Chapter Twenty: Sanctuary in the Closet
Repetitions of the phrase "so, how was your holidays?" bounced off of the walls in Casper High. Wes leaned sullenly against his locker, observing the crowded hallway as students prepared for the official beginning of the second semester. He heard the betterment of many students' first conversations with their friends since Christmas, and honestly, it was almost nauseating. He'd rather be at home working on a new evidence spreadsheet or disobeying Walter's strict rule not to play basketball inside the house when he wasn't there. He did not need to know about Paulina's raunchy New Year's party with the A-Listers and as well as the nerds' D&D tournament that went on for three days straight (three lonely days of scarfing down Hot Pockets and cheese-puffs and not showering).
And then... when he finally had enough about hearing about his fellow delinquent teenagers recreational activities over the break, Wes's attention was instantly redirected to the invisible trio (metaphorically invisible, this time).
Tucker was wearing an overlarge Star Wars knit sweater, Sam had a new side-shave on the left side of her head (Wes had almost heard her mother's screams of horror from his apartment near Elmerton), and Danny was unenthusiastically carrying a brand new backpack covered with pictures of his Dad's face. But nonetheless, the were the same ghost-busting trio, who time and time again ruined Wes's tattered reputation. But he was determined, not anymore. This year, he will make a change, he swore it.
Most people had simple New Year's resolutions: lose weight, stop procrastinating, fall in love, etc. Wes, on the other hand, didn't have a goal for his New Year's resolution. He had an ambition. This year, 2006, he was (and he was going to do it) going to reveal Danny's secret and regain his lost credibility from every damned idiot that initially denied him.
Wes stared down Danny and his two friends as they approached the half-ghost's locker. Wes omitted a quiet shout of protest when Danny glanced at the overcrowded hallway, shrugged, and intangibly put his hand through his locker door.
"HOW ARE YOU IDIOTS NOT SEEING THIS?" he screamed. "HIS HAND IS LITERALLY INSIDE A LOCKER RIGHT NOW! HE'S USING HIS OWN POWERS IN FRONT OF YOU AND YOU DON'T EVEN NOTICE – GAH! EVERYONE IS AN IDIOT!"
And with that, Wes stormed down the hallway, no one giving him a second look. Danny looked at his snickering friends and smirked, "I guess we can't really be back at school without Wes going psycho on everyone for automatically denying my secret identity."
Sam shrugged, "It wouldn't be the same without that loud bastard."
It was later that same day Wes found himself scared shitless, and hiding in the janitor's closet. To explain why exactly, the story starts two weeks previously, at Vlad Master's annual Christmas party. Unfortunately, Wes hadn't been able to make any excuses to get out of it, so he was forcefully dragged along by Walter to Vlad's extravagant mansion of doom. Christmas, naturally, was supposed to be a lively holiday – but if anyone knew how to kill the mood, it was Vlad.
So when Wes found himself in Vlad's trophy room again, he knew that what he was doing was a bad idea; that he should've learned from the last time. But this time... he had a plan. He knew that Vlad's stupid Maddie Fenton hologram alerted him whenever someone was in his secret lab, so if Wes disabled her before she could alert Vlad... he could do whatever he wanted.
Now disabling her would've normally been the difficult part, but this time, Wes had that part in the bag. A few days before school ended, Sam had thrown Tucker's technology laden backpack at Skulker to try to make him lose balance, but it didn't work, sending it crashing to the floor. (After that, Tucker had started screaming about his 'precious babies' and how he would never forgive Sam for her awful treason).
During all the chaos, Wes swiped a few of Tucker's more interesting devices. One of which, happened to be, a pen that emitted a small electromagnetic field and withheld the ability to short out any electronic within a five foot radius. Wes had no idea where Tucker got it, but damn, it was cool. Dash still couldn't figure out why his cell phone wouldn't turn on.
So, with the electromagnetic pen in hand, Wes scaled down the stairs to Vlad's lab. It was the same as Wes remembered it: glossy linoleum floors, the weird glowing doorway into another dimension, a panel of computer screens, large chambers bordering the walls, an array of vials with glowing liquids, and the lingering smell of what Wes had learned was ectoplasm (he did not want to know why Vlad was experimenting with ghostly substances).
It only took about ten seconds before the hologram shimmered into visibility. "Welcome Master Vlad, I have monitored the ecto-repellant samples and have determined that they should be cooled at precisely -8º Celsius, roughly 17º Fahrenheit. I took it upon myself to adjust the-"
And that's as far as the Maddiegram ever got with her report. Wes ran at her in a mad frenzy and pressed down on the electromagnetic pen. The hologram froze before dramatically breaking into pixels and vanishing.
"Well," Wes said, pocketing the pen, "it's a good thing that worked."
He decided to look at what was laying around the lab, and came to a stack of papers on a table. The thing was, they weren't organized papers or documents, but more like... junkmail. Wes sifted through some of them before getting bored. However, there was one near the top of the stack that piqued his interest.
'You're Invited to: Johnny 13 & Kitty's Annual Holiday Party
Where?: Johnny's Lair (just follow the motorcycle trail to the end)
Food: Catering by the Lunch Lady and Box Ghost; ecto-punch later on
When?: December 24th; begins when the GZ sky turns from neon to moderate green, ends whenever Walker shows up cause he's lame'
Wes held the invitation in pure confusion. Why was Vlad Masters of all people being invited to a ghost Christmas party? Wes wracked his brain for possible reasons but found nil. Finally, he set the invitation back on the table and turned around, only to walk straight into a cabinet of strange vials. The cabinet gave one horrendous shake before completely collapsing. Wes winced as dozens of vials shattered on impact and fizzled into the floor, dissolving the upper tiles.
Wes wanted to look around more, but after that incident, he figured it was best to get out of the lab as soon as possible. He did not want to be there to face Vlad's wrath when he discovered someone had trashed all of his presumably valuable substances.
Wes hadn't thought about that incident since it occurred. That was, until, on the first day back in school Vlad Masters walked into Casper High to talk with Principal Ishiyama about official business. It was directly after lunch, but a few minutes before the start of Wes's fifth period class. He had been walking to his locker when he spotted the billionaire and principal, walking side-by-side. It was a weird image, considering the near two-foot height difference between the two.
"-thank you for the ghost security funding, Mayor Masters!"
"It's no problem," Vlad said, in his usual egotistical tone, "after all, ghost safety has grown to be quite a problem in Casper High. It's not like we can always rely on that punk, Danny Phantom, he's proven to lack reliability on multiple occasions. I've read the report of the day he failed to apprehend that snow ghost when it haunted that poor boy... Wesley."
Of course, the exact moment he spoke Wes's name, Vlad noticed him standing lonesome in the hallway. Wes and Vlad momentarily made eye-contact, and an unnatural sense of raw fear surged through Wes's body. There was... something in Vlad's stare, something inhuman and dangerous. Vlad knew that Wes was the culprit who trashed his lab, and he was pissed.
Wes's legs started before his common sense did. Wes ran through the hallways, as quick as possible – putting as much distance between him and Vlad as he could. He ignored Ishiyama's angry cries of "Wes Weston! No running in the hallways!" and found an empty janitor's closet. He shut the door with force he didn't know he possessed, and found a small bucket to use as a makeshift seat.
Wes didn't know how long he sat there, listening to his own shallow breaths, but he knew that he wasn't leaving until he knew Vlad was gone. He'd always suspected there was something off about him, but that experience had just furthered his suspicions that there was something truly evil about him.
Wes didn't have much time to reflect on that fact, because in that instant, Danny Phantom phased through the opposite wall of the closet looking worse for wear. Wes omitted a startling gasp as his heart leapt into his throat.
"Ugh," Danny muttered, "that was tough. I should change back before anyone notices..." he trailed off as he met eyes with Wes. For about three seconds, two pairs of green eyes bore into each other with quizzical puzzlement.
Finally, Danny pointed at Wes, "What are you doing in my closet?"
"'Your' closet? Since when?" Wes asked dumbfounded. He then added defensively, "I wasn't hiding or anything!"
"Ugh," Danny groaned, "Whatever. Uh..." his face then matched one of fake surprise, and he gestured somewhere behind Wes, "Watch out! A ghost!"
Wes, still pumped up full of adrenaline from running away from Vlad, looked over his shoulder, "What? Where?!"
In that moment, Danny summoned the white rings, completing his transformation from Danny Phantom to Danny Fenton. Realizing he'd been fooled, Wes gave him an incredulous look.
In response, Danny forced a smile, "Oh hi, Wes! Long time no see! You just missed the ghost boy, he went that way!"
Wes grit his teeth, "Stopping fucking around Fenton. You change in front of me every. single. day."
Danny laughed, "Aww, come on!"
Wes simmered, refusing to abandon his position in front of the mop bucket. "You're an idiot."
"Guilty," he said, "It's no wonder I'm a C average student. Yet another mystery you've uncovered, Wes..." he noticed Wes's unchanging expression. "So are you gonna hang out in here until I leave?"
"Feel free to leave," Wes muttered, "I won't follow you because I'm here of my free will. I'm not coming out of the closet until I know Vlad's gone." He hadn't meant to say the last part, and instantly regretted it.
Danny snorted, "Maybe Paulina was right after all about her whole gay theory. Don't worry Wes, you can stay in here as long as you want."
It took Wes a few seconds to realize what Danny was implying, and then it occurred to him what he had just said. 'Coming out of the closet...' Oh, ew! "I – I didn't mean it like that!" Wes stammered, visibly blushing.
"I'm sure you didn't," Danny sported a Cheshire Cat like grin.
"I'm just hiding from Vlad fucking Masters because I accidentally destroyed part of his lab!" Wes protested.
Danny's face brightened, "Really? Good job!" Then he seemed to backtrack, "Wait... Vlad's here. What's he planning this time?"
Wes shrugged, "I heard Ishiyama thanking him about new ghost security funding."
Danny paled, "Shit. Not again." And with that, he vanished, leaving Wes alone in the janitor's closet again.
Wes glowered, "I hate it when he does that."
The next day, Wes managed to overhear Danny ranting to his friends. Honestly, this time he couldn't help but overhear. After all, it wasn't like Danny ranted quietly.
"I'm telling you," he slammed his locker, "Plasmius is up to something!"
Sam frowned, "I mean, we don't know for sure..."
"He gave the school a grant for new ghost security. Remember last time he started making changes in our school?"
"We remember Danny," Tucker said slowly, "but didn't you hear it from Wes? After all, his Dad works for him, and he's not very reliable."
"Hey," Wes protested without a second thought, "I'm reliable!"
The trio acknowledged their eavesdropper, before brushing him off. Wes felt their cold-shoulder towards him, but stood his ground.
"I don't think the thing with his Dad is a problem, Tuck," Danny said. "Wes doesn't even know about Plasmius."
"What are you talking about?" Wes asked, frustrated that he they were talking as if they were above him.
"Huh," Sam said, "so he doesn't know. I didn't expect that one."
Tucker snorted, "That's kind of embarrassing. I'd figured that since he's such a meddling conspiracist he'd have figured it out ages ago."
"I can hear you," Wes snarled.
"We're aware," Sam said. "We just don't really care."
"Alright," Tucker said, addressing Danny, "let's assume that Plasmius is up to something. If he's messing with the security, we can just do what we do at your house and disable it all."
"See Danny," Sam reassured, "there's nothing to worry about."
Danny sighed, "That's usually what you say before something bad happens."
And moments later, fate proved Danny's words correct. As he stepped away from his locker, he managed to take about five steps before a green net dropped from the ceiling, capturing him. "See," he told Sam.
She winced, "Sorry."
Wes didn't stay around to hear anymore, because he ran to his locker to grab his camera. Unfortunately, by the time he returned, Tetslaff had freed Danny from the net with a handsaw that she conveniently was carrying around (Wes did not want to know why). However, that wouldn't be the last time that day Danny would be caught off-guard by ghost security measures...
By the end of the day, there had been fourteen incidents with Mayor Master's new security measures 'malfunctioning' around Danny. The staff of Casper High offered no explanation or commentary to why it only targeted one student, but the system was quickly revoked in regards to the overall safety of the school. Danny, on the other hand, was exempt from two weeks of homework in apology for the security system. Little did they know, that the system was completely operational and Danny was being awarded for it's accuracy to target ghosts.
Wes still didn't understand how the school could just turn a blind eye to everything. He tried his normal tactic of pointing out the obvious ("Wow! The ghost security keeps capturing Danny! Weird, it's like it recognizes him as a ghost or something!"), and as usual, he was ignored by the entirety of the student body. At least he got the pleasure of watching Danny being helplessly captured so many times in one day – now that had been a treat.
Wes thought back to the guy that Danny had blamed for the security system. While Masters had been the benefactor to fund the system, Danny and his friends claimed that someone named 'Plasmius' was responsible. Come to think of it, he'd heard that name before, he just couldn't place when. Today he'd witnessed exactly what they were capable of doing to Danny. And with that information, Wes knew whoever they were, he did not want to get on their bad side.
Okay, I know it seems like it's taking Wes a while to figure out that Vlad is also half-ghost, but at this point he isn't really looking to find the other halfa. Besides, I'm also planning a very specific revelation for him to figure out Vlad is Plasmius. So don't worry, it's coming eventually.