Chapter 9

A loud car horn made it to Danny through the animalistic cries as he shot out blindly at those around him. He turned his ecto-blasts towards the horn, recognizing the GAV's engine as it drove up the street. He pressed the button on the Fenton Thermos and sucked in a few he had just shot to see out at the street as the GAV screeched to a stop, the front wheels locking and the back treads skidded, as a laser pushed out of the top.

"Phantom! Get out of there!" Maddie's voice ordered over the van's speakers.

"How?" Danny asked, more to himself. Scrambling up a plan, he quickly tossed aside the thermos. He wasn't good at teleportation but if he wanted to keep all of the elementals in the middle of the road it was his best bet so they would only need one shot. He closed his eyes, the process similar to how to send a clone but harder. Grinding his teeth tight as an animal took out some skin from his arm, he struggled to block the pain as he thought back to the bushes beside the city hall building. A green fire burned at his ectoplasm, getting him to open his eyes and gasp at the pain. He saw a lion's head, on what looked like a chicken's body, lunge at him with its jaw opened wide. The chicken-griffin disappeared to the green fire before Danny found himself falling into the bushes he had been thinking about.

A branch hit a new wound in his side, getting a startled scream out of him as he fell out of the bushes and towards the sidewalk.

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed over her shoulder. She gave one last blast of her wrist ray before dashing to Danny's side, falling to her knees with her hands hovering nervously over him.

"Now, Fenton's!" Tucker called out.

Danny looked up, noticing his bangs were black, as he saw the GAV fire off a blinding green energy. He closed his eyes against the light out of instinct before opening them back up in slits to see the elementals being evaporated, their helmets dropping to the street. "What is that?" Danny asked, panic deep-set in his chest as the elephant/giraffe disappeared, dropping its rider to the ground as the man cried out.

The beam cut off, showing a street full of helmets of different sizes, Dr. Shrank on his knees smacking the asphalt in anger, and the smell of burnt ectoplasm.

"What did you do!?" Sam exclaimed. She rose to her feet and made her way to the GAV as she repeated her question.

Danny took a deep breath in, turning his head aside to spit something from his mouth to find a green and red mixture. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, he slowly pushed himself up to a sitting position as police ran up to the street from the opposite direction the GAV had come from and stopped beside Tucker who was holding his lipstick laser at Dr. Shrank. He missed what the officer had said but heard the doctor perfectly.

"Ghost experimentations aren't illegal," the doctor said, anger and panic in his voice. "I was giving them a better life."

"Purposely causing destruction to other people's property is," the officer said, pulling hand cuffs from his belt. "Harming other humans is as well. We know about your attempts on human experimentation, Eugen Shrank. You're under arrest."

Danny closed his eyes as he felt the world start to tip, holding a hand to his head.

"Hey, are you alright?" a female voice asked as footsteps came closer.

Danny carefully opened an eye, black dots trying to take over his vision, and saw a female officer kneeling down in front of him with concern on her face. He closed his eye back and said, "I'm fine. Scratched myself up diving into the bushes."

"You look like you've done a little more than that," the woman tried. "Can you scoot to your left so you're leaning against the stair edge?"

Danny looked through the dots, knowing what exactly he was dealing with but waited until he could at least let her get his mother over, and saw he was close to the short brick wall. He pushed himself over and leaned his back against the cool brick, closing his eyes again.

"Did you hit your head?" the police woman asked.

"No, I just need a drink," Danny tried. "The Fenton's are my parents. Could you ask them for a Gatorade?"

"Sure thing." She gave his knee a pat before getting to her feet.

Danny took a deep breath, trying to get air and calm down the spots. He knew he needed to practice teleporting more with how bad his body reacted to it. He knew it was a part of what NASA wanted to test, now that he had developed the power. It felt weird knowing whenever he developed a new one he had to tell both his parents and some government.

He rested his head against the brick and kept an ear out for his parents as he tuned into Sam's argument.

"I thought we had an agreement," Sam hissed. "You tell us any new weapons and we tell you-" She cut herself off and changed her tone as the officer must have gotten closer. "Oh, hello Office Nelson."

"Samantha," the officer said with a more professional tone of voice than she had used with Danny. "Mrs. Fenton, your son-"

"Danny!" Maddie exclaimed as pounding footsteps proved her running. She yelled behind her, "Jack, grab a Gatorade!"

Danny forced himself to take another deep breath, exhaling as his mother dropped to her knees in front of him with two people following close. Jack was farther behind, just leaving the GAV, as his heavier footsteps told.

"How're you feeling, sweetie?" Maddie asked as her gloved hand touched his forehead, feeling for his temperature.

"Dizzy and black spots," Danny simply stated.

The hand left his forehead to grab his chin and tilt his head upwards a bit. "Open your eyes."

Danny did so, finding it hard to focus on her as whatever he tried to look at was black to him. With the rest of his vision he could see Sam leaning her hands on her knees to bend over Maddie's back as the older woman knelt in front of Danny. He could see Jack almost beside Maddie with a bottle in his hand and Officer Nelson talking to someone on her shoulder radio.

He closed his eyes, not liking the queasiness revers tunnel vision was giving him, as Jack panted closer by and a plastic bottle was pressed on his right hand.

"Thanks," Danny said, unscrewing the new bottle as Maddie let go of his chin. He put the drink to his lips, disappointed to find it was grape but drank it down.

"Do you want me to call for an ambulance?" Officer Nelson asked as she stepped close again.

"No, he'll be fine," Maddie quickly said, rising to her feet.

"Officer Nelson, Mrs. Fenton, could you help us with the ghost tech?" a male voice asked.

"I'll help," Jack announced, following behind the two women.

Danny finally released the drink so he could breathe as he felt for where the drink level was by swirling the liquid in the plastic. He guessed he had downed more than half as he rested it on his thigh.

He heard Sam let out a breath as she sat against the wall on his side closest to the sidewalk before she said, "You need to practice teleporting more. You reverted back when you appeared, too."

"I know," Danny admitted, resting his head back on the bricks behind him. "You cooled off enough to tell me what that was my parents used?"

"No."

Danny took another swig from the Gatorade, tasting the grape now with distain.

"Your dad called it the Fenton Purifier," Sam explained. "They said they hadn't even had a chance to test it, until today."

"Was that considered a successful test?" Danny asked, testing his vision in the eye closest to her to see her face was burning red as she gripped her hands tight enough he was sure her nails were cutting into the skin of her palms. His vision was returning, but little black dots still lingered, getting him to close his eyes again. He capped his drink and sat it on the ground beside him before reaching for Sam's hands. After a moment of, embarrassingly, patting her thigh, he found her hands and worked his fingers in the fists to pull her long nails from the flesh.

"Sorry," Sam mumbled, relaxing her hands. A moment passed before she said, in a calmer voice, "Yes. They count it as a success. It evaporates ectoplasm. She said it was a last ditch weapon, only planned for worst case scenarios, and saw the elemental hoard as a perfect test."

"I hope their life was better," Danny offered, realizing that made their after-lives experimentation till the end.

"This is exactly the kind of treatment I'm trying to fight," Sam said, her nails digging into Danny's skin, getting him to flinch in surprise. She froze in realization before releasing his fingers again. They sat like that in silence for a moment, Danny noticing what sounded like four people now collecting helmets out of the street and placing them in a police car as the car holding Dr. Shrank was driving away.

"Is there any way we could take a look at the control unit for these?" Maddie was asking.

"Most likely we'll call you in again," the male officer admitted.

"How's your vision doing?" Sam asked.

"It's almost back," Danny said, giving her hands a squeeze before releasing them. He felt around for the bottle, thinking he had put it closer to his knee, only to stop as Sam leaned on his thigh to reach over him and grab the plastic bottle. She bonked it against his searching hands, prompting him to give her a "thanks". He uncapped the drink and sucked down the last of the medicinal tasting Gatorade. Putting the cap back on, he sat it beside him again and tried to force himself to relax a moment. Dull pain filtered in, reminding him of his wounds. "How bad do I look?"

"Now, just a few scratches," Sam offered. "When I first saw you…" her voice fell away before she could continue. "I don't think I've ever seen your blood and ectoplasm at the same time."

"Yeah," Danny mumbled, feeling the back of the hand he had used to wipe his mouth of the mixture.

"Your parents should probably be told," Sam pointed out, worry in her voice. She let out a snort of a laugh as she added, "Like they told us about the Purifier."

"Sam."

"Sorry, still miffed."

"Where's Tucker?" Danny asked, realizing he hadn't heard his friend since the Purifier had been fired.

"He's talking to some media," Sam said, her voice showing she had looked around the stairs to city hall. "I couldn't do his job. He has to suck up to everyone in town," she added as she sat back down.

"No he doesn't," Danny said, turning his head towards her voice.

"No, I guess you're right," Sam said, her voice softening. "Just sometimes he has to suck up."

Danny slowly opened his eyes, hoping there was a way his body could get used to teleporting without doing this to him every time. Thankfully the dots were gone, leaving him feeling strangely revitalized. He let out a breath and smiled towards Sam, glad that she had stayed with him.

"Better?" Sam asked, her amethyst eyes looking him over.

"Yeah."

"Good, 'cause I'm gonna try to get my shirt on camera," Sam said, leaning forward to give him a quick peck on the cheek before rushing to her feet.

Danny let out a silent laugh, a part of him wondering what a life with her might be like. His smile faltered as he thought back to Kale's mention of his wife.

Pushing the thought away, he carefully pushed himself up to his feet, grabbing the empty bottle on his way up, and leaned over the short brick wall. Resting his arms on the cement, he smiled as Sam made her way through the remainder of emergency personnel and other bystanders to get as close to the interview as she could.

Once she got to where an officer was keeping a space free for the mayor she called out, "Ghost were people too! Better treatment for the dead!"

"Is that her new project?" Maddie asked, getting Danny to notice his parents stepping over to stand beside him.

"Yeah."

"How you feeling? Better?" Jack asked.

Danny nodded his head, turning back to watch Sam only to notice she was now being interviewed alongside Tucker.

"Jack, go move the RV into a parking spot," Maddie ordered. "They want to open the street back up soon."

"On it, Babe," Jack announced before leaving them.

Danny watched the life glowing in Sam's eyes as she told the cameras about the ghost tour, pointing at her shirt as Tucker added a word here or there.

"You're proud of her, aren't you?" Maddie asked, getting Danny to realize he was smiling.

"Well, yeah," Danny tried, giving her a surprised glance. He looked back at the two and added, "Both of them."

"And I'm proud of all three of you," Maddie said, the only warning he had before she wrapped an arm around his shoulder and pulled him close. His shoulder hit hers, reminding him he would soon pass her in height. "Not all mothers can say they have a superhero for a son."

"Mom," Danny whined with a smile. He stepped out of the side hug, returning to lean over the stair siding still with the empty bottle in hand.

"Have you thought about telling peop-"

"All I know right now is: let me graduate high school," Danny interrupted, playing with the cap on the empty bottle. "I can't even think what they'd do at school if they knew."

"Then you need to do a better job of keeping your secret," Maddie pointed out. "Someone contacted me, and I trust them enough to respect their wishes to stay anonymous, but they wanted me to know there's a few people around town that know your secret."

"What?!" Danny fumbled with the bottle in his hands, catching it before it could fall to the steps, and turned in surprise to face his mother. "Who?"

"I said they wanted to stay anonymous," Maddie retorted, crossing her arms over her chest with a smile. "They wanted me to know they were gonna do what they could to help you and keep your secret until you decided to tell people."

"I guess next time you talk to them, tell them thanks for me," Danny said, sitting the bottle on the concrete as he noticed the news crew were packing up as traffic started back on the road.

"Are you still planning on going to Laser Tag once they're done?" Maddie asked.

"Yeah," Danny said with a smile. "I think we all need it."

"Let me know if you have to stay out after ten," Maddie said, grabbing the empty bottle. She smiled at Danny before adding, "And if you need help."

"Thanks, Mom."

The end