Disclaimer: The following is a fan-based work of fiction. Danny Phantom is the Intellectual Property of Viacom, Nickelodeon and Butch Hartman. Please support the official release.
The ride to their destination was quiet. For all of Danny's confidence, Sam's bravado or Jack's enthusiasm, none of them could bring themselves to talk once the van had actually started moving. The reality of where they were going and what they were trying to do was setting in on their minds. Nightmares were playing on each of their minds.
Green tentacles restraining and suffocating Jasmine.
A cleaver severing one of Danny's arms.
A viscous werewolf chasing Jack.
Tucker running from a relentless killer.
Sam being dragged to a meat grinder by the arm.
Whatever haunted dreams Maddie could recall.
It almost made everyone jump when the van stopped several blocks away from the warehouse.
"Alright," Maddie said, unbuckling her seat belt. She opened the door and hopped out. "This is the drop point."
Jack opened the passenger side door and jumped out himself. "Okay, everyone remember the plan?"
Jasmine nodded, standing in sliding door frame. "You three head inside while I park here and keep an eye-"
She was interrupted when the ghost sensing alarms went off. The shrill, blaring sound pierced the cool night air and sent every person familiar with the sound into a frenzy, whipping their thermos in the direction of the alarm. In Tucker and Jasmine's case, their thermoses were active, casting a bright blue beam around like lasers at a rave concert.
"Whoa, hey!" The ghost, one Danny now clothed in black and white, dodged and weaved around the surprise attack before changing back into his normal, black haired self. "Hold on! Guys! Watch it! It's me! It's me!"
"Don't scare us like that!" Jasmine half whined, lowering her thermos.
"Someone should put a bell on you," Tucker said, putting his glasses back since his rapid knee-jerk attack knocked them askew.
"Sorry," Danny said sheepishly. "I forgot about the alarms."
Maddie cupped her chin. "This could be a problem."
"Yeah," Jack replied, scratching his temple with a finger. "Our number one ghost hunter setting off our alarms is a problem."
Danny frowned and crossed his arms. "Well, what do you think I should do?"
"How about a code phrase?" Tucker offered.
"Yeah, like the military uses!" Sam grinned excitedly.
"Please elaborate?" Maddie asked, pulling her hood up. Her red goggles shined in the dark street they stood on.
"So, when someone in the military throws a grenade," Sam explained eagerly. "They shout 'frag out' or something like that."
"Maybe Danny could use a similar phrase?" Tucker shrugged.
"So basically something that says 'it's me, I'm here, please don't shoot me'?" Danny summarized.
"Exactly," Tucker nodded.
"Danny," Jack began with a thoughtful look in his eye. "What was it you said when you went to fetch the thermoses from the school?"
"Uh," Danny tried to remember. "'Go ghost'?"
"Yeah that," Jack said.
"You want me to use that as a code phrase?" Danny asked.
"Or something very much like it," Jack said.
"'Going ghost'." Danny amended. "That just rolls off the tongue better."
"It's short, clear to the point and no ones going to understand what it means unless their a part of our little circle," Maddie nodded in approval. "I like it."
"Going ghost," Danny said, rings traveling along his body.
The alarms went off again, but after a few moments of frantic button pushing from the Fentons, everything was silent once again.
"We'll have to work on that," Maddie muttered to herself.
"Sorry," Danny said sheepishly as he grabbed a radio headset hanging from the vans door and sliding it on.
"We'll wait for you guys to contact us," Tucker said.
"Right," Danny acknowledged. "See you guys later!"
Danny and his parents quickly departed, rounding a corner and darting into a dark alleyway. Jack and Maddie's goggles shined red through the shadowy corridor as they travelled through, with Danny's faint glow shining above them as he flew overhead. After cutting through multiple blocks in similar fashion, they found themselves across the street from the Axion storage building.
Axion Storage was a large warehouse with massive, sliding garage doors on the front walls. They were clearly meant for large semi-trucks, backing in and out with large trailers to transport lab equipment to the various labs Axion had around the state. To the side was a glass door, illuminated by the lightbulb mounted above it.
"So..." Jack started, adjusting his goggles. "How do we get in?"
"Maybe I can take you guys in with me?" Danny suggested.
"Like go through walls?" Jack asked with a frown.
"Yeah!" Danny confirmed with a grin.
"I don't think that's safe," Maddie replied. "What if we accidentally left some part of ourselves in a wall?"
Danny looked almost offended. "I'd never let that happen!"
"I know honey," Maddie replied sweetly. "But that's why it's called an accident."
"Okay," Danny frowned. "Maybe I can phase in and unlock the door?"
"We don't want to set off an alarm," Jack said. "There could be one rigged to go off as soon as one of the doors open."
"Do you think there are any police on stakeout?" Maddie asked quickly, lowering her voice.
"I don't know, there could be," Jack replied, also lowering his voice. "Danny, could you scout around?"
"On it," The ghostly teen rose into the air and faded from sight almost immediately.
Back in the Fenton's van, Jasmine was sitting in the passenger-side front seat, where a desktop computer had been mounted with dual monitors. One screen showed two windows from Jack and Maddie's cameras. On the other monitor were three windows, each with displayed vital statistics for the three members of the ground team.
"Now we just wait for something to happen," Sam said, leaning into one of the seats along the side with her hands behind her head.
"You mean hope that something doesn't happen," Jasmine corrected without turning from her monitors.
"Yeah," Sam frowned and slid further into the chair. "That."
The Fenton van was a full van, outfitted with multiple rows of seats for that time Jasmine was in little league and Jack wanted to do the carpooling for the team. Even after Jasmine outgrew little league, they kept the van because Jack had grown to love the hulking grey behemoth. It had since been refitted with seats that laid against the side with a large television screen that hung from the roof and facing the back.
Tucker sat opposite Sam, using the remote to scroll through the ghost database the Fenton's had uploaded into the van and also using his phone to look up random stories on FaceSpace. Upon catching sight of one in particular, Tucker rose his eyebrow and put the remote down. "Huh."
"What's up?" Sam asked, opening an eyelid.
"The 'Skulker' animatronic was stolen a few nights ago," Tucker reported.
Sam sniggered and rubbed her eyelids. "Oy vey."
"The what?" Jasmine asked over her shoulder. "What was stolen?"
"It was a really expensive animatronic made for the nineties horror film 'Skulker'," Tucker answered, putting his phone down.
"I've never heard of it," Jasmine stated.
"The movie was a total flop," Sam stood up straight and stretched her back. "Thank goodness."
"That bad?" Jasmine inquired.
"Oh yes," Tucker nodded rapidly. "Hilariously so."
"That movie was a sin against horror," Sam derided, folding her arms.
"How so?"
"Well, the script was awful, the characters were bland and the choreography was-"
"Horribiterribad," Sam interjected with her portmanteau.
"-yeah. That," Tucker finished. "The actors were jumping onto the animatronic's extendable blades to be 'impaled'."
"That sounds hilarious," Jasmine smirked. "What was it about?"
"It started out as an innocent Terminatra rip-off," Sam sighed, holding her head in her hand. "But then the execs got a hold of it."
"Well it couldn't have been any good in the first place if it was just a rip-off," Jasmine argued.
"Well obviously," Sam gestured in agreement. "But the execs decided they had a vision or something for 'the future of special effects' and blew the whole budget on Skulker."
"That poor money," Tucker wiped away an imaginary tear. "Being spent on such a terrible film."
"But why an animatronic, though?" Jasmine asked, quickly checking the monitors for her families well being before turning back to her company. "Why not just a guy in a suit?"
"It was the nineties," Sam stated as if that explained everything. When Jazz beckoned her to continue, she obliged. "Everyone had a special effects obsession back then and these execs wanted to go further than anyone. So they built an actual robot with built in blades, speakers and flame throwers. It even had a flaming Mohawk for Pete's sake."
"Wow," Jasmine almost cringed. "That sounds bad."
"It looked ridiculous," Sam smirked in condescension.
"So they didn't have script," Tucker began listing off problems on his fingers. "The actors were minimum-wage cast offs and the thing didn't even work right."
Jasmine blinked. "Did part of it melt from the flames?"
"Nope," Tucker shook his head. "The robot couldn't move or even stand up on it's own like it was supposed too, so they hooked it up to a stand and wheeled it around during shoots. You could see the stand, too. The arms were stuck like this," Tucker placed both of his arms in position like he was going to do the robot. "The whole time."
"The movie was just wrong," Sam folded her arms and leaned back into the seat again.
"So who would want it?" Jasmine asked, checking the monitors again.
Tucker looked thoughtful. "I don't...know..."
The three paused as a single, horrifying scenario came to each of their heads.
"Tucker," Sam began, slowly shifting to grip her thermos. "Could you look and see if anyone who worked on that film died?"
Tucker had his phone in hand and was thumb-typing as fast as he could. "Already on it."
"Oh that would suck," Jasmine frowned heavily. "That would truly suck."
"Well, I didn't find anyone," Danny said, hazily returning to visibility. "I checked all the cars but there's no one."
The group started moving across the street and into the parking lot.
"That's weird," Jack said with a frown. "You'd think a dissappearance like this would warrant some kind of stake-out..."
"Maybe they're out checking on leads?" Maddie asked. "Or they're still searching for the ghost that attacked Casper High?"
"Probably," Danny shrugged.
"Whatever the case, that just makes our job easier," Jack smiled as they came up to the front door, with the words 'Axion Labs Storage and Distribution' embossed on the glass. "Danny, can you unlock the door?"
"One second," Danny said, phasing through the door.
"Watch for alarms," Jack warned.
Inside the door was a small reception area. There was a desk with a computer monitor and keyboard on top, with numerous stacks of notes and paperwork strewn or organized on it. There was an empty waste basket to the side.
"Alarms, alarms..." Danny muttered to himself as he looked around the room.
Danny floated past it. To the right was a door, also made of glass and he could see boxes and shelves in lines, with a conveyor belt running on the right side, going through a wall into the places beyond. Shadows played heavily over everything in view as the only source of light was moonlight.
Right in front of him, however, was a small, plastic panel, marked 'Securo-Site'. Danny flipped open the plastic cover, revealing a number pad and an enter key.
"Here's one," Danny said, tapping a button on his headset. "Tucker?"
"Yo," Came Tucker's voice on the other end.
"How would you go about disabling an alarm?" Danny asked, folding his arms and looking at the offending panel, being partly sure that destroying it cause the alarm to go off.
"Well," Tucker began, sounding like he was reaching for something. "I'd have to hook into a network that's got the alarm in it."
"Can you find a network from there?" Danny asked.
"Ummmmm..." Tucker said, typing furiously at something. "Ahh...yup, there we go. The alarms off."
The display on the panel read 'system disabled', so Danny flipped it closed. "Can I ask how you did that?"
"Eh, it looks like someone's phone was hooked up to the internet or something. Gave me a back-door," Tucker reported.
"Nice," Danny smirked as he floated back to the door and opened it. "Welcome to Chez Danny, please come in and make yourself at home."
"Good job Dan-O," Jack smiled broadly as he and Maddie set foot in side.
"Eh, thank Tucker," Danny shrugged. "He shut the alarm off."
"Huh? Oh," Jack smiled and tapped the side of his hood, turning on the built in ear piece. "Good job, Tuckerino."
"I try," Tucker's smirk was audible.
"Let's keep it down," Maddie said in a hushed wisper. "We don't want to alert it to our presence."
"Got it," Danny answered as he opened the door into the warehouse proper. Automatic lights clicked on, bathing everything in clear, yellow light. The floor was cement, boxes lined on shelves. Danny stopped in the doorframe and shuddered.
"Danny?" Maddie looked back with a concerned frown.
"It's like the freezer all over again," Danny groaned. "Boxes and shelves, cement floor. The only thing missing is the layer of frost all over everything."
"Oh dear," Maddie's frown deepened.
"It'll be different this time," Jack said cheerfully. "We're ready. We don't have anyone coming in after us that isn't prepared. You know not to use the thermos. Don't worry. We got this."
"I know," Danny replied. "I just got this chill going up my spine."
"Let's just be careful," Maddie said. "And not split up for any reason."
"I hear you," Danny said, floating in the direction of his parents.
The search was quiet, save for the declaration of 'clear' as they searched for the ghost aisle by aisle. They checked under the conveyor belt and found nothing. The semi's were parked inside, their trailers and cabins were empty.
Eventually, they came to a small office, built in the corner. There were large windows, providing an excellent view of the floor from the desk and the door was open. Danny floated inside, carefully examining his surroundings. The chair was on the ground, wheel sticking into the air. Papers were strewn all over the place, and there was a cellphone on the ground, it's screen providing a small modicum of light on the floor.
"Have you found anything?" Jasmine asked over the intercomm.
"Well, I found the phone that Tucker back-doored into," Danny answered, placing it on the desk.
"Oh, cool," Was Tucker's reply.
"So nothing good yet?" Sam asked.
"Well, nothing dangerous so far," Danny answered with a perturbed look on his face. Then he gasped, a small whisp of blue passing between his lips.
Suddenly, in the distance, they heard a shout. It was distant, seeming to echo throughout spacious building. It was a hoarse cry and if they didn't know any better, seemed to be cut short like someone hit the mute button on a TV.
"Nevermind," Danny said darkly. "We've got one."
"Beat it to a pulp!" Sam hissed in glee.
"Cut the chatter," Maddie snapped. "It's time to go to work."
Danny led the way, being flanked by his parents. An eery teal-green light had sprung up between a pair of shelves. The trio moved slowly, creeping up on the source. None of them could see it, but they could hear the sound of boxes being moved and shelved. As they got closer, they could hear a voice, quitely muttering to himself as he seemed to be moving the boxes around.
"...no..."
"Uh-uh."
"...that just doesn't work..."
Jack and Maddie pressed their backs against the end. Danny floated just out of sight. They looked at each other with serious and apprehensive looks on their faces before slowly nodding to each other.
Danny lept around the wall and got a good look at the ghost. The ghost was a burly man, with a striped button up shirt and over alls. He was clean shaven with dark hair covered by a beanie. His skin was a dark teal-green. His red, beady eyes were staring up at the boxes, five of them, each glowing the same as the ghost himself.
The ghost turned to Danny slowly and Danny launched himself into a tackle.
"Hey," The Ghost said in greeting with a small wave. "Are you the new help?"
Danny froze right in mid-air with a thoroughly perplexed look on his face. "Wait, what?"
"Are you the new hire?" The ghost now looked impatient with a small frown and glare appearing on his face. "I'm the only one Via Co.'s got right now sorting their storage and they've been needing to hire new people."
"...I'm sorry," Danny replied after taking a moment to recollect himself. "I...don't work for...Via Co?"
Danny blinked in confusion before noticing that on the side of the ghosts shirt was a patch that read 'Via Co.'
"Wait, then who are you?" The Ghost asked, scratching his head. He looked up and noticed that Maddie had the glowing end of the thermos trained on him. "What's that?"
Maddie shifted the button on the thermos forward, causing the beam to rocket out, shooting underneath Danny and nearly nailing the ghost on it's leg, until he shot upward with an expression of fright.
"Hey, what are you doing?" The ghost shouted, flying down the aisle as quick as he could.
"After it!" Maddie shouted, causing Danny to rocket forward after the ghost.
The ghost took a left, and Danny swiftly followed it, circling above it and stopping the ghost from moving further.
"Get away!" The ghost shouted in fear, grabbing a box from a shelf, causing it to rocket forward, hitting Danny upside the head and sending him cartwheeling away.
"Danny!" Jack shouted while he fired another beam, which caused the ghost to duck while Maddie came up behind for a pincer assault.
"I'm going to have you all arrested!" The ghost shouted, running through the air around Jack before darting through the shelf behind the large ghost hunter.
Danny shot through the air after him, with Jack and Maddie following swiftly after. Danny tackled the ghost on the side, and they both got tangled in a ferocious melee. Danny punched the ghost in the face and got punched in the gut for his trouble then found himself in a head lock. As they struggled, Jack and Maddie aimed their thermoses.
"Danny, try to turn him toward us!" Maddie shouted as she tried to train her thermos onto the ghost without also hitting Danny himself.
"I'm...trying!"
Jack fired off his thermos, only for the two ghosts to rush off to the side. Danny's head faded into mist and he kicked off from the ghosts side. He backflipped as his head reformed, allowing for a clear shot from his parents.
Maddie took the shot, the ghost jumping over the beam and running down another aisle. "Help! Help! They've broken in!"
Danny surged after him. "Will you just shut up and get in the thermos?"
"No!" The Ghost turned and looked at him fearfully as Danny's parents caught up. "They're not even boxes! How in the world are they supposed to hold anything?"
"By harmonizing with the current of a persons'-" Jack began excitedly with a large smile on his face.
"Jack, not now!" Maddie snapped with her gazed fixed on the ghost.
"Ah fine," Jack frowned and re-trained his thermos on his target. "He wouldn't get it anyway."
"Oh no," The ghost took a step back, while Danny floated forward. "You ain't taking me to some freaky lab to experiement on me!"
"No, we're taking you back to our freaky lab to send you back where you came from," Danny growled. "Back to the ghost zone!"
"...what?" The ghost seemed to freeze for a second, it's glow in it's eyes going dull. Jack took this chance to shoot, before the light came back and the ghost dodged off to the side. "Hey! But I'm not dead!"
"Yes you are!" Danny retorted.
"Am not!" The ghost shouted, grabbing a box and chucking it at Danny.
"Are too!" Danny shouted back, ducking under the box, which landed on the concrete, it's contents giving off a metal clang upon impact. "You're going through walls and flying!"
"I! Am! Not!" The ghost argued, grabbing another box and throwing it at Danny, which merely passed through him without so much as a distortion and landed with the sound of cardboard colliding with more cardboard on the inside.
"Danny," Jasmine said over the intercomm. "He's in denial and shouting the thing he's trying to deny won't help."
"Then what do I do?" Danny asked with a growl.
"Catch it," Maddie said helpfully, firing the thermos once again, only for the ghost to phase through the ground.
"Arguing with it is kind of pointless," Jack said with some humor in his voice. "Funny, but pointless."
"Recorded for laughs," Tucker cheerfully reported.
"Don't you dare," Danny glowered.
"Can I get a copy?" Sam asked with equal cheer.
"Sam!" Danny whined in his ear piece with a distressed frown.
"See?" The ghost shouted as he resurfaced. "You're even talking to yourself! Like a crazy person!"
The three Fenton's went stiff as a board. Each of them, slowly looked at the ghost with set jaws and glowers that could fry an insect as well as any magnifying glass under the sun.
"We are not crazy!" Maddie screached as she blasted her thermos at the ghost, who yelped and ran away as fast as it could, hand on his head.
The three went off in fast pursuit, Jack and Maddie going around the shelves while Danny phased through to get at him directly. Danny dived below the ghost and tackled him, going high above the rows of shelves conveyor belts.
"You're completely insane!" The ghost shouted, trying to throw Danny off even as he was punched repeatedly in the gut. "Let me down!"
"Shut up!" Danny shouted at the top of his lungs, swerving above and tackle-diving the ghost back down to the floor. "Shut! Up!"
They both phased through the floor. The ghost took a swing at Danny's head, only for Danny to dodge and flip kick the ghost's chin, sending it back up with a grunt of pain. Danny flew after the ghost, phasing back into the warehouse between a shelve and a conveyor belt.
But there was no ghost.
Danny looked around, frantically trying to find the thing they were supposed to be catching. "Uh-oh."
"What's uh-oh?" Jazz's voice came over the earpiece.
"I lost it," Danny's voice becamed panicked as he flew over the shelve to look over it.
"Danny!" Jasmine shouted in exasperation.
"I'm sorry!" Danny shouted, his search widening rapidly as he still couldn't find the ghostly warehouse worker. "Mom? Dad? Do either of you know where it is?"
"Negative on that," Jack said over the intercom with an audible frown.
"I don't have a bead, D..." Maddie's voice started. "Found it! I-"
She was cut off and Danny felt a very cold chill going down his spine. "Mom!"
"Maddie!" Jack shouted over the line. "Pick up! Jazz, what's her life signs?"
"Elevated but uninjured," Jasmine said loudly. "Find Mom! Please find Mom!"
"We're on it Jazz," Danny said, flying above the warehouse to get a birds eye view.
The Ghost was relatively easy to spot, actually. It was in the spot the group first found it, setting a glowing box on the shelf with the rest of it's collection. "Found it! It's back where we first started this fight."
"Great, Danny keep it busy," Jack ordered. "And don't lose it this time!"
"I won't, I won't!" Danny shouted back, flying down to strike the ghost on top of the head with a double-overhand strike.
"Geeze will you just give it a break?" The ghost whined, picking up another box and throwing it at Danny, which passed through him and fell to the ground with a metallic clang. "Stop trying to kidnap me!"
"Kidnap you?" Danny shouted with a right hook to the ghosts face. "Where's my mom?!"
"She's with the rest of my problems," The Ghost answered with a snarl. "Quiet and out of the way until I can deal with her!"
Jack came up behind the ghost, and Danny, seeing his chance, slammed into the ghost with both feet, landing him right into the extended blue beam of the Fenton thermos. With a scream of despair, the ghost was sucked into the containment devise and it was capped before it could think of getting out. Raising an eyebrow at the glowing boxes on the shelf, Jack uncapped and activated the thermos once again, sucking the teal-green ectoplasm from each box in turn. On the last one, a teal-jumpsuited legshot out the side.
Another one came out and Maddie slid out of the box with a huff and a shiver. "...good to see you caught it."
"Are you alright Madds?" Jack leapt to her side to try to steady her.
"Yes, I'm fine," Maddie said with a smile. "Danny? Next time, don't lose the ghost, alright?"
"Yes Mom," Danny nodded respectfully.
"That could've been really, really bad," Maddie continued. "I understand we all got a little angry at it, but, and this goes for all of us, we should not have let it compromise our judgement."
"That was almost bad," Danny agreed.
"So let's just not get mad at the psycho ghost thing that's trying to kill us," Tucker parroted over the communications line. "Sound logic to me."
"I wonder what was in these other boxes?" Danny frowned and looked at the other boxes that Jack had sucked the ectoplasm out of. He picked one up and noted that it seemed like something was moving inside.
"Be careful Danny," Jack said.
"I will," Danny replied as he set the box down on the floor and opened it. Inside was a man, who looked to be in his thirties. His brown hair and beard seemed greasy and his skin seemed dry and chapped. Along the lips and knuckles were breaks in the skin where blood had long since leaked and dried. His face had seemed shrunken and pale and his eyes slowly opened only to shut again in a hoarse cry of pain.
"Too bright! Too bright" He struggled to move to cover his eyes. "The day flower-star burns too bright!"
Danny jumped back, looking more than a little frightened. The man in the box was wearing an Axion Labs button up shirt with a name-tag that read 'Butch'. Maddie and Jack both looked in the box, the man squirming inside to cover his face sending morbid looks across both the parents faces.
"I think we found the missing employees," Jack said, grabbing another box.
Each of the formerly glowing boxes held an employee of Axion Labs inside, each with similarly dry skin and bloody appearances. They all were muttering or attempting to shout through parched throats their delusions... or the things that only made sense to them.
"The door to the green abyss shall be opened again!" Said a grey haired employee named 'Rob'.
"See through faces see through me!" 'Sandra', a heavyset girl said, having been propped up against the shelf, barely able to move.
"Quicksand, quicksand," Another named 'Brenden' moaned. "The concrete turns to quicksand. Why aren't you drowning?"
"The ghost has turned them completely insane," Maddie muttered in abject horror.
"Let's call an ambulance," Jack suggested, pulling his phone out of his pocket.
"I-I'll do it," Maddie said, snatching the phone away from Jack. She quickly walked away with the phone next to her ear. While she was speaking, Danny floated next to his father.
"Are they going to be okay?" Danny asked with an uneasy frown.
"I don't know," Jack simply answered with shared discomfort.
"Okay," Maddie said, walking back and handing Jack his phone. She still looked pale but otherwise alright. "The ambulance is on it's way. We have to move now."
"You think the police are coming too?" Danny asked.
"I wouldn't be surprised," Maddie replied with a shrug.
"Okay," Danny nodded. "...can I stay behind and make sure they don't hurt themselves?"
Maddie had a uncomfortable flash of discomfort that she shook away. "Suuuuuure, just don't let anyone see you."
"So their skin was dry and they looked malnourished?" Jasmine asked, writing some things down in her notebook with a pencil.
"Yes that's right," Maddie nodded, nursing a mug of hot cocoa.
They were in the kitchen, having just laid out sleeping bags for everyone in the living room. Sam was sitting at the table, chair turned backwards with her chin resting on the back. Tucker leaned against the wall while Jack was over by the microwave, warming up his mug.
"Huh," Jasmine stopped, tapping the eraser against her lips. "Okay, hold on."
Jasmine stood up and walked out of the kitchen, eliciting a confused look from Maddie and a shrug from Jack as the microwave beeped.
Danny phased in the house through the door, everyone suppressing a jump as he did so.
"So the medics picked everyone up and the cops searched the warehouse," Danny reported, shifting to his human form as he did.
"Did they find anything?" Maddie asked as she stood and handed Danny a mug of his own.
"I don't think so," Danny replied with a shrug. He took a sip and smiled at the taste. "We didn't leave anything behind, so..."
"You mean besides the security feed?" Tucker asked, adjusting his glasses.
Everyone in the kitchen became very still as their faces registered with increasing horror what Tucker had just pointed out.
"That I hacked and erased," Tucker grinned, taking a large gulp of hot chocolate.
"Tucker!" Danny moaned, slapping his forehead and swiping it down to hide his amused grin.
"Geeze, don't scare us like that!" Sam snapped with a frown.
"I thought it was funny," Jack said with a friendly smile. Then it faded. "But you did erase all trace, right?"
"Yup," Tucker smiled happily, still sipping the delicious beverage.
Jasmine came back into the room, her Fenton-pad in her hand, looking at the content with an intent focus.
"I also confirmed that no one who worked on Skulker has died," Tucker continued. "And positively no one on the crew was sad it bombed."
"Well, that's a relief," Sam sighed and smiled.
"Yeah no kidding," Jasmine inputted, but otherwise distracted. "So, I have a theory about what happened to those poor people."
"Shoot," Jack said, taking the remaining chair.
"So back in the 1950's a psychologist named Donald Hebb performed an experiment," Jasmine related with a tone of scholarly fascination. "The experiment entailed putting willing volunteers into extreme isolation; blind folds, hand guards, tiny rooms, the works."
"What was that supposed to accomplish?" Sam asked with a sharp frown.
"Most of Doctor Hebb's work was aimed at figuring out how neurons in the brain worked to understand behavior. This experiment was supposed to illuminate how the brain works in extreme isolation," Jasmine answered. "The experiment itself was supposed to last for 42 days."
Maddie raised an eyebrow. "There is no way it lasted that long."
"It didn't," Jasmine shook her head. "It barely lasted four. The volunteers were hallucinating, visually and audibly, and became so scatterbrained the couldn't complete basic skills tests."
"So you think the warehouse workers went insane from extreme isolation?" Maddie asked with interest.
Jasmine nodded. "I do."
"So what makes you think it was that," Maddie continued, taking a sip of her cocoa. "Rather than the ghost messing with their minds?"
"Well, besides the clear symptoms of dehydration which tell me that the ghost didn't so much as let them see the light of day," Jasmine replied. "There's what ghosts are."
"How so?" Danny asked, standing next Tucker.
"Well, ghosts are traditionally the remnents of people with unfinished business, right?" Jasmine asked.
"I could see the ghost at Casper to be that but what about those Octopus things?" Sam asked with concern. "Heck, the ghost tonight was only doing his job...are you saying he was obsessed with his job?"
"Partially, but I think it's something else too," Jasmine nodded, and tapped her chin for a second. "When you become stressed, what do you do?"
"Try to find something to do," Jack answered.
"Same," Danny added.
"I hit something," Sam shrugged.
"Lock myself into my room," Tucker supplied.
"Separate myself from the situation and look at it objectively," Maddie said.
"Okay, so some people," Jasmine replied. "When they become stressed, I've heard, they put their problems inside a box in their head."
"Oh," Maddie's faced dawned with realization after a moment of thought.
"I don't get it," Danny shook his head. "How does that equal obsession?"
"Well, the unfinished business doesn't have to be one big thing, right?" Jasmine asked. "Couldn't it just be a million little things keeping it from passing on?"
"That...makes a lot of sense, actually," Jack said, frowning in thought. "Huh, I never thought of it like that."
"So why was this ghost so intelligent?" Danny asked with a confused look.
"I think it has to do with how intact the body is or how much duress a person is under at the time of death," Maddie spoke up. "The first two ghosts we faced didn't even look human. The one you three caught was in pieces and without skin, right?"
"Yeah," Tucker said, covering his mouth to suppress a gag. "I think I'm going to be sick."
"Don't remind me," Sam pleaded.
"All kinds of wrong," Danny finished with a nod.
"But this one actually looked like a sane person," Maddie continued with a sympathetic look at the trio. "So yeah, it's only a theory, but I think it's solid."
Everyone fell into silence as they thought about the events of the night.
"So, Tucker?" Danny eventually spoke up. "What's this about Skulker?"
"Hmmmm?" Tucker rose his eyebrow. "Oh, the animatronic they used for Skulker was stolen."
"Oh," Danny looked confused.
"What's Skulker?" Jack asked with an equally confused look.
"The worst horror film ever made," Sam replied.
"We were checking for the chance a ghost stole it," Tucker supplied helpfully at the continued confusion.
"Ah, gotcha," Jack looked into his empty mug. "The answer is nope?"
"Not that I can see," Tucker drained the last of his mug.
"Not sure it'd be too bad even if it was," Sam spoke up, putting her half-empty mug on the table. "Unless you guys think a robot with a rediculous looking flaming mohawk going through walls while wheeling around on a stand could be deadly."
Authors Notes: Guys, I apologize for such a late update. I just started school and a new job and I've been so mentally exhausted I can barely stand it. So while I concentrate on figuring out how GDP and Price Index's work together, I may not be able to update for a while. It really sucks too, because this is only a two chapter arc and I feel terrible about it.
Also, on the Box Ghost. First, I can't take the credit for the knowledge in the last section. Game Theory, if you've heard of it, did a video on The Companion Cube from the video game Portal which in turn inspired the Box Ghost for this section. Here's a URL for those interested:
watch ? v = q5w6ieaTxGA
Second: I do not apologize for the Box Ghost. The Box Ghost has, and will always be, an Ineffectual Sympathy Villain. There were actual harmless ghosts in the show, but none harmless because they were simply harmless like the Box Ghost. He's an immature, whiny man who simply isn't a threat because he has no talent to be one. You can't just make The Box Ghost a threat, he has no business being a threat. At all. That goes against the very core of his being. SKULKER, on the other hand, was always intended to be a threat. You can jack up his danger levels by a power of a thousand and you'd be right to do so!
But not the Box Ghost. Never the Box Ghost. It's simply bad manners, in a way.
If you disagree with me, I completely respect and admire your ability to do so. If you enjoyed or had problems with this chapter, please feel free to leave a review and let me know! If you think this fic is awesome, don't hesitate to share it with your amazing friends.
Until the next time!
~Fulcon