Chapter Twenty: Animal Testing
"Danny? Are you awake?"
Yeah. He was REALLY starting to abhor those words. And anything close to them, since he'd found that saying anything even remotely similar had freaked out his human counterpart.
"What do you want now?" Phantom demanded, one arm moving over Danny's face to shield him. "You just did a test with him!"
"I'm just here to inform you that the next test is in two days, and you'll be temporarily moved to a different location for the duration of that test." Jack replied calmly. "Phantom, I'm going to have you untethered for it, but if you attempt to run away, or escape with Danny, I will not hesitate to restrain you and when we return, Danny will be the one being hurt for your disobedience."
"…Fine." Phantom glanced at his trembling companion. "Just go away, you scared him awake!"
"Fine." Jack held up his hands and stepped back, placing his ungloved hand on the mechanism to shut the box again.
Phantom scowled at him, then looked at Danny. "Danny? He's gone." He whispered. "It's okay."
"Why does he keep doing that?" Danny whispered, looking up at him. "He knows the effect it has on me…"
"Because he's a twisted, cruel man and he enjoys the way you react to a simple, used-to-be-harmless sentence." Phantom sighed, gently smoothing Danny's hair. "You heard what he said, right?"
"Two days." Danny nodded. "I can't even tell when an hour has passed; we have no concept of time down here."
Phantom nodded. "I miss the stars…"
Danny closed his eyes. "I wonder if I'll ever be an astronaut…"
Phantom smiled and rubbed his head. "Right now, I'm just wondering if we'll ever see the sky again."
"What did I say? Stop being a pessimist." Danny opened his eyes and looked at him.
"Well, once of us has to be. It's our balance." Phantom shrugged. "You go on with your hopes and dreams and I'll be moody and smash them up when you least expect."
"You're a brat." Danny playfully punched him.
"Well, Skulker DOES call me a 'whelp'." Phantom lightly shoved him in response.
"That's no excuse, Vlad calls me a badger!" Danny laughed, swatting at him again.
Phantom caught the hand and smirked. "Well, you are kind of like a badger."
"Stop it, or I'll…I'll tickle you!" Danny said warningly.
Phantom raised an eyebrow. "Are you threatening me? Me, master of all tickles?"
"Uh oh." Danny started to move away but Phantom was quicker and grabbed him, running his fingers over the squirming human's body. "Nooooo! No, no, no, stop!" He laughed, trying to get free.
"You started this!" Phantom grinned, then stopped short when he realized they had an audience.
Jack was watching them from an office chair, a notepad in his lap and a cup of coffee in his hand. Phantom glared at him, then released Danny from the tickle-hold. "What's wrong?" Danny asked, looking at him.
"I don't want him to see you laughing." Phantom said coldly. "He doesn't deserve it."
Danny looked over at Jack and then sighed, leaning against Phantom. "Hopefully when this is all done and gone, you two will get along again."
"I dunno about that." Phantom glared at Jack until he got up to dispose of his coffee cup. "I mean, I really hate him."
"Don't." Danny swatted at him.
The doors shut and Phantom grinned. "Well, now that we're alone…"
"Uh oh." Danny started to move away, but Phantom was faster and pulled him closer, making the boy squirm and laugh with his tickling.
Jack headed back to the kitchen and disposed of his coffee cup. He glanced at the clock and clicked his tongue. 'This is going to be a long two days, unless I give those two something to keep us all occupied.' He thought. 'And I can't head for the nearest town, because I need to stay in the lab in case Danny needs anything. Especially since he's in the box and not his room.' He looked at his notepad, which had notes on their behaviors. 'Hm. Maybe I'll see how they react to friendly animals.' He thought, dialing a number.
A few hours later, he went topside to collect the carriers, which had a puppy and a cat in each. He'd test them with the puppy first, then see how they reacted to the cat. After taking the carriers down, he went back up to collect the cage with a rat in it and the one with a centipede. He considered a spider, but then remembered that Danny had a fear of spiders after one landed on him while he was asleep and woke him up.
He carried these down as well after paying the delivery guy and then picked up the puppy carrier, taking it to the lab. He found the two locked in a staring contest – or he assumed it was, from the way that Danny's eyelid kept twitching. 'Danny, you can't win against a ghost.' He thought, walking over and opening the box. "Danny, I brought something."
Danny looked away, then groaned in frustration; yep, definitely a staring contest. "What is it?" He asked, looking towards the carrier.
Jack opened the carrier and tapped it. "Well, come out."
He watched closely as both Danny and the puppy hesitated on coming out. Phantom remained close to Danny, stepping out with Danny did and kneeling with Danny did. "Hey...you wanna come out?" Danny coaxed, holding out a hand to the carrier.
The puppy sniffed at his hand then took a nip of his finger. Danny drew back with an "ow!" and Phantom moved between the puppy and Danny as the puppy came out. It wagged its tail and gave a little "Yip! Yip!" sound before moving back inside.
"You couldn't get a friendly one?" Phantom glared at Jack.
"He is friendly. He's just wary of strangers." Jack replied. "Like you."
Phantom chomped his teeth at him. "Oh, bite me, Jack."
Jack sat down in his office chair and took out his notepad to observe. Danny moved around Phantom and held out his hand again. "It's okay. I won't hurt you." He assured the puppy. Phantom moved to the side a bit so Danny could sit next to him. "Come on."
The puppy made another "Yip!" before he slowly came out, licking his finger before he nuzzled him.
"Aww, see?" Danny smiled at Phantom. "He's friendly."
Phantom nodded, watching closely as Danny coaxed the puppy closer. "Do we have any food for it?" Phantom asked.
"I'll make you all food in a little while." Jack replied, writing his notes down. 'The puppy took to Danny rather fast, even though this one hates strangers. Something about him must say "friend".' He thought.
He jotted that down, then went to the door. "I'm going to get you all some food, so behave while I'm gone."
"We will, dad." Danny assured him, then looked at Phantom. "Right?"
"…Yeah. " Phantom looked disgruntled.
Jack nodded and closed the door, walking to the kitchen area. 'I might have to get more supplies, now that I have animals to keep alive as well.' He thought.
The puppy was well-received by both Danny and Phantom (once the puppy and Phantom got past growling at each other) and so he decided to take out the puppy and bring in the cat. The reactions this time were mixed; while Danny seemed to enjoy the cat's company and the cat his, the cat absolutely HATED Phantom and he was content with snubbing it in favor of staring at something on his fingernails.
"Phantom, at least TRY getting along with her." Danny coaxed.
"Not until she stops hissing, I won't." Phantom replied stubbornly.
Jack chuckled a bit, watching them. Phantom shot him a look of death, like him finding ANYTHING Phantom did funny was completely taboo.
"Phantom." Danny tried again.
"No." Phantom seemed to be having none of it, he just didn't like the cat and the cat hated him.
Their reactions to the rat greatly amused him. As soon as it was set loose, Danny clung to Phantom and Phantom hovered five feet in the air to avoid the rodent. "What the hell, why did you let that thing out?!" Phantom demanded.
"It tried to bite me!" Danny cried, hanging on tightly to Phantom.
"Hm, unanimous reactions of distaste for the rat." Jack jotted that down and then walked over to scoop up the rat, putting it in its cage again. "Alright, I'm taking the rat out." He waited until Phantom was on the floor before nodding and walking out with the rat.
"What does this have to do with the betterment of mankind?" Danny asked as he stared at the centipede in its tank. Phantom was sitting back from it, clearly annoyed by this being brought in.
"It doesn't, I'm just testing your different reactions to things while waiting for other results." Jack replied. "How are you feeling?"
"Well, it still hurts when I brush over the wounds but I can fight." Danny assured him, still transfixed by the centipede.
"Good. The guys in white will be bringing you some new clothes when they arrive to transport us to the temporary location." Jack said, then reached over and rubbed his shoulder. "You're doing very well."
Danny smiled a bit. "Thanks, dad."
"you're never going to stop calling me that, are you?" Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Never. No matter what you may think or say, you're still my dad." Danny looked at Phantom. "His too, though he hates to admit it."
Phantom scoffed and looked away, leaning against the wall of the box with his arms crossed in front of his chest.
"Phantom, I was wondering." Jack looked at him. Phantom looked offended to be address but made a vague "go on" motion with his hand. "Why didn't you attempt to run away when I left the room before? You could've flown up, my hands were full, but you chose to land instead."
"…Danny is as much a scientist as you and mom." Phantom replied. "He wants to help you create a better future for mankind by using ectoplasm." He looked away. "So, he wants to stay. So, I'm staying."
"I see." Jack raised an eyebrow. Danny actually bought into that? Granted, he WAS wondering how it would be on a regular human, but that was mostly just something he said to make Danny think good things about it.
Still, that lie had convinced Danny to stick around and it kept Phantom from running off. This meant he wouldn't have to tether him any longer, but he was bringing it just as a precaution anyway.
"Can I call my friends?" Danny asked suddenly. "I'll stick to the ghost-hunting story and won't tell them anything about what's going on here. I just think they might be worried after so long with no contact."
Jack considered this and nodded, walking over to pull out Danny's cell from his pack. "Alright, but I'll be watching closely to make sure you don't tell them anything." He handed it to him.
Danny took the phone and smiled gratefully before he turned it on. There were 23 text messages and 25 voicemails. He listened to each one in turn and then read the texts before calling back one of them. He waited a bit, then smiled. "Hey, Sam. Yeah, it's me. Sorry, we didn't have reception." He paused for a bit. "Yeah, I know. I'm sorry. Yeah. Well, you know how focused I get during ghost fights. We just got into an area with reception." He chuckled a bit. "Really? Well, I'm sorry I missed them. Tell them I'll bring them a gift basket as an apology for not showing up to our weekly battle."
Phantom looked amused, but kept quiet. Jack jotted down notes, watching them closely.
"Heh. Well, tell him that I'll do it with him over Winter Break, then." Danny smiled softly. "Yeah, I explained that you were upset that I was gone for so long. Mmhm. Yeah, we'll be back after Summer Break." He glanced at his father, who was making a "cut it off" motion. "Oh, dad says we're at the next place. I'll call you when I next get a chance to. Bye, tell the others I miss 'em." He hung up and handed his phone back, glancing at the time and date as he did. 'It's been two weeks, then.' He thought.
"Well, you kept to the script." Jack turned off the phone and put it back in the pack. "I suppose I can trust you to call more often, then."
"Are we going back after Summer Break?" Phantom demanded.
"Let's just get through it, then we'll see." Jack stood up. "Whether you go back or not depends on your behaviors." He walked out, taking the centipede with him.
"So…who was she talking about?" Phantom asked.
"The Box Ghost and the Lunch Lady." Danny shrugged.
"Oh God, not those two again." Phantom groaned. "Why does every date involve them beating up on me?!"
Danny laughed and gave a shrug.
"I'll give them a 'gift basket'." Phantom grumbled, then looked at the silent box. "Heh. The Box Ghost would be envious."
"I dunno; he couldn't escape it." Danny reminded him.
"True." Phantom nodded.