Chapter 8: Mystery Meat
New Years came and went uneventfully—except for a few more sightings of strange lights in the sky. What had started out as something that people had just shrugged off was starting to make people uneasy. Danny worried that it would become a serious problem, but as school loomed ahead of him and Danielle their worry focused towards it. The thought of going to school in their current…conditions almost made Danny want to pull his hair out. Danielle was riddled with worry as well apparently, acting uncharacteristically subdued and jumpy all day the Sunday before they had to go to school. Suffice it to say that neither of them got much sleep that Sunday night.
Danny came down the stairs, shuffling like a zombie, to the kitchen to meet a nearly equally tired looking Danielle sitting at the kitchen table with a mug of coffee that was probably made ten times stronger than was intended by the coffee company and God himself.
Danny, on autopilot, went to the cabinet and got down a bowl for himself. Danielle mumbled something almost incoherently about getting one down for her too, and he complied robotically. Next it was the cereal, and then the milk. Finally, Danny sat down by his sister and started to enjoy his bowl of Froot Loops as much as he could in his still zombified state.
Jazz walked in looking as perky as ever, her hair still slightly damp from a shower. "Good morning everyone!" she said in a teeth grindingly chipper voice.
"Are we sure Jazz isn't adopted?" Danielle muttered to Danny as Jazz turned her back to them to look in the fridge.
"She's not adopted, she just got the good genes," Danny scoffed.
"I heard that," Jazz said, looking over her shoulder at them with a glare. She came out of the fridge with the carton of orange juice and poured herself a glass. "You know there's no need to be so crotchety in the mornings. This has been an everyday thing going on eleven years. I'd think you'd be used to it by now."
"And I'd think you'd have gotten used to us not being used to it by now, but here we are," Danny said in a monotone, while Danielle tried to restrain herself from giggling at the word "crotchety".
Jazz rolled her eyes and turned to pull a granola bar out of the cabinet. "Then at least look at it this way, Mom and Dad aren't up yet, or if they are they're messing around in the basement with their hazardous materials where they should be. At least it's not one of those mornings where they bring their work to the breakfast table," Jazz said as she sat down across from the twins.
Only a few seconds after she spoke, the sound of the basement door swinging open made its way into the kitchen.
"You fucking jinxed it Jazz. Way to go," Danielle said as she sipped her coffee.
Jazz gave her an exasperated look. "Don't curse."
Their mother—who was fully engrossed in a new piece of tech she and their father were working on—came into the kitchen and sat at the table, Jack trailing behind. He filled a cup of coffee for her which she gratefully accepted. Not looking up from the device she was tweaking, she said to Jazz, "I remember you saying something about needing to go in early today, so don't worry about taking the twins to school."
"Thanks, Mom, but I can take them. You can go back down into the lab if you want," Jazz said pointedly.
"No, it's fine," Maddie said waving her off.
Their dad started making toast while Jazz sulked and Danny went back to eating his cereal. He wasn't paying attention and the spoon slipped out of his hand—or rather through his hand. The spoon clanged loudly against the ceramic bowl, and a few droplets of milk splashed onto the table. There was a small panicked pause as Danny simply stared at where his hand should be, then quickly hid his stump under the table before either his parents or Jazz could see it.
Jazz, having heard the loud clang, eyed him suspiciously, probably thinking he was developing a tic. He gave her a very "nothing to see here" kind of smile, to which she rolled her eyes and directed her attention elsewhere. He glanced at Danielle who had seen the disappearing act his hand had once again pulled.
Danny looked under the table. Upon seeing that his hand was still missing, he cursed quietly under his breath.
Danny was momentarily distracted by his vanishing limb when their mom said a little too loudly, "And it's just about done! Only a few more—"
She didn't get to finish her sentence before Jack asked excitedly, "It's done?!" With out waiting for her response, he grabbed the device out of her hands and held it up shouting, "It's done! The Fenton Finder is DONE!" He patted the device in his hands admirably and went on to explain. "This baby uses satellites to track a ghost's exact location!"
"It uses what to track what?!" Danny said in a horrified whisper. He and Danielle shared a terrified look.
However, no one else noticed their apparent discomfort because the device chose then to speak. "Welcome to the Fenton Finder. A ghost is near. Walk forward," it said in a metallic female voice.
The twins looked at the thing in fear while Jazz kept an unimpressed expression firmly in place. Maddie got out of her seat and took a step forward with her husband.
Danny tried to get out of his seat to put as much distance as he could between him and the device, but he found that Danielle had clamped a hand around his arm and was apparently frozen in fear to her spot.
The Fenton parents only took one more step towards their kids before the device abruptly beeped and said, "Ghost located. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder!"
Jack and Maddie looked between their invention and the twins with equally confused expressions. While Danielle was frozen with an almost comical look of horror on her face, Danny gave his parents a twitchy, nervous smile.
Suddenly, pins and needles pierced his arm. The device almost immediately gave another beep, this time a low unhappy tone and said, "No ghost found in your immediate area. Thank you for using the Fenton Finder!"
Jack boomed, "What? That can't be right!" He looked to Maddie for an explanation but she just sighed and shook her head.
"Actually, we kind of have something we need to tell you," Danny blurted before even really realizing what he was saying.
Danielle slowly turned to him still with a horrified look. Danny winced when the grip on his arm tightened. He looked nervously between his twin and his parents who were now curiously looking at him. He seriously considered just making something up, but his mind was blank of anything but the truth. He started to open his mouth and just let the truth out, but by some stroke of luck (or not depending on how you look at it) Jazz interrupted him.
"That's not the only thing you need," she said, sending a venomous glare at their parents. "You need guidance, and parents who can provide it."
Maddie sent her eldest daughter a sympathetic—and a little exasperated—look. "Jazz, I know what we do sometimes doesn't make sense, but you're only—"
"Sixteen, I know! But my biological age has nothing to do with this!" she said nearly shouting. "And I won't allow your insane obsession pollute the minds of impressionable children anymore!"
Danielle leaned in slightly and whispered to Danny, "Did she really just call us 'impressionable children'?"
Before Danny could give any kind of response, Jazz came up behind them and practically pulled them out of their seats. "Come on, I'll drive you to school."
…
Danielle caught her brother's eye in the rearview mirror as he got in shotgun of Jazz's immaculate 2010 Prius. She sent him a murderous glare. He was going to get an earful when they got to school, and by his stricken expression, she'd say he knew it.
The ride to school was deathly quite, the tension so thick in the car you could cut it with a knife.
As soon as the twins got out of the Prius and Jazz had driven off to find a parking space, Danielle turned to her twin. "What the fuck, dude?! You were just gonna blurt out our secret over breakfast of all times?!"
Danny sighed. "Okay, bad timing, I get it, but they were right there with their new invention all in our faces. I wasn't thinking. But—" Danny took a step closer to her and lowered his voice when another student walked by them, "—would it really be so bad if we told them, anyway? I mean with all the tech they have they're bound to figure it out eventually when we keep popping up on their radars and stuff. Wouldn't it be better if we told them rather than them jumping to conclusions and thinking we're possessed or something?"
Danielle pursed her lips and shook her head. She turned from Danny and began walking to the doors. "But it's not just our secret," she muttered.
Danny close behind her, huffed. "So this is about Dan then? What? So lying to our parents is okay, but breaking a promise isn't?"
She opened the door and thought about slamming it in Danny's face. "Don't do this Danny!" she ground out rounding on him as soon as they were both inside.
He seemed to mentally take a step back. "Alright," he sighed. "I'll drop it."
They made it to their lockers that were situated right next to each other. At the beginning of the school year, they had begged and pleaded to have lockers next to each other, and when the secretary was just about at her wits end with all the requests she was getting from the twins (mostly from Danielle), they were finally moved beside each other. In a stroke of luck, Sam and Tucker were also only a few lockers away.
As the twins got out their textbooks almost in sync, Danielle saw out of the corner of her eye a white blur shoot toward Danny and heard a subsequent small splat. With a groan of disgust he quickly brushed off the spitball.
Danielle spun around and glared at the group of troglodytes in letterman jackets, laughing at her brother's expense. The jocks walked away laughing, like blowing spitballs was the funniest thing ever.
She let the glare slip from her face as she turned to Danny. "Hey, how many assholes does it take to screw in a lightbulb?"
Danny rolled his eyes. "How many?"
"None. It doesn't matter. Assholes never see the light anyway."
Danny snorted loudly. "You come up with that yourself or did you get it off the internet?"
Danielle cracked a grin. "What do you take me for? Some kind of joke thief? I come up with pure original stuff all the time," she lied.
Sam and Tucker joined them a moment later.
"So what's up?" Tucker said as he twisted the dial of his combination lock.
"Well, I just told a great joke, and Danny almost exposed us this morning," Danielle answered shooting her twin a halfhearted glare.
"I told you I wasn't thinking. It just came out." Danny said defensively. "Anyway, I think we should tell them, eventually."
Danielle frowned and pursed her lips. "I guess," she muttered. "But just..." she trailed off with a sigh.
"I don't think you should tell them, at all," Sam interjected. "Parents don't listen, and worse they don't understand! WHY CAN'T THEY ACCEPT ME FOR WHO I AM!" She slammed her fist frustratedly into the locker door beside hers. If Danielle didn't know better, she'd say there was a small indentation left where Sam had punched the locker.
Sam's parents must have done something to majorly piss her off. Danielle made a note of asking her about it later.
"Um, Sam, we're talking about our powers, our problems," Danny said gesturing between himself and Danielle.
"Oh, right me too," she said sheepishly.
"Okay, wait a second, so what exactly happened this morning?" Tucker asked, redirecting everyone's attention.
Danny let out a frustrated huff. "Well, my parents made a new invention that can detect ghosts, and that's kinda when I blurted about needing to tell them something. But even before that everyone at the breakfast table almost saw my hand disappear. What if something like that happens in class? Danielle's starting to experience phantom limb syndrome, too. People could catch either one of us when it happens! What then?!"
"We'd go from geek to freak, that's what would happen," Danielle muttered sourly. She let out a frustrated sigh and leaned a shoulder against the lockers.
"Kind of like what you're doing now?" Tucker said as Danielle's shoulder started to sink into a locker door. She quickly straightened. Damn, she didn't notice before Tucker said anything. She blamed her lack of attention on only getting three hours of sleep last night.
Just then the bell rang, signaling for them to go to class. "See you at lunch," Danny said before they all parted ways.
…
Maddie looked over the schematics of the supposedly failed Fenton Finder without really seeing anything.
Jazz's outburst that morning still weighed heavily on Maddie's mind, but she had to push it away in favor of doing her work. Jazz didn't understand—of course she didn't, she was still so young, and yet she was right. Maddie had to sacrifice being a better mother in favor of being a good scientist and ghost hunter. It was for the greater good, but every resentful look Jazz sent her made her feel hot shame.
However, it was better than the alternative, which was Jazz knowing everything and fearing every shadow she saw out of the corner of her eye. Maddie almost hoped her daughter—all of her children—would stay oblivious to the real things that went bump in the night, but if she didn't find away to stop the barrier from weakening, Jazz might come face to face with one of those monsters all too soon.
There was still no progress on that front, but Maddie had taken to her husband's advice. She threw herself into designing inventions to at least protect against the ghosts to distract herself from possible impending doom.
Maddie took in a deep breath and let those thoughts slip away, refocusing herself on the device in front of her.
"I just don't understand what's wrong," she muttered looking over the schematics and then at the Fenton Finder that had its innards exposed for her to see.
Twisting her lips thoughtfully she closed the back of it and tried checking it again, this time doing a general sweep of a twenty mile radius, covering all of Amity Park and catching a bit of the neighboring city of Elmerton. This time coordinates popped up on the display. "A ghost is currently at this location," said the electronic female voice.
She looked over to Jack, who had abruptly stopped what he had been doing at the mention of a a word, Maddie went over to one of the lab computers and tipped in the coordinates into the search bar. Her brow creased in a deep frown when she saw where exactly the coordinates led: Casper High School. Her heart kept into her throat.
Jack leaned over her shoulder at the display. "Oh, no, now that ghost scum is going to get it for messing with our kids!" He went over to a work bench and picked up a prototype they had for an ectoplasmic based weapon. "Let's go get that ghost!"
"Wait," Maddie called out. "After what happened this morning, I'm not so willing to trust what that thing says." She thought back to the twin's anxious faces and Jazz's anger.
"But they could be in trouble!" Jack argued. "Ghosts could be attacking the school!"
Maddie pursed her lips. "Alright we'll do a drive by, but if everything looks fine we're leaving."
Jack's face lit up again. He grabbed a few more prototypes off the table and rushed out the door. Maddie smiled and shook her head at his antics. She was just about to leave the lab as well when she passed the FEAR. After a second of deliberation she grabbed the device off the table and walked out. It wouldn't hurt to take some more atmospheric readings while they were out.
…
Tucker and Sam caught up with the twins in the hall as they all headed to lunch.
"Hey, man, how you holding up?" Tucker asked Danny as he came up beside his glum looking friend and put an arm around his shoulders.
"Terribly," Danny answered.
"Danny's hand did the thing again in our chemistry class," Danielle explained. "He dropped a beaker and it kinda shattered all over the place. On the upside nobody saw, but Mr. Peabody's probably not going to let him near glass wear anytime soon."
"Don't worry, Danny. The day's almost half over," Sam stated.
The twins groaned simultaneously. "Just kill me now," Danny said.
"Cheer up, pall; it's Meatloaf Monday! We got that to look forward to!" Tucker said excitedly. He, for some strange reason, loved cafeteria meatloaf. In fact he loved any kind of meat and hardly ate anything but.
"Mmm, maybe not," Sam said with a sly smile.
"What do you mean?" Tucker asked, already a bit worried.
The four teens came up to the cafeteria doors, and Sam pointed to a flyer saying: Vegan Week! Tucker's jaw dropped open in abject horror.
"You like it?" Sam asked wearing a mischievous smile. "The school board decided to try out a healthier menu. I finally wore them down. Who knew sending a letter in nearly every week last semester would do the trick?"
Tucker turned to her slowly with the most vile glare he could muster. "What have you done?" he asked in a horrified whisper.
Danny and Danielle cringed, knowing that a storm was brewing.
"Oh come on Tucker you can go at least one week without meat."
"How do you know? You don't know my metabolic needs!"
"Humans don't need meat. That's a fact!"
"Could you guys defend your food beliefs later?" Danny said cutting in. "Lets just go get in line."
They went in and waited in line where three items were being served: veggie burger, veggie dog, or a garden salad. Danny and Tucker both chose a veggie dog, while Danielle chose a veggie burger and Sam chose a salad. They sat in their usual place to enjoy their not so usual lunch.
"I'm not eating," Tucker said and pushed his food away to lay his head on the table like a pouty child.
"Oh, come on, Tuck. I'm sure it's not that bad," Danny said, once again being the mediator. To show Tucker that the food was indeed edible, he took a bite of his hot dog. After completely chewing and then swallowing, he said flatly with a deadpan expression, "Yeah, this is actually really awful."
"Could just be the brand they got," Danielle suggested as she took a bite of her lunch. She made a face, but tried to hide it and continued to eat.
Sam simply rolled her eyes and began to go back to her salad when a hand rested on her shoulder. "Ah, Ms. Manson," said Mr. Lancer, an overweight and balding English teacher that doubled as the school's vice principal. "The school board wanted me to personally thank you for ushering this welcome experiment into this cafeteria." His words were subtly laced with sarcasm, which everyone seemed to pick up on except for Sam, who sat up straighter under the false praise.
Tucker sat up suddenly and sniffed the air. "Is that…actual meat I smell?" he said gaining a rabid gleam in his eye. He sniffed closer to Mr. Lancer who instantly took a few steps back.
"No, no, I'm sure it's your imagination. The rumors about the new all steak buffet in the teacher's lounge are, after all, completely untrue." Mr. Lancer grinned as he pulled out a tooth pick from his shirt pocket and absently cleaned his teeth. "Thanks again," he said to Sam before walking away.
"Yeah, thanks again for making us eat garbage, Sam!" Tucker scoffed. He immediately let his head fall back onto the table, muttering angrily into the formica.
"It's not garbage! It's perfectly edible food!" she defended.
"It's garbage!" Tucker grumbled into the table top.
Sam shot him a glare before going back to her lunch.
Danny was just about to take another bite of his nearly inedible hot dog when a shiver ran up his spine and cold breath forced its way up his throat. Sam and Tucker were oblivious, but Danielle noticed.
"Wasn't that what happened before the ectopus attacked us in the basement?" she asked.
Sam looked up from her salad, having heard what Danielle said. "Wait, what happen?" she asked with a frown.
"Danny's breath, it kinda—you know how your breath fogs when its cold outside? His breath did that just now," Danielle explained.
This was when Tucker finally clued in and lifted his head off the table and said, "What's up with Danny's breath?"
"What do you think it means?" Danny asked his sister as he looked nervously around the cafeteria. He hoped no one else saw it, especially not a teacher. They might jump to conclusions and think he was smoking in school.
He stopped when he caught a glimpse of something in the serving window. A lady, to be exact, a lunch lady, judging by her display of a hairnet and an apron, glided—not walked, glided—past one of the serving windows. It could have just been really smooth walking old lunch lady, if it weren't for her being slightly transparent and green.
"Uh, guys I've got a problem," Danny said.
"You're damn right you got a problem, Fenturd," said a strangely high pitched voice.
Danny reluctantly turned around to face a dismayingly large, beefy blond gorilla, that happened to go by the name Dash Baxter. He also claimed the title of the school's worst bully, and unsurprisingly was a football player. Unfortunately for Danny, he seemed to be the blond gorilla's favorite punching bag ever since kindergarten.
"I'm on a high protein diet. I have to be to keep fit enough to be the star quarterback. Do you think I can be the star quarterback with this stuff being served because of your girlfriend?" Dash asked, or rather demanded.
The only thing that particularly stuck with Danny out of that tirade was the fact that Dash had dared to say Sam was Danny's girlfriend. "She's not my girlfriend!" Danny objected.
Apparently Sam was of a like mind seeing as she had also responded with "I'm not his girlfriend!"
Ignoring their outbursts, Dash continued on with his rant. "These are my glory days. It's all down hill from here. How am I supposed to enjoy my glory days eating this garbage?!" Dash said, to which Sam gave him a venomous glare. If looks could kill Dash would be a smoldering spot on the ground.
"Well, at least you're honest with yourself," Danny quipped, which might not have been the smartest thing to do at that moment.
"What was that?" Dash asked hauling Danny up out of his seat by the collar of his shirt.
"Uh, nothing Dash," Danny stammered.
Dash threw Danny back into his seat. "You're gonna pay, Fenton."
Danny glanced back at the kitchen window and saw the ghostly lunch lady once again. He wasn't quite sure what to do about her, but he figured it was up to him to do something seeing as he was the one with ghost powers.
Thinking quickly while Dash was still spouting insults and threats and Tucker was desperately trying to restrain Sam and Danielle from teaming up and murdering the jock, Danny grabbed the half eaten hot dog off his tray and threw it right into Dash's face.
"Garbage fight!" Danny yelled loud enough for the entire cafeteria to hear.
"It's not garbage!" Sam yelled, no longer able to contain her indignation.
Danny pulled her along with Tucker and Danielle under the table as the cafeteria erupted into chaos.
"Did you really just do what I think you did?!" Tucker asked in awe.
"Yeah, and I'm totally going to regret it later, but there's something in the kitchen that really needs to be checked out. Something of the paranormal variety," Danny said.
"You mean like a ghost?" Sam asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Um, yeah."
Without another word, he crawled out from under the table and started toward the kitchen door. Danny carefully negotiated the crown, dodging certain food items thrown at him, and made it to the kitchen with only a slight spattering of mashed potatoes on his shirt. He glanced back at Tucker, Sam, and Danielle when they had all made it into the kitchen. None of them were quite as lucky as Danny was at dodging various foodstuffs.
Danny turned back around to see the ghost had reappeared across the kitchen. She was turned, seemingly looking for something. She didn't seem to have even noticed the four teenagers—or maybe she simply ignored them for the moment.
"She doesn't seem so dangerous. She looks a little like my grandmother," Tucker said, tacking a small nervous laugh at the end.
"Shouldn't she be haunting a bingo hall or something?" Danielle commented, with a raised eyebrow.
The four teens froze when the ghost turned and looked right at them. "Excuse me, children, can you help me? Today's lunch is meatloaf, but I don't see the meatloaf. Did somebody change the menu?" she said in a sweet grandmotherly voice, only with a slight bit of reverb to remind you that she was a ghost.
"Yeah, she did," Tucker, not thinking twice, and obviously still irritated, said, jabbing a thumb in Sam's direction.
In an instant the sweet grandmotherly facade was dropped and the ghost's appearance drastically changed. Half of her face seemed to be melted or burned off and there were scorch marks and holes in her clothes. "YOU CHANGED THE MENU?!" she screamed with an unnatural echo entering her voice. "THE MENU HAS BEEN THE SAME FOR OVER FIFTY YEARS!" She then quite literally roared.
"Get behind me!" Danny said trying to sound a lot less afraid than he was. Before his friends even moved he shoved them behind him.
"Wow, I feel safe," Sam, the ever dark and sarcastic goth, said.
The serving windows slammed shut and the lights dimmed, both very good signs that some serious supernatural stuff was about to go down.
The ghostly lunch lady raised her arms and the plates and platters in the cabinets and on the counters suddenly began to levitate.
Danny stuttered uncertainly, "I-I'm going ghost, I guess," adding the last part under his breath.
He wasn't sure how this worked but he hoped to hell that it would just sort of happen like it did last time. He was immensely relieved when the pale blue ring of light formed around his waist, seemingly on instinct.
The lunch lady paused, apparently surprised by Danny's trick but recovered quickly and hurled all the levitating plates and trays at the teens.
"Hold on to me!" Danny shouted and concentrated on feeling the cold sensation he got when part of him went intangible.
Everything flew through them and crashed into the wall behind them, causing an enormous clatter but breaking only a few trays since most of the dishes were plastic and drop proof in the first place.
"Hey, that actually worked, cool!" Danny said with a chuckle.
"I AM THE RULER OF LUNCH!" the lunch lady ghost yelled drawing the four teens attention back to her. "LUNCH IS SACRED! LUNCH HAS RULES!"
"I don't think it's as big of a deal as you think it is, lady," Danny said.
She seemed to really not like that, because she roared again and the burners on the stoves behind her blazed to life, shooting flames at least six feet into the air. The stoves began to shake violently then completely dislodged from their place and shot forward toward the terrified teens. Danny roughly grabbed his friends and sister, and pulled them out of the kitchen, phasing through the far wall.
"Woo! I am on fire to day!" Danny said, even though he was already starting to feel drained.
"This is the thanks I get for trying to make everyone a little healthier?!" Sam shrieked, pulling herself off the floor.
Suddenly the ground began to tremble and the lockers flew open. Their contents flew out towards the lunch lady ghost, making Danny feel really sorry for the poor kids that would have to explain why all their homework and textbooks were suddenly missing.
Papers and books weren't the only thing flying towards the ghost. Meat, coming from an unknown source flew towards her as well, covering her and making a disgusting amalgam of meat and school supplies.
"That's a whole porterhouse!" Tucker yelled as a piece of meat flew right by his face. "Where is all this meat coming from?"
Danny sent him a look. Of course with everything going on, Tucker would be worried only about meat.
"Meat is the most powerful of the five food groups!" the lunch lady ghost ranted. "You did no one a favor by changing the menu, child! AND THAT IS WHY YOU MUST PARISH!"
"The only thing that has an expiration date is you, lady!" Danny said, raising a fist at the ghost.
Danny suddenly felt something change inside him. The cold receded back to a spot in his chest and with it his ghostly appearance faded. "Oops…. I, uh…didn't mean to do that."
The lunch lady in her meat and school supply suit, roared and grabbed Danny, throwing him into Danielle and Tucker who were standing close enough together to play a game of human bowling. The three teens all landed solidly on the hard linoleum, Danielle and Tucker unfortunately taking the brunt of the impact. This of course gave the lunch lady ghost ample time to kidnap a kicking and screaming Sam.
"Get off!" Danielle wheezed as she pushed on her brother. Danny complied, rolling over on his hands and knees.
"Change…back," Tucker said, still wheezing from having the wind knocked out of him. "We gotta go!"
"You three aren't going anywhere except for detention!" Mr. Lancer said, appearing virtually out of thin air.
"Told you you were going to pay, Fenton!" Dash taunted with a smug expression from beside the middle aged teacher. He really shouldn't look that smug, Danny thought, seeing as he was still covered head to toe in food.
"That's it!" Danielle said slamming her open palm onto the floor.
There was an almost imperceptible flicker of the lights.
She pushed herself off the floor and started towards Dash who was watching her with an amused expression. Danny tried to catch his sister, but Lancer beat him to it catching her by the arm before she could take a swing at the jock's smirking face.
"Shall we add physical violence to your growing list of demerits, Miss Fenton?" Mr. Lancer said raising an eyebrow.
Danielle yanked her arm out of the teacher's hold and backed up, but not letting up on her glare at Dash. Danny caught her eye and sent her a disapproving look which she just shrugged at.
The teacher cleared his throat and straightened his tie. "Alright then, to my office."
…
Well, they didn't so much as do a drive by as park across from the school and do a stake out.
Maddie looked from the Fenton Finder in her hands to the school. Things seemed calm and normal. Some of the upperclassmen and teachers walked calmly from the school to their parked cars, likely going out to lunch seeing as it was noon straight up. Maddie promised herself that they would leave if nothing else seemed to happen in the next minute.
"I knew this thing still needed work," she muttered.
"I don't know," Jack said, narrowing his eyes at the school, "it could just be hiding in there."
Maddie shook her head as she watched another student go out to their car. "I don't see why it would. With the amount of ectoplasm in the atmosphere, it should be able to fully manifest and do whatever it wants."
"Who knows how a ghost's mind works," Jack said, still eyeing the school suspiciously.
Maddie pursed her lips. "We should just leave. This thing obviously doesn't wor—"
Suddenly, the device beeped again. "A new ghost has been detected. Approximate distance from your location: 35 meters."
"Another ghost!" Jack shouted. "We need to get in there, Mads!"
He began to open the door but paused when Maddie laid a hand on his shoulder. "Wait a second, honey. If another ghost really showed up, the Finder should have alerted us before they got this close."
Another thought came to her mind and she looked over at the FEAR. Perhaps a portal could have opened up near by and dumped a ghost right on top of them, but the readings were steady. If a portal had opened up—especially so close—she would have thought there would be at least a small spike in ectocontaminants.
She shook her head. "No, something isn't right here. The Finder has to be malfunctioning in at least some way."
"Come on, Mads! There could be a ghost in there! Two if the Fenton Finder's telling the truth! We need to at least take a closer look."
Maddie worried the inside of her cheek as she stared at the school thoughtfully. Jack awaited her judgement with fidgety impatience. "We can't go barging in there," Maddie reasoned. "I'd rather not get the cops called on us, thank you."
"We can just make something up. Like say we're taking the twins out for lunch, or something," Jack said, getting more and more excited as he continued. "It is still lunchtime, right?"
Maddie sighed and looked towards the school again. She supposed she wouldn't really be satisfied if she didn't get at least a peak inside, as well. The chance that there were two ghosts in the school was too worrisome to ignore.
Drawing in a long breath she said, "Alright then, lets go see."
…
Danny, Tucker, and Danielle were quickly seated facing Lancer's desk. The middle aged teacher pulled out the file for the freshmen class and sifted through the papers.
"Daniel Fenton: Occasional tardiness, and a dropped beaker this morning, I heard," Lancer paused to look over the edge of the file with a warning look. "But an overall clean record."
"Danielle Fenton: Occasional tardiness, as well, a few verbal disagreements with other students, and one incident that became a little more physical," the teacher said with another pointed glance over the edge of the paper. "Still nothing particularly serious."
"And finally Tucker Foely: Chronic tardiness, talking in class, and excessive loitering around the girls locker room." Lancer caught the teen with a mischievous smirk and sent him a glare.
The teacher sighed and closed the file. "But no severe mischief until today, so tell me…WHY DID YOU THREE CONSPIRE TO DESTROY THE SCHOOL CAFETERIA!"
Danielle jumped to their defense before Danny could. "Dash started it! He threw—"
"Four touchdown passes in the last game and is thereby exempt from scorn," Lancer said with an exasperated look. At least he had the courtesy of looking slightly disapproving of the blatant favoritism. "You three, however, are not," the balding teacher said as he stood up from his desk. "I will map out your punishment when I return. Mr. Baxter, guard the door."
Dash smirked at the three teens before slamming the door behind him. He leaned his back on the door, giving them a spectacular view of his stupid letterman jacket through the small window in the door.
Danny turned to his sister with a baffled expression. "What the heck Danielle? You could have gotten us in even more trouble with your little stunt in the hall!" Danny hissed.
"Whatever, it doesn't matter now. We have to go find Sam," she said brushing him off.
"Yeah, like right now!" Tucker added. "For some reason, I kinda feel like…it was my fault she got kidnapped."
"Oh, gee, I wonder why that could possibly be?" Danielle deadpanned.
"Alright, alright, we can play the blame game later," Danny said making a mediating gesture. "How are we going to find her?"
"How about the security cameras around school?" Danielle said dryly, jabbing a thumb at the desk with the monitor showing the security feed.
"Oh, right, but wait a sec, doesn't this present a future problem? The cameras caught everything that happened with the ghost and me!" Danny said.
Tucker waved a flippant hand. "Don't worry about it. Just look and see where that thing took Sam."
The twins shared a look then shrugged it off.
"Alright then," Danny said leaning closer to the computer. "Look! A meat trail! And it looks like it leads down into the basement."
"Okay, now we can deal with the whole evidence thing," Tucker said cracking his knuckles.
He walked up to the computer like a doctor would approach his patient. He pulled out his PDA (an ancient piece of technology by today's standards, but one that Tucker refused to get rid of due to sentimental value) and plugged it into the computer. After a few minutes of tapping, the blue screen of death appeared on the monitor. Satisfied with his grim work, Tucker unplugged his PDA and turned to the twins, "Welp, that's done."
"What did you do?" Danny asked with a raised eyebrow.
"I uploaded a virus that wiped out the entire hard drive. I'm pretty sure the security runs on an isolated system, so it probably wont effect the rest of the school's computers," Tucker said looking smug. "Also, the security system should be down for at least the rest of the day."
"So you just casually have a virus on your PDA in case something like this arose?" Danielle said.
Tucker waved a hand. "I just developed the virus on my computer for fun. I never actually thought I'd get to use it."
"Okay, anyway, now that that's taken care of, lets go," Danny said.
He transformed back into his ghost form and grabbed onto his sister and best friend then allowed himself to sink through the floor down into the basement.
…
Maddie smiled at the somewhat harried looking receptionist at the front desk. "Hello, I'm Maddie Fenton, and this is my husband, Jack," she said gesturing at her husband who was completely distracted, alternating from looking warily at the Fenton Finder to looking warily around the mostly empty halls. "We'd like to take our son and daughter, Danielle and Danny Fenton out for lunch if that's alright."
At the mention of the twins the receptionist's face seemed to tighten a little. "Danny and Danielle Fenton?" she said as if a little in disbelief.
Maddie answered with a short 'yes'.
"Uh, just wait right here please," the receptionist said, and scurried off.
Maddie frowned, finding something odd about the receptionist's behavior, but brushed it off. The receptionist came back with a balding man Maddie vaguely remembered as the vice principal from the open house the school had at the beginning of the school year. He looked even more strained and over worked than the receptionist.
"Mrs. Fenton, Mr. Fenton, what an interesting coincidence that you decided to come here now at a time like this," Mr. Lancer said.
Maddie raised an eyebrow. "And why is that?" she asked.
"How about we just go to my office and your children can explain that for you," the vice principal said.
Maddie glanced back at Jack who had finally clued into the situation. He looked just as confused as Maddie felt.
Despite their befuddlement, they allowed Mr. Lancer to lead them to his office where another student was leaning against the door.
"Thank you, Mr. Baxter," Mr. Lancer said and the young man moved aside.
They entered the room and Maddie's confusion only deepened when they found that no one else was in there.
"The Count of Monte Cristo!" Mr. Lancer cried, and slapped a hand to his forehead. Maddie was briefly distracted by the fact that the teacher had just used a book title as an exclamation.
"Mr. Lancer, where are our children?" she said turning to the vice principal. "And what exactly is going on?"
…
While the basement was mostly for storage of things like old desks and chairs, there was a separate room that acted as a second pantry for the school cafeteria. Inside that there was a ridiculously large refrigerator that housed fresh fruits and vegetables, but the only thing Tucker was interested in were the large crates labeled "meat".
"Sweet mother of mutton! I've dreamed of it, but I never thought I'd live to see it!" Tucker said as he ran up to a large crate of meat.
"How is it that we're the ones with ghost powers and you're the weird kid?" Danny said dryly.
"He's taking theatre, remember," Danielle stated.
"Right, right, that explains it," Danny said nodding.
A deranged cackle suddenly pierced the air, reminding them why they were down there in the first place. They followed the direction the laugh came from, turning a corner to see the ghost hovering over Sam who was trapped in a pile of meat.
"We don't need meat. That's a fact!" Sam said.
"SILENCE!" the ghost shouted. "You need discipline, manners, respect! You know where that comes from? MEAT!" The ghost then asked in her former grandmotherly voice, "Chicken or fish?"
"Okay, so here's the plan," Danny said turning back to his cohorts. "I'll take care of the ghost while you two get Sam out of that pile of meat."
The three teens then headed for the ghost and Sam. Danny barreled into the ghost fists first, successfully sending it flying away from Sam, while Tucker and Danielle reached her.
"Don't worry, Sam! I'll free you!" Tucker exclaimed as he began cutting into a steak with a fork and knife he somehow produced out of thin air.
Danielle slapped the utensils out of his hand. "Don't be an idiot! Just help me get this stuff off her!"
"Yes, getting the meat off her would be really nice," Sam said looking down at the meat with a disgusted expression.
Danny tried to continue his attack on the lunch lady ghost, going in for a kick, but failing when she easily caught him by the ankle.
"You see! This is why you need meat! You're skin and bones!" she yelled as she threw him clear across the room.
Danny turned intangible just in time to miss slamming into the wall. He flew back through, ready to meet the ghost again only to quickly dodge some shish kababs she had summoned. Frustrated, the ghost growled and summoned all of the meat in the room to her, effectively freeing Sam, but also making her meat suit three times larger than it previously was.
Danny ducked and weaved as the ghost grabbed for him, but was ultimately too slow in the end and was smacked into the ceiling—or rather through the ceiling, seeing as he became intangible just in time.
He sailed through the ceiling into the halls of the school above. He was just about to fly back through the floor to continue fighting the monster, when he heard a startlingly familiar voice.
"What on earth do you mean you don't know? They couldn't have vanished into thin air!" his mother said raising her voice into a concerned pitch.
Oh, no, his parents where there! Why were they there?! Getting distracted, he quickly flew in the direction he heard his mother's voice, but made sure to keep his distance and to stay invisible. His parents stood outside of Mr. Lancer's office with the baffled teacher.
"I don't know how your children and their friend escaped, but they were already in trouble for nearly destroying the cafeteria!" the teacher diverted. "I'll just have to add this to the list."
Danny's attention shifted when his eyes caught sight of something on his dad's belt. It was the Fenton Thermos. Danny wasn't thinking of the questionable functionality of the device right then and there. He only remembered that the thing was supposed to catch ghosts. He quickly flew forward and phased the thing off the holster on his dad's belt and flew back into the basement.
…
Jack felt a weight lift from his hip at the same time as the Fenton Finder beeped in his hands, signaling that there was a ghost in dangerously close proximity.
So overwhelmed and excited, Jack shouted, "GHOST!"
The argument between Mr. Lancer and Maddie instantly stopped and they both turned towards him with varying degrees of surprise.
"A ghost! It just pinged on the Fenton Finder, and," he looked down to the empty holster on his hip where the Fenton Thermos should have been, "it stole the Fenton Thermos!"
"What? Let me see that thing!" Maddie said, gesturing towards the device in his hands. Jack complied, handing her the Fenton Finder.
She messed with the settings until the thing said, "There are three ghosts directly below your position."
"The basement!" Jack exclaimed. "Of course!" He turned to the bewildered looking teacher. "Where's the door to the basement?"
"I-I can't tell you that! Only employees are allowed into the basement!" Mr. Lancer stuttered out.
"It doesn't matter," Maddie said as she began flipping through the settings again. "We can just follow their ectotrail in turn-by-turn mode. Let's go!"
They eagerly ran off in the direction the device pointed them in, ignoring Mr. Lancer's shocked cry for them to come back.
…
Danny froze momentarily in horror when he saw that the ghost had transformed into some meat slug that might have been just horrifying enough to make H.P. Lovecraft uncomfortable—and it was chasing his friends and sister.
In a spur of the moment reaction, Danny flew forward, grabbing hold of Sam and Tucker. "Ellie, grab on!" He shouted at his twin before he flew up through the wall and out of the basement.
Danny crashed into the grass, spilling Sam, Tucker, and Danielle. Groaning, Danny rolled over onto his stomach. He was about to let himself give out when he spotted the Fenton Thermos gleaming in the grass.
Somehow finding new vigor, Danny pulled himself to his hands and knees and grabbed for the thermos. He forced himself to his feet only wobbling a little.
"Danny, are you okay?" Danielle asked looking concerned. "That had to be a lot of work."
"I'm fine," he lied. "Just go. I need to finish this. That thing is still in there."
Danielle's cry of protest was cut off as Danny flew back into the basement.
Danny looked around the dim basement. There was no sign of the Lunch Lady. "Hey, ghost, I'm here!" he yelled.
There was only a second after his breath fogged before a body slammed into him. Danny crashed into the opposite wall, phasing halfway through it. Grunting, he pulled himself back through the wall, to meet the grinning face of the Lunch Lady. She had abandoned her meat suit, perhaps because she was loosing energy like he was. He hoped that was it.
"Did you come back for seconds?" the ghost sneered.
"For your cooking? I don't think so," Danny said with a chuckle. He had no idea how good the ghost's cooking was, he just knew for sure that a comment like that would piss her off.
And it did. The ghost roared and threw a fist. Danny just managed to dodge out of the way. The ghost snorted in anger and summoned some of the discarded meat lying around in piles. She threw it in a wave at him. He didn't manage to turn intangible in time, and was once again slammed into the wall, the piles of meat pinning him there. Danny felt all the air rush out of his lungs, and stars danced before his eyes. The cold receded back into a point into his chest and he realized he had turned back into his human form. Wonderful, that was just what he needed right then.
The Lunch Lady appeared right in front of him, her face inches from his. "You're weak, you need discipline! You know where you get that from? MEAT!"
Danny realized that he he had managed to keep a hold of the Fenton Thermos even through the last few moments of pummeling. He phased his hand through the meat holding him in place, and clicked the 'on' button.
When nothing happened he looked down and saw that there wasn't a single flicker of life coming from the thermos. "Oh, come on!" Danny whined.
The Lunch Lady looked down, as well. "Soup isn't on today's menu!" she said and smacked the thermos out of Danny's hand.
"Hey!" Danny exclaimed as he watched the thermos roll away.
Somehow finding it within himself, he forced himself to change back into his ghost form and phased through the meat. The Lunch Lady gave a noise of surprise when he flew right past her for the thermos.
Danny grabbed the device and turned it over, looking for some reason why it wouldn't work. He nearly slapped himself when he realized the cap was still on. He quickly unscrewed it but before he could turn around and aim it, the Lunch Lady had grabbed him around the throat and pinned him to the floor.
"I said soup's not on the menu!" she screamed.
She lifted him up and threw him like a rag doll across the room. He smacked painfully against the brick wall of the cellar, lacking the power to phase through.
She came at him like a freight train, and he only just moved out of the way of her before getting shoulder checked into the next century. She slammed into the wall and he flew out of her reach, phasing through a couple racks of food to get as far away from her as he could. She quickly came after him however. She phased through a rack, hands outstretched towards him and teeth bared, looking for all the world like some terrible character from a horror movie.
In the split second he had before she reached him, he tried the thermos again and again it stayed inert. This time it was on his parents shoddy craftsmanship, not his forgetfulness.
The ghost barreled into him into another rack of food, nocking it over and starting a domino effect of shelves. They finally met the other wall and Danny took the brunt of the force. He would have cried out, but the ghost had its hands wrapped around his throat again.
His vision began to narrow and pixilated due to lack of oxygen, he tried clicking the button again desperately. In some sort of adrenaline driven epiphany, he wondered if maybe some sort of jump start would work. He focused energy into his hand that he hoped traveled into the thermos. He clicked the button again and a blue light shot out of the end of the thermos aimed for the ghost's midsection. The Lunch Lady only had a second to look down in shock before she was pulled screaming into the thermos.
Danny dropped to the ground, crumpling into a heap with a grunt. He forced himself to his hands and knees before shakily taking to his feet. Blue rings appeared around his waist and transformed him back into his human form involuntarily for only about the third stupid time that day. Oh well, the danger was past, what did he need his ghost form for now anyway?
He cursed quietly when the thermos slipped from his fingers and rolled under an overturned shelf.
Danny suddenly heard footsteps pounding on the concrete floor fast approaching him. He tried to straighten, but he couldn't run if he wanted to. He was just doing good by staying conscious and upright.
Suddenly his mother's worried face was in his line of vision. She was cupping his face.
"Honey? Are you okay? Why on earth are you down here?" Her voice sounded weird to his ears, like he was underwater.
"Mom? Wh-what're you doing here?" he slurred. He could hardly hear her answer from the ringing in his ears. Something about a ghost?
It was all suddenly too much to take, and he felt himself fall forward into his mother's arms before sinking into blackness.