By the evening, everything had been worked out. The barracks had been the most successful add-on to the warehouse, so there was plenty of rooms (though only a few fully-built). Danny and Tucker had gotten their own room, Jazz and Sam theirs, and Jack and Maddie theirs. Their food; meant to last them a few days; had been added to a food supply that could feed the garrison for about two weeks. Then came the matter of their positions. Danny, Tucker, Sam, and Jazz were originally excused from fighting, but when the former three insisted, Alcala and Fountain reluctantly agreed (and Jazz reluctantly played along).
"Jack," Alcala said, "No offence, but you make a rather large target. You manage equipment at the north wall and hand up bombs and grenades to whoever's manning the grenade launcher. The rest of you...you'll try some target practice in the morning. If you do alright, you'll be sentries at the north wall," after that was over with, dinner came around. Now Danny, Sam, and Tucker were in the room the two boys were sharing.
"I don't know if this was such a good idea after all," Tucker was saying, "There's work involved."
"Well it's not like we have anywhere else to go to," Danny said. Sam agreed.
"Looks like these people are the only ones we can trust until it's over."
"Right."
"If you say so," Tucker looked around, "And we get to handle some awesome weapons! We'll show those Paranormalics freaks what's comin' to 'em!" he began imitating firing a machine gun. Sam and Danny sighed.
"Is it really a good idea to give him any job involving weapons?" Sam asked.
"Probably not."
---
The next morning, target practice began. Everyone but Jack was given a laser and attempted to fire at the boxes The Box Ghost was controlling to be moving targets. Maddie was up first; she nailed them all on the first try.
"Wow!" Danny exclaimed, "Where'd you learn to do that, Mom?"
"Well, you know my sister. She taught me a few things," she got the job as a sentry. Next Jazz was up. Despite her lack of enthusiasm for the job she actually did pretty well, only missing one target on the first try. She got the job. Next was Sam; she did as well as Jazz did. With Tucker came disaster. He hit only four targets and accidentally shot The Box Ghost, a skinny ghost with a big nose, and two ghosts with goatees.
"...Oops," he said when he saw how well he'd done, "Can I try again?"
"You get three tries, you used one," Alcala said. On the second try, Tucker managed to hit five targets, but accidentally hit Fountain's bad leg (fortunately, since it was an ectoplasmic laser, it didn't hurt...much).
"One more," Fountain said, slightly annoyed. He got seven out of ten. After a brief discussion with Fountain, Alcala reluctantly gave Tucker the job. Danny scored eight out of ten first try, but he had to do more than fire with a laser. He had to hit the targets in ghost form. He did that with ease, getting a perfect score. All of them had managed to get the job of sentry, Jack the equipment manager. However, Jack couldn't resist, and had The Box Ghost set up the targets again. He hit only two and blasted 15 ghosts on accident.
---
"Wonder how many soldiers they'll send?" Tucker said. It was late in the evening, and not a sign of anything.
"That's a good question," Alcala was standing behind them, "All we know about Bruce is that he and most of his best men left for somewhere. The sergeant left this morning according to the radio. There's about 120 agents in Paranormalics now, and Amity wasn't the only town occupied. They left 20 in Frost's home town where the base is, and the other 20 made up the men that went with Bruce, so that leaves...80 in Boston. I'm guessing they'll send about 50. We'll be outnumbered, but not by much. Problem is, we only have tranquillisers and the lasers only affect ghosts. Conrad was moving up towards us but he had us take so much of the good equipment with us he won't be here in time."
"Well, fear not, lieutenant colonel!" Jack jumped out, the Ghost Gloves on his hands, "These babies may be Ghost Gloves, but they still pack quite a punch when used on us!" he started jabbing and fighting in the air, accidentally socking Alcala right in the gut.
---
The second day there passed by with pretty much nothing happening. Alcala had showed Danny, Sam and Tucker how to work the grenade launcher in case they had to man it. Although it had just been two days and this was the only time Jazz and his parents had really met The Box Ghost, Danny could tell that the little nimrod was driving them insane.
"...And beware," he was telling them, "for I am merely one of the foes of your son who have found ways to re-enter the realm of the living! You might say...we are a package deal!" he started laughing.
"If it weren't for the fact that we're on the same side I'd get the Ghost Gloves out and..." Jack mumbled the rest of his sentence.
"I am The Box Ghost!"
"STOP SAYING THAT!" Jazz screamed.
---
On the third day, things stayed quiet until after lunch. Jack was teaching the kids a card came while Maddie kept a watch on the road.
"Someone's coming!" she shouted. It was a Paranormalics van with a white flag hanging out the window.
"Hold your fire," Alcala said when he saw the flag. The van stopped in front of the fort, and a fat man walked out.
"Hello, up there," he sounded like he was from Wisconsin, "You're the resistance movement, yeah?"
"Yes. What do you want?"
"I got a parchment here, don't ya' know," he pulled out a piece of paper, "From the corporal who's in charge. Says here that you's got a chance to give up, and if ya' don't, then we attack and arrest ya' all. That's it," Alcala sped down the ladder to meet with Fountain, who had just come out.
"What's going on?" the crippled colonel asked.
"Paranormalics sent out someone to ask us if we want to surrender."
"I'm not going to."
"Neither am I."
"How many men are you sending to attack us?" Tucker called out to the agent.
"Oh, probably 70 men. We only left 10 in Amity since there ain't no ghosts in the town now. We should be attack ya' at 6:00 tomorrow mornin' with full force."
"Uh, guys?" Tucker looked down at the colonels, "You hear that?"
"No."
"Maybe we should give up..." he turned to his two friends.
"Forget it," Danny and Sam said together.
"Guys, we are going to be outnumbered worse than predicted and at an early hour in the morning! Don't tell me that doesn't scare you!"
"It does," Danny nodded, "But we can't give up."
"Why!?"
"One:" Sam said, "We have nowhere else to go."
"Two: I don't think we could trust them even if we gave up," Danny added.
"Three: This group is the only way we can help Danny out."
"Men!" Alcala shouted, "We've been given a chance to surrender. Colonel Fountain and myself are staying. Anyone want to leave, slip over the wall with your things now," no one moved, "Alright, let's give them an answer; fire in the hole!" the crew manning the grenade launcher went to work. This was no ordinary grenade launcher. It was computerised and could also fire bombs. A ghost grabbed a bomb, placing it inside, and it was fired off to the side of the van.
"So that means you're fighting us, right?"
"Yes, it means we're fighting you," Alcala ran back up to the platform.
"OK then. We'll tell the corporal. We'll be here tomorrow at 6:00 with 70 men," he hopped back in the van and drove off.
"70 men!?"
"That's what they said that I asked if you had heard," Tucker said.
"What about Amity?"
"They said there weren't any ghosts in the city so they could send most of their men out here," Sam said. Silence followed, "Aren't you gonna tell the men?"
"Don't think so," Alcala shook his head, "That's worse odds than they're all expecting."
"They'll find out sooner or later," Danny said, "Better let them know so they're at least a little prepared."
---
It took until evening for Alcala to make up his mind. All the men had settled down for the night, following dinner. Their commander walked out into the centre of the fort.
"Men," he said, "I have bad news. Tomorrow we'll be facing a force larger than expected. They're sending 70 men to face us," this drew some gasps and murmuring, "and they're likely better equipped than we are. Bottom line; we're doomed. Now I can't force any one of you to stay here; I'm not General Conrad. So, if you wanna leave, go ahead," five ghosts flew off. No one else moved, "Thank you, men. If you'll forgive me, I'll have to issue an order for everyone except Colonel Fountain to sleep at their post so as to be ready. The enemy comes at six."
---
Danny, Tucker, and Sam had fallen asleep almost immediately; Jazz shortly after. Now only a few adults and ghosts were awake, Alcala, Jack, and The Box Ghost among them. Alcala and Jack were up at the north wall, Alcala rubbing his hands together.
"Cold night tonight," he commented. Jack nodded and looked at his son. He and his friends had their backs against a large barrel, sleeping quietly. Sam's head was resting on Danny's shoulder. Jack laughed quietly.
"Jasmine has a picture of them sleeping like that in the Fenton Van somewhere," he said, "They've been terrified of it falling into the wrong hands ever since."
"I am The Box Ghost!" the ghost flew up, "And I challenge to two to a game of Old Maid!" he pulled out a box of cards. Alcala looked at Jack, who shrugged.
"One game," Alcala held up one finger, "Then we get some sleep."
---
Sam awoke early. The minute she noticed that she was leaning against Danny she shot up and moved off to the side. Calming down, she checked her watch; 5:57 a.m. No sentry was on guard. She ran over to Alcala.
"Mr. Alcala," she said nervously, "sir?" he slowly got up.
"What is it?" he yawned. She showed him the time, and he shot over to the wall. Several vans could be seen off in the distance, coming down the road.
"They're on us!" he shouted as loud as he could, "Here they come! Wake up, men! Get up! On your feet!" there was an explosion of movement throughout the entire fort. Sam jumped back over to Danny and Tucker, who had moved up towards the wall with Jazz and Maddie. Alcala ran over to the canon, and nearby, Jack's hand punched open the trap door to the equipment room. Fountain stood up in his bed, The Box Ghost flew to the centre of the fort with his boxes, and everyone else took their positions. A bomb was fired, and to everyone's surprise, at the sound of the bomb, the vans turned around to retreat.
"Yeah, you'd better run!" Tucker shouted, then turned to Alcala, confused, "Why are they running?"
"They didn't expect us to be ready," he assumed, "They're pulling back to re-organise and attack again."
---
"Gentlemen," the corporal in charge was saying, "The purpose of attacking at 6 in the morning was to take the enemy by surprise. So...HOW THE HECK DID THEY KNOW WE WERE COMING!?"
"Oh, I told 'em, don't ya' know?" the Wisconsin guy walked up, "Yeah, some kid asked, so I figured, 'better not be rude, just a kid,' and told 'em."
"Really?" the corporal nodded, trying to control his rage, "How nice of you..." he snapped his fingers. Two large men began pounding the living daylights out of the fat man.
"Hey!" he screamed, "Ouch! Hey, I only got one of those, don't ya know? Ooh...Owie!"
"Let's re-group and attack again," the corporal ordered, "Most of their defences were at the north wall. I want the vans to create a diversion while the men slip out the back and attack the south of the fort. Move out!"
---
The second attack began almost 15 minutes after the first. All the vans pulled up at the north wall, the roofs opening up to reveal a montage of weaponry. These were used to bombard the north wall, all the men inside the vans.
"Not much for courage, are they?" Jazz shouted over the fire. Of the 35 men, 18 of them were positioned at the north wall. The grenade launcher was on the eastern wall, but by the corner. Almost all weaponry was over there as well. Alcala had expected such an assault on this part of the fort as was occurring now. He did not expect the helicopter that was flying in, ropes hanging from it and men sliding down.
"Someone take out that helicopter!" he yelled. Danny went ghost, firing two energy blasts at the blades, causing it to make an emergency landing a few yards off the west wall. Now some agents were coming out of the vans, firing grappling hooks up onto the north wall. Seeing this, Alcala jumped down to the ground, running into his room. He pulled out an old Civil War sabre and rushed back up the ladder. He cut the rope, causing the soldiers scaling the wall to fall flat on their backs. Danny formed an ectoplasmic blade of his own and began to do the same. The grenade launcher fired off a bomb that made a direct hit on one van, destroying it. So preoccupied were they with this assault on the north wall that none noticed the soldiers slipping out of the backs of the vans, carrying the more advanced and large of the weaponry.
The south wall was the weakest point in the fort. Only three men were positioned there, armed only with lasers. On top of that, they were ghosts. No one anticipated an attack from behind; only Conrad moving up to reinforce them. Those few ghosts were half-tempted to move up to the north when one of them caught a flash of colour.
"Over here!" he shouted. It was too late. Three ghost-traps were fired, all hitting their target. A small missile launcher was soon positioned, loaded, and fired. Almost all of the south wall was taken out, finally bringing attention to the real threat zone. The centre, lower level of the fort was guarded by four men; two at Colonel Fountain's room, one by the door to the equipment room, and The Box Ghost. All began to battle the soldiers flooding into the centre of the fort; apparently they carried tranquillisers and human weapons as well, for one human soon lay unconscious with a dart in his arm.
"They've breached the south wall!" Alcala shouted when he noticed. Almost all the soldiers had moved out from the vans, which were now going around to the south themselves. Several men had begun jumping down into the centre to provide aide to The Box Ghost and the equipment guard, all that were left standing. Danny, his friends, and his family stayed up on the platform with Alcala, handling the few men still trying to make it over the north wall. Alcala spotted the grenade launcher.
"Let's turn it around," he motioned to it, "Come on!" all still on the platform moved over to it. One soldier made it over the north wall, grabbing Jazz from behind. Maddie socked him in the face, but was shot in the back with a dart, falling down to the ground.
"Mom!" Jazz looked over the edge before running off to help move the grenade launcher. In the confusion, the trap door to the equipment room was slammed shut.
"What's going on up there!?" Jack demanded. He then heard the sounds of soldiers trying to break in the room, "You!" he shouted to someone who had retreated inside, "Get out those Ghost Gloves and fight! Those gloves are made for grabbin'!" the soldier obliged, readying himself. Outside, the situation was becoming more dire.
"I am The Box Ghost!" the little nimrod was soon trapped. The few left on the platform had finally winged the grenade launcher, Sam trying to open the trap door.
"Get ready!" Alcala was soon silenced when a dart was fired into his shoulder. Before falling, he tossed his sword into the battle below; it sliced the corporal across the leg. Jack and Sam finally opened the door to the equipment room as Jazz fell. The few men left in the centre that belonged to the resistance stood between Paranormalics and Fountain's room. Inside, Fountain was on his feet, prepared to make his crutches into a weapon. Danny and Sam were all that was now left on the platform. Sam grabbed a bomb from Jack's hand and ran over to the launcher. A three-pronged ghost-trap meant for the last ghost was knocked aside, firing into her neck. Danny caught her before she fell to the ground. She loaded the launcher, set the target, and fired. Jack had jumped down, grabbing the gloves from the fallen user of them.
"Banzai!" he leapt foolishly outside. Fountain's door had been broken down, the colonel waving his crutches around viciously. Danny pulled the trap from Sam's neck.
"Sam?" he shook her gently; she was still alive. A dart hitting her arm insured that she was unconscious, though. Danny fired an energy blast into the soldier that shot her and looked around. He was the only one left to defend the fort.
"Here goes nothing," he murmured, and with a quick gulp of air, he jumped down into the centre of the fort, knowing only too well he had only minutes...more likely seconds...before he was taken down.