I am so sorry for taking this long. If you care to know why, I wrote my explanation at the end :/
Without further ado (cause you guys have already waited long enough) chapter 16~
…oooOOO-DASH-OOOooo…
"Remind me again why we're going to the library on a perfectly fine Saturday afternoon?" Dash asked as the four of them stared up at the brown brick building, getting odd looks from passing pedestrians.
Kwan just chuckled, an excited and concerning light in his eyes. "Just follow me."
The inside of the library was tranquil; the only sound being hushed whispers and flipping pages.
Dash, despite his lifelong goal to never step foot in a library, found himself instantly relaxing in the peaceful ambience.
Without hesitating Kwan marched straight up to the front desk, his three companions trailing hesitantly behind. A girl, perhaps eighteen or nineteen, stood behind it, her honey blonde hair pulled into a high pony-tail and horn-rimmed glasses hanging delicately on the tip of her nose.
"Marcy, my dear, how you been?" Kwan said brightly, a goofy grin splitting his features.
The girl raised an amused eyebrow at his elbow, which he'd placed on the counter. "Not too bad, Kwan. Haven't seen you around in awhile? Finally run out of romance novels?"
Dash barked a laugh, "You told me you stopped reading them last year after the Cowboy Hunk fiasco."
The Asian American shot him a dark glare, "And I thought we promised not to talk about that."
Danny, hobbling over on his crutches, looked confused but the Latina on his left was grinning. She'd heard all about it from Dash.
"Anyway," Kwan shooed away the empty air by his head dismissively, "We need access to the archive room, do you think you can unlock it for us?"
"I thought this was a public library," Danny inquired from the back. "Why would the room be locked?"
"Stupid teenagers, that's why," Marcy yanked a drawer open from behind the counter and pulled out a keychain. "They thought it was absolutely hilarious to use the archive papers as a fire starter in the library trash can. Our manager was not half as amused as they were."
"That sucks."
She stepped out from behind the counter, beckoning for them to follow her to one of the doors labelled 'staff only'. "We're technically supposed to keep it locked, but Kwan gets special benefits." She winked at the teen over her shoulder.
Dash grinned at the flush that spread across Kwan's cheeks, elbowing his friend and muttering, "Friends with benefits?"
Kwan had been crushing on this library chick since he'd first come in three years ago and their relationship as of now was…undetermined.
"Here you are," The girl turned on the lights and gestured for them to enter. "If you need anything else, I'll be at the front desk."
"Thanks Mace," Kwan said just as the door closed with a clack.
"She's never going to go for you, man. Might as well give up while you've got some dignity left." Dash batted his eyes at his best friend, "Unless you've already—"
"Aaaand here we are," Kwan spoke over him, spreading his arms to encompass the ceiling high shelves of cardboard boxes and rusted filing cabinets. "The archive room, a journalist's first love."
"Last, too." Dash got a smack in the head for that comment.
Danny sagged against one of the shelving units, bracing his weight against it, "I still don't really get what we're doing here, no offense."
"None taken," Kwan dodged one of Dash's fists and kicked the jock in the shin. "I welcome any and all questions."
"Can't we just find news articles online? I don't see why we need all—" The raven-haired teen gestured at the room's contents. "This."
"True, you'll find recent events and major articles covered in the online version of the Amity Gazette, but what we need is probably older. Birth announcements, school events, little things like that from before revolutionized media." Kwan freed himself from Dash's grip and hid behind Paulina, "So, should we split up Scooby Doo style?"
"How about me and Paulie—" Dash started, hoping to have a private talk with the girl. Preferably about Danny's most recent little revelation.
At the same time the Latina spoke an energetic, "How about me and Danny take the back? That way I can keep on eye on his ankle."
"Alrighty then, guess it's me and Dash taking front." Kwan gave his friend a shrug, "We're looking for any mention of a Katherine Idolon or Idolon family name in any and all contexts, clear?"
"Got it," Danny saluted sloppily with his good arm before putting it back on the crutch and wobbling after Paulina.
Dash shook his head in disbelief that that was his idol for the past year and a half. Unbelievable. How could Phantom be such a…such a dork?
"I know, right." Kwan lowered his voice, sounding bemused as he began to pull out the first box. "I still can't really see it."
The blond grabbed the second box and sat cross legged on the floor, crushing the laminated papers a little harder than necessary. "It's just…all this time—" He growled, not even bothering to finish his sentiment.
Kwan, used to his friend's inarticulacy, simply smiled before joining him on the library tiles, "Let's just start with this, hm? Once we've found Sam and Foley, we can ask all the questions we want."
"I guess you're right."
"I'm always right."
That prompted a genuine laugh out of Dash, "Whatever lets you sleep at night."
"I'm a raging insomniac, remember?" Kwan rolled his eyes. "I don't sleep at night."
Feeling much more settled now—Kwan had always had the uncanny ability to put him at ease—Dash resumed sifting through his segment of papers. All he saw were births, deaths, and the odd kind act. Nothing mentioning a Katherine Idolon.
From the annoyed huffs emanating from Kwan he wasn't having any better luck, despite the neat stack of already searched papers beside him steadily growing.
Twenty minutes later, Dash was getting ready to quit when a small sound began to tickle his ear. He glanced over at his friend, curious to see if he heard it too, but saw him still reading, thoroughly engrossed in whatever old-time article he'd stumbled upon.
It sounded like a malicious, half-baked lobster was sitting in the archive room, snapping its little pincer things together repeatedly. Or something. Maybe.
So sue him; Dash wasn't the best with metaphors. Or similes. Whatever.
Slowly getting to his feet, he quietly followed the sound to the end of the row he and Kwan had been perusing, the clicking steadily getting louder.
Pausing when he seemed to be right on top of it, he realized that it actually sounded more like a ticking clock, as if someone had dropped a watch into one of the bins.
He pulled it out and set it on the floor, only to have the ticking immediately cease when the box touched tile. Curiosity now piqued, he yanked the lid off and began to rifle through the contents, disappointed when it was only more papers and random news articles.
What had happened to the clock?
Frowning, he sat back on his ankles and glared at the newspapers and documents, absently noting that they were more recent then the ones he'd been looking at.
Just as he was considering putting the box back, the ticking sounded up again, quicker than before as if it were impatient.
"What?" Dash growled at the archive bin angrily. What the heck was its problem?
"You good, Dash?" Kwan's voice sounded from behind him, eyebrows arched concerningly.
Dash whipped around with an angry expression glued to his features, "This box keeps ticking at me!"
Kwan blinked once before deciding that insanity must be another one of his friend's special quirks, "Whatever you say, man."
"Argh." The blond turned back to the box, "What do you want?" He whispered at it, now understanding why those other kids had set fire to the papers; he was rather tempted to torch the entire library in an act of revenge.
The ticking, as if actually listening to him, sped up even more, like an angry parent tapping their foot.
Full of it, Dash began to rifle through again in search of the source, desperately shoving papers aside until he reached the bottom. The ticking stopped just as suddenly as it had started.
He swore, convinced he was losing his mind, until he read the headline of the news article his hand was now resting on.
Amity's Own Genetic Researchers Dead: Phantom to Blame?
The line sparked a half-forgotten memory in the back of his mind. He vaguely remembered Lancer mentioning something about a loss during a class a year back, something to do with science-y mumbo jumbo.
He pulled the article closer until he was almost nose-to-paper with it, running a quick hand through his hair before continuing,
Yesterday, November 20th, 20XX, Amity—
Dash paused; he knew that date. Thinking on it harder than he'd ever thought about anything in his life, nothing came to him. Grunting in annoyance, he resumed reading,
Yesterday, November 20th, 20XX, Amity Park lost two of its best and leading researchers in their field. Idolon Ladouceur, 26, and Katherine Ladouceur, 24, collided with an oncoming car whose driver was under ghostly influence.
'Danny Phantom', also known as 'Inviso-Bill', and a group of ghosts were seen leaving the jewelry store on Spectre Street and Current Avenue, possessing multiple people during their escape.
The police and resident ghost hunters were unable to apprehend them, meaning they escaped with the precious stones in hand. If anyone has information concerning the entities' location, please call our toll-free emergency hotline.
The younger Ladouceur was killed on impact and her sister is now in critical condition. Both were exploring how changing targeted strands of human DNA and isolating them could eliminate the potential for lifelong or terminal illnesses.
In an interview with the two last Wednesday, they revealed that they had been approached by a classified corporate entity willing to sponsor them for paranormal research. It is unclear at this time what exactly this was to pertain to, or if it had anything to do with their acci—
Deciding that he'd read enough, Dash called Kwan over and stuffed the newspaper into his friend's face, "Found something, didn't understand half the words in it though."
Kwan scanned the headline, his eyes widening at what he read. "You're just stupid," He gave a him a light shove that let Dash know he was joking. "Go tell Danny and Paulina; I know you're dying to see her."
"Shut up," Dash grunted, turning away so Kwan couldn't see the dark flush his comment had caused. "Just read the darn article."
He maneuvered his way between the shelves, muttering some choice words about Kwan under his breathe as he headed to the back of the archive room.
"…still hurt?" That was Paulina's voice, her soft tone bringing an unconscious smile to his lips.
"I have a pretty fast healing factor, so it's not too bad now." There was a ruffling of cloth, as if Danny were showing her something. "See? Almost gone."
"Wow."
Dash decided that now was as good a time as any to make his appearance. He stepped out from behind a rusty filing cabinet, his voice louder than he'd been anticipating in the gentle silence, "I found something."
"Jeez!" Paulina snapped, chucking a loose paper at him while Danny temporarily blinked out of visibility, quickly reappearing with a hand over his heart.
Dash watched the piece of paper she'd tossed at him float harmlessly to the ground, four feet away. "Careful," He deadpanned. "You could've given me a papercut."
Fenton, looking like an old man going into cardiac arrest, leaned heavily against his crutch, "Don't do that. I almost phased through the floor. Again."
The Latina glanced at him curiously, mouth open as if she was about to ask what he meant, but Dash quickly spoke before she could,
"I found an article that you guys are going to want to see," He hesitantly nodded in Danny's direction, still reluctant to meet the boy's eyes. "Especially you."
The half-smile on the other boy's face faded, replaced with a look of grim determination. Now that he was thinking to compare them, Dash could see Phantom in it; the same flat set of the mouth and brows.
The jock ignored the goosebumps trailing down his spine, every time he'd shoved the scrawny kid into a locker or slammed him against a wall flashing through his mind.
His hands clenched as he wondered—not for the last time—how on earth he wasn't an ecto-spot on Casper High's tiles. Why hadn't Danny done anything? Why had he just taken it?
"Why didn't you—" He cut himself off, quickly deciding that now wasn't the time to hash this out. "Never mind, follow me."
And so the two did, Danny's crutch clacking against the floor as he limped beside Paulina, completely unaware that everything was about to change.
Again, I apologize for how long this took me.
One of my family members was recently hospitalized for a pre-existing medical condition that makes them susceptible to the COVID 19, and I became their temporary caretaker. Again, sorry for the unofficial hiatus.
Hope you enjoyed even though it's pretty short, stay safe out there! The world's kinda wacky right now.
~ASL
