"Mom?" He had asked quietly, as if he couldn't believe it was really her. But there was no mistaking whose eyes were hidden behind those blue goggles. Brilliant copper hair, still cut short around her face, ran with soft streaks strings of gray like spidersilk in the moonlight. She couldn't be much later than her forties, but Sam was sure she would have a few grays too, if she had been in Mrs. Fenton's shoes.
"Mom!" Danny said again, no longer a question. His voice was choked, and glistening tears ran down his cheeks as he stepped towards the woman on the bed. A slow hand with long, delicate fingers removed the goggles from Mrs. Fenton's eyes. Violet eyes, much like Sam's, blinked back at them in disbelief. They found Danny, and that was enough to set the boy running. Not flying, but running. Not a ghost, but a human boy that had had his heart ripped out and stitched back in. But his feet came to a sudden halt when she raised a gun, a brand new ectogun, by the look of it, and pointed it at his chest.
"Not any closer, ghost." She demanded. Her voice was frail, but still much the same as the old Mrs. Fenton that used to make cookies and fudge and blabber about ghosts for hours on end.
Danny took a slow step back, and then another. He raised his hands in peace as a fresh tears spilled over the bottom of his eyelid and cascaded down his face. "M-mom, it's me." He said with trembling lips. "It's Danny."
Maddie's face contorted, in pain or rage, Sam didn't know. The gun shook so much that Sam thought she would drop it, hoped she would drop it, but Maddie's pale fingers wrapped around it tight. Her eyes shone too.
"How do you know that name?" She screamed, as much as her hoarse voice would let her. It cracked like the cackling of wood burning in a campfire. "You are not my son! Get away from me!"
Her finger rested taunt around the trigger when two pale rings of light spread across Danny's chest. Her mouth slowly fell farther open with each second, each inch that changed Danny's black suit into a faded white T, those glowing emerald eyes into glistening baby blues. The gun clattered to the ground, the sound echoing in the silence as Maddie stood dumbfounded, and Danny stood, anxiously awaiting what those chapped red lips were about to say.
"D-Dan...Danny?"
He nodded, and Maddie's quivering hands flew to her mouth. Copper strands of hair bounced as she shook her head back and forth as if she couldn't believe what she was seeing was true, but that didn't stop her from launching herself from the bed and running, tripping into his arms. He was at least a head taller than her now, but she didn't seem to care as she buried her face in his shoulder. Sam held her breath, her own eyes fogging like raindrops on a car window. Maddie's body racked with sobs as she clung to her son, two years older than the last time she had laid eyes on him. Her fingers clasped his T-shirt in fists, only letting go when she pulled away and reached those hands up to hold his face.
"My boy." she choked. Tears left a shiny trail down her cheeks as still more budded in her eyes like dew drops of lavender flowers. "Did he do this to you?" Maddie asked, cupping the sides of his face. He rested his forehead on hers as he shook his head.
"It was the portal." he whispered. Maddie closed her eyes and more tears fell from her lashes.
"Danny," she cried, shaking her head again. Her hair stuck to the paths of tears on her face. "I'm so sorry. I'm so, so, so sorry. I-I pulled a gun on you. I'd forgotten what your voice sounded like. I forgot my own son's voice." She wailed.
"It's okay, mom." Danny brushed her tears away and plucked the copper strands from her cheeks, but she only cried harder. Heavy, racking sobs that buried her face back into his shoulder. "I'm sorry, Danny. If I had known, oh-" Danny's shirt grew wet with her tears. He just wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her closer.
"Sam." she jumped as the static in her Fenton phone spoke words.
"J-Jazz?" Sam muttered, roughly brushing the tears off her cheeks with the palm of her hand. She hadn't even noticed they were there until now. Her hands came back smeared with black from mascara and the remnants of eyeliner she had forgotten to take off, what, two days ago? "Jazz, we found her."
"Mom?" Jazz said calmly. "MOM?" she said again, much less calmly. Sam tried to jerk her head away from the screech that left her ears ringing, but the Fenton phone was wrapped around her ear.
"S-Sam?" Mrs. Fenton gasped. She had to stand on her toes to peer over Danny's shoulder. "Sam, is that-" her voice broke and faded, but Sam read the remaining words on her lips. Really you?
"Mrs. Fenton," Sam wasn't surprised when her own voice broke too. Her lips trembled too much for her to say anything except for a quiet, meek, "hi."
"Is that my mom?" Jazz cried over the earpiece, sounding like the squawking of a baby seagull.
"In the nurses office." Sam answered, and Jazz's end of the line immediately clicked off.
"Mrs. Fenton," Sam said, now only a pace or two away from her. She searched in her bag until her fingers grazed upon softy, stretchy hazmat. She didn't know why she had put in in the bag in the first place, but now she was glad that she had. It made up for the words that her lips couldn't seem to utter. Hell, the words her mind couldn't even seem to conjure up. Mrs. Fenton took it with one hand, the other one still wrapped around her son in a hug. She stared at it a long time, running her fingers over the faded turquoise material. The woman who made ghost weapons for a living, who now had sparkling strands of silver in her copper hair, blinked back tears and a silent thank you. She pulled Sam into a one armed hug just as a young woman with long hair much like Maddie's tripped through the doorway.
"MOM!"
"Jasmine!"
"Danny?"
"Jazz!"
They saved the explanations until after they were all wrapped in each other arms, crying and holding each other's faces just to make sure the person before them was real and not some tantalizing illusion.
"Jazz, honey," Maddie bit her lip, tucking a strand of Jazz's sunset orange hair behind her ear. "When did you get so beautiful?"
Jazz laughed, and smiled, and cried all at once. The back of her hand quickly wiped at her cheek, but she missed half the drops that studded her skin like rhinestones. Jazz put her arms around her mother's neck and pulled her close. She was taller too, now, by almost half a head. Enough that she had to bend her neck to bury her face in her mother's soft hair. Danny dropped his arms away and let Jazz and Maddie have a minute to themselves, just like he had had with her. He turned to Sam instead, and his tear stained face only met with hers for a second before his arms were wrapped around her waist, lifting her until her toes just barely brushed against the ground. Sam gasped at the suddenness of it all, not realizing what was happening until Danny's lips pressed against hers, his soft lips fitting perfectly against her own. She cupped her hands on his jawline. The only thing she could think was how much she missed those lips, and if his mother hadn't have been right there, she would have never let him go. Too soon, his lips pulled away and then her feet were back on the ground again. Her knees grew wobbly when her full weight pressed down on them, but Danny's arms were around her, catching her and saving her without even knowing it.
"Thank you." He whispered into her hair. "I don't know how you did it-hell, I don't even know how I got here-but thank you." Sam didn't know what to say to that, so she just kissed him again.
"When did that happen?" Sam heard the faint croak of Maddie's strained voice.
"I have no idea," Jazz whispered back, and a soft laughter mingled with her words. The kind of gentle, fragile laugh that only shows its face after tears. Like the sweet smell of the earth after a heavy rain. "But it's about time." Danny must have heard it too, because when they finally parted, his cheeks had taken on the soft pink glow of embarrassment.
"Do I get a kiss too?"
Four heads snapped to the doorway, bathed in a soft blue glow from Ember's flame of a ponytail. She leaned against the doorframe, arms folded, with a mischievously quirked eyebrow that reminded Sam of the evil fairy that didn't get inviting to Sleeping Beauty's baby shower. "Or is that exclusively for the goth chick?"
Sam dropped his hand when the familiar white rings sparked to life around his torso. The power of it still coursed through her fingers, to her arm, sending tingling little shock waves all throughout her. She gasped at the feeling, while Maddie just gasped at the sight.
"Cool it, Dipstick." Ember said, unfolding her arms and floating towards them with feet just barely hovering over the ground. "I'm not gonna kiss you, dork. But you should be kissing me. Or groveling at my feet."
"Why would I do that?" Brilliant green eyes narrowed at the blue haired ghost.
"Who do you think told your girlfriend that your mother was still alive and kicking?" Danny blinked, actually taking a step back. Ember took a few steps forward. "Or, hmm, who do you think phased your little team through the mirror? Oh, wow," Ember replaced her pondering look for a smug grin, her face hovering just an inch away from Danny's. "that would be me, wouldn't it?"
Danny blinked again, then looked to Sam. She nodded, and Ember's face broke into an even smugger smile when Danny's face glowed a soft, springtime green.
"Y-you? But-" Danny's white hair flew in a fury as he shook his head. His feet plopped down on the ground with a soft thud. "But why?" Ember placed a finger on her chin, as if the question really set her thinking.
"Well," she said, shrugging. "I still think you're an ass, and I'm still going to get you back for all those times you shoved me into that stupid thermos, but I hate Vlad even more than I hate you." she glanced at Maddie, and the faintest smile graced her lips. "And your mom's pretty cool."
"Um, thanks, I guess." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, an even brighter shade of green now. Almost blindingly bright.
"But really," the smile dropped from Ember's face. Her eyes pinned him down with a silent fire. "Vlad is planning a war. No, not even planning. It's happening-probably as we speak." Sam's fingers unconsciously tightened around Danny's wrist. "And I hate to say it, Dipstick, but you're our best chance of fixing this mess." Sam's fingernails dug into his skin, but if he felt it, he gave no sign that he did. She had seen an army of more than she could count. And the thought of Danny against that whole army, against Vlad... But his face showed none of the fear that she had; his face was blank, except for the sparks of fury that danced behind the glassy blue surface of his eyes. Sam squeezed his hand, consciously this time, and he tore his eyes away from Ember's fierce ones long enough to look at Sam. She nodded to him, hoping her eyes didn't betray the terror she felt at the thought of him taking on an army. But he wouldn't be alone. He gave her hand a gentle squeeze back before pressing a kiss on her forehead.
"What's the plan?" he asked, such a simple question to cover so much. Ember started, and then her shoulders slumped as nothing left her mouth. Her wildfire hair turned back into a ponytail.
"We're gonna need some of these." Maddie said, pulling open the drawer of a towering white cabinet to expose shelves on shelves of new, glittering weapons. "I've been designing these, and Vlad has been...I don't know what he does with them. Probably sells them."
Sam's blood curled at the sight of them. They were the same weapons that Vlad had been pattoning and claiming his own. The same weapons that she had used in training and in battle. Danny had used them, and had never known that the same gun he held was once held in the hands of his mother. Furious tears blurred her eyes, but not too much to see Danny's face flush crimson with the same rage boiling in her blood.
Maddie took one and put it in Danny's hands. A shiny, new ectoblaster that supposedly shot double the distance with even better accuracy. She told him this with a proud grin plastered on her face, a grin that made the crows feet crinkle at her eyes, and Danny only nodded. He already knew, because he had the very same gun at home, his faded with use and riddled with battle scratches. Hadn't he used that very gun against Ember, so long ago?
"Mom," Jazz interrupted, twisting the gun that she held around. She grazed it with her fingers, tapping on her own reflection in the sparkling silver surface. "If you had all these weapons with you, why didn't you just shoot Vlad and get out?"
The grin faded from Maddie's face slowly, reducing the crow's feet into mere lines etched into the corner of her eyes like chicken scratches. Her hands dropped to her legs, the gun still in her hands. She handed it off to Sam and didn't look at it again.
"That's a story for a different time, Sweetie." Maddie said quietly. It wasn't the deepening wrinkles, or the soft strands of silver in her melted penny hair, but that weak, broken voice that made her seem far older than her forty-something years. It made Sam want to curl into a ball and cry on the floor.
"Did Dad ever..." One look from Maddie's violet eyes silenced Jazz instantly. But the thought was already out there. It was silent enough for even Maddie's weak, trembling voice to be heard.
"He loved you two," Maddie gasped, the words a painful reminder of the love she had lost. "more than anything." Danny's hands tightened around the gun . Jazz gasped like she had taken a hit. Maddie pulled Jazz against her, her tears wetting Jazz's shimmering orange hair as she kissed the top of her head. "If he could see you now." Maddie shook her head and stretched a hand out towards Danny. He didn't move, stuck in a trance, until Maddie locked her fingers around his and pulled him close. She wiped the tears from his face with the back of her long fingers, bruised, calloused, and cut from years of work, but still bearing the tender touch of a mother. "Jack..." a hiccuping sob broke into into Ja-ack. "Your father would have been s-so, so proud." Sam couldn't tear her eyes away from the sight of Maddie's hands cupping her son's tear-stained cheeks as the woman's own tears rolled down hers. Beautiful, horrible, captivating. The gun felt like twenty pounds in Sam's hands.
"We're getting you out of here, Mom." It was Jazz who spoke first. Always the wise motivator, even when her nose had been scrubbed red, eyes swollen, and cheeks shiny. Maddie slowly dropped her hands from Danny's face as she nodded, sniffling quietly when Jazz hooked her arm around her mother's waist.
"We'll need these." Maddie gestured with a trembling hand towards the weapon cabinet. "As many as we can take. I don't know what Vlad is planning, but I know..." she squeezed her eyes shut, lips puckered in pain. "I know it's not going to be good for our world."
"Once we get out, we'll take the whole damn mirror." Ember spoke up, and Sam was shocked to see that the ghost's cheeks had tear-stains of their own. And in that second, when Ember's eyes blinked quickly and a stray tear fluttered from her lashes, Sam wondered what the girl behind the ghost was like. If she had ever gotten a chance to say goodbye to her own parents. Ember turned her face away.
"I'll carry what I can," Sam said, already loading her arms with guns, nets, and things she couldn't explain if she wanted to. Some of it she'd seen before, but others were too new for even Vlad to get his grubby, thieving hands on. "I'm sorry to rush you, Mrs. Fenton, but who knows what's going on on the other side of this mirror." She gulped, thinking of the boy she left behind.
"I'm ready." Maddie nodded her tear-stained stained face with that same unflappable determination that Sam had admired when she was a little girl. Some things, she knew, never changed.
Ember carried Sam through the mirror. Sam held her breath the whole time, and when the swirling shades of grays sucked that breath away, she just squeezed her eyes shut and prayed that she would still find that boy waiting when she reached the other side.
If it hadn't been for Ember, Sam would have face planted a second time that day, this time on her side of the mirror. But Ember's sturdy arms kept her straight, even when she coughed and gasped for breath.
"Sam!"
She almost collapsed at the sound of that voice. Sam fell into another set of arms, broader, with remarkably darker skin. "Breathe, Sam!"
"Tucker," she coughed, her voice hoarse from coughing, and maybe a bit of crying too. The smears of eyeliner and blotches on mascara painting her cheeks were enough to say that. "a-are you..o-okay?" she gasped between splutters. Her hands reached up to cup his face when her tears cleared enough for her to see. She turned his face side to side, praying and pleading that she didn't find any blood.
"Is Danny-" he started, but Sam didn't let him finish.
"I asked first. Are you okay?" He took her hands in his, pulling them away from his face, just as the mirror burst into life, bathing the hidden room in a soft green glow.
"Danny!"
Tucker gasped. Little green spots danced in Sam's vision, but not too many to blot out the sight before her.
"Tucker," Danny released his mother's hand and grabbed Tucker's face, much like Sam had only moments earlier. "Are you okay? Did I...I didn't...oh, man. Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. You didn't hurt me. You blew right past me." He said, pulling his face away. "Are you..?"
"Guilt-sick and really sorry."
"As you should be!" A voice shouted from behind Sam.
"Valerie?"
"That's right, Phantom. Or Fenton, Danny-whatever you are!" Danny tensed at the ectogun pointed at his chest.
"Come on, Val-"
"Don't call me that." The red huntress growled, though the rumble of her voice could just as easily be a tremble. "Just don't-don't come any closer, okay?"
"Okay." Danny said, raising his hands in an open palmed gesture of peace. He took a step back.
"Shit, Valerie, drop the gun." Sam reached for the weapon, but Valerie jerked away. The gun never left it's focus, pointed straight at the ghost with the white hair.
"Get away from me, Manson." Valerie demanded. Sam obliged, fighting with the raging temper that wanted to smack that gun out of Valerie's stupid, shaking hands. But if she did that, the gun could go off and hit someone. Danny, presumably, and she couldn't risk losing the boy she had just barely gotten back. So she took a few steps back, hands raised like Danny. The scowl was still plastered to her face when Valerie nodded tensely, but didn't lower the gun.
"Valerie, we talked about this. You said you were okay!" Tucker said in a low voice. He inched towards her, and to Sam's surprise, Valerie didn't shoot.
"I lied." Her hands shook as she gulped. "I think."
"How about you put the gun down, and we can all just talk about this." Sam wanted to argue that they didn't have time to sit down and have a nice little talk over tea and cookies, but she kept silent. Sam knew she was the last voice Valerie wanted to hear at the moment (besides Danny's), and she didn't want to risk setting her off.
"I trusted you, asshole." Valerie spoke, to Danny this time. "You lied to me and your stupid dog ruined my life."
"It was an accident, Valerie." Danny said slowly. Sam was amazed at the way he looked into the Huntress' eyes, when all she could see was that gun glowing in her hands. "I'm sorry."
"I really liked you." Valerie blinked and her grass colored eyes grew wet with tears, like dew drops on leaves. "I liked you a lot, and you just..." she finished with a shake of her head. Enough to make a single tear trail down her cheeks, but not enough to lose focus on her target. A great skill for a hunter, but Sam couldn't bring herself to appreciate it when the target was her boyfriend.
"Miss?"
A hand appeared on Danny's shoulder, gently pushing him back as Mrs. Fenton stepped forward to take her place beside her son. Valerie's eyes widened, her gun lowering slightly, but still raised enough to give a deadly shot.
"You. You're not...you can't be." Valerie blubbered. "You're dead!" Her voice was shaky and hoarse.
"You're Damian's daughter, aren't you?" Maddie asked in that sweet, lulling voice that only a mother knew how to do. "How is your father?"
"This is some cruel joke."
"Valerie, dear. I'm sorry for whatever my son did. He does stupid things sometimes. But I'm sure he didn't mean to hurt you. He has a good heart-"
"He's a liar."
"Was he lying or was he just trying to protect himself?"She spoke the question like a statement, wrapped and coated in that loving, motherly voice that made Sam want to apologize for every wrong deed she has ever done in life and ask for a hug. Whatever magic Mrs. Fenton knew worked on Valerie too. The tip of her gun lowered, slowly, until it fell from her hands and clattered against the floor. The sound echoed against the walls of such a small room. Even the pictures on the wall seemed to shift their cold eyes to the scene.
"Is it all true?" Valerie croaked. Her eyes glistened in the dim light. "What Tucker said? About Mr. Masters?"
"All of it." Tucker answered. "The proof is right there. Look at her," he said, pointing to Maddie and to her son that she had slowly, over her speech, inched in front of. Maddie had completely stepped in front of her boy, guarding him from the gun pointed at his chest. She did it so slyly that Danny hadn't even noticed.
"Danny may have lied to you, but Vlad lied to you both, and he's planning a lot worse than that." Tucker said, and Sam found herself agreeing with him. She didn't want to know he was right, but she did, and no amount of denial could cover the proof standing right in front of her, in the form of an aged, but still beautiful Maddie Fenton. "So maybe you should figure out who your real enemies are."
Sam worried that Valerie would pick up her gun and shoot him for saying something like that, but she didn't. She took a careful, hesitant step forward.
"Maddie," she reached her trembling hand out to the woman. Her gloves were torn and charred. "i-its good to see you again. And...I'm sorry I almost shot your son." Maddie nodded, her lips a wavering smile. She stepped aside when Valerie's gaze floated over her shoulder at the boy beyond. For the first time, Danny seemed to notice that his mother had stepped in front of him protectively. He blushed, and squeezed his mother's hand as she stepped past.
"Danny." Valerie reached a hand towards him. Her fingers curled back when his gloved hand went to accept them.
"I can change back, if you want." He said quietly. His cheeks glowed green. "Back to Fenton."
"No." a curly strand fell from Valerie's bun as she shook her head. "I've always liked Fenton. This...is for Phantom. Just until we kick Vlad's ass." She said, taking his hand and intertwining her red gloved fingers with his silver ones. "The ghost and the ghost hunter. And a really bad misunderstanding." Danny nodded.
"I'm sorry that I-"
He doubled over as Valerie buried her fist in his stomach.
"Apology accepted." she said, pulling her fist away and rubbing her knuckles.
"Ah... o-okay." Danny wrapped an arm around his stomach. He straightened with noticeable difficulty. "I guess I had that coming." With a curt nod, Valerie picked up her gun, checked it for dents, and forced it snugly into her holster.
Jazz stepped between them with a furious glare in Valerie's direction.
"Can we focus on our real enemy here? Vlad?"
Valerie glared back.
"Jazz is right." Sam said. "Danny, do you remember anything?" Sam asked, and every set of eyes turned to him. His green eyes flitted to the floor.
"No." he rubbed his stomach where Valerie had punched him. "The last thing I remember was just..being angry. And then red, and after that.." he shrugged.
"You guys have seen it." Sam jumped as Ember materialized next to her. She didn't know when the Rockstar ghost had vanished, but she guessed it was probably about the time that Valerie had pulled out the gun. Maybe not vanished, but just...waited. Invisibly. "What that nutcase has done to the Ghost Zone."
"What happened to the Ghost Zone?" Danny asked, his bright eyes suddenly brighter. Sam glanced to Tucker, he to her, but it was Jazz who ended up giving an explanation. Or, a quick summary of the chaos, at least. At the end, Maddie's lips were pulled tight into a grim line, while Danny's mouth hung open in shock. After everything that Vlad had done, Sam didn't know why he would still be so surprised. Perhaps he was shocked to see that Vlad had more power than he had even imagined. And that he had helped, somehow, with whatever horrible plan Vlad already had on the way.
"I need to get into the Ghost Zone." Danny said. His face had lost all of its color, making him look like, well, a ghost.
"Uh, Dipstick?" Ember snapped her fingers in his face. "Were you listening at all? The Zone is overrun. Vlad has pretty much taken over."
"Not where I'm going." Danny shook his head, and brushed some of the loose strands back with a quick sweep of his hand.
"Danny, you think..." Jazz raised her eyebrows with him. A silent conversation passed between them, spoken only through their eyes. Danny nodded to her, ending whatever discussion they shared, and turned back to the five other spectators.
"I have to go." Danny told them. His feet were already hovering above the ground before the words escaped his lips. "I have to fix this, somehow, and I know somebody who can help." Sam wanted to ask who, but Danny had that distant, cloudy expression that told her she wouldn't be getting any definitive answers any time soon.
"Can we come with you?" Tucker asked. Sam could tell by his hooded eyes that Tucker already knew what the answer would be. She knew, too.
"No. Not this time." He must have read the disappointment on their faces, because his feet thudded back to the ground. "I'm sorry, guys, but I think Amity needs you more than anything right now." He took Sam's hand in his and traced his thumb over the back of her fingers. "Just in case something happens."
"Like what?" is what Sam wanted to ask, but she couldn't bring herself to say it. There was a lot of things that could happen. The thought of Vlad's army loomed over her like an immense shadow, as if the thought of Vlad himself wasn't bad enough. She remembered the swirling green vortex that was buried underneath the rubble of Danny's old home and wondered when that army would pour out, armed and ready to take over her city. And more.
"Be careful, okay?" Was what Sam found herself saying. How many times had she said that? Too many. But she meant it every time, and now more than ever. "Wherever you're going. Be careful."
"I will." Danny said. He kissed the top of her head. "You too. Take care of Tucker."
Tucker grumbled at that, and Danny's breath ruffled her hair when he laughed. Sam felt a laugh building in her throat, but it couldn't find its way out.
"I'll be back." Danny said. He squeezed her hand once more before dropping it. That laugh found its way out as a hoarse croak.
"Wait." she pulled his face down to hers before he could float away and planted a kiss on his lips. It made that knot in her stomach disperse for a few seconds. She knew it would come back the second he disappeared, but she chose not to think of the future while she had him right there in front of her. In the present.
"Don't get hurt." Danny said. His feet lifted from the ground, ready to fly. "I'll be back."
Sam nodded, not trusting her voice to speak. The only thing that came to mind to say was another "Be careful," but she knew saying it again wouldn't ensure that he would listen. No matter how many times she said it. And then he disappeared, and Sam felt her stomach sink back into a knot. She'd had him back for less than an hour, and already he was gone again.
There were a few moments in Sam Manson's life that clung to her memory, that she could recall in exact detail, no matter how many years had passed. That second that boomed rippled through the city, engulfing the sky in ash. Kneeling at the charred rubble of her best friend's house. The first time she had ever kissed Danny. Watching the tears stream down Maddie's cheeks as she held her son for the first time in years. Every sound, sight, feeling, even the smallest things stuck with her. Like the smell of cookies just before smoke, the pain of glass shredding through her racing feet.
This time, she remembered bright blue sky and the soft lull of classical music streaming through the stereo of Jazz Fenton's car. Jasmine herself lecturing Valerie about how if she ever pointed a gun at her little brother again...well, they never learned just what Jazz would do. And if someone was ever to ask, Sam could still hum the soft piano music that wafted through the air when the sky turned green.
"Oh my God. What is that?" Valerie shouted as Jazz slammed on the brakes. The car screeched to a screaming halt. No one answered. They didn't need to.
The sky, already glowing green with power, was quickly filling with luminous figures that Amity Park had come to know quite well over the past few years. Ghosts. An army of them, and Sam could guess pretty easily where it came from.
"Vlad's army!" Tucker's fingers dug into the leather armrest on his seat. "T-there's so many!" Sam ground her teeth. He was right. The numbers filling the sky was probably double what they had seen in the Ghost Zone, and more poured out every second they sat there, dumbfounded, in the middle of the road.
"Jazz-drive!" Mrs. Fenton ordered. Jazz obeyed, slamming on the gas pedal hard enough to make the whole car lurch, throwing everyone back into their seats.
"Look out!"
Jazz swerved as a ghost, a deep blue color that Sam had never seen before, thudding against the hood of her car. It flew off, tumbling into the road when Jazz jerked the wheel. She didn't pause to look back.
"Where am I going?" Jazz nearly screamed, swerving between cars that lay still in the road, their drivers too shocked to remember how to drive. Jazz had no such qualms. She could drive, but driving safely was a different matter entirely. Proper driving etiquette was usually lost in paranormal invasions anyway.
"The school!" Sam shouted. A ghost slammed against her window, and Sam gripped her seat a little tighter. "It has the biggest stockpile of weapons in the whole city."
"Casper?" Maddie gasped. The woman turned in her seat to look at Sam, and was thrown against the window as Jazz flew over a speedbump. Though Sam had never seen a speed bump look so much like a glowing purple tail. She gulped. Goth or not, she hated snakes.
"Yes! Casper! Jazz, do you think we can make it?"
"We can try." she stepped on the gas a little harder. One of Sam's nails tore and remained imbedded in leather as the rest of her body smashed into the cushion of her seat. She gaped at the scene speeding past the window.
The whole city seemed to pulse as if under strobe lights. Green, blue, purple blurs sped past her, some of them slow enough to press their ugly faces against her window. If Jazz hadn't been driving at the closest thing to the speed of light a Toyota Corolla could get, they may have tried to break the window. Screams coated over the soft piano music in Jazz's stereo, so out of place now. Those screams came from the few people still left on the streets, while most of the doors and windows of homes were boarded up by now. Amity was well prepared for ghosts, but never this many. Sam gaped in horror as legions of ghosts barreled through the home barriers, crashing through doors and shattered the glass in windows. More screams followed the glittering green shards of glass. Sam wanted to cover her ears, but she couldn't move.
The Corolla's tires shrieked as Jazz brought the car to a halt in the school parking lot. Everyone tumbled out, and if Sam wasn't too busy trying to swat at the ghostly hands that pulled at her hair, she might have taken the time to be amazed at what a great parking job jazz did. Even in the middle of a crisis, she could still park right within the lines.
"We need to get past that ghost shield!" Valerie yelled. Sam saw that she was right. A soft pink dome glowed over the school. Ghosts bounced off it harmlessly, but that didn't stop them from trying. "You guys go. I'll get your back."
"Val-" Tucker reached for her, only for his hand to be roughly shoved away.
"Go!" she shouted. "I still have my suit." As if to prove it, she shot a ghost straight out of the air. It tumbled to the ground, smoking, and splattered against the asphalt. "Get inside. Now!"
Sam let her pride bow, only this once, and obeyed the demands of the Red Huntress. She grabbed Tucker by the elbow and tugged him along with her. She fired her wrist wray, her constant companion, as they ran. It didn't do much, but it was enough to clear the way. One hundred feet away. A ghost slammed into the pavement, shrieking at the hole in its chest. Sam couldn't tell if that was from her or Valerie. She didn't stop to check.
Seventy five feet. Something slammed into her. She stumbled, swinging her arms furiously at her invisible enemy.
"Come on!" Tucker said, pulling Sam to her feet. Maddie and Jazz pulled up beside them, also arm in arm. Jazz was firing a wrist wray of her own.
Fifty feet. A window shattered somewhere behind them. More screams. Maddie smacked vulture-like ghost out of the air with a bat from Jazz's car. It looked like any other bat, except for the word FENTON painted on it. The green vultures went down with a pained sqwuak, and Maddie silenced them under her boot.
Twenty five. Twenty. Ten. Five. For every ghost that fell at their feet, another five swarmed around their heads. They were so close. Sam's foot brushed against the pink dome as hands tangled in her ebony hair, yanking her head back, and the rest of her body with it. Tucker gasped as her arm tore from his grasp.
"Sam!"
"Go!" She turned around to face her attacker. Red eyes, wispy blue hair. For a second, Sam thought it might have been Ember, but Ember had already departed to see if she could dig up any more news in the Ghost Zone. Plus, this ghost couldn't be older than ten. A young girl in a torn white dress. She snarled, baring her teeth, and her untamed fingernails went for Sam's throat. Unfortunately for the young ghost, Sam's wrist wray was faster. The ghost slumped against a tree in her smoking dress. Her body left a dent in the bark. With her eyes closed, and the red hidden, she looked almost peaceful. Sam wondered, for only a brief second, what she would be like without the red eyes.
"Sam!" Tucker shouted over the screams of the ghosts. His arm hooked hers again.
"Valerie!"
Sam could just barely see the outline of a red suit against the blurs of green flying past. She started forward, but that red outline beat her to it. Valerie burst past the figures, shooting down any that dared defy her.
"I'm here!"
"Come on!" Sam grabbed the girl's arm and pulled her forward. Together, they lurched towards the dome. A breath of relief escaped Sam's lips as Maddie and Jazz slipped past the barrier, followed quickly after by Tucker. Sam swore a tuft of her hair was pulled out as she dove past the barrier herself, bringing Valerie along with her. The ghosts behind them howled as Sam and Valerie thudded against the cement walkway of the school.
"Sam, Tucker, Valerie!"
Sam drug her face up from the pavement at that familiar voice. Tiny arms hauled Sam to her feet. "We saw you coming. Are you alright?"
"Star?" Sam spluttered, spitting grass. "What are you doing here?"
"It's Wednesday." her brow raised incredulously. "We have, you know, school."
Sam's wide eyes rose to the window as she struggled to her feet, where a hundred sets of eyes stared down at her from the window. Star dragged Sam towards the door, while Tucker did the same for Valerie. As Sam passed through the threshold with a thousand shrieking ghosts beating against the dome behind her, she realized that she had never, in her whole life, been so happy to go to school.
"You mean the whole school is here?" Jazz asked, her voice high with incredulity. Star nodded, slamming the door behind them and locking it.
"Good." Tucker sighed.
"Good?"
"Yeah," a small smile graced Tucker's tired face. "This is a ghost hunting academy for a reason right? We're more qualified than anybody."
"Um, sorry," Valerie muttered between gasps. Her hands were on her knees as she heaved in air. Sam couldn't blame her-she would be doing the same thing if she wasn't so horrified. "qualified for what?"
Tucker wiped a few beads of sweat from his forehead and rubbed the back of his hand on his already drenched shirt. His beret barely clung to his head. He straightened it and squashed it down.
"An army of our own."
A/N: Thanks for reading!