I've seen a lot of people doing this, so I'm going to try this out for a while.
Mak8907: I'm getting there. Just have some patience, okay?
Kaddy16: Thank you for your support.
Sorry if I didn't reply here to your review, the thing is being funny.
...
At Dawn's house, she found the first aide kit in the bathroom and turned to Danny. "Do want some help?" she asked, holding it out.
"Nah," he answered, taking the kit. "I'll be fine."
"Do you want a snack?" she asked as she left.
"Sure, thanks," Danny said before closing the door.
Dawn shrugged and hoped that there were some chips left in the cupboard.
Shade had been left outside, because they were afraid he might ruin the furniture. So he flew, invisible and intangible, around the house until he found Danny.
Danny started when his ghost sense went off, but calmed down a bit when Shade turned visible.
"Are you calm now?" he asked.
"Yeah, sorry," the cat muttered.
"It's alright." Danny took off his shirt and checked his side. The cut hadn't been deep, so it was already about half healed. "Thank goodness, it didn't seep through," he said under his breath.
Shade watched him put a gauze patch over it, before moving on to checking the scratches. Danny pulled his shirt back on, then debated about whether or not to bandage his hands.
"You might as well," Shade said.
"What?" Danny looked up surprised.
"After being in here for so long, she expects you to have some covered."
"Thanks," he muttered, as he dug around for gauze to wrap his arms in. Band-aids wouldn't do much good, since his arms were actually a patchwork of scratches now. Even though they were healing quickly and would be gone in a couple of hours.
Shade left the bathroom to sit on the front porch and wait for Danny to come down.
Dawn was munching on chips when Danny came back down, his arms covered in gauze. She winced.
"Sorry," Danny said as he joined her. "I didn't think band-aids would cover all of them, and I didn't want to wipe you out. Besides, you can just wash these later."
"Yeah, we do that often actually," Dawn muttered.
"What?"
"Nothing."
A few minutes later, they left the house with Shade following calmly after them. No one noticed that the cat actually hovered just above the sidewalk and didn't really move its legs like it was walking.
"Here we are," Dawn said. The two kids stood in front of the Magic Box.
"I thought it would be bigger," Danny said. Shade, sitting on his shoulder, nodded.
"Everybody does," Dawn muttered. "But that doesn't mean we don't sell good quality stuff."
"Shall we enter then?" Danny asked. Dawn opened the door. "Ladies first," Danny held the door for her. She smiled and walked in.
"That's funny," she heard Willow say.
"What is?" Dawn asked as Danny came in behind her. Shade followed on the ground.
"Hello Dawn," Buffy said.
"Hey guys," she said, "This is Danny," she waved at him. "He's from Amity Park."
The gang and Anya looked at Danny. And stared.
"Hi," he said, shifting his weight uncertainly.
Danny felt his stomach hit the floor when he saw who was there. Buffy, Xander, the guy with the glasses, and the one who did the spell that had him stuck here.
Dawn introduced him, and they all just stared at him.
"Hi," he said, uncertainly, wondering why they were staring at him.
"Is that the kid that Clem was talking about?" a woman with short hair asked from behind the counter.
"Do you have a cat?" the magic one asked before Shade clawed his way up his pants and onto his shoulder, yowling, "These are the guys that tried to kill you last night! Why are you just standing there? Run, run, run! You gotta get out of here!"
The Scooby Gang looked on in surprise when the cat clawed his way up Danny, yowling the whole way.
"I'm not deaf, Shade," he said, putting one hand to his ear, while grabbing the cat with the other. That was when they noticed that his arms were covered in gauze.
"Oh my gosh," Willow said, moving forward, "Are you alright? What happened?"
Danny held the still yowling cat carefully, and took an involuntary step backwards. "Shade here," he indicated the yowling cat in his arms, "Took offense when I almost left him at the school."
"Really?" Giles asked.
"Yeah," Dawn said, "It was actually kind of funny. Shade looked like he was chewing Danny out, almost literally. He didn't stop yowling until we were about halfway home."
"You took a stranger home?" Buffy asked sternly.
"He needed to take care of his scratches!" she defended herself.
"Yeah, my arms were kinda bad," Danny jumped in. Everybody's gaze swung to him. He shifted uncomfortably. "And after I set Shade down, he attacked my ankles."
Xander was sitting back, looking at the cat. Something about it seemed familiar.
"Why don't you sit down?" Giles asked.
"Alright," Danny sat down in a vacant chair and set Shade on his lap. Shade, who had stopped yowling in favor of grumbling incoherently, put his paws on the table.
"This is my sister Buffy," Dawn started introducing, "This is Willow," she gestured in turn to the girl who had cut him last night and the one who had closed the portal. "This is Giles." The guy with the glasses. "Xander and Anya," she pointed to Xander and the woman behind the counter.
"Nice to meet you," he said.
"What were you doing sleeping in an alley?" Anya asked him.
"Anya," Buffy scolded.
"What? You aren't asking," she said.
Danny just stared at them.
"You slept in an alley?" Dawn asked.
Shade smirked and jumped onto the table.
"Yeah," Danny sighed.
"Why?"
"Yes why?" Anya jumped in.
"Did you say you were from Amity Park?" Buffy asked.
"Yeah," Danny was starting to wish he hadn't come.
"Why did you come here?"
"Tell them the truth and fly out of here," Shade meowed.
Danny scowled at the cat.
"When did you start being able to understand your cat?" Willow asked.
Danny started in surprise. "What?" he asked.
"You can talk to your cat?" Dawn interjected, "That is so cool!"
"It's alright," Willow said, "I can do magic, too."
"Yeah, we saw that last night," Shade muttered.
"Just shut up," Danny told the cat, glaring at him.
"Well, that answers that," Giles sat down.
"How long have you been able to talk to him?" Willow asked again.
Danny leaned back, defeated. "Last night."
"Really?" They were surprised. "How did that happen?"
"He walked up to me and said here you go, be my friend," Danny answered.
"Are you serious?" Xander asked.
"That is not what happened!" Shade exclaimed, injured.
"More or less," Danny answered both statements at once.
"You've adjusted to that pretty well, then," Willow said.
"Yeah, well, after living with ghosts for the past couple of years, it's not really that surprising," Danny replied.
"Amity Park is the-" Buffy started
"The ghost capital of America, yeah," Danny interrupted.
"His parents are ghost hunters," Dawn supplied.
"Really?" Giles inquired, taking off his glasses.
"Yeah," Danny started, but stopped when his breath came out in a cloud.
"What was that?" Anya asked.
"Um," Danny looked around the store like he was expecting something to jump out and attack him.
"Beware, I am the Box Ghost!"
Danny slumped in his seat as a blue skinned, chubby guy floated up from the basement, a couple of boxes coming up behind him.
Danny reached for his thermos as Anya and Giles leaped up.
"Hey! You have to pay for those!" Anya yelled at him.
"Do you have any idea of what's in there?" Giles asked him.
"I do not know and I do not care!" the Box Ghost said. "They are boxes, and so they and their contents are mine!"
"Hey, Boxy!"
Everyone turned to see Danny, standing next to the table with a thermos in one hand, and its cap in the other.
"No!" the Box Ghost turned to phase through the back wall. "You will not put me in that cylindrical prison again!"
Before he could get there, though, a bright blue light came out of the thermos and captured the ghost. Danny quickly put the lid back on the thermos.
Everyone continued to stare at him. "That, Dawn," he said, "is how the thermos works." Then he sat down and put the thermos on the table.
"What did you bring that horrible ghost here for?" Anya asked. Everyone turned to look at her. "It didn't pay for anything," she pouted.
"The Box Ghost isn't horrible," Danny said. "He's just annoying. He visits my school several times a week."
"What do you know about ghosts?" Giles asked.
"Plenty," Danny answered amiably. "They do feel pain, and have extreme aversions to being dissected molecule by molecule. They all have the ability to turn intangible, invisible and fly. After that, they have an ability unique to themselves. For example, the Box Ghost has power over boxes."
"What do you know about a white-haired ghost boy?" Xander asked.
Danny hesitated and Willow jumped in. "I have my laptop," she said, "I'll check it out."
Shrugging, Danny said, "Look for 'Amity Park, white-haired ghost boy'."
"Are you sure we'll be able to find what we're looking for?" Willow asked as she typed it in.
"If you had just put in 'white-haired ghost' you would have gotten a lot more to sort through," Danny said simply. After all, he, Sam and Tucker had looked it up before for kicks. It had taken hours just to find one picture of Phantom. And to add insult to injury, it had been an article about the time Walker and his goons had invaded Amity, calling him Inviso-Bill.
Sure enough, the Scoobies saw under images that there were plenty of pictures of a certain white-haired ghost boy.
Satisfied, Willow looked under 'web' for information. Lots of results came up.
"Wow," Xander said. "That's insane."
"Try this one," Buffy pointed to one of the many news articles.
Next to a picture of an aerial fight between the ghost boy and a robot with a jet pack shooting at each other was this article:
Ghost menace Inviso-Bill appeared again today in Amity Park. He was seen flying away from the Nasty Burger, a local fast food restaurant popular among the youth. Following him was a robotic ghost. They flew over several blocks, firing blasts that destroyed many stores and several homes.
The Red Huntress showed up shortly after, and the three continued to destroy buildings. The Fentons arrived as quickly as they could, determined to capture the ghost boy and "dissect him molecule by molecule!" Sadly, Inviso-Bill once again evaded the determined ghost hunters.
When asked about their most recent disappointment, Jack Fenton was given a cookie by Maddie Fenton, who said, "We will catch Inviso-Bill. He is a threat to the community and to our children, Jazz and Danny. To make our city a safe place for them, we are determined to capture the ghost boy." Then the two jumped into their RV and almost ran over several reporters in their haste to make sure that their children were alright.
"Phantom," Danny muttered under his breath. He was reading the article over Willow's shoulder along with the rest of them. Would they ever get his name right? he wondered.
"What was that?" Willow asked, going back to look at something else.
"Nothing," he said quickly. "What's that?" he pointed at a video.
Willow clicked on it, and after it loaded, showed a picture of the mayor, Vlad Masters. She clicked play and they all watched as Vlad talked about how Inviso-Bill ("Phantom," Danny muttered again) had kidnapped his best friend's son, Danny.
The Gang looked at Danny, who ignored them.
The clip went on to show a picture of Danny. Then it went on to say how he was going to do his very best to find young Danny, using every method at his disposal.
When it ended, Danny looked at the comments beneath it, while the Scooby Gang looked at him.
Before any of them could ask him what they really wanted to ask him, he turned to Willow, "Hey, do you mind if I get on for a minute?"
"Sure," she moved and he sat down.
Danny tried to log on, but found he couldn't. So, grumbling and muttering about tech geeks messing with online info, he tried something he remembered hearing Tucker say he was going to do.
The first thing he did once he was on was message Tucker about messing with his username.
FriarTuck: hey, where are you?
Phantom: tuck, how and why did you change my username?
FriarTuck: sam says hi.
Phantom: *sigh* hi sam
FriarTuck: where are you?
Phantom: sunnydale. i'm borrowing a laptop.
FriarTuck: did you see the news?
Phantom: why do you think i'm on right now?
FriarTuck: hold on a sec…
Danny waited a second, then typed:
Phantom: sam, hit tucker for me.
Another few seconds passed before Tucker replied.
FriarTuck: that wasn't necessary, danny!
Phantom: i hope it hurt
FriarTuck: Wulf says Skullker found a rip
Danny groaned. Great, just his luck.
Phantom: did he say where?
FriarTuck: i'm lucky to get that much. hold on
Danny waited a moment before remembering something he ought to tell them, and he typed it in before he forgot or something else attacked.
Phantom: sam, remember that puppy? the one that was trained and liked to bug valerie's dad at work?
FriarTuck: sam- yeah
Phantom: now there's a cat
A pause, like she was thinking about that, before Tucker got back on.
FriarTuck: are you serious? Wulf said something that sounded like sunny day.
Phantom: thanks
FriarTuck: before you get off, Plasmius is hunting Phantom
Phantom: …thanks.
FriarTuck: *wince* sorry about that
Phantom: i'll see you when i get home
Danny signed off. "Thanks Willow," he said as he got out of the chair.
"You were kidnapped by a ghost?" Xander sounded like he was trying not to laugh.
"No wonder you didn't want to say anything," Anya said as she left to take care of a customer.
"I wasn't kidnapped," Danny said, indignant.
"Then how did you get here?" Buffy asked.
Danny struggled to come up with a good excuse.
"Where did you say you got that cat?" Xander asked. "Because it looks familiar."
"Yeah," Dawn said, "It kinda looks like that cat that got run over a couple of days ago."
"Am I really that distinctive?" Shade meowed.
"You have a couple of crescent moons in your fur," Danny told it. "How is that not distinctive?"
"Willow," Xander whispered. "Take out the map. Try locating the ghost."
Puzzled, Willow pulled out her supplies.
"What are you doing?" Dawn asked.
"Well, I tried a locating spell earlier today. But what I was looking for was in the school," Willow answered.
"Are you sure this is a good time for that?" Buffy asked.
"I have an idea," Xander told her. "About that ghost we saw last night."
Danny paled when he heard that. "Is it a reliable method?" he asked.
"Yeah," Willow answered absently. "I haven't been wrong yet."
Dawn noticed Danny looking pale. "Are you alright Danny?"
"I think I need some air," he said, and started moving to the door.
"Why don't you wait here?" Xander asked, interposing himself between Danny and the door. "I'm sure you're curious to see some magic."
"Actually, after Desiree, I don't really care for it."
"Who's Desiree?"
"A wish granting ghost. She twists the wish, though, so it's not really what the person wished for."
"Hey, that sounds like what I used to do!" Anya said.
"What?" Danny was confused.
"Anya was a vengeance demon," Xander explained.
"I have a reading," Willow interrupted.
"Where is it coming from?" Xander asked.
"The Magic Box," she answered, surprised.
"Can you use the pendulum to find it here?"
"Gimme a second."
After a nerve wrenching moment while Willow preformed the spell, she brought the pendulum up and it swung around a bit before settling on Danny.
Everyone was surprised. "Is the ghost hiding in Danny?" Dawn asked
"Told you you should have run," Shade said.
"Shut up Shade," Danny retorted.
"Hold on a sec," Willow turned back to her laptop, and Danny knew he was in for it.
He slipped past Xander and ran for the door. Before he could make it, though, the door opened and Spike fell in. Danny ran into him, and Buffy jumped over to pull Spike out of the sun.
"Look here," Willow said. "Danny looks a lot like Inviso-Bill."
Buffy grabbed Danny by his collar and dragged him back into the store. "That only makes you look more guilty," she told him.
"I like being in one piece," he gasped. Then he turned his collar intangible and ran out the door. Shade flew through the door after him.
After a moment of stunned silence, Spike said, "He smelled like that ghost we saw last night."
I think that I can do better with this, so maybe I'll come back and re-write it later.
