"Sam!" Danny shouted over the roar of the wind, "What the heck are you doing out here!?"
"I went for a walk before the storm hit," she yelled back, smiling slightly, "What's your excuse!?"
"Same," they both laughed lightly and looked around. Now that the storm seemed to be heading back to its highest power, everything was again blurred into white. Both got knocked to the ground, the storm blowing over and around them. As if by isntinct, Danny raised up an ectoplasmic barrier. The cold was still there, but the snow and wind blew harmlessly outside the shield. Danny suddenly realised how easy that solution was.
"If I weren't a C student I would have thought of that in the first place," he said. Sam laughed, brushing the snow out of her hair. Danny now took notice of the blanket that was around her.
"Where'd you get that?" he asked, nodding to it.
"Long story," Sam sighed.
"We've got plenty of time," Danny nodded outside the barrier. Sam nodded, but didn't start explaining. Wanting to talk with Danny was the whole reason she'd left shelter in the first place, but right now, he seemed so happy; or, at least as one can be when stuck outside in the winter storm of the century. She didn't want to kill the somewhat content mood with her problems. But Danny kept staring at her attentively, ready to listen. Finally, Sam sighed again, and started…
----
"I'm set!" Jack walked out, his ear-flapped hat and leather jacket back on. He had no Fenton devices with him, but stood with a determined expression, any air of unintentional stupidity gone from him. No one knew what he was "set" for, but Jazz was sure they were about to find out.
"Maddie, you sure you can't come?" he shouted down into the basement.
"I told you, dear," she called back up, "I have to watch the power cells!" Jack's shoulders slumped slightly. His eyes now darted over to Lancer's chair.
"Lancer!" he shouted, "Got the feeling back in your legs enough to head out on a rescue mission?" Lancer sniffed, "Perfect! Meet me on the roof!" he ran upstairs. Lancer and Jazz looked at each other, confused. Finally Lancer shrugged, sneezed, and followed. Jazz watched him run off, and looked outside. It was nearly pure white outside the window, and the wind was almost visible the way it was howling around.
"Whatever you're up to, Dad…" she muttered, more to herself than to her long-gone father, "…It better be something to help find Danny."
----
Lancer found the ladder that led up to the trap-door leading out to the roof pulled down once he got upstairs. The second he had titled the door less than inch up into the outside, the wind blew it open with a force so great it shook the roof inside the house. Lancer poked his head out. Even under the gigantic Fenton Satellite, his hat nearly blew off, and he had to put a hand to his head to keep it on.
"War of the Worlds, it's bad out here!" he shouted.
"Yep," Jack's voice came from beside him. He was trying to pull down a ladder that led up into the satellite, "And my son, your student's out in it!"
"What in the name of T.H. Wells was Danny thinking when he went out in this!?" Lancer asked, pulling himself out onto the roof.
"Oh, he's been a bit under the weather lately, we had a fight about it, he headed out to let off steam. Like Jasmine said, it was before the storm hit. But now, what matters is finding him!" Jack was so dramatic and forceful with his words that he didn't pay attention to the ladder. He yanked on it, and it clanged down right on his head. After feeling dazed a bit, Jack shook his head, cleared it off, and headed up the ladder, Lancer close behind.
Inside the Fenton Satellite, it was as if they were inside a star cruiser. There were all sorts of computers, monitors, armaments, scanners…all designed to track ghosts. Jack took no notice of them. Instead, he headed over to a small circular door that looked like the entrance to a submarine dock. He spun the round wheel on the front around and the door clicked open. He threw it open so hard that it sent a loud clang throughout the entire satellite and slid down the tube behind it. Not knowing what else to do, Lancer followed. He landed behind Jack in what appeared to be a two-man space pod.
"Mr. Lancer," Jack said, a bit more dramatically than needed, "Welcome to the Fenton Pods! Designed for emergency escape in the event of a ghost attack blocking off all other exits, these babies have enough power to get us from here to Taiwan! But with more precise coordinates, we'll be able to stay in Amity! Now, Danny was in the forest, so a quick map scan here…" he messed with the computer at the front of the pod, "…I have it! Get ready, Lancer! This thing's takeoff should be tense!" Lancer gulped as the opening through which they had entered the pod closed. He hated flying.
"How often do you test this thing?" he asked nervously.
"Uh…never," Jack said as he hit ENGAGE, "Never had to use 'em, so never felt the need!"
"What!?" but it was too late to turn back now. The pod was rocking, the lights signalling that launch was approaching were flashing, and Jack wore a maniac grin that only came when he was using a Fenton gadget.
"Casino Royale!" Lancer shouted. The launch sequence engaged, the pod shot out of the satellite like a speeding bullet, the computer beeping like mad to turn them around and heading in the right direction. But they'd no sooner gotten out over the streets when the pod's rockets seemed to falter, spitting out sparks and smoke. They hovered in the air for a moment. Then, like a rock, they fell to the ground, landing softly in the many feet of snow lining the streets. The door to the pod hissed open.
"Darn these rocket boosters!" Jack shouted, jumping out; Lancer seemed frozen in shock, gripping the seat like his life depended on it.
"Stupid things," Jack mutterd, waving at the smoking jets, "A bit of cold and they…oh, wait a minute!" he moaned, "This is the prototype we also never tested! Must've accidentally installed it in with the good ones. Come on, Lancer!" he shouted into the pod, "To the real Fenton Pods! We're comin', Danny!" Jack charged back towards the house. Lancer stayed where he was for a moment. Then, as the cold brought him out of his shock, he climbed out and followed.
----
"…So I started feeling bad about some of the stuff I said to my parents," Sam was just about done explaining her evening, "Not that I'm conforming or anything, just…I kind of felt bad. I didn't want to talk to them, so I started for FentonWorks and…" she shrugged, "we ran into each other. Now I just…I dunno. I still hate the commercialism, but maybe I was wrong about the real thing behind Christmas being dead," Danny nodded, a bit of a shocked look on his face. He knew about Sam's dislike for Christmas; he'd had to put up with it since sixth grade. And he knew only too well how stubborn she was. So he was really surprised to find her starting to take a liking to the season.
"So a bunch of stories from homeless guys and a Christmas carol have made you totally re-think your view on the entire month of December?" he recalled. Sam nodded. Danny was at a loss for words; there had to be some kind of divine intervention going on around here.
Sam noticed how quiet he was, and couldn't help but feel a little insulted. She'd left shelter and had been freezing for who-knows how long just to talk to him, she'd heard he had the same problems with Christmas this year as she had for three years, and he couldn't say anything?
"…Mr. Lancer said you had the holiday blues yourself," she prompted, hoping to get a response. It worked. Danny snapped out of his daze and got a sad look in his eye.
"Oh…" he said, his head low now, "Oh, yeah," Sam went from insulted to guilty in no time flat. She didn't want him to get upset.
"I always thought you liked Christmas," she said, a little hint of apology in her voice.
"Yeah, well…ghost troubles," Danny shrugged. It wasn't quite that simple, but that was basically it, "I'm starting to feel better about it too."
"Then what's wrong?"
"I got into a fight with my parents, just like you did. I feel like I killed the spirit," he shook his head, "I was just remembering a while ago one Christmas with my dad. We were getting ready for a snowball war, and…" he remembered that they were supposed to be talking about Sam's problems.
"…I'm glad you got into the spirit," he smiled, "So, you gonna try and get along with your parents for the season?"
"Are you kidding!?" Sam looked at him as though he were insane, "If I tell them about this they'll think I'm turning into them! They'll try and force me to go commercial! They won't understand why I'm feeling better! Why can't they accept me for who I am!?" Danny sighed. He should've known better.
"Maybe you could just take your presents up to your room and do Christmas your way then," he suggested.
"Y'know, that's actually a good idea," Sam smiled. Danny smiled back. Other than the absence of Tucker, it felt like any regular day…except that Danny had an ectoplasmic barrier around them, they were in the middle of the worst blizzard in years, and it was freezing cold. Both looked out into the weather from inside the shield; it was definitely not going to let up anytime soon. Sam yawned. Her legs still felt sore and the energy from those spaghetti-Os she had used up long ago. Danny noticed.
"You tired?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she yawned again, "Let's just keep going, I can handle it."
"Sam, if you're tired, you can get some sleep," Danny offered, "I can keep the shield up for a while," Sam studied him closely. Danny had a habit of saying he was fine or could do things when he really couldn't, just so he didn't have to inconvenience anyone else or his stubborn attitude kept him from admitting defeat. But she was tired. And he did seem like he had enough energy to keep the barrier up.
"Fine," she sighed, "Thanks," she wrapped the blanket around her more tightly, lay down, and soon drifted off to sleep. Danny waited until he was sure she really was asleep before dropping his confident look.
"Now I just hope I actually can keep this up," he muttered. He may not have been as tired as Sam, but he was pretty worn out.
Exactly how long Sam slept, neither of them knew. She slept well, having no dreams but slowly gaining a soft smile as her body rested. Danny kept the shield up, occasionally looking down at Sam to see if she was awake. He had wanted to talk to her about the weird thing with the squirrel and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, but had been busy focusing on her problems. He didn't want to wake her up about those, so he kept them to himself. It was one of two things that were causing him problems. The barrier was draining more and more of his energy, and Danny felt his focus slip several times. Eventually the shield began thinning, letting some wind and a snowflake or two seep through. One of these landed on Sam's face, and it was enough to wake her up. She certainly seemed well rested. She looked around. The snow had piled up around the barrier, so that it was almost completely submerged in snow. She turned her focus to Danny. He was breathing heavily and it seemed like he was struggling just to keep his eyes open.
"Danny?" she tapped his shoulder. He jumped, but calmed down when he saw it was Sam, "Ready to go?" he nodded. With what seemed like a great wave of relief, he dropped the barrier. Immediately the snow that had surrounded them collapsed in, piling on top of them both.
"That could've been planned out better," Sam said dryly as they tried to pull themselves out. They managed, and in a few minutes they were heading towards FentonWorks, which couldn't be too far away now; Danny had been pretty close to it when he had followed where the spirit had pointed him. Sam led the way. Now she was the one with more energy, and was thinking more clearly now that she had rested. It was still almost impossible to fight against the wind, but they somehow managed. Danny had a harder time with it than she did. He lagged behind a couple times and once or twice fell flat on his back. Sam kept stopping so he could catch up. The farther they went, the more worried she became that keeping up that barrier had worn him out too much.
Danny knew that he'd spent too much power trying to keep the shield going, but he didn't want to say anything. They couldn't be too far away from his house, and there was no point in stopping again for him to rest. There was nothing to shield them from the cold if they did; there was no way he could put up another barrier. Besides, this was the first time in three years he'd seen Sam have some optimism towards the holiday season. If anything went wrong now, she could go back to loathing it in no time at all.
Once or twice Sam would look back with such a pleading expression that it was obvious she thought they'd better stop, but Danny shrugged it off and encouraged her to keep going. They did, but Sam was growing more and more against the idea.
Eventually Sam took notice of a street sign. Why she finally noticed one at this moment and not before, she had no idea, but decided to use it. It was covered in snow, but the snow had raised the level that they were walking on high enough so that she could knock it off.
"Burton Road," she read, "We're not far," she sighed in thanks, "We just need to head five blocks down and take a right, then…" she suddenly stopped. Something did not feel right with Danny.
"Danny?" she turned around. She found her best friend leaning up against a nearby building, his eyes clamped shut and his breathing heavy. He looked completely exhausted and in a considerable amount of pain. Despite the below zero temperatures, he was actually starting to sweat.
"Danny!?" Sam ran over. She completely forgot about getting indoors, her newfound confusion towards her thoughts on Christmas, and how far away they were from FentonWorks. For now, all she needed to worry about was Danny. He had definitely put too much into that shield.
Danny never answered her. He slowly slid down, his breathing beginning to turn into half-moans, half-yells. Then, before he completely collapsed, two ghost-rings formed around his middle, going across his body. He became Danny Fenton once more, and collapsed to the ground. His winter clothes were gone, he was shivering like mad, and his breathing had become little more than quick hisses of air. He looked almost dead.
"Danny?!" Sam yelled again. She looked around desperately. There had to be someone, something that could help…anything. There had been the four men back in the old market! But no one or nothing was there to help. They were alone in the streets, stuck in the snow and freezing to death.
Sam had to struggle to keep herself from panicking. Now wasn't the time to panic. She pulled the blanket off herself, wrapped it around Danny, helped him onto his feet, and tried to think of what to do from here.