DISCLAIMER: Hahahaha! Reality Trip was great! SO MANY HOT POSES! If anyone knows where to get screencaps PLEASE tell me and I will love you forever!
Another note, Reality Trip has absolutely no influence on this at all!
Thanks to all my reviewers: Blackkaosrose, Wingg-ed Wolf, Sasia, Ghostboy814, Ohka Breynekai, ShiroandFubuki, enigmatic penguin, Cali, Petrodactyl, silvermoonphantom, purrbaby101, CharmedMilliE, Diamond Unicorn, killerdoodlebug, iamratgirl, Esme Kali Phantom, mordechaimalachai, me the anonymous penguin, AkoyaMizuno, Writer's Block DP, emotigone crazy and Phantom Shade! You all are totally AWESOME! I'm evil; I've known this for a while! XD Special thanks to horsegal for proofreading as much as she could! You get to distracted on the bus though! (Ducks flying lunchbox of doom)
Ok, I've gone back through my first 5 chapters and some mistakes were really bugging me so I'll be fixing those sometime soon. Look back later for that.
Yea, by the way! I think Danny is able to use his ghost powers in human mode to a certain extent, meaning not his wail or other more advanced moves, and the ones he could use wouldn't be as strong. (That includes flying) I think he can hover as a human but not zoom around like he can as a ghost. So I'm taking some license with that… you'll see later…INCOGNITO BOB BACK AWAY FROM THE COMPUTER! …and enigmatic penguin wants your autograph.
Humm… Filbert had almost as much fun with this cliffy as he did with the last one! …Almost… but not quite… we'll have to work on that won't we Filbert. (Pats giant great white shark on the head) Jeff also had some fun… though not much. Oh don't pout you silly squirrel, I'll try some more action soon.
Oh yea! I also have a challenge for you all! Could someone draw a picture of Eclipse? I'd love to see how you guys imagine her compared to me. If you want to, and have a Deviantart account, alert me on that. Otherwise you could e-mail me. I'd love to see some cool drawings of her. Please, someone try!
A general warning: I get sentimental but then I usually like to crush the moment… you'll see later.
… I'm rambling aren't I? …I'll stop now.
Enjoy!
Chapter 8
The young ghost rocketed forward, and, in a blur of black, silver, and red, the ropes disappeared and Lancer plummeted towards the ground. But before he hit, he was caught and gently lowered.
He turned around as the boy spun.
"Anything else you wanna throw?" the ghost yelled up at the dome. The gray mist swirled innocently. "Didn't think so!"
The teacher wanted to say something to the teen, but his mind just went numb and the man simply stood, mouth agape, staring at the ghost floating before him.
Eventually, he managed to form something coherent.
"D-D-Danny?"
"Oh, shit" he heard the teen say to himself before turning to the educator fearfully.
The teacher fumbled for words.
"Ah…bu…you're a-a-a ghost?" the man stuttered, still at a complete loss. "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, you're a ghost?"
The teen turned his face away from Mr. Lancer, closing his eyes, and nodded slowly.
"Nuh…du…buh… How?" The teacher stammered, brain still not truly functioning properly. His head began to churn and his knees felt weak. His own student a ghost and he didn't even know! He didn't even suspect…
"It…" the ghost took a steadying breath, "It was th-that lab accident…" He paused again, "N-near the beginning of… of school. I… my parents' ghost portal wasn't… wasn't working and I… I accidentally t-turned it on from the inside a-and…" He stopped, still not looking at Mr. Lancer.
"Your… your parents-" Lancer began.
"Don't know" the boy finished for him, landing on the ground. "But… Sam and… and Tucker were th-there when…" He trailed off. "J-Jazz… found out l-later on… on her own." He rubbed his right arm nervously. "I've… I've never actually had to..." He swallowed nervously. "To explain this to… to anyone."
"But you…" Lancer paused, trying to figure how to best phrase this. "You don't… look like a ghost. In school I mean."
"That's because I'm only," he paused and shifted his green eyes up to meet Mr. Lancer's for the first time. "I'm only half ghost," he finished resolutely.
Only half… huh?
"How is that even possible?" the teacher asked slowly, still utterly astonished.
"I… honestly, I don't really know."
"So… so all this time…" He really needed to sit down.
The teen swallowed uneasily again.
"I… Mr. Lancer, I don't want anyone to… to know" the boy said slowly, looking away again. "Please, don't tell anyone." He turned to face the teacher again, his luminous eyes pleading.
The man was taken aback by the ghost's expression. It was so strange to see anything like this on a ghost's face that he froze, his mind going into a blank overdrive. If he didn't tell…
Sounds and images flashed through his mind. A shout. A chain-link fence. A warehouse. Two silhouettes. The glint of a silver handgun. An explosion.
"Mr. Lancer please."
The man was snapped back to reality by the voice and met the ghost's eyes.
"Please. No one needs to know. Schools already hard enough and I've got ghost hunters after me and if they find out…" He paused and clenched his fists, closing his eyes as he turned his head away. "If my parents find out… they might… I… I don't know what they would do and…" His voice broke and he stopped, breathing slowly.
No… he wouldn't tell. This was a completely different situation. The teen was obviously trying to help people and just was occasionally in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The boy turned his back to the teacher and the man realized the ghost was trying to keep from breaking down.
"I… I know you probably think I'm a…a freak and…" He took a steadying breath. "And I can understand that, but… please, don't tell."
Wait… think of him as what?
"Please," the boy repeated in a barely audible whisper.
All of a sudden, the shock of discovering his student was the infamous ghost boy evaporated. The teacher put a hand on Danny's shoulder, causing the boy to gaze up at the man.
"Danny, I look at you and I don't see a freak. I see a 14-year-old student with an overwhelming sense of righteousness and responsibility that I have never seen in a student before." Lancer gave the boy a comforting smile.
"I see someone I can be proud of."
Green eyes blinked up at the teacher in confusion. Then, his student did the one thing Lancer never expected a teen to do.
He hugged Mr. Lancer round the middle.
"Thank-you," he gasped, his voice full of relief. "Thank-you. Thank-you! Thank-you!"
"Yes… well," Lancer said, and Danny quickly let go. "Don't think this means you can slack off in my class," he informed the boy sternly, then smiled. Danny returned one of his goofy grins.
Suddenly, the teacher's legs began to wobble. He stumbled and fell to his knees. His student's grin vanished instantly.
"Mr. Lancer?" he asked urgently, kneeling next to his teacher, his concern plainly evident.
"J-Just a little shaky from that - woh." The man's vision blurred and his head spun. Danny caught him as he fell forward.
"Mr. Lancer! Can you hear me?"
"Y-Yea…I'm… I'm fine."
He could tell Danny didn't believe him for a second. He looked hard at his teacher, shook his head, then stood.
"Wait here. I'm gunna see if I can find a way out of this thing."
Lancer nodded and his student walked towards the dome. He was two feet from the wall when it again glowed red and shot the boy back with a ray of energy. Danny landed hard next to his teacher as the dome reverted to its original gray color.
"Are you alright?" Mr. Lancer asked worriedly. The young ghost nodded.
"Yea. Fine." The boy rubbed his arm, looking confused. "I got closer before," he said.
It was true. Before, Danny had been able to place his hand on the dome before it attacked him.
The child looked down at his hands as he stood again.
"Maybe…" He looked back at the wall as that ring of blue light formed around his waist and separated. Torn blue-jeans and a dirty t-shirt were back. The boy's ghostly green eyes became their usual dazzling icy-blue and dark raven hair replaced snowy white.
Danny gave Mr. Lancer an uncomfortable glance before cautiously walking toward the dome again, inspecting it closely. It dawned on the teacher that his student still felt strange around him, and, when the youngest Fenton began hovering in the air, the man had to admit he also felt somewhat unnerved.
Lancer tried to start some sort of conversation to keep his mind off the silent weirdness of the situation. He rattled his brain, searching for some sort of topic.
"So… I guess this explains a lot of what I was wondering about you."
He could have smacked himself! That was nearly as bad as discussing the weather!
The boy paused a moment, halfway up the dome.
"Y-Yea," he said uncomfortably, "I-I guess it does…"
There was a long awkward silence, during which Lancer closed his eyes and tried to regain his strength.
Danny was the first to end the quiet.
"How… how long did you suspect something?"
"Well…" The teacher thought for a moment. "For a while I've been wondering why you were hardly passing my class when you obviously had great potential," he stated, noticing Danny's cheeks developed a slight cherry coloring. "But, I suppose I really started getting suspicious on Thursday."
"When I…" The boy trailed off, but the man knew what he was getting at, the incident with Dash.
"Yes. But I didn't think it would be anything like this."
"What did you think it was?" Danny asked, looking over his shoulder at the teacher. Lancer realized he had peaked the boy's curiosity, and winced a bit. He had hoped ho wouldn't be asked that, especially when he had just been telling the boy to be more open.
"I…" He paused, not knowing what to say.
"Nevermind," Danny said, waving a hand and turning back to inspect the dome, seeming to sense the man's discomfort.
There was another awkward silence. The teacher rose unsteadily to his feet. The dizzy feeling seemed to have passed and now he only felt weak and shaky.
"What are you doing?" he inquired of his floating student.
"There's a wired sorta line here," Danny replied, tracing it with his finger, but never touching the dome. "Looks like a sorta thread. They're all around the entire structure, running up from the ground… All of them, I think…" The boy flew to the highest point of the dome. "Yea, all of them connect here."
He paused a moment, looking thoughtful. Lancer couldn't see what the teen was getting at, but he was, yet again, amazed at his acute observational skills. He always knew Danny had a good head on his shoulders.
"If…" the teen paused again, glancing at the bottom of the dome, then at the teacher. "Mr. Lancer, if enough of a… force… was applied, right where all these connect, do… do you think the dome might… collapse?"
The teacher was stunned by the boy's analysis and turned the idea over a bit.
"Well… I don't know…" he answered slowly. "How did you think that one up?"
"Ghosts may keep me from my schoolwork, but, they have forced me to learn what I need to survive their tricks," the teen answered with a small grin.
"I see…" the teacher replied, inwardly marveling at the light-hearted way the teen shrugged the issue of ghosts off. Had they really become that commonplace in the boy's life?
Thinking back to his most recent ghost experiences, the man realized the must be a yes. His own student was a ghost for crying-out-loud!
"Well… it could work. But the amount of force needed would probably be pretty great. I mean, the thing's harder than concrete and I'm not really sure how compliant to natural laws ghost energy is. But, in theory…" He stopped as he noticed his student, who was no longer paying much attention, had descend a few feet, the fact the seemingly normal teen was defying the laws of physics still unnerving the teacher slightly.
A bright ball of glowing green ectoplasm began to grow in Danny's cupped hand. The boy pointed the sphere at the top of the dome, the ball getting bigger the longer he held it back.
"If this backfires," the teen shouted over his shoulder at Mr. Lancer, "duck."
The teacher blinked.
Right.
The man took a few steps out from under Danny, and the young half-ghost released the swelling energy in a huge, blazing-green beam that made Lancer wish he had a pair of sunglasses. The dazzling glow actually gave him a headache and the teacher had to steady himself. The light flared brighter, then faded.
Danny lowered his hand.
"Huh…" he said, blinking at the spot he had just blasted and cocking his head to the side, "I was sure that would-"
He was cut off by what sounded like the fading melody of rolling thunder as the dome melted away, beginning where Danny had struck and working its way to the base. Danny descended to stand beside his teacher.
The atmosphere pulsed, their surroundings faltered, and the landscape faded to the park the two had abruptly left.
Danny gasped, and Lancer looked at the boy in time to see a strange blue mist escape his student.
"What-" the man began.
"So, you escaped!" came an amused female voice from behind them. They spun, and came face-to-face with the ghost who had trapped the two.
"Eclipse!" Danny growled at the specter. She smiled and gave a little wave.
"That's my name, don't wear it out!" the girl said childishly. She held her scythe with both hands behind her back, still grinning. "Mind if I ask how, you know, so I can beef up security?" she requested with a tiny laugh.
Lance saw that the boy's eyes were glowing green again.
"None of your business," he countered, a challenge in his tone.
"Oh, isn't it?" Eclipse replied with an equally challenging tone, her eyes flashing dangerously. She spun her scythe in her right hand slowly, a small, sadistic smile on her face.
The teen obviously knew more about ghosts and their behaviors because his student abruptly shoved the teacher sideways, Eclipse swinging her weapon at where they stood. Lancer watched horrified, as the blade was about to slice Danny in two.
"Danny!" he yelled. But, to the man's astonishment, the blade simply went straight through the boy.
What the! …Right. Half-ghost. Of course. He still had to get used to that.
A bright flash of blue retrieved him from his self-reproach, as Mr. Fenton became his ghostly alter ego.
"So, the human found out?" Eclipse stated with a grin.
"Yea, and I blame you!" Danny snapped.
"Your welcome!" the girl laughed, as a red beam shot from her weapon, sending the boy tumbling through the air and into the fountain, causing some of the sculpture to break off and hit Danny in the head.
"Hey! Watch the property damage! I get blamed for that!" he shouted, irritated, rubbing the top of his head. Eclipse just laughed some more and flew forward, ramming the top of her scythe into the boy's stomach, knocking the wind out of him.
"Ouch. I bet that hurts," the girl said, unsympathetically, as the blade cut into the half-ghost's side.
"I bet this does too!" retorted Danny. Two green blasts hit his opponent in the shoulders, propelling her into the air. She gave a half-strangled cry, her scythe spinning away towards Lancer, who ducked, and the thing lodged itself in a tree. The boy took this opportunity to catch his breath and his teacher hurried towards him.
"No!" Danny shouted, halting the teacher in his tracks, "The-the thermos… in my backpack!" He pointed and Mr. Lancer turned. A purple lump was, indeed, resting in the grass. He looked at Danny again. The teen was standing with one hand over where the blade had sliced him. A green substance leaked through a gap in his fingers.
The teacher was torn, until he met the young ghost's eyes. He nodded and ran to retrieve the thermos, though he wasn't sure what good it would do.
Eclipse regained her balance and rose higher in the air, extremely pissed off. She threw he hand out to the side, and the scythe in the tree glowed an eerie red and began shaking violently. Lancer saw Danny suddenly shoot towards it at such a high speed it made the educator nauseous.
The teen caught the thing as it dislodged itself, but that didn't stop the weapon from rocketing towards the 17-year-old specter, Danny still holding on.
"Mr. Lancer! The thermos!" the boy cried as Eclipse caught her scythe.
"Let go!" she snarled. With all traces of laughter gone, her voice had a malicious, ruthless tone to it. "Damn you, you little monkey! Get off!"
As she swung the weapon around in an attempt to fling the boy off, Lancer opened the container and looked inside.
"What do you want me to do?" he yelled panicked.
"Point and button!" Danny managed to say as he was swung back and forth.
"Oh no you don't!" the girl shouted as the teacher aimed the thermos at her. She gave an almighty swing and an added twist, and Danny, once again, tumbled through the air, landing on the hard sidewalk.
Eclipse shot upwards and blasted the device out of Mr. Lancer's hands, then pointed her glowing weapon at the teacher himself. Her voice was back to its normal tone of cheery malice, a sinister smile on her face.
"I would run if I were you."
Aaaaand… that's a nice ending I think! That's my policy: Take away one cliffy and give another! Although, I don't think this one's as good but, whatever.
You didn't think I'd forget about Eclipse, did you?
…This was my longest chapter yet I believe… yes I think it was.
OMG! I just heard the name Fenton Street on the radio! That's AWESOME! XP
Anyway… I had a 3-hour car ride to my Great Aunt Eleanor's birthday party so I thought up a lot of the next chapter in the car. Then the same ride back just a little while ago. It's 11:00 and I'm exhausted!
Yes, review please. Flame if you want, I got marshmallows waiting.
…
No Bill, they're not for squirrels!
…
Oh you didn't just go there!
…
Jeff, get away from that bag! … No! That's MINE! (Chases after the two furry, marshmallow-thieving devils)
... and scene
