Chapter Six: Old School, New Times
Disclaimer: See Chapter One
Hello there, fellow DP fan, hope you are enjoying this story and will continue to do so. What did y'all think of that ending last chapter? Crazy, not in my original designs, but I am pleased with it. Anyway, enough about the past.
Controversial topic alert right now: you will know it when you see it, All I'll say on it is that when writing it, it made sense in the context of the show and I'm sorry.
One last thing before I see you at the end, if you guys leave a review, could you do me the favor of signing in, as I like to respond to reviews, and I like interacting with you, and I can't do that if it is a guest review. Last question, I swear, if I were to change the title of this story to The Phantom Saga, would you guys be notified by the change so that you're not confused by the notifications of this story getting updates? Let me in the reviews. I have bene thinking about changing the title to better reflect the way things are going, Danny writting his boo will still be a big part of this but there is a lot else going on.
Anyway, On with the Show:
When School started once again in September, Danny knew it was going to be different, almost a new era, he knew he would have had to deal with the newfound popularity and that said group will probably want him to join, he would turn them down when they asked, and then there was Paulina to deal with, that will be interesting. Something he was looking forward to was the assembly they were supposed to have on the first day as word had reached him that, thanks to new ghost defenses that the school had installed at the urging of Mr. Lancer on the behalf of Danny and Valerie to have installed.
As for Danielle, it was going to be interesting new experience for her. Danny told her to not let the popularity go to her head, as people will know who she was, also not to expect any special treatment outside being able to make up work due to having to defend the middle school from a ghost.
Jazz took an interesting route, as well she would not be one to shy away from her education. She decided that while the new Amity Park University, probably soon to be named Fenton University was still under construction for another year. She decided that she was going to take two semesters of online courses, which would allow her to be in town if needed as well help her parents with their schedules and Danny with his and help tutor Danielle as needed. Ghost fighting was in her blood and she knew it, figured it would be better to embrace it a bit at the time. She did plan on going to an Ivy League school for graduate studies, but for now, she knew where she was needed.
After dropping Danielle off at the middle school a little early to give her time to learn the layout of the place and find her homeroom teacher, Danny took off for Casper High. Danny landed outside, next to Sam and Tuck and turned back human, almost relieved that he didn't have to hide his transformations anymore. "Hey guys," he greeted them.
"Hey Danny, you ready to face our peers now that know you are?" Tucker said, the idea that Danny wanted to be known for who he is, still fully hadn't suck in to his mind, even a couple months on, as a good idea.
Danny snickered at that question, "Yes, I am," he noticed that Sam seemed a bit peeved about something, "what is it, Sam?"
"Oh, you know, the usual," She said, Danny knew what that meant, that Danny would be crowded with girls trying to get him to date them, but Sam's ire was mostly directed toward Paulina.
"Don't worry, that is what I have you for, and besides, that newspaper photo may be a blessing in disguise, if they know I am taken, they may keep away," Danny said, as he took her hand, trying to calm her down. It had a small, but noticeable effect on her.
"Still have to put up a shallow little…" Sam started, but Danny didn't let her finish that thought.
"I'll deal with Paulina, I know how you act when having to deal with her, if she hears it from me, it may turn her away for good," Danny said, hoping that was the case.
"Don't count on it," Sam said.
"Anyone see Valerie?" Danny asked.
"Yeah, she is already inside," Tucker said, answering the question. As they walked into Casper High, Tucker sort of out of the blue asked, "Hey Danny, can I get an endorsement from you?" Danny and Sam fixed their best friend with questioning looks, " I plan to run for mayor in the upcoming election, and an endorsement from Phantom would go a long way to helping me win," Tucker answered the unsaid question.
Danny briefly considered it, "you'd be the best choice, by far, let me think on this, and give me a heads up before you announce your campaign for Mayor."
"Can do," Tucker said, and they continued on their way through the school, moseying their way toward the auditorium for the assembly. However, they came across Valerie dealing with the popular group of Dash, Kwan, Paulina, and Star. It seemed that they wanted her to rejoin them and Valerie did not want any part of it.
"Look Valerie, we didn't know you were such a badass," the three of them heard Dash say.
"Yeah, and we want you to be one of us again," Kwan said.
"What makes you think I want to rejoin a group of people that ditched me the moment me and my father hit some financial trouble that was in mo way our fault?" Valerie said, recalling the ghost dog that changed her life, for better and worse ways. Danny overheard that and winced in recollection of the event when he was chasing Cujo through Axion Labs, then a thought occurred to him, if he ever got around to finding out if he could summon Cujo with a whistle, perhaps having Valerie meet him. That was a thought to explore later. "I am a different person now. I have made new friends," She said, as she walked away from the popular group to stand next to the trio, "I am a ghost hunter, and that is a much better group to be friends with. All of you are shallow, well, maybe not you Star, but I digress, you are not worth my time."
"But…" One of them started.
"Remember two things, I have a 9th black belt in taekwondo, and I am a Corporal in the Ghost Division of the APPD, so technically I can give you a citation for any hazing you do to anyone," Valerie's sort of veiled threat got her meaning across the Populars very well.
"And I am a Sergeant," Danny inputted.
Dassh and Kwan sort of stood attention "Yes, Sir, Yes, Ma'am," they said.
"Before you say anything to me Paulina, I am not interested anymore, I gave you a chance, a long chance, but now, I see how hollow you are in that department. I have found someone that will make me happy to be with," Danny said, as he gripped Sam's hand hard, partially to give him the confidence to see this through and to keep Sam from going of the chain.
"We'll see about that Phantom, you'll be back for me in due time," Paulina said. Sam was going to say something, but Danny squeezed her hand to distract her. "See you later Danny, don't let a goth get you down," Paulina said, as she sauntered off, Star and Kwan went after her, going to try to get her to see some reason. Dash stayed behind a second.
"Shallow little bi…" Sam started, but was interrupted by her boyfriend and two friends.
"Sam," the other three said, stifling her curse as she was trying to say it.
"What do you want Dash?" Danny asked, wondering why the bully had stayed behind as the rest of the group took off.
"I uh, I wanted to say I am sorry, for the years, had I known you were willing to fight for us, I…" Dash trailed off, as he never really apologized to anyone that he bullied.
As much as Danny had longed to hear those words, "forget it, its what is passed, and I have to apologize myself, I have used my powers a couple of times against you to get some form of payback," Danny said.
"I deserved it, no doubt. I was at your press conference, and I saw your talk show episode, I never expected…" Dash was cut off by the sound of the warning bell for students to make their way to either class or the Auditorium for the assembly. The group of five senior class students made their way to the school auditorium, and split up, Dash went to find his group, Tucker and Sam found seats, and Danny and Valerie went up on stage and sat in the chairs up their near the podium.
Mr. Lancer came out onstage, much to the disgruntlement of most of the student body, and walked up to the podium. "Students, welcome back for another great year," most of the student body groaned. "Now I am going to skip the usual speech as I know you all seem to hate it and talk about something much more interesting to all of you: Ghosts and school safety," That got the student body's attention. "Thanks to the curtesy of Axion Labs and FentonWorks, the school has been outfitted with anti-ghost defense and capture systems and alarms," Lancer went on to explain what do if the students heard the alarms go off, get into the nearest classroom, and stay there until the all-clear signal had sounded, and to let both Miss Gray and Mr. Fenton deal with the issue, to the cheers of the students. Lancer, at Danny's urging to allay any fears about his abilities that if the need arose, the defenses could be turned on him at a moments notice, which seemed to allay some of the concern about it. The unsaid part was that technically both ghost hunters had a counter to the other, just in case. They had come up with this when they had a meeting with Lancer and Principal Ishiyama a week before school started, about the fact that they have abilities that technically have abilities that made them a bit dangerous to the other students, Danny carries a kill switch for Valerie's suit that can be activated in either the event of Technus managing to get a hold in it, or she goes rogue, which was not likely for both of them, but they had to do it.
For a few weeks, it seemed that everything was normal again, and that all the work and fretting done to protect the school was for nothing, not that Danny complained, he actually enjoyed being able to focus on his studies, and showed that as a Fenton he was naturally a good student, but it seemed that his luck would prove itself a problem one day.
Lancer was in the middle of one of his lessons, when both Danny's ghost sense and the schools Ecto-alarms went off. As if by instinct, Lancer went for the small hold out ecto-blaster that he kept in in an emergency only case under his desk that required both the alarms going off and Lancer's thumbprint to access and that had a short timer to return before a different alarm went off. It was a good thing that Lancer actually took one or two of the classes that Jack and Maddie had held to train the town in basic ecto-weapon handling, as he kept it pointed toward the grown away from the students, safety on and finger off the trigger. "Mister Fenton, Miss Gray, either of you leaving to see what set off the alarms?" He asked as he directed the class to huddle in the far corner of the room.
Danny turned to Valerie, "Val, you want this one?"
"Sure, I'll check it out," Valerie said as she got to her feet, and activated her suit, no hoverboard, to the cheers of the rest of the class.
"I'll stay here in case it comes this way, keep me on the earpiece, in case you need help," Danny said as he transformed, and reached into his bag for one of the Fenton Phones and placed it in his ear. Valerie took off on foot through the halls of the school, with her tracker active.
Rounding a corner, she saw the ghost in question, it was the Box Ghost, and relaxed a bit, this will be easy. "Hey, Boxy, you don't belong here," she called out to him.
"Boxy? Beware, I am the Box Ghost, Master of corrugated cardboard and bubble wrap," Box Ghost cried out. Valerie raised her one arm and fired her forearm wrist blaster which caught the Box Ghost in the face and knocked him away and dazed him a bit, she threw one of her stun capsules, when activated kept a ghost in a stunned state long enough for capture, which Valerie used that time to activate the school's stun and capture systems, which had been connected to her wrist communicator which caught the Box Ghost in its capture ray, it sucked him into its holding bay. With the threat neutralized, Valerie walked over to the nearby terminal that had control over the systems. She keyed for the deactivation of the alarms, a voice authorization prompt came up, "Authorization: Red Huntress," she said to the computer, which accepted the authorization which silenced the alarms and sounded the all-clear signal, she inserted her Fenton Thermos into the extraction port to hand the Box Ghost off to Danny. The console beeped, signifying that the transfer was completed. She retrieved her Thermos and fixed it to her hip, and started back to class.
Danny's voice came over the comlink, "judging by the fact that the all-clear signal sounded, means you got the ghost, who or what was it?"
Valerie snickered before replying, "just the Box Ghost," she could hear Danny blow a certain kind of breath out.
"He never learns, alright, I'll take the thermos when you get back," he said.
"I am angry about the fact I have to fill out the paperwork for this fool, after school," she said, shaking her head.
"Sorry, but at least you will be paid for it," Danny said.
"True," Valerie agreed, at least there was that consolation. She walked the rest of the way back to the class as the period was letting out, other students saw her in her Huntress outfit and gave her a show of respect and let her pass unimpeded. She reached the room, slid her helmet back, Danny and friends were still there waiting for her. She handed the thermos over to Danny, and grabbed her bag.
"Thanks, I will let the Lieutenant know that you have already handed the ghost in question over to us," Danny told her.
"Don't one of you guys need to sign for that on my paperwork?" Valerie asked.
"Damn, your right, I'll come with you to the station after school," Danny said realizing that was the case, and as he turned back human.
"Thank you, Miss Gray, you didn't miss much as we had to huddle in the corner," Lancer said, the ecto-blaster already sealed back in its case.
"Good to know," Valerie said, and then she and her friends left Lancer's classroom and headed for their next one, Valerie not even bothering to change back out of her suit until they got there. "I'll tell you guys what, it is a bit odd to be able to do our thing fully," she remarked as they walked.
"I know, but it is a new era that has dawned for us, for the better," just as Dnany had wanted. The rest of the day, while normal was a buzz of what had occurred earlier in the day.
After school, Danny and Valerie flew over to the station to fill out the forms for transfer of the captured Box Ghost, and for the bonus pay for Valerie, as well a few extra as the encounter took place at the school, after which they went their own ways for the afternoon.
Well there you have it everyone, Chapter Six of this tale, and you now know why I put that warning at the top of this chapter. It made sense to me to write, as in the context of the show, given how many times both the town and the school have had incidents with ghosts that it made sense that they would have personal defense training as a last resort to protect the students, and I am sorry again.
Anyway, moving on, next chapter will be a fun one, and should be going up alongside this one, Hope to see you guys there.
The Emperor is out. Peace.