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Chapter 2: Teaming Up
Whenever a ghost attacks at school it can get all kinds of ugly. Not only because I sometimes have to give embarrassing excuses to ditch a class. There's also the fear of doing more harm than good, or even having my identity completely exposed. Usually, though, it ends with me in detention, so I kinda brace myself for that whenever an attack starts.
With a prankster like Youngblood over there it won't be an exception.
Aside from the usual rhythm to this kind of fights, in which I go against a ghost, end up trashing some classroom, and get blamed for it as Danny Fenton, there's also the chance of my parents getting involved, probably with some of their buddies tagging along, so I have to be more careful this time.
Dr. Maitland continues giving her explanation on today's work, but she can't keep the attention of the other kids in class for much longer when they actually notice there's a green-haired kid floating outside. They gape in shock, as it's usual whenever a ghost shows up, and complete the routine with the mandatory scream. "Aaaaaah! Ghost!" Nathan is the first to yell as he jumps from his seat, alerting anyone else who hadn't seen our annoying visitor. Well, everyone except for the two oblivious adults in our classroom.
"A Beautiful Mind, people! What in the world are you kids talking about?" Lancer demands loudly. It probably looks pretty weird to them, seeing how there are students wanting to get out of the room with no apparent threat nearby. You'd think they'd at least be able to see the huge pirate ship floating outside.
"Danny, what are we going to do?" Sam whispers as she and Tucker get closer.
We hear Mr. Lancer yelling once more while he steps in front of the students, threatening everyone that if they don't get back to their seats there will be consequences. The annoying ghost punk notices all the commotion and flies into the room through the window, cackling while he watches everyone go against the wall.
"Oh, man! I've always wanted to get other kids into trouble with their teachers," he tells his parrot.
"Can we get this over with, already?" the parrot huffs annoyed while rolling his eyes. "We came looking for Danny Phantom, not to fool around with some idiotic kids."
They're looking for me? I turn to give Sam and Tucker a worried look. Fortunately, he hasn't seen me yet since my friends and I are crouching under a couple of desks. That should give us time to come up with something before he reveals my identity to my whole class.
"Dude, why don't you tell Lancer you'll go look for your parents? That way you get and alibi and Youngblood's attention?"
"Tuck's right," Sam adds. "You can lure him somewhere, minus the terrified audience, and if anyone sees him following you, they'll think it's just to stop you from getting help."
I weigh my options as I look at Youngblood making faces behind the teacher's back. "I guess I'll have to give it a try."
Trying to work as fast as I can, I run to the door and turn to face both adults. "I'll, uh, go get some help? Maybe my parents know what's going on." They stare at me but I don't wait for their permission as I head outside, giving Youngblood a pointed look on the way out. I just hope he gets the hint.
"What are you waiting for? Follow him!" I hear his parrot shout just before I bolt out of the classroom.
"Mr. Fenton, get back here!" I also hear Mr. Lancer yell, but I trust he won't run after me since he already has a lot in his hands with the bunch of freaked out teens in his class. Hopefully my friends will also cover for me, but I guess I should get ready for my daily dose of detention anyway. Fantastic.
I try not to use my powers to keep the alert to the minimum. Seeing how most of my parent's inventions are practically triggered by my ecto-signature, I feel safer at the moment doing this the old-fashioned way. I turn on a corner and head upstairs, aiming for the roof to meet Youngblood. As soon as I get there, I make sure there are no ghost hunters around at ground level, but I guess they're all in their assigned classrooms.
The brat catches up and I keep a confident stance with my arms crossed. "All right, Youngbutt, you wanted to see me?"
I know I'm in a slight disadvantage if I confront him as a human, but I can't risk being seen changing into my alter ego. Besides, I thought we were in more neutral terms after the last two times his parents "asked" me to babysit him. I know we both hated the idea at first, but after a while we managed to make it through his parents' outings without trying to kill each other.
Instead of an attack, though, the kid just puts his hands up, as if trying to calm me down. "Relax, Danny," he says with a smug chuckle. "I came to give you something."
I can't help but snort. "Yeah, right. You came to give me a hard time, I bet. You do know you already got me into trouble today, right?"
His parrot crosses his boney wings as he scoffs again. "See? I told you it was a waste of time. Can we please leave now?"
Youngblood turns to glare at his pal, who looks unfazed. I've seen those two get along in other circumstances and, even when they seem annoyed at each other most of the time, the truth is there's a strong friendship between them. Kinda like old bickering buddies, I guess.
He sighs and holds some sort of necklace on his hand. It's made of thread and has a very small pouch attached, no bigger than a penny. "This is an amulet my grandma gave me. It's supposed to keep bad things away from you," he says quietly and apparently a bit embarrassed.
I take it from his hand, still confused. "You came all the way over here to give me this? Why?" I really don't understand. I mean, forget 'neutral'... he's apparently being nice!
Youngblood turns to look at his parrot worriedly. "Dude, seriously? The Exterminator is looking for you! Everyone in the Ghost Zone is making bets and no one thinks you'll make it. I don't want to be stuck with Ember again as my baby-sitter!"
My stomach does a nasty flip. I was prepared for an attack, but not for a brutal punch in the gut with this sort of news. "The Exterminator?" I don't know what the heck he's talking about, but I don't really like the sound of it. This might be a wild guess, but... "Is he... is he by any chance a big, armored goat guy?"
His huge and alarmed eyes already give me the answer I need before he even says a thing. "Oh, no, you saw him?"
"He's cursed! Let's get out of here!" his partner yells and, before I can do or say anything, they scream and rush to their pirate ship to leave through another huge cloud of smoke.
I stand there numbly, holding the necklace tight. Did that really just happen? Did he say I'm cursed? I know I attract a lot of bad luck every now and then, but cursed? This has to be one of his twisted pranks. There's no way Youngblood would care if something happened to me, right?
But what if it's true? If that's the case, who or what exactly is the Exterminator? Why would everyone be afraid of him? And why the hell would he be after me? I guess it would explain why there haven't been so many ghost attacks lately...
I should probably take this with a grain of salt. I shouldn't panic until I find out what's going on. At least now I have somewhere to start and, if the Ghost Zone knows about him well enough to be that scared, there might be a whole legend behind him. Sam is really good at finding that sort of things at her favorite bookstore, so I could really use her help. Still, I can't tell my friends all the details of what that brat said; they already have enough worries and I don't want them to deal with this right now. I'll have to play this casually, somehow.
Man, I really hope this is just a prank. I'll seriously get back at that punk if that's the case.
But as much as I want to kid myself... remember that feeling I've been having, that something's about to happen? It just got ten times worse.
The rest of the day has gone as normally as it can in Casper High. I tried to convince my friends I'd tell them what happened with Youngblood once we're out of my parents' earshot. I told them I convinced him to go back to the Ghost Zone, but I already know they're sensing something's up. It kinda comes with the territory: after keeping so many secrets from the rest of the world, of course those who are closest to me will know if I'm lying or hiding something from them. Guess I'll have to worry about later, though. I don't want to think too much about it right now, either.
The good thing is I managed to avoid detention when I took my parents rushing to the classroom shortly after Youngblood's departure. Mr. Lancer wasn't too happy to have them around at all, but he admitted it helped calm everyone down, somehow. Dr. Maitland also said she had been able to sense something and tried to telepathically connect with the spirit that haunted the classroom. I tried to stop myself from laughing at her phony antics, but I guess she was just trying to reassure everyone they would be safe for the remainder of the class.
Of course, my "good luck" came to an end as soon we made it to Gym class.
Despite my ghost powers, my human abilities still don't compare to what I can do as Phantom. This I have known even before the whole incident with Dash and Skulker. Sure, I can use some of my powers without going ghost, but I don't have the same reflexes or the agility; it might have something to do with being lightweight, maybe. Still, that makes it even more embarrassing whenever I turn into a klutz in any of the physical activities Ms. Teslaff sets for us. The tough teacher is not alone for this class, though, since Professor Stantz decided to join us to apparently give some ghost-dodging pointers. That's where the current awkwardness began...
Now that he changed into clothes that are more fitting for the class, he looks like a camp counselor rather than a coach, but I guess he's not really used to working with kids our age. He looks slightly uncomfortable as he tries to give us his best plastic grin, but otherwise he's at least making a friendly effort to connect with the group.
"All right, kiddos, we're going to run some laps to get the adrenaline going," he begins excitedly. "And after that, we prepared an obstacle course for you to try out. You're probably wondering how that's related to the GAW*, and here's the fun part: we're making a drill to teach you how to escape from ghosts. Ain't that fun?"
"Fun? I'm guessing he hasn't even seen a ghost, yet," Sam remarks dryly out of his earshot.
Ms. Teslaff blows her whistle and begins giving us orders. "Okay, get moving! Four laps, now! Fastest runner gets a reward."
My friends and I usually don't waste too much energy while doing laps since we're not really evaluated based on timing. But now that Teslaff promised a reward for the first one to finish, neither of my classmates wants to think what the punishment will be for the slowest one. That makes us all want to really hurry up for this one.
As we get half of the laps done, it becomes clear the jocks will be taking the lead along with the two most athletic girls in class: Sam and Valerie. You'd figure the cheerleaders would have just as much energy, but apparently they're more focused on keeping a steady pace without breaking a sweat. At the end of the "food chain", though, Tucker and I are tied with a couple of our geeky peers.
Breathing a little uneasy, I turn to cheer up my pal. "C'mon, Tucker, we can do it. Remember when we trained for that fitness test?"
He doesn't seem too happy to remember. "You mean when Sam motivated me with lies and deceit?"
"Well, yeah, but we made it through the test that time, right? We can still try harder."
Tucker stares in disbelief. "Are you kidding me?" He takes a second to shake his head in denial and we both manage to push even harder. In the end, we only pass two other tired classmates, which technically won't leave us in last place at least.
As we all try to catch our breath, we learn that Dash finished first, followed closely by Sam, the jocks, and Valerie.
"All right, Dash, since you beat all these wimps, you'll get to be a ghost in the obstacle course," Teslaff announces and the alarms in my head don't seem too comfortable with the idea. "You'll get to run after everyone and they'll have to find a way to get away from you."
Dash and Kwan share a high-five. "All right! That's like a 'get out of jail free' card for geek wailing!"
My friends and I cringe, along with probably half of the class, but Tucker speaks first. "When did we go from avoiding ghosts to running away from bullies?"
I shrug. "Is there a difference?"
Seriously, seeing how most of my enemies try to find creative ways to make my life miserable, it's not really that different from what Dash puts me through every day. Except I can actually fight back against Skulker without blowing my cover.
Professor Stantz takes a step forward and starts looking thoughtfully at all of us. "Oh-kaay, since a real-life situation might require helping out others, you'll be working with a partner. So... You!" He points at Sam, who looks uncomfortable with the situation. "You showed a lot of energy and strength, so you'll be working with someone less... graceful, so to speak. You," he exclaims while pointing at Mikey. "Please join this young lady on the first run."
As he and Teslaff randomly pair everyone up, like Tucker with Kwan or Paulina with Ashley, it's my turn to have a partner assigned. "Hey, kiddo! You're Jack's son, right?" our guest asks me without really expecting an answer. "I can see where you get your stamina from, ha! Just messin' with ya. You'll be working with... this lovely lady over here." He puts a hand on my teammate's shoulder and I have to hide my nervousness as soon as I realize a certain grudge-holding, trigger-happy girl and I will be stuck together for this routine.
Valerie cringes visibly and is clearly uncomfortable. I slowly walk towards her, already expecting a really awkward situation. "Hey, uh, Valerie," I wave while trying not to call her 'Val'. She almost chewed my head off last time I did that as Phantom. I'll take it easy as Fenton now since we haven't really had the chance to exchange more than two words lately.
"Oh, hi, Danny," she replies with a weak grin, apparently still a bit uneasy around me. I guess she's not exactly glad knowing there's some sort of friendship between her worst enemy and her klutzy friend, or that I know her secret, for that matter.
As we stand next to each other in awkward silence, we listen to the instructions for the obstacle course; nothing too complicated: just find the fastest and easiest way to dodge Dash, the "ghost", and make it to the finish line. Sam and Mikey are the first ones to give it a try. Everybody plays close attention to the first run to see how hard it will actually be. Sam has plenty of practice, though, taking the lead when needed and helping others out of trouble, so she tries to guide Mikey from behind his back, already knowing Dash will surely go after him first. They climb ropes, dodge balls from the jock, jump obstacles, crawl, run, and even create distractions to keep the "ghost" from tagging them. With her agility and Mikey's previous experiences with Dash, both are somehow able to barely make it to the end.
Both adults as well as most of the class congratulate Sam and Mikey for beating the star quarterback. As our cheers die down, it's the turn of Paulina and Ashley, who warn Dash to take it easy on them. His only reply is a playfully evil grin.
I don't pay any particular attention to this or the following teams. I already have a lot in my head right now with the newest ghost in town, not to mention my current situation with Valerie. I don't want to deal with the whole "cursed" thing right now, considering how I still have a lot of research to do, so I focus instead on how the heck this gym activity is supposed to work out if I'm paired up with Val.
It feels weird teaming up with her and not talking non-stop like we once used to. I can't even believe we almost went steady a couple of months ago and now she's barely giving me a glance. But I'm not sure I would be so trusting either if I found out one of my close friends has been hiding something so big from me. Man, and she doesn't even know the rest of it! I have to break the tension between us somehow, though.
"Shouldn't we be planning our strategy or something?" I ask her instead.
She raises an eyebrow and gives me a strange look. "What, you haven't tried running away from Dash before? He's not as hard as outrunning a ghost."
"You're right, he's worse," I reply with a chuckle, only half-joking. I mean... I'm not always able to outrun Dash as a human. I have to resort to my powers some of those times to sneak out of his sight.
But since she probably believes I've been working with Phantom, she only scoffs. "Yeah, right. Says the kid who sees ghosts on a daily basis." I guess my alarmed expression is a bit obvious, since she shifts uncomfortably. "I mean... you're a Fenton. Aren't you used to that?"
This is getting ridiculous. I thought for a second she would bring up the Fenton-Phantom relationship but it turns out she wants to keep avoiding the subject. Guess this dodging exercise will be a perfect fit for her. Would it be too awkward to admit we know there's a ghost hunting side-job we both share? Even if she's not completely aware of who or what I really am, she at least knows I'm a part of "Team Phantom".
"Sure, I've learned how to take care of myself, sort of," I answer instead. "But in case you haven't noticed, what my parents do is pretty much useless against guys like Dash."
Valerie eyes me curiously again. "So you're powerless against Dash? I don't buy it. Why not try standing up to him?"
"Because... what's the point? If I succeed, he'll just look for a replacement and pass on the torture to someone else. Besides, I'm already used to it."
I obviously don't mention I can handle the abuse because my powers help me recover faster from stronger attacks, or that I have a secret identity to keep and this is one way to keep everyone from suspecting anything.
The uncomfortable silence returns, but I'm not sure I want to keep up with it. "So, you're going to keep silently hating me for no apparent reason or will we ever talk about it?"
Her startled look is not something I expected. "Who says I'm hating you?"
I shrug. "Well, you've been avoiding me since last week and barely even talk to me anymore."
Green eyes stare at the ground. "I already told you: I just need some time."
"Wouldn't talking about it help?" I ask tentatively.
Val stays silent for so long I almost begin to think she won't speak at all. "Dash must be a bit tired by now," she changes the subject instead as she finally talks. "We could try doing a zigzagging maneuver to keep him on his toes."
I mentally sigh in defeat, but at least feel glad she didn't shoot me down completely (probably a poor choice of words, all things considered). "That won't work. I'm his favorite 'loser', remember? If he thinks he has a chance to pummel me, he'll taunt and tag me first."
She thinks about it for a moment and then begins to draw something on the ground with her finger. "Okay, there are some cardboard boxes here we can use to slow him down if we scatter them all over the place. We can also use this structure here as a temporary hideout, grab this rope, and make him trip. From there we'll be almost free to go."
The plan doesn't sound so bad. I look at her improvised map and wonder for a second. "I think we can also use this over here," I add circling one of the walls we'll have to climb, "we can throw one of these boxes from the other side while he's going up to make him lose his balance."
A small smile finally appears on her face. "Not bad. Dash won't stand a chance against us."
I answer with another smile, wondering why things couldn't be much easier with her, given how well we can actually work together. It even worked that one time when Skulker kidnapped the both of us to see who was more worthy of being his prey. If we cooperated more often during ghost fights, not even Vlad would stand a chance.
Could I... could I try asking her to help me with this "Exterminator" guy? Should I bring it up next time we see each other as our alter egos? Is Tucker right about getting her involved in this?
"Fenton! Are you deaf?" Teslaff's words snap me back to reality and I see Valerie is already getting prepared at the start line. I blush and mumble an apology as I rush next to Val.
"Oh, this will be great!" I hear my personal bully exclaim viciously behind us. I don't feel as uneasy, though. I'm sure our plan will work.
As soon as the whistle blows, Val and I make a run for it. Dash is supposed to give us a 5 second head start, so we make the best of it by going over the first obstacle before he runs in our direction. Val asks me to hurry and I try to comply as best as I can. I even consider going intangible, in case that helps me go faster, but I don't want to risk everything for something so dumb. We reach the cardboard boxes almost at the same time he closes in on me, which was something I already expected. He trips with one of the boxes thrown and we leave the rest scattered so he slows down a bit. We climb the wall and, as soon as I'm on the other side, I try to pick the rope we'll use later on as Val gets ready to sabotage Dash's climb with another box. As soon as she notices the jock on the structure, I give her two thumbs up and she throws the object that makes him lose his balance, giving us a bit of an advantage. We then prepare to set the rope and, given how close we are to the finish line, we agree with a nod to run for it.
"Just a little longer and we'll make it!" Val exclaims excited, probably pumped with all the adrenaline.
I'm about to answer when I suddenly trip, crashing face first against the ground. My legs and everything else feels numb. I try to focus on Val who yells something I can no longer understand. I know I'm close to the finish line and all I have to do is manage to get my feet to respond or even just crawl to the end to beat Dash. I hear someone calling my name, several footsteps getting closer, and a pounding sound in my head repeating Youngblood's words. I can't stay focused much longer when it all suddenly becomes black.
Notes:
Sorry, I'm submitting this again since I apparently missed a thing or two. If you made it this far, thanks for reading!
*GAW: Ghost Awareness Week
