Hey peoples! Just to let ya know, I was planning on updating this yesterday, but I ended up being too busy to, so here I am, updating! Hope your day has been great! I spent most of it reading Lord of the Rings in my spare time; I've gotten to a really good part!
Gollum: *Muttering angrily under breath* Sssstupid girl, reading about sssssstupid hobbitses destroying my preciousssss….!
Yes, and I've been getting this sort of crap from Gollum all day. Anyhow, I'd like to give you the next chapter!
Disclaimer: *sigh* I—don't—own—DP!
Chapter 11
Jazz brought her gaze away from the window as she heard a groan come from the couch. She and Sam had been peering through it for the past hour, keeping an eye on how things were outside Fenton Works while Tucker watched Mr. and Mrs. Fenton. So far things were a little too quiet; the sun shone down on the small town of Amity Park, and nobody seemed to realize a powerful ghost was currently loose in the city—children played out in the streets while people walked by.
"Uuuuuugh…" They realized the sound had come from Maddie.
"Mrs. F.?" Tucker asked as Maddie slowly came to. She groggily rubbed the goose-egg on the back of her head as she struggled to sit up.
"Wha… What happened?" she asked slowly and languidly, "The last thing I remember is the house shaking and then everything… went black…" Sam, Jazz, and Tucker looked at each other before turning their attention back to Mrs. Fenton.
She grimaced as she touched the swelling bump on her head as Sam said, "It was a ghost attack, Mrs. Fenton. It's out of the house right now, and the shield's up, but we don't know exactly what it's up to yet."
"Did somebody say 'ghost attack'?" Jack mumbled suddenly, and it became apparent to everybody that those words had made him snap out of unconsciousness. He sat up as well, but a sudden sensation of vertigo made him fall back down.
Maddie, however, seemed unaware of her husband at the moment, and instead asked urgently, "Where? Where did it go?"
"We don't know," Tucker said.
"Well, has it done anything?"
"We don't know that either." Tucker said, shaking his head vigorously.
Maddie rolled her eyes at the teenager before striding over to the window. She peered out of it with narrowed eyes and watched the horizon. Jack sat up again and stood quickly, causing him to feel dizzy again.
"We'll need to go out and hunt that spook down immediately, then!" Jack declared, wobbling on his legs as he slowly overcame his dizziness.
"Er, Jack, I don't think a search will be necessary," Maddie shook her head slowly. Jack and the other three looked quizzically at her as she elaborated, "She's right outside the shield." Maddie pointed a gloved finger outside the window.
Jack, Jazz, Sam, and Tucker rushed over to stand by Maddie to confirm with their own eyes that what she said was true. Sure enough, they saw that the sky had gone from blue to a dark grayish-green shade in the few minutes they had taken their eyes off of the scene outside. The wind picked up as parents ushered their children inside. Now, of course, whether or not they realized that this storm was supernaturally caused, they knew that these winds had at least the same force as a hurricane did, if not more.
"Where is the ghost?" Jack asked.
"I don't know…. She was just there not a moment ago! Maybe she teleported…?" Maddie wondered as she faintly gestured up at the sky, now churning with dark clouds as the wind made the house groan and creak.
Mr. and Mrs. Fenton snatched up their ghost-hunting equipment before making a beeline to the door. Sam, Jazz, and Tucker followed nervously as they shut the door behind them. Jack and Maddie panned the scene outside the dome, hefting up large ectoweapons as they searched for the ghost that was the cause of this storm. The wind whipped at them, almost powerful enough to knock the five of them off of their feet. So far, no rain was falling, but the clouds overhead threatened to. Green lightning flashed and struck the ground nearby, deafening thunder causing the group to cover their ears in an attempt to drown out the noise as much as would be allowed. The action, however, didn't work as well as they'd hoped; they closed their eyes and gritted their teeth as the sound passed. Uncovering her ears, Sam glared up at the agitated clouds, silently daring Melania to show herself. As if the ghost had read her mind, she appeared up in the air, a teasing smirk on her lips. Waving playfully, Melania laughed as Danny's parents rushed outside the green dome that surrounded Fenton Works, fuming and furious.
"Get ready to be ripped apart molecule by molecule, ghost girl!" Jack bellowed, in the way only Jack Fenton could as he aimed the large gun at Melania. The specter feigned a look of terror, gasping.
"Oh no, it's Jack Fenton, the most incompetent ghost hunter the world has ever seen! Whatever shall I do?" she mocked, wide-eyed and trembling from where she floated.
"Yeah, that's right—you'd better be scared spook!" Jack yelled, oblivious to the sarcasm and insult Melania had conveyed. As he shot a blast at the ghost girl, she blinked and disappeared in a swirl of reddish-purple energy, reappearing behind the man and planting her right heel in the small of his back. Jack grunted in pain and fell forward. She was stronger than she looked. Maddie, launching a glowing green net onto the ghost, yelled at her venomously.
"Nobody attacks my husband and gets away with it, you putrid ghost!"
"Well, I guess we'll see about that..." the ghost replied forebodingly.
Melania, surprisingly enough, made no effort to phase through the net. As Maddie, held the net launcher firmly in her hand and began reeling the captive ghost in. Curling herself up into a ball, she chuckled darkly before blinking deliberately. Violet energy emanated from her and traveled up the net quickly. The energy was conducted through the launcher and rapidly approached Maddie's hands. Once it got in contact with her hands, the energy engulfed her body. Maddie cried out in pain and let go of the launcher, falling to the ground, seemingly unconscious. Jack, now rubbing his bruised spine, leapt up and rushed towards her.
"Maddie!" he hollered.
The ghost girl phased through the net with ease and floated back up into the air, watching triumphantly as Jack picked up his comatose wife, getting ready to attack again. Sam ran out of the dome as well as Jazz and Tucker protested. She raised an ectogun and aimed at the ghost, who had her back turned to the teenage girl, hands now glowing with a dark indigo shade of energy, slowly building up to launch a blow to Mr. Fenton's head. Charging up the gun, she pulled the trigger and shot at the unaware specter. The blow nailed Melania in the back, knocking her upwards as she cried out in surprise and pain. Jack took advantage of the moment and dashed with Maddie in his arms back to the safety of the dome as the ghost gathered her senses about her again. She hissed as she saw that everyone had gotten back under the shield again. Kicking at it in vain, Melania then smirked, knowing that they were too cowardly to face her. Turning away, she began to fly off, away from the town to continue her conquest of the human realm.
She smiled and chuckled knowingly as she departed, and her way wasn't barred, however, until she reached the outskirts of Amity Park when she suddenly collided with a barrier. Melania shook her head slightly, backing up to get a better look at what had obstructed her path; she scowled as she saw a green translucent shield a couple feet in front of her. She turned back to face the town, eyes glinting red with malice as they landed on Fenton Works. How dare they? she thought venomously as she realized that Danny Phantom's family and friends must have extended the ghost shield so it covered the entire town, trapping her in the process.
Perhaps that Goth girl had suggested it. Melania seethed with fury at the very thought of that pest. She was disliking Phantom's little girlfriend more and more with each passing minute, it seemed.
Just as these angry thoughts ended, she smirked. Well, if they insisted that she stay in the confines of that tedious shield, Melania would certainly oblige. What were they thinking when they extended the shield? Did they think that by keeping her from reaching the outside world, her plans would be foiled? All they were accomplishing by doing this was prolonging the inevitable, for she would just terrorize the small town until they had no choice but to release her. She would make those pitiful humans, especially the Goth girl, rue the day they ever crossed Melania Dark.
"Danny! Wait up!" Tucker yelled, desperately trying to catch up to the others. Danny and Sam were leisurely strolling down the sidewalk from school. They paused and patiently waited for Tuck to catch up.
Panting as he finally arrived, Tucker asked, "So, did ya get the homework Lancer assigned us?"
Danny sighed, "You know me, Tuck. I stayed up late last night catching ghosts and dozed off in the middle of the lesson explaining how to do it..." Tucker clicked his tongue on the roof of his mouth, shaking his head sorrowfully.
"Ah, don't worry, Danny. I'll explain it to you later; it's actually pretty easy." Sam reassured him.
"Sure it is..." Danny groaned.
All of a sudden a cold draft stole into the scene, and Sam and Tucker disappeared. The scene went black, and Danny looked around him fearfully, wondering what had happened. He could hardly see two feet in front of him. Then, a specter slowly appeared in front of him, the one and only ghost that Danny never ever wanted to see or think about again. He recognized his face right on the bat, the red eyes, the flaming white hair and slightly blue skin.
"Hello, Danny." His twenty-four-old self said complacently, pacing around the boy slowly but surely.
Danny's throat ran dry, "I-I thought y-you were—How did you escape?"
His alternate self chuckled dryly, "Danny, Danny, Danny... I haven't escaped. I'm still in Clockwork's tower."
"B-but then... how are y—"
"Oh, don't worry about that—it doesn't even matter. Your loved ones might be safe from me physically at the time being, but you, my friend..." he laughed in the same manner. "Even though it is more likely than not, even if you don't turn into me—"
"Y-you-you're wrong—I-I'll never turn into you—I—I promised them!" Danny cut across himself, stuttering wide-eyed.
Phantom continued as if the interruption hadn't even happened, "Even if, heaven forbid, I never escape from Clockwork's keep... I will always be in your mind, where you can never escape me." He ended in a quiet tone, making Danny shudder. Then, picking him up, he tossed the boy hard against the wall. Danny sat up, dazed as Phantom approached him quickly, adding one swift punch to Danny's jaw. Danny chuckled bitterly as he realized he was being beaten up by himself; now he'd seen everything.
His older self grinned at the frightened boy, and in one fluid movement picked up the teen by the collar of his shirt as easily as if he were the weight of a feather. Once the boy was up to eye-level, he exchanged the grip on his shirt for his neck, starting to cut off his air supply. As if from far off, Danny heard the echoing screams of his friends and family—okay, Lancer as well, the scene of the explosion replaying in his head over and over again.
Choking and spluttering, Danny muttered, "T-this isn't real... It's ju-just a dream..."
"It might be just a dream, Danny, but it certainly feels real, doesn't it?"
Danny Fenton jolted awake with a start, his eyes snapping wide open. He breathed heavily for a few moments while Vlad turned his gaze from the stars to the teenager quickly, startled. After the shock of the dream wore off, Danny inwardly wilted; he thought those dreams had stopped. It had been the worst in the first few weeks after he barely evaded that timeline—he hardly got a good night's rest for a really long time. He had been doing so well lately, too, had even gone for a month without even thinking about the incident, bar the time he had worried about his tongue slipping in front of Vlad—why the sudden change in his stroke of luck?
"What happened, Daniel?" Vlad asked slowly, concern etched into his face.
"Um, er, bad dream—that's all." Danny said, smiling and pretending it truly was nothing.
"What about?" Vlad asked, and Danny sighed as he realized the man wasn't going to let it go until he said something. He thought for a moment about how it would be worded best.
"Just... my past—" and future, "coming back to haunt me..." Vlad stared at him expectantly. Danny sort of elaborated after a few moments, "I, er, once made a big mistake, and, um, i-it sort of cost me everything I had and didn't have, and... well, I only just barely avoided it becoming permanent, and it still, er, nags at me from time to time... I don't, er, really feel like... talking about it... But, it doesn't really matter, since it wasn't permanent and everything's hunky-dory now, right?" Danny ended in a joking tone.
Vlad understood that it was something serious because he witnessed the boy thrashing in his sleep. He could also understand that something that traumatizing would be a little private to the teenager. He respected that. Vlad sighed.
"I know exactly how you feel... there are some things that happened to me that I still shudder to think about!" he said in the same teasing tone as the younger hybrid.
"Oh, like the backwash incident?" Danny asked slyly, remembering the mention of one such incident at the Colorado chalet the previous year.
"Oh, don't even mention that to me!" Vlad groaned, putting a hand up to his face as he laid back down, turning his gaze back to the night sky. Danny did likewise and laid down as well.
"Was it really that bad?" Danny asked mischievously.
"Oh, yes."
This time Danny stared at him expectantly, smiling. Vlad returned the look with a glance, shaking his head and whistling lowly. He rolled his eyes.
"Well, it was during our college days before the accident with the ghost portal... Your father and I were renting an apartment close by to the campus, and in order to pay for it, we both needed to get part-time jobs. It was the day I had my interview that it happened...
Two young men waited outside the doors to the office of the manager, the shorter and slimmer of the two biting his lip nervously while the other tried to calm him down.
"Come on, V-Man, you'll do just fine. That job's as good as yours—" Jack said enthusiastically, punching his arm playfully. Vlad winced at how much force his friend had accidentally exerted, massaging his arm gingerly. Jack looked at him apologetically.
"I don't know if I can do this... Is it just me, or has every single cashier I passed looked at me funny? Do they know something I don't about the manager?"
"Oh, don't be paranoid, Vladdie, I'm sure your soon-to-be boss isn't all that bad—"
"I'm serious, Jack! They keep looking at me like they're glad not to be me! Maybe the grocery store across the street has a better environment..." Vlad hunched over, biting his fingernails.
Jack shook his head, saying, "Oh, no you don't—you're not backing out of this one. Look, I'll just be outside the door, waiting for you. It looks like the manager's ready to see ya now, Vlad!"
Vlad eyed the tall intimidating man timidly, shrinking slightly, "I think my throat's dried up, Jack..."
"Okay, take this in with ya then." Jack shoved a bottle of water into Vlad's hand before giving him a slight push towards the door. As Vlad entered with a sheepish smile, his hand tightened around the plastic bottle, threatening to crush it in his grasp as he took a seat. The interview itself wasn't too terrible. In fact, up until the end, everything went perfectly and he practically had it in the bag, that is, until he got up to leave.
"Alright, thank you, sir!"
The two shook hands, as Vlad chuckled nervously, but a little more confidently than when he had entered. He unscrewed the cap of the water bottle and took a sip, but stopped cold when he tasted... backwash. Gagging, he spluttered and spit out the drink. Coughing, he looked back up horrified at the manager, who looked flabbergasted. He slowly wiped the liquid off of his face, and then looked murderously at the young man. Needless to say, it didn't turn out well.
Danny stared sideways at Vlad for a few minutes silently, his expression unreadable. Then, slowly, his vacant appearance morphed into a grin and he burst out laughing.
"Haha—oh, boy...! You were right when you said it was a horrible experience... hahaha!"
"Yes... yes, it was..." Vlad shook his head and rolled his eyes yet again.
They both stargazed and exchanged tales until both had fallen asleep.
Hey, hope you all enjoyed this chapter! I don't really know if the store manager interviews you or not when you want a job there, but that's sort of what I guess! You're free to correct me if I'm wrong, but I've never really had a job at a grocery store, so I wouldn't know :3. Anyways, you know what I expect of you all—review and let me know what ya think... or else. I'm just kidding, hehe!
In the meantime, I'll be working on the next chappie! See ya!