Permanence
Chapter 10: Water
Danny takes his time flying home. It's been a long day and it's not even ten o'clock. Maybe he should just crawl into bed and sleep, wait until the world stops looking so wrong. He knows the streets below him like the back of his hand, but it's hard to recognize them right now.
That's one of the hardest things. Looking down at the city, his city, and asking himself, "Is this really Amity Park?" There isn't any reason why he shouldn't be able to instantly recognize Dover Street as he flies over it. Nothing's changed since yesterday, or the day before, not with the city at least.
But Danny can't help it. He looks down and everything looks wrong. Fake. Flat. Like one of those optical illusions people paint on sidewalks. There isn't really a city below him, someone just painted it there, and if Danny flies down and touches the ground, he'll see it's all just flat. He knows it isn't. But knowing something and seeing something are two different things.
Dime, once again perched on Danny's head, helps ground him, at least a little bit. Dime is deathly cold, the kind of numbing, aching cold that's impossible to ignore. Danny focuses on that feeling as he flies.
Nearing Fenton Works, he sees someone standing on the front steps. They're leaning forwards, peering through the front window. When he gets closer, Danny recognizes the red beret and realizes its Tucker.
Scanning the street, Danny makes sure there's no one around to see, then lands on the stoop beside Tucker.
"Hey," Danny says. He looks above Tucker's eyes, at his beret. It's easier.
"Dude!" Tucker grabs the collar of Danny's jumpsuit. "Where's your phone? I've been trying to call you for half an hour."
Danny pats his thighs, where pockets would be if the jumpsuit had any. "I left it on my bed."
"The GIW found Freakshow!" Tucker says. "I've been playing around with radio frequencies, trying to crack their radios, and I finally did. Someone called it in, he was at the river, by the train bridge."
Danny's eyes widened. "Did they get him?"
"As far as I can tell, no. The signal wasn't great, but it sounded like they were having trouble catching him."
"We have to go, now."Danny grabs Tucker by the waist and shoots into the air. Tucker yelps, clutching his phone to his chest and squeezing his eyes shut against the wind. Danny's flying as fast as he can with a passenger.
"Shouldn't we get Sam?" Tucker shouts. His voice is ripped away by the wind, and he has to scream his question a second time.
"No time!" Danny roars back. He ignores the little hiss of liar at the back of his probably doesn't want to see Danny anyway. This is for the best.
They reach the bridge in under two minutes. The last time Danny was here, he pushed Sam off a moving train and nearly let her plummet to her death. Danny was under Freakshow's control last time.
They sweep under the bridge, rocketing towards the water, and Danny's ghost sense goes off. He pulls up short. Tucker cries out in protest, clinging to Danny's shoulders as his legs swing forward and he nearly slips from Danny's grasp.
Danny glimpses something small and green flying towards them from the corner of his eye and dives. Spinning towards the source, Danny flies backwards until he's over the riverbank and sets Tucker down.
Halfway up the bridge, floating next to one of the towering supports, is Lydia. Her tattoos swirl in the air around her and when she shoves her hand forward, they go flying towards Danny and Tucker. Danny throws up a shield with one hand and pushes Tucker back with the other.
"If Lydia's here, Freakshow's undefended. I'll take care of her while you find him," Danny says. Lydia's tattoos hit the shield and Danny pushes back. His hands pulse as he pumps more ectoplasm into the shield. It strains for a moment, then explodes, throwing Lydia's tattoos back.
"Dime! Go with Tucker!"
Dime leaves their seat in Danny's hair and hovers by his shoulder. Their face scrunches, cheeks puffing out, aura flaring, and their body starts to stretch. There's a pop, and then there's two Dimes instead of one. They chirp in unison and one of the Dimes lands on Tucker's shoulder.
"Ah, cold!" Tucker shudders, shoulders bunching around his ears, and he takes off down the riverbank.
One of Lydia's tattoos, a skull with flames surrounding it, shoots after Tucker. Danny blasts it before it can reach his best friend and settles an icy look on Lydia. She flinches and her tattoos quickly return to her body.
Danny's eyes flash dangerously as he raises his glowing fists. "No ghosts in Amity Park," he says, and charges.
( ⋋ _⋌)
The sound of ectoblasts trails after Tucker as he runs, but he doesn't look back.
"You wouldn't happen to know if we're going the right way, would you?" Tucker asks Dime. He's not expecting an answer, but he gets one. The seeping cold disappears from his shoulder as Dime rises and shoots through the air. They stop after a couple feet, loop-de-loop, and trill eagerly.
At least, Tucker thinks it's an eager sound. He doesn't exactly speak blob ghost, but it looks like a yes, so he'll take it.
"Awesome! Lead the way!"
He watches out for any GIW as he runs but doesn't even see a flash of white. It doesn't make any sense. Tucker knows what he heard, and the GIW said they had eyes on Freakshow. There should be someone here. Not that he's complaining, the GIW would only get in the way.
Dime pulls up short and Tucker has to duck, or else get an ice cold, rotten smelling blob ghost in the face.
"There's no one here," Tucker says, eyeing the riverbank. They're far enough down that he can't hear Danny and Lydia anymore. Because of the bend in the river and encroaching trees, he can't see them either.
The bank here is five feet higher than the river, a steep slope that you have to lean over the edge to see where it meets the water. Dime hums, sinking down past the bank towards the water. Tucker slowly edges forward, careful of the unstable ground, and peers over the edge.
Half submerged in the water, pressed up against a large rock, is an unmoving GIW agent. Dime settles on the agent's chest, sitting there for a moment before making a happy squeak.
"He's alive?" Tucker asks.
Dime's answer is drowned out by a loud splash and gasp as Freakshow appears. Near the middle of the river. Fully dressed and fighting against the current.
"What the hell?" Tucker mutters.
"Where is it! Where is it!" Freakshow shrieks, flailing about in the water. He's holding something in one hand, but Tucker can't see what it is. Then he's diving, the tail of his coat disappearing into the muddy water.
"What. The. Hell." Tucker deadpans.
It isn't long before Freakshow bursts through the water again. This time, Tucker catches a glimpse of what's in Freakshow's hand. It's bright red, half a sphere with a jagged edge.
Tucker's sure that, normally, he wouldn't think anything about seeing half a red sphere. It would just be a rock to him. But here, in the hands of Freakshow, Tucker sees it and only thinks on thing. The mind control crystal.
"You there," Freakshow shouts when he sees Tucker. "Friend of Phantom, where is my crystal!"
"Uh, you're holding it?" Tucker backs away from edge of the bank. Freakshow on his own isn't supposed to be dangerous. Without his artifacts, or his minions, he's just a guy with ghost envy. But he's looking pretty dangerous right now, dangerous and desperate.
With frantic strokes, Freakshow swims to a section of the shore a few yards down from Tucker, where the bank dips down so it's only a foot above the water. He clambers onto dry land, sopping clothes slapping against the dirt and creating a puddle of mud.
"There's always one, always one that stay where it breaks. The rest are scattered, but I almost have them all!" Freakshow says.
Tucker backpedals as Freakshow approaches, digging through his pockets. There's nothing there but his phone and his PDA. He didn't have a chance to grab any weaponry before Danny carried him off. It wouldn't hurt Freakshow, being human, but it would at least slow him down.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," Tucker says.
"Lies! Tell me where it is!" Freakshow lunges.
Tucker spins around to run away but he isn't fast enough. Freakshow snags one of Tucker's belt loops and they both tumble to the ground. Tucker almost bites his tongue when his chin hits the ground and gets a face full of dirt. Clawing at the mud, he tries to pull himself forward, but Freakshow's grip is firm.
Rolling onto his back instead, Tucker looks up just in time to see Freakshow bring the crystal down towards Tucker's head. With a panicked shout, Tucker bucks, bringing his feet up and kicking against Freakshow's chest. Freakshow loses his grip, on both Tucker and the crystal, as he's kicked aside.
Tucker scrambles to his feet while the crystal rolls away. He lunges for it, but Freakshow beats him to it. Freakshow curls around the crystal, kicking at Tucker's shins, sending him stumbling back.
The unstable bank gives under Tucker's weight and he plummets into the river. The water is surprisingly cold for the end of August, and the undercurrent immediately starts pulling at him. He reaches out blindly, latching onto the first solid object he finds, and breaks the surface.
He's face-to-face with the GIW agent.
"Ah!" Tucker shouts, jerking back, but the agent doesn't react. He stares blankly.
Because of the angle of the bank over the river, Tucker couldn't see it before, but now that he's inches away from the agent, Tucker notices the glazed, half-lidded eyes. The slack mouth, lips flecked with mud and dirty water.
The agent is dead. And Tucker is holding onto his arm. Tucker let's go immediately, grabbing the rock the agent is pressed up against instead. It's not much better, but he prefers it to holding a dead guy's hand.
Dime, still sitting on the agent's chest, smiles. They tremble and twitch, inching across the agent's chest towards his hand.
Tucker follows Dime's path with his eyes and gasps when he sees something shiny and red clutched in the agent's fist.
"Sorry," Tucker whispers as he pries the agent's fingers apart. He ignores the bile rising in his throat and the twist in his gut, focusing on the chunk of crystal. It falls into his palm and he presses it to his chest.
"So you do have it."
Tucker's gaze snaps up to Freakshow, who's peering over the edge of the bank. Freakshow grins, Tucker's grip on the shard tightens, and Dime makes popping noises with their lips.
Suddenly, Freakshow pales, if that's even possible with his sickly grey skin.
"You're not supposed to be here," he says. There's no teasing lilt in his voice. His expression is stricken, eyes wide and horrified. He's looking at Dime.
Dime sticks out their tongue and blows a raspberry.
"I'll never go back!" Freakshow shrieks. His gaze lands on Tucker, zeroing in on the crystal shard in Tucker's hand. His eyes flash purple. "Give me my crystal!"
With a feral cry, he lunges over the riverbank and tackles Tucker into the water.
( ⁰ д⁰)
Danny seethes, clenching and unclenching his fists as he glowers at Lydia. She lies on the ground, beaten and bruised. Her tattoos, now nothing more than bright green splatters, are scattered across the riverbank.
Once upon a time, when Danny was first starting out, Lydia was a challenging opponent. Not anymore. Years of constant skirmishing with Skulker, being pitted against enemies far stronger than himself, and fighting in the Far Frozen's colosseum have improved his skills drastically.
But Lydia keeps getting back up. Every time Danny knocks her down, she forces herself up and comes at him again.
Danny admired her loyalty the first time they met, now it's just annoying.
Lydia's flight is shaky and her arms tremble as she flies at him again. Danny swats her away with an ectoplasmically fueled fist. She crashes into the trees, too exhausted to even go intangible.
"Normally, this is the part where I trap you in the Thermos and go find Tucker, but," Danny pats his belt, "I forgot to bring the Thermos today.
Lydia pushes herself up on her hands and knees.
"Give up!" Danny shouts.
Lydia launches herself forwards. Danny raises a hand and erects a shield in her path. She slams into it and sinks down.
Ectoplasm gathers in Danny's eyes, making them glow even brighter than before. He looks down on Lydia, ready to unleash the blast.
Dime suddenly squawks, distracting Danny. The glow fades from his eyes as Dime flies in Danny's face, shouting wordlessly over and over again.
"Tucker?" Danny asks, panic seeping into his voice.
Dime nods.
Danny looks at Lydia, who's slowly getting to her feet again, and says, "I don't have time for this." He has only one attack that's guaranteed to put Lydia down and keep her there. He drifts back, putting some distance between him and Lydia, and plants his feet on the ground.
Clenching his fists, Danny takes a deep breath, letting the ecto-energy build in his lungs, and releases it all at once as a ghostly wail. The deafening, ethereal scream tears across the riverbank, ripping up grass, uprooting trees, and blowing the water back.
It hits Lydia and she's thrown into the air, the waves of energy ripping and tearing at her spectral body. She slams into a pillar of the train bridge, creating a small crater as the stone cracks. The bridge groans, chunks of stone falling into the river below.
Danny cuts the wail off, panting heavily from the effort. Lydia stays plastered to the bridge for a moment before she falls, hitting the ground with a thud. She doesn't get back up.
Danny goes to find Tucker and doesn't look back.
( ⌣̀ _⌣́)
Danny finds Tucker ten minutes down the river. He's lying on the bank, splayed out on his back. There are bruises on his face and arms and he's soaking wet. Freakshow is nowhere in sight. The two Dimes fly around each other in little circles, chirping, then the duplicate pops out of existence.
"Tucker!" Danny kneels in the mud beside his best friend.
"Hey," Tucker croaks, peering at Danny through his eyelashes. "So, I found Freakshow."
"Where did he go?" Danny asks. Tucker is the only one here, but something is pushing against his ghost sense. Not strong enough to set it off, but it makes his spine tingle.
"Ran off when he heard the wail." Tucker pushes himself up on his elbows. "Hard fight with Lydia?"
Danny shakes his head. "Not really. Freakshow?"
"He's, uh, different. But I think I won, technically."
Danny eyes Tucker's bruises and feels sincere doubt at that. It must show on his face, because Tucker sits up all the way and brings up his fist. He opens it and shows Danny a red chunk of... something.
"What is that?"
"A piece of the mind control crystal, from Freakshow's staff," Tucker says.
Danny stares. "Oh," he says.
"Yeah." Tucker nods and lays back down. "Oh."
( ﾟ ^ﾟ)
A/N: Down days = no updates. Whoops. I'll try and do some double updates on my days off, but worst comes to worst it just means I'll need to take an extra week in June to finish this story. I might be able to do a second chapter today, it depends on when I get off work tonight.
I'm not totally satisfied with Freakshow's characterization here. I know why he's acting to differently, but I would have liked to fit in some of his usual antics here. Next time he'll be more like himself.
Apparently, I lied about Danny using the ghostly wail against someone who deserves it. Lydia definitely didn't deserve that.
Review Responses
Guest 101: That's based off the assumptions the yetis are warriors. While they're certainly formidable fighters, they are primarily intellect focus, on medicine and technology specifically. The colosseum fights are friendly sparring matches, while Danny consistently fights for real, many times against people that are far, far stronger than him, and comes out victorious. Not to mention, as the fight with Kitty showed, Danny's violent behaviour. He held nothing back against those yetis. I always like to follow the headcanon that Danny and Vlad are half-dead/died during their accidents, but it takes a different twist in each of my stories. It would be so cool if you posted your own DP stories! I'm pretty shy too, and was super nervous when I first started posting fanfiction, but I'm so happy I did
Phantomgirl21: Thanks! I'm a little behind on updates now, but that just means I'll be doing some double updates on my days off if I can
HalfaObsessed: You'll get no spoilers from me :P But I will say that Vlad can't help Danny with his blackouts
Katpet: Ooh, you're graduating? Congratulations! Lol, that's one of the problems with updating a story daily, not everyone has time to read every single day, so the updates can stack up quickly. I love writing Dime, his behaviour is inspired a lot by Mooncake from the show Final Space. I love that little space blob, he's adorable