A/N: Apologies for the delay! Decided to upload a revised Chap. 2 while polishing off Chap. 3.
… Oh God. She did. Danny gulped. He couldn't help his eyes dart nervously up in the direction of his apartment. What had they found? How long had they been there?? A thousand possible situations, each worst than the last, blasted through his mind in the matter of a few seconds.
Without another thought to Maria, he turned and dashed for the stairs.
Meanwhile, upstairs…
After several moments of flabbergasted silence, Maddie finally spoke up, and asked the question that burned inside both their minds.
"Why in the world does Danny have a ghost as a pet!?" Both parents jumped as the phone began to ring. They both stood and went to the doorway to listen to the message. The bewilderment on their faces only increased as the message played.
"Hey, Danny, this is Steph." Her voice was perky and animated. Maddie thought she could detect the sound of gum being popped. "Just wanted to let you know that Skulker made bail this morning. Thought you'd wanna know." A snort of derision could be heard. "No idea where he got the money." Pause. "Anyway. I actually was calling to remind you about your 10:30 appointment with Dr. Guillotine tomorrow. If you need to cancel, you know the drill. Bye-bye, hon." Click. The message stopped and the little red machine light began to blink. Jack and Maddie stood in stunned silence.
"S-Skulker? Did she say Skulker? Isn't that—?" Maddie whispered.
"…A ghost. Skulker is a ghost." Jack whispered back. To himself, he thought, She can't mean the original Dr. Guillotine…can she?
"…That's what I thought…" They continued to stand, gaping at the answering machine. Maddie mentally shook herself. Snap out of it Madison! Obviously there's something wrong here, and you need to fix it!
"Jack." Maddie straightened and pulled an Ecto-blaster out from her purse. Jack slowly turned to look at her, still clearly dazed.
"Obviously there is something wrong here. The ectoplasm, the fish, the message—whatever comes through that door, it's not going to be Danny. It has to be a ghost." Her voice shook a little as her eyes began to tear up in rage. "Do you understand me? We need to be prepared to engage whatever comes through that door." She nodded toward the apartment entrance.
"…Yes, yes. You're right, of course." Suddenly his eyes widened as the implications of their conclusion hit home. "By golly, Mads! You're right! Our son is being overshadowed by one of those menaces!" A bright gleam of enthusiasm came into his eyes.
"We should move the furniture, make a blockade, and when it comes through the door, come out blasting that son of a—"
"No, Jack," Maddie interrupted. "We won't. From the looks of it, this has been going on a while. So it's a strong ghost. Blasting it will only make it angry and we run the risk of it fighting back or fleeing." She paused, musing. "No," she said after a moment. "What we need is the element of surprise." A predatory smile spread across her face. She desperately wanted to hurt the ghost that was harming her son, but she knew she had to be smart about this.
"Jack, honey, you brought an Ecto-Capto, didn't you?"
Danny finally made it to his floor, and dashed toward his door. Frantically he fumbled with his key, and a moment later he burst through the door.
"Mom? Dad?" Ignoring the ominous feeling in the pit of his stomach, he cautiously approached the kitchen.
"Mom, Dad, are you guys here? Hello?" He carefully set his book bag down on the table. Surveying the apartment, he couldn't help but feel the slight prickle of imminent danger crawl up the back of his neck.
"Mom?" He whispered. No signs of them. No bags, no coats, no nothing. But Maria had all but told him…Slowly, he took off his coat. He gave a nervous laugh.
"All right, guys, I know you're here. Maria spilled the beans. So you can come out now." Nothing. Ok, definitely starting to be creeped out now…he noticed the blinking light on the message machine. Hey, maybe Sam or Tucker left me a message. He smiled. He was going to meet them tonight and they were going to celebrate together. He clicked 'play' as he went to the closet to hang up his coat. His spirit sank a little when it turned out to be just Stephanie. He listened to her message with half an ear as he turned the knob of the closet. He stopped though, and went back to the message and rewound it. What was that about Skulker? He groaned when he heard the news. Great. Just what I need. That maniac making bail.
He turned to go back to closet when he paused, and looked back at the message machine.
Wait…he hurried back over to the machine and checked the time it was received. Two minutes ago.
Two minutes ago his parents where supposed to be here.
Could they have left?
Impossible.
He hadn't seen them on the stairs.
His stomach did a flip flop. Did they hear that message? Did they hear her mention Skulker? He groaned. If they had, they would have recognized that name instantly.
"Great. Just great," he muttered. "That's going to bring up some questions." He deduced that his parents had probably found ghostly evidence and were probably staked out somewhere in the apartment, lying in wait for him. Angrily, he threw his coat down on the couch.
"One thing you can never say about my life—it's never, ever boring." Frustrated, he rolled up his sleeves and began searching the apartment for his parents. He knew he should probably get the hell out of there, but he really didn't want to deal with this later, and he was not going to leave his parents holed up in his room, waiting to ambush him. That was simply not an option. He sighed and surveyed his apartment, considering all the likely hiding spots.
They're probably in the closet. Resignedly he walked over to the door. This was definitely going to take some quick talking to get out of this one.
Meanwhile…
Jack and Maddie stood out in the hallway, intently listening to the activity within.
"You're sure you set the trip wire, right, Jack?" Maddie whispered. Jack nodded.
"As soon as he opens the closet door, it'll go."
"Excellent. Ecto-blasts are too good for a ghost that hurts our Danny." Jack nodded in agreement.
"All we have to do now is to wait."
Inside…
"Mom, Dad, it's me. I can explain whatever you found. Just don't freak out, ok? I'm going to open the door now…" Slowly he turned the knob. Please don't shoot me! he thought. He eased the closet door open.
It was empty.
"What the…?" Danny exclaimed as he stared at the empty closet.
CLICK. Whirrrrr— A small, silver, cylindrical device that was mounted on what looked to be a tripod came to life.
And aimed itself directly at Danny. His eyes narrowed for a second before widening in panic.
"Oh, sh—" Without another second of hesitation he tried to throw himself out of the beam's way.
He grunted as the wall put an abrupt stop to his dive. Instantly he was on the move again. The device was already repositioning.
He skidded to a halt behind the couch, turned, and fired a focused, intense ray right at the main joint of the device.
His beam severed the joint, and electric sparks ran up and down the legs of the contraption as it shorted out.
Good God, he thought as he stood up from behind the sofa. They never stop. Sighing, he realized he now had to clean up the mess. Grumbling, he stalked over to the kitchen to retrieve the broom.
A fleeting voice of warning crossed his mind, but he was too angry to pay it any mind. Besides, there wasn't any way that his parents had had that much time to booby-trap his apartment further.
"Ah!" He yanked his hand back from the door knob, which now glowed with an ephemeral green energy.
"Stupid, stupid, stupid…" He muttered as he mentally slapped himself. Of course there were more traps. He was dealing with the Fentons, after all. This doorknob was most likely a simple distraction. He became aware of a small wind across the back of his neck. Whirling around, he was just in time to blast away a net descending from the ceiling. As the net disintegrated, mechanical claws emerged from underneath the cabinetry and made passes at his feet, which he had to take to the air to avoid. Now floating in his own kitchen, Danny slashed through ecto-ropes that shot from a device attached to a hanging lamp. Simultaneously he noticed the green aura around the pantry knob had expanded into a man-sized bubble and was slowly lumbering toward him. Frustrated, he blasted it.
To his dismay, the bubble did not disintegrate, and nor did it seem hindered in its approach. In fact, it glowed brighter and appeared to have picked up speed.
Cursing under his breath, something Jazz had mentioned last time they talked came back to him. She would always update him on their parent's advances in ghost capture, and last time she had told him about these bubbles. Seemed that they tuned into an ecto-signature, and once that happened it was curtains for the ghost. No amount of blasting would stop the damned thing, and would in fact only strengthen the contraption. And it wouldn't stop until it captured its quarry. Hmm.
Maybe Jazz would know how to get rid of it. He couldn't get to the phone in the kitchen, because of the bubble. Without a second's hesitation, he turned and flew quickly into his bedroom, swiping his book bag off the coffee table as he went. His bedroom also had the advantage of being furthest from the kitchen, and furthest from the inexorable bubble. He landed, threw his bag on the bed, and with inhuman speed dove into his closet and pulled out a fresh shirt, as the one he was wearing now bore some mild scorch marks.
Emerging from the closet, he swiped his phone, wallet, and keys from the bed, and headed for the wall, preparing to phase through, since the bubble had now expanded further and blocked his access to the front door.
Invisible, he flew for the wall.
SMACK.
"Oomph…" Danny groaned as he staggered back from the wall he had just slammed into. What the…? He tentatively reached out to feel the wall. Ah. Now he could feel it. A ghost shield. He sighed. When did his parents become this thorough? He continued to probe the shield. Aha. He grinned. He recognized it as one of the earlier models of Fenton Shields. Well, he wouldn't be able to get through it invisibly, but he knew from hours of practice all those years ago with Sam and Tucker that he could get through it just by pushing through it by using the minimal of ghostly powers. It was hard, but he knew he could. Besides, the bubble had managed to squeeze a portion of itself into the bedroom. He didn't have a lot of time for anything else. The neighbors be damned if they say anything. There was no way he was going to get caught in that stupid bubble. Without a second thought, he leaned into the shield.
It felt like pushing through taffy. His ghostly qualities were what made it especially difficult to pass through. If it weren't for his human DNA, he wouldn't have even been able to attempt going through. Almost there….one more push and he stumbled free from the shield, out of the wall, and into the hall.
Right into Jack's chest.
Stumbling backwards, Danny was the first to recover from their mutual shock. Anger quickly replaced any shock he felt.
"Just what the hell do you think you're doing? Get in there and fix my apartment, now! How dare you booby trap my own apartment? What kind of sick parent are you?" All the while Jack had been backing away from Danny, a startled look on his face. Danny stepped toward his father, his eyes flaring green.
He never even remembered that he should have accounted for his mother before leaving his back exposed.
With a painful grunt, he fell to his knees as the ecto-blast seared his back. That shot was quickly followed by more. As he collapsed, and rolled onto his back, he was dimly aware of his mother's goggled face peering down at him from the barrel of the largest ecto-gun he had ever seen.
"Can't we talk about this?" He choked. Maddie's face bobbed in his vision.
"Amazing," Maddie breathed. "Jack, it's trying to reason with us." The look of clinical interest vanished from her face and was replaced by one of cold fury. "The SON OF A BITCH WHO'S OVERSHADOWING MY BABY IS TRYING TO REASON WITH ME!"
"No, mom –really, I know this is a little hard to believe right now, but you just need to calm down—" Danny's vision was slowing coming back into the clear. He needed to think fast if he was going to get out of this without any more damage.
"CALM DOWN? CALM DOWN? I think this is pretty DAMN CALM for talking to the lowlife impersonating my son!"
Danny winced. A plan had come to mind, but he just needed a little more time…
As civilly as he could, he asked, "And what makes you think I'm being overshadowed?"
"Jack," Maddie said, her voice falsely bright, "Don't you think it's time we ended this pointless drivel and freed our Danny?"
Danny heard his father's voice answer from across the room. "Almost ready, Mads, just a few more minutes…" Spurred on by that deadline, Danny refocused on the task at hand. Sinking his hand into the floor, he began to snake his way to the apartment's laundry room, two floors down, and he prayed that it was empty…
Maddie turned her burning gaze back to the hapless halfa.
"Hear that, pumpkin? Hang in there Danny, Mommy's gonna make everything alright!" Danny blanched.
"Mom, I'm not being overshadowed. It's me, mom. No. one. else." Danny said firmly. Maddie shook her head.
"That's the ghost talking, dear. But don't worry, we'll soon have you back to one hundred percent!"
"Great," Danny muttered, thrilled. Aha, there it was. A couple of ounces of pressure, and—
"Christ, Mads! What happened?" Jack shouted as the lights in the hallway went out, leaving the everyone in total darkness.
"Danny? DANNY?" Maddie shrieked. "DON'T YOU DARE LEAVE, GHOST, OR ELSE—" With a frustrated sob, she shot blindly into the dark, the ecto-blasts making flashes of spectral light in the blackness.
"For chrissakes, Mads, watch where you shoot that!" Jack shouted from across the hall. "Wait till the lights are back on!"
And it was at that moment that the lights flickered back on, illuminating the hall and giving the Fentons visual proof that their prisoner had escaped.
"NOOO!!" Maddie sobbed and collapsed forward, letting her head fall onto her knees, where she continued to heave and sob. "My baby….."
"Mads…" Jack murmured as he approached, "Everything's gonna be alright…"
Not acknowledging her husband's assurance, Madeline Fenton pulled herself up into a kneeling position. Her eyes shone with a cold, steely fury.
"No mercy."
"Er, what's that honey?" Jack asked, his attention back the gadget-of-the-moment.
"I will show no mercy to that motherless sonnuvabitch who is impersonating my son. Do you hear me, Jack Fenton?"
"Mads, this is great! Check this out! I was able to gather enough data to triangulate the position of the particular strain of ectoplasm that is inherent to the makeup of the—Maddie, darling? Maddie!" Jack leapt to his feet at the sight of his wife striding down the hallway, already half the distance to the stairs.
"Damn," he muttered as he began to sweep equipment into a duffel bag. "Wait up, sweetie! I'm right behind you!"