Part IV

Tuesday, 24th October

Danny pulled open the front door, careful of his right arm that hurt with any movement he gave it. He noticed Jazz sitting in her chair in the living room with a book in hand, lowering it as she noticed her brother and mother coming into the house.

"How'd it go?" Jazz asked, following Danny towards the stairs.

A snicker escaped Maddie, getting Danny to throw a look at her over his shoulder.

"Danny, you're fifteen," Jazz said with a smile. "You shouldn't be complaining about getting shots anymore."

"Shut up," Danny growled, heading up the stairs.

"Danny," Maddie said sternly. Quickly she added, "Dinner will be ready in about half an hour."

Danny gave a nod, not caring he was rude, as he peaked the stairs.

"With how he is, you'd think the shot was going to kill him," Maddie said, her voice low enough he knew it wasn't directed to him.

Danny blocked what more might be said downstairs as he stepped into his room, closing the door behind himself. He grabbed the MP3 off of his desk, attaching headphones as he scrolled through the menus to find the new book. A knock sounded, getting him to turn towards the door as Jazz announced it was her.

"What?" Danny called, annoyed as he rotated his sore arm to see how badly it was stiffening up.

"Are you feeling okay?" Jazz asked, poking her head into his room.

"Yeah, why shouldn't I?" Danny asked, looking back at his MP3.

"It just hit me that you've never had the flu shot," Jazz said, standing straight as she released the door. "How's it feel?"

"My shoulder hurts worse than getting shot at," Danny growled, putting an ear bud in only for him to pause as it hit him what he said. "I mean- you know what I mean!"

"Just be careful, okay?" Jazz suggested with a smirk on her face, getting Danny to look her in the eyes.

"What brought this on?" Danny asked, racing an eyebrow up in question.

"It's probably nothing," Jazz admitted. She quickly put herself in the hallway and said, "See you at dinner."

Danny shook his head as she shut the door behind herself. He sighed before calling upon the cold that hid inside. Floating, he grabbed the Fenton Thermos from off of his desk and turned around to fly through the window, throwing the strap over his head as he hoped to listen through a chapter while patrolling before dinner.

"Chapter one of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. This is a LibriVox recording. Chapter one, Down the Rabbit-Hole. Alice was beginning to get…"

Danny let the man's voice fill his mind as he kept an eye on the world around him. It was only around six: thirty but already it was getting dark enough that he could fly low and not be seen.

A buzz from his pocket forced him to pause the book to read his phone only to see it was Sam.

He put it close to his head and said, "Hey-"

"Ghost! At the pumpkin patch!" Sam cried, panic in her voice.

"Coming." Danny closed his phone and shoved it in his pocket, his headphones cramming in next to it as he turned towards the children attraction.

He heard the children screaming before he even saw the two story blow up slides as a pain entered into his stomach. He noticed a ghost horse running on an ecto-fire, chasing children and adults alike, as he came close enough only to curl up on himself as the pain grew sharp. Before he could do anything, the lights appeared around his waist, dropping him like a rock onto the chaos below.

Danny held out his arms, trying franticly to fly or at least to slow down his decent as he ordered his body to transform. A white ring appeared, faintly, before dissipating. He looked down in time to raise his arms to cover his face as his body made impact with the top of a bounce house, sending him rebounding sideways into the slide. He opened his eyes, finding himself sliding down towards the grass.

"Danny? What happened?" Sam asked, skidding to a stop next to him as a child ran past her.

Danny looked up, his head now laid on the grass as his feet stayed up on the slide. He rolled off and stood up, turning to look at the horse destroying the blow-up playground with its flaming horn as he gripped his stomach, an echo of the pain still lingering. "I really don't know. But I can't go ghost."

"Great," Sam retorted, turning towards the horse. "Come on." She grabbed Danny's hand and pulled him towards the horse.

"But I don't have any powers!" Danny tried, scared at being pulled into running head first towards a flaming ghost horse.

"Neither do I," Sam reminded. She stopped, letting Danny run into her side as the goth stood her ground. "Yo, hay breath!" she called, waving both of her hands in the air. The horse turned at her voice, flames burning out of its dark eyes. "Come and get us!"

"What are you doing?!" Danny hissed as the horse stomped the ground with its front hoof, pointing its horn at them.

"Bating a risky trap," Sam admitted, pulling off Danny's Fenton Thermos. "Run!"

The two ran off towards one of the last remaining blow up slides with the horse on their tail. Sam jumped over the barrier at the end of the slide and started to run up, Danny two steps behind with the horse only four.

"Duck!" Sam ordered, quickly before turning around and whipping open the Fenton Thermos.

Danny dug his nails into the small bumps that was supposed to help anyone getting up to the top of the slide as above him the horse was sucked into the thermos. The blue light disappeared as ramming could be heard from inside the mettle device. Danny jumped up and quickly took the thermos from Sam, worry and concern on his face as he looked the thermos over for any cracks. "Sam! Are you crazy! I beat them up before I suck them in for a reason."

"Well, you're a bit more human at the moment," Sam said, crossing her arms as she looked down at the boy. "It was a last minute idea."

"We better get this thing back to the ghost zone before he breaks lose," Danny muttered, knowing Sam was right as he turned around and worked his way down on his feet.

Sam jumped over the divider between the stairs and the slide and slid down, beating Danny back to the ground. Danny's feet hit the grass and the two headed off towards Fenton Works as Sam asked, "So what happened?"

"I don't know," Danny admitted, looking down at his right hand as his left gripped tight to the fighting thermos. He gripped the hand into a fist before explaining, "It's like the cold part of me that was my ghost half just… exploded." Danny dropped the thermos as it shifted, the horse still trying to free itself. Danny leaned over to pick it back up only for the pain to return in a flash, forcing him down to his knees as his arms wrapped themselves around his waist. A silent scream fled his lips as the last thing he remembered seeing was Sam's worried expression before the world turned sideways and dark.