Chapter 16: Long Nights, Early Mornings
Mitch blinked his eyes blearily as he exited his room and made his way down the hall to the bathroom in the dark, dressed only in a pair of grey sweatpants. Grunting as he flipped on the bathroom light, Mitch grabbed a cup that was sitting on the sink before filling it up with water from the faucet. As he drank greedily from the cup, a noise caught his attention, prompting Mitch to poke his head out into the hall.
"Neil?" Mitch questioned, causing his brother to freeze in place, halfway stepping through the door into his own bedroom, "What are you doing?"
"Oh, uh," Neil mumbled as he turned to face Mitch, "I thought I heard something but it was, uh, just you."
"Why are you dressed?" Mitch asked in confusion.
"I, uh, fell asleep in my clothes," Neil answered awkwardly.
"Including your shoes?" Mitch pressed as his brow furrowed.
"Yeah, weird right?" Neil replied with a laugh as he slowly eased himself into his bedroom, "Well, good night!"
With that, Neil closed his door, leaving Mitch to look after him with a perplexed expression, his sleep addled brain trying to make sense of what had just happened.
Later,
Danny had no idea where he was. He had a vague recollection of collapsing onto his bed, but now he found himself standing in a completely black space, a dark void with seemingly nothing in it. Even the ground beneath his feet was pitch black. A confused look on his face, Danny glanced around, looking for anything that would help him gain his bearings.
Turning around, Danny let out a cry of surprise as he suddenly found the Lunch Lady lunging at him, the ghost screaming at the top of her lungs. Right before she could reach him though, the Lunch Lady stopped short, apparently held at bay by something Danny couldn't see. Quickly hopping back, Danny blinked in confusion as he looked at the Lunch Lady, who was struggling to reach him. Looking at her, Danny realized that a large manacle was wrapped around the Lunch Lady's waist, attached to a tuat metal chain trailing behind her, the other end connected to the floor a short distance away.
Glancing around, Danny spotted the Boxcar Butcher nearby, secured in the same way the Lunch Lady was, also unable to break free. His brow furrowing in confusion, Danny turned away from the ghosts only to find Alistair standing behind him, causing the young man to let out a cry of alarm.
"Hello, Daniel," Alistair greeted stoically.
"Jesus, Alistair," Danny complained as he clutched at his chest, "How many times have I told you not to sneak up on you like that?"
"My apologies," Alistair replied, unapologeticly.
"It's fine," Danny replied with a sigh as he glanced around, "Where are we, anyway? And what are the Lunch Lady and the Butcher doing here?"
"I am not entirely sure," Alistair admitted as he looked around as well, "Though I hypothesize that we are within your subconscious mind."
"My subconscious?" Danny questioned, "Seems pretty empty."
"I imagine there is a cutting remark I could make in relation to that, but for now, I will refrain," Alistair commented with a smirk, "As to why we're here in your subconscious with a pair murderous ghosts, I have to imagine that when they were sealed inside of you, this is where they ended up."
"Well, it's good to see they're secured in some way," Danny stated as he watched the Lunch Lady struggle against her bonds, "Wouldn't want them running rampant inside my head."
"Indeed," Alistair stated, "For now though, I believe it is time for you to awaken. Your "alarm clock", as you call it, has just begun making noise."
"Wait, if we're not fused right now," Danny said as the view of his surroundings began to grow hazy and fade away, "How are you talking in my head?"
A moment later, Danny's eyes opened and he found himself laying on his back in his bed. Alistair hovered directly over Danny, facing the young man with his immaterial right hand thrust between Danny's eyes and into his skull. Letting out a cry of alarm, Danny instinctively rolled to the side, causing him to tumble out of bed and fall to the floor with a thud.
Groaning, Danny began to untangle himself from his blankets as he glared at Alistair, who righted himself so that he was floating just above Danny's bed.
"What the hell was that?" Danny whispered harshly as he sat up.
"Merely experimenting with my abilities," Alistair answered nonchalantly, studying his ghostly hand as he spoke, "I wanted to see if there was a way for us to partially merge. It appears there is."
"Well, could you do me a favor and not do that again unless it's an emergency or something?" Danny requested as he rolled to his feet, "I already have to share a body with you part time, I'd like to keep my dreams private, if you don't mind?"
"Trust me, Daniel," Alistair sighed as he looked Danny straight in the eye, "I have no desire to look upon whatever scantily clad women occupy your adolescent fantasies."
Danny's cheeks began burning bright crimson at the comment and he was about to retort when his mother came charging into the room.
"Danny!" she cried breathlessly as she looked at him with wide eyes, "Are you alright? I heard a thump!"
"Yeah, Mom, I'm okay," Danny replied with an embarrassed expression, "I just kind of, rolled out of bed in my sleep."
"Oh, good," she said, a look of relief passing over her features as she placed a hand to her chest, "You're still recovering so I was just….just nervous is all."
"I understand, Mom," Danny said with a smirk, "But I'm fine, really."
"Maddie!" Danny's father's voice echoed from somewhere downstairs, "Is he okay!?"
"He's alright, Jack!" she called back.
"Okay, good!" Jack answered, "You both should come down stairs and see this! This is huge!"
"What's going on?" Danny asked curiously.
"Oh, it's happened again, Danny!" Maddie replied with an excited grin, "A third ghost sighting! And this one is even bigger than the last two! Oh, we've really struck gold this time! Nobody is going to be able to deny our evidence now!"
Giggling like a schoolgirl, Maddie turned and hurried out of the room, leaving Danny in her wake.
"Yeah," Danny sighed to himself, "We really lucked out here."
After getting dressed in a white t-shirt along with his blue jeans and black sweatshirt, Danny made his way downstairs to the first floor with Alistair trailing behind him. There, he found the rest of his family, along with Tucker, who was wearing jeans along with a yellow t-shirt over a red, long sleeve one, standing in the living room, all of their attention focused on the television.
"What, do you just let yourself into my house these days?" Danny inquired as he looked at Tucker with a bemused smile.
"Hey, I can't help it if your family loves me," Tucker replied with a grin and a helpless shrug.
"Danny, my boy!" Danny's father, Jack, exclaimed as his son entered the room, "Come here and have a look at this!"
Grabbing Danny by the shoulders, Jack dragged him over and placed him directly in front of the television. Danny's eyes widened in surprise as he saw that a newscast was playing, and that it was currently airing footage of the fight from the previous night, taken by someone recording just outside of the trainyard.
"While details are sketchy," the reporter spoke over the video of Danny battling with the Boxcar Butcher, "The footage does appear to capture a number of inhuman-looking creatures battling with a group of unknown persons, ending with a particularly flashy finale."
As the reporter spoke, the footage cut to a shot of Danny absorbing the two ghosts into him, though whoever was recording was thankfully too far away to catch his or any of his friends' details.
"As reported earlier, two security guards were found dead on the scene of the fight this morning," the reporter stated, "So police are asking all Blight Hollow residents to report any information they may have on the people involved with this apparently supernatural brawl."
"It would appear we did not arrive in time last night," Alistair muttered grimly from where he hovered behind Danny.
"Wow, that's pretty crazy, Dad," Danny commented as the news report moved on to the next story, doing his best to seem surprised, "I wonder where they got the footage from."
"They got it from us, of course!" Jack replied with a boisterous chuckle.
"What!?" Danny questioned in shock, turning his head to look at his father so fast he briefly wondered if he had given himself whiplash.
"Yep!" Jack confirmed as he proudly planted his hands on his hips, "Your mother and I were tired of these reporters beating us to the punch, so we set up our equipment to detect any abnormal EKG readings around town, and, low and behold, we got a hit last night."
"It was pretty late, and we didn't want to wake you or your sister," Maddie added, "So we packed up our gear and snuck out of the house. We managed to use our equipment to track the source of the readings, which was the old trainyard. From there, we found a vantage point and filmed the whole thing!"
"I wanted to get closer to the action, but, uh, your mother thought that was a bit too risky," Jack replied as he scratched the back of his head in embarrassment.
"I wanted to get closer too," Maddie explained, "But we also saw one of those ghosts hit another with a boxcar, so I thought it would be better if we played it safe."
"Wow," Danny said, doing his best to hide his nervousness, "That sounds crazy."
"Yeah," Jazz agreed, her eyes wide as she turned her gaze from the television to her parents,, "Honestly, I think I might owe you guys an apology. All these years of traveling the country, I never really believed ghosts were real, but now here they are, larger than, well, life, I guess."
"Oh, it's alright, Jazz," Jack replied as he patted his daughter on the shoulder, "Your mother and I always knew you'd come around eventually."
"But enough about ghosts for now," Maddie said, "You kids need to get going or you're all going to be late for school."
Nodding in reply, Danny, Jazz and Tucker grabbed their bags before they made their way out the door.
"Danny, I have to say, you're handling this all really well," Jazz said as she made her way down the sidewalk with Tucker and her brother, "I mean, Mom and Dad just proved that ghosts are real!"
"Oh, uh, yeah," Danny mumbled in reply, "I'm just….in shock is all."
"Yeah," Tucker agreed awkwardly, "It's all very….shocking."
Jazz narrowed her eyes at this and looked ready to say something, but was interrupted when Ember came jogging down the sidewalk towards them, dressed in her usual spiked, black leather jacket along with ripped, black jeans and a white tank top with the anarchy symbol messily drawn on it in black ink.
"Good mornin', Danny boy, Tuck," Ember greeted as came to a stop in front of them, her grin growing wider as her gaze turned towards Jazz, "And hello to you, ya lovely stunner."
"You must be Danny's new friend," Jazz replied with a bemused smile as she offered Ember her hand, "I'm Jazz, his sister."
"Ember McClain," the banshee said in return as she shook Jazz's hand and flashed the young woman a charming smile, "And don't you worry, Danny's already told me all about ya."
"Well, if he's done that, then you already know I'm not interested," Jazz stated, her smile friendly as she gently pulled her hand back.
As Ember looked at Jazz in surprise after being shot down so quickly, Danny did his best to hide his look of amusement while Tucker choked back a laugh.
"Anyway, it was nice meeting you, Ember," Jazz said as she nodded towards the young woman before turning her attention towards her brother, "I'm guessing you're heading to Soos' to get some breakfast. I'll see you later."
"Later," Danny replied with a grin, giving his sister a small wave as she left.
As the trio watched Jazz leave, Ember's expression grew darker and darker as she listened to Danny and Tucker attempt to stifle their laughter.
"Alroight, out wit it," Ember grumbled, prompting Danny and Tucker to break into peals of laughter.
"Wow," Tucker chuckled as he regained control of himself, "That was painful to watch."
"Oh, shut it," Ember grumbled, "Loike you would have done any better."
"I'll have you know, I'm very popular with the ladies," Tucker said as he began walking down the sidewalk, prompting Ember and Danny to join him.
"Oh, roight," Ember retorted with a snort of derision, "Ya're just beatin' dem off wit a stick, ain'tcha?"
"I've got to say, if I didn't know Ember was gay, I'd say you two had some unresovled sexual tension," Danny interjected, causing both Ember and Tucker to glare at him with annoyed expressions.
"Well den, what about you, Danny boy?" Ember questioned as she quirked an eyebrow at the young man, "Any fine tin' in yer life ya haven't told me about?"
"Nah," Danny answered with a shake of his head, "I was already the new kid with weird parents before this whole ghost thing started. Not exactly something that gets you dates, you know?"
"Oi suppose," Ember confirmed with a nod before a thoughtful look passed over her face, "Ya know who you should take a shot at tough? Red."
"Who?" Danny questioned in confusion.
"She's talking about Wendy," Tucker elaborated as a thoughtful look crossed his features, "And honestly, I don't think she's far off the mark."
"Seriously, Wendy?" Danny asked with an amused chuckle, "The girl who swings around a magic sword almost as big as she is? That Wendy?"
"Ya're roight, she's obviously too good for ya," Ember replied with a roll of her eyes, "Oi don't know what Oi was tinkin'."
"I've known Wendy for a while dude," Tucker argued with a smirk, "I think you two could really hit it off. Plus she's already in on the whole secret identity thing, so that's a plus."
"This Wendy does seem like a capable young woman," Alistair added as he floated next to Danny.
"Oh, don't even get started," Danny grumbled as Ember snorted.
"Yeah, grandpa ghost knows what's up!" Tucker laughed, guessing at what Alistair had said based on Danny and Ember's reactions, causing both Fentons to glare at hi.
"Alright guys, that's enough," Danny said with a sigh as they approached the front door to Soos' Juices, "Can we please talk about a subject other than Wendy?"
"You guys talking about me?" Wendy said as she pulled up to the trio on her bike and slowed to a stop, dressed in brown pants and a grey tank top, her red flannel shirt tied around her waist.
"Oh, uh, yeah," Danny mumbled, his face flushing with embarrassment as he turned to face Wendy, "We were….we were just saying…."
"We were just sayin' how much of a badass ya were last noight," Ember said as she noticed Danny floundering, holding her fist out towards Wendy as she spoke, "Pleasure workin' wid ya, Red."
"Pleasure was all mine, Blue," Wendy replied with a grin as she bumped knuckles wth Ember, "So, you guys grabbing some breakfast?"
"Yeah, care to join us?" Tucker questioned as he grabbed the door and opened it.
"Don't mind if I do," Wendy replied as she secured her bike before nodding at Tucker as he held the door for her.
As Ember and Tucker moved to follow Wendy into the cafe, they both gave Danny looks while nodding towards Wendy, causing Danny to let out a tired sigh as he walked through the door.
"Ember and I are going to grab a table," Tucker said before heading off towards a different part of the cafe, giving Danny an encouraging thumbs up as he did. Rolling his eyes, Danny got into the short line leading to the ordering counter next to Wendy. As he stood silently next to her, Danny looked at Wendy absentmindedly grumbling internally over what his friends had said. As he looked at her, Danny started to notice things about Wendy he hadn't before, like the way that her red hair took on a coppery shine when the sunlight coming in through the windows struck it, or the way her lean muscles bulged as she reached a hand up to scratch the back of her head, or-
"Hey, you okay, dude?" Wendy questioned as she quirked an inquiring eyebrow at Danny, "You're kind of spacing out."
"Oh, uh sorry," Danny quickly apologized, his face heating up from embarrassment, "Just kind of tired, you know?"
"Yeah, I hear you," Wendy agreed with a chuckle, "Pulling these back to back late nights has been killer. Did you see that we made the news again?"
"Yeah, with footage my parents shot," Danny confirmed with a low voice.
"Seriously?" Wendy whispered in surprise, "Geez, pretty ballsy of them to follow us there. What did you say to them?"
"Nothing really," Danny answered awkwardly, "They don't know about what I can do."
"For real?" Wendy inquired, her eyebrows raising in surprise, "Wow. Do you think that's a good idea?"
"Honestly, I don't know," Danny replied with a shrug, "But for now, I think it's better if I don't know. I can't deal with the double stress of them worrying about me risking my life and looking at me like I'm the paranormal find of the century."
"Yeah, I can understand that," Wendy agreed with a chuckle, "Honestly, it would be kind of nice if my dad didn't know about any of this stuff."
"He give you a hard time about it?" Danny inquired.
"I've already had one talking to about it, and I'm sure I'm due for another one," Wendy grumbled, her expression souring, "He's all like "You shouldn't be using the family sword to fight the forces of evil!" As if he's not the one who taught me how to use the sword in the first place! Honestly, I'm worried enough that I've started stashing the sword at the Mystery Shack."
"So, what is up with that sword anyway?" Danny inquired with a quirked eyebrow, "I mean, why does your family own a magic sword?"
"Hell if I know," Wendy admitted with a shrug, "All I've ever been able to gather is that they brought it over with them when they emigrated from Scotland. Beyond that, it's a kind of "lost to history" situation."
"Well, I guess we should just be happy to have it," Danny replied, "Shouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth and all that."
By that point, the pair had reached the front of the line and gave Soos their orders. Once they had collected their breakfasts, they made their way over to the table Ember and Tucker had claimed, and found the two engaged in an energetic conversation.
"So, you're going to go for it?" Tucker questioned with a grin.
"Damn roight Oi am," Ember replied, her own smile determined as she nodded at Tucker, "Almost forgot about it too. Hate to miss my shot."
"Your shot at what?" Wendy inquired as she and Danny joined them.
"My shot to indulge in my passion," Ember replied as she pulled out a piece of paper and held it up for Wendy and Danny to see.
"Oh right, I remember I saw Scott putting these up," Danny said with a chuckle as he took the flyer and looked it over, "You thinking of trying out for his band?"
"You know it, Danny boy," Ember replied with a wolfish grin.
"And you think that's a good idea with everything that's going on right now?" Wendy inquired with a dubious expression.
"It's never a good toime to go after what ya want," Ember replied with a shrug, "If dere's one tin' dis whole fate tin's taught me, it's dat ya got to take control of yer life where ya can, because dere's so much of it ya can do jack all about."
"Well, that's certainly a way to look at it," Tucker commented with a chuckle.
"So, can Oi count on you lot to come cheer me on tonoight?" Ember questioned as she looked at the others hopefully.
"Of course," Danny replied as the others nodded, "It will be way better than fighting evil ghosts again."
"Oh, dat's fierce," Ember replied with a broad grin as she leaned back and propped her black boots with electric blue laces up on the table, "You lot aren't goin' to regret it. Oi'm goin' to blow de roof off dis joint."
A/N: A short bridging chapter as I set things up to come. Still, I had a lot of fun writing it, so I hope you enjoyed reading it. As always, feedback and critiques are always welcome, so please review! Later!