…I don't have to say anything.
When ghost attacks become the norm of the city, Amity Park is bound to become accustomed to certain aspects that come with them. Some of which include explosions, screaming, screeching tires, shattering glass and asphalt, and ecto-blasts.
And Danny Phantom crashing down onto your property.
The middle aged male driver blinked, trying to process what just happened literally three feet from his face. And by the time he did, he just shrugged and pulled out his phone. Insurance had these kinds of things covered now. He waved towards the teen hero who pushed himself up on his car hood, who also waved back with a tired smile. The man watched, unaffected at the sight of the local hero flying off in an odd manner, like something was pulling him by the waist.
Eyebrows were raised as spectators watched Phantom seemingly ecto-blast thin air while talking to it as well. Some of the members of the populace wondered if the teen hero had finally fallen off the deep end, but then again, he's been seen doing something similar in the past. And some of the nearby children and teens are cheering and pointing at the general area of Phantom's target. The adults just shrugged to themselves, treating it as if it was to be expected, seeing as if there was a ghost now, this would make it the eleventh public fight in the past twelve hours.
The citizens of the ghost ridden city recoiled as Phantom suddenly screamed in a frustrated manner. Multiple people made out the words "every hour," "tired," and "it's just a piece of paper!" before he just aimed the usual Fenton Thermos and bolted away to who knows where.
…Nope. Nothing new.
Resting in the leisure of Danny's bedroom, Sam and Tucker watched as Danny Phantom sluggishly drifted intangibly through his window, unceremoniously tossed the thermos on his nightstand, dropped face down onto his mattress, and transformed back into Danny Fenton. A soft groan stifled by his pillow began emanating from the boy.
"That had to be like the dozenth one now…"
With a press of his stylus and a single glance towards the screen of his PDA, "actually, the twelfth one was Desiree. This makes the fifteenth fight today," Tucker stated.
"Wasn't Desiree the fifth one I fought?"
"No, the fifth fight was just a pack of ectopi."
"I thought the ectopi was the third one."
"No, Technus was third."
"But I just fought him off like two hours ago!"
"You did." Tucker looked at him straight in the eyes, "he came back after you released him into the Ghost Zone after that first fight with him."
Danny lifted his head up to release a cry containing all his frustration and fatigue, and then just plopped it back down immediately after.
Sam got up from her spot by the window where she waited for Danny's return. "Who was it this time?" She gently stroked his black hair in a soothing manner.
Danny hummed at the comforting touch. "Youngblood…"
Beeping could be heard within the confines of the room as Tucker began recording the attack in great detail on his device. The female group member continued to appease her boyfriend while asking questions about the attack. Where it took place, how long it lasted, amount of collateral damage, if others joined the fight, etc.
"I'm going to go ahead and finish dying now." The words could just barely be made out from the muffling of his pillow.
Sam rolled her eyes. "And what about me then? While I am your girlfriend–"
"And she may be goth," Tucker interjected, "but even I doubt she'd resort to necrophili– ah!" He immediately leaned to his side, hugging his PDA closely to his chest. There was a clanking of metal hitting against the room wall as complaints rang out from the occupants of the now fallen Fenton Thermos that Sam had aimed at his head.
The exhausted teen just continued to ignore the commentary. "Just make my bed my grave," he stated, "we can have the bedpost be the tombstone and have it say 'Danny Fenton sleeps here.'" This statement earned a guffaw from Tucker.
"That would make a pretty interesting gothic bedpost," Sam added on.
Danny lifted his head again to scream aloud. "How am I supposed to sleep, let alone study for my exams, if pretty much every ghost I know – and twice as many I don't – keep coming after me?!"
"It's not you they're after, Danny." Sam opened the drawer of his nightstand and sifted through it. "It's this piece of paper the Box Ghost exclaimed about," she stated as she pulled out and presented the document they recovered from the Ghost Zone yesterday. "Whatever it is, it must be pretty valuable for so many ghosts to come after us just the day after we found it."
The half-ghost teen shifted his head to glance at the source of his suffering. "How's the investigation on that thing going?"
Sam shook her head. "Nothing. I searched every book and website that could have any relevant information on it. This thing is either something totally unheard of or just that ancient."
"Clearly not unheard of in the Ghost Zone though," Danny mumbled. "What about you, Tuck?"
The technology genius of the trio looked down towards his PDA. "From what I can tell – it is as ancient as it looks. I tried running a visual scan. Those aren't just random doodles or some sort of encryption, we're looking at some form or variation of pictographs."
Eyebrows raised at the statement. "You mean, like prehistoric times? With cavemen?" The ghost boy was barely processing any of the information given to him, his body screaming at him to fall asleep.
"Doubtful. Paper wasn't exactly a thing until at least a few thousand years ago," Sam stated.
"Based on the material that it's made of, and the state it's in…My best estimate," Tucker tapped on his screen, "we're looking at something that's at least in B.C. eras." Tucker refrained from elaborating further on his knowledge of the paper, suppressing a nagging feeling in the back of his mind, a certain sense of familiarity with the what few identifiable scripts there were. For now, he could understand the information on that page just as well as the others. "Everything is so worn out and faded, I'm not sure even a high-resolution terahertz reflective imaging and image restoration would get us much results."
The two looked back down at the sound of Danny groaning.
Danny pulled out his cell phone from his pocket, opening it in front of him. He started scrolling through his list of contacts.
When Tucker looked over his friend's shoulder he gave a puzzled look at the contact Danny stopped and selected. "Who the heck is 'The Wurdulac?'"
"It was Sam's idea." Danny pointed towards said girl.
The female goth gave a grin at being given the credit. "It's suites him perfectly!"
Letting his curiosity get the best of him, Tucker pulled up his trusty personal device and looked up the term. He managed to find the definition on the first search. Rereading the description a couple times and then mouthing an "oh," he nodded his head in understanding. "Only you would find or come up with something like this."
Danny pressed his phone to his ear. "Hey, do you have some spare time, Vlad?"
"So, you managed to find a few recruits this time." Aragon stated on his throne. "Well, that's some progress…Why the sudden change though?"
The two subjects, kneeling just like the day before, looked towards each other in silent communication. Then the Archer Ghost spoke for each other. "Most of the Ghost Zone has its attention on a certain rumor going about at the moment."
"Rumor?"
"Aye," the Archer Ghost confirmed.
Aragon gave in to his curiosity. "What of?"
The archer turned to the axe barer, passing on his turn to speak. "There are rumors floating about that the halfa, Phantom, has obtained a page of the journal from the legends."
"Journal?" The prince looked confused for a moment, churning over his memories. Over the many years of his existence, he had been exposed to many forms of old literature. But no particular form of writing stuck out to him, especially not a journal. After all, why should he care about the matters of some lesser beings. The only one that came to mind with the mention of the term "journal" and "legends" would be…
His eyes widened. "Are you referring to that journal?" he inquired as he leaned forward. "The rumored journal that leads to the Elsewhereness? Sojourn's journal?"
The ghost nodded. "Aye."
Aragon leaned back against his chair. As the gears turned in his mind, his smile only grew, revealing very sharp fangs and a glint in his eyes. "I could use this…"
Without any regard for etiquette, Danny barged straight through the mahogany door and into Vlad's office. The light of the afternoon sun illuminated the room through its only window. There, as he expected, was Vlad, hidden behind a stack of papers reaching just below his head. The billionaire business man was scribbling away with what very little remaining vigor he had left. His hand didn't stop moving until Danny semi-slammed the door shut.
When Vlad looked up from his paperwork, he sighed in apparent relief, and shifted the stack of papers a little to the side to make some desk space. "Hello, Daniel," he greeted the teen while taking his cup of earl gray tea on his desk into his hands. "Now, what is causing you so much trouble that you requested for my assistance during the middle of my work?"
Vlad was smiling as he spoke. He was more than relieved upon getting that phone call. The elder halfa had almost wished upon Desiree to be liberated, at least momentarily, of his duties as mayor of Amity Park. When Daniel contacted him, Vlad almost cheered aloud.
A faint click sounded behind Danny as he locked the door to ensure no regular personnel overheard their conversation. "I want you to take a look at something," he demanded.
Vlad rested his elbow against his desk and his head on his hand. "Does it have anything to do with the sudden inflation of ghost attacks since yesterday?" he asked as the youth treaded closer to his desk across the room.
"Pretty much," Danny confirmed.
Vlad exhaled a sigh. "Well then, what did you do this time?"
Danny halted, acting mildly offended. "Why do you automatically assume that it's my fault?" Vlad was somewhat relieved, hearing him retort back like that. The teen seemed to have recovered somewhat compared to how Vlad saw him on the news report yesterday.
"Daniel, please. Let's face facts here – every time something happens, you're normally somehow involved. And usually the one that instigates the event, if I might add."
"Oh, come on!" he raised his arms widely. "I'm not the one who starts them; I just get dragged into them. Name one incident where I started it."
"Do you want the list in alphabetical or chronological order?" Vlad deadpanned.
Danny just glared in a sulking manner. "Whatever," he said as he raised his hands in defeat, dropping this topic for the one he originally came here for. He pulled out the paper, "do you know what this is?" and placed it in front of Vlad on the desk.
Vlad took another sip of his tea. He scanned his eyes over the page – before promptly spit taking and spraying his beverage right on Danny's face, panic stricken. Without wasting another second, he ducked down and slapped his hand on a large green button underneath his desk. Immediately after the button was pressed, a ghost shield erupted around the building. Somehow, Vlad still had the sensibility to set his cup and plate down without shattering them before reaching for the button. He covered his mouth with his hand when he realized what he did to the guest in front of him.
For an indefinite amount of time, the only sound in the room was the dripping of tea falling off Danny's face and onto Vlad's desk. Vlad still looked unnerved. And Danny still needed a moment to process what the heck just happened.
"I'm guessing that's a yes," Danny stated as he turned himself intangible. He watched the liquid phase right through him, the burgundy rug darkened from soaking up the tea. "Seriously, Vlad? Was activating the city hall emergency ghost shield really necessary?"
However, the ghost teen was startled as Vlad suddenly reached over his desk, gripped his shoulders firmly, and looked him straight in the eyes. "Daniel, listen to me. No matter what, keep that thing hidden at all costs. The attacks will never end anytime soon if you keep flaunting that thing like your parents do with their inventions!" Vlad twisted him around. He didn't even take the time to walk around his desk, phasing right through it as he pushed the confused boy out of the office.
Danny had to take a moment to relate the comparison. He wasn't exactly flaunting the thing. Heck, the only one who saw him with it was the Box Ghost…oh. Yeah. With that loud mouth of his things were never going to stay quiet. "Hm? Wait, Vlad. You still didn't tell me so special abou-"
Vlad had already slammed his office door closed. The anti-ecto barrier surrounding city hall remained activated for the rest of the day.
A/N: It's a lot less cliché than using "Dracula." I mean, his first name is Russian after all. And there's also the whole trying to convert Danny thing they had in the past.