Okay, before you let the guillotine do it's job, (ie. Chop my head off) I can explain!* INHALE*! Okay, first was midterms that not only took the last week of January, but also the first few days of the first week of February because of a snow day (never thought I'd see the day when a snow day made me cry). Then I was faced with trying to get back into my story. I managed to get this chapter mostly typed up before that Friday, but had to stop then, because it was my birthday. (Happy birthday to me, I'm now 18, I'm going to Uni... wait what?). So that took up my weekend, but I did manage to get my chapter to my beta somewhere in there (just barely), But then my beta was swamped with her own work (she is an English teacher after all) and when she finally found the time for my chapter, her computer had a fight with the internet (her computer thought the internet was being unfaithful to her with all those other computers, so they weren't on speaking terms :). So she sent me a message explaining that she was going to be about a week late, but I didn't get the message until a week later because I had internet problems (guess my laptop doesn't like being the Mistress). So I revised this chapter and re-sent it to Mir, then started writing a different fic to pass the time (because I'm having writers block for this one, and am procrastinating) then sort of... maybe... forgot.. this. one DON'T KILL ME!
ฉันไม่ได้เป็นเจ้าของ Danny Phantom (Thai)
Twilight, Dusk, the in-between from day to night. This is the time when things are calm, quiet. The bustle of the day has wound down and silenced, and the lovers of night have yet to gather. This time is safe for those who do not wish to be found to go out in the open and rest. Which is why our halfas were able to rest, out in the open, in the park.
The two of them were utterly exhausted. They had spent most of the day on the run, hiding anywhere they could. It wasn't like they couldn't get away from their pursuers; if anything that was the easy part. The problem was, they kept hiding in play grounds, toy stores, or other places kids go. And where there are kids, there are parents, parents who wasted no time dialing up the resident ghost hunter hotline. To top it off, they had eaten their small amount of food hours ago, and now had to resort to slurping up fountain water from the wishing fountain in the park. Jazz didn't even complain that they were drinking doggy water, they were that far gone.
When Danny finished slurping up water, he flopped onto the ground, leaning against the stone basin of the fountain. He resembled a cloth doll, they way he sat, with his legs spread out, dark hair in his face, and arms hanging limp at his sides. His eyes were red rimmed, and his nose twitched every so often, holding his urge to whine. It had worked for the past three hours, but it was bound to fail. "...I wanna go home."
Jazz stopped drinking and slowly slid herself from the edge of the fountain. She lowered herself down beside her brother and sat cross legged. "I know," she said softly. "I wanna go home too, but we can't. You know that."
"I want Mommy." Danny continued, retracting his lifeless limbs and curling into a ball.
"Danny..." Jazz said in a warning, but sympathetic voice. This was not the first time the five year old had brought this up that day.
"NO!" Danny snapped. "I'm tired, I'm hungry, I'm cold, I-I'm scared! I want my Mommy. I wa- wanna go home!" He started shaking and squeezed his eyes shut to cut off the oncoming tears. Tiny bubbles of liquid still managed to make their way onto his cheeks despite the barricade.
"I know how you feel." Jazz told her brother, wrapping her arms around him and pulling him close. "But we can't go home and we don't have a Mommy anymore." Seeing how this only deepened her brothers spastic twitching, Jazz changed tactics. "Here, how bout tomorrow we go to that space room that you like, you know, the one on the mountain with the biiiiig telescope!"
"NO! I wanna go home NOW!" Danny insisted, struggling against his sisters arms. A loose hand flew up and smacked the older girl's cheek.
"DANNY, STOP IT!" Jazz commanded. She was just as tired and cranky as her brother, so she had no patience anymore. "I'LL TELL!"
True, she had no one to tell to, but it was the threat that usually got Jazz her way when her brother wasn't listening. Unfortunately, Danny was past caring. "I wanna GO HOME! I wanna- I wanna GO HOME! I-" As he screamed, the five year old beat his way out of his sister's arms. As was the inevitable, he managed to free himself, and started running. His destination: the twisted monument that was always visible no matter where you were in town, and his beacon home.
Suddenly, a glowing green net launched out of the sky. It entrapped the fleeing boy and tossed him into a crumpled heap on the hard concrete boardwalk.
"DANNY!" Jazz screamed. Tiredness was instantly overwritten by panic, sending her leaping from her spot by the fountain and to her brothers side. As a combined force, the two of them pulled at the glowing ropes, too panicked to think of another way to escape.
An echoy voice interrupted their efforts. "Well, well, well, what have we here? Two human children out for a stroll at this time of day?" Looking up, the children discovered that the speaker was, simply put, huge! His hulking frame was at least six feet tall, dressed in black leather, and covered in grey metal. He had two shiny belts of ammunition strapped over his shoulders, and a seemingly out of character heart tattoo on his arm. His strange eyes looked like green headlights, and his hair raged out of his head as a flaming green Mohawk. The strangest thing of all was how he was glowing and floated at least five feet off the ground.
"Leave us alone you big... big..." Jazz frantically searched for the best insult her seven year old brain could muster. "You big booger!"
"Booger?" The the mecha ghost repeated, taken aback. "Well that certainly a new one." He then put one fist on his waist and struck a pose. "I am no booger, I am SKULKER! The Ghost Zone's greatest hunter! And believe me, I would not bother with such unworthy prey as you, if my employer had not specifically requested I bring you to him. I'd much rather be out hunting a real challenge, but if I'm ever going to afford that new Ecto-blade 3000, I'm going to have to go chasing whatever kids that man wants." He dropped his pose and flopped into a hunched position. "It's demeaning, you know. How is my name supposed to strike fear in my prey when I pick up lost kids for a living?..."
Jazz quickly got over her fear of their 'captor' and moved on. After all, it was pretty hard to take the guy seriously when he was floating in a corner pouting about how unfair his job was. So, while Skulker ranted, Jazz returned to helping Danny out of the net. The two of them pulled, pushed, stretched, even bit the net, but it seemed the more they struggled the more tangled it got. After being struck in the arm by one of the weighted stones, moved by a rather violent tug, Jazz got an idea. She had Danny lay flat on his back as still as he could, then set out to grab each of the weighed balls individually, and stretch them out as far as they could go, that way the net would stretch out like a spider web. She almost got it to, but their actions couldn't go unnoticed for ever.
"I don't think so." Skulker said, swooping down and lifting Jazz up by the scruff of her neck. She kicked and screamed, but the mechanical man ignored her. "It may be a menial job, but it's still a job and I intend to see it though."
"LET GO OF MY SISTER!" Danny shouted, worming his way out of the mostly flattened net.
Skulker smirked at the boy. "And what would you do if I said no? What can you do, boy?"
Danny lowered himself into a crouching position with a hardened face. "I'm GOIN' GHOST!"
"Goin' what-now?" Skulker asked, wide eyed. He got his answer all to soon.
Silver-white rings zapped into existence around Danny's waist and sped over his small body. Dirty, inside-out pj's disappeared, leaving a black and white hazmat suit proudly in their place. As the rings continued, the boy's black hair lost all of its pigment, and his eyes glowed a furious acid green. Finally, as the rings snapped out of the air, the boy hovered slightly off the ground, supported by his silver white aura.
"Impossible!" Skulker gasped, before ducking. As soon as the transformation was finished, Danny had launched himself at the older ghost, nearly landing a solid hit. Having missed, he slid to a stop in mid are then returned to kicking and punching with his stubby little limbs. "How can he be half-ghost? There's only one halfa and-"
"I'M GOIN' GHOST!" Skulker barely had time to register what was happening as the small girl in his hand transformed. Jazz's shirt and pants were converted into her own hazmat suit, while a silver-white aura outlined her body. Her now white hair fluttered into her glowing green eyes as she landed a clumsy, yet effective kick to the side of Skulker's head, so it sat cruciate on his neck. Surprised by the action, Skulker recoiled, allowing Jazz to escape his grip and regroup with her brother.
"You okay, Danny?" Jazz asked, not taking her eyes off the metle head.
"Um-hum" Danny answered. Jazz's sigh of relief was cut short as she dropped from the air and landed on her tush. "JAZZ!"
"Ow..." Jazz whimpered, rubbing the spot that should be sore, but wasn't. She glared at the ground; now was not the time for her powers to give out on her!
Skulker growled as he finished adjusting his head. "That's it! You two are going down, now!" He quickly typed in some random code into the old cassette tape player he used as an operating system and aimed at his prey, then hit play. A large barreled ray gun sprang out from his arm and started shooting rapid fire at his targets. The young halfas yelped in surprise and fear, scrambling out of the way.
Seeing their reaction with satisfaction, Skulker laughed maniacally. "Run, run, as fast as you can, you can't escape me, I'm the Ghost Zone's greatest hunter!"
"Oh ya, well I'm the gingerbread man!" Jazz rushed at the ghost, trying to land another kick. However, she did not have the element of surprise on her side this time, and it was a simple matter for Skulker to shift his arm and catch her in the stomach with his wrist weapon.
"JAZZ!" Danny ran to her as she dropped to her knees. "Jazz, Jazz!"
"I'm okay, geez!" Jazz half lied, holding her stomach. It did hurt, but not nearly as much as it should. It felt like she had gotten a slap on the belly instead of being fried by a laser. Still, she didn't have time to think about it with the laughing robot ghost charging up for his next attack. Shaking her head, she got to her feet and dragged her brother behind a nearby tree. "We need a plan."
"A plan?" The five year old echoed, tilting his head.
"Ya," Jazz confirmed. "We have to come up with a plan to beat him. But how can we hurt him..."
"But hurting people is bad!" Danny squealed, wide eyed. He was always told by his parents never to hurt people, no matter what. Luckily, the ghost hunters' morals did not stretch far enough to include ghosts.
"We're not hurting a person, we're fighting a ghost!" Jazz said simply.
"Oh."
Jazz ignored his lack of enthusiasm. "But we need a-"
"Peek-a-boo."
"AHHH!"
Skulker had snuck up on the children while they were talking. Smiling, the ghost hunter began blasting away at everything in sight. The younger half ghost grabbed his sister by the arm and flew her out of harm's way. "Jazz, what do we do? What do we do?"
Jazz suddenly had a flashback. "THAT'S IT!" She cheered, gaining a hopeful, yet confused look from Danny. "Use those ecto-blasts, you know, the ones that blew up the table!"
"But you said never to use it anymore" Danny reminded her, setting her down by the water fountain, just out of Skulker's range.
"Just do it!" Jazz roared, this was not the time to argue about what she said then and now.
Danny gulped, then turned to face the rampaging ghost. He brought his hands together and concentrated real hard.
"What's this? Giving up?" Skulker mocked, but the children ignored him. Danny's concentration was paying off, his hands started to swell apart, revealing a swirling ball of green ectoplasmic energy. Cluing into what they were up to, the hunter ghost raced towards his prey with the intention of cutting their plans short, but he was too late. Danny chucked the ecto-blast at Skulker, and out of sheer luck, it hit him dead centre of his metle face. Weakened by Jazz's earlier kick, the old bolts in his neck gave way and the robot ghosts head flue clean off his shoulders.
Danny and Jazz blinked in surprise. Without its head, the ghost's body plummeted heavily to the ground and smashed into multiple pieces. "Umm, Jazz...?"
"Ya, Danny?"
"What did I just do?"
"You won... I think..." Jazz stood and walked over to her stunned little brother. "Let's get out of here."
Danny slowly nodded, and the two of them flew away into the night. They never noticed how the ghost hunter's decapitated head split open or the tiny green glob that escaped from it.
Deep into the rich part of town, Vlad Masters paced around his temporary housing in irritation. His hotel room was dark, but only by the occupant's choice. The high end suite was designed to provide comfort to even the most irritable and biased tenant, with gorgeous artwork and dreamy furniture, but it did nothing to calm the pacing man. Not only was his employee, Skulker, taking forever to find and capture a couple of kids, but as a result Vlad had been forced to race across town, on foot, with Jack Fenton! The very presence of that buffoon was enough to drive the normally cool and calm Vlad up the wall! If that weren't enough, the giant pumpkin spent the whole time blubbering about his missing kids, and how he wouldn't stop until he found them, and how grateful he was for Vlad's help. Vlad was almost entirely convinced the kids had run off just to escape the man's idiocy.
Normally, dealing with Jack was made less painful by the presence of Vlad's beloved, yet unattainable, Madeline Fenton, but this time was different. The woman of his affection was not her normal, cheery self, she was devastated. The loss of her kids had crippled Maddie; she just couldn't smile anymore, and spent most of the time sighing in depression. Vlad was normally a cold, indifferent man, but never to Maddie, and her distraught condition pulled at his heart strings.
Vlad sighed, dropping into a soft arm chair, and rubbed his temples. It was a long, trying day, but it was over. With that reassuring thought in mind, his ghost sense alerted him to an oncoming guest. The silver-haired man straightened up in his chair and made himself look impenetrable and indifferent once more.
"Ah, Skulker, you've returned." Vlad Masters grinned as his employee's small form phased though the window. There was no hint of the inner turmoil Vlad had just been suffering from in his tone or posture. "I assume you were successful."
"Like hell!" Skulker squeaked. Without his battle suit, the mighty ghost hunter was nothing but a tiny green blob with a high pitched squeak, but that didn't stop his tongue. "The agreement was that you give me ALL information relevant to my assignment!"
Vlad raised an eyebrow, but otherwise showed no sign he had not been expecting this predicament. "Go on."
"Go on, he says!" The tiny blob muttered. "You know very well what I'm talking about. The very relevant little detail about those kids being HALF GHOST would have been nice to know."
"I see..." Vlad said coolly, lowering his brow but otherwise remaining unchanged.
"You do?" Skulker asked, he had expected that he would have to argue more before his employer would give any indication that he had cheated the hunter of crucial information.
"I do." Vlad confirmed, eyes becoming colder, if possible. "I see a failed ghost hunter who was outsmarted by mere children, and is using some outlandish excuse to cover his rear."
Skulker huffed. Was it possible that Vlad didn't know? "I'm serious, Plasmius. Those kids have ghost powers!"
"Are you going to stick to your excuse? I expected more of you, Skulker." Vlad sighed. "I am not in the mood to deal with this idiocy; I got plenty of that from Jack." Before the tiny ghost could defend himself, Vlad folded his hands, rested his chin on them, then continued. "Let's say, for the sake of argument, that you are telling the truth, and the Fenton kids are, in fact, half-ghost. How do you suppose they became that way? Their parents are obviously living."
"I don't know, the same way you did?" Skulker puffed. He wasn't interested on how his prey became special, just that they were and therefore were worthy of collecting. Vlad, on the other hand, made it his business to know how everything came to be and how that would affect the future. Skulker knew it was better just to let him have his spiel.
"I became half-ghost through an accident involving a prototype ghost portal constructed by my college ghost fanatic club, and prematurely detonated by our resident idiot, Jack.. I was blasted by a high concentration of ectoplasm, that can only be generated by such an interdimensional portal, thus becoming half-ghost instead of dying. Now, knowing this, in order for those kids to become half-ghost, they would have to have been blasted by a ghost portal."
"Your point?" Skulker asked, not really caring.
"My point is, they have never been exposed to a ghost portal. From looking at their records, I know that since the birth of their son, Daniel, the Fentons have not left Amity Park, ruling out outside influences. From there I consided the population of Amity Park. The only people living here that believe in ghosts, never mind have the technology to build a portal, are the Fentons, and there is no way Jack could have created another portal yet, even with Maddie's help. In another nine years, maybe, but not yet."
"So?"
"So, no portal, means no exposure, which means no half-ghosts." Vlad concluded.
"What about natural portals?" Skulker asked. Just because he wasn't interested didn't mean he had no ideas.
"A good try, but still no." Vlad said, glint in his eye showing he was enjoying this battle of wits. "Natural portals are rare and unstable, so the chances of being caught in the event horizon as it opened would be slim to none. If, by chance, both Jasmine and Daniel were caught in a natural portal, they would simply die. Natural portals do not generate enough ectoplasm to change a human into a halfa, and without the support of a ghost half the human body cannot withstand the electric shock caused be the opening portal's ecto-electricity. Even if I'm wrong, and a natural portal could generate the necessary ectoplasm to give the victim a ghost half, the after effect is severe ecto-acne, and they would have to be hospitalized. Seeing no such illness on their medical records, which I have read, it is impossible for the Fenton kids to be half ghosts."
"It's a nice theory Plasmius, but it doesn't change the fact that those kids are half-ghost," Skulker said, shrugging off any insult he may have interpreted from Vlad's speech. His employer had his quirks, namely a Mr. Know-it-all attitude, but he was polite enough and the pay was good.
Vlad sighed. "Very well, stick to your story, I cannot force you to tell the truth." Changing his attitude back to business orientated, Vlad relaxed his arms to rest on the chair's armrests. "You are aware that I cannot pay you the full amount for the job, seeing as you did not actually bring the children to me, but in the interest of future employment I will pay you 15%."
Skulker nodded his agreement. Fifteen percent of his original pay check was still a hefty sum, and arguing with Vlad over the existence of other halfas would only serve to lower the hunter's chances of further employment. Besides, Vlad would learn the real truth when he met them himself. "Since we agree to disagree, may I leave? As you can see, I need to replace my battle suit."
"As you wish." Vlad said, waving towards the door. Skulker looked at the door, smirked, then phased through the floor and out of the building.
Vlad waited until the other ghost was out of his sensing range, then flopped back in his chair. His meeting with Skulker had only increased his frustrations, and he was seriously debating whether all business tycoons had to deal with the same kind of idiocy he dealt with daily, or if it was just his bad luck. "No matter." He declared to the empty room, "I'll simply have to take care of this myself. As a wise man once said, if you want something done right, you have to do it yourself."
Hey, has anyone else noticed how Skulker tends to shoot in random directions instead of at his target? I can understand the physiology of intimidation, but that's a bit overkill.
I'm not going to do any more Mini D comments anymore, his voice left my head. But don't worry, it'll come back if I read though TOAE, if I can brave that atrocity.
Anyways, thanks go to My beta Mir, and to the people who VOTED! Yes! People voted! True, the poll is not quite over yet, but it's much closer then it was.
read/review/whatever please.
WOOT! Over 4000 words!... now that I think about it, that's not very much in comparison to the stories I read... maybe I should make longer chapters...
Important edit note (3/7/11): Vlad has not invented his 'spy bots' yet, the technology gap his too large, and he has not been inside of Fenton works, and he has not been talking to the Fentons about ghosts during his stay so far. Therefore, he does not know the Fentons have finished, or even started, building the Fenton portal. Maddie and Jack are more concerned about their kids than boasting their recent achievements, and Vlad has not been spying on them yet. (In the canon universe, he didn't start staking out their home until after the episode with the 20 year reunion thing.)
