Ophelia pulled her coat tightly over herself as she felt another chill go down her spine. Ever since the evacuation, there have been more ghosts per capita than there ever had been in the entire history of Amity Park. Her ghost sense has been acting up so much to the increase that it eventually became one long chill. She was wearing enough layers to give her the appearance of having a healthy weight and still she couldn't get warm. Her father was going through the same thing, and they would have to crank the heating system to expensively high levels so make sure his ice core didn't cause him to freeze the entire house solid. Her poor mother had to roast at home so they won't turn blue.
She bladed to school that morning, thinking of how much warmer her destination would be than this cold autumn air. She stopped in her tracks when she sensed something familiar. She lifted her lucky goggles in hopes to get a better view of whatever she was feeling.
"Hello?" she called out. There was no answer.
"In all my life and beyond, I shall never see; an angel as virtuous and beautiful as thee."
Ophelia followed the voice to a tree, where she saw nothing. In the back of her mind, she saw a figure there leaning against the tree, looking at her. Her eyes flashed when she recognized that voice and figure.
"Waltz"
"Ah, my angel remembers me." Said that invisible voice.
"How could I forget," Ophelia said flatly, "your presence makes me sick to my stomach in such a specific way."
He laughed quietly to himself, like he heard an inside joke.
"What's so funny?"
"Oh, nothing, just the words you used."
She finally felt some heat in her cheeks.
"So, what does Vlad want you to do this time? Bore me to sleep with your terrible verses?"
"I don't work for him anymore. I'm a freelancer now."
"I guess that makes sense, you get enough time to prey on innocent human girls without having to multitask." She heard how loud she was and realized how strange she may look to someone passing by.
"Still sore, I see. If it makes you feel any better, you were probably the best girl I kissed….Then again, it's been a while. My memory of your lips is quite hazy."
"If you think I'm going to go anywhere near you, then you are crazier than your former boss."
"Well, if you won't give it willingly, then I guess I have no choice but to steal it from you."
Something grabbed her by her scarf and pulled her behind the tree. She cursed her roller blades for making it so easy for him to drag her. Her head banged against the tree when she got thrown against it. Before she could cry out in protest, an invisible mouth covered hers.
Her insight picked up something from him as he kissed her. A girl lying at someone's feet. By the flicker of a yellow light, she could see this girl was bleeding. There was a lot of blood. She wasn't breathing.
The image stunned her for a second. The next moment, she became lightheaded. Was he trying to suffocate her? Is this what they meant by "Kiss of Death"? It wasn't until her vision was starting to black out that he finally pulled away.
"Yep, you are the best girl I've ever kissed."
Ophelia nearly fell to her knees as she gasped for air. Her eyes were green flames, despite her cold body. She swung a punch at him, which was no more useful than swinging at air. He laughed an arrogant laugh that only made her angrier.
"You're so lucky I've got this stupid cuff on, you jerk!"
He was still laughing as he flew away.
"Yeah, you better fly away, scumbag backstabber sad excuse of a man waste of ectoplasm!"
Ophelia spat the taste of Waltz out of her mouth and kept rolling. For the rest of the way, she forgot that she was cold.
The next morning, Ophelia felt terrible. Every muscle in her body ached and she felt like someone knocked her over the head with a crowbar. She was chilled to the bone, but she could feel that her flesh was unusually warm. She took a while to get out of bed, for a wave of nausea would knock her back down. She only took one step before she buckled under her jelly legs.
"Uhhhh, somebody kill me." She whined, noticing how scratchy her voice sounded.
She coughed loudly and deeply, helping little to clear out her lungs. Not even a second after the first cough, her mother walked into her room.
"Sweetie, was that you coughing?" her mother asked.
Ophelia waved her off.
"No, no, no, no, I'm good, I'm absolutely peachy." She said this while slowly sinking down into the ground.
"You don't look peachy," her mother accused, "in fact, you using the word 'peachy' is a pretty big sign you're not."
She walked over and helped her sit back into bed. Her put her hand over her forehead, Ophelia cringed at how cold her mother's hand was compared to her forehead.
"Oh honey, you're burning up!"
"Oh, that's just the heater and ten blankets. I'm fine."
Ophelia coughed again. Her Mom back away like she had just caught on fire with her sleeve over her mouth.
"Whoa, that is definitely not a 'saliva down the wrong pipe' cough. You're sick, Ophelia."
Ophelia groaned and fell back into the bed.
"Can we pleeease not do the doctor thing this time? It's just the flu."
"Sweetie, you know that nothing you get is 'just the flu'. We have to call this in."
"Uhhhhh, this suuuuuuuucks! I hate being sick!"
"Everyone hates being sick. But with a little luck, this will only last a couple of days."
"It never does."
Everyone on Willow Street woke up that morning to the sound of an ambulance truck. The curious few and the kids walking to school caught the truck parked in front of the Fenton house. Those curious few became curiouser when they noticed that the paramedics were wearing contamination suits.
When they came out, they were wheeling out the young Fenton kid on a gurney. She didn't look like she was seriously injured, maybe a little under the weather. She was at least well enough to sit up on the bed, even to hold quite a good pout with her arms crossed over her chest. The kids who watched her getting loaded into the truck recognized that look as complete and utter humiliation. Some had enough pity not to record this moment on their phones to post on Facebook. Others didn't.
"Did you see that ambulance truck parked outside the Fenton house?"
"Yeah, did you see who they were loading into it?"
"I hope she's okay?"
Abi, Em, and Darcy were talking about the incident this morning as they walked to school together.
"What do you think happened to her?" Em asked.
"Maybe she just broke her leg or something." Darcy said.
"And they decided to call in the Haz-Mat squad?" Abi turned down, "I guess your deduction skills aren't in today, Detective Adler."
Darcy shot daggers at Abi through her eyes. Em saw a fight developing and stepped between them.
"Either way, she must not be feeling well. Maybe we should go to the hospital after school today to check in on her."
"Check in on whom?"
They weren't really startled at Trix's sudden appearance beside Em. They have gotten used to her and ghosts in general to be unfazed by the unannounced entrances of the ethereal.
"There was an ambulance outside the Fentons' house." Darcy explained.
"Way to underscore it." Said Abi, "The paramedics were in those big biohazard suits. It looked like that scene from E.T."
Trix tilted her head to the side confused.
"What's E.T.?"
"It's an old movie." Em filled in.
"Anyway, they were wheeling Ophelia out into the truck."
"Oh goodness, I hope she's okay." Trix looked truly worried, in a way akin to a scene from an old 1920's film.
"That's what we were just talking about." Said Darcy, " We don't know what's wrong with her."
"It must be something really horrible if they had to call in the ambulance." Abi said, "Remember that time she broke her leg in gym and acted like she didn't. Coach Baxter had to drag her to the nurses office when it started to turn black."
When the girls got to the school, they spotted Francis on the wall along the top step. He tapped at his phone and then suddenly the P.A. system crackled to life. He put his phone to his mouth like a microphone and spoke.
"My fellow students," He announced over the hacked P.A. system. People's heads were turning in his direction. "If any of you are concerned over my god sister Ophelia Fenton, it is undeserved. She is not dying, she is not injured, there is no radioactive spill in the Fenton house, it's just the flu. A common, everyday bug. They only take her to the hospital because of their paranoia over her freaky half-ghost biology. Now, everyone go on with your lives and stop worrying over the Fenton girl. That is all."
With that, the P.A. system died again. The rest of the school buzzed with satisfaction of the new information. The girls, on the other hand, weren't satisfied with just that and went to talk to him. He was leaning against the wall he just stood on when they caught up to him, looking through his phone at something they couldn't see. Francis flicked their eyes to them, not moving any other part of his body.
"Can I help you, ladies?" he said with an almost bored tone.
"What do you mean, she only has the flu?" Darcy asked.
He gave them a polite smile.
"I already met you two," he said, pointing to Em and Trix. Looking over to Abi and Darcy he said, "and I'm guessing you two are Necro's friends as well."
Darcy leaned over to Em. "Wow, you were right," she whispered, "he does call her that."
"Yes, we are her friends," Trix said in a polite yet stern way, "and we are worried about her. So please, tell us what's going on."
Francis rolled his eyes.
"Her freaky biology gives her this super immune system that helps her get over stuff crazy fast. When she gets sick, her body shows it like a common cold when it's actually pneumonia."
"Oh god!" cried Trix.
"Trust me, she only feels it like the common cold. Anyway, when she gets sick, her parents have to send her off to the hospital under quarantine. The doctors always freak out because of her possibly spreading a deadly disease without knowing it, the virus mutating in her body into something even worse, blah blah blah boring stuff. " He said this while moving his hand in a circular motion often associated with boredom.
"You're rather chill about all this." Darcy said in a somewhat disgusted tone.
"I grew up with all this drama, and so has she. I'm actually doing her a favor, she hates her ailments made into a big scene as much as I do."
"But still, you could at least act a little concerned."
"Okay, how's this?" He cleared his throat loudly. He then put his hands together and leaned them to the side of his face in a melodramatic manner. "Oh dear lord in heaven, my poor god sister has been cursed with the dreaded sniffles! However shall she survive the winter!"
"Wow, you just lost the Tony nomination." Said Em.
"Yeah, the producer must have thought you were a really good kisser." Abi added with a snort.
"Funny" said Francis. He went back to his phone as if they were invisible. "Unless you have something important to say, you can go ahead and get out of my airspace."
The girls walked away indignant.
"Who does that guy think he is, anyway?" Darcy said.
"He thinks he's the son and heir of a billion dollar software industry genius, oh wait, he is." Said Abi.
"So's Marti, and she's the sweetest thing." Added Em, "She's probably the only one of my sister's play dates I don't mind supervising. She even tops Millie…..Oh darn!"
"What?" asked Trix
"Owen"
"Oooohhh" Said Abi and Darcy in unison. Trix was confused.
"What about Owen?"
Darcy and Em were about to explain, but as usual Abi took the stage front and center.
"Owen's a nice kid, the nicest kid you'll ever know. But that's kind of the problem: he's too nice. When he hears someone's in trouble, he will go out of his way to help them. When they get hurt, he freaks. If he hears what happens to Phé, he's going to try to be at her bedside even if her has to go all Raiders of the Lost Ark to do it."
Trix was going to ask what Raiders of the Lost Ark was when Em cleared it for her.
Darcy went to Abi's side with a smile.
"Which means Candy Striper here is going to have him buzzing around her ear all day." She elbowed Abi's arm as she said this. Abi's eyes widened as if she had just now realized it.
"Aw, crud."
"Please, Abi"
"No!"
"Please"
"No, Owen"
"Come on, Abi, Please!"
"No, Owen, I don't even know if my Mom's attending to her."
"Aw, come on."
Abi's mother is a doctor at the main hospital in Amity Park, and her father is a paramedic. She volunteers after school as a candy striper at that very hospital, giving her the knowledge of what goes on and where under that roof. Because of this, her friends used her as an all access pass whenever someone they know gets checked in.
"Abi, please."
"Owen, shut up and listen. Francis said that it's nothing but the flu. She's only in there as a safety precaution for everyone else. In fact, even if I knew where she was, you wouldn't be allowed in because of the quarantine."
"Well, I wouldn't trust Francis' word on it." Owen grumbled. "Come on, Abi, she's all alone in there. The only human contact she gets are the doctors poking and prodding her to make sure she's not gonna die. I should be there to keep her company, let her know that the outside world hasn't forgotten her."
"Owen, I love you. You are like my other brother, but you are really acting over the top about this. It hasn't even been a day, I doubt she's going to go mad from a lack of human contact. This is not your baby sister in there, this is a girl who deflected a missile on her first day of school. She'll be fine. "
Owen scowled. She could see the gears working in his head to think of some way to convince her to let him in. She kind of felt bad for the guy. When he gets like this, it made her think of a puppy whimpering at their owner to play with them.
A smirk appeared on his mouth.
"Do you remember that time back in eighth grade when we got set up as lab partners for the whole semester and you left me with all the work and in appreciation you said something. What was that, exactly?"
Abi groaned.
"'I owe you big time,'" she said defeatedly.
"That's it, exactly. And I think now is a good time to cash in on that big time favor."
Abi punched the memory of her lazy eighth grade self.
"Fine. Wait for me outside of the East Wing entrance, I'll let you in and show you which room she's in. And do not hold me responsible when you catch something or something catches you."
Owen pounced a hug on her.
"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"
"Alright, alright, save it for your girlfriend." Abi said while she not so carefully pushed him off.
Ophelia flicked through the channels on the TV in her hospital room. Being in the middle of the day, and the hospital having a very modest cable package, there was nothing to watch. After about five laps of flicking through colors and sounds, she turned off the TV and tossed the remote to the empty cushioned chair across from her.
"I hate getting sick." She said for about the hundredth time today.
She looked around at the room. She was left alone in here, though the room seemed capable of housing two patients. It was mostly empty, save for the medical equipment that was scattered around the room and the bits of furniture here and there that didn't quite go with the all white walls and grey tiled floor and ceiling.
"I hate getting sick." She said again.
Her parents were here earlier today. Her mother was cleared after being checked for any possible contamination from being around her daughter. Both she and her father had to those ridiculous contamination suits that made her feel like she was in Area 51. They wanted to stay longer, but the doctors shooed them away to take a few tests, as they always would. Now, they are allowing her to rest, leaving her a pitcher of juice that she already went through an hour ago.
"I hate getting sick."
Worst of all, they didn't even bother to tell her what she has yet and how long she'll have to stay for. She guessed that it couldn't by more than a week, for that typhoid fever she had when she was ten only lasted a week and then she was back home.
She laid back into bed, her aching head felt heavier than when she was healthy. She stared straight up at the ceiling, being too weak and two sore to do much else.
"I hate getting sick."
The door opened. With all her strength, she pulled herself up to sit so she can see her visitor. She expected to see her parents again, but this time it was someone else she knew.
"Owen?" she said surprised.
"Hey Phé" he said with a timid wave. She immediately noticed that he wasn't wearing a suit.
"What are you doing here? How did you get here? Why aren't you wearing a contamination suit?"
"In order: I wanted to see you too see if you were okay. I cashed in on an old favor and had Abi sneak me in. She helped show me where your room was."
"Aww, I don't know whether I want to hug you or smack you. Are you out of your mind! I could be carrying tuberculosis for all I know, the nasty resistant kind too. You could drop dead any second just by standing in the same room as me-" she was going to say more, but her yelling agitated her throat too much an sent her into an ugly coughing fit. Owen kept his distance and then took a seat beside her when she finished coughing.
"Say whatever you want, Phé, but I do not regret my decision at all."
"You will when your skin falls off." She thought she could say it without coughing, but it rattled out between the unpleasant hacks.
"I shouldn't have to worry about that," he teased, "I heard about this new serum that helps it to grow back on its own."
She did not laugh, she was rather surprised that she wasn't as upset as she knew she should be. She blamed her flu for making her too weak to feel emotions more potently and only told him "Not funny"
Owen smile went away, he shrunk back like he was afraid she would hit him.
"Sorry," he said timidly.
She smiled at him. She was about it pat him on the shoulder before deciding it wouldn't be a good idea to touch him while she was this sick. Yet, she still patted the air.
"It's okay." She told him.
Another chill came over her. She pulled the covers over herself, but it did little to warm her. She ignored it, knowing that it will eventually pass and she'll burn up again. Just like how her throat felt now.
"Since you're here," she said, noticing that she was starting to lose her voice. "could you do me a big favor and get me something to drink? My throat's dryer than Death Valley."
Owen was quiet for a moment, seeming to be in deep thought. Ophelia raised an eyebrow.
"You okay?"
Owen snapped out of his spell and looked at her.
"Oh, sorry, I was just calculating the risk factor of getting your drink. I'm learning that the simplest of things are anything but with you."
Ophelia sheepishly shrunk into her covers.
"Is that a bad thing?"
"No, it's actually kind of fun in a weird way."
He leaned over to give her a kiss on the forehead, but she scooted away to let him know it was a bad idea. Owen was surprised for a moment, but then she saw that he got the picture. He walked over to the door and opened it. He gave her a wave that made her feel a little sad. She returned his wave by blowing him a kiss. He smiled and put a hand to his cheek. It made her laugh a bit. He closed the door behind him and she was alone again. She lied back down into her bed, pulling as much of the covers over her as she could. Her eyes fixed to the ceiling, she thought about how much she wanted him to kiss her, and how disappointed they both were that he couldn't.
"I hate getting sick."
Danny sat in the waiting room, pretending he could hear the mute television hanging from the other side. He had just convinced Sam to go home and let him stay here with their kid, which is by no means a small feat. She had a big case coming up soon and needed to put in as much time on it as she could if she wanted the conviction. He, on the other hand, had nothing to do at the moment. NASA didn't need him up at the station for a while, and most of his patrols happened at night. So, as he agreed with Sam, he'll stay at the hospital during the day to make sure everything is okay and she'll come in for the night shift.
He only wished he had the foresight to bring an extra coat with him. The hospital was colder than it was outside. It reminded him of the Far Frozen and his icy friends there. He wondered where they were now. He knew better than think they would stay in the Ghost Zone with His Majesty taking over, not when it put the Infi-Map in danger. They must be somewhere cold, that was obvious. Danny went on to list the coldest places he knew on Earth. He stopped when he realized that the very thought of cold was making him see his breath. He then tried to think of hot things to warm him up.
Florida beaches, deserts, volcanoes, the sun…
In the middle of that thought, one of Ophelia's doctors walked up to him. He got up from his seat to greet her.
"So, Mr. Fenton, we just finished with your daughter's test results."
"You don't have to be so formal with me, Anna, we're neighbors after all. Our daughters are friends."
She looked at him the way Sam does when he said something silly.
"You know how this works, Mr. Fenton, across the street I'm Abigail's mother, here in the hospital I'm Dr. Atkins."
"I know, just saying."
She gave him the look again before returning to her clipboard.
"According to the test results, she picked up a strain of the N1H1 virus. We're already sending over her samples to your agency so they can make a vaccine in case her body mutates the virus and the school is already notified to keep on the look out of any signs of the flu. Most humans are fine after five days, but seeing your daughter's medical history she could be out of here a lot earlier than that."
"Anything you can give her to help it along?"
"Nothing that fluids and a good amount of bed rest wouldn't do. Although…"
She looked at her clipboard with a puzzled expression, flipping papers back and forth. Danny took it as a bad sign.
"Although what?"
"The virus itself is quite odd. The last time this strain of the N1H1 virus was seen, it was known as the Spanish Influenza."
Danny was confused.
"How on Earth did Ophelia contract a hundred-year-old disease? She's supposed to be grounded."
Owen returned from the cafeteria with a large bottle of Ophelia's favorite fruit juice. He was lucky that he hadn't run into anyone he knew yet, if Abi's mom found him running around the halls he would surely be dead. And then there was Mr. Fenton. Abi told him that both Ophelia's parents were here earlier and that Mr. Fenton was still here in the waiting room. The last thing he would want is for Mr. Fenton to catch him sneaking into his daughter's room, not after that very scary talk he gave him…
His train of thought came to a halt when he spotted Abi coming around the corner. She spotted him, and looked very annoyed in doing so.
"What are you doing?"
Owen looked down and the bottle of juice in his hand and he lifted it up for her to see.
"Ophelia got thirsty."
"And that gave you an excuse to wander around the halls like you own the place? Do you know how much trouble I will get with my mom if she catches you?"
"Yes, because I'm in that much trouble already. In fact, I have a lot more to lose than you if Phé's dad finds out I'm here."
Abi covered her mouth and giggled.
"Oh yeah, right, I forgot about the Talk of Doom."
"Glad you still find it funny, now if you excuse me-"
There was a sound of voices coming from the around the corner where Owen just came from. Abi's eyes widened.
"Mom!"
Abi opened the door beside Owen and shoved him in.
"Hide in here!" she barked at him, as if he had a choice. Before Owen had a chance to protest, Abi slammed the door in front of him.
Owen looked around the room he was trapped in. It looked like she had just locked him in the hospital's lab. He found it strangely quiet in here. He didn't know how a lab should be like, but he never pictured it quiet. He walked around, making sure there was no one to see him before going into this turn or that. Labs are awfully quiet, he noted to himself, quiet and with not a lot of people.
He stopped and hid behind a shelf when he saw a human shape. He peered over to get a better look. Out of all the creatures he expected to find here, the last would be the strawberry blonde backstabber. He was dressed in doctor's scrubs, with plain tennis shoes and a stethoscope hanging from his neck. Somehow, he looked a lot older, like he was actual hospital staff and not a kid playing dress up. He appeared to be looking for something, going through a shelf of samples. Owen noticed that he was wearing what looked like latex gloves, but they seemed a lot thicker.
"Ha! There she is."
He pulled a small set of vials from the self. He held up one of the vials, which was filled with a dark red liquid.
"The new Plague, packed up in a tiny little bottle."
He put the vial back in its holder and took the whole thing Owen stepped out from the shelf.
"Hey!"
His shout startled Richard causing him to drop the vials. There was a little popping sound when the vials broke on the ground. Richard looked down at it with more anger than Owen had ever seen him express.
"You idiot! Look what you made me do!"
"Who knew a ghost could be spooked by a human."
Richard looked up at him. There was a look of surprise and recognition somewhere in all that anger.
"You! You're that pansy artist boy that was pining over Ophelia."
"I'm better known as that pansy artist boy who's dating Ophelia."
Richard's hands glowed bright with ghost energy. Owen instinctively backed away.
"Congratulations, you'll be the first boy I've killed in a century."
Richard stepped towards him. Out of nowhere, Richard screamed out in pain. Red sparks were coming off of him. Richard hopped away on one foot like he stepped on a big nail. When the sparks disappeared, Richard calmed down. The ghost energy in his hands had long disappeared. He glared at Owen in a way that made the boy feel like someone was stepping over his grave.
"You got lucky this time, boy. Get in my way again and you won't be so lucky."
With that, Richard phased through the floor. Owen was confused at what he had just seen. He looked down at the broken vials and saw a red foot print. He knelt down and picked up the holder for the vials, careful not to cut himself on the broken glass. The holder had a label along the side. Manson-Fenton, Ophelia L.
"Looks like Phé saves the day again," Owen mused to himself.
He heard the door open behind him and he jumped. Fortunately for him, it was only Abi.
"I heard a scream, did you break something?" Abi said in a panicky voice. She looked down at where Owen was and groaned.
"Seriously? You've got to be kidding me. Now I have to clean up this mess and hope no one will notice that a sample is missing."
"Abi, it wasn't me. It was that Waltz kid. He was trying to steal Ophelia's medical samples."
The moment he said "Ophelia's medical samples" Abi jumped back like it was a spider.
"What the heck are you doing touching that stuff! Put it down!"
Owen dropped the holder and got up. Abi held up her hands to let Owen know not to go anywhere near her.
"My Mom told me she's got the Spanish flu. It's a lot worse for adults but that doesn't mean we should take any risk. You need to wash your hands in scalding hot water and I'm going to give you a whole bunch of hand sanitizer."
"Spanish flu? Isn't that like a hundred years old?"
"Somehow she caught it. Now come on, I need to get you sanitized."
Abi had put on gloves while she was talking and grabbed Owen by the wrist to lead him out. Owen stopped after a few steps.
"Waltz, Phé told me he kissed her yesterday just before she got sick. What if he infected her somehow?"
"Well, ghosts don't get sick, so I guess they would make great carriers. My mom read this study once theorizing that the Black Plague was so devastating because ghosts would carry the disease without feeling it and give it to people who they believed wronged them in their life."
"What if he did that to Phé?"
"That's ridiculous, why would he want to get her sick?"
"I don't know, but we have to tell her. He didn't look happy when the samples were ruined."
Ophelia was very lucky that Owen didn't come before her father and Dr. Atkins did. She was even luckier that he didn't get to her room while they were still there. She managed to worry about this while feeling the relief of her illness not needing contamination suits. So she may not be here for too long, that's great. But where and how could she have gotten the Spanish flu? She thought about that before she drifted into a much needed nap.
She was shaken awake, which felt a lot worse than she knew it should have. She groaned and her eyes slowly opened to meet a pair of hazel and blue ones. Both of them were wearing medical masks.
"I was sleeping." She drawled out.
"Ophelia, listen, Waltz is in the hospital. I saw him in the lab stealing your test samples."
"What? Why?"
"We don't know yet," said Abi, "Owen thinks he was the one who infected you in the first place."
Ophelia gave a laugh.
"Of course, who better to give me swine flu than a pig?" She lifted herself up by her arms, or at least tried to before her arms gave out. Abi went to her side to help her up.
"This is serious." Owen said, "I startled him and he broke the samples. Whatever he needed them for, he'll probably go after you again to get it"
"Jeez Owen, you have to make everything so melodramatic." Abi said, "'whatever he needed them for, he'll go after you to get it', you sound like a soap opera."
"That's not the point. The point is that the guy almost killed me and Phé's in danger."
Ophelia giggled.
"Looks like you were right Owen, nothing is ever simple with me. You went out to get me some juice, and run into some diabolical plot conspired by my ex-boyfriend."
"And nearly get killed by him, don't forget that." Owen added. "So what are we going to do?"
"I don't know about you, but I'm going to try to get in as much rest as I can. I can't even get myself to sit up, let alone get up and fight. You guys will have to tell my Dad so he can keep an eye out for the creep. In fact, if Waltz knew my Dad was here, he wouldn't be anywhere near this place."
"Well, good luck telling him, Abi." Owen said to her.
"Me?"
"Well, yeah, I not even supposed to be here, remember?"
Abi pouted.
"I swear, by the end of today, you're going to be owing me a big time favor."
"Put me on the tab too, Abs." Said Ophelia. She tried to lift her arm to add a gesture, but it dropped back over her stomach.
"Darn right, you are." Abi said. She left the room and closed the door behind her. Owen turned to her. She could tell by his eyes he was smiling at her. He held her hand, which, like her mother's this morning, felt like ice. He brushed the bangs from her forehead, the coldness from that hand felt nice against her skin.
"It's okay," he comforted, "you'll be just fine."
She smiled back. She would've said something back to him, but her eyelids had gotten too heavy. She drifted back to sleep with the feeling of Owen's cold hand in hers.
Danny was in the cafeteria, enjoying the warmth of a disgusting cup of coffee. He called Sam to let her know about the diagnosis. He promised to let her know if anything else comes up, like how Ophelia managed to get the Spanish Influenza in the first place.
"Mr. Fenton! Mr. Fenton!"
Abigail de Fleur, Dr. Atkins daughter and Ophelia's friend, was weaving through the tables at an extraordinary pace.
"Oh, hey there Abigail, how have you been?" Danny politely greeted.
"So much better than I am now," she said while catching her breath. "You know Ophelia's ex-boyfriend?"
"Waltz?" he said annoyed. His fingers clawed around the Styrofoam cup, threatening to break it.
"Yeah, well he's here. I just saw him in the lab trying to steal Ophelia's test samples. He nearly killed me when I cause him to break them. I think he might go after Phé for new samples."
Danny's eyes flashed green. He knew he should've dealt with him when he had the chance. He got up from his seat and transformed himself into Phantom.
"It's a good thing you told me. Ophelia won't be able to defend herself in her condition. Go let your mother know what's going on and have her notify security that there's a ghostly intruder on the premises. This building got a ghost shield?" Abigail nodded to confirm, "Good, have them switch it on as soon as possible, I am not having that kid leave the premises unless it's in handcuffs."
Abigail gave him a nod and ran off. Danny flew across the cafeteria and through the many rooms and hallways on the way to his daughter's room.
To his shock, his daughter wasn't anywhere in the room. Instead, the Dodgson boy was lying unconscious on the floor beside the bed. Of course he's here, Danny thought.
Danny knelt down beside Owen and shook him awake.
"Dodgson? Wake up, Owen!"
Owen let out a moan as he slowly regained consciousness. Danny shook him harder.
"Where's my daughter? What happened?"
"…Richard….bird faced man….gas…"
"Spit it out, kid!" Danny had no time for this.
Whatever knocked out the poor kid must have been strong. Danny could tell that it was still in effect, making Dodgson groggy and slur his words.
"… Richard…they took Phé…used some sort of gas to knock us out."
"How long have they been gone?"
"I don't know."
Abigail arrived shortly, along with Dr. Atkins. Abigail was shocked at the scene, her mother looked surprise as well.
"Oh my gosh!" Abigail shrieked, "What happened?"
"What happened is that I got here too late." Danny said, getting up from the floor. "Richard took Ophelia. How long has it been since you left this room?"
It took Abigail a moment to process his words.
"Um, I don't know. Like, maybe five minutes?"
Danny turned to Dr. Atkins.
"Are the shields up?"
"Yes, I had security confirm it before we got here."
"That means they must still be inside here somewhere. Have security check every room."
"But what am I having them look for? I've don't even know who we're talking about."
"It's a ghost, goes by the name Richard Waltz. He looks like he's about fourteen or fifteen years old, average height and build for an adolescent, he's got reddish-blonde hair, red eyes that turn brown when he poses as a human, and blue-white skin that he changes to look Caucasian pink when he poses as a human."
As quickly as he said it, Dr. Akins scribbled Waltz's description down somewhere on her clipboard. Abigail was helping Owen to sit in the chair by were he was lying. He groaned.
"…there was someone else…"
"Who?"
"The bird-faced man…"
Ophelia woke up to darkness. She couldn't tell if her eyes were open. Everything was cold, helping her fever. The surface beneath her felt like icy metal. She tried to sit up, but found she barely had any room to move her arms. With the little space she had, she felt the dimensions of the space around her. There was a metal ceiling above her, only inches away from her nose. Another wall a little under a foot away from the top of her head, and wherever the other wall was it was out of reach of her toes.
How did she get here? Where was 'here'? The last thing she remembered was falling asleep in her hospital room with Owen holding her hand….What happened to Owen?
She banged against the metal ceiling as hard as she could, which in her state didn't make it as loud as she would want it.
"Hello?" She shouted in her crackled, hoarse voice, "Can anyone hear me?"
She thought she heard voices, but they were so low she couldn't tell whether or not they were coming out of her own head.
"Hello!" She shouted, banging harder against the ceiling. "Let me out of here!"
She felt a strange pressure, like someone was on top of her. Something held her hands together by the wrists. Her screams were muffled; it felt like a hand was over her mouth.
"Shut up!" a harsh voice whispered way too close to her ear.
When she recognized Richard's voice, she screamed louder and struggled against him. Richard held her down with a stronger grip. She felt fingernails digging into her cheek.
"Shut up or I swear I'll end you here and now! Or would you rather I waste your little boyfriend instead?"
Something told her that he was being very serious. She stopped screaming and lied flat down.
"That's my good little angel."
It was quiet. She could hear voices outside. They were even fainter than before, meaning they were either quieter or further away. They got closer, or louder. She heard clicks vibrate within the walls.
"Stay quiet and don't move," he ordered, "Or somebody's going to be in a great deal of pain."
There was a loud click coming from the wall over her head. A sensation came over her that she was very familiar with, the one that came when she turned invisible. The wall over her head opened, becoming a door. The floor beneath pulled her out into the light. Her eyes squinted to the painful and abrupt transition from darkness to light. She blinked a few times to adjust.
At her side were men dressed in security guard uniforms. They looked down but not at her, only the table beneath her. Over her head was a man dressed in doctor scrubs and a lab coat. She couldn't make out all of his features from where she was, but she did see he had plain brown hair that seemed to be styled after a 1950's sitcom. What little of her insight that wasn't dulled by her flu told her he was a ghost.
"See," said the ghost in the lab coat, "This drawer is empty, there's no one here. Well, no one living, that is."
The security guards looked at the table suspiciously. One of them reached his hand through Richard and Ophelia and touched the metal surface.
"It feels a little warm for a place to keep a dead body." said the guard,
"What?" said the ghost in a surprised tone that didn't convince Ophelia at all. He put his hand through her head to feel the table. "You're right. It must be that intern from earlier today, I once caught him trying to use this cabinet as a refrigerator for his lunch. The kid has no respect for the dead."
Much to Ophelia's shock, the guards appeared to be buying the story.
"Keep on the look out for anything suspicious. We're keeping the whole building under lockdown, no one alive or dead is leaving here until we find the Fenton kid."
"I understand completely, gentlemen. Now, if you excuse me, I have a few autopsies to perform. Unless you want to see the inside of a week old drowning victim."
He needed to say nothing further. The guards left the morgue with a few mumbled apologies for wasting the doctor's time. As soon as the door closed, Richard made them both visible. He let go of her wrist and took his hand from his mouth, but his face lingered a few inches from hers.
"Now that wasn't hard, was it darling?" he said sweetly as her touched her cheek. She pushed him off of her and he tumbled to the ground. She sat up and smiled at the sight of him sprawled out on the floor.
"Aww, that looked like it hurt." She said.
She turned over to the ghost in the lab coat.
"Who the heck are you?"
The ghost gave a polite bow and offered her hand to shake.
"I'm known as the Plague Doctor, both by name and profession. I'm quite sorry about this, but I needed to retrieve a new sample after my assistant broke the first one."
"Hey, I shouldn't take full blame. The pansy boy startled me."
"You the ghost, you the killer, you the saboteur and thief extraordinaire? I thought when I hired you I would get efficiency, not sloppiness."
"I think I did a better job than you asked for. Why get one small sample when you've got the self-replenishing source right here at your disposal."
"I demand an explanation for my captivity!" Ophelia tried to make it sound intimidating, but instead she got the squeaks of a pubescent frog.
"Yes, sorry, pardon me." Said the Plague Doctor. "You see, I am a collector and experimenter of all the great diseases of history. Wherever there is an epidemic, I have either caused it or collected a sample. I usually work within the Ghost Zone and sent agents to retrieve the data I need, but what with the Ghost King taking his throne, I had to set up shop on the field."
"Not getting what this has to do with me."
He held her head in that annoying, patronizing way her grandmother did when she said something "quaint".
"You, my dear, are my latest project. I read your case and saw what a beautiful immune system you have. It can mutate a serious ailment and make it even more deadly. My hypothesis is that if your body can do that, it can do the impossible."
"And that would be?"
"Why, make a ghost sick, of course – come here, sit on this table." He patted the autopsy table. She looked at it and back at him. She wasn't moving.
"Oh, silly me, you must be too weak to stand up on your own. Richard, be a dear and help her to the table."
He didn't bother getting her on her feet. Richard scooped her up bridal style and carried her there, though not without a fight on her part. He dumped her onto the table, which hurt. The pain went up her body like a tuning fork.
"Aww, that looked like it hurt." He whispered to her mockingly.
The Plague Doctor wheeled in a tray of utensils.
"Ghosts can't be affected by a disease, only carry it. I sometimes send out a few agents to spread a disease when I think an epidemic is too small, and in fact use them to send out some from my own collection, as you have experienced with Waltz here."
"My favorite part of the job so far." Richard chimed in.
"But you, a half ghost, you can be affected by ailments and mutate them. So then, you may be able to mutate a disease that reacts to ectoplasm the same way it reacts to the human body. Imagine that: a plague that affects both the living and the dead. Why, it would bring the bubonic to shame."
Ophelia blinked in disbelief.
"So, you used my ex-boyfriend to infect me so you can use me as a living Petri dish to create the most devastating disease known to man and ghost?" She coughed, "You are out of your mind, and I am out of here."
She tried to hop off the table, but Richard pushed her back down. The Plague Doctor shook his head.
"Oh dear, nobody seems to share my vision. How disappointing. Oh well, if the patient won't comply to the treatment, then I shall need to use a little force. Waltz."
Richard smiled at her in a way she did not like at all. He pushed her and pinned her arms down to the table. She struggled against him. The Plague Doctor was filling a syringe with a greenish liquid from a small bottle.
"I hate to sedate my patients, it seems invasive to go through these procedures while they're unconscious. In here, it'll feel like I should be performing an autopsy. But then again, I can't have you fighting me the whole way through. Tense muscles make the needles stick."
He tapped the needle and see if the liquid was coming out right. As he did so, his form seemed to shimmer. His lab coat turned into a long white robe. The blue latex gloves on his hands turned black and leathery. A wide brimmed hat appeared on his head, covering his 50's sitcom haircut. The strangest of all was the mask that grew on his face. At fist, it looked like a gas mask, but then the mouth then stretched out into a beak.
"Do not worry, this won't hurt a bit."
He took her arm, and she tried to pull it away. There was the familiar prick of the needle, right in the most tender spot on her arm. She kept fighting when he took the needle away, but it got harder and harder to move. Her vision was blurring as she tried to stay awake. The last thing she saw was the bird-face mask tilt to the side curiously.
"Good night, Briar Rose."
Then it all went black.
Danny stood by the main entrance of the hospital waiting impatiently for GHCU. Security had searched every corner of the hospital and found no sign of that Waltz kid, or more importantly any sign of Ophelia, or oddly of Owen's Bird-faced Man. He knew they wouldn't, these guards only know how to search for people, not ghosts. The fact that the two could turn invisible would've been an afterthought to them, and the standard ghost trackers required for general security were made as useless as his ghost sense by the overflow of ghosts in town, and the handful now trapped in the hospital.
He blamed himself, he shouldn't have left her alone. If that Dodgson kid was able to get past him, then of course Waltz would. He was at least comforted that they had to be somewhere in the building, but it frustrated him as well. Where could they be?
His internal guilt trip was brought to a halt when the doors opened. Valarie came in with a few other officers from her unit. He smiled and gave her a friendly wave, but she didn't reciprocate. Instead, she gave him a formal handshake. Of course, he forgot, this was the cold but firm Captain Gray on duty, not his friend Valarie.
"We came in as soon as we got the call," said Valarie, "anything happen yet?"
"No, security checked all around the building and couldn't find anything."
"Which isn't saying much. Not to worry, the professionals are here."
"Goodie" he said sarcastically, "Have you got the tracer?"
"Yes, got it right here." She slung off the backpack she kept over one shoulder and unzipped it. She took out a handheld device that looked like a thermal imager camera.
"Where's the crime scene?"
"Right this way."
Danny led her and the other officers to Ophelia's room on the third floor. To his chagrin, the Dodgson kid was still there with Abigail and Dr. Atkins.
"What are you still doing here?" Danny told him.
"It's not like I can go home, can I? And besides, don't the police need to hear my testimony?"
Valarie looked at Owen amused and nudged her elbow at Danny's arm.
"I'm guessing this it the boyfriend you told me about?" She asked in a hushed tone.
"Yep, that's him."
"What's that thing?" Owen asked, pointing to the device in Valarie's hand. Captain Gray held it up to so Owen could see it better.
"This is an ecto-tracer," she told him, "We in GHCU use it to identify and track a ghost using their unique ectoplasmic signature. Watch."
She pointed the tracer at Danny, a light came on similar to a camera's recording light. An image came on the screen of the tracer. Everything was either black or near black shades of colors, with outlines drawing out the room and the people in it. Danny appeared as a large mass of bright green with barely visible white lines giving the shape of his body. The green radiated from him and a slightly fainter trace of it led to the door he entered in. The camera beeped and a tab appeared below the image. It had two pictures of Danny, one as Fenton and one as Phantom. Next to it was his basic information and on the end of the tab had a palette with Danny's shade of green on it.
"See, wherever Mr. Phantom goes, he leaves a trail of his ghost energy behind him. And, depending on how long it's been and the concentration of ectoplasm, we'll be able to tell where he's been.
Owen looked at it over Captain Gray's shoulder. Abigail peeked at it from a less obtrusive distance.
"Cool" Owen said.
Danny frowned. He was not in the mood to be used as a demonstration.
"Yeah, yeah, cool, can we get back to finding Ophelia?" he said impatiently.
"Alright, alright, " said Valarie, "Don't get your tights in a bunch."
"It's a jumpsuit." Danny protested. He was starting to like the serious Captain Gray better.
She went to the empty bed and aimed the tracer at it. The light blinked again and the screen showed a slightly faint green and fainter purple splotch on the bed. The camera beeped and Ophelia's tab appeared underneath the image. Like Danny, the tab showed two pictures of her, one as she appears on the Human Plane and one of what she transforms into when she enters the Ghost Zone. It had her basic information and the palette hade a brighter shade of the two colors that appeared on the bed.
"She's definitely been here," said Captain Gray, "And according to this she couldn't have been gone for more than an hour."
She turned to Owen.
"You said that there were two ghosts that took her?" she asked him.
"Um, yeah, Richard Waltz and this guy in a weird bird mask."
She pointed the tracer to the space between the bed and the door. It picked up two signatures, one blue-white and charcoal grey. The tab with the blue-white square had a picture of Waltz and his basic information. The grey tab had a blank space where the picture would be and the words 'unknown'.
"Whoever your Bird-faced Man is, he's not on our records. But Waltz has definitely been here."
"I knew it was a good idea to take his signature when they were still dating." Danny said, marveling at his past brilliance.
"Yes, yes, aren't you clever." Said Captain Gray. Danny could tell she was stopping herself from rolling her eyes at him.
"Now give me that so I can track down the punk myself." Danny reached over the grab the tracer from Gray's hand, but she was too fast for him and pulled it out of his way. He lost his balance and fell over. He floated to keep himself from hitting the ground.
"No way, Phantom, I'm not letting you search on your own. You have a history with the perp, a bias, anything you do to him when you find him will be used against you in court."
"Who cares about the courts, he may have already killed Ophelia for all we know."
"That's the exact attitude you can't have at this moment. I either go with you or you stay here and I go on my own."
Danny balled his fists. He didn't need a babysitter to follow him around, he needed to find his kid. He should've known this would have happened, if he didn't need the tracer he wouldn't have called her in at all. While they were wasting their time going by the book, Ophelia was somewhere in the hospital. Too weak to fight for herself, in great danger, carrying a disease that could potentially wipe out the whole building if not the whole city...
Defeated, he crossed his arms and gave a loud sigh.
"Fine, just don't slow me down."
Captain Gray smiled victoriously.
"What makes you think you won't slow me down?"
Ophelia woke up slowly. She felt more or less the same as before: she was aching to the bone, her flesh felt warm while she was freezing, and her throat was still sore and she needed to cough. Now on top of that her body felt like pure lead and the room wouldn't stop moving.
Something glinted above her in the light. She could barely make it out, but she soon identified them as two bags with tubes coming from the bottom of each one. One bag was filled with a clear liquid, which she assumed was an IV drip. The other was filled with a slimy green substance that had a faint glow to it. She knew that was raw ectoplasm. They must have another drip to keep her sedated, but she couldn't see it within her line of vision.
She turned her head. The Plague Doctor, still dressed in the odd outfit she had last seen him in, was at a table a little ways away from her. He was holding a clear slide up to the light, his other hand holding the side of an eye of his mask like he was adjusting the focus of a camera's lens.
"Amazing, truly amazing," he said. She wasn't sure if he was talking to her or not. "Your lymph and blood samples both show the presence of plant cells in your system. No doubt they are of the blood blossom species." He put down the slide and picked up a new one with a spot of red in the middle. He adjusted the lens again, it was shrinking and growing like a camera's zoom. Ophelia guessed they must act as a kind of portable microscope.
"And you seem to be fighting the influenza at much faster rate than I had expected. You should've had a cytokine storm by now with this strong an immune system. Your ghost half must be helping your immune system regulate itself, or perhaps it's the blossoms. Ha! So many theories!"
He put the slide down. He slid a Petri dish in front of him and reached for two bottles. Both of them had a greenish tint and glowing.
"The virus seems to be progressing at a fast rate as well. I could hardly recognize it in the slides. I gave it a little something to help it move in the right direction."
He filled an eyedropper with the substance in one bottle. He emptied the eyedropper into the Petri dish and then used a swab to evenly distribute it across the surface. He got a new eyedropper and filled it with the substance of the other bottle.
"Now to introduce it to ectoplasm from a ghostly body to see if it works."
He squeezed out a single drop onto the Petri dish and then put the eyedropper back into the bottle. He watched it for a moment, silently, adjusting the lenses of his mask to get a good view. Without warning, he banged his fist against the table.
"Ha ha! Success! Waltz, my boy, come look at this!"
Richard came from behind her and looked over the Plague Doctor's shoulder. He was wearing a medical mask and most of his hair was covered. He looked like he was about to perform surgery.
"Should I be able to see something from here?"
"Oh, where is my head? Here," He took a swab from the dish and smeared it into a slide. He then carefully placed it into the microscope on the other side of the table.
"Now come look."
Richard looked into the eyepiece of the microscope while adjusting the focus.
"See how the ectoplasm is reacting to the virus?" and the Plague Doctor.
"Oh yeah, I see." Richard said, impressed.
"We have just made history, my friend. This is the day the first ecto-virus was created."
Richard lifted his head from the microscope and looked over to Ophelia.
"What are we going to do with her?" he asked, thrusting his thumb in her direction.
The Plague Doctor's long-beaked head turned to her. Neither seemed to notice, or at least not acknowledging, that she was now awake.
"I was thinking of returning her once the experiment was complete, but I can't help but think of the possibilities of this process on the rest of my collection. I've been saving my Black Death for an occasion like her."
"Well, we can't leave here with the ghost shields up, and I would rather be swallowed by Tartarus than go through the Ghost Zone, not with Pariah Dark there."
"I wouldn't dare go near the Ghost Zone, either. Hmm," the Plague Doctor leaned his head against his hand.
"The regulations for any medical institution is that they can hold a building under lockdown for no more than twenty-four hours. I believe if we can hide her until then, we can smuggle her out without any issue. And while we're here, I can test my new virus on some of the patients here to see its full effect."
"Oh, great. You get to play with your new toy while I have to hide the whelp from her father. I want a raise when this is over."
"Not to worry, gentle lad, you shall get everything you've earned under my employment."
"That's what my last boss said before Phantom threw him in jail."
"Somebody called my name?"
Richard turned paler than his ghostly pallor.
"Uh oh"
Both Richard and the Plague Doctor turned to the door. Ophelia tried to get put and see, but she couldn't even lift up her head. Her insight was shot so she could only assume that her father was alone at the door.
"Ghosts at a morgue. This should have been the first place I looked."
"So you're the famous Danny Phantom," said the Plague Doctor, "Can I just say how honored I am to finally meet you."
"You two are both under arrest for kidnapping." That was Auntie Val's voice. Looks like her Dad didn't come alone after all.
"Yes, I am quite sorry to be guilty of those charges. Richard, take care of them, will you?"
Waltz did not hesitate to shoot a ghost ray straight at Valarie. She ducked and shot a ray from her gun. Richard phased through the floor just in time to miss the blast. He reappeared behind Valarie and Danny and shot them both in the back.
"You take your daughter to work too much, Phantom." Richard said, "I know enough through her to get quite a good advantage in combat."
Danny flashed his eyes at him. Richard turned around and shot the air. The air gave a shout and another Danny appeared with a smoking chest.
"Like for example, there's a certain look you get when you're concentrating on being in more than one place at once."
He phased through the floor a split second before Valarie's gunshot could hit him. He stuck his head out through the floor next to her.
"And there's that sound your gun makes when it's about to fire. I'll take that." He snatched the gun out of her hand before she could react and pulled himself out of the floor. He aimed the gun at her, showing her the sound he was talking about.
"Nothing personal, inspector," he said, "I just don't like prison."
Before he pulled the trigger, Danny fired a ghost ray that hit him square in the chest. The gun fell out of his hands and he stumbled backwards. Valarie pulled a thermos from her belt and sucked him in.
"Nothing personal, kid," Valarie said, "I just don't like people pointing my own gun at me."
When the fight was over, they noticed that the other ghost had disappeared. There on the table was a Petri dish and a note. Danny picked up the note.
Dear Mr. Phantom and officer,
I am frightfully sorry to leave you unannounced, but I do not wish to be arrested at this time. I did not wish any more harm than necessary, and I certainly did not wish to abduct your precious child. I only did what was needed to complete my experiment. Although I had wished to try other viruses on your child's immune system, I understand that I have overstepped my boundaries in my ambition and scientific curiosity. I have what I came for, and therefore will not make another attempt at yours or your family's welfare. To show my remorse, I have left a sample of my new virus. It is more than enough to develop a vaccine for when I try it on the populace. This will not hinder to my research at all, as I will still be able to see my creation in affect by the time you can cure it.
Dreadfully sorry for all the trouble I have caused you.
Best wishes to you and your family.
Sincerely,
The Plague Doctor
"Wow, he may be the most polite ghost I've ever fought." Danny said.
There was a loud cough. Danny turned to find Ophelia on the autopsy table. He rushed over to her and took out the tubes in her arm. He propped her up.
"Ophelia, hey," he said to her gently, "You okay honey? Can you hear me? Can you speak?"
Ophelia coughed again to clear her throat and looked up at him. She nodded her head.
"I've said this before and I'm saying it again," she said in her raspy, hoarse voice. "I hate getting sick."