Danny drifted slowly through the night sky, goggles in place over his eyes. He needed someone to talk to, someone who wouldn't be angry with him for waking them up this late. Someone who, like he, never slept.
He found her lounging in a booth at the Hot Pink Lizard, a karaoke bar in downtown Amity Park, lacking both mask and hat this time;suddenly, Danny knew exactly who she was. He landed in the seat across from her and banished the invisibility he had used to get in. She jumped slightly, then grinned. "Are you following me?"
"Yeah, pretty much," Danny answered casually. "I just wanted someone to talk to."
Electra looked at him for several seconds, then stood and held out her hand. "Come on. Let's away to a quieter atmosphere." He hesitated a moment before taking the proffered hand. Electra grinned impishly and the world went dark.
One of Technus' many attempts at world domination had involved entering a computer game to gain access to the World Wide Web. In order to defeat him, Danny had gone into the game as well. It had felt like being inside a bolt of lightning, only without the pain one would normally associate with such a location. That was the feeling he got now, of being a living electric conduit. Then the feeling vanished and the world returned.
"Yow!" He jerked back and looked around; they were standing underneath a lamp on the top level of a parking garage. "What the heck was that?"
Electra laughed and gestured at the lamp. "That's how I travel. Much more entertaining that just flying everywhere, even if I could."
"You mean you can't?" Danny asked, turning a puzzled look on her.
She shrugged and nodded. "Pretty much. I mean, I can, but only for a limited time. So!" She sat cross-legged on the roof of a car and put her chin on her fist. "What does a half-ghost want with a gremlin like me?"
Danny sighed and turned to look at the view. Now that he had a willing listener, he was finding it difficult to begin. "What's a gremlin?" he asked, more to put off actually telling her than because he cared.
"An electric ghost," Electra answered. Several minutes went by during which neither of them spoke. Finally, she joined Danny at the edge of the parking level. "You know, I really like up here. Especially at night, when all the lights are on over there." Danny nodded silently, and she gave him a searching look. "Come on, Phantom. You didn't come see me to make small talk about my electricity fetish. What's up?"
Danny sighed again and took a few more seconds to gather his courage. "Uh…um, say I…know a guy…who might have had something to do with the fire at the school," he began hesitantly. He paused, but Electra waited. "And…say he felt really bad that it happened 'cause he didn't mean for it to…" He trailed off again, and his companion turned to hoist herself onto the concrete wall that kept people from falling off the edge.
"Would…heh, 'your friend' happen to be feeling guilty about the explosion? Maybe thinking it was his fault?" Danny nodded silently. "Would 'your friend' happen to be you?" She held up a hand to forestall his denials. "Come on, ghost boy. I come from a long line of genius scientists. You can't fool me, even if that wasn't the oldest excuse in the book."
Danny looked at his feet; suddenly, he could smell smoke. She knows, whispered Pandora.
"Look," the ghost boy sighed. "Maybe this was a bad idea. I'm just going to go home."
"The explosion wasn't your fault, Phantom," Electra said. "These things happen. You can't predict the future."
She's taunting you, Pandora said. The smell of smoke grew stronger. She's waiting for you to turn your back. You can't trust her.
Danny backed away a few steps and glared. "You're planning on telling everyone, aren't you?" he demanded.
Electra tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. "Don't be so paranoid. I would never do that."
She's lying. She knows about me. Don't let her take me, Master. Pandora's mental voice sounded on the verge of panic.
Danny narrowed his eyes and jumped into the air. "Yes, you are!" he yelled. "You want to turn me in, so you can get Pandora's Box! I won't let you have her!" Green light surrounded his hand as he charged an ectoplasmic energy beam and fired it. At the last second, a very alarmed Electra vanished in blue smoke. Danny immediately went intangible just in time to avoid the expected blow from behind and turned.
Electra was back in her hat and mask; her eyes glowed like emerald suns, and the visible part of her face reflected disbelieving rage. "So this is how the half-ghost repays my hospitality? With accusations and aggression? You will rue the day you crossed Electra!"
She vanished again as Danny darted forward to swing his fist. "I stopped being impressed by threats a long time ago," he informed her.
Suddenly, a great roar signaled the simultaneous ignition of every single vehicle on the level. All the headlights came on, effectively blinding Danny; he could just barely make out Electra hanging in the air in the middle of it all. "Then maybe this will impress you!" she yelled. She threw her arm forward, and the nearest car to Danny rose up in the air and came hurtling towards him. He shot straight up and managed to miss getting hit only to have a second car plow into him from the other side. He went intangible just in time to avoid becoming a ghost boy sandwich as the second car smashed into a third.
If anyone other than the two combatants had been witness to the battle, they would have seen Electra standing on the ground, her head tilted back to watch her prey as she levitated car after truck after SUV and threw them at high speed toward the hapless half-ghost. Danny dodged, then went intangible and threw himself through the concrete floor to come back up right in front of Electra, fists first. He succeeded in knocking her into the air; a well placed kick threw her halfway across the level. The cars dropped to the ground with a glass-shattering crash.
Electra tried to pick herself up, but Danny slammed into her a second time. She vanished in blue smoke; Danny went intangible and whirled, but she was nowhere to be found. "Yeah!" he yelled. "You better run!" He spoke too soon. All the lights began pulsing brightly and exploded one by one; in short order, Danny was plunged into darkness.
When Electra reappeared, she was crackling with stolen electricity. "You better run," she mimicked menacingly as she raised her arm as though to point. Lighting arced toward Danny; he went intangible again, but it didn't help this time. Electricity is a form of energy, after all; even intangible, it was able to shock him. He screamed and fell to the floor. Although he retained consciousness, the blast was enough to disrupt his form and turn him human again. He vaguely registered Electra's surprised gasp as he tried to pull himself to his feet.
"I know you," she muttered. "So the ghost boy is…Listen, Phantom or Danny or whatever you want to be called. I don't like violence, so I'm going to let you off. Try that again, and I won't be so nice." She walked to the edge of the level and jumped off, leaving Danny alone.
You can't let her get away, Pandora said frantically.
The boy hauled himself to his feet and stumbled to the edge to see Electra strolling along the sidewalk below. He tried to change back into a ghost, but his powers appeared to have been shorted out for a while. It crossed his mind to wonder why Pandora didn't do something herself.
I thought you'd never ask, she replied in malicious joy. Below, Electra screamed as flames burst into life around her.
"No!" Danny yelled. He lunged forward instinctively, but caught himself before he fell. "Why?" he demanded. "Why, Pandora?"
We couldn't let her escape, Pandora said reasonably. It was necessary. Besides, she was a ghost. It isn't as though she can die again. Come home and recover, Master.
Breathing heavily and on the verge of tears, Danny stood where he was until the flames died down into smoke. Blue smoke. The boy sighed with relief as he realized that Electra had probably gotten away alright. So wrapped up in his own thoughts was he, that it didn't occur to him that the smoke should not have smelled that strong at that distance.
He walked the whole way home; although he was exhausted, trying to invoke his ghost form was almost painful. He was both grateful and vexed that he could no longer sleep. On the one hand, he wasn't going to pass out on the way home. On the other, it would have felt so good to do so. His body ached from the shock, and he knew it was going to hurt worse later when his muscles started to stiffen. It occurred to him that not feeling any pain would be a good wish, but that wouldn't make the actual injuries go away.
Electricity must have still been coursing through his ghost form because it shocked him again when he went intangible to get through the front door. Finally, however, he made it to his room and collapsed onto the bed. He sighed as he looked at the clock to see that it read 12:39. This was going to be a long night.
If Danny paid more attention in class, he might have known that sleep is a restorative condition that humans go into to recover from the rigors of the day. It is a chance for both body and mind to heal and rest so as to be ready for the new day. But Danny had been busy staring longingly at Paulina that day.
He tumbled out of bed to change clothes and spared a moment to be thankful that his ghost form had kept his human form from looking singed. Of course, that didn't help much with the chorus of agony his muscles sang every time he moved. He glanced at the clock to see that it had gone off at some point; he wasn't very concerned about it.
The clock in the hall read 3:19. Danny stared at it for some time before it finally clicked that the clock must have stopped. It did not occur to him yet that it had stopped at the same time he would have awakened had he not wished to never sleep. Although he didn't realize it, sleep deprivation was beginning to take its toll in the form of increased difficulty in focusing.
Danny rubbed his eyes as he stumbled into the kitchen and practically fell into his chair. Naturally enough, his mother was immediately at his side. "Danny, sweetie, are you feeling okay?" she asked. She put a hand on his forehead in the ages old method of checking someone's temperature. "You're awfully warm. Maybe you should go back to bed."
"Nah, I'm okay, mom," he objected, though not very convincingly.
Maddie shook her head and clicked her tongue. "Oh, no, young man. You eat breakfast, and then you march straight back to your room and go to bed."
Danny sighed and elected not to argue. Instead, he poked at his food with his fork, eating very little.
"Hey, look at this," Jack said suddenly. Although he did not usually read the paper at breakfast (or much at all) today was an exception. He had a suspicion that all the odd things happening in town were ghost related, and he wanted to know exactly what was going on. "There was a fire at the police station early this morning. They think it was the same arsonist that destroyed the school."
"Probably trying to stop the investigation," Jazz responded.
It was several seconds before Danny realized the implications of that. Without even bothering to excuse himself, he fled the table and took the stairs to his room two at a time. "Pandora," he said as he slammed the door behind him. "Tell me you didn't do that." He pulled the box from its hiding place, the better to address her.
Of course, not, she replied, sounding quite affronted. I would never do anything like that. Danny raised an eyebrow, and she amended, On purpose.
He sighed and relaxed against his bed. Things didn't add up. Rather, they did, but he didn't like the sum.
But that was ridiculous. Pandora was his friend. She would never lie to him. He shook his head as it crossed his mind that he was a pretty rotten friend for leaving her trapped in that box. He should open it.
Release me, she whispered. Release me, and I will give you everything. I will give you the world.
As though in a daze, he put his hand on the lock and made it intangible. He had just touched the lid with his other hand when the door opened. "Danny," Jazz said tentatively. "I just wanted…Is that the box from the museum?"
He shoved it angrily under his bed and stood. "Geeze, don't you ever knock?" he demanded. The sudden smell of smoke was lost on him.
"Danny, did you steal that?" Jazz asked, coming the rest of the way into his room. "Why?"
The boy ground his teeth. "Just butt out."
"I'm not going to do that. Danny, you haven't been yourself lately at all, and I'm worried."
"Well, stop worrying! I know what I'm doing!"
"I'm your big sister. It's my job to worry." She walked further into the room, worry inscribed in her every movement. "Danny, you need help."
He clenched his hands into fists and let his eyes turn green. "Leave me alone! Honestly, sometimes I wish you'd just disappear!" He gasped suddenly and clapped his hands over his mouth. "No! I didn't mean-"
Jazz gave a frightened squeal as she faded from sight. Behind her stood an apparition he had thought was only a nightmare.
"Your wish," Pandora said ominously, "is my command."
A/N: I would like to thank Kraven the Hunter for the end of this chapter. I'd been trying to figure out how to make that work pretty much since the prologue, then you mentioned someone close to him finding the box and everything just clicked into place.
ArcherofDarkness and Callie: I'm still debating whether or not to explain Electra in this story, but rest assured, you will find out eventually.
Faded Hope: He was basically wishing that he wouldn't have to sleep anymore. But, as you read earlier, sleep is necessary to rejuvinate the body. Without it, you experience irritability anddifficulty thinking. Some say paranoia, as well, but I think that's just a rumor. Also, exhaustion debilitates the mind's normal defenses against manipulation, making poor Danny an easy target for Pandora to exploit. As to the specific time, I'll go into that later.
Electric Ammo: "Your wish is my command" is a typical genie tagline; that's why it sounds similar. Although, Pandora isn't really a genie, she pretends to be one as part of her plot. And no, the similarity was not lost on me, although it was not intentional either. But it was necessary for the way the plot worked.