Danny gasped as his breath clouded in front of him and then sighed. Another ghost attack. It really wasn't that big of a deal, nothing different from usual, and that was exactly the problem. Maybe it was a good thing that he had fallen into a routine of sorts, but the part of him that forgot all about Desiree kind of wished for something unusual to happen.
He raised his hand. "Mr. Lancer can I use the restroom?" Danny was already out of his seat before Mr. Lancer replied. He transformed in the hallway and shot up through the roof to find Technus closely examining a floating overhead projector.
Danny floated there for a moment, clearing his throat when it became obvious that Technus hadn't seen him come.
"Oh, ghost child! What a surprise!" Technus said, completely unsurprised.
"I know that's a piece of junk, but that doesn't mean you can take it," Danny said, putting up his fists.
"But if it really is junk, then I'll take it," Technus lit his hands up "and you take this." Technus blasted Danny, who for once had the sense to turn intangible before hitting the ground.
Danny expected to open his eyes to dirt and complete darkness, but instead saw a large chunk of metal illuminated dimly by an old flickering light on the wall. Danny blinked and took a step towards the metal. Upon closer examination, it appeared to be some sort of door, shut tight with a crank like on a submarine or a bank vault. He shook his head.
"Technus first, weird old door later."
Danny shot back through the earth led by his fist, and was pleasantly surprised when it hit a waiting Technus square in the jaw. "Well that was convenient," Danny said. He blasted Technus while he was recovering from shock and quickly sucked him into the thermos. The lack of Technus's presence caused the overhead projector to crash into the ground, smashing into a few jagged pieces. Danny stared at it.
"Not my problem," he decided, rushing back to class before someone came over and blamed him for the theft.
Danny couldn't focus much on class after that. He was thinking of the door underground. What could it be? A secret government facility? An ancient UFO, buried by centuries of dust? Maybe it really was a giant underground bank vault. How much money could be in there? Or gold?
He told Sam and Tucker about his discovery after class. Tucker was fond of the UFO idea but he also wouldn't say no to a bunch of gold bricks, which, Sam reminded, was stealing. Sam thought that it was probably just a reservoir or part of Amity Park's sewers, which made a lot more sense but also made Danny a little bit disappointed. She was probably right.
Once the final bell rang, Danny was finally able to go back down and investigate. His hopes were significantly lower after Sam's comment, but he figured he might as well check it out anyway. It took a minute to find the door again, but before long he was back. The door had unsurprisingly remained unchanged. He approached it and put a hand against it. He felt nothing, so he put an earthquake against it. Again, nothing. The light from the old incandescent bulb on the wall was too dim to make out much, but lighting his hand with ectoplasm, Danny could see through the green light that the door was incredibly rusted. He decided that if he wanted to know what this was, he would have to go through the door. So, taking a deep breath, he stepped through.
And was met with darkness. He took another step. Still dark. He kept stepping forward until suddenly his eyes were assaulted with a light much brighter than the dim flickering bulb outside the door. He blinked and looked around. He was in a small grayish room with two large switches on either side and another, much smaller door directly across from him. Danny didn't know what he was expecting, but it wasn't just a small boring room.
He walked through the door on the other side into another small room, though this one had three normal-looking doors with faded labels above them. Over one of the doors Danny could make out "rec...all." whatever text was in the middle had been too faded and scratched out. The labels above the other doors were similarly unreadable. Looking at the doors, Danny wondered for a moment if it really was an old government facility.
Using the handy-dandy "eeny meeny miny moe," Danny walked through the door to the right.
The room was largely white and metallic. It had an examination table in the center, accompanied by a tray with surgical tools whose sharp points shining in the light made Danny shiver. In the back was a large steel box, which Danny assumed was a refrigeration unit, as well as a counter with beakers, test tubes, and a microscope among other things. There was a sink and a few glass cabinets with various chemical containers and medical supplies, and sitting in a wheeled stool at the counter was man in a white coat who appeared to be in his late forties, reading a book.
He didn't seem to notice Danny's presence, so Danny cleared his throat, causing a small clank from the chair as the man jumped and turned to him.
The man froze when he saw Danny and the two just sat there staring at each other for an awkwardly long time, neither moving, neither blinking.
"Hi," Danny said finally.
The man blinked. "How did you get in here?" He asked.
Danny glanced behind him. "The door?"
"But—" the man blinked again. "You're from the surface?" He stood slowly.
"Yeah," Danny responded, taking a step back warily.
"Incredible," the man said, tapping a finger on his chin. "So the exposure to radiation has caused you to glow, among other things, I'm sure." He began to circle Danny, who was beginning to feel quite uncomfortable. "Your hair is naturally that white?"
"Um, yeah." Danny responded. "Who are you?"
The man stopped. "Oh, where are my manners? I suppose it's been quite a while since I met anyone new. My name is Harold Dire. And you are?"
"Danny Phantom. What did you mean by 'exposure to radiation'?"
Harold looked somewhat shocked. "Well, er," he scratched his head. "You know. Nuclear fallout. From the bombs dropping."
Danny raised an eyebrow. "Bombs? Nuclear fallout? What are you talking about?" Had bombs dropped somewhere near Amity Park and Danny somehow hadn't noticed? He was pretty sure he would notice the detonation of a nuclear bomb.
Harold looked at him with some mix of pity and distress. "You mean you don't know?"
Danny suddenly got really really worried.
"I had expected there would be some loss of history or news with the collapse of regular society but this is beyond what I ever would have guessed." He began pacing and put a hand to his chin again. "It's like the whole of society has some sort of repression." He looked back at Danny briefly. "Or perhaps the only ones who were old enough to remember have been killed. It stands to reason that… shorter lifespan… ages ago..." he began muttering.
Danny clapped his palms together. And Harold looked up suddenly as if he had forgotten that Danny was still in the room. "I'm gonna ask again. What are you talking about?"
He looked at Danny. "Right, well… you might want to sit down."
Danny remained standing.
"Okay, well, we were attacked a little over 40 years ago, before your time." Danny rolled his eyes. "Russia finally did it. They bombed us." Danny blinked.
"Russia."
"Yes, precisely. You know what Russia is?"
"Yes, I know what Russia is." Danny shook his head. The man was obviously crazy. Maybe this was some kind on underground insane asylum, for the people to were too crazy to be locked away in regular mental hospitals. Then again, the guy was wearing a lab coat. Maybe there was some sort of patient uprising. Or maybe he really had just been down here for a few decades, afraid that the Russians were gonna get him.
"So you've been down here alone for how long?"
"42 years," he said, putting a finger up. "And I'm not alone. There's Henrietta, and Lilly, and Andy, and Eve to name a few. Oh, I should introduce you! They'd love to meet you!" He paused. "Actually they'd probably incredibly wary and distrustful of a strange person from the surface who broke into the shelter, but you're only like, thirteen, I'm sure it'll be fine."
"I'm fourteen actually"
"So how did you break in? Are you alone? Do your parents let you break into fallout shelters all by yourself?" Harold opened the door and left, beckoning Danny to follow.
"Um, well I just sort of found it while I was… fighting, and—"
"Fighting? Who were you fighting? Looters? Gangs? Super-powered mutant monsters? But you're only fourteen."
"Um, actually pretty close to the last one." Danny ran a hand through his hair. "And I know I'm young, but someone has to protect the town. Might as well be me."
They walked through the 'rec… all' door and Harold looked at Danny skeptically. He obviously thought Danny's logic was flawed. "We will be continuing this conversation later, but for now,"
The walls of the room were a deep red color and they were walking on a grey carpet that had probably been plush and light before years of use. There was a pool table near the center of the room and a couple of chairs and a couch pushed to the walls, in one of which a woman about Harold's age sat stitching something. There were a surprising number of bookshelves around the chairs. There was a card table, where two older folks were playing, and in the corner was a girl Danny's age leaning over an old fashioned jukebox.
Everyone was frozen in place, staring at Danny.
"Let me introduce you."
Sam sighed and sat down on the grass where Danny had dived into the ground. "He's been down there a lot longer than I thought."
Tucker sat too. "I'm sure he's fine. He can defend himself. Maybe he's just swimming in cash like Scrooge McDuck."
Sam rolled her eyes. She and Tucker sat for a moment longer.
"Still, maybe we should text him?" Tucker suggested. Sam nodded, and Tucker sent a quick text asking if he was alright.
"Harold, um," the woman in the chair set her needlework aside and stood up. "Who is this?"
"This is Danny," Harold put a hand on Danny's back but then remembered that he was exposed to radioactive fallout on a daily basis and seemed to think better of it. "He's from the surface."
The younger girl's eyes widened and the jaws and cards of the older couple dropped. The older man at the card table stood. "You opened the vault door?!" He yelled in a mix of shock and betrayal.
Harold put his hands up. "No, no, he just came into the lab—"
"So the vault door is open," said the older woman, standing. "How did the vault door open unless someone inside opened it? It's meant to withstand bombs! It's three feet thick!" she turned to Danny. "How did you know about this place, let alone get in?"
Danny put his hands up. "I just found it, completely on accident. Don't worry, the door is still sealed shut."
"How did you get in?" asked the woman who was sewing.
"I can walk through things." They looked at him blankly. "No, really, I can," Danny took a step towards the pool table, and everyone flinched at the sudden movement except for the younger girl, whose attention stayed rapt. Danny walked through the table, eliciting gasps and balked expressions.
"Curious," said Harold, rubbing his chin, "not even gamma particles can get through that door, yet somehow you can?"
"You can do that because of the radiation?" Asked the woman who was sewing.
Danny shook his head. "I hate to break it to you guys," Danny paused. He supposed the news wasn't actually bad, so perhaps it wasn't really that bad to break it to them. "But the surface isn't radioactive. There were never any bombs dropped by the Russians."
"Don't be silly," said the old man, "of course there were. We saw it on the television. Breaking news, it interrupted all the other programs."
"And besides," said the old woman, "if there really isn't any radiation on the surface, why are you wearing a hazmat suit? How is it that you can walk through things like you've turned into mist? Why else would you be glowing?"
Danny rubbed his neck. "It's more of a lab accident sort of situation than—"
The door behind them opened with a creak and Danny and Harold spun to face the older man and woman walking into the room. They were laughing about something, but their smiles dropped upon seeing Danny.
"Harold," said the man, eyes going from Danny to Harold and back as he subtly moved the woman behind him protectively, "who is this?"
"Ah," Harold ran a hand through his hair, "I see I've forgotten introductions, but now that everyone is here I suppose it's all the better." He cleared his throat and gestured to Danny. "This is Danny Phantom, he's a young lad from the surface. Means us no harm, I assure you." He gestured to the couple in the doorway. "Danny, these are my folks, Joseph and Mary-Ann Dire."
Danny waved half-heartedly.
Harold turned and Danny followed suit. "This is Henrietta and Andy," he gestured to the older couple who was playing cards. "They are the parents of my wife, Lilly," he gestured to the woman who was sewing earlier. "And this is my daughter, Eve." The girl who was Danny's age seemed to take in every detail of him, like she had never seen anything like him and was trying to figure out exactly what she was looking at.
Andy opened his mouth as if to say something but was suddenly interrupted by a soft voice.
"What's the surface like?"
Danny looked into Eve's glass blue eyes, curious and thirsty for answers.
"Well…" Danny looked away and swallowed hard. If she really had been down here her whole life, then she really had no idea. She had never felt rain, or wind, or sun, or even seen the sky.
It seemed that the adults in the room were well aware of this tragedy, as the silence was filled only with the soft tones of Nat King Cole on the jukebox.
Danny rubbed his neck trying to figure out how to explain what the world was like. Where would he even start? The grass? The sky? The people? Then it came to him, like the snap of a board when you apply too much pressure.
"Come and see."
Tucker looked at his phone again. Still no response from Danny. Hadn't even been read. "Should we be worried?" asked Tucker. All the dumb ideas that he'd listed before started to seem more plausible with every passing moment of radio silence.
"Probably not," Sam said. She looked back at the grass and began to pick at the blades. Tucker pushed his glasses up. The leaves rustled in a short breeze. "I know where the groundskeeper stores his shovels," she said.
Tucker looked up at her. Her eyes bore into his. "I won't tell if you don't," Tucker said.
"You want her to go up to the surface?!" Andy put his hands firmly on the table. "Listen, you might think everything is all hunky-dory up there, but we're not just going to let you expose her to all that radiation!"
Eve stood. "Grandpa he's fine!" she thrust her arm at Danny, "Obviously the radiation isn't dangerous!"
"Eve, he's glowing! Who knows what kind of hidden damages there are! How long do you think his lifespan is? He certainly doesn't look healthy!"
Danny took mild offense to this.
"Well, technically," interrupted Harold, "The radiation is at habitable levels. So long as we don't drink the water or touch anything at ground zero, we should be more or less fine on that front." The group looked at him in disbelief. "The main reason why we haven't gone up yet is because of gangs, looters, and potentially, dangerous mutants. I figure nuclear war and forty years has changed a few things about law and moral conventions."
"Wait," started Joseph, "if the surface radiation levels are safe now−"
"Not safe, just not dangerous," Harold said, putting a finger up."
"If surface radiation levels are not dangerous anymore, why is he glowing?" Joseph continued, gesturing to Danny.
"Lab accident!" Danny said, throwing his arms out in exasperation. "I've said this already! I don't usually look like this!"
Harold raised an eyebrow. "Usually? What do you usually look like?"
Danny paused. He had said that hadn't he? Oddly, he found he didn't care as much as he would have thought. It felt more like mentioning his secret to a ghost than to a citizen of Amity Park. "Well," Danny started. Was he really about to do this? "Promise you won't tell anyone outside of this room−er, vault." The group looked at each other before nodding and turning their attention back to Danny.
Danny transformed, rings of light changing his appearance, his biology, and even the way physics interacted with him.
The room's jaws collectively dropped.
"Fascinating," said Harold, hand going to his chin. "How do you do that?"
"I dunno," said Danny, helpfully.
"You look normal now," observed Joseph.
"Well I wouldn't say normal," said Andy, earning a glare from Danny.
"Don't get me wrong, this is all very impressive and incredibly interesting," said Lilly, "but I've been dying to leave this hell dungeon for decades. No offense," she said, putting a hand up at her parents and and in-laws, "I just really miss it."
"Well," said Harold, clapping his hands together, "I suppose that settles it." He turned to Danny. "What's the status on gangs and mutants?"
"Relatively few."
Henrietta wrung her hands. "I don't know if I'm ready for mutants. Even if there aren't a lot, it's more than I'm used to."
Danny waved a hand. "Don't worry, you'll be fine. If any ghosts attack, I'll take care of them."
"Ghosts?" asked Joseph.
"Er, mutants. We call them ghosts," Danny clarified. "'Cause that's what they are," he muttered.
Lilly began walking purposely toward the door and out of the room, Eve trailing eagerly behind her. Harold looked at Danny, shrugged, and then followed them, as did Danny and then everyone else.
They went into that first room that Danny came into, with the main door.
"Wait," said Mary-Ann, "should we bring anything? Food? Water?"
Danny shook his head. "There's plenty of that stuff above ground."
"Besides," said Harold, "we can always come back down if we need to."
Danny heard a clank and a groan and saw the large hydraulic locks begin to withdraw from the door. He looked to the left and saw Eve with her hands on the lever. She grinned. Harold grinned back and grabbed the lever on the right.
"Here we go."
He pulled the lever and and the door groaned and creaked as it rolled open to the side, revealing mostly dirt, surprisingly sunlight, and very shockingly, two teenagers with shovels.
There was an odd silence as the two groups stared at each other.
"Hey guys," said Danny, putting up his hand in an awkward wave.
Danny's greeting was unfortunately followed by more silence. He cleared his throat.
"So Danny," said Sam. "Who's this?"
"Harold, Lilly, Eve, Andy, Henrietta, Mary-Ann, and Joseph," he said, not bothering to designate who was who. "This is Sam and Tucker, my friends," Danny gestured to the two of them. "So, um, did you guys just dig a hole down here?"
"You didn't text back," Tucker said simply. As if on cue, Danny's phone buzzed, and he took it out to find a new text message from Tucker.
"Oh," said Danny. Harold looked at Danny's phone in great interest and Danny wordlessly handed it to the man before he could ask anything else.
"So?" asked Tucker.
"So…?" Danny asked, confused. "Oh! It's a fallout shelter. They thought the Russians dropped a bomb on us 40 years ago."
"42," said Harold as he messed with Danny's flip phone.
"Isn't that right around the Cuban Missile Crisis?" asked Sam.
"Oh my gosh, it's Blast From the Past." Said Tucker. "He's Christopher Walken," Tucker pointed to Harold, "and you're Brendan Fraser!" Tucker paused. "Wait, I guess she's Brendan Fraser," said Tucker, pointing to Eve, who had somehow snuck past Sam and Tucker and was attempting to climb the dirty rusted ladder, which broke off about five feet from the top of the hole. "I guess that makes you Alicia Silverstone." He gasped. "And I'm Dave Foley!"
"Tucker," started Sam.
"Yeah?"
"Please shut up."
Tucker shut up.
Danny heard a grunt and saw Eve pull herself out of the hole and walk out of view.
"Eve!" called her mother. Danny quickly climbed the ladder and pulled himself out. He glanced around and saw Eve with her arms out, pale skin practically glowing in the sunlight. She jumped when he tapped her on the shoulder, and turned to face him, smiling when she saw who it was. "Danny, this is incredible!"
Her smile was so bright and genuine that Danny couldn't help but smile too. "Yeah, I guess it kind of is," he said.
"Danny! Little help?!" Danny turned back to the hole to see the top of Tucker's head poking out, his hands flat on the grass. Danny walked over and pulled him out, as well as everyone else, one by one.
Sam stood over the hole, hands on her hips. "So what are we going to do about the hole?"
Danny shrugged. "I think you mean what are you going to do about the hole."
Sam gave him a mean look. "Joking," he said, putting his hands up in mock surrender. "I mean, I really appreciate the concern, but you know it would have been much easier to just phase people out of the ground, right?"
Sam glared at him.
"I mean not that you actually knew that I was totally fine and that there were people to phase out of the ground anyway. Your actions totally weren't rash and were in fact incredibly justified and helpful."
Sam glared harder.
"What do you want from me?!" said Danny. Sam smiled and rolled her eyes, then Tucker came over.
"Um, guys, I think it's about time we split." He glanced over his shoulder at a police cruiser that was coming down the street. "Destruction of property and all."
Danny nodded. "Yeah that's a good idea. We can go to my place, my parents are away at some convention." He gestured for everyone to follow him, and grabbed Eve's hand, pulling her along and interrupting her staring contest with a stray cat across the street.
They arrived at FentonWorks and Danny told everyone to make themselves at home as he discussed with Sam and Tucker what they should do next. Now that they were topside, these people needed a place to live, jobs, Eve needed to go to school. Danny paused and wondered how much Eve had been taught by her parents. He supposed she could read and guessed that she knew a bit about science and math what with Harold being a scientist or a doctor or whatever he was, and figured that would probably be good enough.
"But they won't have any records after 1962," said Tucker. "And Eve won't have any records. Her parents and grandparents are probably thought to be dead." Danny bit his lip. This was going to be harder than just getting them a house, wasn't it?
There was a crash downstairs and a manic laugh that sounded an awful lot like Harold. Sam swore and the three of them rushed back into the living room, where Andy and Joseph were marveling over the color TV displaying a match between the Packers and the Steelers. Mary-Ann was examining Jack's cross stitch sitting on the coffee table. Eve had found Danny's Gameboy and he could hear Spyro music coming from the tiny speakers. A quick glance into the kitchen revealed Lilly and Henrietta figuring out how the microwave worked.
Danny thought he should probably warn them that any food reheated in there may also become reanimated.
"Is no one concerned by the loud crash in the basement?" Asked Tucker.
Eve shrugged. "He's always fiddling with something in the lab, I'm sure he's fine," said Lilly.
Danny, Sam, and Tucker went down to the basement to find several crates knocked over and a few blast marks on the walls. Danny went into high alert as he looked around the room. Where was the ghost? His ghost sense hadn't gone off. Was Harold okay? Then he saw Harold hunched over a counter fiddling with vials and beakers of ectoplasm of various viscosities, perfectly fine. Well, the cuff of his sleeve was sizzling from an ectoplasmic stain, but he seemed unperturbed. Danny cleared his throat and Harold jumped. This seemed familiar.
"Ah, Danny, didn't see you there!" He swirled a beaker of ectoplasm, causing it to glow more brightly. "What is this?"
"Um, ectoplasm," Danny answered, still unsure about whether or not he should be concerned.
"It's incredible," he said, peering into the glass one last time before looking over to Danny. "This is what causes your powers, yes?"
Danny blinked. "Um, yeah." He glanced around the mess of the lab again. "What were you doing?"
Harold grinned. "Testing out your laser weapons. It's like something out of Star Trek! Quite exciting." He seemed to notice Danny's exasperation. "Oh, don't worry, I'll clean it up."
He heard the front door close upstairs, followed shortly by some yelling, a silent pause and then "wait is that a lipstick?"
Danny ran upstairs to find Jazz pointing a laser lipstick at Joseph and Andy.
"Jazz, lower the lipstick," Danny said, "they're friends."
"Oh," said Jazz, instantly relaxing and putting away the lipstick. "Why didn't someone say so sooner?" She smiled, set her bag by the door, and walked up to the nearest guest, Joseph, extending her hand. "I'm Jazz, Danny's older sister."
The mood in the room seemed to change on a dime as Joseph smiled and shook her hand. "Joseph Shor, pleased to make your acquaintance."
"How did you meet Danny?" asked Jazz.
"Oh, you know—"
"He broke into our fallout shelter and convinced us to leave," said Eve brightly.
"... Yes," confirmed Joseph somewhat sheepishly, "that."
This, understandably, threw Jazz for a loop.
"I'm sorry, fallout shelter?"
"They've been living underground since the Cuban Missile Crisis," provided Sam helpfully. "They thought the Russians actually bombed the US."
"That's because they did!" exclaimed Henrietta. "We heard the explosion blocks away! We saw the light and smoke!"
Danny's eyebrows furrowed. "What? That's impossible."
"No, it's the truth," said Joseph.
"Maybe you saw something else," suggested Tucker.
"I know what I saw," said Andy.
"But the Russians never bombed us," said Sam.
"Then how do you explain that explosion?" asked Henrietta.
"Alright, alright," said Jazz, putting up her hands placatingly, sensing the increasing tension. "We can talk for days about what may or may not have happened, but I think it might be good for everyone to instead consider what steps to take moving forward."
Andy blew a stray hair out of his face. "Sure."
"Well, we were thinking," started Danny, "now that you know it's uh, safe, to be on the surface, you might want to consider living up here. And as much as school sucks, maybe Eve would want to go."
Eve nodded enthusiastically at this.
"I think there's a house for sale a couple blocks away," Jazz said.
"Yeah, but houses cost money, and I doubt they brought a lot down there when they thought the world was ending," said Tucker.
"Well no, but," Lilly paused. "Does modern society still value literature?"
Sam rolled her eyes. "So we're going to get into that debate now, are we?"
"Yes, we do," Tucker said, side-eyeing Sam.
"What do you have in mind?" asked Jazz.
"Well, back before the bombs dropped, first editions were worth something of a pretty penny," started Lilly. "I'd assume 40-50 year old books might be similarly valuable."
"Oh, Lilly, you're brilliant!" said Harold, pulling her closer and giving her a peck on the forehead.
Sam snapped her fingers. "Hey, yeah, that could work actually!"
"But there's still the issue of no records," Danny said.
"Danny, Danny, Danny," said Sam, putting an arm around his shoulders. "Your best friends are an expert hacker and and a member of the upper class with many powerful contacts. I'm sure we could sort something out."
"You want me to hack into 40 year old government records and completely rewrite a paper trail for seven people?" asked Tucker.
Sam nodded.
Tucker smiled and rubbed his hands together. "When can I start?"
They decided to get started sooner rather than later, after all, something was bound to go wrong sooner or later and it was better to use the time they had now before that time ran out.
Danny was sitting on the couch playing street fighter with Eve, she was surprisingly good for someone who hadn't heard of video games until a few hours ago. Mary-ann was in the kitchen teaching Jazz a family recipe, shakshuka or something. Harold was in the basement, and everyone else was up in Danny's room, figuring out how they should work out the new documents, with Tucker tapping away at Danny's keyboard.
It was then that time had seemingly run out as his parents burst through the door, back from the hunting convention—two days early.
"Danno!" boomed his dad, throwing open the door Danny nearly jumped out of his skin. "Who's this?" he asked, spotting Eve. Eve paused the game and stood.
"Eve Shor." She actually curtsied.
"Why are you guys back so soon?" Danny asked nervously, glad that everyone was at least hidden away upstairs.
"Oh, some 'scientist' got into an argument with your father and well−" started Maddie.
"I showed that no-good prick just how useless my inventions are!" beamed Jack.
"And we got a life ban from the Paranormal Inquiries Convention so," Maddie shrugged.
"Should'a banned the fake-scientist jerk who started it," pouted Jack.
"Still," started Maddie, "It's nice to be back. Actually, one of our samples is starting to lose it's stability so we're just going to pop down to the lab−" she and Jack began walking toward the basement.
"You can't!" shouted Danny, jumping in front of them as he remembered that Harold was still down there. His parents simply didn't allow guests in the lab unsupervised. If they found him, both he and Danny would be toast.
"Why not?" asked Maddie, raising a suspicious eyebrow.
"Um, I, uh, It's a mess!" Danny said, trying fruitlessly to push them away from the basement door. "I knocked some things over and haven't cleaned up yet, I wasn't expecting you home so early."
"Danny, you know how dangerous it can be to leave the lab in a mess, even if no one's using it," said Maddie.
"Right!" Danny said enthusiastically. "My mistake. You guys must be tired, why don't you go take a nap and I'll clean up the lab!"
"Oh, that's sweet of you, Danny," said Maddie. This just might work for once.
"But you've got a friend over. Besides, the destabilizing specimen really is quite urgent. We can work our way around a messy lab, just make sure to clean up sooner next time." The two of them pushed past him and into the basement. Danny panicked and followed after them. Danny heard a gasp and the sudden hum of the Fenton Bazooka powering up, causing Danny's panic to reach entirely new levels. Maddie was aiming it straight at Harold.
Danny still didn't know where she kept that thing.
"Intruder! Last words!" said Maddie. The thought of his mother killing an intruder with no hesitation sent a chill down Danny's spine.
"Oh, hello," said Harold, perfectly amicable once he saw Danny at the top of the stairs. "You must be Danny's parents. It really is quite an honor to meet you, looking around at your work, I must say, you're quite gifted."
Maddie lowered the Bazooka slightly, if only out of confusion.
"Your laser weapons are quite remarkable indeed, but even more impressive I think is your ecto converter. I never knew how powerful a substance ectoplasm could be. You must be pioneers of your field." Harold looked back at a table full of Fenton tech he was fiddling with. "Really, I'm quite certain that you'll go down in history as some of the most influential scientists of the modern age, if not all time," he rubbed his chin, "Fenton would be a household name, surely."
Jack smiled sheepishly. "Well…" he said, as Maddie's bazooka lowered slightly more.
"I was looking at your ecto-shield, quite impressive on its own," Harold continued, moving to a small ecto-shield prototype, "however I think that with a few adjustments, redirecting the power, tweaking the composition of the ectoplasm used−for example, changing the viscosity to be slightly thicker, achieved and maintained through a vibrating part, powered entirely by the ectoplasm of course−" he began taking apart the prototype and adding a few more parts to it, "you can make it so that not only can ectoplasm and, presumably, ectoplasmic entities can't get through, but they get shocked on contact. And, with the change in viscosity along with a few other tweaks," he began putting the box back together, "even non-ectoplasmic entities can't get through." He turned it on, and a translucent shining green dome sprung up around it, similar to, but altogether different from a regular ecto-shield. He then threw a piece of scrap metal at the dome, and it simply bounced off, as if thrown against a solid object.
Maddie dropped the bazooka and walked over to the tweaked ecto-shield, staring at it. She put her hand against it, and it was as firm as any solid object. She then looked at Harold. "Show me that again," she demanded. Jack walked over and watched as Harold took it apart and began showing them his process earning an "Oh of course!" and a "Why didn't I think of that?!" among other such exclamations.
Danny was still dumbstruck as to what had happened. "So…" he ventured, "are you guys… good?"
Jack waved a hand "Yes, fine, leave the scientists to our work, son." Jack looked up suddenly and then at Danny, smiling, "unless you're finally ready to join us!"
Danny put his hands up and stepped back towards the stairs. "Nope, that's fine, you three have fun I'll be, uh, not here."
Danny walked upstairs and exhaled in relief. That could have gone so much worse.
He found Sam and Eve waiting for him near the front door. They were laughing about something, which made Danny slightly nervous.
Sam saw him and greeted him. "Hey Danny. Lilly and everyone else thought it would be a good idea to go and get the books while Tucker fixes the paper trails."
"Mom gave me a list of other things to get while we're there," she said holding up a piece of notebook paper.
"And I know enough about vintage literature to know which first editions to grab," said Sam.
"Alright," Danny said. He paused waiting for them to leave, but they didn't. "Oh, did you want me to come, or−"
"Duh!" said Sam, smacking him on the head. He rubbed the spot
"Grandma thinks it'll be safer that way, in case we run into any mutants," Eve said.
"Ghosts," Sam and Danny corrected in unison.
"Right, ghosts."
It didn't take long to get back to the vault, and nothing particularly eventful happened, other than Eve meeting a dog for the first time and having to be convinced that it was friendly. It ended in a sweet smile as she finally pet Joey the pitbull.
Danny was glad for the reprieve in ghosts, and it almost seemed that this would go off without a hitch, but those hopes were dashed as they approached the field where the shelter was. Danny saw police cars gathered and immediately pushed Eve and Sam back behind the building to the side.
"What's going on?" Eve asked.
Danny peered around the corner. He heard a small gasp behind him, presumably from Eve as he turned his head intangible. There were five police cruisers that he could see, and caution tape around the hole Sam and Tuck had dug. There were police milling about and Danny swore. He ducked his head back behind the wall and dropped invisibility.
"The police are crawling all over the place," he said. Sam also swore and peeked around the corner much more briefly.
"I guess we'll have to go stealth," Sam said. "You ready?" she asked Danny. Danny nodded and transformed.
"Wait what's happening? What are we doing?" Eve asked.
"We're gonna sneak in using my powers," Danny said, sneaking a quick peek around the corner again. "You have to make sure that you're touching me until I say it's okay, okay?"
Eve nodded, a little nervous but very excited. This was like something out of a heist novel.
Danny held out an arm and looked between Sam and Eve. "Ready?"
They both nodded and Danny turned back to the police scene before turning invisible.
Eve and Sam felt as though a wash of cold came over them. It was entirely new and a bit shocking to Eve, and not entirely new to Sam, but just as shocking as the first time. Eve looked down and saw the grass compressed where her feet stood, but not her shoes or legs, or Sam and Danny. She felt a slight pull as Danny began walking toward the police scene.
The police were milling about, some talking on radios, some talking to each other.
"−strangest thing," said an officer as they walked past. "They've found old bomb shelters before, but none in such pristine condition. There were plants growing in some greenhouse room, food out of the kitchen counter, heck, even the jukebox was still playing."
"What, are you saying someone has actually been living down there?" asked another.
The first one shrugged. "Maybe. Certainly wouldn't be the weirdest news story in this crazy town."
Eve bumped into Danny, not noticing he had stopped. "Sorry," she whispered.
She thought he might have said "hold tight," just before the ground became like thin air beneath her feet. She was enveloped in darkness as she fell through the ground. She gripped Danny's arm tightly as the three of them fell.
Suddenly there was light again and her feet hit the blessedly solid concrete of the fallout shelter. They were in the recreation room.
Danny looked around. It looked empty, luckily. "Alright, I think the coast is clear," he said, dropping the invisibility. Sam and Eve released his arm and Sam wandered to the bookshelf.
"I'll keep watch," said Danny, approaching the door as Sam began rifling through the books and Eve moved about the room, occasionally checking her list.
Looking through the door, Danny could see that the door into the entry room was still open, as was the large vault door that led outside. At the bottom of the hole was a police officer looking at the shovels. Danny's heart dropped into his stomach. If they traced the prints on those shovels it would lead them to Sam and Tucker. He didn't know if Tucker had any sort of record but Sam was probably at least in the system due to her fair share of protesting and activism.
Danny bit his lip. He couldn't just get rid of them, the officer had obviously seen them already, probably more than just him. He couldn't just go and grab them either, the guy was stationed there and would definitely see, even if Danny turned invisible, disappearing shovels aren't exactly low-key.
Danny tried to think of other options, but it was only a matter of time before forensics came down, or another officer, which would make the whole situation harder. Danny sighed. He hated doing this.
He turned intangible and flew into the officer, effectively overshadowing him. "Sorry again," he said, though he knew the officer couldn't hear him.
He searched the officer's pockets and found a phone, keys, wallet, and a gum wrapper, but nothing to wipe the shovels down with.
"Okay, I guess we're doing this," he muttered to himself, and walked back into the hallway with the four doors.
He opened the one next to the rec all door and peered inside.
The air was warm and humid, bright lights illuminating a very large room filled with plants of all sorts as well as a large machine with a huge tank of water. Danny thought he heard clucking on the other side of the room.
He stared at it all for a moment longer before closing the door and turning to the last one on the left. The faded label above the door here said "be...amber…"
Danny opened the door to another hallway and groaned softly. There were five doors, two across from each other on either side and one at the end of the hall. Danny opened the first door on the right to a bedroom made out in soft purples and blues. The sheets were faded and the deak was well used. Danny spotted the antique-looking dresser and opened the first drawer.
He blushed and quickly shut it when he saw that it contained bras and women's underwear.
He took a moment to get over himself and opened the drawer underneath it. This one contained shirts and a few miscellaneous items. Danny pulled out a soft blue scarf with a watery flower pattern. This would work well enough. He made his way back to the hole and began wiping the prints off the shovel.
"Where's Danny?" He heard Eve say down the hall.
"Over here, I'll be back in a sec," Danny called back. Then he remembered that he wasn't in his own body. He looked back toward the rec all door just in time to see Eve peer down the hall at him, eyes wide. Danny quickly put up a hand. "Don't worry, it's just me, Danny."
"Oh did he overshadow someone?" He heard faintly from in the room. Eve turned back and exchanged a few words with Sam, too far out of Danny's range to hear.
Eve turned back to look at him, and then at the fabric clutched in his hand. "Is that my scarf?" She asked.
Danny rubbed the back of his head sheepishly and dropped the scarf. "Give me one second," he said, putting up an index finger to accentuate.
He climbed up the ladder and ditched the police officer at the top before going back down, grabbing the scarf and returning to Sam and Eve.
"What were even you doing?" Sam asked.
"Wiping your prints off the shovels," Danny answered.
Sam stared at him.
"What?" Danny asked.
"It's stolen property, Danny, you really think I would forget to wipe my own prints off?" she said.
"Oh," Danny said simply. Sam rolled her eyes but grinned nevertheless.
"I have to get some things in the bed chambers and med bay," Eve said.
"Oh it's a med bay? I thought it was a lab." Danny said. Eve shrugged.
"Dad uses it as a lab, so I guess it kind of is. Anyway, is the coast clear?"
Danny nodded and the three of them walked into the be amber hallway.
"I'll only be a second," Eve said before walking down the hallway.
"So what books did you get?" Danny asked.
"A decent amount. They have a book collection to rival our own," she shrugged her book-filled bag on shoulder. "Some of the most notable copies were Catcher in the Rye, Casino Royale, The Lord of the Rings, On The Road, and Call For The Dead, all first editions, among others."
Danny whistled. He didn't know much about first edition books but going by Sam's expression, he could guess it was a pretty significant find.
Eve ran back to Sam and Danny, bag full. "Alright," she said, "Let's go."
With that, Danny whisked them away the same way he snuck them inside, and they made their way back to FentonWorks, where Tucker and everyone else greeted them warmly.
"So the papers are set up?" asked Sam.
"Yeah," Tucker said, proudly. "It'd have to take someone real determined to break through. Oh, I also found something out while digging through those old records," he said conspiratorially. "Turns out the explosion was from the Tasty Burger. Investigators guessed that everyone was so focused on the news about Cuba that the boiler was left unattended for too long. Did you know the sauce is explosive?"
"Yeah," Danny muttered, looking at his feet.
"Wait did you say Tasty Burger?" Sam asked. Tucker smiled and nodded.
"Yeah, that's what it used to be called, but it changed to the Nasty Burger after the explosion. I guess they could only find one neon 'T' and decided to embrace the brand change."
Sam hummed.
"So?" asked Lilly, "How'd it go?"
Danny sighed. "Place is overrun with police. You probably shouldn't go back there for a while. Lay low and all that."
The group looked crestfallen.
"But we did manage to get what we came for," Danny said, smiling. Sam grinned and pulled her bag off her shoulders, handing it to Lilly.
"Should be enough in there to make you a pretty penny," she said.
Lilly smiled brightly. "Thank you," she said. "If it weren't for you guys, we'd probably still be hiding in that bunker."
"Why don't I help you purchase a house?" Jazz suggested, leading Lilly and the others away. "I know of one that's right between here and the school, so Lilly will be close and we'll be nearby if you need anything." Their voices trailed off into the distance.
Danny looked up and noticed that Harold was still here, leaning against the wall and grinning at Danny. "You know we still never talked about that fight," he said.
"It's not−" Danny started, but Harold put a hand on his shoulder, warm and heavy.
"Listen, I may not know the details, and you don't have to tell me right now, or ever if you don't want to, but I can tell that what you're doing is dangerous."
Danny opened his mouth to argue
"But it's noble too, and I can tell that you're not the kind to back down from doing the right thing just because of a little danger." His smile fell slightly. "I can also tell that your parents don't know, and that's a lot for a kid so young as you to face alone. You don't have to face it all alone. I know you have your friends and your sister, but," he took a deep breath and looked down at the floor. "Well," he looked back up into Danny's eyes. "I guess what I'm trying to say is, if you ever need anything, anything at all, give me a call." Harold reached into his back pocket and pulled out Danny's phone. "I put my new number in there, Tucker gave me one of his old phones and helped me set it up. I mean, you don't have to call either, you can just show up at our new house, wherever that will be. I guess I'm saying you're always−"
Danny hugged the man, trying to keep his tears from falling out of his eyes. He didn't know why he was being so emotional. Perhaps it was that he finally had an adult to support him, and to tell him that what he was doing was good. Maybe all those nights around the dinner table, hearing about how evil ghosts were−and especially that Phantom character−, of being constantly beaten down by Vlad, of being told by his teachers and his friend's parents that he wasn't trying hard enough, that he wasn't good enough, maybe they had all just come crumbling down. Maybe he didn't need to hold up the world. Maybe he could let someone else help. He was just a kid, after all.
"Thank you," Danny mumbled
into Harold's shirt. He felt Harold's warm hand on his head.
"You're always welcome."