Hunter & Hunted
ONE
"Dude, check out the cheerleaders," Tucker said to Danny. He pointed to the girls in front of the school that were shakily pulling themselves into a pyramid. The head cheerleader, Paulina, stopped them.
"Come on!" she said, "Energy! We want our teams to win, right?" The other girls gave a well-practiced round of clapping and squealing.
"Come on Tuck," Danny said, "Let's just go to detention so we can get on with our lives."
"Don't be such a grump 'cause you know you don't have a chance with Paulina."
"I'm a grump because there's a dance this Friday, neither of us have dates, and you won't shut up about it," Danny retorted as he and Tucker walked into the school.
"Hey, I'm going to get a date!" Tucker said, "You just wait."
"You've asked three girls already. None of them knew who you were. All three are outside in practice right now," Danny said. They reached the classroom next to Mr. Lancer's office, where detention was always held.
"You forget, they were all seniors," Tucker said, "I was setting the bar high. I've got a couple freshmen picked out anyway."
"Whatever," Danny said, walking into the classroom.
"Gentlemen, thank you for joining us," Mr. Lancer said. Danny walked over and took a seat next to Pyro Peter. Pyro grinned at him.
"Two weeks dude? What d'ya do?"
"Mr. Anderson, that's not something to be proud of," Mr. Lancer said. He looked harshly at Danny, who shrugged.
"Anyway, work on something productive, and don't leave your seats. I'll be right back," he said, and left the room.
"Seriously," Pyro said, "What did you guys do?"
"He started a food fight," Danny said, pointing to Tucker, "I'm guilty by association." Pyro nodded and laughed.
"Alright, if you don't wanna tell me, that's cool," he said. Danny rolled his eyes, and pulled out some math homework he needed to finish for Monday. He picked up his pencil and tried to concentrate on how to calculate angles of different shapes. Of course, as he pushed himself to focus, his mind wandered off all on it's own. He noticed Pyro clicking his pen slowly. Cla-click. One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Cla-click. One Two Three. Four. Five. Cla-click. Tucker was fiddling with his phone under his desk, glancing up at the door every few seconds to see if Lancer was coming back. A couple of the other kids were having a whispered conversation about the dance on Friday.
Sighing, Danny put his pencil down. He wasn't gonna be productive, and he knew it. Instead, he leaned back in his desk, and looked out the window. He could see the cheerleaders practicing out front. Paulina jumped up and down, demonstrating cheer moves for the other girls, and shouting out peppy rhymes. Her ponytail bounced back and forth, and the morning sun made her skin shine like copper. She was easily the hottest girl in Amenity Park.
"Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer said, making Danny jump, "Surely there is nothing more interesting out the window than the geometry homework on your desk."
"No sir," Danny said. He picked up his pencil and went back to his work.
"Thank you Mr. Fenton," Mr. Lancer said, sitting back down at the teacher's desk. Silence filled the room. Leaning back in his desk, Pyro started clicking his pen again. Cla-click...cla-click...cla-click...cla-click.
"Anderson," Mr. Lancer snapped. Pyro snickered, but stopped.
Danny leaned forward, propping his head up with his left arm. In the room around him, pencils scratched at paper, feet tapped the floor lightly, and the occasional chain of coughing passed through the rows of students like the wave. Was it getting warmer? Danny thought about taking his jacket off, but it seemed like so much effort. He blinked, trying to keep his eyes from drooping. Still, he hadn't gotten much sleep for the last few nights. Nightmares...about the ghost of Mary Stugers. She was throwing meat at him, while Tucker and Sam led warring riots in the background. It was bizarre. The sun warmed his back as he leaned even further forward in the desk. It was weird though... for a second there, he could've sworn he shivered.
Next thing Danny knew, he hit the ground. Half of him did, anyway. His legs were still up in the seat of the chair, but he had somehow fallen through the bar of the desk, his right shoulder taking the brunt of his weight.
"Fenton, are you alright?" Mr. Lancer asked. Danny twisted awkwardly, and his legs slid out of the desk. Had he phased through the bar? He sat on the floor, blinking and trying to get his bearings. Mr. Lancer came over and helped him up.
"How did you-never mind," he said, "Are you...feeling okay?" Danny blinked. Well, his shoulder was sore, but it seemed okay. And he didn't think his head hit the ground. But he had to get out of here. If he really did sense a ghost nearby, there was going to be trouble.
"I think my shoulder is hurt," he said, grabbing his right arm. Mr. Lancer sighed, and rubbed his temples.
"Okay, I think the trainers are on campus for cheer practice. Let's go see if we can get them to look at you. And for everyone else, stay seated and keep working. If I come back and one person is gone, it's two more weeks for all of you, understand?" Mr. Lancer didn't wait for a reply, but put a hand on Danny's back and led him out of the room.
"Come on," he said, "This way." They walked through the halls wordlessly. Danny never really spoke to Mr. Lancer, not before Tucker dragged him into the whole food fight thing. The man had always been the stick-in-the-mud dean of students who sent kids to detention and tracked down rule-breakers like a hunter in open season.
"How did you manage to fall out of the desk like that?" Mr. Lancer asked as they rounded a corner. Danny nearly shrugged, but caught himself before he moved his 'hurt' shoulder.
"Dunno," he said, "I kind of...sorta...fell asleep for a minute. And then I was on the floor." Mr. Lancer shook his head.
"I suppose weirder things have happened," he said, as they passed the cafeteria. Danny followed his gaze to the disaster zone. The school had shut down for two days as crews came and cleaned up the hallways, but the cafeteria was going to be closed another week for repairs.
"What do you think happened in there?" Danny asked, "Do you think it was a ghost?" Mr. Lancer scoffed.
"Ghosts don't exist, Danny," he said, then seemed to realize who he was talking to, "Of course, I know your parents are paranormal researchers, but it just seems unlikely." Danny shook his head.
"Don't worry about it. They're crazy," he said. And right. But mostly crazy.
"Anyway," Mr. Lancer said, "I don't know what happened. No one does. But everything is back to normal now." They walked through the gym to the athletic offices.
"Here we are," Mr. Lancer said. He opened the door to the trainers' room, but no one was there.
"Wonderful," he said dryly, "I'll go track them down. Just wait here and don't touch anything."
"Okay," Danny replied. He walked into the room and sat down on one of the examination tables. When he heard the door at the end of the hall swing shut, he jumped up. He would take a quick check around the school, just to make sure nothing weird was happening. He'd be back long before Lancer even found the trainers.
Danny shivered again. Good, whatever it was, it was close. He walked into the hallway, looking for strange figures, or mysterious lights, or odd shadows. He saw nothing. But...he heard something. It sounded kind of like a roar. And it was coming from outside.
Danny ran to the door at the end of the hall, and burst outside, right into the face of a giant dragon. Yes. Dragon. Complete with scales, wings, and fiery breath. Danny skidded to a stop, and dodged out of the way as the dragon belched flames at the door. The beast whipped its head around to see him, and roared again. Danny scrambled to his feet and started running. Dragon! A real dragon! Last time he checked, dragons didn't exist. But then again, neither did ghosts. Danny heard flapping wings, and then the dragon crashed to the ground in front of him. The world shook, throwing Danny off of his feet. The dragon drew its head back, and opened its mouth to reveal a row of very sharp teeth. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst part was the large fireball that was headed straight for Danny's head.
Danny wrenched his eyes shut, trying desperately to call upon his powers. He could feel the fire seconds away from hitting him, the heat baking his skin.
"Going ghost!" he yelled. Coolness washed over him. Danny opened his eyes and looked down. Sure enough, he had turned ghostly and intangible just in time. The dragon roared, and shot another fireball at him, but Danny flew up into the air. The fire struck the ground, and burst into little sparks, leaving a scorch mark on the concrete.
"What the heck?" Danny said. Now that he was above it, he saw the dragon was translucent. He could see to the ground right below it. Almost like the dragon itself was a ghost.
"Ghost of a dragon. Okay. I can deal with this." he said. The dragon spotted him in the sky, and roared again. It spread its wings and launched straight upwards. Danny dodged a claw, and flew around the beast, trying to find a weak spot in the coat of shining scales. The dragon followed him, spinning sharply in the air-too sharply-and thundering past him. Watching the clumsiness of the creature, Danny had a sudden thought. Maybe if he... He got the dragon's attention again, and started flying in circles around it. Too large to follow his movements, it blundered about after him, letting out bursts of fire and roaring when it couldn't get him. Now if he could just find a way to bring it down...
Before Danny could get much further in that train of thought, the dragon let out a roar that sounded more pained than anything. Danny looked back at it, but the beast had lost all interest in him. Instead, it writhed in the air, spewing flames erratically. Danny dodged a string of fire, and backed farther away. He wasn't sure what had happened, but the dragon was obviously in pain. With one final roar, the creature burst into flames and fell into the parking lot, fading away into nothing but black marks on the pavement.
Danny blinked, not sure what he had just witnessed. Cautiously he floated down to the parking lot and examined where the dragon had been. Nothing was left of the creature. Danny turned, and was about to leave, but something shiny caught his eye. He crouched down, and picked it up off the asphalt. It was a necklace: a green stone on a long silver chain.
As Danny stood, he found he was once again human.
"Good timing," he muttered to himself. He shoved the necklace in his pocket and started run back to the trainers' room before Mr. Lancer realized he had gone. Running into the room, he sat down on the table just as the door to the gym opened and voices filled the hallway. Mr. Lancer entered the room with two trainers in tow. Danny jumped off the bed.
"Hey, I think my shoulder is okay, now," he said, "Doesn't even hurt." He swung his arm around to demonstrate.
"We should go back to detention," he said quickly, "Who knows what those guys are up to?" He tried to walk past Mr. Lancer, who didn't budge.
"Are you sure Mr. Fenton?" He asked, "You don't want any ice for it?"
"Nope! It' s just fine!" Danny said. Mr. Lancer narrowed his eyes.
"Alright... Sorry guys, I guess it wasn't so urgent after all," he said to the trainers. They shrugged and said it was alright. Danny and Mr. Lancer left, headed back to the detention room.
The hunter watched them from the woods beyond the parking lot. He growled angrily.
"That was my prey," he said to no one in particular. He lowered his binoculars, and shifted the large gun on his back.
"But I suppose I have some more interesting prey now," he said. He looked down at his phone, and the picture he had taken of the boy.
"What are you, kid?" he said, "And how do I take you down?" He stood, and headed back into the thick woods. For the first time in a long time, he felt a thrill at the prospect of a new chase.