The twins first week went by surprisingly smooth. No ghost attacks occurred and school went well.
Jazz had to leave on Thursday, but before she left she insisted on taking a new picture of the family for her dorm. They ended up taking two: one with just the Fentons, and one with Sam and Tucker included.
Danny drove Jazz to the airport (taking the Fenton thermos with this time), and, still feeling guilty for crashing their older cousins homecoming, Danielle and Shy stayed home with Jack and Maddie.
While no ghost attacks did happen, people who had witnessed the fight with Skulker had been quick to spread the news of a second Phantom and a mysterious black and gold newcomer.
"Hm. Phantom's from alternate dimensions," Danielle mused after reading a small article in the paper a few days after her and Shy's appearance. "That's a new one."
The whole matter was resolved to the public eye during the twins third week of school. While walking home with Danny, Sam, and Tucker, a commotion erupted in the mall as they were passing it. Puffs of blue mist drifted from Danny and Danielle's mouths at the same time screams of "Ghost!" penetrated the air.
The five teens ran inside to find Technus wreaking havoc. The technology ghost had taken control of several washing machines and dryers, using them as a base for a new, large robot body. He used smaller electronic devises to form the arms and legs, and a desktop computer for a head.
"Interesting," Danielle remarked, quirking a brow at the odd creation.
"Observe later, let's go," Danny said, nodding at Tucker. The Techno Geek whipped out his PDA and aimed it in the direction of the robot. "Just stall him as long as you can," Tucker told him.
Danny nodded and darted into an empty store. The twins ran after him. There was a flash of white and seconds later, Danny Phantom floated in through the mall's glass ceiling.
"All right, let's get this over with," Danny called out, catching the ghost's, and crowds, attention.
"It's Phantom!" a lanky teen pointed at the halfa.
"Run you idiot! You're in the crossfire!" another teen grabbed his friend's arm and dragged him out of the way.
Technus turned to face Danny, his metallic body groaning as he did so. "Greetings, child! I, Technus, Manipulator of machines, Lord of all gadgetry, Wizard of integrated circuitry, am here to-!"
"Destroy me, be my undoing, fry my bacon, blah blah blah," Danny interrupted dryly, rolling his eyes at the ghost. "Can we skip to the part where I put you in the thermos?"
BANG!
Danny went flying into the wall as a blast of electricity hit him square in the chest. Concrete rained down from the wall and people scurried out of the way.
Groaning, Danny shook his head and glared at the technology ghost. "Take that as a no," he muttered.
His fists began glowing green, and Danny shot towards Technus, firing rapid ghost rays as he flew in circles around him.
The giant robot swung its arms around as it tried to catch him, but with little success. Growing angry, Technus began shooting bolts of electricity around the mall. The blasts went off in all directions as he tried to hit Danny. They smashed into the walls, shattered windows, and blew the floor apart.
A stray bolt shot towards a group of onlookers, who screamed and tried to scramble out of the way. Danny gasped and flew towards them, but he wasn't fast enough to make it in time.
Seconds before the bolt could crash, there was a flash of white and the bolt ricocheted, flying off and blasting a hole in the glass roof. Glass shards rained down on Technus' robotic head.
The people all starred open mouthed and Danny sighed with relief. Soul floated in front of the group, her hands outstretched and a large, glowing white shield in front of her.
Soul turned and saluted the people with a smile before sinking through the floor. The onlookers stared blankly at the spot where she disappeared.
Technus looked shocked himself, but quickly snapped out of it. Taking advantage of the moment, his hand shot towards Danny.
Danny whipped around and dove out of the way moments before the hand could grab him. Turning around, Danny fired a beam of ice, hitting Technus's arm and freezing it in place.
"Ha!" Danny yelled triumphantly.
"Don't be so quick to assume victory, child! I still have some tricks up my sleeve!" Technus shouted.
"How about some new lines?" a bored voice called out.
Technus looked up to see Danielle hovering above him. Soul floated next to her. Danielle was looking at him with distaste, while Soul looked more curious then anything.
"Seriously, dude. Who talks like that anymore? Besides, ya know, old people," the white haired girl remarked.
Technus starred at the two of them for a minute before looking at Danny. "So these are your prodigy's I've heard so much about! No matter! I, Technus, shall destroy all three of you!"
The "three" all blinked. "Huh?" the two halfa's said in unison while Soul cocked her head.
Technus raised his free arm and slammed it onto the icy coat that covered his other arm. The ice cracked. He hit it again, and the ice began to crumble.
"Crap," Danny muttered. He fired another ice ray at the metal arm. This time, the beam hit just as Technus slammed his arm on the first layer of ice, freezing both his arms together.
Technus growled and Danny starred in shock as he lifted the two ice encased arms and swung them around. The three ghost heroes dove out of the way as the ice block circled through the air.
"That all you got?" Danielle yelled in a mocking tone.
Technus' desktop head turned to face her. His eyes glowed green and shot a ray at the female halfa. The ray knocked Danielle through the last remaining window, shattering it and sending glass everywhere as the white haired girl disappeared inside the store.
Soul smacked a hand to her face in a "Not again", gesture before swerving to the side as Technus took a shot at her.
Soul's amber eyes flashed and a white orb appeared in her hand. She threw it at the robot's shoulder, blasting a lawn mower off the second the white orb made contact.
Danny flew towards where Sam and Tucker had taken cover behind a fallen piece of concrete. "How's the hacking coming?" he asked urgently.
Tucker bit his tongue in between his teeth in concentration. "Almost, got it…Aha!" he exclaimed triumphantly. "I'm in!"
At that moment, Technus' robot body began to quake and spark.
"W-wha-what-t-t-tsss hap-haaa-happening-g-g-g!" the technology ghost shouted.
"I'd say you got a bug in your system!" Danielle yelled, re-emerging from the store.
"Thi-this-s-s-s c-c-can't-t-t b-be-e!"
"Sam, if you don't mind," Danny said. The Goth girl grinned and pulled out the silver device from her bag. Flipping the switch on, she pointed it at the giant mass of metal. "Powering down!" she cried.
A beam of blue light shot towards and engulfed the robot. Technus shrieked as he was ripped out of his metal body and sucked into the small container. The robot collapsed, the metal parts and machines spilling all over the mall floor. Or what was left of it, anyway.
Sam latched the thermos lid in place with a grin and returned it to her bag.
Danny flew up to join Danielle and Soul. "Well, that was easy," Danielle said cheerfully.
Soul shot her a look.
The female halfa rolled her eyes. "Don't say it, I know," she muttered. "I'm reckless and need to think before I act, and all that stuff."
Just then, noise sounded beneath them and the three looked down. People who had (foolishly) stuck around, and those that had come back, were cheering and waving at the three ghost heroes.
Danny smiled sheepishly and waved in return. Danielle grinned while Soul blushed a little and moved over an inch so she was partially hidden behind Danielle.
"You get used to it," Danny told her.
The news that Danny Phantom had taken on two sidekicks spread like a wildfire.
Danielle was not very pleased with the label of "sidekick".
"Well we're not!" she protested. "More like, trainees or something!"
Danny chuckled and shrugged helplessly. "It's the press. What ya gonna do?"
"Fill their cameras with slime."
"…It was a rhetorical question."
"I know," Danielle replied sweetly.
The news also spread through the ghost zone fairly quickly. Skulker had apparently spread the word that there was now more than one "ghost child" in Amity Park. Ghosts began appearing more regularly (though thankfully, after school hours), wanting to see if the newcomers posed as large a threat as Phantom did.
It was deemed quickly that, while neither ghost girl was as powerful as Phantom, with time, they would surely be just as much of a threat. Especially with Danny teaching them.
"We've been here, what, three weeks, and we're already a threat?" Danielle paused and grinned. "Sweet!"
There was one ghost, however, who misunderstood about Phantom's prodigy's. While the rest of ghost zone thought of them as sidekicks, the Box Ghost overshot the mark a little.
"OFFSPRING?" Danielle had screeched when he announced to the heavens that Phantom's "offspring" would not be able to defeat him and his boxes of doom. "YOU THINK WE'RE HIS DAUGHTER'S? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?"
Danny had halted mid-flight and simply floated there with a blank stare as his face reddend and he sputtered incoherent objections.
Soul had winced and looked at the Box Ghost with pity as Danielle's eyes flashed and she began shooting his boxes from the sky.
The sun dawned Saturday morning, and the day promised to be warm and clear of any bad weather.
Maddie and Jack decided to work in the lab, while the twins lounged in the den watching tv. Danny stayed in his room on his computer talking with Tucker and Sam for most of the morning.
At about noon, Danny received an e-mail from a familiar friend. He grinned as he read its contents to Tucker and Sam, then the three arranged to meet at the park in ten minutes.
Grabbing his coat from his closet, Danny went downstairs and poked his head in the living room. Danielle was sprawled on her back on the couch, watching the tv upside down. Shy sat curled in the chair by the window. Both looked very bored as an ad for sneakers played on the tv.
"C'mon guys, we're going out for a bit," Danny announced.
Both girls perked and Danielle shot upright, nearly losing her balance as she looked over at him. "Where we going?"
"The park. We'll meet Sam and Tucker there, do a quick patrol, and then there's someone I want you two to meet," he paused. "Well, you've met her Danielle."
The black haired girl cocked her head. "Who is it?"
"Valarie."
Danielle pumped a fist in the air. "Sweet! Where's she been, anyway? I haven't seen her around at all."
Danny smiled and tossed his younger cousin's their hats. Maddie had bought them each one when the temperature started to drop. They had come with matching scarfs to. Danny's was deep blue, Danielle's was a lighter shade of blue, and Shy's was lavender.
"She went on a business trip with her Dad. They just got back last night," he replied.
After Danny called down to the lab to inform his parents they were leaving, the three set out. It took them about five minutes to get to the park. As soon as Sam and Tucker got there (on their scooters), the three Fenton's transformed and the teens split up to patrol. Danny and Sam went uptown, while Tucker, Danielle, and Soul went downtown.
After about an hour, they regrouped back at the park. Danny had told Valarie to meet them there around one, so they had a few minutes before she'd be arriving.
The Fenton's didn't transform back. Instead they floated just above the trees. Danny kept a lookout for Valarie while Danielle did a series of small loops in the air.
Soul watched Danielle, when suddenly she perked. Her brow furrowing, the ghost girl cocked her head and looked to her left.
"What's up, Soul?" Danielle questioned.
Soul held her hand to her ear, signaling she heard something. Then, without any more of an explanation, she flew off in the direction she'd been looking.
Danny frowned slightly and looked at Danielle. The younger halfa shrugged in confusion.
Maddie frowned at the screen in front of her. She and Jack had been in the lab all day, going over Shy's blood test results. It had taken a little longer then they'd expected for the results to happen, and what they showed had both ghost experts stumped.
"This makes no sense," she muttered, reaching for her notes and looking through them. Jack walked up behind her and squinted at the screen. "Any luck?" he asked.
The woman shook her head. "These reading's, something's off," Maddie told him, biting her lip. "But I can't figure out what, exactly. It's almost like, there's something, extra, in Shy's ectoplasm."
Jack frowned in confusion. "Extra?"
His wife nodded, her brow furrowed in thought. Suddenly, it hit her. Her eyes widened as her notes fell to the floor with a clatter.
At the noise, Jack looked at his wife. "Madds?" he asked with concern.
Maddie starred at the screen in front of her, eyes filled with shock. "Jack, did any of the kids take their phones?" she asked quietly.
"Tucker did, I think. Why-?"
"Call him."
Jack blinked. "What-"
Maddie whipped around to face him. "Jack! Get a hold of the kids NOW!"
"I don't hear anything," Danny muttered quietly, tilting his head. Danielle, Sam and Tucker did the same, but none of them heard anything unusual either.
"Guess we go after her and find out," Sam said, shrugging her shoulders.
Tucker's pocket vibrated just then and the dark skinned teen pulled the device form his pocket. Seeing the caller ID, he flipped it open.
"Hey, Mrs. Fenton. 'sup? Soul? Yeah, she just flew off a little bit ago. Said she heard something. We were just about to follow her. Valarie? Uh, no, we haven't seen her yet. How co-"
His sentence was abruptly cut off as a piercing scream ripped through the air.
Author's Notes
I knew I missed something back in chpt 3...
Soul's Siren Song - I can't have her just use it and, bam, knock the bad guys out. What fun is that? So, here is the full explanation of that attack.
Soul can control how effective the attack will be. When she used it on Danny, she made the effect very low. That's why Danielle was able to wake him up so easily. If she had gone all out on him, he'd been konked out for a good few hours. Also, like Danny's ghostly wail takes a lot of energy, Soul's siren song also requires a lot of energy in order to be effective enough. If she wanted to, she could knock someone out for about a week. Of course, that'd take waaaay too much energy and she'd also be knocked out for a week for using that much energy. Also, she has to be standing/floating still in order to use it. She can't do it if she's flying around dodging attacks.
Now, onward! The blood test is back, and apparently, the results aren't good.