The quiet hum of machinery that emanated from the basement was an almost welcome defense against the uncomfortable silence of the kitchen. Jazz peeked over the top of a book to watch her brother with worried eyes. He had been doing so well for a while, but the past few days had been bad. Now, he sat with his head in his hand, poking at his cereal as though he had forgotten what it was for. Or even that it was there. He stared at the table listlessly, lost in thought. "Danny?" she began.
His only response was to lift his eyebrows ever so slightly and make a quiet noise in the back of his throat.
"Are you okay?"
She thought he wasn't going to answer, but finally he sighed and turned to face her. "Just nightmares," he said quietly.
"About Silver?"
"When are they not?" He sighed again and dropped his spoon in the bowl. "I dreamt she was back."
Jazz covered his hand comfortingly. "Danny, Silver's dead," she reminded him.
"I know!" he exclaimed, lunging back from the table to pace. "She's dead. But me and you both know being dead doesn't mean you're gone."
"If she had really become a ghost, wouldn't you have sensed it?"
Danny shrugged helplessly. "I don't know. I've never actually been there when someone died before. And…" He trailed off, unsure how to explain that Silver might be in her astral form without confessing that his friend Kat was one, too. The overdramatic thespian liked to be mysterious, so Danny had continued to let his friends and sister think she was just a weird kind of ghost. And, in a way, that's exactly what she was.
He ignored Jazz's prompting to complete his thought and sat down again. He didn't want to think; thinking was painful. Although he never thought he would see the day, he was actually looking forward to school. It would help to distract him.
Well, theoretically, it would help distract him. Sadly, the actual practice didn't work out as planned. Even Dash's ridicule couldn't get through his mood. Part of that was the constant buzzing in his head; the sound, so like dozens of people crying for help, had drowned out almost everything else. Most, however, was the voice that whispered behind the crying. He couldn't make out the words, and he was glad for it.
When lunch rolled around, he still had no appetite. He picked at it the same way he had breakfast, not paying much attention until Tucker asked, "Are you going to eat that?"
Danny smiled ever so slightly and shoved his tray toward his friend.
"I don't know why you'd want to," Sam remarked. "It's not like the food's that good."
"Hey, I'm hungry!" Tucker defended himself.
They had not yet asked if he okay, for which he was very grateful. It was all he had heard from Jazz the past few days, and he was getting sick of it. "It's not that," he interjected quietly. "He's just trying to get out of fifth period."
Sam laughed as Tucker motioned him to be quiet. "You better be careful trying that. They might send you to the nurse's office." The boy gave an exaggerated shudder and pushed the tray to the edge of the table.
Danny dropped out of the conversation, then, disturbed by the turn the whispering in his mind had taken. He was afraid it was Silver's voice, and she sounded almost jealous. He excused himself to his friends and went down the hall to the bathroom. After several minutes of trying to make the mental "white noise" go away, he glanced into the mirror and gasped.
The…apparition looked as though something had been nibbling on him. He wore a floppy hat that obscured his eyes. An upturned nose, reminiscent of a pig's, sat above a gaping, too-large mouth filled with razor teeth. What wrinkled, parchment-yellow skin he could see sagged as though the man had once been grotesquely fat, and had lost too much weight too quickly. Likewise, torn and filthy rags hung around his skeletal frame. "Ssso…hungry…" Darwin whispered harshly.
Danny whirled to face him, but there was no one there. Reasonably shaken, he started to leave and froze. If there was one malefactor invading the school…
As if on cue, someone screamed. "I'm going ghost!" the boy yelled out of habit as he summoned his alter ego and flew through the wall. Panicked students ran around at random, screaming and crying at the somewhat confused looking horde of monsters. Although they looked different than the ones from Baltimore, there was no mistaking that "warthog crossed with The Hulk" look. "Everybody, that way!" he yelled, pointing away from the cafeteria. Once everyone was out of the way, the creatures were easily defeated.
"Danny!" Tucker called quietly from where he and Sam had ducked into the girl's bathroom. From the sounds of frightened gibberish coming from within, he wasn't the only boy there.
"What were those things?" Sam asked.
"Gorgers," Danny answered shortly. "They're pretty stupid, and they live to eat. But if they're here, the others can't be far behind. Find Jazz and get everyone out of here. I've got to warn Mom and Dad." He barely waited for their nod of agreement before flying away. After a quick circuit to make sure there were no others in the school, he headed home.
It was almost a shock to see the city still intact. Logically, the game had only just begun, but logic didn't usually apply to malefactors. Still, he should have known they wouldn't be able to do that much damage that quickly. In fact, why were they already attacking? It was morning; most malefactors couldn't stand the light.
Sadly, a few of them could. He swooped down to rescue a few people from another horde of gorgers and told them to go home and stay there. They seemed to comply, but he didn't follow them to make sure. That was one good thing about the attack happening in Amity Park, at least. Most people were used to ghosts attacking and were more than willing to listen to town hero Danny Phantom. In Baltimore, the few people he had encountered had run from him, terrified.
Not bothering to change back, Danny shot through the wall of the kitchen and into the basement. "Jack!" he yelled. "Maddie! Where are you guys?"
Bright laughter echoed through his head. I'm so bored, amante,Silver whispered. I want to play with you.
The boy froze. "What have you done with them?" he asked in a low and dangerous voice.
What makes you think I've done anything? she laughed.
"Because whenever someone goes missing around you, it's usually your fault."
You wound me, amante. But you're close to right. I want you all for myself.
"Get out of my head," Danny snarled.
It felt like chains had wrapped themselves around him. In his mind, he saw her, eyes half-closed and a soft smile on her face. Never again, my love.
"When you take a life, you make it part of you," Killjoy had said, and Silver before him. Danny had taken her life, and now…
He squashed down the sudden feeling of panic and glanced around. Kat was an astral projection, but most ghost hunting equipment still worked on her. At least, it did when she didn't force it to malfunction. Theoretically, Silver would be the same way.
The Fenton Ghost Catcher was meant to expel all ghostly influences from the body. True that it would probably separate his human and ghost halves again, but that was easily remedied. As long as it got rid of Silver, too, he didn't much care. With reckless abandon born of terror, he flung himself through the glowing web.
There was a moment when he felt like he was being ripped in half, but he was expecting that. That was, essentially, what was happening, after all. Then the moment was over, and he was looking up at himself. "Where is she?" he asked, staggering to his feet.
His ghost half gave him a small smile just before he was flung against the wall by an invisible hand. "I'm here, amante," she said in his voice. I'm always here.
Danny struggled against the invisible bonds and tried to use his own telekinesis against her, but it seemed to have vanished. It had only been her power, after all, and the other two, as well. "Get…out of there!" he demanded.
Never again, I said. "Once I've dealt with the competition, you'll be all mine." She strode forward, the very picture of smug egotism, to plant her (HIS!) lips against Danny's. "Good night, chico…" she whispered. He was too stunned and alarmed to fight off the suggestion, and the world faded away.