Thanks to Snickerer, YumeTakato, Celestial Maiden Sukira, Shadow Crystal Mage, Qu, Sasia93, Tamarind djinni, and Ikchen.
Qu: Yep, I did! Figured he needed to. And you're just gonna have to wait and see what happens. As for the colours, it's the second option. More fun my way, and yes, the obsessions are meant to be that way. The hat? Well, since it and Tucker's head are rarely separated, it's a pretty easy assumption that they'd be in the same place...
Chapter 4: Contaminated
I don't own Danny Phantom or A Clockwork Orange.
"Aster?" Danny and Lancer asked simultaneously. Danny added, "I thought we said you had to ask before coming for more emotions."
"That's why I'm here, man," the hippie replied, moving slightly further into the room. "Thought that since it's Christmas and all, maybe I could hang for a while?" He sounded very hopeful.
"I don't know, Aster," Lancer said. "It might not be the best time..."
"Oh come on! I even brought my own Santa hat!" Aster held up the fuzzy red triangle as proof, looking hurt.
"We're serious," Danny told him. "There's a lot of weird things going on right now and it's looking like a pretty dangerous ghost is behind it. Everyone's afraid and worried, and you might make things worse." Aster's playful grin faded.
"That sounds hairy. You need help cracking it? I might have a different take."
"That might be a good idea," Lancer agreed. "That is, if everyone's all right with it."
"I don't see why not," Maddie Fenton answered, pulling off her hood and goggles. "He could be useful."
They began to file upstairs, Lancer last, since he was the hardest hit by the exertion needed to become human again. He'd just placed his foot on the bottom step when he let out a gasp of ectoplasm and groaned. He didn't want to have to fight today. He turned around and readied an ectoblast, then hastily banished it again when he saw the ghost.
"Writer? Wha... What are you doing here? You never leave the Ghost Zone." The pale ghost tugged at his purple coat.
"You haven't come by in three months, William. I got worried that something had happened."
Lancer blushed. "Something has, but not in a bad way. I'm fine, Writer, just busy."
"Glad to hear it," the Ghost Writer smiled. "But talking might help you unwind..."
I know he likes my company, but could he actually miss me? I didn't think he was quite that lonely... "It might," Lancer conceded. "But now's not a good time. I'll visit, but it could be a few days. We're in the middle of something, and..."
"A something involving a lot of mysterious ectoplasm?" the Ghost Writer drew his eyebrows together. Lancer blinked.
"That might explain things. How did you...?"
"I've heard rumours recently. The Ghost Zone's excited about it, but I haven't heard why yet."
That sparked a flurry of thoughts in Lancer.
The Ghost Zone's excited? I think I can see why, a little. If everyone's turning into ghosts like I suspect, the real ghosts might be able to hold a coup on the humans. Doesn't explain why or how this is all happening, though, or how long we have to stop things. I hope Jack and Maddie have some answers.
"Will!" Danny's light voice coming from upstairs interrupted his reflections. "You coming?"
"Yes!" Lancer called back. "But we've got more company."
Danny reentered the lab again at that, worried that Lancer was under attack. He came to a dead stop when he realized that the Ghost Writer was floating in the middle of the room.
"Errr..."
"I came to check up on William," the Ghost Writer explained, "and it seems I may know something about what's going on." He adjusted his glasses and smiled pointily. Danny looked at Lancer for reassurance, since the ghost was more the man's friend than his own. Lancer nodded, and Danny looked back at the scholarly ghost.
"Well, then, I guess you should probably join the discussion too. Come on. I don't think we want to keep my parents waiting."
Danny sprinted back upstairs and Lancer and the Ghost Writer followed more calmly. Once in the living room, the two halfas jointly introduced the writer. He was given polite hellos from everyone except Aster, who gave an exuberant "Merry Christmas!"
The first order of business was to explain to the two new ghosts what was going on in Amity Park. Danny started with a description of the wave of animals that had appeared several days earlier, and how Spectra had shown up afterwards. Lancer took over from him and covered the possessions and obsessions, then Dani described the physical changes the townsfolk had undergone. Aster and Writer, as he'd asked to be called, both nodded during that part, since they'd notice the tinges of ghostly colour in the skin of the humans present. Lancer finished the summary of events with a mention of how he (and Danny and Dani) had found it difficult to turn human in the lab.
At that point, Maddie took over the conversation, explaining with unconsciously exaggerated excitement what she and her husband had discovered.
"Jack and I have spent the last few days examining every possible way this spectralization could be happening. We've narrowed it down on a single possibility: ectoplasmic contamination." Lancer stiffened slightly and shot a glance at Writer, who grinned smugly.
"We also know how the ectoplasm is entering our bodies," Maddie continued. "It's found its way into the water supply, and from there into our clothes, our belongings, our food, and eventually into us as well. From the tests we've run on ourselves, the ectoplasm appears to be replacing our human molecules, similar to what it's done for the halfas. We don't know what or where the initial supply of ectoplasm is coming from yet."
"Yeah!" Jack almost literally jumped into the conversation. "It explains why we're all getting powers..." He demonstrated his intangibility by moving his hand through a lamp "...and why you three find it easier to be ghosts. You're getting ectoplasm in your systems too. I'd even bet you've all got new powers, or stronger ones too!"
"What sort of further effects can we expect, then?" Danny asked, feeling more worried than usual. A few ideas flashed through his head: everyone in town a full ghost; him stuck as Phantom, unable to ever change back; the contamination spreading throughout the county... "Well?" he asked his parents again anxiously.
"Well, you can probably think of a few," his mom answered. "But the immediate concerns are these..." She produced a list from a pouch in her utility belt and began reading.
"One: continued exposure to ectoplasm at the current levels will result in every resident of Amity Park becoming equal parts of human and ghost, given the levels of ectoplasm the current hybrids contain. We estimate that this will occur in approximately one week's time. Any further exposure, and everyone will, of course, become more and more ghostlike until they become full ghosts.
"Two: any further exposure to ectoplasm which the three resident hybrids receive will result in heightened ghostly abilities along with a greater inability to take on their human form. It is even possible that if enough contamination of their bodies has occurred that any use of power in their human form will cause them to transform involuntarily and remain that way until, again, they absorb enough ectoplasm to become full ghost.
"Three: all usage of water must be discouraged within Amity Park, effective immediately, and a warning must go out informing people of what's going on and advising them to remain indoors at all times.
"Four: it may be possible to separate the ectoplasm from everyone using the Fenton Ghost Catcher, but we cannot guarantee that this will have the desired effect. It certainly will not be a permanent solution and we cannot force people to go through it.
"Fifth and finally: we cannot use the Fenton Ghost Shield to prevent the spread of the contaminant, since the ectoplasm has become a part of our bodies and therefore we will not be able to cross the barrier." Maddie folded the paper again and everyone else leaned back, sighing. Aster looked slightly puzzled.
"In English, please?" he asked.
Danny answered him. "If we don't stop this in a week, everyone's going to be a halfa. Will, Dani, and I are going to have harder and harder times going human, even if we get more powerful, and it'll probably get to the point where we'll go ghost permanently. We're going to tell people not to use water or go outside, and use the Ghost Catcher on anyone who wants it. We can't use the shields to stop this, because it'll just prevent everyone moving around."
"Ghost Catcher? Shields?"
Danny sighed and explained the inventions to Aster, with his father butting in periodically. Then he asked the Ghost Writer what he'd meant by the ghosts getting excited, and the thin spirit explained.
"Every ghost I've come in contact with over the last two weeks has been talking about something big happening in Amity Park. What I've been able to piece together is that a massive amount of ectoplasm has been added to everything in town, that there's a ghost behind it, and whatever his plan is, a lot of ghosts want in on it."
Danny and Lancer both glared at Aster, who silently and believably protested their implicit accusations.
"I suspect," Writer continued, "that it's something to do with the nature of life, which fits with what Mrs. Fenton said about ectoplasm replacing the normal molecules. Also, there's been talk for about the same length of time concerning some sort of ghostly alliance. Ghosts have been meeting secretly with a vampiric ghost of some sort, and there's talk of an empire being formed."
"An e-empire?" stuttered Tucker. "Vlad's starting an empire?"
"Hey! That wouldn't be Vlad as in Vlad Plasmius, would it?" Aster queried. "'Cause he came to my lair about a week ago. Said he wanted people to help him with something, didn't say what. He was kinda blue-ish."
"What else did he say?" Danny asked tensely.
"Well, nothing, really. But I did get the impression that he'd heard about something and wanted to exploit it. Nasty piece of work. Absolute slime." Aster's expression softened slightly. "Stronger emotions than I've felt from a ghost, too..."
"Try a halfa," Sam said. Aster blinked.
"Plasmius is a halfa? Man. That is... wild. Doesn't look anything like you three. And you don't get along with him, I'm guessing?"
"Not exactly. He's stopped actively trying to kill us and said he was giving up his schemes, but if. He's. Starting. An. Empire..." Danny trailed off, his rage inexpressible with words.
"Look," Lancer interrupted, laying a hand on Danny's shoulder to calm him. "I know the Vlad thing is huge, but I think this ectoplasm issue's a bigger problem at the moment. We've got to figure out who this ghost is and why he's doing it, and we've got to warn people about what's going on."
"Yeah, and we can't use any of our powers to do it," sighed Dani, who'd been silent up till then. The others looked at her curiously, not clueing in to what she meant. "Well, if any of us use our powers it could make us go ghost and stay that way... Aww, and I was just getting to use my powers again too." She sunk back into the couch in a funk and Lancer sat down beside her. He put an arm around her shoulder and drew her to his chest to comfort her. Then he looked up at the many other faces in the room.
"Dani's got a good point. We're going to need someone else, Valerie maybe, to do the scouting for us."
"And let Val near the ghost alone?" Tucker almost shouted. "No way is that going to happen." His eyes, which had flared a bright emerald green, dimmed again.
"I'll do it," Aster said, raising his arm. "I mean, it's the least I can do to repay you guys, and I'm going to be flying around anyway. I doubt he's got any sort of attack that can harm me."
"Or she," muttered Sam darkly. Everyone ignored her.
"Okay," Lancer said, becoming businesslike, "Aster's going to play scout, then, and we might still get Valerie to help a little. The rest of us should be on the lookout for anything unusual at all times. I'll get the warnings out as soon as I can, and I'll need your help, Jack and Maddie, for the press conference. The three of us are not to use our powers under any circumstances, unless we're sure the ghost is the one who's causing everything. Jack, Maddie, can you two see what else you can come up with that might be useful?"
"You got it, Will!" Jack boomed, jumping up and running downstairs to the lab, his wife hot on his heels. The idea of more research was very powerful to both of them at the moment.
"And me?" the Ghost Writer asked. "You haven't given me a task yet, William."
"Will. And I wouldn't want to force anything on you, Writer. There's no need for you to get involved."
"Very well, Will," Writer answered, amused. "But since I'm here, maybe we could catch up? I'd like to see your apartment, and find out why you've been so busy."
"I suppose we could do that," agreed Lancer. "Danny, can you call Valerie and let her know what's going on, please?"
"On it!" Tucker pulled out his cell phone and hit one of his speed-dial numbers. "Val? Hey, it's Tucker... Good. You?... Oh. Umm ... He what?... Want me to beat him up for you?... Heh. Right. Black belt."
Danny poked Tucker and mimed for him to get on with it. Tucker glared at him for interrupting his flirting.
"Right, so anyway, Val, we've figured out what's going on. Well, the Fentons have... Somebody's adding ectoplasm to the water... We'll all be halfas in a week, and the real halfas might get stuck as ghosts... Yep, we're all getting powers too... And Aster's back. He's going to help us look for the ghost... Kinda sounds like Vlad's doing stuff in the Zone, too... Look, you want to go somewhere to blow off steam?... Great! I'll see you then!" Tucker flicked his phone closed and turned back to Danny and Lancer.
"How the heck did you just get a date out of that?" Danny asked, amazed. Tucker blushed green.
"It's not a date. Irving fired her today, after she developed eye rays and hit a box of Nasty Sauce packets in the storeroom. I'm just comforting a friend, that's all."
"Ri-ight," Sam said sarcastically, her eyes turning a brighter purple. "Danny, you said you'd take me to that documentary. If we leave now, we'll have time to get organic popcorn and hand out those pamphlets about sweatshops to everyone in the lobby. I got Henri to print them out last night, and Fritz made the buttons. I was too busy with the anti-fur campaign. Isn't this a good slogan, Danny?" She held out a black badge with the words "THEIR BLOOD, OUR MONEY" in red lettering. Danny eyed it warily.
"Anything else I need to do, Will?" Lancer shook his head at Danny. "Okay then. Sam, we'll take the car. I'm not going ghost." Danny grabbed a key ring from beside the door and left with Sam. Lancer turned his attention back to Dani and Aster, who was attempting to make the girl laugh.
"Dani, we need to be getting home. Cathy's going to worry." Lancer sighed. "And I suppose we'll have to walk, since it's too dangerous to go ghost."
"Hey, man, you don't need to do that!" Aster exclaimed, rising from his seat beside Dani. "Writer and I will fly you. I know the way." The Ghost Writer jumped and glared at Aster with momentarily red eyes for being volunteered. Lancer held out a hand to stop his friend from attacking the hippie.
"Thanks, Aster. If you don't mind then, could you take Dani, since you two seem to have hit it off? The walk will give me time to catch up with Writer."
"Okay, man." Aster turned to Dani for permission to pick her up. She nodded and he wrapped his arms around her. "This good, scamp?"
"Yep!" Dani chirped, and Aster took off. Lancer looked after the duo for a moment, smiled slightly at how quickly the two seemed to have made friends, then headed for the front door.
"I've never asked, Writer. Can you go invisible?" he asked, slinging his coat on.
"I believe I can," the ghost said thoughtfully. "I'm not sure if I've ever tried." the Ghost Writer concentrated and vanished. His disembodied voice spoke a moment later, sounding slightly amused.
"Well, it seems to have worked..."
"Yes," Lancer said, "it does." He wrapped his scarf around his neck, opened the front door, and stepped outside. After waiting a moment for his friend to exit after him, he shut the door and hurried down the steps, Writer following invisibly. The two of them began to make their way in silence towards Lancer's apartment. Lancer's feet sank deep into the unshovelled sidewalks.
After a few moments, Writer spoke from near Lancer's left elbow.
"So why are you going by Will as a human? I thought you said it wasn't you."
"People change, Writer. The last three months have seen some pretty big changes in my life. I'm more relaxed now. I'm having fun."
"About time, if you don't mind my saying so," Writer laughed. "What are the changes, then?"
Lancer thrust his hands into his coat pockets. "Well, for one thing, there's Danielle."
"The girl? She looks a lot like Danny did when I first ran into him."
Lancer nodded at his friend's astute observation. "She's his clone. Vlad made her. I found her at Ghost Zone High and took her in." He chuckled. "It's made life a lot more interesting."
"I bet it has. So you're parenting now?" the Ghost Writer raised an invisible eyebrow. Just what had this man been getting up to without him? "What else?"
"GEIST's in full swing and doing well. The lectures I've given have been successful, and I've been working overtime the last few weeks because of the contamination issues."
They passed a green-skinned mother leading a toddler with pointed ears by the hand into a small public park. She looked at Lancer oddly when she noticed he was talking to thin air, but shrugged it off as another effect of the contamination. When they were out of earshot again, the Ghost Writer spoke again, with a slight tone of chastisement in his voice.
"What are you trying to avoid mentioning, Will?"
Lancer snorted. "It's obvious?" He paused and turned around at where he thought his companion would be. "I'm living with Cathy." The Ghost Writer suddenly became visible, looking shocked and floating three inches to the right of where Lancer was looking.
"Is this the Cathy you couldn't stop talking about this summer?" he asked. "You're living with her?" Lancer nodded as he turned to face the ghost.
"She's the biggest reason I haven't been coming by. I've just wanted to spend my spare time with her instead. I'm sorry for choosing a woman over you."
Writer chuckled. "I don't blame you, Will." He went invisible again and they moved on. "I would have done much the same thing, I think. I thought you said you'd never have a chance with her?" he chided.
"She's divorcing her husband and came here to get away for a while," Lancer explained. "I ended up telling her I loved her, and she stayed."
"You mean to tell me she loves you back?" Writer asked, trying to keep his laughter under control. He was the only one who didn't notice that. I noticed that, and I've never even seen them together.
They continued walking, Lancer sharing continuous anecdotes about the two spunky women who'd entered his life and his ghostly friend laughing along with him. Finally they arrived at Lancer's apartment building and climbed the stairs to his floor. Lancer unlocked the door and stepped inside. Cathy came out of the kitchen as he was hanging up his coat, holding an envelope. Her face was flushed a sapphire blue and she was grinning.
"It's final, Will!" she burst out. "I'm Cathy Sanders again!"
"Cathy, that's wonderful!" Lancer caught her up in a hug and kissed her. The Ghost Writer, still invisible, grinned.
"You're finally rid of him," Lancer continued, releasing Cathy. She whacked him with the envelope.
"You sound like you don't like him," she said playfully.
"I'm just happy for you," Lancer protested. "You know that. Now Cathy, I'd li-" She cut him off, becoming slightly more serious, though still ecstatic.
"I want to show you what I learned today. Come on." She pulled her middle-aged boyfriend into the living room and released him. "I found this out when I was doing laundry. Watch."
A look of concentration spread over her features, and then suddenly Cathy was replaced by a blue mist. Before Lancer could process exactly what had happened, there were two sharp taps on his shoulder. He jumped six inches in the air and whirled around to see Cathy grinning at him.
"Pretty neat, huh?" she asked him. Lancer clutched his chest, where his heart was beating like crazy.
"Clockwork Orange, Cathy. Don't ever do that to me again."
"Sorry," the woman apologized, then half rolled her eyes and smirked. "I didn't think I'd be getting powers."
"Nor did I," drawled Lancer. "Cathy, there's someone I'd like you to meet. I ran into him at the Fenton's. Writer? When you're ready."
Cathy had time to ask, "What were you doi-?" before a tall glowing man with a curly goatee appeared several feet from her and Lancer. It was a credit to her constitution that she barely batted an eye at his sudden presence.
"Let me guess," she said, turning to face the ghost and quirking an eyebrow. "The Ghost Writer?"
The ghost in question chuckled and raised an eyebrow back at her. "You've heard of me?"
"From day one. Will counts you as one of his closest friends, you know."
"I'm right here..." Lancer warned them.
"I know." Cathy turned briefly to look at him before focusing on the pale ghost again. "So how come you're here? Will said you didn't leave the Ghost Zone."
"He hasn't been round in a while. Thought I'd come say hello." His response seemed to satisfy her, since she nodded and asked if he'd like tea or coffee. Writer answered, "Tea, please," and the woman headed into the kitchen. Lancer followed her, asking if Dani had come back yet.
"No," Cathy called back with an edge of worry. "Was she supposed to?"
Before Lancer could get decently worried, a male voice spoke from near the window.
"We're here, guys. Easy." Aster and Dani reappeared as they touched ground. Aster released the girl, who turned around and hugged him, then ran into her bedroom excitedly. Aster looked at Lancer and spoke again. "We took a detour. I figured you'd want to introduce Writer there before we showed."
He can think ahead like that? Lancer asked himself in surprise. I thought he always lived in the moment. He's deeper than he lets on, that's for sure. But wait, I think I knew that...
"Fine. Cathy's making tea. I'll introduce you," he said aloud, just as Dani popped her head around her bedroom door.
"Hey Aster! I found it! Come on." Her head disappeared again. Aster grinned.
"Sorry, Will. Could I take a raincheck, maybe?" He barely waited for Lancer to nod before phasing through the fourteen-year-old's bedroom wall. Lancer stared blankly at the wall for a moment before shaking his head clear of the confusion and signaling for the Ghost Writer to follow him into the kitchen.
On their way, he muttered to his friend, "We'd better tell Cathy everything before she asks. It's easier."
