Tuesday July 26, 2005

"This is the most importing thing that I've ever had to decide!" Tucker cried out to his friends.

"We're trying, but you're not giving us much to go on." Danny tried.

"Sam, you're a girl." Tucker said, giving up on Danny's help. He held up the two lotions to show Sam. "Which one would she like?"

"I don't know." Sam said, pushing the two bottles away.

"Come on! My mom's birthday's tomorrow." Tucker whined.

"Dude, you've made me smell so many of these things I can't tell the difference between flower and fruit!" Danny exclaimed.

"But I can't decide if she'd like Kiwi Cucumber or Cherry Blossom." Tucker said, the two in his hand.

"Why not both?" Sam asked.

"But what if she likes lavender or-"

"Here, you're getting these two." Sam said, taking the two still in his hands and putting them in the hand basket on her arm.

"Hey!"

"You've still got to get a card, right?" Danny reminded as Sam led them to the cashier.

"Ya, this is what I get for waiting until the day before." Tucker sighed, following Sam. He paid for the lotions and the three left the store to the main hall of Amity Park Mall. "Any idea where the card store is?"

"Ya, it's upstairs." Danny said only to stop as his breath appeared.

"Call us if you need us." Sam called as Danny rushed forwards to the bathrooms. They watched as their friend rushed into the hall before he flew out of the wall and back towards the Bed, Bath, and Body Works.

"Oh look! It's Phantom!" Paulina's voice squealed, getting eyes to look up.

Danny sighed before disappearing to the disappointment of his fan girls. With the fact that he still hadn't seen another ghost, he hopped that meant they were just passing through but he still wanted to check around.

A shot rang out, signaling people to scream in panic as Danny's ecto-plasm froze. He slowly turned around, knowing the shot came from a firearm and not an ecto-weapon. Below him he saw people running towards the door only to find them locked.

A male voice called out, "They're welded shut!"

Quickly scanning the crowd for Sam and Tucker, Danny dropped down next to them amongst the panicking people. "Did you see who shot?"

"No, it was behind us." Sam informed.

Another shot rang out as Danny's eyes grew wide in surprised and panic. He wrapped his arms around his stomach, panic leaving him as he felt little pain.

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed.

"Come on, Phantom!" an accented voice called out.

Danny pulled his hand away to expose his hand covered in ecto-plasm with a bullet resting within the green mess. His stomach already healing from the real world item, he turned around and looked up to see a ghost holding an uzi in his hands. "Who are you!?" Danny called out as the mall grew eerily silent to watch the two ghosts.

"I've kept my human name, Ziad Jarrah!" the ghost said, his green skin the only visible thing about him marking him as a ghost. "Come up here and fight me so I can defeat you and claim this town as mine."

"You've been taking lessons from Technus, haven't you?" Danny asked, letting the bullet fall to the ground before floating up to Zaid's eye level.

"I don't call out my name every five minutes." Zaid pointed out, looking down the site of his gun, pointing it down at the humans below.

"You know you won't get rid of me with that." Danny said, hiding his fear of the uzi. "It felt weird, sure, but it's already healed up."

"I haven't begun to hurt you." Ziad stated, a smile showing his pointed teeth. "I've been a ghost since the ending of 2001, boy. I've been watching and waiting for a stable portal back to this world to finish my work and those Fentons created it for me."

Before Danny could react, Ziad shot a magazine down at the humans, screams reaching up to them.

Danny quickly reached for the gun, taking a few bullets himself as each stung worst then the last. He grabbed the barrel and put as much force behind an ecto-blast that he could, creating a shockwave that sent the two ghosts flying away from each other. Danny found himself sliding on his back only stopping when a potted tree ended his movement.

"Danny!" Tucker called out in surprise.

Danny rubbed his head as he slowly got up, four bullets falling off of him and dropping to the floor. He looked towards the sound of Tucker's voice to see the two coming out from the jewelry shop.

"Has anyone gotten hurt?" Danny asked, wincing in pain as he was helped to his feet.

"I don't think so." Sam admitted. "And the fire department's trying to make a way in. The ghost welded the doors shut."

"Have my parents been called?" Danny asked, already knowing he was no match against a real world weapon. As much as he didn't want them to fight and get hurt, they knew more about this then he did.

"They're outside right now." Tucker nodded.

"I better get back up there before he shoots off another magazine." Danny said, leaving his friends on the floor as he spotted Zaid flying towards him. Danny forced as much energy as he could into an ecto-blast, hoping to knock the uzi out of the dead terrorist's grip.

Zaid flipped over, losing altitude as the blast hit him in the shoulder. The ghost righted himself to find himself being pushed down by Danny. Danny tried to get ahold of the gun as the two plummeted down towards the floor only to be kicked away almost a foot from forcing Zaid to the ground.

Danny flipped over and skidded to a stop, landing on his feet and using his right hand to keep his balance. He eyed Zaid as the ghost reappeared through the floor.

With a smile on Ziad's face, the ghost shot out his last magazine of bullets, spraying them in an arch away from him. Danny did his best to stop them, creating a shield only for it to break after the first bullet hit. He quickly pushed himself forwards, hoping to capture most of them in his body only for them to hurt worst and worst until he dropped to the ground, screaming in agony.

The sound of glass breaking alerted Zaid to see Maddie and Jack Fenton busting through the doorway. The two were strapped down to the T in ghost hunting equipment with bullet proof vests visible over their jumpsuits. Maddie quickly fired one shot at the ghost's chest, knocking the uzi out of his hands. Jack quickly activated his Fenton Thermos, sucking the ghost within.

"Please, save Phantom!" Ashely cried out as she rushed over to the two Fentons.

The two adults looked at her before turning to the now crying ghost. Seeing Sam and Tucker huddled over the ghost they took action.

"Sam! Tucker! Get away!" Maddie ordered, fearful for her son's friends.

"He got shot, Mrs. F!" Tucker tried to explain.

"You've got to help him." Sam said, her eyes pleading to the two.

"Where's Danny?" Jack asked, realizing his son was supposed to be with the two.

"He made it outside before this stared, now help Phantom!" Sam ordered.

Maddie eyed the girl, about to reprimand her for her tone only to sigh as the ghost's old human habits of thinking it was in pain started to get at her. It sounded too much like it was her own son. "Jack, hold down his hands. Sam, Tucker, hold down his legs. I'll do what I can." The woman looked through the pack on her hip and pulled out a pair of tweezers as the three did as asked. Before long thirty-two bullets were pulled out of Danny's ecto-plasm as the boy's cries dwindled down to raged breathing.

Danny opened his eyes for the first time since being shot to see his parents' harden gazes staring down at him. He slowly sat up, feeling his chest as skin now showed through his slowly repairing suit before wiping his face as the feeling of tears still lingered.

"How you doing, Phantom?" a new voice asked, getting the ghost boy to look past his mom to see a firefighter with the name Macintosh written on his suit.

"Better, thanks to the Fentons." Danny admitted. He turned to the two and smiled. "Thank you."

"Don't mention it." Jack said, eyeing the ghost.