WoM- Wow… my last AN really got you guys up in arms! 'sweatdrops,' I've gotta break coming up soon, though, so I should get a lot more writing in. (Always says that, never does) Any who, here's the next chapter! I can't tell you how much longer this fic will last, but I smell an end coming up soon… probably not this month, but still pretty soon.
"Smartness runs in my family. When I went to school I was so smart my teacher was in my class for five years."
-George Burns
Scene 15
"Electra, do you know where Sammy is?" Mrs. Manson asked the starlet as she trailed into the kitchen. "We can't seem to find her anywhere."
"No, Mrs. Manson," Electra answered, raising an eyebrow. She honestly hadn't even noticed the girl was missing…
Mrs. Manson sighed irritably. "I hop she's not out and about with those boys again," She said, a sharp frown playing at her lips as she reached for the phone. "Really, if she keeps up like this, people are going to get the wrong impression about her…"
'Actually, that 'impression' is probably closer to the truth…' Electra thought with a dark smirk as she sat down to eat her breakfast.
"Hello?"
"Hello, Mrs. Fenton," Mrs. Manson said tightly, "Is Danny around? I need to speak to him about Sam,"
"Oh, yes, he just woke up…" Maddie said, her tone cheerful and polite, "Hang on a moment…"
"Hello?" Mrs. Manson frowned a little at the grogginess in the boy's tone. Obviously his mother hadn't been kidding, since he certainly sounded like he'd just dragged himself out of bed…
"Danny?" She said, a gloved hand brushing through her hair. "This is Sam's Mother."
"Mrs. Manson?" Danny said, sounding surprised.
"I was hoping you could tell me where my daughter is?" Mrs. Manson asked, ignoring that shock and getting straight to the point.
"Huh?" Danny frowned, sounding confused, "What are you talking about?"
"I know you at least have some idea where she is, Danny," Mrs. Manson said impatiently, "Whatever she's angry with me about now…"
"Sam isn't mad about anything," Danny told her, "At least, I don't think she is… she didn't sound mad when we talked yesterday morning." Mrs. Manson felt her heart skip a beat and her face drain of color.
"Is that the last time you spoke with her, Danny?" She asked, trying to keep her voice calm.
"Yeah," Danny confirm, the grogginess gone from his voice and sharp concern taking its place, "I asked if she wanted to go and visit Mandy's Aunt with me and Tuck and she said she couldn't go. Something about a trip to the mall with you and Electra… Mrs. Manson, has something happened?"
"What about your other friend, Tucker?" Mrs. Manson pressed on.
"He stayed the night over here," Danny verified, "We've got a project for school we're working on, and we needed the extra time. Why? What happened to Sam?"
"I… I don't know," Mrs. Manson confessed, "I woke up this morning and she wasn't here. I checked every room in the house, but couldn't find her anywhere… Did she run away again?" the woman honestly didn't know why she was asking her daughter's best friend/crush about this, but she felt she needed to talk to someone to distract her from the way her hands started to shake.
"Did you find a note?" Danny asked, his tone unusually serious for a child his age. Like he was someone used to taking control of situations gone awry…
"No," Mrs. Manson said, frowning and already starting back to double check her daughter's room. "At least, I don't think so…"
"Tucker and I are coming right over, Mrs. Manson," Danny said, his serious tone deepening, "We'll be there in ten minutes tops to look over everything. Don't touch anything until we get there," Mrs. Manson was a little alarmed and offended that a fourteen year old boy thought he had the right to order her around like that.
And yet strangely enough, she wouldn't allow herself to even consider disobeying him.
'He knows Sam,' She thought sadly, 'Sam tells him, and that Tucker boy, things that she'd never even consider letting us know. If anyone can find out what's happened to her, it's Danny…'
It was a little depressing, admitted that her daughter's friend knew her better then she, her own mother did. That was one of the reasons Mrs. Manson said so adamant about breaking them apart.
She was honestly a little envious that the boy meant so much to her daughter, that Sam was willing to tell him anything and everything even though she'd lock herself off from Mrs. Manson and her husband, no matter how they tried to reach her…
'She may not understand it,' Mrs. Manson though, her lips thinning, 'But I really do love her, and I won't let her get hurt if I can help it,' Mrs. Manson only hoped she could tell her daughter that before it was too late…
"…Well, she didn't run away," Danny announced with a sigh.
"You're certain?" Mrs. Manson asked anxiously from where she stood at the door, a mildly curious Electra standing behind her.
"Positive," Tucker confirmed as he exited his best friend's walk-in closet, "Her clothes and backpack are still here, and only one pair of her combat boots are missing."
"The ones she's wearing," Danny nodded, frowning around him absently. "That means she probably left here willingly, and she didn't expect to be gone long."
"Was she kidnapped then?" Mrs. Manson asked, her face getting even paler as vivid, terrifying thoughts of what her daughter could be put through at the hands of a kidnapper flashed through her mind.
"Of course not!" Tucker reassured her hastily, his posture tense, "I mean, let's face it, it'd take a lot of guys with some serious guts to kidnap a girl like Sam…" Mrs. Manson looked to Danny for further verification, to find him frowning at the Tim Burton themed calendar Sam had pinned up next to her computer.
"What's this?" He asked Mrs. Manson, pointing to a date on the calendar. Puzzled, Mrs. Manson approached to see what he was talking about. She saw he was pointing to the box for the day before, in which Sam had written in purple pen 'Meeting Midnight'
"Meeting at midnight?" Tucker read, blinking, "Meeting with who?"
"she didn't tell you?" Electra asked, sounding surprised. Danny turned to give her a sharp, suspicious glare.
"Tell us what?" He demanded in a tone what wasn't to be argued with. Electra flinched slightly when she heard it.
"…The girl," She answered at last, "There was a girl who attacked us two nights ago… she had a message for Phantom…" Danny's eyes widened and his face went deathly pale. In three seconds he'd crossed the room to grip Electra by the shoulders, glaring right into her eyes.
"What girl, Electra?" Danny demanded, "What message?"
"Something about a meeting in the Park at midnight," Electra answered, her eyes wide. She'd never seen Danny look so fierce… "The girl, Sparks, she said that if Phantom wanted to know what they were doing, he had to meet them there to talk. Just talk!" Danny scowled at that before turning abruptly and starting for the door at a brisk pace. Electra blinked in shock at he left, her face paling.
'His eyes…' She thought blankly as she watched him go, 'Did they just turn green right now?'
"Danny!" Tucker called out before taking off after the boy, shooting Electra a nervous glance, "Danny, wait up!"
'For a guy who just barely passed his Presidential Fitness Exam, he can sure move when he wants to…' Tucker thought dryly as he rushed to catch up with his friend.
"Danny!" the Tech geek panted when he finally caught up with the ghost boy as he stormed out the doors. His eyes went wide when a familiar ring circled the boy's waist. "Hold up, man, the cameras-!"
"See if I care!" Danny snapped, never once slowing his pace, "don't you get it, Tucker? She was kidnapped because of me! I have to find her before something happens!"
"Look, I'm worried to, but exposing yourself isn't gonna help Sam!" Tucker shouted back, glaring back at his best friend. Danny's look softened and his shoulders sagged in defeat.
"But… why didn't she just tell me?" Danny asked hopelessly. "Why did she try and meet them by herself?" Tucker sighed at the question.
'Clueless as always…' he thought in exasperation as he rolled his eyes. Instead of spelling it out for the ghost-boy (As tempting as the thought was to him since he was rapidly losing his patience with the who deal.) Tucker decided to name a few other points for him instead.
"She wanted to protect you, man," He said with a helpless shrug. "That's just the way Sam is. Once you're in trouble, she doesn't care about anything else, just making sure you get out okay."
"She could've at least told me something." Danny said, his frustration clear in his voice. "I could've stopped this whole time from happening!" Tucker shook his head.
"Come on." He said, putting a hand on Danny's shoulder in a comforting gesture. "Let's go to the park and see if we can find anything."
"No need,"
Both boys jumped in surprise at the new voice that entered the conversation, especially Danny, who was so worried about his missing friend that he hadn't even noticed when his ghost sence went off.
"Sparks?" Danny said, surprise written clearly in his face and voice before it twisted into rage, "What are you doing here? Where's Sam?"
"Ooh, did we hit a nerve when we took your little girlfriend?" Sparks asked, feigning surprise. Danny's eyes- Now glowing an iridescent green- narrowed in warning, which seemed to amuse the ghost girl. "Well, it's nice to know it had some benefit, even if it was unintentional."
"If you don't let her go right now…" Danny growled.
"Calm down, cutie," Sparks said, some of her amusement fading into annoyance, "Humans aren't anything to get so worked up over… anyways, I'm here to give you a message, since the humans around you seem even more incompetent then the average mortals…"
"Hey!" Tucker said, glaring at the ghost who still refused to so much as acknowledge him with a glance as she lazily shot a small stream of ecto-blast at the boys feet in warning. Tucker yelped and dived behind Danny for cover from further assault.
"Give me your message and go," Danny told her, his expression never wavering.
"Fair enough," Sparks shrugged casually, "Inferno wanted me to tell you that if you wanted your little human friend back, to meet him as Phantom on the grounds of your school. Since these humans seem so fascinated about knowing their fate before it happens, they have already been invited to join us as well."
"I'm not going to let you attack anyone," Danny snapped.
"Oh, don't worry," Sparks assured him, "We won't attack you if it can be helped. We don't want to have to fight you at all, Sweetie. You're one of us, after all,"
"What?" Danny said, startled.
"A ghost," Sparks explained. "Actually, you could prove to be the start of a whole new species of ghost hybrids. Can you imagine, Danny? Being responsible for an entire new race of beings?"
"I'm still having a hard time visualizing passing high school, and you want me to think about kids?" Danny asked incredulously, gaping at the girl.
'If this situation wasn't so hazardous, I'd die laughing right now…' Tucker agreed with his friend silently as he glanced over the half ghost's shoulders to see if Sparks was really serious.
"Why not?" Sparks shrugged, "Why let the human society rule you like that? You know you're not like them, Sweetie. What do you expect to do after High School, Hm? Get a job? Ignore your ghost half? You know you can't do that,"
"Maybe," Danny said, his eyes flashing defiantly, "But I also know I won't be like you guys,"
"We'll see about that," Sparks said, smirking at him. "See you tomorrow at seven, Sweetheart…" Danny scowled as she melted from sight, giggling slightly to herself.
"Well," Tucker said, blinking. "That wasn't normal… even by your standards."
"Let's go," Danny said quietly, walking away at a brisk pace.
"Huh?" Tucker blinked as he followed, "Go? Where?" The tech geek noticed the grim determination on his best friend's face as he answered the question.
"Jazz,"
Sam groaned as she roused from unconsciousness, her head throbbing painfully where the ghost had hit her and her wrists and ankles stinging from the bite of the rope they'd tided her up with.
'What the heck did they hit me with?' She wondered groggily as she sat up, 'A truck or something?'
"Awake, human?"
Sam jumped at the bemused voice, twisting around wildly until her eyes met the amused blue orbs of the ghost who was apparently her look out.
"What do you think?" Sam countered, glaring at him in rebelliously. The ghost raised an eyebrow at her.
"I think you've got quite a tongue on you for a girl who just managed to get herself captured," The ghost said mildly. "Sam, right?" Sam blinked, studying the ghost without answering.
He was older then her, around thirty-something if Sam had to guess, and his accent suggested he was from New York. He had long, silvery hair that was tied back into a neat ponytail at the base of his neck, trailing down the back of his robe to mid-back.
"Who the heck are you?" Sam asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Name's Fahrenheit," He responded casually. "I'm the new guy, so I got stuck here."
"Nice," Sam said sarcastically, folding her legs underneath her to sit on her knees, "Where is 'here' anyways?"
"Dunno…" Fahrenheit said, scratching his chin thoughtfully, "Some kind of warehouse, I think…" Sam rolled her eyes.
"I can see why they have you doing grunt work." She said with a pointed look.
"Hey!" Fahrenheit said, insult heavy in his voice, "Listen, lady, I'm just here for the kicks. Afterlife gets boring, y'know?"
"Oh, and I'm sure that boredom is a perfectly acceptable excuse to pay a part in the complete destruction of man-kind wherever your from." Sam said, rolling her eyes.
"People kill for less out there," Fahrenheit responded with a shrug. "Anyways, you might wanna make yourself comfortable, you're gonna be here a while,"
Doubt it," Sam said, glaring at the ghost before her gaze shifted to the window where she could see the sunlight streaming in.
'Danny will come for me,' She thought, closing her eyes, 'I know he will…'
WoM- See? Told you Sam was coming back in this chapter! Oh, and I'm also telling you right now that I have no idea where Fahrenheit came from… 'sweatdrops sheepishly,' Eh, well, it wouldn't be the first time a character snuck up on me…
Thank to- (Condensed)
ur1crazedupfruitloop, the sleep warrior, epobbp, Lumias, Gambet, IwuvMyKenshyPoo, Asilla, SquirrelGirl, Tetsukon, Lunaqua, Black Mage758, Anne Camp aka Obi-quiet, Rob Phantom, Just call me Crazy, The Sole Survivor, Light Dragon SunsSong, purpledog100, HoneySugarCreamandSpice, BratCat, littlekittykat, Horselvr4evr123, The Great Susinko, conan98002, Darth Frodo, Master of Procrastination, puppyface, kawaii chibi shun, Dark-Sephy, Samantha-Girl Scout, Spirit of Zurvan, enigmatic penguin, Kyuugi, phantomshadowdragon, Inumaru12, random-idiot-v2, AirGirl Phantom, Aiyanabell, Petitio Principii, Phantomhobbitses, Kagome lover
Next update; February 23rd
See you then!