The lights flickered for a moment, then sprang to life with a slight electrical hum. FentonWorks had power once more.
"Generator's working, dear!" Maddie called up from the basement, "But the power cells are pretty old. I'll have to keep replacing them every few minutes to keep it running!"
"Darn it!" Jack slammed his fist together, "I knew I should've replaced those things! Now only one of us can go out and get Danny in the…" Jazz's cell phone went off. She checked to see who it was.
"It's Sam's parents," she said before answering it, "Hello?"
"Jasmine?" Mrs. Manson's panicked, shaking voice came through the other end.
"Hi, Mrs. Manson," Jazz said, a bit confused, "How'd you get my number?"
"Sam has it," she replied. That made sense, "Is Samantha over there?"
"No, why?"
"Well…we had a bit of a fight, and her room's empty, and…" Jazz could almost feel Mrs. Manson's shaking, "…we thought she might have gone over there to talk with Danny."
"No, she hasn't come over here. Danny's out too. Did you try Tucker's?"
"Yes. They went out of town," Mrs. Manson's voice continued to shake with worry, and Jazz found her own breathing becoming more panicked. She was worried, for Danny and now for Sam. Tucker's house was closer to the forest than FentonWorks. Had he been home, Danny might have been able to take shelter there. Now there was nowhere for him to go but home, and he was still an hour away. Jazz felt herself gulp and shiver, though she did neither consciously.
"If she comes by well let you know, Mrs. Manson," she managed to stutter into the phone.
"Oh, thank you, Jasmine," Mrs. Manson seemed like she was starting to cry from fear. She quickly hung up the phone, and Jazz flipped hers shut.
"Who was that?" Jack asked.
"Sam's not at her house," Jazz said after taking in a deep breath, "The Mansons were wondering if she was over here."
"She might have met up with Danny…" something seemed to snap in Jack's mind, "Hey, why didn't we call Danny on your cell phone when the power went out?" Jazz looked like she'd just seen something completely unbelievable and was trying to make up her mind on whether to believe it or not. Why didn't they think of that?
----
Danny was now taking in a deep breath with every step he took. The wind and snow were worse than ever and the temperature had to be below freezing by this point, but having gotten that chance to rest and being in his ghost form, he had made more progress than he thought. He could actually see part of town up ahead of them.
"Sweet!" he said to himself, "Looks like I'll make it back by…" his cell phone went off again. He answered it, "Hello?"
"Danny?" it was his dad again, still sounding worried, "Are you alright, son?"
"Yeah," Danny said, and this time he meant it, "I'm about out of the forest. I should be back before ten."
"Is Samantha with you?" these words took Danny by greater surprise than they should have.
"No, why?"
"Her parents called over. Seems she went out and they can't find her. We thought she might have gone after you."
"Sam's out in this weather!?" Danny shouted. Any thoughts of getting home on time, his own situation, and just exactly how bad the storm was seemed to shoot out of his mind like a rocket; he now knew his best friend was out in this storm, and that was all that mattered.
Danny waited for his father's response, but none came.
"Dad?" still no answer, "Dad!" nothing. The cell phone lines were going dead now too. The storm had come up fast, catching people off-guard with no one ready. But now that time had passed, people in and out of town who were safe indoors were getting worried. They were making calls to their loved ones, making sure they were all right. The signals were getting overloaded.
Danny didn't know about any of that as he flipped his cell phone shut. Nor did he really care. He knew Sam was out here, and he didn't like it. For the first time since he got out from under the tree he really noticed how much the temperature dropped. How much the wind was nipping at every nerve ending in his body. How it was so could he could make out every little twist and turn that his breath made as it left his body. None of these, however, made him want to head inside quicker. If he could feel the elements this much, than Sam had to be as bad off as he was. He didn't know if she'd been out as long as he had, if she had better winter clothing, or if she had found shelter or not, but he didn't care. What he did care about was making sure she was all right. He brought himself out of his fear and turned his eyes back on to the sight of Amity Park in front of him. There was no way he'd find her by walking without killing himself. But if he tried flying…
"Well…" he gulped. He had made up his mind, "Here goes nothing," he jumped up into the air, braced himself for the shot of wind on his back, and took off. He didn't go intangible; if he had he would have collapsed within a few minutes from exhaustion; but instead put every ounce of strength in his body into keeping himself airborne and resisting the winds enough to keep from being blown around like a dead leaf, but also get a bit of a lift.
It wasn't easy. His body was rocking around like an aeroplane passing through a strong air pocket. His coat was flying open behind him, letting snow fall onto his ghost-suit and melt down through the fabric and onto his skin, freezing his body worse than ever. But he was doing better than he thought he would. He was soon out of the forest and flying above the streets of Amity. The snow had already climbed up above people's porches and showed no signs of letting up. The birds-eye view of the storm only encouraged Danny to try and fly harder.
----
"Danny?" Jack yelled into the phone, "Danny!? Danny!? What's wrong with this stupid thing!?" he began shaking Jazz's cell phone furiously.
"Circuits are probably overloaded," Lancer sniffed, "Now that the storm's settled in, the signal's filled with people calling up friends and family," he sneezed.
"Darn!" Jack grunted. As he did so, he closed his fist on Jazz's cell phone, crushing it. He then noticed his daughter's angry glare. Smiling nervously, he hid the wreckage behind his back.
"I hope Samantha's alright out in this weather," he said to change the subject.
----
Sam was doing better out in the elements after having eaten and lightened up a bit, but fighting against the wind and snow, which were still gaining more strength, was no easy task. She'd picked up the pace with her steps, moving faster than before, and angulating her body so that she could move against the wind better. The blanket didn't completely block out the cold, but it helped. But that didn't change the conditions that she was out in. She could still feel herself shivering and it was damn near impossible to see. Now another particularly strong gust of wind shot out at her. She shifted herself into another position, trying to stay upright, but the wind seemed to split, coming at her at both sides. She teetered on one foot for a moment until another gust knocked her sideways into the snow. She slowly sat up, spitting snow out of her mouth.
"Now would be a real good time to have some Fenton gadget that could melt all this," she commented. She slowly stood up, almost choking on a large bit of snow that flew into her throat.
----
Danny's face was drawn tight into a scowl of frustration. After his easier-than-expected take-off, keeping himself airborne was proving extremely difficult. Not that he'd been completely off since then. He was sure he'd made it past Tucker's house and was coming up on FentonWorks, though until he found Sam, he wasn't planning on heading inside. But the wind and snow were still picking up, and the wind's angle was slanting and turning more and more, causing Danny to rock around a lot more than before. Though coming up from behind him, the snow was also blowing up into his face, making it hard to see. Now a strong gust of wind caught him from behind, strong enough to make him lose control and fly right at a building. He quickly phased through it, but upon coming out, another air current picked him up and threw him at yet another building. Danny grabbed onto the railing on the fire escape and flipped onto the roof, landing perfectly.
"All right!" he congratulated himself, "Maybe I'm getting better at this after all!" yet another strong current knocked him off the roof and into a large snowdrift. Danny scrambled to get his head out, coughing up snow and water from what had melted in his mouth.
"Then again…" he spat. As he sat up he noticed a change in the winds. It was plenty strong at its regular flow, but those gusts that had caught him off-guard hadn't been terribly frequent. Now they seemed to be settling for the speed of those gusts as their usual tempo. The wind chill and overall temperature seemed to be dropping. A shot of icy air stronger than anything that had come before that night lashed out at the city, and it did not let up. The snow was falling faster and getting heavier, so that even at this time during a winter's evening (what time it really was Danny did not know) everything looked almost completely white. Danny had to raise his coat up above his head to shield himself from the elements. Everything was howling around him, snowdrifts breaking apart and blowing up into newer, higher ones. The snow was coming down so hard he could feel it pelting at his coat and soaking into what little of his hair was still exposed. Even in his crouched position the wind was shifting him over, deeper into the snowdrift.
----
The sudden worsening of every element of the storm had affected the other side of town too. Sam had managed to get up from her last fall and get down a few more streets, but was caught completely off-guard by the sudden increase in the storm's power. She was immediately knocked off her feet, almost flying out of her shoes, and fell into the snow behind her. Immediately the snow that was falling from the clouds began to cover her, the flakes melting as they hit her body and freezing her worse than ever. Sam was shivering so badly it appeared as though she was having a fit. It was getting too much. Sam wrapper herself in the blanket and curled up into a ball in the middle of the snow-drenched streets in the worst part of the storm.
"This is fun," she muttered to herself darkly. Even sitting the way she was, Sam was still shaking from the cold. She couldn't believe she'd been so stupid when she left that alley! Talking with Danny could wait! He'd still be there when the storm was over, and she had had a place to wait it out!
For a few brief moments after these thoughts passed through her mind, Sam did not feel like blaming herself. She blamed anyone else she could think of; her family, the four men, even Danny. But she couldn't do that for long. She was the one stupid enough to step out into a blizzard when her emotions got to her. It wasn't the first time her own problems or the need for a sudden decision clouded her judgement; the fake-out make-out immediately came to mind. But this time was different. There was a real possibility now that she was going to die. She closed her eyes and kept herself in that curled ball. The snow was heavy enough for her to feel it falling through the blanket.
----
Danny dug himself out of the snowdrift entirely, and immediately was blown sideways into the snow-filled streets. The wind was showing no mercy in letting anything move around. Danny didn't care, though. He had his goals set. He jumped up into the air again, but lost control even before he had time to gain it. He was blowing around like a little piece of paper, having to try and phase through everything from lightpoles to overturned mailboxes. Eventually his eye missed something, and his shoulder smacked hard against the side of a house, sending him spiralling to the ground face-first. He dug himself out, tried to get up, failed, and rolled over, gripping his shoulder in pain with his teeth clenched tight.
Things were looking hopeless. He couldn't fly, his shoulder felt like it had been ripped out of its socket, the snow was piling up on top of him, and the storm only seemed to be getting worse. Ice seemed to be forming in a small, crackling layer over his body from the melted snow, as though an extremely cold and unpleasant sugar glaze had been put over him. Danny could feel his teeth chattering and his breath getting faded and shallow.
For once in his life, Danny welcomed the coming of a ghost. Any ghost. Something to get his attention. Something to wake him up, something for him to concentrate on, something to keep him from just lying there until he froze over, something to get him looking for Sam again. He had no sooner finished praying for this when he turned over and looked up. Right from Charles Dickens's classic tale, the tall, black-cloaked figure of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come stood before him, pointing east and looking down at him.
Danny's first reaction was one of a mild awe, seeing the apparition without taking it in. Then, as the image registered in his mind, he jumped back in shock, his shoulder feeling healed. As he jumped he stumbled over his own feet, falling into the snow again. When he pulled himself out, the spirit was gone. Danny did a double take, looking around where the being had stood; he'd seen it. It had to have been there…wasn't it?
"OK…" Danny said to himself, his heart still racing, "Either I'm losing it, or there's some kind of divine intervention going on here," he looked toward where he thought the spirit had been pointing. It seemed crazy to trust something like that. Still, he had nothing to lose…
"What the heck," he muttered and sighed together. The image of Sam frozen as a corpse passed through his mind. With a strange, steely determination he hardly ever felt, Danny moved on.
----
Sam had sat up on her knees, still covered by the blanket. She had managed to bring herself back to sense enough to avoid lying there until she died, but she still didn't know how she planned on staying alive long enough to get to FentonWorks. She tried concentrating on Danny, sharing her problems with him and getting some help, hoping to get enough motivation to stand up and get her legs moving. It worked. She rose up and tried heading on, and amazingly, she did not feel any wind or snow hitting her in the face and knocking her back. In fact, the only thing she felt on her face was cold. It was almost as if the wind had turned from hitting her in the fact to pushing her along from behind. This defied all logic, all science, all reasoning, all sense, and Sam found that she didn't really notice nor care. She just kept walking.
How long she walked, she didn't know. She could feel her legs getting worn out, and the feeling of wind and snow on her face began to come back. But she kept going. And eventually, after who-knows how long, she saw another figure walking at her from the other end of the street. She couldn't make out who it was for a while. Then, as they drew closer, she could make out the snow-white hair. The ghostly green eyes. The labsuit underneath the coat and jacket.
"Danny?" she whispered in disbelief. Her shock and relief was so great she tried moving forward more quickly and stumbled along. Danny jumped over and caught her. All around them the patterns of the storm were becoming fierce, unforgiving, and making sense again.