I know, I know, the last time I updated ANY of my stories has been like... forever ago, and I really am sorry. School has been horribly annoying and I'm currently looking for a job to make some money. Hehe, money's cool. Anyway, I wanna thank you guys for you're patience (esp. cause I wanted to update this on my birthday which was March 12--Yikes!), and I also want to thank Epona Harper, for without whom, this fic would not be possible. Hehe!
I knew that Danny didn't want to go to the event in spite of his words the day before. The fact that he was stiff and staring out the RV window with a ticked-off look pasted on his face was a pretty good indicator that he'd rather be somewhere else, but I was oblivious to just about everything at the moment. I had gotten the 'yes' I had so desperately plead for from my son and nothing could make me happier. But I didn't want Danny to be peeved the entire time, so I had thought that it would be a good idea to bring up something Vlad had told me yesterday.
"You know Jack, it's sad." I said casually, making sure I was loud enough for Danny to hear in the back. "Vlad had worked so hard to get this event up and running and he isn't even going to be there." I looked at Danny out of the corner of my eye. I knew he heard me. He had perked up a bit, but his surprised expression soon turned to something I didn't think I'd see. Suspicion.
Why was Danny paranoid about something as simple as community clean-up?
"Danny, are you okay?" I asked. I was really getting annoyed about missing so much; all these silent cues that everyone seemed to get but me. It was about time I asked some questions.
"Me?" Danny seemed somewhat surprised. "Oh, no, I'm fine. Um… Vlad's not going to be there?"
I smiled and shook my head no.
"Why not?"
"He said something about a surprise that he was working on, and that we didn't want to miss it." My words didn't even faze him, and I decided to be quiet the rest of the ride before I ruined whatever little communication I had with my son. I didn't know why he had so many mixed feelings for this thing. It wasn't like anything bad was going to happen. This was community service – it couldn't have anything but a positive effect… right?
Well, chances were Danny would get over the ordeal and enjoy it like the rest of us. The only thing I didn't get was how exhausted he was that day. I had to practically push him out of his bed just to get him to wake up that morning, and he was moaning every time I touched him. I felt bad, but he had to get up. I swear, sometimes that boy seems so scrawny.
"WE'RE HERE!" Jack shouted, breaking me out of my thoughts. He took an unnecessarily sharp turn to park the RV, and the first 'perfect' drive with Jack was ruined when we ended up crushing another car.
"Sorry about that!" I shouted down to the owner. His mouth was agape and his eyes were fixed, horrorstricken, on the vehicle that was now under ours.
"Quick!" Jack shouted, kicking Danny and me out of the RV. "Let's get out of here before he finds his words." Typical Jack—I swear that man will do anything to get out of trouble. We slowed down when we reached the crowd of people. Excitement was bubbling in my stomach again and I could hardly hold myself back.
"Isn't this exciting Danny?" I asked, looking down at my son. Was he limping?
"Yeah…" He sarcastically muttered. "I can hardly hold back my enthusiasm."
"Jazz was wrong, huh?" Jack cheered. "We did beat her to this thing, she owes me five bucks."
"Don't you think it's kind of odd that Jazz decided to walk to the event, Jack?" I asked. "I just don't understand why she wouldn't want to drive with her wonderful family."
"MADDIE! THE GUYS IN WHITE ARE HERE!" Jack grabbed onto my arm and jumped up and down.
"Beats me…" Danny answered my question, again sarcasm was in his voice. I ignored him and smiled at my husband who now had a reason to be excited, although I still never understood why my Jack idolized the Guys in White. And why were they here? They didn't think that if they hung around they might find clues to Danny Phantom's whereabouts would they? I even knew this was a pointless effort.
"Quiet down! Quiet down please!" Everyone turned to the familiar, magnified voice of Amity Park's mayor. It was at that moment I realized how wonderful the place actually was. An enormous stage was set up in front of the crowd. A banner reading Amity Park's Community Service Volunteers swung overtop of the magnificent speakers that filled up the two ends of the stage, and three chairs were occupied by people running the event. Mr. Lancer was in the first chair, and although he was smiling, it was clear he would rather be somewhere else. Principle Ishiyama was quietly sleeping in the second chair, and the third chair was unoccupied. It was probably the mayor's who was currently at the podium and also looked uninterested. Wasn't anyone excited about this?
"Today begins our first annual community… thing. Please check the charts to see what group you belong in." He dully pointed to a table, but no one was in any real hurry to see where they belonged.
"Bye, Jack!" I cheered, kissing him on the cheek and pulling Danny through the crowd.
"Group One! Oh wow, Danny, isn't this exciting?" I know I've asked that question so many times it was probably drilled into my son's head, but I was just too happy at the moment. Like a little kid on Christmas morning, every little detail made me so cheerful.
"Group One, please go with Mr. Lancer. That includes Baxter, Fenton, and Foley." The mayor continued in his dull tone.
"Did you hear that, Danny?" I smiled as our group assembled. "Tucker's in our group."
"Yeah, but so is Dash…" he muttered and crossed his arms. "And Tucker's going to be late. He called me this morning."
"Well, at least he's coming, right?" I tried to cheer him up, but to no avail.
The mayor's voice was toned out as the group followed Mr. Lancer deeper into the park until we reached an actual playground that was rusted from age and battered from abuse. The slide was dented so far that the middle of it almost touched the ground, all of the swings were pulled off and hung carelessly over different parts of the park, and pulled up earth was everywhere.
"What happened here?" Mrs. Baxter asked. "And why are you showing me this? When are the people coming to clean my house?"
"Mrs. Baxter, should I inform you that this clean-up is cleaning up the mess left behind from ghost battles. I honestly have no idea, nor do I care about, the current condition of your house" Mr. Lancer dully stated, picking up a broom that was left on the ground. The rest of us followed his lead.
"So… we're going to have to clean this up ourselves?" Mrs. Baxter continued, still somewhat in disbelief. Danny and I snorted and ignored the rest of the woman's comments.
"I wonder how all of this happened… I wasn't here for this fight," I muttered to Danny who looked guilty for some reason.
"Um… Mom?" he began, a little unsure. I looked up from the trash pile I had created. "I uh—" he shivered and his icy blue breath was visible for a moment. Panic instantly replaced guilt. "I uh—feel kinda… weird. Can I go sit down? Over there?" He twirled his finger around and was very vague as to where he wanted to sit down, but he did look a little pale so I agreed. I watched him disappear into the woods and sighed.
"Hey, Mrs. Fenton." I turned to see Tucker grinning at me. "Sorry I'm late. My mom wanted to make sure our house was clean before we left. Where's Danny?"
I sighed and shrugged. "He wasn't feeling well so he went to go sit down somewhere."
A resounding crack in the distance caused everyone to jump and turn their heads curiously. It was followed by the whooshing sound of a tree falling and crashing to the ground, and I think I felt my heart sink along with it. It was coming from the direction that Danny went. My eyes widened and I began to run that way, but a familiar black and white blur knocked into me instead. I fell over and the figure continued rolling until a rock stopped him.
I flipped over and pushed Mrs. Baxter aside. She dropped the broom she had been arguing about when I did so, I ignored that. My focus was all on the fallen ghost boy. I hauled Danny Phantom up to his feet, and then hoisted him completely off the ground. To my surprise, the kid was actually extremely light.
"What happened?" I shouted so loud that he actually turned away. He probably had a headache on top of other injuries, and me screaming in his face wouldn't have helped that but I could've really cared less at the moment. Phantom lifted an eyelid and, still panting, pointed a shaky hand to the woods. I snapped my head in the direction he pointed and found that the rest of Group One had stuck around.
"What happened?" I hissed. My tone was icy and cruel and I knew it, but it caused Phantom to look up at me and for a split second I felt sympathy toward him. His once, brilliant green eyes were dulled down as he lost power, and green ooze was seeping out of both new and old, reopened cuts. His eyes begged me to leave, but I refused to move.
"Run." He finally managed to mutter. His voice was frail and worn out. "P-Please… leave. He's c-coming b-back."
"Who?" My voice had softened slightly, but I still clung on to the demanding tone. Phantom's breathing became heavier, and I remembered his condition last night. It was only a matter of time before he slipped into unconsciousness so I needed to get what I wanted out of him fast. "Who's coming?"
"Now Daniel... let's not make a big scene out of our little disagreement." Phantom's head shot up at the chilling voice behind me. Slowly I turned around, and my eyes narrowed.
The Wisconsin Ghost was hovering a few feet above the dented slide. His arms were crossed and his haunting red eyes were fixed on the ghost kid in my hands. In all honesty, the creep could have Phantom. I just wanted my son.
"Please go…" Phantom pleaded. His breathing became slower and his body grew limp. "Please…"
I squeaked slightly as the boy ripped out of my grip. The older ghost had shot a blast at him and he flipped behind the giant bolder he had hit earlier.
"Kids nowadays. They just don't listen to you the first time you demand something." The Wisconsin Ghost grinned. He dropped down to ground level.
"Where's my son?" I snapped. I was actually surprised by the tone of my voice, for I sounded much braver than I actually was.
Here I was, an unarmed ghost hunter against the toughest ghost I think I've ever faced, and by the looks of what he did to Phantom… Oh perfect.
"I didn't do anything to young Daniel, Maddie." How does he know our names? "Well, not the Daniel you know. Now if you would be so kind as to move aside and not meddle in affairs that don't concern you, then I will be out of your life for a good while."
My eyes searched for something… anything that I could use as a weapon against this freak. Eventually I saw the broom that Mrs. Baxter had dropped. I would only have one shot at this, so I had to be quick and extremely precise. Slowly the ghost slid across the grass, not moving his legs once. He showed no sign of stopping until he drew level with me, but even then all he did was slow down.
I knew what he wanted. It lay unconscious behind that rock and I couldn't let him get Phantom until I got my son. In a swift move, I kicked the end of the broom with my foot so it jumped upward and I snatched it. I pivoting as I jumped, and I swung it around to smack the Wisconsin Ghost square in the gut. Finally, the members of
Group One decided to run, but they were prevented by the Guys in White who charged up with weapons blazing.
"Ghost identified as a Class A specter." the first man said.
"Proper precautions have been made: activating PORTALble, to send the ghost into the Ghost Zone." the second member replied, clicking a button on a lint roller. A green aura shot at the Wisconsin Ghost who easily smacked it away. It fell to the ground where it pooled and quivered like a radioactive puddle.
"You fool!" the first agent exclaimed, strange how neither his facial expression nor his tone changed. "The PORTALble has not yet been field tested. It hasn't even been lab tested."
"Should we follow procedure 3-472?" the second one asked.
"Run away and blame the incident on you? Yes."
I scowled at the retreating figures. Seriously, how could Jack possibly idolize them? I turned my attention back to the portal that was now beginning to suck the contents around it into the Ghost Zone. That included Group One, the slide, the broken swings, and me. In fact, the only thing the stupid portal didn't suck in it was Phantom or the Wisconsin Ghost.
And speaking of that worthless piece of ectoplasm…
I shot a deathly glare at the Wisconsin Ghost as I dug my fingers into the ground in a last-ditch effort to anchor myself against the relentless suction. He had flown over to the rock to gain his prize, but what he lifted up wasn't Danny Phantom. My vision turned black as I was sucked into the Ghost Zone, and the last thing I saw was the battered figure of my son over the Wisconsin Ghost's shoulder.
And that's that. Please, PLEASE don't ask me about Terrible Twos. I WILL finish is. Promise. I just need some time to make it make sense and stuff. In other news, happy Cinco de Mayo to all who celebrate it, and kudos to anyone who has seen the Spider-man 3 movie... you lucky jerks!
-AoS