Chapter Two: Sonic Sounds

Maddie had pretty much been on autopilot doing "mom things" while she was still downstairs. It was late, and everyone in the house was asleep. As she wiped down the counter from her latest batch of cookies and Jack's wrestle with ecto-leftovers, she returned to her thoughts.

Danny's grades had slipped since the accident, even though he was never sick. It was like he was missing chunks of class. He wouldn't skip, would he? Phantom had been spotted on several occasions during school hours... He was also frequently seen after school and into the evening, when Danny was never at home although he really should've been home and doing his homework. Danny always claimed to be with Tucker and Sam, however. They would hang out with him, even if he were the ghost boy, (which he's not! she chided herself) because they're so close though.

Her voice of reason bickered with her inner mother, but neither voice could take a side because they'd each pointed out things for both sides of her internal argument. She felt like she had the startings of a really bad migraine...

The next thing on the ever-growing list that was bugging her was that Phantom appeared to have complex emotions. Most ghosts only had the basics (like happy, sad, and angry), and their judgment was usually clouded. They seemingly had no conscience and no-ill will towards hurting people, but she didn't have quite enough data to back her statement. Phantom always looked like he was trying not to hurt people. He always appeared consumed with the lesser emotions like doubt, worry, fear, frustration, elation, joy, shock, and the one that bothered her most... love. She didn't quite know why it bothered her the most. Each of the emotions she listed should've bothered her equally, since they were all part of a bigger bother.

The ghost boy acted a lot like Danny, except cockier. Danny seemed more withdrawn, shy almost. He only had two best friends, his sister, an ex-girlfriend now turned okay friend, and himself. The ghost boy was more self-assured and confident, although (she suspected before she could beat it back to the recesses of her mind with a stick) super-powers could do that to anyone.

Maddie began to silently pad up the stairs to go to bed. Actually, thinking back on it, when she'd heard Phantom speak, his voice sounded peculiarly like Danny's. There was just that weird "echo-y" sound added to it...

She had almost reached the top of the stairs when she was wrenched from her thoughts by Danny's voice. Whether it was Phantom's or Fenton's, she couldn't say, but if it was Phantom's and he was hurting Danny, by golly he had another thing coming, that foul combination of spectral energies!

"Ow, ow, ow! Shit!"