Even at the speeds Technus could reach while flying, it had taken a few hours to reach the suburbs of the next city. He was grateful that the human girl in his arms chose to remain silent but maintained a glare that gave Technus pause. While it was clear that she was powerless against him and that his threats were to be taken seriously, that glare made it clear that her will to fight was far from crushed. Technus internally sneered at the thought that this mere slip of a girl could out wit him, the master of all things technological. Her mother, he admitted, was an intellect to be respected but Jazz did not posses the same mental prowess as her matron. So long as he was on guard, there was nothing that the girl could do to thwart him. She had no powers or gadgetry nor any means to obtain them. The girl also lacked the knowledge and skill it took to manipulate mortal high technology, never mind Technus' technology.
Confident that the human he held posed no threat to him, Technus scanned the passing houses for a specific house. He had been able to obtain information that one of the houses here was foreclosed upon. This property, unlike other foreclosed properties, was scheduled to be demolished in a few months time. It would suit his needs perfectly.
Technus stopped his flight when he at last found the right house. The building itself was unimpressive. The white paint was pealing off the single story house and the roof was missing shingles here and there. The windows were boarded up and the front door had beams nailed across it. The grass of the tiny front yard was overgrown and was peppered with wildflowers and in the center sat a large white sign warning the public away from the doomed house. The mailbox leaned heavily to the right as if it had been hit by a car and hung open. The driveway was tiny and had huge cracks running throughout the asphalt. It only had enough space for one parked vehicle.
"What are we doing here?" Jazz snapped and leaned away from his chest to get a better look at the property. Technus noted how her hands tightly clenched onto his cloak and, with a helpful shock from his anti-chatter program, ignored her question entirely. He flew leisurely towards the house and flew a slow circle around the house. Technus made a point of looking at every window and the backdoor and ensuring that they were boarded up and sealed. Satisfied, Technus phased through the front door.
The inside of the building was no better than the outside. It was dark inside since the boarded windows allowed no light through. Technus lit one of his hands with ectoplasmic energy and cast an eerie light. The walls had patches bubbling water damaged wallpaper, cracks and punched out holes here and there. The insides of the boarded up windows showed that many of them had been smashed. The ceiling bowed downward and was cracked and discolored from water damage. The carpet, he was uncertain of the original color, stank of mold and had stains of all kinds. Technus was pleased to see that the house had been emptied and been cleaned of all rubbish.
Technus leaned his tall frame forward and slightly loosened his grip upon the girl to signal that he wanted to set her down. Jazz quickly let go of Technus and jumped to the floor with a scowl on her face. The female took her time looking about the area and with each passing second her scowl deepened. Technus decided to leave Jazz to her own devices and made his way toward the kitchen. With her source of light leaving, Jazz followed Technus. This room too had been emptied. The outlines of a washer, dryer, stove and refrigeration unit could be seen on the soot stained walls. All that remained were crooked cabinets, a stained counter with a rusted sink, a cracked white tile floor, a boarded up back door and a metal panel on the wall. Technus flew directly to it and opened it. Hidden behind the panel was an assortment of fuses. He placed his hand upon the switches and flooded them with his ghostly energy. From there, his energy ran into the circuits that existed in this house and in the neighborhood. He quickly formed a digital map and was pleased to see that leeching off the network would be simple task. Jazz interrupted his train of thought.
"Technus. What. Are. We. Doing. Here?" Jazz angrily sounded out each word slowly as one would to someone with a slow mind. Technus hackles rose at the insult to his intelligence and glowered at her.
"This is where we are going to be staying until further notice. I suggest that you make yourself comfortable." The girl blinked owlishly at him for a moment and then snarled.
"Are you crazy?! I can't stay here! There's no water, electricity, food or hygiene supplies here! I'm not a ghost! I'll die if I stay here!" Jazz crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Technus, as if daring him to contradict her. Technus knew that she was correct on a few points but he had already planned for that.
"True, geniuses and visionaries are often called crazy by the small minded individuals of society. For a human female of your height and build, you only require 1400 calories and three liters of water per day. You do not require electricity, running water or hygiene supplies to remain alive. There is a bathroom here that will function well enough without running water for your purposes. I will see to it that you receive the food and water that you need. Anything else is unneeded." Technus stated in a calm and matter of fact tone. Jazz seemed to be speechless for a moment and then furrowed her brow in anger.
"Look I know you're a ghost with delusions of grandeur but I am human and I need more than the minimum. I need things like tooth brushes, hair brushes, changes of clothes and running water. Those things are wha-" Jazz was cut off when her stomach issued a loud protest. Technus floated a few inches upward and coldly regarded the human before him.
"Complain all you like. Your complaints will fall upon deaf ears. Now I suggest that you refrain from doing anything foolish while I am gone. Even if you do manage to escape this building, it would only take moments for me to track you down." With that Technus flew up and phased through the ceiling.
With Technus' departure, Jazz was left in complete darkness and was now keenly aware of the tiny pawed footfalls that she could hear about the edges of the room. She muttered colorful strings curses directed at a certain silver haired ghost. The severity of the curses would have made her parents ground her for months. She spent a moment trying to recall the layout that she had been able to see while Technus had been with her. Jazz the oriented herself in the direction that she hoped the back door. She shuffled her feet and had her arms out stretched. When her hand hit the wall she followed it till she found a doorframe. Then Jazz felt about the door for a handle but instead found a circular cutout with a metal bar running through it were a handle had once been. Jazz grimaced, whoever had boarded up the place clearly didn't want vandals or squatters getting in.
Jazz let her forehead rest against the cool door before marshaling herself to go and find the front door. Once again she was shuffling across the cold tile floor. She let out a pained yelp as her toe collided with the kitchen entryway. Once again, she found herself cursing Technus with all her might. When the pain subsided, she carefully stepped into the living room. Jazz shuddered as her bare feet sunk into wet and moldy carpet. She walked carefully on tip-toe with a hand on the wall till she found another doorframe. Once again she searched for a handle but found that this door was the same as the one in the kitchen. Jazz groaned and fumed.
This week had gone from wonderful to awful in record time. At first Jazz had been shocked and delighted when Erick had approached her and had asked for help. She knew of his reputation but how he had humbly asked convinced her that he truly wanted to improve. At first it was wonderful, she was imparting knowledge and having a good time with Erick. Sure, he was clumsy and dropped a lot of things that she helped pick up, but he was a nice and hot guy in her eyes. Then the 'haunting' started to happen. All sorts of dark and nasty gossip was exposed and plastered to school bulletin boards about Erick. It was hurtful to see it and to know that it was mostly true. It was only when Erick ran up to her and told her that ghosts of past girlfriends were haunting him and that the priest that he had commissioned told him to stop seeing all girls till the exorcism was complete. It was then when she found Danny howling with laughter that she knew which 'ghost' was responsible. Jazz was beyond infuriated. That her brother, would go out a torture another person like that, interfere with her social life and disrespect her choices which made her vision go red with fury. When she had found out about Danny's secret, she had respected his choices. Yet he was not able to do the same for her. She lectured him for a few hours but it was clear that Danny didn't regret his actions in the slightest. She had intended to teach him a lesson by showing Sam his baby album but unfortunately Technus had other plans for her. Technus, yet another guy that didn't respect her choices either and was certainly up to something no good. She would be damned before gave up trying to thwart Technus' plans, she was a Fenton afterall.
Jazz carefully tip-toed out of the living room, not wanting to keep standing in that nasty carpet nor wanting to try her luck with broken windows in the dark. Back in the kitchen, she made her way to the counter and prayed that it wasn't rotted through. Carefully, she hoisted herself up and sat cross-legged upon the counter. The counter groaned ominously under her weight but thankfully held. Placing her elbows upon her knees, Jazz rested her chin upon her fists.
So far, being confrontational with Technus was getting her nowhere fast. He always either ignored her outbursts or responded with threats. This situation and the arrogant ghost made her angry but anger rarely ever fixed problems. Living with two abnormal parents and younger brother had taught her the skill to suppress anger and she was going to need it when dealing with Technus. The budding psychiatrist in her told her that Technus avoided emotional confrontations in favor of cold logic solutions. Why that was could be any number of reasons. She had also noted that Technus had an obsession with defeating Danny. Whether this was because he was a scientist or a ghost, she couldn't tell. Technus also had a flaw that she might be able to exploit. The bespectacled ghost was proud of his intelligence. He never let an insult to his intellect go. Jazz had also noted that he was socially awkward. Even though he was often the smartest in the area, he often failed at communicating or understanding the individuals around him and even seemed to be unused to being around others. She could tell that he lead a solitary lifestyle and was used to doing everything himself.
Somehow she needed to use his very personality against him. Unbalance him emotionally, so that he would slip and reveal his plan to her accidentally. She didn't have her mother's sharp mind for technology and fighting nor her father's brawn and luck. Jazz was however, very perceptive and empathic. She fumed at the memory of the video that Technus had taken only hours before. There was no way that she would let him try to pull off whatever this plan was. She was willing to stake her pride as a future psychologist on it. Now if only Technus and his glowing hands would hurry up and get back, hopefully with food.
I don't own Danny Phantom.