Uploaded 8/24/13
Chapter 11: Convincing
Phantom sped home masked in invisibility. He'd already texted Sam and Tucker that he was alright but needed to talk to his parents, which couldn't wait. Danny knew better than to tell them exactly what was happening. If he did, they'd try to come with him and they needed to stay in school. Without a distraction, all three of them disappearing at once would only get all three of them in trouble.
Technically, he wasn't lying about needing to talk to his parents. Danny didn't know how to stop what the Guys in White were doing to the Ghost Zone or even how bad the situation was, but there was a chance his inventive parents could figure something out. After all, the serum was originally their invention.
Danny scoffed at the irony. Whatever the outcome, he was going to hear about this from Jazz later.
Arriving to his backyard, Phantom landed in a sprint. His transformation rings washed over him, changing Danny back into his human form while simultaneously bringing him back to the visible plane.
Without slowing, Danny phased through the backdoor yelling, "Mom? Dad!" He skidded to a halt in the kitchen. "Mom?" Were they home?
"Danny, is that you?" Maddie called from the lab.
Skipping a reply, the ghost boy dashed to the basement door, this time opening it before running down the stairs. Even though they knew he had powers, Danny wasn't sure his parents would be comfortable with him walking through stuff just yet.
"I have a question," Jack began as Danny finished leaping down the stairs. He had swiveled around in his chair, having been in the process of observing slide samples under a microscope. "Why don't you just phase through the door and float down the stairs? Do you usually do that when we aren't around or is using your powers actually more wasteful of energy?"
"Uh...," Danny stalled. Or, maybe they didn't mind at all.
"Jack!" Maddie scolded, lifting up her goggles. "Danny, shouldn't you be at school? It's okay; we can wait to talk when you get out."
Danny jerked. "The Ghost Zone!" he gasped, ignoring his mother as he snapped back from his father's distraction. "The Guys in White just told me they're using the serum you invented to gas it!" He ran over to the portal and began checking the access log on the consol. "They haven't been doing it from here, have they?" Danny asked while frantically, yet expertly pushing buttons and checking gauges.
Jack scratched his head. "No, but...Son, isn't that a good thing? It's brilliant, actually! Well, except we'll kinda be outta the job..."
Danny turned, gaping as his parents' confused expressions. "A good thing? It's terrible! Every single ghost is going to die if I don't stop it!" Danny said, briefly bringing his hands up to pull at his hair in exasperation. "Can you guys make an antidote? Please tell me you can make an antidote!" he begged.
"Danny, what is going on?" Maddie asked, stepping forward in attempt to calm her son. "Why are you so stressed out over this? Ghosts are evil and mindless-"
"No, they aren't!" Danny interrupted loudly. "Not all ghosts are evil and some are even civilized," he admitted, thinking of Clockwork and his allies in the Far Frozen. "I can't let them die. Please, I need your help!"
Maddie frowned. "What are you-? Of course all ghosts are evil! It's in their nature - a part of their biology. They're just echoes of post-human consciousness. They-"
"They're my friends!" Danny shouted desperately. His hands flung down in fists at his side.
Maddie's jaw slacked with shock. She straightened her back, eyes widening.
"What did you say?" Jack asked in quiet disbelief.
Danny's teeth quivered. His entire body shook out of anxiety. This was dangerous. He should just tell his parents the truth now. Get it over with! They would believe him if he showed them the Phantom they thought was evil was him all along. If Phantom wasn't evil, it would disprove their theories. They'd have to trust him!
But just as Danny opened his mouth to tell them the truth, he saw something in his parents' expressions he never wanted to see. Though the confusion was still there, he could swear he now saw fear.
The ghost boy mentally backpedaled. He couldn't do it. At least not while they looked at him like that. If they were scared of him now - even a little - the whole revelation could backfire. His parents would reject him.
He couldn't let that happen.
Danny swallowed. "I mean I know some of them," he explained slowly, restarting under a calmer tone. "Ghosts are just like people: some are nice, some are evil, and most just want to be left alone."
"Danny, they-" Maddie began sadly.
"I know it sounds weird," Danny continued quickly, "and I wouldn't ask you to change your theories if it weren't really important. I just-" he wiped his palms down his face. "Clockwork, Dora, Wulf, the entire realm of the Far Frozen and so many more have done so much for me."
Suddenly, Danny's resolve hardened as if the sadness and stress had been smeared away. Looking squarely at his parents, he said, "I can't let them die without trying," and turned back to the portal to jam his thumb onto the deadlock scanner. The access panel beeped in recognition, signally the portal doors to part. As they did, Danny dashed across the lab past his parents to gather a few small vials and stuffed them into the pockets of his pants.
When Danny jogged back over to the portal, Maddie finally assumed what her son was doing and exclaimed, "Wait, you're not going in there!" She paused as realization continued to hit her. "Stop right now, young man; this isn't funny!"
"I have to check on a few things," Danny said a bit distantly, trying to ignore his mother's panic as he checked the console one last time. "I'll explain when I get back."
"Son, you don't know what's in there! Even we've never been in the Ghost Zone. You can't just walk in; it's too dangerous!" Jack reasoned.
Danny turned to face his parents again. A thought occurred to him. "Normally, I'd disagree with you...but you're right this time." He pointed to a specific gauge on the console and said, "Usually, the Ghost Zone has an energy density of point-five kilojoules per liter, right?"
Dumbfounded, Maddie nodded. "It's about the same as a nickel-metal hydride battery, yes."
"Well, it's at point-three now," Danny said, "so however they're pumping the gas in, it's working."
As Danny turned back to the portal, Maddie leaped forward, grabbing his arm. "I'm not letting you go in there! Dangerous ghosts aside, the gas will hurt you, too!"
Danny flinched. "That reminds me of the other thing the Guys and White told me," he said sullenly. "When they're finished gassing the Ghost Zone, they're going to release it into the human world next."
Gasping, Maddie screamed, "They can't do that! We'll tell them the ectoplasm in you is permanent. I'll explain-"
"Those agents already know and they don't care!" Danny bit back. "They don't care if it kills me, so if you won't make an antidote..."
"I have an idea," Jack declared. "That ecto-energy you had yesterday: Do you have any more?"
Danny patted his pocket. "About to get some," he said.
"No! It's way too dangerous!" Maddie shouted as she gripped her son tighter.
"That gas is only going to get worse, Mom! If I don't leave now, it'll be too late for everyone," Danny reasoned. "I'll be right back, I promise."
"Danny-!"
"Stay here and keep the portal open," the ghost boy cautioned, then phased out of his mother's grasp and disappeared into the swirling green of the Ghost Zone.
Maddie jumped back, shocked by the cold. Had her son just used his powers? She held the chilled hand against her chest before remembering this was who Danny was. Quickly shaking herself back into focus, she turned to her husband. "Jack, we can't let him go in there alone!"
"I don't know... I think we should listen to him, Mads. I'm starting to get the feeling he's been to the Ghost Zone before," Jack mused. "He didn't seem at all bothered by it. Plus, how else could he have found purified ectoplasm in the first place... or get to know friendly ghosts?"
"Friendly ghosts, Jack?" Maddie asked skeptically. "Do you honestly believe him?"
Jack shrugged. "I think we'd better consider it. Danny-boy seems to know an awful lot more about ghosts than we thought he did."
Maddie huffed, plotting down into a roller chair, which scooted back in reaction. "This is too much. He never showed any interests in ghosts and now it's beginning to sound like he knows more than we do!" With a thought, her hand flew up to her mouth. "Could it be he wasn't disinterested in our experiments but scared of them?"
Jack rolled a chair over to his wife and sat down next to her in a silent agreement to wait for their son to return. "You know, I'm a little more worried about why he's keeping ectoplasm in his room."
"Do you think he knew he'd get hurt?" Maddie pondered with a raised brow.
"I think he fights ghosts," Jack proclaimed, "'cause that's what I'd do if I had ghost powers!"
Maddie sighed. "Honey, you already fight ghosts."
"Oh, right."
"But that's a good point. Why would Danny keep purified ectoplasmic energy on hand? Sam knew exactly what she was doing with it, too," Maddie realized.
"I overheard her talking to Tucker," Jack recalled. "She said she usually only gave Danny half when he needed it."
Maddie looked up at her husband, flabbergasted. "He couldn't be fighting...Surely we would have seen him!"
Jack shrugged again. "He can turn invisible."
Propping her elbow up on the chair's arm, Maddie leaned her head onto the tips of her fingers. "I feel like there's so much more he isn't telling us," she wondered aloud. "What if he isn't just goofing off with his friends when he isn't doing school work? What if he's getting hurt and we never noticed? Oh, Jack, are we bad parents?"
The father used his foot to slide his chair closer to his wife's and wrapped his arm around her. "Mads, I know when I was a teenager - if I wanted to hide something from my parents - I knew exactly how to do it. Danny's a smart kid. A smart kid who can disappear if he wanted to! Sweet-cheeks, if he wanted to hide something from us, our son more than anyone could make sure it stayed that way."
"Why would he want to hide this from us? We could help him!"
"Maybe he doesn't want our help," Jack suggested. "He's got his friends - and Jazz, too, by the looks of it."
Maddie rubbed at her forehead. "All we did was invent new ways to capture and torture anything 'ghost'. No wonder he doesn't want to confide in us." She lifted her head up. "When he comes back, we need to make sure he trusts us so he'll open up," she said, smiling weakly.
"Sounds like a plan," Jack said, returning the smile more convincingly than his wife.
For several minutes, the couple sat quietly in each other's comfort, waiting patiently for their son to return. Finally, just as Maddie was about to ask her husband if he thought Danny was still okay, the portal began to swirl anxiously.
"He's back!" she said instead, jumping to her feet.
However, Danny wasn't the figure who flew through the portal. Stumbling to his knee with a loud grunt was a massive metal-armored ghost with weakly flaming green hair whom Maddie and Jack had seen terrorizing the town many times before.
"Thought I'd never get out of there," Skulker groaned as he got to his feet.
Maddie bolted across the lab for a gun. "Weapons, Jack!"
"Eat Fenton Blaster, ghost scum!" Jack announced, pulling a device from seemingly nowhere and firing on the creature.
"Argh!" Skulker cried out as blasts pelted the ghost hunter's armor, knocking him down to his knees again. "Enough!" he yelled, adding fuel to his hair and jet-packing above the assault to assess the ambush. Finding the assaulters to be the ghost child's parents, he seethed, "You! What have you done?"
Before either Jack or Maddie could respond or continue to fire, the alarm over the portal flashed red and blared to life followed immediately by a swarm of indiscernible ghosts streaming through the portal. They wailed, moaned and swerved as they escaped through the ceiling.
Amidst the chaos, Skulker took the opportunity to advance on his prey. He dodged through the swarm, extended a blade in his arm and pinned the female ghost hunter to the wall, using his other arm to fire green goo at her ankles and wrists while almost simultaneously pressing the weapon against her throat.
"Ah!" Maddie gasped, caught off-guard.
"Mads!" Jack screamed, pointing his blaster at the ghost. "Let her go, ghost! Now!"
"Not until you tell me what you did!" Skulker shouted back, pressing the blade farther into Maddie's neck, causing her to squirm. "The energy in the Zone is almost gone. Not enough remains to generate natural portals and the ghosts who can create them are too weak. We only barely escaped!"
The female hunter paused under the pressure. "It wasn't us, but you're welcome for opening the portal," she said sarcastically, lifting her chin in attempt to evade the weapon. Maddie refused to be afraid, but the knife certainly made it difficult. She struggled to keep her breathing regular even as her heart raced and her muscles quivered against the bonds.
The ghostly hunter scoffed, "How stupid do you think I am? Fix it!"
"Leave her alone, Skulker!"
The ghost turned, leaning his own back against the wall and flipping Maddie to press the knife under her chin from behind.
Maddie now obtained a clear view of the lab. Standing powerfully with his hand raised next to a large yeti-like ghost was Danny Phantom. The river of beasts that continued to spew from the open portal veered around him as if his aura alone scared them off, though a small army of yetis were beginning to gather behind him.
"Stop the rest of them, Frostbite," Phantom said without breaking eye contact with the hunter holding his mother hostage. "I've got Skulker."
The yeti looked worriedly between Maddie and Phantom. "Are you sure?" he asked with concern.
Phantom nodded sharply. "Go," he ordered.
Nodding curtly in return, Frostbite turned and motioned his comrades to follow him through the ceiling.
At the movement, Jack flicked his weapon toward the newcomers. "Back off, Phantom!" he warned before pointing it toward Skulker once again. Phantom was by far more powerful, but the ghost threatening his wife was instantaneously more dangerous.
Danny's face softened at the action of mistrust. Choosing to otherwise ignore his dad, Phantom continued to address Skulker. "You know you can't hurt her," he said, accentuating the echo in his voice ever so slightly.
The ghost snickered. "Why? Because Plasmius says so? "
Danny's eyes narrowed as he pressed more blue energy into his palm. "Because you decided to make this personal and I'm not asking," he said.
Maddie hitched a breath. She had a knife held to her throat and now an energy beam pointed at her head. "Jack," she whispered with more than a little fear in her voice.
"In case you haven't noticed, ghost child, you have made me very desperate." He gestured to the thinning swarm. "You do realize what you've started in the Zone, don't you? This is a war you've created!"
"'I've created'? You think I want the Ghost Zone drained of energy? Destroying one world would collapse both of them and on top of that you retaliate by attacking people! I didn't create it; I'm trying to stop it!"
Suddenly a call came from upstairs. "Mom, Dad! There are ghosts everywhere; everyone's panicking!"
Maddie tensed and desperately shouted, "Jazz, stay back!" while Jack - who stood at the foot of the stairs - threw up his hand to stop her.
Skulker turned his head toward Jack in an attempt to see if the girl listened, but in that moment, Danny used the distraction to teleport directly in front of Maddie and slammed his charged hand into the side of Skulker's helmet above her head, instantly freezing the ghost.
With Skulker disabled, Phantom's powerful body language immediately melted into that of concern. He glanced between Jack and Maddie. "Sorry, do you mind if I...?" Danny hesitated, waving his hands for an indecisive moment before deciding to freeze and shatter Skulker's ectoplasmic bonds, then take his mother's shoulder and phase her out of the hunter's frozen hold.
Maddie shivered in response to being briefly intangible, but soon rounded on Phantom. "You almost shot me!" she accused.
Danny openly gaped at his mother. "I just sav-!" He pointed at Skulker and started again. "I was aiming for his head. I wasn't going to shoot you!"
Maddie backed away toward her husband while Jack pointed his weapon at Phantom once more.
Hearing the argument, Jazz ran down the stairs to find the last of the ghosts exiting the portal and Danny Phantom precariously close to her parents.
Danny raised his hands in peace, adopting an apologetic expression. "Look, I'm sorry... I didn't mean to scare you. I was just trying to help."
"We don't need your help, ghost!" Jack retorted, firing his blaster.
"No!" Jazz screamed.
Thinking fast, Danny flicked his wrists, effectively absorbing the shot with a temporary energy shield.
Jack made to fire again, but Jazz pushed him, knocking off his aim. The shot went wide, instead hitting the table behind Phantom. Danny retreated a few steps, but didn't fly away. Meanwhile, Maddie ran across the lab for a weapon of her own.
"Get out of here!" Jazz told her brother. "What are you doing?"
"Skulker won't stay frozen for long," Danny warned.
"It's fine. I'll get him. You go up and help everyone else!"
Just as Maddie fired another blaster, Danny bolted up through the ceiling. The shot only missed him by inches.
"Stop shooting at him!" Jazz berated her parents.
Ignoring her daughter, Maddie told her husband, "We need to get up there."
"To the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!" Jack proclaimed before ambling up the stairs.
Maddie almost followed, but quickly stopped herself. "Danny!" she remembered. "He's still in the portal!"
The clueless mother didn't see Jazz's adoption of utter annoyance cross her face. "I'll wait for him to come out," she suggested passively.
"Oh, thank you, sweetie!" Maddie said exuberantly. "You two stay down here in the lab and keep safe. Close the portal as soon as Danny comes back," she ordered, then ran to catch up with her husband, weapon still in hand.
Jazz rolled her eyes. "'I'll tell them later,'" she mocked to herself in a deep voice as she made her way over to the portal's console. "I love you, Brother, but sometimes you are so full of it."
The portal closed when she pressed her thumb onto the scanner. Jazz then calmly walked over to a large storage cabinet and opened it to grab a couple thermoses.
Facing Skulker, she sighed and said, "Time to get to work."
EEEEEK things are happening! Finally got some one-on-one with Danny and his parents as both Fenton and Phantom. Writing both scenarios in the same chapter was fun ;) And Phantom is finally here! None of this was in my original outline - the whole thing had to be scrapped because it was too choppy...this is a little better...hopefully :(
My college classes start on Monday...I'm so sorry I wasn't able to get more than one chapter out to you this week! I don't know how intense this semester will be, but I'll use all my free time to write out these final chapters for you. They'll be worth the any wait I PROMISE. And they're pretty well panned because I'm super excited to write them, so don't worry too much!
Once again, thank you for the fantastic reviews from last chapter! SO MANY! Please review again with your thoughts/idea/reactions! Love you guys!