Chapter 3 - Dance Dance
Reading through the letter again and again, Maddie's entire demeanor changed. A moment earlier she had been a happy go lucky woman about to achieve house-cleaning nirvana. Her eyes went hard and her lips drew out in a firm, angry line. She let the letter flutter to the ground, and pulled up her haz-mat hood.
With cold efficiency she loaded her suit with the best of the Fenton Arsenal. House cleaning could come later, when she knew everyone was safe. There was a ghost she had to hunt to keep her family safe.
It was a mission she was well equipped for mentally and physically. And thankfully, Jack was away for the day. As much as she loved him, serious ghost hunting was simpler on her own.
Lying on Tucker's neatly made bed, Danny stared at the plain white ceiling and thought about his own room. Glow in the dark stars still decorated the ceiling, and a NASA poster still dominated the area over his desk. When he got home, he needed to redecorate, something that reflected enthusiasm for Amity Community College. Their mascot was a Boll Weevil or a Bull Mastiff or something. If he projected the face of excitement for community college long enough, maybe he'd start to feel some?
The unmistakable purr of Sam's car rumbled through the open window and Tucker sighed dramatically. "Finally, my double burger. I told her to get an extra in case you were hungry," he added.
"I'm not hungry, and I hope you aren't either. Do you really thing Sam bought you an actual Double Nasty Burger? I thought you learned your lesson the last time you had her call in a pizza order?" Danny turned his head just far enough that he could see the bedroom door, but it wouldn't be obvious to Sam that he was watching her enter.
Today she had braided her hair into neat black cornrows. A rich purple sweater covered her black t-shirt and jeans. That was a nice sweater, Danny thought. It hugged her understated curves and stopped mid-forearm leaving her delicately tapered wrists out to torment sophomore goths like Jacob with their creamy perfection. Danny narrowed his eyes. Tucker was right. Sam didn't wear nice sweaters for no reason. Goth love was in the air.
"Okay boys, I have burgers for everyone." Sam tossed neatly wrapped green packages at each of her best friends.
"Nasty Burgers are wrapped in red foil." Tucker stared at the green package as though it might attack him. "You brought veggie burgers? You're trying to kill me."
"Trust me, reducing the processed meat in your diet is only going to lengthen your life." Sam plopped down onto Tucker's desk chair and dug into her veggie burger." She gestured vaguely. "Party plan, progress?"
"Chew and then talk," Danny said with a disgusted eye roll. He tossed his burger into the wastebasket. "We've been putting together the guest list. Tucker thinks this is our best opportunity to choose dates for prom. What do you think? Who should we add to the list for you?" Sam kept chewing and shrugged. "Prom isn't for months. I'd rather just party personally."
"Both of you are going to end up dateless and alone," Tucker predicted.
"If we both end up dateless and alone, we'll just go together, right?" Danny said flippantly, but he watched Sam out of the corner of his eye. She had stopped chewing altogether.
"That's what friends are for," Sam agreed, equally flip.
A smile crept over Danny's face. He and Sam were officially contingency prom dates. Maybe goth love wasn't really springing up between her and the sophomore? Danny opened his mouth to expand on the pseudo-plans they'd just made, but a reflexive gasp of white mist spilled out instead of words. "We've got a ghost nearby." Danny rolled off the bed and stuck his head out the window looking for the disturbance.
No ghosts were obviously lurking about, but a ball of gold energy coming at his head from somewhere in the vicinity of the neighbors' hydrangea bush seemed a bit suspicious. "Incoming!" Without hesitating, Danny switched forms. If he acted quickly, property damage could be kept to a minimum and their weekend plans wouldn't be affected. Projecting an energy shield over the window, he deflected the blast.
"Be careful!" Sam called. She watched Danny dive out the window, a familiar nervous flutter in her chest. You'd think after all this time she wouldn't worry so much anymore. Danny could take care of himself out there. Tucker pulled a Fenton Thermos out of his backpack and headed for the stairs, Sam at his heels. Danny would probably have the situation in hand before they even made it outside, but you never knew when a well-timed thermos catch could make things much easier.
Tying the drawstring on his bright orange boxers, Jack settled next to Jazz beside the pool. For most of the day, they'd been separated into the men's and ladies' sections of the spa. But finally he'd have a few minutes with his little girl to talk and bond. She was majoring in psychology, a short step from parapsychology if you asked him. Parents weren't supposed to play favorites, but Jazz had always been his girl the same way Danny was Maddie's.
Without looking up from the book she was reading, Jazz greeted him, "Hey Dad, enjoy yourself?"
"Absolutely," Jack said. "The hot mud bath opened my pores and let my skin breathe. We should do this more often."
"We can't afford this more often. It's seven hundred dollars a day per person." Jazz sighed and closed her book. "Ghost hunting doesn't really pay, at all, and tuition doesn't grow on trees."
"Seven hundred dollars! That's highway robbery." Jack glared at a passing towel boy. "How did we come by the free passes anyway?"
"I won them in an honor society raffle. We're just lucky that Madam Joy's Happy Mud Club has a franchise in Amity Park." Jazz smiled, more at peace with her parents and family than she had been able to manage in high school. Distance made everything more bearable. If she could just get Danny to a place where she didn't have to stress over him and his secrets, life would be good. It was tempting to just tell her parents, take an intimate moment and spill the secret Danny was too scared to. But it wasn't her secret, and it wasn't her choice. "There's a great humus and fruit bar back there. Want to go have a snack"
Vlad folded his cell phone and tucked it securely into his jacket pocket. Everything was progressing according to plan. Maddie and Jazz had checked into the spa on schedule. Jack should already in possession of his letter. Phrasing that letter had been maybe the most difficult aspect of the entire scheme. It needed to be believable, but spoken so directly that Jack would understand easily and act on the contents. With Jack hunting and Maddie safely ensconced in a spa, everything was in place.
Closing his eyes, Vlad transformed into his ghost form, the rush of energy as familiar as anything in his life. Today was a new day, and everything was about to change.
Danny zipped about dodging ectoplasmic pulses that seemed to be coming from everywhere at once. This was insane. Yes, fighting invisible enemies was part of ghost wrangling. All ghosts from the Lunch Lady to the Fright Knight could vanish at will, but like any ghost ability, invisibility required effort, energy, and most ghosts couldn't keep it up when they were multitasking. Another volley of blasts rained down from above without the attacking ghost showing himself at all.
None of his usual foes could manage this kind of dual attack. Aggressive blasting while invisible wasn't like chewing gum and walking. This had to be someone new. Danny managed not to get blasted into the turf and spun to shout back toward the direction of the last volley. "What do you want, whoever you are? Show yourself!"
A muffled laugh alerted him to the next barrage of enemy fire. He tossed a couple of green blasts in the general direction that his opponent seemed to be and flew for cover. Tucker and Sam were just visible lurking in the bushes. Tucker had a Fenton Thermos at the ready, waiting for something to fire it at. They were entirely too exposed, and he had no idea what he was dealing with. But Danny didn't have any time to shoo them to safety. He was still under fire.
The blasts were coming from so many directions all at once. There had to be multiple ghosts? Or maybe this was Technus with a gadget? Whatever was going on, he needed to get Sam and Tucker out of the line of fire. As the enemy, whatever it was, seemed to be focused on him, Danny started dodging with the goal of escaping the general area and leaving his friends behind.
Hopefully they'd take a hint and not follow.
Vlad hovered just out of the heat of battle and watched Daniel soar through the air dodging energy blasts. Graceful and fast, there was nothing of his father in him.
Not a thing.
A simple gun, an energy weapon, rested in his hand lighter than a feather. Completely at peace, Vlad waited for Jack to make his loud ineffectual entrance. It was only a matter of time. Then while Danny was trying to deal with his invisible enemies and his father's wild shots, that wisp of a weapon would change everything. One sure shot and they would find out how the maiming of a child could damage a marriage.
His eyes drifted shut and Vlad imagined the future.
Maddie stands at the sink, washing dishes. She works with quiet, determine efficiency, no smile on her face. She no longer wears her usual hazmat suit because she isn't a ghost hunter anymore, not since the day her husband successfully hunted their son.
Leaving the dishes in the drain to drip dry she passes through the kitchen, a space no longer cluttered with ghost catching gadgets or her husband's snack foods.
Ex, Maddie tells herself. She has to start thinking of Jack as her ex-husband. If she can't assign him the appropriate roll, how can she expect him to take that roll and stop trying to fix things? If he ever loved her, he would have given up ghost hunting after the accident like she'd asked.
If he loved Danny, he would never have been able to lift another ghost weapon.
Maddie climbs the stairs and enters her son's bedroom. She tries to keep it the same. A NASA poster still hangs over a too-messy desktop, but the floor is too clean. No jeans or socks fail to make it to the hamper anymore, no novels leave the bookshelves to travel around the room, and no half-eaten snacks find there way under the bed.
The vibrant teenager that used to demolish his room daily lies unmoving under his covers. His eyelashes don't quiver and his eyes don't open at his mother's entrance.
"Good morning, Danny," Maddie says, a forced chipper note to match a painful smile. "We're going to do your range of motion exercises first thing and then we'll have breakfast."
Her routine is interrupted by the doorbell, and Maddie calmly walks down to deal with whoever it might be. She only hopes it isn't Jack. She can't face him again so soon since the last time. It isn't Jack or Jazz or any friend of Danny's. "Hello Vlad." Maddie doesn't open the door all the way. Vlad was Jack's friend and he had expressed interest in her. She didn't need a cheap come on, or an expensive one for that matter.
"I know you probably don't want another well-wishing visitor, especially a complicated one like me, but I had to come. I had to come because I know that your son is a half-ghost. I know some of what happened to him. And I know more about the physiology of half-ghosts than anyone else in the world."
Maddie's eyes widen. She and Jack didn't make Danny's condition public. The risk of interference from the government or the Ghost Boy's enemies was just too great. Yet somehow Vlad Masters knows. "How do you know? How could you know about half-ghost physiology? Unless...did Danny tell you? Were you his confidant? Do you think you can help him?"
"It's complicated. I did discover Daniel's secret, and he knew mine. I don't want to give you false hope, but I'd like to tell you everything, and I want to try to help."
With a jerk, Vlad's eyes opened and he refocused on the battle. It was too close now to let himself get distracted. He could daydream about the future while he was waiting for Jack to finish breaking Maddie's heart.
What was taking Jack so long? Vlad groaned internally. The ghost bug had unquestionable loyalty, but limited intelligence. What if it failed to deliver the letter? Or what if Jack failed to respond as he expected? The problem with complex plans, one small thing goes wrong and everything shifts. He would just have to make sure Jack had received the letter and maybe help him locate the conspicuous battle he hadn't yet found.
Before Vlad could leave to locate Jack, a new player entered the battle. It wasn't a loud entrance with shouted declarations and an orange hazmat suit. A trained ninja on the prowl, she had attacked before anyone knew she was even there. A bolt of red energy flashed into the battle coming from a new angle. It struck, and Daniel screamed.
"Maddie?" Vlad whispered. "No." Maddie was supposed to be with Jasmine. He confirmed their arrival at the spa. Jack was supposed to be here to take the fall for the blast that Vlad was going to shoot, creating a crisis that only he could fix.
Competant where he husband was useless, Maddie had already successfully attacked her son. He expected Daniel to fall, perhaps even transform back to his latent form, but he didn't fall. The red glow encased him, twisted and shimmered, and Daniel vanished.
Author's Note
Okay so I've been thinking about pointless things like casting a Danny Phantom live action for this fic. The casting list so far:
-Jack - John Goodman
-Maddie - Joan Cussack
-Danny - Jake Gyllenhal ( a touch old I know but this is a fantasy casting anyhow)
-Vlad - Eric Roberts
-Jazz - Julia Stiles (a touch old again, but I just think about 10 things I Hate About You and I want her)
-Tucker - Sam Jones III
-Sam - Elisabeth Oas
And as for the chapter, it's not quite a cliffhanger, really.
