Maddie rubbed her arms and let out a sigh. It was getting pretty cold out and in her haste to leave the house and search for her son she hadn't even thought to grab a jacket.
This is ridiculous, she thought to herself. She had already checked the park and the Nasty Burger (which was open 24/7) with no luck. It had been nearly an hour and a half! Danny was probably already back home, lying in his warm bed all tangled up in his sheets. She shivered again, that's it! She decided as she quickly turned at the corner to begin her trek back home. If Danny was there, he was in a load of trouble. If he wasn't... well, she would jump that hurdle when she got to it. An especially chilling wind blew by and Maddie brought her hands to her mouth, blew into them, and rubbed and hugged herself tightly. It was dark, cold, and creepy. She felt like an idiot, wandering the streets at two thirty in the morning. Sure, Amity Park was a pretty safe town baring ghost attacks, and Maddie could most certainly take care of herself, but why tempt fate? Every sound sent her jumping, every movement made her eyes dart. After the twentieth or so false alarm she grumbled under her breath, cursing her suspicious nature.
"You better be home, Daniel James Fenton," she grumbled, not wanting to think of what she would have to do if he wasn't. As Maddie was walking past yet another dark alleyway she was suddenly hit by the coldest chill yet. She stomped her feet in place and blew into her hands, rubbing her sides reassuringly. Yet, the chill would not go away, and she knew why. Maddie recognized this sort of chill, one that had nothing to do with outside temperature and everything to do with every human beings instinct of self preservation. The type of chill that could only mean one thing. Ghost.
Quickly, Maddie turned on her heal and spun her head around, looking for the source of the spectral anomaly, assuming it was visible at the time. Suddenly she heard a sharp chatter coming from somewhere within the alleyway. She took a deep breath and trekked in. She knew heading into a dark alleyway with nothing but a single ghost weapon and containment device, neither of which could actually hurt humans, was ten times more idiotic than walking the darkened streets of Amity Park on her own, but Maddie had promised herself that she would rid her town of the ectoplasmic vermin that infested it, and if the risk was her own safety, so be it.
However, she arrived at the end of the alley, which turned out to be a dead end, without incident, and the sight that met her there greatly surprised and disgusted her. A large glowing green raccoon stood over a still form, pawing at it and tasting bits of green and and another darker liquid it found on the shape. The raccoon was obviously a ghost, but Maddie let it be for now since it was the only source of light in the area. At the very edge of the eerie light cast by the ghostly scavenger, Maddie could just see groups of tiny noses and hear grating squeaks. Rats, dozens of them all circled around, obviously wanting the raccoons prize, but instinctively repelled by the air of death the spectral animal excluded. All this was taken in at the back of Maddie's mind, because what truly had her reeling was the figure the raccoon was perched over. It was a figure she knew and recognized very well, just... not like this.
Maddie would have recognized crisp pure white hair, a strong solid figure always ready to take what comes next, and light mirth filled eyes that always looked like they knew something you didn't and enjoyed teasing you about it. The thing crumpled in a heap on the cold concrete wasn't that at all. This had limp light dirty white hair covered in grime and sticky green and brown, a crumpled broken figure that looked like it had given up, and open and unblinking grey lifeless eyes that held no emotion. So in theory, Maddie recognized Danny Phantom, but really she had never seen the teen before her in her life. If it weren't for the fact he were a ghost, Maddie would be certain he was dead. As it was, despite never knowing such a thing to be possible in a ghost, Maddie knew he was unresponsive. How else could one explain him allowing a ghostly raccoon to... oh God! Maddie suddenly realized what the raccoon was doing. She knew the green stuff was ectoplasm, she knew that ectoplasm was a ghosts essence, it's 'blood' if you will. Therefore, the raccoon, which was exploring the body and licking up the green goo that it seemed to very much enjoy, was eating the teen's blood! She almost threw up at the realization, but instead she whipped out her ghost gun and fired a few warning shots at the critter, which promptly scurried away, followed by the watching rats which had been frightened by the sudden movement.
It was now extremely dark in the alley way, and she could only barely see the outline of the ghostly teen because of her special googles (not exactly night vision, but helpful enough). That she needed them at all was odd, she had never known a ghost to completely extinguish its ghostly glow, she hadn't thought it possible, regardless, Phantom was not letting out any more light than if he were human. Maddie squinted at the figure, here he was the ghost she had promised herself she would destroy and study more than any other, the famous, or infamous depending on who you asked, Danny Phantom. He was completely at her mercy... She sighed, despite her hate of Phantom, she couldn't end him like this, without a fight, and despite herself she couldn't help but notice how frail and small he looked, crumpled up on the dirt and covered in his own 'blood' like the victim of some horrendous crime. Maddie sighed again and put her ghost blaster, previously aimed at Phantoms head, back onto her utility belt, taking out her ghost containment cube at the same time. She pressed the button on the side and, with a wet squishing sound, Phantom was sucked inside, along with the ectoplasm and brownish substance covering him and the walls, erasing almost all evidence that he was ever there.
All evidence except for a small silver cell phone covered in duel-colored blood. Maddie didn't see that clue in the dark as she quickly turned around and headed home, already imagining all the tests she planned to run on her newest specimen, her missing son pushed to the back corners of her mind.
A/N: For goodness' sake, Maddie! Come on! Kind of ironic, though, that she forgot about her son because of her son.
So, I just realized that a few chapters ago I said the chapter before this would be the conclusion... obviously, I lied. This story went a completely different direction than I was planning, and I made the planned ending to this story (which was first thing I actually wrote for it) into its own one-shot (now complete, called 'Truth') because it doesn't fit very well into this story anymore. However, that leaves me with the problem of having absolutely no idea where this story is going anymore, and so I've kind of run into a block when it comes to anything after this chapter... Just be ready to wait an extra two weeks or so for the next chapter, I have no idea when I'll figure out exactly where the rest of the story will go from here. Either way, I'm pretty sure this story is coming to it's end and will be finished sometime in the next four or five chapters... pretty sure. None of that, however, means I don't appreciate...
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