(Two more milestones since last updating: over 100 followers and now over 11,000 views. Honestly, it surprises me every time I check on how this story is doing.
I've been away working on school, but I'm ready to go. Because I kept everyone hanging, two chapters for the wait of one. Thanks for being so patient and enjoy! This one here is a bit of a microchapter, starring Jack, but the next is longer, going back to Maddie and Danny. The next chapter shall be coming up by the end of the day; one of my classes got cancelled so I jumped at the chance to finish.)
Chapter 9
The second he left the portal behind as he cruised along in the confines of the Specter Speeder, Jack dropped his jovial demeanor and became serious. It was a rare but powerful emotion for the man to have, and he remained in silent contemplation throughout his trip. He didn't want his Jazzerincess to see just how devastated he really was about the love of his life and the problem he had caused. She needed to stay calm when talking to her brother about this and be the rock between them. Besides, he could handle it alone.
The ride could be long, though, which gave him plenty of time to prepare mentally.
He shook his head softly in shame, only taking his eyes off the 'road' a second before paying attention once again. How could he not have been more careful when shooting the bazooka at the group, with Maddie so close by? How could he not have thought to shoot a little closer to the ghosts, leaving them no time to react and drag Maddie with them into the dark recesses of the Ghost Zone. It was his lust for hunting these demented and disturbed creatures once again that was his undoing.
He always ended up jumping the gun. From the day he ruined Vladdy's surprise birthday party in freshman year of high school because Jack thought his dad was the birthday boy, to the day last year when they first discovered Phantom and he thought that Jazz was a ghost, to just last month when Danny had caught a nasty flu and Jack thought he was being overshadowed simply because he wasn't acting like himself (Danny had a fever and was slightly delirious, talking about being the ghost kid of all things! Nonsense!) and trying locking the boy inside of the Fenton Stockades to 'lure the ghost out', the man had a clear cut reputation to act before thinking.
"Aw, cheer up, Jack!" he said to himself as a pick-me-up, sick of the negative thoughts within five minutes, "On the bright side, when you find Mads, you find the ghost kid!" There was little to no doubt in Jack's mind that Phantom would be with Maddie, either with him holding her hostage… or the other way around. Even if she wasn't there in any form, the Booooo-merang was leading Jack right to the spook; he'd MAKE Phantom tell him where he was hiding her. All outcomes led to Phantom getting nabbed and ready to tear apart molecule by molecule! It was a win any way he put it; why was he getting so down on himself?!
The Booooo-merang arched towards the right, Jack diligently following it. He could already feel the sense of satisfaction rip right through him; the Booooo-merang didn't tell Jack how close he was, but that didn't matter to him. However far out they were, the souped up and fully fueled Specter Speeder could get him there.
After a while, about a half hour according to the Speeder's clock, the Booooo-merang suddenly took a sharp left turn. Jack was confused, but didn't think much of it. The ghost kid was pretty fast; he could change directions fast enough for the device to turn like that while tracking him. The device led him right to a lair of all things, most definitely Phantom's.
Because truly, a diabolical monster like Phantom having a giant lair in the shape of a skull was poetically perfect!