Relative Chapter 29
Reservations and Uncertainties
TJ Foley, Teej as he was often called by those who knew him, walked up to Fenton Works dressed as close as he could get to his dad. It was pretty standard to try and blend in with whatever time period they were traveling. Especially after the Lilly-Just-Had-To-Voice-Her-Independence-Like-Her-Mother Incident nearly caused a riot. Apparently, as they had learned, anything dealing with technology was still considered "evil". The next time they went back to correct that timeline, they went prepared, or so they thought. He had ditched his suit once they got there changing into the appropriate attire. Turned out that he really needed his suit when of course, he didn't have it on. So now he, with his dad's help, created a way to project the appropriate clothing onto his suit while he kept it on.
The only thing he couldn't replicate were the glasses. Despite the jokes, he really didn't look like either of his parents. He was almost the spitting image of his grandfather at his age and like his grandfather at this age, he didn't need the glasses to see. Teej sighed, but for now he was stuck with the spectacles sliding down the bridge of his nose, since his father did need them. He pushed the glasses back up to where they belonged and rearranged the God awful beret onto his head. Just what had his dad been thinking?
He knocked several times on the door. No one answered. Cringing inwardly because one never knew what invention Jack Fenton had rigged up, TJ moved carefully to the side as he pushed the front door bell. He waited for some sort of wayward trap to ensnare him or knock him out. Instead all he heard was the bell echoing inside of the house. He waited but still no answer. Strange, he thought, there's always someone home. Shrugging his shoulders, he turned around to try the next place he was most likely to find Danny when the door creaked open.
"Creepy," TJ muttered to himself. It was just like the beginnings of a horror movie. The kind where the guy enters the room after the door opens itself. Within three scenes later, the guy is hacked into pieces by some deranged killer. TJ chuckled to himself. "What the hell, it's not like I wanted to live forever anyway," he said and pushed on the cracked door opening it further letting himself inside.
"Breaking and entering is a crime you know."
TJ looked up to see a spiky haired blond lounging on the couch both feet on the coffee table. "You're not Danny," he commented.
The boy laughed. "Apparently we're looking for the same people TJ."
"How do you know me?" TJ asked carefully watching the boy's movements.
"Let's just sum it up with I know your girlfriend better than you do apparently," he replied with a suggestive leer. He stood up and phased through the coffee table walking towards TJ.
The boy's eyes narrowed. "Explain yourself, Ghost."
Adrian's face lit up in delight. "I'd be happy to Thomas, or do you honestly prefer TJ?" he asked in mock sincerity. "It's really quite simple. See, I've come to collect Amuri back."
"Amuri?" he asked recalling where he had heard the name before. "Lilly?" TJ looked closer at the ghost. "You're Adrian. That's what Neil called you."
"So you remember that do you? I thought Clocky wiped all of your memories," the ghost answered studying TJ's confused face. Then he smiled. "So you don't remember it. A lucky guess then?... Well, no matter. I've come to collect her back. Amuri belongs to me."
"Like hell she does! You're not coming anywhere close to her!" the boy shouted.
"But you see, I've already been close to her. Very close," Adrian purred elated to see the boy become upset. "We destroyed Amity Park together. I watched as she burnt you alive, broken legs and all. We listened to the sound of your popping bubbling flesh together. The pleading. The screaming. Ah, those were the good ol' days."
TJ kept his emotions under control just as his mother had taught him. He could hear her voice in his head. Don't let those ghosts confuse you by getting you all worked up. You have to ignore them and keep your focus at all times. The only thing that betrayed any emotion was a small smirk. "Good ol' days? Dumped you on your ass, didn't she? If you know Lilly as well as you claim, then you know just how fickle and independent she can be. Or did she just see better opportunities elsewhere?"
"Better opportunities? I like how you phrased that. 'Better Opportunities'. Did you mean like this one?" Adrian asked and placed into the boy's head an image.
TJ closed his eyes against the image that played in his head anyway. It was the first memory that he witnessed in the orb without Danny.
()
"Lilly, don't do this! Come on Frog, snap out of it!" Alex shouted as his eyes darkened into a blackness that overtook the brown iris of his eyes matching the color of his pupils. "I don't want to hurt you but I'm not going down. I won't let you torch me like you did Teej." Around them shadows from the Ghost Zone began to collect behind the boy.
Facing him was Lilly in full phantom form with a fireball of dark purple and black flames growing in the palm of her hand.
"Kill him Amuri. Get rid of the Shadow walker," Adrian said beside Lilly.
Lilly hesitated as she looked at Alex. "I can't. I don't want to hurt him."
"Do it!" Adrian ordered. Lilly shook her head no and let the fireball die in her palm. Enraged, Adrian's hand connected with her cheekbone. "I said now!"
"You asshole!" Alex shouted and sent a barrage of ghost attacks at Adrian.
Adrian smiled as Lilly moved automatically to protect the ghost as each attack hit her hard.
"You coward! Hiding behind a girl?!"
Adrian grinned. "One that you won't kill. That's not cowardice- that's brilliant strategy," he replied. His lips continued to move but the words became syllables from some unknown tongue. Lilly's eyes glassed over as a new fireball of dark flame grew in her palm. Mechanically, she threw it at Alex.
He prepared a shield to defend against it but before it could strike, it was sent off course by bright red flames. Lilly's fireball continued until it hit the corpse of City Hall. The building collapsed in on itself with a loud shudder. Alex looked to see where the flames came from. Standing there was a girl in simple jeans and tee shirt.
"Who are you?" Lilly and Alex asked at the same time.
The girl's blue-green eyes twinkled in merriment. "A friend of Clockwork's," she answered. With her fingers, she combed her raven hair back and stuffed it into a worn baseball cap. "Let's get this over with."
"What business do you have here?!" Adrian demanded as he stared down the girl.
The girl's musical laugh echoed over the remains of downtown Amity Park. "I'm here to ensure the future of course. Why else would Clockwork drag me here? I'm to collect one Lillith Anne Fenton before she attacks Alexander Traliacs. Then I'm to return her to Clockwork per order of the Council of the Observants." She grinned at Lilly. "Basically, in a nutshell, I'm here to arrest your sorry ass."
()
The scene faded in front of TJ's eyes. He blinked several times clearing his head.
"Tsk, tsk. Looks like I'm not the only fool in the room. She wouldn't hurt precious Alex, but you on the other hand, she didn't have a problem with," Adrian sneered. "But that's Lilly for you," he added using a dismissive airy tone. "You know, there is something you can do. You could help me TJ. The crazy girl is coming back here because Nox is. You could help me find her before she does something stupid."
"Lilly isn't strong enough. She knows that. She won't come back here."
"She is on her way and you're right TJ. She isn't strong enough to defeat Nox. She plans on sacrificing herself. To right her wrongs and such nonsense."
"You're lying," TJ said as his face gave away the doubt he was feeling.
"Am I? Ask her when she shows up. Better yet, take note of who she sees first, then come find me."
"You're a bastard," he said so low it was almost missed.
Adrian grinned. "So you've already guessed who'll it'll be huh? And it ain't gonna be you, is it?" He watched as anger built on the boy's face. Teenagers-Like shooting fish in a barrel.
TJ lifted his arm and the clothes disappeared showing only TJ in his suit. From the weapon situated in the palm of his hand, he aimed at the ghost's chest and fired.
"Truth hurt?" Adrian asked. Laughing, he reflected the shot into the clock hanging on the wall. "My turn." Spectral energy crackled with intensity in his hands.
"GHOST ENERGY DETECTED," the house alarm blared into the living room. Emergency lighting draped a strange red glow on everything as weapons dropped from the ceiling pointing at Adrian.
"I love this place," TJ said grinning as he watched Adrian's face contort into fury. He kicked the sled feature into gear and jumped on.
"INTRUDER ALERT. UNREGISTERED GHOST EQUIPMENT DETECTED," the alarm blared again.
TJ was now staring down the weapons pointed at him. "Okay, maybe not so much." Wondering which wild Fenton invention would be the first to blast him into molecules, TJ looked just in time to see the ball of energy hit him in the chest. He felt the sharp pain travel down through the suit shorting out sections of the highly engineered ensemble. Then the ghost disappeared in front of the boy.
"Like hell you're getting away now," TJ mumbled under his breath. He dropped the glasses to the floor letting his visor drop. He smiled as he let the targeting system take over. The visor's systems swept through the room switching through different frequencies. Adrian's outline appeared on the visor's screen and the system zeroed in on the ghost. At the same time, the house system zeroed in on TJ.
The boy in the suit sent out a burst of energy from his palm at the ghost and received a hit from the house in return. TJ winced from the hit but then smiled as he saw Adrian do the same.
"I think we should continue this conversation at another time. After all, I have a trap to set," Adrian said smiling.
Although TJ managed to get several rounds of energy out, the ghost was prepared before he disappeared. Each shot reflected off a shield of blue energy and went sailing throughout the Fenton living room. TJ cringed as he heard the sound of breaking glass and plaster. He watched a piece of ceiling fall to the floor with an accompanying loud crash. Then he looked at the new hole in the wall between the kitchen and the living room.
TJ didn't wait around to let either the house or Lilly's grandparents kill him. He fled the scene phasing through the house and up into the darkening twilight above. He stopped once he was up high enough for anyone to notice him on his sled. He looked back down at the house below him. Even up here, he could hear the alarms. That'll be fun to explain to the neighbors, he thought as his equipment scanned the area for signs of the ghost. No signs registered on his scanner. Well, if Danny wasn't home, then he was more than likely at the same place one would find Lilly- the Nasty Burger. Some things just ran in families, he decided. Then he thought of Neil and Sam. Well most of the time, he noted.
Seeing Danny arrive with Sam in some ways still hurt, Valerie acknowledged. That would've been her if life had been fair. But as living in Elmerton has taught her, life didn't play by the rules nor was it fair.
She watched them fly in closer to the now quiet fast food joint. She couldn't even imagine competing with that. The funny part- what they have- they didn't even realize it. Everyone seems to see it except them. And don't try to explain it to them either. After this week, she now understood why Tucker stayed out of it.
But really, she wondered, would she really have wanted it to be her up in the air with him? Once maybe, after all she had been willing to give up ghost hunting for him, but now? She was silent as she thought about it. No, she realized. Maybe she would like that kind of connection with someone, but not with him.
That realization felt uplifting- a sort of release. Valerie nodded in their direction as they waved at her from the air. She chuckled. Who'd guess that Valerie Grey would find friendship in a Goth girl and her own former Public Enemy Number One. Let's not forget the wise-cracking cement of the trio- the reason they were there- Tucker.
Danny and Sam landed near the posted joke of a security team. The kind, Valerie noted, her father would chew up, spit out and fire their lazy butts. They split up looking for clues as to why and where Tucker was. "Hey, here's Tuck's phone," Danny said picking up the two pieces. "Or rather what's left of it."
"I don't get it. Why would Plasmius want Tucker?" Sam wondered aloud.
"Plasmius? I thought Skulker took him?" Valerie asked confusion showing on her face.
"Skulker often does errands for Plasmius," Danny explained. "But why Tucker?" Sam he could understand.
"Information," Valerie answered. "Tucker is the best source of information about any of us. He's who I'd use."
"Then did Skulker take Tucker to Wisconsin?" Sam asked.
"That place was totally deserted. Tuck and I went there first as soon as you and Lilly went missing."
"You went all the way there to find me?" Sam asked surprised.
"I figured Vlad had you both. I couldn't take the chance something might happen," Danny answered almost shyly.
Let's get back on track here, Valerie thought rolling her eyes. You two can save it for discussion later. "So he's not in Wisconsin." Not that any of this Wisconsin stuff made any sense to her, but it seemed to keep them on track. Honestly, sometimes she wondered how they ever managed to pull off keeping Danny's secret this long. "Then where would he be?"
"Tuck and I couldn't find the mountain lodge and I can't get down below Axion to the cavern," Danny said.
Valerie cut him off. "You might not be able to, but I could. I might even be able to get Dad to talk to Mr. Masters since he's in town."
This time Sam cut her off. "Masters is in town?" She shared an unreadable look with Danny.
"Where's he staying? Do you think your dad could find out for us?" Danny asked.
"Oh sure," Valerie said and pulled out her cell phone. The body came out of nowhere and collided with her. Her phone was knocked out of her hand and broke open once it hit the ground. "Hey!" she nearly roared. "Do you know how many hours I had to work to pay for that phone?!"
TJ stood up offering a hand to Valerie that she took. "Sorry, my equipment went haywire as I tried to land."
"TJ?" Danny asked. "How...Why? Lilly's not..."
"Oh no," TJ answered quickly. "At least not yet. Give her time, she'll find a way to walk that fine line."
"Why are you here then?"
"It's a rather long and complicated story," he answered never once taking his eyes off the sky or taking the helmet off his head. "I need to find Tucker."
"Seems Tucker is the popular one today. Skulker took him about twenty minutes ago," Danny informed him.
"That bastard kidnapped my..." TJ caught himself and amended his statement before anyone other than Danny noticed. "Kidnapped Tucker?"
Sorry for the delay. It's taken me two days to get this chapter to load correctly on the site. My luck, it still won't. Bloody new computer. And yes, that's one of the reasons this is late: I lost the original chapter. Hopefully, it won't take as long to update.
Oh, and a quick thanks to DRW for the quick read over!
Mikey
