Chapter 7
Sam
After our three…hosts I guess you could call them, left Danny turned to me and said, "We're in deep shit aren't we?" "Yep," I told him, and gave him a rundown of everything that had happened since I woke up. Danny lay back down and sighed, "Clockwork is going to kill us when we get back, probably more than once if he's really pissed, then he'll make sure we remember it all." "Whoa, make me look an optimist," I said. Danny just took as deep a breath as his bandages let him and sighed, "Well, we're stuck here until you're healed. How long are broken bones supposed to take again, a month?" "I guess for me it'll take about a month, maybe six weeks at most," I told him and flinched as my broken rib started to feel sore and a lay back down.
"Well, at least one good thing came from this," Danny said. "And what would that be?" I asked him. "We can consider this a vacation," Danny said, then gave a small laugh that ended in an 'OW' from his broken ribs. And he continued, "You always wanted to visit England, well here we are." I had to laugh at that one too I got what I wanted, and all it cost were some broken bones, and Tucker dying. We both gasped in pain when we overdid it, then Danny looked away from me and up to the ceiling. He stared at it like that for a while and I eventually went back to sleep.
Watson
I had assisted Mary prepare breakfast for my strange patients; she looked incredibly worn from everything that had occurred though she put on a brave face for my sake. I assisted my wife as we went to give breakfast to my patients. We went into the room to see Samantha was fast asleep and Daniel was staring up at the ceiling. I looked where he was and saw nothing out of the ordinary with my ceiling, it was a simple affair of wood and plaster varnish, a faded white color now more akin to yellow than pristine white. I then observed the young man's face and saw that he was deeply troubled, and I could guess the cause. I often saw the same look on my former army comrades when chance should bring us together; he was remembering a friend now gone.
I cleared my throat and he turned his head to look at Mary and I then said, "Oh uh, sorry about that I guess I sort of spaced out." His incomprehensible slang took me by surprise and it took me a moment to respond, "That is quite alright. I can imagine that most people would be prone to thinking about their life after what you have gone through." "Doesn't make it feel any better though," Daniel said as he tried to sit up. I rushed over to him and put my hand on his shoulder, "Calm yourself, you've broken five ribs and lost quite a lot of blood as well, and along with your head injury it's a miracle that you're even conscious." Daniel relaxed and laid down and allowed Mary to spoon feed him and help him drink his tea. "Thanks, you're a real life saver. I didn't think that the famous Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson were real," he said with a small groan as he lay back down.
Famous? I admit that Holmes and I were a little more well known thanks to the stories I had had an old friend of mine publish, but to say that we were famous seemed incredible. And yet it must have been true if this man supposedly from over a century in the future knew Holmes's first name. "Holmes's already inflated arrogance would soar to new heights if he heard you," I said and Mary gave a small chuckle. She then awoke Samantha and I was happy to see that Samantha was capable of feeding herself, with assistance from Mary. After my patients were fed I sat on the bed next to Daniel and said, "Can you tell me how you acquired your…abilities?"
Daniel and Samantha looked at each other; I could almost feel the thoughts running through their head as they silently deliberated. At last Samantha nodded her head slowly and Daniel turned back to me. He cleared his throat and finally said, "Well, it happened about a week after I turned fourteen. My parents are ghost hunters, and for years they were the only people in our city that believed that ghosts were real. They built all kinds of gadgets, weapons, gizmos, trying to find a ghost and, I quote, 'rip it apart molecule by molecule'. Finally, they made a portal into another dimension called the Ghost Zone, where ghosts come from. They tried to activate it, but it didn't work so they left. Sam, and…my best friend…Tucker…dared me to go in it. So I put on a white jumpsuit with a black belt, boots, and gloves and Sam slapped a sticker on my chest, for good luck, and I went in.
"I tripped on a wire when I went in and reached out my hand to keep from falling on my face and I guess I hit the on button because the next thing I knew I felt who knows how much electricity going through me and I was blasted with ectoplasmic radiation from the Ghost Zone. I blacked out from it, and then I woke up. Sam and Tucker took me to a mirror and well, you saw what I was like, white hair, green eyes, and jumpsuit colors inverted. But that wasn't all that happened to me. That ectoplasmic radiation mutated my D…body. I could switch from my Human Form, or my Ghost Form whenever I wanted, and when I did I had new superpowers. At first I could walk through almost anything, turn invisible, that Ghost Sense power, and even fly.
"But, that was only the beginning of my problems. By turning on the Ghost Portal, I allowed ghosts to come out and do whatever they wanted in the Human World, mostly scare people, steal stuff, and just wreak havoc and mayhem in general. Well, Sam and Tucker figured since I had these new powers, I might as well use them to protect people from ghosts, so I did. For about seven months it was just the three of us, Sam, Tucker, me, working in secret using my powers and my parents' gadgets to fight ghosts. Then my older sister Jazz found out and we let her help too. That first year was miserable, I had to fight ghosts, human ghost hunters who thought I was a ghost, and deal with school and even another halfa, Vlad Masters aka Vlad Plasmius."
At this point my wife interjected, "Halfa?" "Oh, uh, sorry. The ghosts called me 'The Halfa' because I was half-a -ghost and half-a-human." "And who was this Vlad Masters aka Vlad Plasmius?" I asked him. Danny sighed at this then eagerly asked, "Before I get into that, can I please use the restroom?" I had never heard of such a thing and he went on, "Loo, John, Crapper, an outhouse, anything?" "Ah, the toilet, yes, I'll help you there," I said, embarrassed that I hadn't considered such needs. I led him to my toilet room and watched as he urinated, being glad to note that there was no blood in his urine and it appeared to be a healthy color. After he relieved himself Mary came and let Samantha use similar facilities.
Afterwards Samantha asked to be led to our powder room where she and Daniel washed their hands in our sink. "They seem very…hygienic," Mary noted. "Doctors do wash before a major operation, but I've never known lay folk to be so worried about their hygiene. It must be a future obsession," I informed her. After they washed themselves I informed my patients, "We shall have to return to the bedroom," I then checked my pocket watch and almost slapped myself, my regular working hours started in another hour, "And then finish your story with an explanation about Vlad, and I must go to my practice soon." They both nodded and we all returned to the bedroom and Daniel finished his story, for that time.
"Well, my parents had first met in college," "Men and women both in college, together?" I asked in surprise. "Yeah," Daniel said, giving me a peculiar look. "Like I said, they met in college and with help from my Dad's childhood friend, Vlad Masters, built a smaller prototype for the Ghost Portal. Unfortunately, Vlad had been too close to the prototype and when my Dad activated it Vlad was blasted in the face with ectoplasmic radiation, and got a bad case of ecto-acne. He dropped out while Mom and Dad finished college, got married, and had Jazz and me. Vlad got powers like me, but he used them for his own profit, stealing treasures and artifacts, overshadowing wealthy business owners and making them give him their businesses, and even exploring the Ghost Zone with his own Ghost Portal to look for ways to become more powerful.
"He wanted to kill my Dad and marry my Mom and then make me his heir and together we could take over the world. The guy was one crazed up froot loop. He sent ghosts after me when I refused to help him, and we fought quite a few times," Daniel explained. I checked my watch and realized that if I was to arrive at my practice I had to get ready then and there. I excused myself, washed up and changed my clothes then kissed Mary goodbye and got a ride on a nearby hansom cabbie to my practice.
