Author's Note: I own nothing.
14 Hunted
Finals were absolutely wrecking Dani. She desperately needed to pass, and it really didn't look like that was going to happen, especially when Lancer handed her a paper back with a large red D written at the top. She sort of hated that he taught two of their classes. She buried her head in her hands as Sam tapped away on the computer behind her in the library.
"I can't get a D on this paper. My parents are gonna kill me. Jazz is gonna kill me! She's got that reporter from Genius Magazine coming to the house tomorrow. But all this late night ghost fighting is kicking my ass!" Tanya nodded.
"Yep, so much for the Fenton's being a family of geniuses." She teased. Dani crumpled up her paper and threw it at Tanya. Sam scoffed.
"Well there's a solution. Lancer's offering an extra credit assignment for the bio class. You have to do a biological profile on an endangered species, and a paper about it. It just so happens that one of the rarest species on the planet is currently at the zoo." He turned away from the screen so they could see it too.
"Sampson?" Dani asked standing and heading over to the computer.
"Yep, a rare purple back gorilla. One of only two still living. But they're both boys. After this they're gone for good. So you should do your extra credit on him and prove that he deserves to be set free!" Sam said with a grin. Dani resisted the urge to roll her eyes.
"Sam I don't have time to do my regular homework much less extra so I can help your agenda." Tanya shook her head.
"That's not actually true. You're just really bad at managing your time. But I've got an itemized schedule with your name on it!" Dani frowned at her friend. "Least I could do after dropping the thermos last night." That one little slip up had released seven different ghosts only six of which they'd actually caught. The Box Ghost was still on the loose but he wasn't exactly a big threat. Sam stood from the chair, not bothering to exit out of the browser.
"She's right. We can do this." He said patting Dani on the shoulder. Tanya pulled her PDA out of her pocket.
"I've got some Zoo time scheduled so we can check out the gorilla." Tanya said and Dani looked between the two of them.
"You guys had this planned, didn't you?" She asked and Sam shrugged.
"Well your review didn't go well, we wanted to have a plan in case you needed the bonus points." He pointed out. Dani rolled her eyes and nodded as they headed out of the library. None of them spotted the ghost floating through the ceiling to stand in front of the computer they'd left behind.
Six hours later Dani was falling asleep in the chair. She had no idea how Sam had gotten them backstage behind the fences at the Zoo, but at that moment she didn't particularly care. This had been the most boring six hours of her life, and while that was slightly refreshing after all the ghost hunting she'd been doing, it didn't make the time any less tedious. All they'd been doing was watch the large gorilla scratch his backside. Sam was talking as Dani nodded off. The next thing she knew there was noise all around. A near deafening bang had Dani jolting upright spinning around and searching for the threat. She found it in Sampson, the purple back gorilla who had somehow escaped and was now beating on the wall behind Dani. Tanya screamed as Dani transformed into her ghost form and snatched up the gorilla. It wasn't hard to carry him, despite the fact that he weighed at least two hundred pounds. She was really gonna have to test just how strong she was but she couldn't worry about that right now as she placed the gorilla into the pen and swooped out the open door before landing by the door controls and closing the pen back up. Sam and Tanya raced down to the controls as Dani let out a sigh.
"Dani there was…" Sam started but Dani was frowning at him.
"I wonder how the rare endangered gorilla got out. Sam?" Tanya laughed.
"Wait till we tell everyone at school you let the gorilla out!" She teased. Dani turned back to normal as Sam bristled. He pulled out his phone and opened the photo app, flipping it so the girls could see the photo on his screen. It was of them up on the observation deck. Both girls were asleep, Tanya was drooling onto Dani's shoulder. Tanya shook her head, backtracking quickly. "Or we could keep it our little secret." Dani nodded.
"Yeah, we don't really have proof that he did it after all." Dani pointed out and Sam nodded as Dani yawned. She rubbed her eyes and sighed. "I need some sleep, let's get out of here." Tanya nodded and before Sam could say anything the two girls were heading out to sign out so they could leave the Zoo.
They arrived at Dani's house at around seven in the morning. Her parents were in the living room with a woman in a pink power suit. Maddie looked up and frowned.
"Dani, I'm not sure I like these overnight study sessions at the Zoo." She said with a frown. Dani rolled her eyes.
"Oh come on mom. We're just three teens, alone at the Zoo, all night. I'm going to bed." Dani stated. Tanya and Sam looked back over at the couch as the invention in Jack's hand echoed Dani's words.
"I'm going to bed. Fear me." Jack frowned down at the invention. Dani looked drained as they headed up the stairs.
"You've got about thirteen minutes before you have to get ready for school, so rest up while you can." Tanya said yawning wide. But as Dani opened her mouth to talk the blue mist emerged, the one that meant that there was a ghost nearby. Her first instinct was to look around for Glooby. But the bunny was nowhere in sight. Instead the door to her room opened of its own accord. A figure resolved there. He was tall, with green flaming hair, metal skin and shoulders so broad he almost wouldn't have fit through the door. A wicked smile crossed his face.
"Hello Ghost Child." Before any of them could react he raised an arm, firing a blue glowing net from inside it. The net snatched Dani off her feet, yanking her into her room, the door of which was slammed behind her as a quickly aborted scream sounded from behind it.