A/N: Yes, it's time for an update! But, gee, things are sliding downhill pretty fast for our friends, as you'll soon see. Seems to me that Spectra and Bertrand finally have the upper hand here—well, almost! But, anyhow, in spite of it all, IDNOAC and here is The Blow, aptly named Chapter 28. Enjoy!

TrueHeart—Chapter 28—The Blow

Unlike Sam, Tucker, and Danny's weekend, Bertrand's had been very productive. In fact, it had been so busy, it had taken him practically the whole two days of it to run all the errands he had wanted to do. But, at least, he had finally been able to get more of the ghost plants he needed for his masking formula—barely. Even if doing so had not been as easy as he had at first believed….

He had found and had been able to get to the flowers that grew near Pandora's Maze more easily than he had thought. No one was remotely nearby! Believing that he had succeeded in his endeavor, his cockiness quickly swelled. Right after that, he had smugly, even brazenly, begun to openly pick the flowers.

But suddenly, he saw the Minotaur leading a small crowd in the corner of his eye. He instinctively dove into the flowers, while just as quickly chiding himself when he had almost been caught. He had to hide in the flower bushes themselves for quite a while before he could sneak out, cursing all the while as the flower's thick, long thorns bit at him.

How was he to have known that there would be a ceremonial parade for the changing of the guards for Pandora's Maze just as he was ready to leave? In any case, he had been glad when he was finally able to get out of there; and hoped he wouldn't have to come back for a very, very long time—or, even better, never again.

Much to Bertrand's dismay, however, his hectic weekend did not end there. He then also had to get new receptacles. Spectra had destroyed quite a few in her maniacal frenzy when she had been looking for more of the deep purple pheromones. It had taken the shape-shifter quite a while to gather more bottles and vials, as well as getting the special pouches to put all those vials in so he could transport them safely to the lair. Then, once he had returned with the flowers and the receptacles, the process of making the masking perfume took even more time than his previous tasks.

But, now, it was Monday, and he was finally through and ready. As the new day started, he smiled. Fully prepared, especially with a hefty dose of the masking spray, he knew where the harvest of more of the pheromones would be…

He wasted no time and headed toward the Real World…and Amity Park. As he neared the area where Amity Park should be, he suddenly had an idea. It was perfect! Not only would he gather up as much of the 'ready to be picked' pheromones from the geek and his girl, but he would also continue to spread more seeds of destruction for the Ghost Boy and his. He smirked, quite satisfied with himself at the thought and increased his speed, anxious to carry out all his plans.

He searched the horizon as he flew on, and finally saw a small portal opening up. He quickly charged at it; and as he entered it, he checked the straps that hung on his shoulder, at the bottom of which dangled several of those new special pouches he had also gotten just for this occasion. He ignored the slight clinking of the empty, hungry vials within the pouches as he soared onward.

The shape-shifter smiled when he saw that the portal had taken him closer to the school than he had hoped. Unable to squelch his glee, he chuckled to himself, "No need to worry about much except to gather up as much of Penelope's and my goodies as possible!"

He quickly turned invisible and intangible and headed right to the school. He spied a very troubled-looking Valerie hanging around a locker and anxiously waiting for Tucker. But her boyfriend didn't come, and when she heard the bell that indicated that her—and Tucker's—first period class was looming, she sighed and gave up looking for him. She slowly went to class.

Bertrand wanted to get right on it; but before he did, he suddenly thought otherwise. He decided that he should scope out the area, checking for the other brat that would unwittingly fill his vials…

Tucker, meanwhile, had purposely avoided his locker, as that would mean he could avoid Valerie. He didn't care if he wasn't prepared for class. He was more unprepared to meet Valerie. He was the first to arrive in his class and sat down in a daze. Suddenly, he felt more dizzy and sick—again. But he couldn't have known that Bertrand was very nearby, having already found and monitored him.

Satisfied that the readings were ripe, Bertrand decided to start with this victim first after all. His little machine went right to doing its little job on the boy. Bertrand held the little machine steady. But when it suddenly let out its dinging sound of completion, the shape-shifter hastily glanced down at the machine and growled. He frowned with irritation at the thought: he needed to remind himself—again—to get rid of that annoying bell when he returned to his lab.

Luckily, he reacted instantly and successfully cupped the bell before it could be heard by anyone. From then on, he continued to keep it mute as the first container rapidly filled. But when he checked the color of Tucker's pheromone sample, he frowned a little in disappointment. It was still not potent enough to bottle indefinitely, but it was dark enough to bottle for a little while. However, that was not enough to satisfy the shape-shifter.

"Should have gone after the girl first," he grumbled, before calming himself at his next sudden idea. "Oh, well, we'll just have to wait until the machine sucks the kid dry and maybe I'll be able to get to the real good stuff!"

He continued to siphon samples off of Tucker, filling several of the vials that he had pulled out of the pouch that hung at his side. He carefully put each vial back into one of the suspended pouches. He wanted to make certain this time that any pheromones that could be bottled would make it back to his lair safe and sound.

He looked at the samples again. They were getting purer. Still, they weren't perfect, and he didn't want to waste his time if all he was going to get was the sub-quality stuff. Then again, he couldn't just give them back, and let them be reabsorbed by the boy. Besides, he could still get some quick perks from this whole attempt.

He nodded to himself with his next thought. As soon as all of the vials were filled, he quickly phased out the nearby wall to the outside of the school. Instead of dosing himself with the aerosol version of the contents, he quickly inhaled them. When he felt the slight rush from the weakened dose, he still smiled.

The vials now empty, Bertrand quickly phased back into the building to recharge them. He smirked, thinking how trying to emotionally bleed the boy all this while really had its upside. Still, he knew that if he finally did get some of the good stuff, he should save some of it for later. After all, he didn't want to overdo the thrill of this bonus.

And in a way, Bertrand had been right about getting to the 'good' stuff. Tucker did feel more depressed and miserable as each vial filled. And as the boy's mental state deteriorated, the quality of his pheromones had purified.

Bertrand stopped momentarily when all the other students finally filtered into the class. But Tucker hadn't noticed the change, and he especially hadn't noticed Valerie. In fact, he hadn't even noticed what was happening during the lesson for the entire period; and Valerie grew more concerned with how so much worse Tucker was looking as the minutes ticked by.

Finally, the bell rang and Valerie headed right to Tucker. He was feeling so badly that he hadn't seen her at first. But he jumped when she softly said, "Hey, Tucker, are you OK?"

The boy didn't know what to say at first, torn between feeling like dirt and feeling like a heel when he would finally tell her that their relationship was over. But 'feeling like dirt' won out; and he turned from her without a word and headed to his locker.

Valerie stood with her mouth open in disbelief. She grew even more nervous. He hadn't even looked at her! She swallowed hard. His unusual behavior just had to be caused by what she did at her birthday party. She regretted doing that even more now. But she was determined to make it up to him. She turned and went right after him.

Bertrand, meanwhile, watched in delight after the scene below him unfolded. He quickly followed the both of them, eager for the chance to get more juicy prizes from them.

Valerie saw her boyfriend at his locker just ahead. She hurried over to him, and when she got there, she chuckled with embarrassment, "Hey, Tucker, you know, I had a great time with you Friday, even, if, you know—"

"Yeah, I know, and forget about it," he grumbled, firmly interrupting her, but still looking at his locker instead of her.

He growled in sudden anger as he struggled to open his locker. As usual, it was stuck. That frustration, along with his last comment, gave him the charge he needed. He stopped fighting with his locker for a moment. Lifting his head, but unable to force himself to turn toward or even look at her, he glared at his locker and said more firmly, "In fact, forget about everything! It isn't going to work out, you know—you and me, I mean! It would have never worked out, and I was a fool to even think that it could! Our schedules are way too crazy, our way of looking at things is too crazy. Everything's too crazy!"

He then yanked on his locker door with such force, it rattled violently on its hinges for several moments. He reached in without saying another word.

Valerie stood stunned, not realizing that her mouth had gaped open again in shock over his words. She stammered, "Y-You d-don't m-mean t-that! You're just upset and—"

He forcefully interrupted her again, "You're right! I am upset! Upset that I didn't see all of this coming, and admit all of it before! I was such an idiot to have hoped otherwise! So, if you don't mind, I think it's best for the both of us if we break it all off before we're way over our heads!"

Tucker slammed his locker door hard, as if to punctuate his words. It rebounded so intensely from his assault that it shook the adjourning doors as well as its own. He abruptly turned away from Valerie and left for his next class without saying another word.

Valerie stood stun at first. She couldn't believe what she had just heard and how Tucker had acted. This couldn't be happening! There had to be some kind of mistake. How could that dumb, stupid thing she had done at the party upset her boyfriend this much? But when she finally was able to respond, Tucker was way out of eye and earshot. Now what was she going to do? Suddenly, something swelled within her that she had never felt before. And she could feel her heart flutter with it. It was an odd panic. Tucker had been very serious. He had meant every word of it! But why? WHY?

But then, an even more powerful feeing overwhelmed her when she couldn't even fathom an answer. NO! It wasn't true…it hadn't happened! This wasn't right! How could he even think she wanted to break up when…when she had this burning, deep feeling about him…Hadn't he known? Didn't he feel it, too? Then, what had made Tucker act this way? How could it be that bad?

Her confused, wounded heart, of course, didn't have an answer to that. But that's what distressed her the most right now. How could she, the Red Huntress, feel this unsure, this lost? But, not having an answer to that once more suddenly overwhelmed her. And the way she felt, she was sure that the floor had just dropped out from underneath her. And before she knew it, a sudden wave of tears seized her and she darted quickly to the girls' bathroom, hearing her heartbeat pounding in her ears as she ran.

"Nice!" Bertrand thought as he floated after her, turning on the machine as he did. What he would harvest from the girl at this point would definitely be excellent samples. He went right to work.

After he had filled his vials to their capacity, he chuckled quietly to himself as he looked them over. They were a deep purple. Perfect for storing. "Nice 'T-bone', yes, but not the 'prime cut''. It's time to work on the filet mignon!"

He quickly shoved the vials into more of the small pouches he had brought with him and headed to another part of the school.

He had all the pheromones he could possibly hold right now and they were perfect samples. But now, he had that other promise to fulfill for himself, and he had the rest of the delicious day to do that. Reverting back to his fly form, he had flitted from one student to another as a bee would when collecting pollen. But he wasn't collecting anything from those students. He was overshadowing them, and feeding the other students surrounding his puppets random lines, cleverly spreading little subtle rumors about Sam that would make those who heard them believe that Sam was not to be trusted, or that she was up to no good. And just for spice, he threw around false information about Armen as well. And whenever he could, he made sure that Danny was somewhere within earshot through it all.

Bertrand snickered in satisfaction to himself observing the reactions of the un-shadowed students. Though none of them had any particular interest in the unpopular girl or the practically non-existent foreign boy before, they were suddenly curious about the news Bertrand had planted and ultimately spread by their own friends. And Bertrand knew that this was all the seed he needed to make that rumor—like the others—grow into an ugly, new one.

Satisfied once more that this was enough for now, the shape shifter headed back to the Ghost Zone—and to Spectra's lair to tell her the latest ugly buzz that was circulating in the school, compliments of him…..

Before the last bell rang, Danny and Sam had already noticed the strange stares that they had been suddenly getting from teens that they didn't even know throughout the day. It was bad enough that they were worried about Tucker, but now, it seemed as if all the school had inexplicably taken an interest in them for some reason.

Sam had felt the hair on the back of her neck send chills down her spine on more than one occasion as she passed by some students. She just knew that the stares had been especially about her. She didn't know why she had even noticed them, as she usually didn't let the silly concerns of others bother her. Still, she couldn't help but get the feeling that this was not making things better for her, Danny or Tucker.

Danny, too, had been bothered by all the sudden—and very unwanted—attention. But he had found out accidentally what it was all about. The snippets of conversation he had inadvertently heard here and there throughout the day, had given him enough of a clue. And he didn't like what they were saying. Still, he tried to ignore them, knowing that it was best to try not to encourage such ugly words. But at times, he even had to go as far as convincing himself that those students had been talking about some other 'Sam' in order to keep his cool.

Still, underneath, he gritted his teeth in silent anger when he guessed that Al had been behind it all.

But Danny was, of course, wrong about the blonde girl. In fact, she had purposely been avoiding both him and Sam. Al was still slightly miffed about all that had happened to Armen, but still felt that Armen couldn't have understood what he had done and said, and it was all that girl Sam's fault. Still, she wondered why—slightly—why Sam hadn't been around for the last several days. Maybe she had gotten the message? Al couldn't help but hope so. She began to cool down with that thought—but made sure she stayed away from the couple all the same.

Armen, on the other hand, had been more than happy to avoid Danny and Sam—and particularly Sam. He was devastated about all the unexplained things that had happened to him, and how he could possibly have lost track of all that time for those days in the past weeks. He had noticed more and more students looking his way when he passed them, and he couldn't even begin to understand what was being said of him. He had felt that he should keep as low a profile as possible until he could figure this all out—if he even could.

Still, Armen was slightly relieved that Al had forgiven him for whatever he did. He was glad that she somehow had taken his side in everything; and even though he was not happy that she blamed Sam for all this, at least she wasn't blaming him. He really needed someone to help him through this growing concern that he was losing his mind. His worry over himself made him edgy, and even suspicious, of those around him.

Still, the one saving grace both Danny and Sam did have in this otherwise terrible day was avoiding Armen and Al the entire day. They really hadn't wondered why that couple hadn't been seeking them out anymore; they were just thankful that they hadn't run into those to very weird kids at all.

In the meanwhile, even when Danny and Sam had done their best to ignore all the negative vibes they got throughout the day, they hadn't been aware that all those ugly stares and words had taken their mental toll on them just the same. They were more exhausted than they thought when the day had ended. And that was compounded especially with their mounting concern about Tucker. He hadn't tried to even look up at the teacher, much less Danny or Sam, when they were in a particular class. And he didn't even join them for lunch. His best friends felt that it was only going to get worse as the day went by. And they were right. Tucker was sinking lower into his miserable pit as the day dragged by.

Finally, the excruciating school day ended for everyone. Danny looked in earnest for Tucker right after school, but had no luck in finding him.


By the end of the day, Tucker and Valerie were no good to anybody, and Valerie skirted home as soon as the release bell rang. She was so numb from what happened that she hadn't even bothered to go to her locker at the end of the day. She just couldn't face Tucker right then—or now.

She ignored the ghost alarm that suddenly went off, growling in frustration as she turned the device completely off. She couldn't think straight enough to even care about any ghost at this moment. When at last she saw the outside steps of her home, the numbness had been replaced with the sudden pressure on her heart, and she began to cry again. She bounded up to her room, helpless to stop her tears. She fell face first onto her bed, bawling right into her pillow. In hardly anytime, the bed grew heavy with her tears.

Tucker was no better, and had also made a beeline to his own home without going to his locker or even saying 'good-bye' to Danny and Sam. He charged into his house and failed to notice his mother's wide-eyed stare of disbelief when she saw how awful her son looked when he came in. Without stopping for his usual snack, he went right up to his room and plopped face first onto his bed, hoping that now that he had his nose against his mattress, he could just snuff out his heart.


In all this while, Sam then caught up with her boyfriend after school, and immediately noticing that Tucker was missing, focused all her attention on that matter.

"So, where's Tucker?" she asked Danny, searching the hallway, which was quickly dwindling in other students. She then quickly opened her locker.

Already finishing up at his locker, her boyfriend replied, "Don't know. But I'm getting plenty worried about him. Did you get a chance to see how badly he was looking today?"

Sam nodded. She had noticed. She replied, "Yeah. Do you think he told Valerie?"

"I don't know. That would explain a lot, though. This is just not like him," Danny said.

"Well, why don't you call him up or something?" Sam suggested.

"Not yet. From the little snatches I saw of him today, I'm not sure if I'll make matters worse."

"Well, you might be right. But let's not wait too long to try to talk to him. After all, we both had agreed that we needed to extend our 'fierce loyalty' to him," Sam said with a wry, though weak, smile.

Danny returned a barely noticeable smirk to her and grabbed her hand, just before leading her out of the school.

They continued to walk home, mentally and physically exhausted and worried about Tucker.

And, of course, oblivious to the fact that Bertrand and Spectra, now satisfied that the time was right, were becoming even more anxious to move on the next phase of their plans.