Where was he? It was past midnight...!
Irritance turned to worry and then to near panic as the minutes ticked by, a missed curfew turning into a missing child case.
The Fentons had made phone calls to Sam and Tucker's houses, only to hear that they didn't have a clue where Danny was either. Panicked worrying and waiting soon turned into a gathering of ecto-energy arms and both parents heading for the door.
Jazz persisted in going with them, but was told to remain at home in case he still returned. Reluctantly, the older sister complied and watched as Jack and Maddie Fenton dashed into the streets and practically armed to the teeth with blasters and bazookas. Their first assumption, expectedly, was that a ghost had something to do with Danny's disappearance...ironically the right answer this time but in a different manner. Jazz could only hope fervently that Danny wasn't still being held up by ghosts, by the time her parents got there to shoot his ghost self out of the sky.
The redhead watched the the rain hit the windows and darken the streets absently, as the silhouettes of her parents faded from view.
What a fitting scene for the mood.
Maddie sped down the sidewalk, a hand grasping a small ecto-energy pistol and her eyes searching the dulled sky for any sign of a figure flying across it. She scanned nearby alleys on the streets for dark shadows darting through them. Her adrenaline was up, trying to search and pick out anything that could vaguely resemble a fourteen-year-old boy, or someone responsible for his disappearance. She was worked up enough to the point that if she even saw a stray ghost this evening, she'd blast it to smithereens on the spot.
Her boy, her baby was missing...and if ghosts were the cause, they would pay dearly for it.
Time trickled by as the two worried parents searched street after street, venturing deeper into the suburban area and arriving in a neighborhood well-distanced from the house. There, the two paused in the streets, rain still coming down heavily on them and the stone around them.
Maddie stared up at Jack somberly, and he returned her gaze, "I know it's worrying, Mads but...we haven't seen hide or hair of a ghost or Danny so far..."
"Well we'll keep looking. I'm not going home until I get my boy back..." Maddie replied with a hard tone, her grip tightening on her pistol, "Or if I find the ghost who knows what happened to him..." she growled in a lower tone, turning to face the nearly identical brick buildings that lined the empty street
She sighed, walking up the sidewalk with a horrible, hollow feeling expanding with each unsuccessful minute that passed. Every minute he was missing...he wasn't safe at home...
Where was he?
Where was he?
The youngest Fenton was out and alone in the cold rainy night, somewhere... something had kept him from coming home besides whatever usually made him miss curfew. Kidnapping? Ghost attack? An accident? All three? Her boy may not even be alive right now, as long as he was gone the possibility remained...
"Danny!" Maddie cried out desperately, her pace speeding up with Jack close behind. Several more calls...but to no avail. No black-haired boy appeared in reply, no ghost flew into the open...no movement whatsoever.
Maddie sighed, hands shaking in fear for her missing son, for his sake. If only there was some reply, some kind of clue or something that would herald the location of her son...someone...something...anything...
"Maddie look!"
As if on cue to her thoughts, Jack's voice sounded from a ways in front of her. He must have passed her while they were walking, and now he was standing over something on the ground, gesturing at it importantly. Maddie glanced at the wet concrete, at first seeing nothing but making out a very faint glow on a small patch of the ground, visible only barely in the moonless night. The rain had cleared most of it away, but there was no mistaking it to the eye of an experienced ghost hunter.
Ectoplasm.
She looked up, seeing more faint green glows on the walls of the building not five feet away from the ground specimen. Smudged against the brick, the ectoplasm trail was smeared from a relatively short height into the ground, as if something had slipped down the wall and left the trail. It was less faded than the spot on the ground, which had been continuously pounded and diluted by the rainfall. Maddie felt a sliver of hope grow within. Even if the seemingly recent traces of ectoplasm did not guarantee any kind of relation between her son's disappearance and the possible presence of a ghost, it was still something to work toward, something to look to for some kind of relief, whether it be discovering their son's fate or simply blasting a ghost to pieces with vengeful intent.
Maddie glanced into the alley nearby, at first focusing at the ground for more residual ectoplasm, but instead a strange gleam off of the trashcans caught her attention. She silently motioned to Jack to approach the light anomaly, both parents drawing an ecto-weapon cautiously.
The light could only come from a ghost, a ghost who apparently had been bleeding ectoplasm all over the sidewalk and walls just nearby. A weakened ghost, a target ready to be finished off.
She and Jack drew closer to the can, slowly making their way around the barricade of trash receptacles and seeing a crumpled form come into view behind them. Maddie froze, eyes darting over the stark white hair, the black and silver suit, the iconic insignia on his chest.
It was him. Of all ghosts, it was him. Maddie almost laughed at the convenience of the whole situation.
Amity Park's famous-and also infamous-supernatural enigma, the elusive ghost kid whom the couple had targeted many times already in the past, swearing to get him and tear him apart molecule by molecule.
The Notorious Danny Phantom, laying there like as if discarded and left to rot, the weakness in his form clear by his position and posture. How convenient, the ghost child left for dead...or whatever was after...and left to be finished off by none other than the Fentons.
Jack gasped, raising a large bazooka and aiming it right at the immobile ghost child collapsed against the wall, "Maddie! It's the ghost punk! What luck, huh? We get to blow this spook sky-high and-"
As much as Maddie wanted to do the same, or contain him, or some other form of harm against the being she believed wholly was only a being of pure evil and ill-will...she couldn't. Not yet, anyway. Her son was still missing, and here was the ever-loathed ghost boy right in their vicinity. She gestured for Jack to lower the huge gun, just for a moment, "I want to speak to him. I'll bet this ghost might have some knowledge about our Danny..." she explained, hoping fervently that this creature would have useful information to give before they would probably obliterate him on the spot. It almost seemed like a shame...a waste to end their tenacious hounding of the ghost teen in such an easy and tedious way.
Maddie drew close to the downed Phantom, Jack watching cautiously from behind. The woman had her gun pulled, finger delicately resting on the trigger that was ready to pull at a moment's notice. Phantom didn't even twitch when she approached him, leading her to wonder if he was...perhaps sleeping? Sleeping? Ghosts don't sleep! she thought, edging ever closer. She was now within range to touch the subdued ghost, and her eyes studied him silently. He had to be still...well...not alive but functioning...She spotted a soft but uneven rise and fall of his chest, making her pause in confusion. Ghosts don't breathe...they had no lungs or life to need to do so...and yet Phantom was laboriously breathing in his daze right this moment!
She spotted the source of the ectoplasm easily next, seeing the visible tear in his suit along his side, and a dark green slice weeping the glowing green substance sluggishly. It looked as if the ghost had been trying to stop the flow of blood with only his hand, as evident by his limp right hand that rested only a few inches away from the gash. The white glove was stained green, and looked like it had slipped from its spot and rested on one of his legs, both of which were folded under his body. In his other hand was a shiny object, held loosely and close to the boy's chest, as if he were protecting it from threat.
Was that...the Fenton thermos?
It was...
Why did he have it, though? A flare of anger shot through Maddie as she jumped to the conclusion that he had stolen the device for some reason, perhaps to prevent his own containment within it. She sighed, a growl laden within it, and rather roughly nudged Phantom's shoulder with her gun, "Hey you, Phantom..." she hissed, recieving only a very weak and slow shift of his body closer to the wall in reply. She batted his shoulder with it again, "Phantom, wake up!"
A jolt ran through the smaller figure's body, his head shooting up and dazed green eyes blinking rapidly to register the scene in front of him. He instantly winced as the pain in his body came rushing back seizing his movements for a moment.
Maddie dared to edge closer, giving Phantom's face a good look. She had never been this close to the wretched specter, and was inwardly surprised she had gotten this close. She made out more cuts and scraps along his face, and a darkening spot above his right eye where something had apparently hit him-hard. His suit was torn in several places along his torso and arms, the most noticeable barely concealing his side gash. His white hair was slicked down by the rain, and hung in disheveled clumps in from of his face. His entire body was trembling, more from injury than the chill of the rainfall, no doubt. He shifted again, causing Maddie to tense her gun-toting arm, but he only seemed to press himself further into the wall, a look of fear glazing over his eyes.
Maddie was almost taken aback by how young he looked. How genuine the emotion had fallen over his demeanor and his child-like cowering. She almost felt pity for the ghost child, and yet...his display of emotion...
Fear?
No, impossible.
Ghosts don't fear anything.
They were vile and vengeful scourges from the world after living.
They had no emotions.
He was faking it. That had to be it. He may be a child but he was a ghost. Perhaps that was all that mattered.
"Cut the act, Phantom," Maddie demanded with a harsh tone, almost uncharacteristic to her usual voice, "I'm not buying your fear display, so you can just calm right down and let me ask you some things."
Phantom did not 'calm right down,' and if anything appeared more terrified at the dismissal of his 'fear display.' The ghost child stared at Maddie silently, his expression still strained with raw agony from his injury. He subconsciously covered the wound with his hand again, clenching the thermos almost protectively in his other.
Maddie narrowed her eyes threateningly, "Now first off...where the hell did you get that?" she demanded, gesturing at the ghost device the boy held in his hands.
Phantom visibly flinched at her gesture, as if he was anticipating her to strike him or something. It was odd to see the enigmatic ghost this way, cowering in the presence of his opponents rather than pulling any usual stunts or attacking...or even attempting escape. Perhaps he was too weakened to do any of that. Perhaps he was already resigned...?
Phantom lifted the thermos shakily, staring at it blankly as if he had never seen the device before. He almost met Maddie's gaze, but flinched away from it, as her eyes were threateningly hardened with quiet fury, "I...I was..." he spoke, his voice dry and diminished to nearly a feeble whisper, "I was..."
"You were what?" Came the harsh prompt, to which Phantom cringed reflexively,
"C-Catching...catching ghosts..." came the thin voiced reply, followed by nothing but the sound of rain hitting the concrete.
He's really stressing the fear act tonight...Maddie thought irritably, frowning at the ghost boy's uncharacteristic cowardly behavior. Then again, he was hardly a foot away from a pair of hunters heavily armed with things that specialized in doing harm to ghosts. A pair of hunters who could probably just pull their guns on him and annihilate him right then and there without a thought.
"Catching ghosts?" Jack scoffed from his position, "A ghost catching other ghosts? Do you expect us to believe such nonsense?"
Phantom seemed to wither, his eyes downcast with fading hope of escape or release. He certainly looked resigned now. The ghost child had been reduced to feeble tatters on the cold ground of an alley, his blood staining him and the ground around him. He probably believed he would be eliminated right then and there once these questions were answered, once the hunters had lost their interest in him. He probably knew he wasn't leaving this alley in a complete state, all in one piece, unscathed, tonight.
He was right, Maddie thought.