh," Phantom tries,

"MOM!? DAD?!"

The screech causes everybody to turn around. Jazz stood at her doorway looking at them in horror.

"Jeez, we've got kids everywhere," Jack mutters.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?"

Maddie, who still had Phantom pinned against the wall, shares a look with the ghost. He smiles and jingles his wrists at her again, which just makes Maddie angry. The woman twists suddenly and flings the ghost on the ground, where she plants a foot on his back, and takes off her mask for her daughter.

"Darling—"

"No," Jazz says again, "What are you doing to him!"

Maddie scowls. Underneath her Phantom writhes weakly. "You know what we're doing honey,"

"I can't condone it anymore." The teenager crosses her arms. "You're cruel."

Jack takes one look at her daughter, eyes brimming with tears (but not really upset enough to send a quick wink to the two black-haired teens on the ground), and he comes over to envelop the girl in his arms. "It's ok," he says in her ear.

She takes this moment and runs with it, and starts to cry. This pulls Maddie's heart strings, which also causes her to loosen her boot.

At which point Phantom rolls over into a tuck and run. He's down the hall in a flash, disappearing into Jazz's room as the parents are turning after him.

The hunters are torn between looking furious and being concerned. Jazz gives them a hard look, daring them to choose. Jack and Maddie look between each other, a quick flash between them, then Jack kisses Jazz on the top of her head and makes a run for it with Maddie close behind.

"We've got a runner!" He's yelling.

Jazz looks after them, deflated. But then she turns her attention to the boy and the girl on the floor.

"You want to talk about being the favourite child," Jazz says to her brother, squatting down beside him.

The boy readjusts his eyes, then coughs. "They didn't even look at me," he replies, not harshly. Sam has him propped upright. He's sort of sagging to the side.

"Well they certainly do have their priorities straight," Jazz comments. From there, the conversation seems to fade. They all sit in silence, watching the boy drift off.

Sam just taps him on the shoulder, and he starts awake.

"You're not looking too good," she says to him.

He looks up at her, and rubs a hand to his eye, "I don't feel, 'too good', I feel awful, like somebody's stepped on me and—"

But then he stops because Sam is looking at him cross-eyed.

"What?" he says.

"Oh, nothing. It's probably not a big deal but you don't sound very much like the fun Danny," then to Jazz, "hence why I'm not high-fiving you right now,"

"Oh? I don't think I was around for that one,"

"Well, then the fun Danny was a pretty cool guy,"

The human in front of them puts his hand through his hair again, "I guess we're going to have to deal with that, well won't we?"