Uploaded 7/27/13
Chapter 7: Attacked
Again, Danny struggled to pay attention in class the next day. So much was still on his mind concerning the previous day's events and it certainly didn't help that Dash kept sneaking glances at the undead teen every chance he got, including the middle of Algebra II.
"He's staring at me again," Danny whispered over his shoulder, covering his face with his hand and shrinking in his seat. "I feel like a freak," he whimpered.
"Hey. Hey!" Sam leaned forward in her seat behind Danny and flicked the back of his head. She had this class alone with Danny since Tucker was off taking Advanced Placement Calculus. It was her job to protect him now. "Stop it with the pity party! He's not acting much different than normal; you're just making yourself look like you're hiding something. You're fine. You can do this," she whispered confidently.
Danny quickly straightened in his chair, absentmindedly rubbing the back of his flicked head before relaxing and attempting to give his attention back to the teacher. Even if her methods were a bit... unorthodox, Sam always seemed to know how to calm him down. He knew there was nothing more to be done about Dash. Confronting him would only make matters worse, especially of Danny asked what he and Kwan knew. The only thing he could do was wait it out - the same solution to his parents' deadly weapon...and the extent of his healing powers. After what he'd just learned, he wasn't even sure if his parent's weapon could kill him in the first place.
Danny found he'd slid down in his chair again when Sam audibly slapped him on the shoulder.
Their teacher turned from the board. "I appreciate your trying to keep Mr. Fenton awake, but perhaps you could avoid hitting him, Ms. Manson?" the he said with a hint of mirth.
Some of the students giggled when Sam replied sheepishly, "I'll do my best, Mr. Tone."
Danny straightened up once again, now feeling a little embarrassed. After taking a few minutes worth of notes on inequalities, a note landed on his desk. He silently unfolded it. The paper read 'I know you're not tired. You said there weren't any ghosts again last night,' in Sam's curly handwriting.
He scribbled underneath it, 'Sorry I sorta keep thinking about my parents' secret invention. They finished it last night.' Folding the notebook paper back up, he twisted his arm around and placed it on her desk.
About a minute later, the note fluttered back to him. 'And they still won't say what is does?!' Sam had scribbled back.
Just as Danny touched his pencil down to reply, the lights flickered, then shut off. The girls in the class screamed as the room was cast in darkness, though enough light to see by was still streaming through the classroom's small windows. Screams died down to excited chatter as it became apparent that the lights weren't going to turn back on.
Mr. Tone decided to take charge and said, "Everyone, please stay calm." He stood and raised his faculty radio over his head for silence. "The backup generator isn't working, so we're going to follow the fire escape route to the fields."
Danny's chest suddenly went cold. A shivered danced up his spine and his breathe fogged up before him. He jumped out of his seat as the rest of the class moved to exit.
"Ghost?" Sam asked, standing next to him.
A moaning sound was heard from the hallway. The few students who had already left the room rushed back in and slammed the door shut, shivering and wide-eyed. Several students screamed and backed into dark corners of the classroom.
"Shh!" Danny insisted, standing absolutely still. Mr. Tone, Sam, and a few others joined him in attempt to quiet the cries. When the sick moaning suddenly progressed with renewed gusto, the class finally became silent except for a few cornered whimpers.
"Who is it?" Sam whispered in Danny's ear.
He shivered again and whispered back, "I...I think it's," but he shook his head. Danny had learned to use his ghost sense to distinguish his common ghostly enemies from one another based on their power level and other indescribable details. Often, he could know who was coming before he saw them. This time, however, his sense felt different... and yet familiar. The twinge he came to recognize as a ghost's signature was right around the range of a ghost he knew, but he felt the sense throughout his whole body and the temperature was too high. Something was definitely wrong.
The moaning approached a crescendo right outside the classroom door. Students shrunk further into the shadows while the rest remained still, each holding their breath. Danny braced himself, not entirely sure what he was up against. He wished he could escape and come back as Phantom, but leaving through the door was now completely out of the question and he was too plainly in view in the center of the classroom too escape unseen through the back wall. Unfortunately, he was stuck here like everyone else.
Abruptly, the moaning stopped, but before anyone could take a sigh of relief, a figure phased through the door. It stumbled in, stooping over on two feet planted shakily on solid ground. The ghost's black cloak was torn and his suit was tattered. His white hair was frayed crazier than usual and his green skin was sickly pale.
He looked up, staring straight at Danny through broken sunglasses. "There you are," he ground out, leaning back on the door frame.
"Technus?" Danny breathed under his breath in disbelief. He looked awful - sick even.
One by one, the students turned to follow the ghost's gaze on the center of the room where Danny, Sam, Dash, and a few other students stood. Those under his stare slowly sidestepped out of the way while Danny and Sam bravely remained still.
Technus pushed off against the door. "Help us!" he yelled desperately. All eyes were back on the frantic ghost. He suddenly flew toward Danny, grabbed a handful of his shirt, and pulled him intangibly through the rear window.
"Danny!" Sam shouted after him.
The class screamed in panic, quickly beginning to throw themselves out the door and into the hallway for fear of being the ghost's next victim. Sam struggled through the mass. This was bad; she had to find Tucker.
Technus didn't make it far, though. Almost as soon as he'd cleared the window, he and the ghost boy flickered tangible again and crashed six feet back to the ground.
"Gah!" Danny yelped, tumbling away. After catching a winded breath, he jumped to his feet holding a bruised arm, but otherwise okay. "Technus!" Danny rounded on the ghost who was still trying to pick himself up. "You crossed a line, here! What the heck is going on?" he shouted in an authoritative tone usually reserved for Phantom.
"You have to help us," Technus pleaded again, still struggling.
Danny looked up. Unfortunately, they'd landed on the school fields and now the students and faculty were gathering in view at a distance. Then, he heard wheels screeching from the parking lot. Danny turned in time to see the Guys in White's supped up SUV hop the curb and drive into the grass to stop about fifty feet short of the half and full ghost.
There went his window to change into Phantom unseen. At this point, Danny decided he needed to back away from Technus. He couldn't be associated with the ghost in his human form so close up to the Guys in White.
Technus finally stumbled to his feet, catching sight of the operatives with wide, fearful eyes before pleading to Danny once more, "You gotta do something!" he begged.
"Ghost, you are under arrest!" one operative called, gun trained on the full ghost. "Stand down and come quietly."
"Get out of here, Technus!" Danny whispered urgently. Normally he wouldn't care about a ghost he considered his enemy, but even Technus' desperate cries for his help were beginning to worry him. "There's nothing I can do like this and I don't have a thermos on me! Just fly away!"
Technus sent the operatives another fearful look before rushing to Danny, grabbing his arms just under the sleeves of his shirt and pleading even more desperately, "I can't! You don't understand. They're gonna destroy everything!" He shook Danny. "Please!"
"Step away from the boy or we'll shoot!"
But the half ghost couldn't hear them. Suddenly his arms were in searing pain! Danny screamed and wretched himself free of the ghost. He cradled his limbs while hissing away the burning sensation.
As soon as Danny backed far enough away, the government operatives fired as one. Before his eyes, Technus cried out and once again crumpled to the ground, now cradling his side in obvious agony.
Danny gasped and jumped back. He stared down at Technus, stunned. The ghost looked up at him, defeat in his eyes, and, in Danny's utter disbelief, saw him mouth 'please' one last time before his body deformed, melting into a pile of ectoplasm.
The two Guys in White ran up to the defeated ghost, harshly pushing Danny out of the way. "Damn, he didn't make it," one said, searching over Technus' remains.
"We can still collect samples," the other said, pulling out a several test tubes and proceeding to fill them using a scoopula.
Danny just stared in shock, clutching his burned arms. Sam and Tucker chose that moment to run up from behind him to stand on either side for support. Did Technus just die? Was it the weapon they shot him with that killed him or was it whatever had made him weak in the first place? Could that have been him had he not gotten out of the way?
"Come on," Sam prodded Danny gently. "Let's get you home before anyone else shows up."
Danny tore his eyes away from the scene and allowed his friend to lead him to the parking lot. Sam had driven them to school that morning, so the trio piled into her car for a quick ride to Danny's house.
On the way there, they passed the Fenton's GAV speeding and swerving in the opposite direction toward the school. In the back seat, Danny hunkered down to avoid being seen, just in case. At least he knew they'd have the house to themselves for a while.
Once again, the friends gathered in Danny's room. The ghost boy sat on his bed and slowly uncrossed his arms, having used his hands to cover the burns during the trip. He sucked in a breath through his teeth. The wounds, though already beginning to heal, were raw, red and blistering. Second degree. They stung sharply in exposure to the outside air.
"Whoa, what happened?" Tucker asked, only now noticing Danny was hurt.
"Did Technus do that to you? Is that why you jumped away from him?" Sam peered at the injuries with concern, noting the rough outlines of hands prints. She reached under his bed, pulled out a first aid kit and moved the desk chair over to the bed next to Danny so she could sit and work.
"Something was off about Technus," Danny told his friends, turning to allow Sam access to his left arm. "His ecto-signature felt...weird. He burned my arms just by grabbing me-never charged an ecto-blast. I don't even think he knew he was hurting me and he couldn't have been strong enough to if he tried. It was as if the ectoplasm he was made of was...tainted. Ah!" Danny winced as Sam began to wrap his upper arm in gauze.
"Sorry," Sam apologized sympathetically.
"Danny, is that you? What are you doing home? Mom and Dad just-" Jazz appeared in the doorway, but stopped short upon seeing Danny being tended to. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?" She walked into the room carefully. "I was going to tell you Mom and Dad got a call about a ghost at Casper... but I guess you already knew that," she finished lamely.
"Technus," Danny confirmed, shifting to allow Sam to wrap his other arm. "I think it was an accident, though. He came to me asking for help."
"That's why he dragged you through the window in front of the whole class? He knows better than to risk your secret like that! All of your enemies do! What could be so important?" Sam huffed, finishing the first aid and moving to put the box back under the bed.
"Something important enough that he died trying to tell me," Danny answered solemnly. He wouldn't wish that pain on anyone, even a ghost as annoying as Technus.
"You think he's really dead?" Tucker asked.
"Yeah," Danny nodded, "and now I don't think the Guys and White's weapons killed him. Technus had said 'help us' not 'help me'. Whatever made him sick and weak - whatever poisoned his ectoplasm - must be affecting other ghosts, too."
"I wonder if that's why there haven't been any around lately. They're too weak to leave the Ghost Zone," Sam suggested.
"Or they're being captured by the Guys and White," Danny added. "Technus looked pretty terrified when he saw them. He could've escaped and was running from them."
Then team thought for a moment. When no other ideas came to mind, Jazz asked her brother, "What are you going to do?" though she had a feeling she already knew the answer.
"I have to try to help them," Danny said with building resolve. "It's my job as the bridge between both worlds."
Sam, Tucker and Jazz each felt the need to convince Danny that no one was pushing this job onto him, but they knew arguing with him would be pointless. Technus had died asking for his help. Whether it cam from a ghost or a child, there was no way Danny was going to ignore a plea like that.
Sam crossed her arms, smirked and asked with in mock defeat, "What do you want us to do?"
In the following hour, Danny's parents arrived back home while the secretive group began to toss around ideas concerning what to do about Technus' last words. After a while, Jazz left to entertain her parents downstairs and attempt to get more information on their own secret.
Several dead-end ideas later, the trio heard pounding on the front door. Danny hopped off the bed and cracked open his door for better audio. Sam and Tucker followed suit.
BANG BANG! "Guys in White! Open up!"
Danny shrunk back into his room, heart skipping. At this rate he was going to get a heart attack. "What are they doing here?" he panicked. He heard the front open and faint talk between his parents and the two operatives he recognized from earlier.
"Maybe they're not here for you. They could just want to talk to your parents about weapons and stuff," Tucker shrugged.
"Danny!" Jack's voiced boomed, excited as always."C'mon down here, son! The Guys and White want to talk to you!"
"Or...," Tucker drawled out, "maybe they are here for you."
"I'm dead," Danny whimpered.
Squeezed this out before 3rd exams! I found out my Physics 2 final is an 8-hour take-home due-online-at-midnight type deal! YAY! I'm still aiming to get another chapter out next weekend - it should be a good one! - but that depends on how much studying I feel like cramming in XP
The first 400 words or so is an inside joke I played on myself. I actually wrote it during Calculus 3 between note-takings (my friends were so confused!), so naturally I put Danny and Sam in Algebra II (a senior-level math class) and Tucker in AP Calculus since that's what I took my senior year. And I named the teacher after my Calculus 2 professor because she was amazing and Tone is such a great name for a teacher haha!
OH! And I got an A- on that take-home quiz I blew off to write the last chapter, so thanks for all the reviews and support, you guys are freaking magical!
I know there's a lot going on, so let me know what's confusing. I'll try to use a future opportunity in the story to explain it further.
Is the plot moving too fast? Characterization okay? Predictions? Please review! I have cupcakes!