The breeze blowing through the streets soon picked up speed, becoming a full wind. The air chilled, and from the clouds came the drifting white flakes, quickly falling to the ground. Looking away from the fireplace and towards the window, Jack caught sight of the spectacle of nature from inside FentonWorks. He smiled.
"Ah, snow," he sighed, "First one of the season!" Maddie looked out the window herself, but did not share Jack's enthusiasm at the sight. She looked worried.
"You think we should call Danny in?" she asked Jack, "I don't know if it's safe to be out in this weather."
"Maddie," Jack laughed, "A walk in the snow never hurt anybody! Besides, being out during the first Christmas snow in the forest could do him good! Let him let off some steam, get back into the season!"
"I wonder what is wrong with him over Christmas?" Maddie wondered out loud.
"Oh, probably the pains of puberty, tough year at school, and all those things," Jack said, "He'll be fine!"
----
Danny had been walking along the wooden path for a few minutes, eventually stopping to sit down on a bench. The wind was picking up speed and snowflakes had started coming down. He watched the snow blow around in the wind and fall to the ground, sticking. It was always calming, watching something as gentle as a snowfall, and Danny smiled lightly at the sight. He was so enamoured with the new-found distraction from everything on his mind he barely noticed how quickly the wind was picking up, how the temperature was dropping to the point where every nerve in his body was starting to pick up a chill even through all his winter clothes, and how much snow had actually fallen on the ground.
----
Sam was still by the cliff's edge, staring down below at the icy body of water beneath her. The wind was blowing around her, pushing her hair out in front of her face and blurring her view of the lake. She was so wrapped up in all that had gone on today she was barely aware of it until it blew a single snowflake onto the tip of her nose. She brushed it off and looked up at the sky. The white flakes were drifting down quickly, blowing all over in the wind. Her arms having been wrapped around her legs all this time, she let them set down on the grass, and found that the snow had already accumulated quite a bit, though since her hands were gloved, it was more from the sound than the feel that she knew. From the wind she could tell that the storm was coming up from behind her, and she turned to look. Though very dark, she could see that the clouds were thick and rolling in thicker. The wind was icy sharp, knocking around her hair and loose coat and chilling her even through all her winter clothes. The amount of snow, the speed at which it fell, and the wind's speed were all picking up, and the temperature was falling. The snowfall seemed to be determined to grow into a fierce snowstorm…much like how Sam was determined to stay as far away from her family as she could that night. She stayed where she was on the cliff, turning back to the lake and letting the storm blow around her.
----
"Snow's really coming down hard now, isn't it?" Jazz commented. She had come downstairs a few minutes ago and immediately gone to the window when she saw the snow falling. It was indeed coming down hard now. Within the short time since it had started falling, the snow had accumulated to almost an inch, with more and more flakes coming down and the wind picking them up and tossing them all over the streets.
"Jack, maybe we should call Danny in," Maddie said again, more worried this time. It was an hour's walk from the forest to the Fenton home in good weather and the snow only seemed to be picking up strength.
"Oh, what's a little snow and wind to a Fenton?" Jack brushed the comment aside.
"Jack, this could be serious," Maddie pointed to the window, and Jack looked out at the storm. She had a point; it was getting awfully strong. Still, Danny was a Fenton…
"If it doesn't calm down in a few minutes I'll call him," Jack said, "Fair enough?" after a moment's hesitation, Maddie nodded. Jazz, who had been watching them, turned back to the window. She wasn't very easy about Danny being out there herself. Even his ghost-powers couldn't control a storm like this…
----
Danny was still in a lazy trance on the bench in the forest, almost completely oblivious to all that was going on around him. The snow had piled up to an inch on the wooden path and forest floor around him, the temperature was growing colder still, and the wind was cold enough to make a person's bones rattle in their skin. Yet Danny just stared into space, a sleepy grin on his face. He came to his senses only when a large bit of snow that had been caught between two tree branches was blown off by the wind and fell onto his face.
"Huh?" he shot up, now alert. He noticed how much Mother Nature had done during his little daze, "Whoa! Better get home before the town turns into a glacier," he stood up, brushed the snow that had collected on his coat off, and headed back down the path. It was not easy walking, however. The wind was flying at him from behind with such force it edged him forward faster than he cared to move, and once or twice he almost lost his footing. The wind also blew at his coat, and to keep himself somewhat warm he had to pull it close to his body. The snowfall made it hard to see, and the path was quickly getting covered completely.
"Maybe I should've started back sooner," Danny muttered to himself. He wrapped his scarf tighter around his neck and kept going.
----
By now, the snow was coming down in such quantities and at such speed it was barely possible to see out the window at all. All the Fentons had gathered around to look out into the night, and even Jack had to admit now that it definitely was not safe to be out in this weather.
"Maybe we should look in on the latest reports on the Fenton Viewscreen," Jack thought aloud. He picked up the remote and turned it on (alright, it was the TV from before…but it was made by Jack, so he used a name for it that began with "Fenton!")
"The winter storm of the decade is here, folks!" the reporter was saying, worry all over his voice, "The same system that caused so much devastation in the Midwest has only picked up strength on its way here, and now Amity Park is caught in it. Already there is more than an inch of snow on the ground and it has become impossible to see outside! The temperature and wind chill are falling drastically! It is not safe to be out in this weather, folks. Get inside immediately. And I hope that your fires are natural, because the winds of this blizzard have knocked down several power lines in their wake," the report continued on. Jack, Maddie and Jazz stared at the screen. The looks on their faces were horrific enough to send a chill down the spine.
----
The Mansons were also staring in disbelief at their screen, the same weather report having interrupted their Christmas special. A line of the counties under winter storm warnings was running across the bottom of their screen.
"You think we should tell Sam about this?" Grandma Manson squawked. That did sound like a good idea; Sam had a habit of sneaking out without permission. Mrs. Manson headed upstairs.
"Sam?" she knocked on her daughter's door; it opened into the room through her touch. The room was empty, Sam's coat and gloves missing. Mrs. Manson put a hand over her mouth to quiet her gasp and looked out the window. The storm had only worsened.
----
Down in Amity Park Park, Sam remained by the cliff, but was finding her mind more and more open to any thoughts of returning home that cared to enter. Almost two inches of snow were piled up around her, her body was covered in the frozen water, and the wind was so strong it had scooted her a bit closer to the cliff at least once. Sam found her entire form shivering from the cold. Even her bones seemed to be knocking around inside her skin. A new gust of wind blew her hair into her mouth, the snow that had fallen on it forcing itself down her throat.
"That's it," she said wearily, standing up and brushing the snow off her, "I'm heading back," she turned around to do so, but the force of facing the wind caught her off-guard. She fell down on her back, and only managed to get up on her knees trying to stand back up again.
"This could be bad," she observed dryly.
----
Walking with his back to the wind, Danny found his situation was not improving. The normal speed of the air around him was bad enough, but the gusts were especially strong. The wind chill and amount of snow around him, which had to be over two inches by now, made it impossible to really be warm. Now another strong gust came up, and Danny felt himself fly off his feet and dive face-first into the snow in front of him.
"That does it," he spat, wiping the white powder off his face. Two blue ghost-rings surrounded his body, flying in different directions. He was now Danny Phantom, and floated up in the air in preparation to take off. It was then his body became aware that it no longer had a scarf, gloves, jacket, or overcoat to block out the worst of the cold. Danny went stiff as a board, throwing his hands around his body and shivering like mad. Now that he was in the air, he was getting forced around by the wind worse than ever. It picked him up and sent him straight for a tree. He phased through it, but as he became tangible again and tried to look back through the snow at the tree, he crashed into another one a few feet ahead. As he slid down to the ground, he changed back to human form. After a bit of searching, he found the path. Immediately after getting back on he threw off his winter clothes. He had an idea.
After a few minutes and going ghost again, Danny Phantom was now wrapped up in Fenton's scarf, gloves (over the labsuit), jacket and coat. It wasn't really warm and it was too risky to fly. But at least in ghost-form Danny could hold himself up a bit better and he had a bit more energy. He was about to start back again when his cell phone went off.
"Dad?" he answered it, checking to see who was calling.
"Danny," his father's voice came through the other line, full of worry, "Son, you'd better head back in as fast as you can. It's the storm of the century out there!" Danny was surprised by how panicked his father sounded. Usually he was too confident for his own good.
"I'm on my way back now," Danny said.
"Well shake a tail feather, son, because it's…" his father's voice cut off, and a single tone took its place.
"Dad?" no answer, "Dad?" still no answer. The storm had knocked down the power lines of the city. Almost every electronic device in the city was now dead.