Plasmius Terminus
It was raining that night as three friends made their way back from the movies. Their quick goodbyes were stifled by booming thunder, their young heads quickly becoming drenched as they sprinted their separate ways towards the comfort of their own homes. For one Danny Fenton, this meant the brick townhouse with the large, metallic Op Center and neon FentonWorks sign. He hurriedly unlocked the front door and dashed in so as to get out of the wind and rain.
"I'm back!" he called. Not hearing a reply, he glanced around the darkened house for a telltale source of light; he found one in the kitchen just as lightning flickered outside. He entered the kitchen and beheld the rest of his family seated around the kitchen table. He took a moment to analyze their facial expressions so as to try and figure out what was going on:
His father, Jack, was easiest to read. Tears were flowing freely down his pudgy face. He was clutching the telephone for dear life, and his lower lip was quivering faster than the Fenton Lie Detector that time when he'd hooked Danny up to it in order to try and figure out just what his son was doing after school. Luckily for Danny, his dad wasn't the most adept at analyzing the results of a lie detector. But that wasn't the issue at the moment.
His sister was more difficult to read than his dad. Jazz was staring at the ground morosely, looking as though she felt like she should be grieving, but wasn't quite sure whether or not she was able to. She nervously tapped the metallic table with her index fingernail in rhythm with Jack's whimpers. Tap, sniff, tap, sniff, tap, sniff, BOOM! They both jumped when their rhythm was suddenly broken by the thunder, but almost immediately resumed.
His mother was the most difficult. Her face was contorted in a way Danny had never seen before; it was a cross between bitter glee, shame at even feeling said glee, and an unnerving sense of insecurity. It was kind of scaring the fifteen-year-old.
"What happened?" he asked in a quiet voice. Nobody answered him.
"Guys?" Jazz snapped out of her reverie.
"Oh, hey Danny. How was your movie?" She asked weakly.
"What's going on, what happened?" he replied in a serious tone.
"I'd forgotten; you were out when we got the phone call."
"What happened, Jazz?"
"Vlad's dying," Maddie interrupted, startling both of the children. They saw a flash of lightning at the same time as they heard the thunder, and the lights in the kitchen flickered out, leaving the four Fentons sitting in complete darkness.