Whoa - I'm so sorry ppl! I couldn't get to the comp over the weekend to update earlier! But hey, I see more of you reviewed over the weekend too :) Thanks! Sorry I couldn't get this up earlier. I'll probably try to get the next chap up early to make up for this - despite what I said about me being nice one last time. More where I sign off!
And to those of you who guessed what the surprise was... well, I'm not gonna give it away - you'll have to read for yourself! But I can tell you that was close - quite, quite close indeed...
Chapter 4
"Wait! We don't have any idea where the generator room is!" Tucker pointed out hurriedly.
"No, we don't." Danny grinned slyly. "So we're gonna fly until we do!"
With that, he grabbed his two friends by the arm, made them both intangible, and flew up into the air.
They flew through the darkness – passing through the first wall.
"I should've realized sooner," Danny told them, then proceeded to explain. "Electra is surrounded by blue glowing electricity when she charges herself, so in a blackout like this, she shouldn't be hard to find – especially if we go flying all around at this speed." He finished just as they passed through the third wall.
A blinding flash of blue greeted them just as the words left his mouth, stinging their eyes, which by now had already grown slightly accustomed to the dark.
All three fell onto the floor in shock, landing with an uncomfortable thud as they rubbed their eyes and materialized again.
"You were saying?" Sam asked sarcastically.
Electra's laughter filled the air. She hadn't yet seen them. Danny noticed that she'd ripped off the whole generator's lid and was absorbing a crackling amount of energy from the huge container, her body glowing like before, but stronger now. It probably glowed like that when she gained power.
The generator lid had been flung violently into a doorway. That must've been the reason why the guy over the communicator had screamed, Danny guessed. No one else was about – everyone had probably fled at the sight of a ghost.
Electra chuckled again. "Soon, I shall be supplied with enough power to harm humans! Then the day of doom shall dawn for this little world! And they will pay for making me die a terrible death!"
Well, somebody had certainly been to crazy town. But this was no laughing matter. With a snarl, Danny flew up and punched her, catching her completely off guard.
She was thrown to the floor, and her connection with the generator was cut off. Sparks of electricity still flickered around her as she recovered.
Danny waited, hovering in the air as she groaned and rubbed her head.
Her ice-blue eyes flew open as she glared at him. "You." She growled.
"Electra," Danny grinned. "What a pleasant surprise." He whipped out the Fenton Thermos. "What's the matter? 'Shocked' to see me?"
She let out another growl, and fired a blast of electricity at him from her right hand.
Danny gasped as he saw the lightning-like bolt shoot toward him, but dodged it in time. It hit the wall behind him, causing an explosion.
"Tsk, tsk," He teased, unfazed. "Somebody's in a stormy mood."
Electra floated up to meet him, the blue hue around her glowing brightly once again. Now it was clear – not only was it when she was gaining power that it glowed – it glowed when she had a certain amount of power as well.
"Oh, trust me, that was only a little spring shower." She leered.
With that, she fired another bolt of lightning – a much larger one this time – which Danny expertly avoided. Slinging the Thermos over his shoulder, he swiftly fired an ectoplasmic beam at her.
It caught her right in the middle and sent her flying into the back wall.
She groaned as she lay dizzily on the floor.
"Say goodbye," Danny brought out the Fenton Thermos again as he flew closer to her, sure that she was now defenseless.
Which was exactly what Electra had cunningly been planning on.
The dazed look in her ice-blue eyes suddenly disappeared as they flashed menacingly. "Goodbye," She sneered as she whipped out her hand from behind and let a huge volt of electricity shoot out from her palm.
This time, Danny, who hadn't been expecting that at all, wasn't so fast. He dodged a second too late, and the bolt struck his right hand.
With a scream of pain, he dropped the Thermos and fell to the ground with a thud, clutching his arm. Two bright rings around him returned him to human form, indicating that he'd been badly hurt, though he remained conscious.
"Danny!" Tucker hollered, and rushed over. Sam, meanwhile, ran to the Thermos and picked it up.
Electra flew up, smirking down at the teenagers. "Well, that should teach you to meddle in my business, ghost boy. I don't have the power to shock humans yet, and now that I think about it, I doubt the electricity here is going to supply me with enough to do so. But as you now realize, though I can't do it to humans, I can do it to ghosts!"
"Then take your anger out in the ghost zone!" Sam yelled angrily before unscrewing the Thermos and aiming it at her.
There was a whining sound as it began to activate.
But it was too late. "Maybe when I'm done doing that to the human world, sweetheart. But thanks for the suggestion!" Electra snidely blew her a kiss before phasing through the ceiling.
"Grrr!" Sam growled in frustration as she capped the Thermos. "Great. That's just GREAT!" She whipped around to face Tucker.
"Tucker, do you think you can track her down on your PDA by the amount of energy she's giving off?"
"I don't know," Tucker said doubtfully, standing up from his position next to Danny and pulling out his PDA from the pocket of his green cargo pants. "But I could try. I've always been able to work wonders with this thing. Good thing it's battery operated." Sam caught his grin in the faint light that came from the blue sparks of electricity that were still constantly flying out from the generator that had been ripped open. Because of that, there was still sufficient light to see things vaguely, even though Electra and the glowing hue around her – that had helped in the short fight – had gone.
Sam nodded at Tucker. "Good. See to that." Her eyes then traveled to her other best friend on the floor. "And I'll tend to Danny."
"Right." Tucker moved away so she could take his place.
Sam sat down by Danny's side. "Here," she said gently. Let me have a look at that."
It was then that she realized that she was going to have difficulty examining it because of the dim light.
"It would help if we could get a little more light in here," she muttered.
Just as she said that, the generator made a loud whirring noise and the whole of Amity Park lighted up once more.
"Wow," Sam smiled. "I should've tried that sooner."
"Looks like the generator's got enough electricity to get things going now that Electra's not draining its power anymore," Danny grinned back.
"Hmm. No difference anyway." Tucker announced from nearby as he pressed away at the buttons of his PDA, absorbed even as he spoke. "My PDA has a lighted screen."
"Whatever," Sam rolled her eyes before turning her attention back to Danny's hand, frowning. It had no visible marks on it.
"Okay. What happened?"
"She hit me square on my wrist," Danny explained. "It hurt a lot at first, but now I can't feel a thing." He tried to move the lower half of his arm, but to no avail. "And I can't move it from the elbow down, either."
Sam took hold of his hand to get a closer look, and immediately realized how cold it was. "Danny, it's freezing!"
She frowned again, then wordlessly covered his hand with both of hers, letting the warmth flow to it. Then, slowly, slowly, Sam began to massage it, rubbing his fingers, flexing his wrist, moving the lower half of his arm for him, before repeating the whole process, concentration etched on her face and flashing in her violet eyes. She didn't even feel his gaze as it fixed on her.
Danny studied his best friend as she worked, took in the beautiful raven hair and those deep, sparkling violet eyes. She was indeed quite pretty...
Sam's massage was starting to work the numbness away. Bit by bit, he began to feel the warmth return to his hand, feel the life coursing through it once more. He twitched his fingers tentatively.
"Better?" Sam asked, looking up when she noticed the movement.
"Yeah," he replied, smiling gratefully. "Thanks."
"You're lucky it just hit your hand a little. It was a tiny electric shock," Sam told him. "Who knows what might've happened if the blast of electricity had hit you head on?"
Danny knew what she meant. Ghosts couldn't die. But since he was still mortal, there was a possibility that he could die – even when in ghost form. Had he not been alert, that bolt could've killed him. Sam was right. He was lucky.
"I know," he grinned, squeezing her hand reassuringly. It was then that it occurred to them that they were still holding each other's hands.
Both glanced down at their intertwined fingers. Surprised that she hadn't pulled her hand away from his yet, Sam blushed. So did Danny.
There was an uncomfortable moment as their eyes locked.
Sam stared into Danny's sky blue eyes. They were so intense, so mesmerizing...
Danny's face was just inches away from hers. Then she noticed he was slowly bringing it closer. Dimly, she realized that she had also started to lean in...
Closer, and closer... their lips were almost touching...
"Sorry guys, there's no – WHOA!" Tucker, who'd gotten so absorbed in his PDA he hadn't even noticed what was going on, realized that he'd looked up at the exact wrong moment a second too late.
Sam and Danny jumped, snapping out of it immediately, heads jerking up at the sound of his voice.
"Hey, if you two need a little privacy you can just say so!" Tucker folded his arms indignantly.
"No, it – it's alright," Sam frantically scrambled up, cheeks reddening deeply as she smoothed her skirt. "We were... just about done anyway,"
"Uh... yeah! Yeah, we were." Danny, blushing scarlet himself, also got to his feet. "And who said anything about needing privacy?" He laughed nervously.
The two cast a nervous glance at each other, then quickly looked away, both at the same time, reddening even further.
Tucker raised an eyebrow at them, clearly in disbelief. "Oooo-kay..."
"So, uh... did you manage to find her?" Sam interrupted, changing the subject with relief.
"Oh, yeah." Tucker looked down at his PDA. "As I was saying, there's no signal – or, more accurately, I can't pick it up. Strangely, there seems to be a huge amount of electrical energy in the air now, and that's hindering the tracking."
Danny sighed. "Oh well, never mind, we'll just have to wait for her to strike again and get her then." He gulped, his thoughts returning to the incident that had happened earlier at home. "Now to go home and face my parents."
Aaahh! They were so close! (Grins) Told you I'd get meaner. XD And yes, that was the surprise I was talking about.
The reason for the electrical energy in the air will be revealed in the next chapter, not to mention the showdown with the parents! I would want to update a week later but I think I have to do something to make up for not doing so the last round, so I'll TRY to get chapter 5 up by Saturday!
HOWEVER, you guys need to be patient for the next few chapters after that because I'm not done typing, and I'm really busy, so be prepared to wait 3-4 weeks. Don't worry though, I won't discontinue it - I've handwritten the whole thing and really like it so I 'll definitely finish it somehow.
Spiffy McFloogan: Okay, good luck with your one-shot and let me know when you're done so I can go check it out when I have the time!
cakreut12: Well, hoped you liked it! your guess came quite close, like I said before :) Oh, and yes, you reviewed it already. But hey, thanks! You added to my review count :P
Riverfox237: Hm... after awhile I realized this wasn't much action compared to the second last chapter (Spoiler! Lol) but hope you liked it anyway! Regarding 3Ms in ME, Deeksha decided to extend her chapter, she's almost done typing so I'll try to get it up at the same time as the next chapter for Sparks.
Guinivere Sage: Same thing I said to Riverfox, but hey, glad you liked the Fluff! And the power station scene - especially since I have to TRY to be funny.
sam manson rulez: Yup, I went back on Friday. Also a little yester day. Those DP outtakes were AWESOME!
Stephanie: Oh wow! You really think so? Girl, you've just made my day!
Thanks also to Carry, Alicia B, and Jacie for reviewing! Keep 'em coming you guys!
-FBG