Danny was flying over the buildings at a casual speed since he didn't really have a reason to rush. Though he was doing his own investigation into a purely curious matter it did not escape his mind that for once he was not dealing with any ghost attacks and really did want to savor this moment while he could. Looking down at the ground he saw plenty of people just enjoying their afternoon peacefully and it was definitely a welcoming change to his usual day to day activities.
"Well, my brain is free from the cram session and no ghosts, can't really ask for anything better than that," said Danny quietly to himself while flying.
He even took the time to do some loops around some trees, simulating himself being on a roller coaster. He also flew over a lake he dragged his hand through the water to make it kick up behind him.
His curfew was 10 pm since it was Friday and it was currently 5. So he had five hours to do whatever he could with his investigation and get back without risking trouble.
After a few more minutes of just savoring the open sky he once again took off in the direction of Skery City, Amberline Lane's hometown according to the cram session's lesson.
About ten minutes later Danny had arrived and was hovering over the city, scoping it out and looking for the local library. He was only partially familiar with this city since it was so close to Amity Park. But he'd never really had any reason to come here before.
Landing in an alley he transformed back into Danny Fenton and walked out onto the public sidewalk. Without a map or anything to reference he was pretty lost. He did have his cell phone but the only thing he really used that for was to call home and check in with his parents, and meet up with his friends when they were free. As far as finding a library that wasn't going to do him any good.
Walking down the street Danny glanced left and right looking for anything that looked like a library or would give him a hint to where it was, but he came up empty. As he turned a corner he came across an elderly woman trying to hail a cab.
"Um, excuse me ma'am," said Danny getting her attention. "Hi, um, I'm not from here, could you please tell me where to find the library?" asked Danny smiling politely.
Turning from the road to acknowledge Danny the woman explained to him that it was a few blocks away to the south, he just had to follow Terrere Street.
As a cab pulled up to pick up the woman Danny thanked her for her help and walked down the sidewalk in the direction he was told.
He kept reflecting on the lesson of Amberline Lane while he was walking and everything it had said about her. How she had died so suddenly, how the fire couldn't be explained, how her parents for some reason left so quickly. Replaying all the events of the lesson over in his head made Danny feel so sympathetic for the girl. Nobody deserved to suffer a fate like that. It was just terrible.
After walking in the direction he was given he now found himself at the Skery City Local Library. Walking inside he checked in and asked to use one of the computers. With a quick search through Google, Danny now found himself looking through sites that contained archived newspapers.
'Ok, so according to the lesson I need to be looking at articles from September of 1984,' Danny thought to himself as he narrowed the search settings and scrolled through the articles from that time. Finally he found what he was looking for: 'Local girl dies in tragic fire.'
"Jackpot," Danny whispered to himself as he clicked on the article which showed a digital version of the old newspaper. While reading the article Danny got even more info that the lesson hadn't covered. He found out that Amberline was born in 1969, was born and raised here in Skery City her whole life, was a local young music prodigy, and had even won a school talent show when she was ten with her singing.
'Wow I feel like I'm some supernatural researcher. I wonder if anyone does stuff like this for a living? That'd probably be an interesting profession' Danny wondered to himself while he was reading.
Danny spent quite a while reading and rereading the article and a couple more he found from other local newspapers in nearby towns, including Amity Park. They all followed a pretty similar path. They had either a picture of Amberline and/or the burnt house along with the series of events that happened to cause her death along with a brief summary of her life.
Once Danny had read all he could find he decided to print out the article of the Skery City newspaper that had her picture on it. He wanted to show all this to Sam and Tucker later when he got back. He also took the time to look up and read her obituary. By doing this he was able to find out where she was buried and the address of the cemetery.
With the articles folded and in his pocket Danny left the library and started to walk down the street again thinking more about how terrible it was for Amberline to go through what she did. His biggest question wasn't even how it all happened or whether or not there was anything that could have been done to save her. His biggest question about the whole thing was how the articles said her parents just left.
'By the sound of it Amberline didn't even have parents that loved or cared about her. To just leave like they did after the accident and not even be at her funeral. What kind of heartless people do that to their own daughter?'
While Danny was absorbed in his thought walking along the sidewalk he passed a few families walking together that all looked happy together. Two parents and their son were enjoying ice cream together. Another pair of parents and their daughter were leaving the park and seemed like they'd been playing frisbee. Danny also thought about how his family was another level of weird with all the ghost hunting activities, but at the end of the day they were still a family that loved and cared for each other more than anything.
"How does someone just get trapped in a mysterious fire and die? Her body was found on her bed as if she never even woke up to try to escape," Danny was mumbling to himself as he thought. He still had a few hours until curfew and wanted to see if he could find the house and check it out for himself. This was the most curious he'd ever been about something in his life.
He was suddenly shaken from his thoughts though as his ghost sense went off, the cool mist coming from his mouth and making him groan.
"Oh come on, seriously, here, now?" said Danny lightly to himself as he glanced around to see where said ghost was.
As if the world was intentionally trying to keep him from enjoying a ghost free day, out of nowhere several cardboard boxes came flying out of a nearby store through the walls. They seemed to be filled with paper of some kind because a few stray sheets were flying out of the top. As the boxes came out into the open a plump man in overalls flew out behind them looking extra happy right now.
"AH HA, BEWARE. I, the Box Ghost, have come to claim all these unused containers that no mere mortal will be needing anymore," said the Box Ghost in his usual dramatic tone.
Danny smacked his open palm against his face seeing that his most annoying nemesis was actually here taking boxes of whatever they contained. Did he just want the boxes or was it what was in them?
"Dude, come on really, you had to be here of all times?" asked Danny visibly annoyed. The Box Ghost now noticed that he was here and grinned joyfully.
"Ahhhhhh, yes, you once again shall face the destructive power of me, the Box Ghost. For I have now been armed with all these leftover boxes that litter all the nearby towns," said the Box Ghost raising his glowing hands to make all the boxes around him hover higher.
"Oh geez, well can we at the very least make this quick, I was kind of in the middle of something?" said Danny ducking behind a bench after making sure nobody was around. "I'M GOING GHOST."
After transforming into Danny Phantom he hovered over the ground facing the blue ghost ready for a fight that he assumed and hoped would not take very long.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ember had been flying over the city of Amity Park for about thirty minutes now looking for the ghost boy but wasn't having any luck. She was very visibly upset and annoyed that she couldn't find a trace of him and it was making her hair flare up. She'd flown over to the school but it was empty, she'd checked the park but no luck, she'd tried the mall but the only kids there were snobby looking teenage girls, and there was no sign of him in the air as Danny Phantom.
"Grrrrr, where is that dipstick already, I'm losing my patience," said Ember to herself as she landed on a nearby rooftop looking down.
Pacing back and forth on the roof she kept looking down at all the passing people to see if the ghost boy was among them, but he wasn't. She kept pacing back and forth for ten minutes until she finally had a stroke of luck. Looking towards the end of the street she saw his two best friends, the goth girl and the technology geek. She didn't see the ghost boy with them but if they were here he had to be either somewhere nearby or they would know where to find him.
Sam and Tucker meanwhile were just minding their own business as they were heading to the Nasty Burger which was just at the end of the street they were currently on. They'd just been casually discussing the cram session Danny and Sam had gone through and Sam filled Tucker in on more of the details of yesterday afternoon's events that Tucker had missed due to being tied to a chair against his will for most of it.
At the same time Sam was quietly thinking about Danny and why he suddenly took off. She was pretty convinced that he had other reasons for taking off so suddenly but couldn't think of why.
Before either of them could think any further on either topic they suddenly felt a rush of air coming their way, causing them both to glance at each other before seeing a flying blue blur coming right at them. Ember had taken off towards the two friends like a rocket and before they could react she grabbed them both. Going intangible she flew right into the building beside them and straight up to the roof. Dropping them down she used her guitar to cast a pink vortex around them just like she'd done to Danny the night before, keeping them trapped.
"Alright you two, where's that dipstick friend of yours, he and I have a score to settle," said Ember angrily as she landed right in front of them.
"Ember, what are you doing back here already, didn't you learn your lesson last night when Danny kicked your butt?" said Sam frowning, narrowing her eyes at the rock diva.
"Well if we're being honest your friend didn't kick my butt, your other friend's disastrous singing is what did me in," said Ember nodding towards Tucker with a scowl. "The dipstick was actually in over his head before that thanks to a global audience of people cheering for me."
"Hey, that's not nice, Danny said I rocked," said Tucker frowning and crossing his arms in disappointment.
"Yeah, that would explain why crickets were heard at a rock concert," said Ember rolling her eyes. "Not are you gonna tell me where your friend is or do I have to get a little more personal," said Ember ready to strike another chord on her guitar.
"As if we'd ever help you hurt Danny," said Sam with clenched fists. Though she did wish he would suddenly show up now and hadn't taken off. They were completely at Ember's mercy right now and didn't have any anti ghost weapons with them at the moment.
"Well if you don't want to talk I definitely have my own ways of extracting information from people when I want it," said Ember smirking as she switched her knob on her guitar. "And would you look at that, you don't seem to have those things in your ears this time to protect you. Maybe after I get the info I want I can make you go head over heels for the dipstick this time, a little role reversal from last night."
Hearing her words Sam blushed as she remembered how overly affectionate Danny had been yesterday. Ember smirked and narrowed her eyes at her comment as she saw Sam's face get flushed at her suggestion.
As Ember was about to strike her guitar she stopped as she noticed something on the horizon. A big green beam was being fired straight up into the sky. She'd been a ghost long enough to know exactly what that was, an ecto ray. Suddenly she had a sinister smile on her face as she lowered her guitar, no longer interested in these two pawns.
"Well looks like it's your lucky day, seems the dipstick has decided to send out a signal flare. Chao sidesticks, your friend and I have a date and I'd hate to keep him waiting," said Ember jumping on her guitar and flying off again.
Once she put some distance between herself, Sam, and Tucker, her vortex faded from around them. Sam rushed to the edge of the building, watching Ember race off towards the source of the ecto ray.
"Crap, Tucker, we have to find Danny fast and help him with Ember. She looks like she's out for blood right now," said Sam.
Tucker looked at the horizon at Ember as well, shrinking fast as she got further away.
"See if you can call him to warn him that she's back. I'll just work a little magic here and get us a ride," said Tucker pulling out his PDA. "We'll have to get the specter speeder if we want to catch her otherwise we'll never be able to catch up to her in time. Thankfully I linked it to my PDA last time we used it so I can call it remotely. I just hope Danny's parents won't notice it's gone."
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Jack and Maddie Fenton were both currently in their basement tinkering with their latest inventions.
"I'm telling you Maddie baby this Fenton net is going to pair perfectly with the Fenton fisher," said Jack holding up a glowing blue net. "What's better than a ghost catching fishing pole and net? Having the name Fenton put in it." As he held it up Jack was wearing a huge grin and looking so proud.
"Um, Jack sweetie, I think you forgot to make it effective only for ghosts," said Maddie pointing at her husband's back. "It's stuck to you're jumpsuit."
While both of their backs were turned the specter speeder that was behind them revved to life on it's own and shot out of the basement and out of the house.
Jack and Maddie turned around to see their hover machine now missing.
"GHOSTS" they both shouted in perfect synchrony.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
While Danny was exchanging witty remarks with the Box Ghost several more boxes were flying through the walls of the nearby store and into the action. Danny wasn't exactly threatened by any of this as all he had to do was go intangible whenever something was sent flying in his direction, but it was still annoying all the same.
"Ugh, seriously can we just get this over with? You could throw a building at me and I'll still just make it go right though me," said Danny crossing his arms.
The Box Ghost just simply didn't respond and kept throwing the containers of cardboard at Danny with loose papers flying out of them. A few were floating in front of Danny's face which made him curious about what was in them.
"Geez, what's so special about these boxes anyway? Do they contain bank bonds or something?" Danny asked as he grabbed the paper loosely flying around.
He did a bit of a double take when he saw what it was. A girl with flaming blue hair strumming on a guitar was looking back at him with a big grin. Below her was a list of upcoming concert dates and times.
"Huh, why on Earth do you want all of Ember's concert flyers?" asked Danny showing the Box Ghost the flyer.
The Box Ghost brought another box up above his head and let it drop into his open palms.
"AH HA, since the dear rock and roll princess will no longer be able to perform her concerts all these flyers are now stored all over. That means plenty of ammo for I, the Box Ghost, to find and add to my devastating arsenal of cardboard doom," said the Box Ghost making his hands glow with about a dozen boxes of unused flyers around him.
Danny raised an eyebrow at the plump ghost in overalls. That actually did make sense since Ember was sent back to the ghost zone and everyone had been freed from her influence.
"Wow, ok I guess you actually do have a point there about Ember no longer able to perform these events," said Danny looking at the flyer again. It seems Amity Park was just supposed to be the first of a dozen concerts all over the state. "But still come on dude. All these boxes for your arsenal? A simple baseball bat would be more effective than all of this."
"No, a simple stick for swinging could not possibly be considered more destructive than all these devastating containers of cardboard," said the Box Ghost dramatically.
"You know it's really amazing someone like lacks the ability to think outside the box," said Danny with a chuckle. "Honestly I'm more worried about getting a paper cut from this flyer than you throwing cardboard at me."
As the Box Ghost rose higher over Danny he took the opportunity to move directly beneath him. Charging up a powerful ecto ray Danny let it loose, firing straight up and hitting the Box Ghost at almost point blank range. Sending him high into the sky with his beam and practically lighting up the sky green, Danny had sent him well out of sight.
"I'll give you a break from the thermos this time and settle for you to stop annoying me for the rest of the week. Hey while you're up there maybe you should head off to Box-nia," Danny shouted to the sky before landing and looking around at all the stray flyers that were now scattered all over the street.
Taking a look at his watch he realized that he had lost about twenty minutes due to this little detour. He now had about two and a half more hours until curfew.
"Wow, Ember really wasn't playing around with her plan of trying to make the whole world love her and her music. According to this every one of these concerts was going to be broadcast globally," said Danny to himself reading the flyer. "Really is such a shame that...WHAT!"
Danny was now staring at Ember's face on the flyer and his eyes had shot open so wide it seemed they could fall right out of his head.
"No, there's no way, that's impossible," said Danny incredulously as he changed back into Danny Fenton and quickly pulled the printed article of Amberline Lane from his pocket.
Unfolding it he held it side by side with the flyer. His whole body started shaking as he looked at the two girls in complete disbelief. The resemblance was uncanny. Danny could feel his breathing start to deepen and his heart rate start to rise rapidly as he couldn't take his eyes away from the two pieces of paper he was holding. After several moments he dropped both of them to the ground but kept staring blankly straight ahead before looking up into the sky. His mind had gone into overdrive with new thoughts about what he'd just seen.
'Amberline Lane, Ember McLane. She died in a fire, her name and hair are fire. Was a shy lonely girl, gets her strength when others actually notice and cheer for her. Loved rock and roll and was a music prodigy, her powers are used by playing rock and roll.' Danny had thought after thought going through his head comparing the two girls and it made a crazy amount of sense, no matter how insane it all might seem.
"I don't believe this, could Amberline really be Ember?" Danny asked himself quietly as he picked both pieces of paper back up and looked at them again while he collapsed onto the bench behind him. He spent another five minutes staring at the two girls trying to process the insanity going through his head. But with every passing moment it felt less and less insane and more and more possible. Standing back up he folded and put both pieces of paper in his pocket. "I gotta find and see this house, this has gotten so much more crazy than I ever thought it would."
Transforming back into Danny Phantom he was about to take back off into the sky when he felt a vibration in his pocket. Pulling out his cell phone he saw that Sam was calling. But before he could answer it he thought it over and simply declined the call. He was way too distracted right now and wanted to get to the bottom of this. Taking off into the sky he flew off in the direction of the house he had looked up at the library.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Ember was currently hovering over the top of Skery City looking in every direction for the ghost boy. She was sure that the ecto ray she'd seen from a distance had come from somewhere in this vicinity, now she just had to find the source. She was so laser focused on finding the dipstick she wasn't even paying attention to where she was exactly.
"Damn it, he's gotta be here somewhere," said Ember to herself looking down. "I have no idea what he'd be doing here instead of Amity Park, but either way he's toast once I find him."
As she was looking she suddenly heard a cry from above. Looking up she noticed a blue figure falling down from the clouds screaming quite loudly.
"BEWARE," shouted the Box Ghost as he fell past her on his way towards the ground.
"Ugh, well that explains what he was shooting at. He should have fired a little harder and sent him to Mars. Can't stand the annoying sound of that Box Ghost," said Ember rolling her eyes as she scanned the city again.
Right at that moment while scanning the streets she saw a figure fly up out of an alley and in the direction away from her. Ember smiled maliciously at the sight.
"There you are dipstick, better prepare yourself for a beating, because you're mine," said Ember taking off after him.
Both ghosts were now flying at high speeds away from downtown. Ember kept him in her sight while she was prepared to launch a sneak attack as soon as he slowed down. But Danny kept flying further and further away from the tall buildings and the longer he went the more eager Ember was getting.
"Damn it, stop flying already and stop somewhere so I can pound you," said Ember quietly in Danny's direction.
After a few more moments Danny was now flying over a suburb area where the houses were pretty spread out. Seeing his desired destination he started to descend towards a completely destroyed and burnt house in ruins.
"Finally he's stopping. Where is he going anyway?" Ember asked herself as she slowed down as well to observe.
Once Ember saw that he was heading towards a destroyed house her eyes practically shot out of her head in shock. Her mouth dropped and was shivering and she almost dropped her guitar. She could feel her whole body go numb from the realization . Looking around for the first time and actually taking in her surroundings it dawned on Ember where she was and where Danny was going. There was a look of absolute horror on her face as she watched him slowly float towards the house. With the walls having so many destroyed sections he didn't even have to go intangible to get inside.
"No, no no no no no, what the hell is he doing here?" Ember asked herself in a shaky voice. "Why would he come here of all places? Does he somehow know?"
At that very moment Ember was considering fleeing in the opposite direction as fast as she could. But something was keeping her completely frozen to the spot as she watched Danny enter the location where her life as a human had ended so many years ago.
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
A/N I hope you all have enjoyed this next chapter. There is definitely some drama cooking up for these two but what exactly will it lead to and what exactly will Danny uncover in the house? Only time will tell and you'll have to keep reading once the next chapter is up to find out. Thank you for the great reviews of chapter one as well as those of you that have followed and/or added the story as a favorite. As always please REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW. They are always appreciated more than I can express.