A/N Hey guys, what's up? Well I'd like to start by thanking my Beta reader and all those reviewers, who all agreed that chapter wasn't sappy afterall. Oh well, thanks guys! I don't know when the next chapter will come, because I have the ideas in my head, but nothing is typed yet and my aunt and uncle from CA are coming for a week next week so I won't have alot of time to type. Anyways, I think you guys might like this one, especially the ending!
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Danny Phantom or any of its characters. The amazing genius known as Butch Hartman does, and he deserves all the credit, trust me! I do, however, own any OCs that happen to appear, so if you want to use them, ask me!
The Phantom Chronicles
Chapter 11: Ghost Tracking
October 5th 2004, continued
Sam and I left earlier tonight, and so far this journey is going pretty good.
We've stopped for the night, at a local budget motel. It's not much, but it's all Sam's parents' money can afford if we want to have money left for an emergency.
I'm still having second thoughts about leaving my parents the way I did, and I know deep down this was a good idea, but some part of me just wishes I would have told them. Oh well, it's too late now. Besides, Sam is really into this whole thing.
Which is sort of causing problems because I really don't know if this is going to work, mainly due to what happened after we left Sam's place.
"Put the girl down, ghost!"
I quickly turned around to find that hunter girl, the one in the red suit, aiming an apparently loaded ecto-gun right at my face.
"Fine, I will!!" I quickly flew over to the closest rooftop and set Sam down. "But if you harm her in any way—!"
"Don't worry, ghost. I'm only after YOU!" she shouted back, sending a blast of green ecto-energy at me with her gun.
I quickly dodged the blast, or almost. Part of it hit me in the arm as I was trying to dodge it, but it wasn't that much, no harm done. I returned one of my own, but in shock. It wasn't ectoplasm, like I had planned. It was ice. She was quickly stunned on contact, falling to the ground with a thud. Thank God I haven't developed my powers enough to have frozen her completely.
"Wow, I didn't expect that to happen," I commented, flying back over to Sam, still sitting on the rooftop.
"You mean you didn't plan that?" Sam asked me, wide-eyed and confused as I grabbed her back up.
"No, all I wanted to do was send a plain old green blast at her, and instead it was ice! I mean I've been developing the ice thing for awhile, but I thought I had more control than that!"
And despite the fact that she was my enemy, I felt bad and flew down to check on her, quickly turning back into a human upon touching the ground.
"Stay here, Sam. I'm going to go see if she's okay!" I exclaimed, running over to the girl, still somewhat frozen on the ground.
"Hey! Hey!" I said, shaking her as she slowly thawed, but still got no response. "Oh well, she seems okay for now, and we need to get going," I sighed, turning around and heading back over to Sam, going ghost as I did so.
"I guess she's alright, but we can't stick around to tell. We have to go if we want to make good time," I explained to Sam as I grabbed her and we flew off again.
So like I was saying, I have a feeling that just because we're leaving Seattle doesn't mean our troubles will be over, because that girl is one tough cookie.
"Danny? He's gone?"
Maddie was still in shock from the note Jazz had found earlier.
"I don't understand why he didn't just come to us about whatever it was that was bugging him. We would have understood. He didn't have to leave like that!" Maddie continued.
"Well to be honest, you guys weren't always there for him, what with all the ghost stuff, so he probably felt like you guys wouldn't understand or be there for him," Jazz explained.
"Speaking of ghosts, I just developed another weapon to track that Phantom kid! It locks onto a ghost's ecto-signature and tracks it down to its near-exact location!" Jack exclaimed.
"See, this is what I mean! You guys are always busy with your ghost stuff. No wonder he left!" Jazz exclaimed, sitting down.
"Well yeah, but we always would have made time to listen to him," Maddie sighed.
"He is our son, after all!" Jack told her.
"Well maybe you should have told him that!" Jazz was losing her patience now.
"We're his parents. We shouldn't have to!" Jack discussed.
"Actually, I don't seem to recall that in the parenting books," Maddie thought. "Maybe it is our own fault. We should have talked to him more."
"Well, it's too late now, guys," Jazz said, getting up. "He's gone, and we have no idea where he went."
"Maddie, we screwed up, didn't we?" Jack asked his wife, concern in his voice.
"Maybe, but it's probably too late to find out," Maddie answered.
"No, you guys are great parents. Danny just needed time away, that's all," Jazz told them both.
"How do you know that, Jazzypants?" Jack asked his daughter.
"Because I talked to him, more than you guys did," Jazz told them.
"Okay, so he's gone, but there may be a solution," Maddie began as she headed over to the phone and picked it up.
"What, Madds?" Jack asked, a little confused.
"Shhh…" Maddie shushed as she began talking on the phone. "Hello? Police? This is Maddie Fenton and I'd like to call in a search for a missing child."
"I'm jjjjust sayyyying, Tiffany, tttthat if he can do that iiiice thing, he may be mmmmore powerful than we tttthought," the huntress told Tiffany over the phone late that night. She was still trying to figure out how that ghost had achieved the ice beam when Tiffany called her to ask more questions.
"Okay, okay, but did you get that tracking beam locked onto him?" Tiffany asked, not even caring that the other girl was freezing her butt off and just wanted to go take a hot bath.
"Oh yeah! It was ssssso easy, I just uuuuupdated my gun with an iiiiinvisible tracker that lllllocks onto any ghost with just one hhhhit! After that his ecto-signature is aaautomatically recorded into my ccccomputer and I can find him in an instant!" the girl exclaimed.
"Wow! That is going to help us so much! So where do you think he's going?" Tiffany wondered.
"No clue, but ttttthat's not what confuses me."
"Huh?"
"Well, see, tttthere was this girl with him, and I don't kkkknow why!" the huntress concluded.
"Girl? You're kidding! Ummm, I gotta go! I'll call you later!" And with that, Tiffany hung up.
"Wwwwell that was rrrude! Oh well, time for a nice hhhot bath!" the other girl said, getting up and heading for the bathroom.
"Hey, Stacy, you'll never believe this!"
Within moments after hanging up on the hunter, Tiffany was dialing Stacy's number.
"Whoa, Tiff, hold up. What's going on?" Stacy's voice said with a rather large yawn.
"The loser's running!" Tiffany said excitedly.
"And you woke me from my power nap to tell me? Tiff, I already knew that!" Stacy complained.
"Yea, but did you know SAMANTHA is going with him?"
"WHAT?!"
Apparently she didn't, for Stacy's mouth dropped at this.
"Why would she? I mean, come on!" Stacy asked, rather weirded out.
"Because she 'loves him'!" Tiffany said, followed by a gagging noise. "Honestly, what the heck does she see in HIM! He's so, so, wrong for her!" she complained.
"I know. It makes me SICK!" Stacey added.
"Well, we'll get 'em. I've got this amazing hunter on the job, and once she gets him…Well, let's just say that he's gonna be a big ball of goop and Sammy will come crying back!" Tiffany said triumphantly.
"Wait, 'she'? Girls can't hunt ghosts!" Stacy proclaimed.
"Well this one can, so there!"
"Whatever, now if you don't mind, I really gotta get back to my power nap, and it's late! So please, let's just leave it at this!" Stacy finished.
"Oh fine. I'll see you at school tomorrow!" Tiffany huffed as she put down the phone.
"Yes, that's right, officer. He's 5'2 and weighs 125 pounds. Yeah, and he has jet-black hair," Maddie confirmed to the officer late that night.
He had been there for a while, gathering information about Danny that could possibly help in this search, and he would have left by now, but Jack just couldn't find a recent photo.
"Well, there's proof we were bad parents. Our most recent photo of him is from his sixth grade graduation!"
"Well have you checked his room dear? He's got tons of him and his friends up there, I think," Maddie inquired.
"You know what, never mind. I need to be getting back to the station before it's too late. Goodnight."
"If we find any pictures, we'll send them on over!" Jack called to him as he left.
"Oh, honey, do you really think we're doing the right thing?" Maddie asked her husband as she sat down.
"No." It was Jazz, who had been sitting in the room the whole time, but never said anything. "I don't. Danny just wanted some time away, and now he's going to be worrying about this too!"
"Jazz, you talk to him a lot, don't you?" Maddie asked her daughter.
"Yeah, more than you guys probably did," Jazz confirmed.
"And you know some stuff about Danny that we don't, right?"
She didn't like where this was going, and she had sworn to not tell their parents about Danny's "uniqueness." Not until he was back and could, himself, anyway.
"Yeah…?"
"Well, you must know where he went!" Jack piped up.
Jazz let out a sigh of relief at this, only to answer, "No, Dad, I honestly don't."
It was the next morning and Danny had awoken to the smell of must and mosquitoes, two things apparently prominent at their motel. Sam was next to him, for they had only been able to get one bed. Danny was relieved, however, that nothing had happened in doing so.
"Sam, Sam! Get up. We need to get going if we want to get there before dark and that family starts to worry!" Danny said, nudging Sam awake.
"Danny, come on! I'm tired and I need my sleep!" Sam barked, rolling over.
"Jeeze, Sam, you're just like my dad in the mornings!" Danny complained, getting up and heading for the bathroom. He quickly grabbed one of those complimentary cups and filled it with cold water and then returned to the bed.
"Well, if you won't get up, how 'bout a shower!" he exclaimed, dumping the water on to Sam, who shot up like a rocket, shrieking.
"DANNY!"
"Sorry, but now that you're up, could we please get going!"
"Hold on, Danny. Can I at least check the weather?" she asked, grabbing the remote and turning on the old TV the motel had provided them with.
"Good idea, Sam. That's smart—whoa!" He was lost in thought as he and Sam gasped at the TV screen, which was flashing a picture of him across it.
"We have a missing child alert!" the newswoman said to the viewers, calmly.
"Daniel Fenton. He is approximately 5'2 and weighs 125 pounds. He was last seen wearing a white shirt with a red logo on it and blue jeans. Last known person he was seen hanging around was Samantha Manson, daughter of Susan and Thomas Manson. Upon questioning, they were unable to respond. If you see him, please call this number." A number then flashed across the screen a few times before the anchorwoman moved onto her next story, about a local dairy farmer or something. Danny didn't care about that, so he flipped it off.
"How could they! Jazz knew I needed my time alone! Now we're gonna have to worry about this too!" Danny was furious, and really, who could blame him.
"No we won't because that alert was only for this county, and we'll be out of this county within the next twenty-some miles, and then no one will realize you're a missing child because the alert isn't being broadcasted in that area!" Sam said triumphantly.
"How did you know that?" Danny asked, really curious.
"Well, duh. When it's a national alert, they do the thing where the screen turns blue and a bad announcer guy says it, but when it's local, they don't!"
"Okay, but still, I'm worried," Danny sighed.
"Well, I got an idea, and it's a pretty good one!"
"Sam, you're kidding!"
They were standing outside the mall of whatever town they were in (Danny didn't even know).
"No, I think that maybe a new wardrobe could, you know, keep people from noticing us!"
"Yeah, I know why I'm going to, but why you?" Danny asked, confused.
"Because they know you hang out with me, even if I'm not running. And besides, I've been thinking about it for awhile, but my parents and Tiffany wouldn't have approved of my ideas."
"Ideas?" Danny asked. "Sam, what do you have in mind?"
They were walking as they talked, and Sam was leading him to a particular store.
"The Dark Closet? Sam, that's a store for Gothic people," Danny explained.
"I know! And I totally dig the style!" she said happily.
"Since when?" Danny was really confused. How long had she been planning this?
"Since before I met you, but that's not the point. Come on!" she grabbed his hand and began dragging him into the store.
"Hold on! I DON'T want to wear that stuff like you do!" Danny protested.
"Oh fine! I think I'd rather shop alone anyway. Do you know where you want to go?" she asked him, thinking.
"Well, I usually shop at places that sell normal clothes," Danny told her.
"Okay. Umm, I'll meet you by the mall's entrance in an hour. I've got a few other things I need to do as well," Sam explained.
"Any longer than that and we'll be behind schedule!" Danny yelled to her as she turned around and headed into her store.
'This could be interesting.'
"Any news on the ghost boy?" Tiffany asked the hunter over the phone. She had been calling the girl an awful lot lately, and it was starting to get really annoying.
"No, but get this. Some kid has gone missing," the girl told Tiffany over the phone.
"Kid? Who?"
"I don't know. Umm, Danny something."
"Fenton?" Tiffany asked in curiosity.
"Yeah, that's it! I just thought it was funny the ghost is running and this kid is gone. Probably no connection, though."
"Yeah, none…Well, I guess I should go. I'll call later," Tiffany finished as she hung up.
"Oh my gosh! His parents don't know?! Who would keep that from their parents? Hmmm, that gives me some ideas."
It had been an hour and Danny was now standing by the entrance, patiently waiting for Sam to show up. As promised, Danny had found a store that sold clothes somewhat different than what he normally wore. He had managed to pick out several shirts, all with those wacko sayings on them, such as "I majored in partying." Danny himself didn't like those types of shirts, but he knew it could maybe help him keep cover until his parents called off the search.
"Come on, Sam. You're late!" he said under his breath, looking at his watch.
"Hey!"
Danny swiveled around at Sam's voice.
"Hey Sam—whoa. Sam?" It was definitely Sam, but not the Sam Danny was used to.
She was wearing a black tank with fish net sleeves and purple armbands by her wrists, extending into fingerless gloves. The shirt itself had a purple bat on it, with a brilliant web coming out from behind it. And although she was supposed to be goth, Danny could still see the ice butterfly he'd given her hanging around her neck. Her skirt was pure black with bright green stripes and lace on the bottom. Finally, in place of her usual flip-flops, she was wearing large, black combat boots with purple laces.
Danny had to admit, for gothic clothing, Sam's sense of style still showed. The outfit wasn't what had taken him aback, for he knew that she had planned on buying a lot. What he didn't know was that she had planned on taking this farther.
Her normal dark brown hair was now jet black, like Danny's. This surprised him, for he knew she had always been against dyeing. It was also at least five inches shorter and put up into a ponytail at the top. She had also taken the time to apply some purple eyeliner, lipstick, and nail polish, which pretty much finished off the outfit.
"Danny? Are you okay?" she asked, waving a hand in front of his face.
"Huh? Oh, fine," he replied. "Wow, you sure did take the Goth thing pretty far."
"Yeah, well, like I said, I wanted to do something different! Do you like it?"
"Are you kidding? It's amazing, and those clothes are so, amazing! I just don't get why you dyed your hair. You hate dyeing!"
"Well, I thought about it, and I just decided to take a chance. Plus the guy at the hair place said this stuff lasts a long time, longer than my mom's would," she answered. "And speaking of clothes, nice shirt, Mr. 'I Majored in Partying'!" Sam added.
"Oh, yeah, well, umm, it was all they had?" Danny blushed.
"Whatever. I think we should go if we want to get there in time, or did you forget that strict schedule you put us on?"
"Right," Danny finally removed his gaze from her as they left the mall.
"Mom?"
Maddie was sitting in the living room next to the phone with a photo album on her lap.
"Huh? Oh, hi, honey," she said dryly as Jazz entered the room.
"You really need to stop worrying. If they find him, they'll call," Jazz told her mom, sitting on the floor in front of her mom's chair.
"I'm not worrying. I'm just thinking, about Danny. He used to be so open with us!" she said, showing Jazz the page in the book she was looking at. At the top was a photo of Maddie and Danny when he was little, and he was hugging her. Below that was a picture of Danny in a really cute baseball uniform when he was about five, holding a bat and looking serious.
"Remember how bad he was at Little League?" Jazz asked.
"Oh, he was horrible!" Maddie laughed. "But we kept telling him he was our little superstar. I miss that," she sighed.
"Oh, Mom, don't," Jazz began.
"I don't know what happened, but he just became distant, and we never talk anymore," her mom explained.
"Well, maybe it was all the ghost stuff going on. I mean, the second you got that portal working, you kind of never really cared about anything other than ghosts," Jazz told her mom, trying to sound nice.
"But we would have always had time for you guys. You know that, right?"
"I do, Mom, but maybe Danny doesn't. Ever since the accident and he got…I mean, he just felt he couldn't tell you important stuff because you were always busy," Jazz covered.
'That was close!'
"Jazz, honey, what did he get?" Maddie asked, curious.
"A cold? You remember that, right? It took him awhile to come to, and when he did, he was sick," Jazz lied.
"Oh, right. Well, umm, I'd really like some time to myself, honey, please."
"Okay, Mom, but don't stress too much," Jazz said, getting up and leaving the room. "I know Danny will come back when he's ready."
'I don't remember Danny getting a cold.'
"Well, this is it," Danny sighed. It had been a very interesting day, what from the missing child bulletin to Sam's makeover. Danny was just glad to finally be here.
"Yeah, what do you think?" Sam asked. They were flying over the city of Amity Park. So far it looked nice. The high school seemed to be in good condition, and it had several decent places to eat. But right now all Danny cared about was finding the family they were to stay with.
"Nice, I guess. So what's that family's address?"
"Umm, 1459 North Lionel, right down there!" Sam pointed as she noticed the street signs.
"Okay, let's do this," Danny said, suddenly taking them lower and landing on the ground. He quickly turned human and they began to walk the street.
"Found it!" Sam cried, heading up the front walk of a rather older house. It was very nice, though, and had at least three floors.
"Here goes nothing," Danny sighed, as they reached the door and he rang the doorbell.
They both stepped back as it opened and revealed the family.
"Oh, you must be Danny and Sam!" The mother exclaimed.
"Umm, yeah, that's us," Sam replied.
"Welcome to Amity Park! I'm Helen, and this is my husband, Will!" the lady told them.
"Oh, and I almost forgot!" she said, seeing a boy about Danny's age coming down the stairs. "This is our son, Tucker."
A/N To those of you who wanted Tucker, Tah-Dah!!! Not to mention this chapter was 12 pages! Anyway, does anyone remember if they ever gave the names of Sam and Tucker's parents in the show? Cuz I don't, so I made them up, which was pretty hard. And I'm sorry if Sam isn't acting Goth, but she just became it and I'm sorta bad with that. I'll try to get better, I promise! Please review, cuz I need all the advice I can get.
Lisa
