(A/N): YALL PROLLY THOUGHT I WAS DEAD BUT YOU CANT GET RID OF ME THAT EASY

Triggerhappy

They'd briefly gone over their plan before, so it was all-too easy to split into two groups. It felt weirdly natural working with the A-Listers. Not as natural as working with Sam and Tucker, obviously, but still.

He was trying not to think about it.

Paulina, Dash, and Kwan wished him luck before they made their way through the shattered doorway, dodging chunks of glass and sparking wires as they went.

Danny watched them go for a moment, a half-smile pulling on his lips, before he settled down to wait. A camera blinked at him, the reflective lens twinkling like a watchful eye, and he felt a tremor run down his spine.

The sooner they got out of here, the better. The whole building was giving him the creeps.


Paulina led Kwan and Dash towards the control room they'd highlighted on the blueprints earlier. It was a vague blur on the map, one that would've taken a lot longer to find without Danny's skills.

According to the engineer notes on the side, there was a way to manually power down the ghost shield that made the whole building a veritable ghost-repellent. Once the shields were down, Danny would be safe to go full Phantom.

The three of them would escape back to the car while Phantom grabbed Sam and Tucker. It was foolproof, riskless. What could possibly go wrong?

"This way," she murmured, ducking around a corner. The control room door was in sight at the end of the hall, an ominous KEEP OUT sign hanging crookedly on the white metal.

Before they could take another step, a haggard looking lunch lady appeared in the air in front of them. Paulina felt a chill go down her spine as she noticed how the woman was slightly transparent, wispy at the edges.

The ghost's eyes were oddly glazed over, just like Danny had said the mind-controlled ones would be, and there was a flashing collar around her neck.

Kwan cursed under his breath, hoisting his ecto-gun up onto his shoulder, but Dash was already shoving them forward. "I'll keep her busy. You guys sneak around and get to the control room."

Paulina stared at him, jaw loose with shock. "No, we stick to the plan. Danny said we had to stay together no matter—"

"Fenton isn't here." Dash grinned at her, but she could see the faint shake in his hands that betrayed how scared he was. "Besides, it's just a little old lunch lady. What's the worst that can happen?"

The ghost, obviously having overheard, let out an inhuman roar that seemed to shake the very foundations of the building.

"Go," Dash said, cocking his gun and taking aim. The barrel began to glow as it charged, the lunch lady ghost's attention completely snagged on the barrel's end. "I'll be fine."

She glared at him, about to open her mouth to argue, but Kwan tugged on her arm. "He's right, Paulie. We've gotta go, Foley and Manson could be in danger."

"Ugh!" She pulled away from Dash, "I hate how right you guys are sometimes."

Dash just winked at her before he took aim, feet planted securely on the tile so the recoil of the ecto-weapon wouldn't completely bowl him over.

The lunch lady ghost whipped her head around when Kwan and Paulina raced past, but Dash quickly got her attention again by firing a massive, glowing green blast at her chest.

The ghost howled as it made contact, giving chase to Dash as he turned and started sprinting away down the hallway.

"C'mon," Kwan grabbed her hand, pulling her along behind him. "Dash will be fine. He hasn't made school quarter back every year for nothing."

Paulina laughed, the sound completely hysterical, and then they were outside the control room door.

"Is it locked?" Kwan asked, pushing his palms against the metal.

Paulina just aimed her weapon at the handle, laughing again as it began to warm in her hand. "If it is, I don't care."

The recoil made her wrist ache, but the door flew open, smashing against the inside wall in a burst of smoke and ecto-energy.

"Damn!" Kwan jumped back, cursing loudly, but Paulina had had enough.

She marched inside, storming into the dimly lit room and taking a cursory glance of her surroundings to make sure there weren't any other lunch-related ghosts waiting to attack.

It was empty except for a wall of flickering monitors, each displaying what she assumed was a different scene from the base. She looked over a few displays that showed nothing but long stretches of empty hallway before catching sight of bright green ecto-energy flashing on the bottom left.

It was Dash, ducking behind a corner as the lunch lady ghost gave chase, green saliva dripping from her open mouth. Dash got in a blast to her face that sent her reeling and Paulina couldn't help but smile. "Atta'boy."

"Paulina, look."

She followed Kwan's finger to one of the bottom monitor's, which seemed to be displaying a darkened room. The description in the corner read HOLDING CHAMBER #6.

As she watched, the lights on the monitor flickered back on to reveal the haggard faces of Samantha and Tucker. The two sat back-to-back against the room's far wall, arms wrapped around each other. The lights went out again, throwing the two into darkness, but the outline of their huddled forms had already seared themselves into Paulina's mind.

She would be the first to say she didn't particularly like either of them, but that didn't mean she wished suffering upon them. They might be annoying sometimes, but they definitely didn't deserve to be stuck in some kind of creepy illegal lab in the dark.

The only one allowed to make Manson suffer was Paulina, and she intended to keep it that way.

"Call Danny, tell him we found them." She tossed her phone to Kwan, who caught it immediately before tapping Danny's number into the display. "And make sure he knows they're alright." Physically alright, at least. She hadn't seen any cuts or bruises on them.

"Yes ma'am."

As he made the call, Danny's voice sounding canned and tinny on the other end, like he was talking from beneath several layers of concrete, Paulina started reading the labels on the massive dashboard.

There was nothing about any kind of barrier, everything having been written in some sort of numerical binary that made her eyes spin and her heart clutch in her chest.

"We don't have time for this," she cursed, running her fingers over the keyboard like that would somehow help her understand. "Dash could get caught any minute, and Danny's still—"

The sound of an ecto-blast discharging echoed throughout the room as Kwan aimed one at the dashboard. There was a shower of sparks accompanied by the fizzling sound of electricity as the ecto-energy destroyed whatever was left of the GIW's ghost shielding system.

She whipped her head around, glaring at Kwan for the lack of warning, but he just grinned at her.

"I learned from the best."

"Ugh," she said again, taking the phone out of his hand. He politely didn't point out the burgeoning smile on her face. "Danny? Can you hear me?"

Wind whipped on the other end of the receiver. It sounded like he was flying, his voice slightly strained when he spoke. "Loud and clear."

"They're in a holding chamber, number six. It's on the blueprints. The shields are down but we're not sure for how much longer."

"People like Idolon would have contingency plans for something like this," Kwan muttered, glancing at the door behind them. "I can't imagine she's going to keep out of our business for much longer."

Paulina was about to agree when she caught sight of Dash on one of the staticky monitors, his eyes wide as the lunch lady ghost pressed him against the wall. Her mouth was hinging open like a snake's, ecto-energy leaking out from behind her crooked teeth as she wrapped her massive fingers around his neck."

Paulina didn't know what kind of sound she made, but it must've been an awful one judging from Danny's panicked, "—aulina? Paulina, what's wrong? What happened?"

"It's—" she choked again as the ghost lady slammed Dash into the wall, his mouth popping open in what was probably a pained gasp. "Dash stayed behind to distract a ghost, but it's not going well. She has him," her voice faltered, "she's strangling him."

Danny cursed under his breath, the sound of wind shifting as he seemed to turn around. "Change of plans. I'm going after Dash, you guys have to find Sam and Tuck. I'll try and join up with you if I have time."

"But—" she started.

She could hear the smile in his voice when he answered. "I trust you guys. You got this."

Paulina clenched her teeth, yanking her gaze away from the monitor that still displayed Dash's reddening face. "Save him. Please."

She could hear the smile in Danny's voice when he answered. "One saved Dash Baxter, coming right up," and then the line went dead.

Paulina wiped furiously at her eyes before turning towards Kwan. He was watching the monitor with a kind of horrified, wide-eyed stare that almost made her look at it again. Almost.

"Come on," she said. "We have to go. Danny's heading to Dash right now and it's up to us to get Manson and Foley."

Kwan just blinked at the screen. A shudder seemed to wrack his body, his lips sinking into his teeth.

"Shake out of it, Kwan!" She grabbed him by the shoulders, rattling his head back and forth like a maraca. "There's nothing we can do for Dash right now. Manson and Foley are the priority."

He finally pulled his eyes away. They were wide, scared, but he quickly turned his head away and walked towards the door. "Let's go, then. If we stay here any longer I'm gonna lose my mind."

She raced after him, gun bumping uncomfortably against her thigh as she ran. "I couldn't agree more."

Manson and Foley, she thought. Here we come.


It'd been awhile since Danny had last seen the Lunch Lady, so it was a bit of a shock to run into her salivating as she choked one of his newfound friends against a wall.

Dash's eyes had begun to slip closed by the time Danny phased through the wall towards them, his ghost sense having drawn him to the Lunch Lady's presence.

He tried not to get angry at the sight of Dash's limp blond hair, his hands still struggling weakly with the Lunch Lady's inhuman grip, but it was hard. Especially not when Paulina and Kwan were somewhere, possibly in danger.

Possibly about to get themselves killed if they ran into another ghost.

So, Danny might've gone a little bit overboard. Who could blame him, right?

The concussive force of power exploding out of him took out an entire section of the GIW's wall, brick and mortar crumbling to reveal a sparse patch of Amity night sky. The Lunch Lady was knocked backward so hard he thought he saw a few of her ghostly teeth pop out, disappearing like fog when they hit the ground.

His breath chilled in the air as he zipped towards her, energy coating his palm as he rammed his hand through her chest.

Her eyes bulged as she looked up at him, glazed over from the collar around her neck but definitely still registering pain somewhere. He grimaced, hating that he had to do this. Loved it, for some twisted, horrible moment.

Loved the power thrumming in his veins as every atom in his body screamed protect protect protect, as his ghostly half gave a pleased, satisfied hum.

"Danny?" Dash's voice croaked from behind him, the sound jolting him out of his thoughts.

He jerked his hand out of the Lunch Lady's chest, watching as her eyes rolled up into her head and she slumped sideways. Her body faded from view.

Not vanished, then, just drained. She'd be fine after a couple of weeks kicking around in the Ghost Zone.

"Dash," Danny said, tearing across the air to the blonde's side. "Can you hear me? Don't move your head, I have to check you for a concussion."

Dash swatted his hands away, the gesture clumsy and without any real force behind it. "M'fine. Just—" he coughed, entire body wracking from the effort. "Knocked me 'round a little, is all."

Danny scoffed, running his gloved hands around the base of Dash's skull as he checked it for any unnatural bumps. "I'll be the judge of that. Paulina would never get off my tail if she found out I saved you only to let you die of natural causes."

"Ghost fist to the head is hardly—" he coughed again, "—natural causes."

"Supernatural, then." Danny pulled his hands away, checking the dilation of Dash's pupils with an ecto-flame on the end of his finger. "Luckily it looks like we won't have to worry about that. You're not concussed, as far as I can tell. Your football career can live to see another day."

Dash opened his mouth, probably to say something smug and snide, but Danny shoved his gloved hand over it. "Quiet. Your throat was almost crushed." He generated a chunk of ice in his palm, passing it to Dash's bruising fingers. "Hold this against your neck. We need to move and I don't want to jostle you anymore than have to."

"Move me—?" but before Dash could finish his thought, Danny had slid one arm beneath his bent knees and the other behind his head, lifting Dash off the ground in one smooth motion.

The other boy let out a kind of choked squeak that had Danny tilting his head at him in concern. "Dash? Did I do something? Is it your neck?"

"No," Dash's voice was muffled against the latex of Danny's suit where he was pressing his face against his shoulder. "Nothing. Fine."

Danny wished he could see his face. "You sure?"

Dash made another strange, cut-off sound. "Y-yeah. Fine."

"Alright, now hold tight." He hovered them off the ground, arms securing Dash to his chest. "I'm taking you back to the car. You aren't in any condition to fight right now."

Dash grumbled what was probably an insult under his breath, but Danny just shook his head and smiled. "Nope. You can't change my mind. A paper bag would be more helpful in a fight than you right now, and we already established what Paulina would do if you got hurt again."

Dash sighed, which Danny decided to take as grudging consent.

The last thing Danny saw as he phased them out through the building's roof was the blinking flash of the watching security camera, and he couldn't help but feel like they'd gotten off easy.

Idolon was testing them—testing him—and he had a feeling he wasn't going to like her version of a final exam.

This wasn't over yet, not by a long shot.


(A/N): Babooey yall, heres a chapter after i havent updated in over a year

i have literally no other explanation other than **life**, but life is gonna have to peel this fic from my cold, overworked hands before i ever abandon it

have a fantastic november everyone, i hoard your reviews like gold 33