I dunno why I'm doing this; I guess I'm impatient. 4 review, well, they were all loverly ones. Some nice D/V, S/T, and D/J interaction is in here. And when I ask for theories, it doesn't mean you have to make some. It's just encouragement, kay?
Camaraderie
"He's not here." Valerie flew up next to the ghost, on her edge. This ghost was… different. He had defeated her last night and she didn't even remember how.
"No, he's here," Phantom said while he searched for the ghost that had started this whole scene. "I can feel it…"
After that, the only thing she registered was the pain. The feeling of something trying to push her deep within herself overwhelmed her. Then…
"Val… wake up… okay?"
The first thing she remembered feeling was the air going into her chest. Next came the pain every breath seemed to cause. Valerie's eyes fluttered open and stared up at the afternoon sun, unprotected by her visor. She winced into the light, and focused on trying to hear more than just pieces of the voice next to her.
"You're awake. How are you feeling?" White hair fell inches from her face and ghost green eyes bore into hers. At least the sun wasn't burning her retinas anymore. "You didn't fall very far," he said, leaning back out of her sight. "But you did land front first. I bet it must have hurt."
"Maybe," she rasped. It was hard for her to find her voice, as though her mind didn't have a hold on her vocal chords anymore.
She pushed herself up slowly with her elbows, her upper body throbbing slightly. The severity of the soreness was beginning to dissipate, Valerie realized. Already she felt as if she could attempt standing without falling over again.
The ghost kid put a hand on her shoulder and pushed her back down in a sitting position when she tried to stand. He wasn't very bright, this ghost, was he? "I'm not your enemy right now," she growled, turning to face him, "but unless you want me to fire at you, you'll take your hands…." The words were taken from her mouth when she finally focused on the ghost boy that she was yelling at.
He sat there with his legs curled up, floating a few inches from the concrete road, staring at her with wide and frightened eyes. She knew her threat hadn't scared him that badly, especially since she hadn't even finished it. In fact, he was looking so intently at her that he may as well be looking at something far away.
"What?" she asked.
The word seemed to bring him back to their plane. He blinked and made eye contact with her again. "Sorry," he said. He reached behind him and pulled out a mass of red material. "Here."
Valerie's eyes grew wide and she ran a hand over her face. She'd known her mask wasn't on, but it didn't seem to register fully. "Give me that!" she screamed, snatching it from his hands and pulling it over her face, clasping the back of it to her bodysuit. Had anyone seen? Looking around, she found that the street was full of people. None of them, however, seemed to be paying any attention to her or Danny Phantom. She spotted the Fentons tending to the people she had seen fighting them before, and a few news cameras located around the area.
Boy, was he lucky that no one had apparently seen her. "Do not ever take off my mask again," she warned. "You already gave away my identity to my Dad. Don't make matters worse for yourself."
"I sort of had to see if you were dead or not," Phantom retorted with sarcasm. "Sorry for worrying about your safety. It'd be pretty bad if you became a ghost while fighting the one you hate the most, huh?"
Valerie was about to respond by pulling a gun from her backpack, but she stopped short. "I wasn't fighting you," she said. "I was helping you look for Cyrus when… uh…." She paused when he pointed down at the large redglob on the front of his suit, blocking out half of the emblem on his torso. It had come from her very own weapon.
What had happened to her? She couldn't even remember. No way had she turned her gun on Phantom while they were searching for someone who was, at the moment,higher on the priority list. Unless he had done something really stupid, of course, but she would've remembered that. "What happened to me?" she asked slowly. "What happened to everyone else?"
The Phantom sighed and hung his head low. "I'm not sure," he said. "That ghost… he did something to you. He did something to everyone, but I don't know how, or even why yet. All I know is that he did it."
"Did what?" His vagueness only succeeded in making her even more confused.
He rested his feet on the ground and stood up fully. It was the first time they'd ever stood this close without Valerie trying to aim at his head through a target. She realized that the ghost was a little shorter than her, and lanky, like an average fourteen-year-old kid. Not for the first time, a guilty part of her mind took note of his more positive features. He seemed so innocent when he was like this.
Another, much more sensible, part of her mind laughed darkly. Innocent. Right.
Phantom stole a look to the left, where the mass of humans was congregated and a smaller group was walking toward them, camera in tow. "Can we finish this somewhere less public?" he asked, jumping back into the air and soaring away.
Valerie looked frantically from the reporters to the fleeing ghost, and decided the media wasn't going to be her friend right now. She grabbed her fallen weapon and hover board, activated it, and took off after her temporary brother in arms.
Luckily, he didn't fly far. He simply turned into the next available alleyway and settled there, sitting on the railing of one of the fire escapes. He crossed his legs and put his chin in his hands when Valerie arrived in front of him, stationing her board in the air and sitting down in front of him as well, arms crossed over her chest. "So are you going to tell me what happened to me or not?"
"Fine, fine, calm down," he said. "Jeez, you know, you should take some anger manage- …" Valerie lifted the hand that held the gun slightly and he stopped talking immediately.
"Okay, here's what happened. Cyrus appeared out of nowhere and threw you off of your hover board. When you started falling… I think he stopped you from falling without touching you. Then you screamed for a while, but then you got really quiet. I figure he did to you what he did to the others." He closed his eyes and shivered slightly. "Then you started shooting at me. You hit me with some purple net thing, and when I was down on the ground totally helpless, Cyrus just disappeared. Whatever he had done to you and the rest of people must've worn off because you fell down then, and you would've hit me if tuh —" The Phantom held a fist to his mouth and started coughing violently.
"Uh… you okay there?" Valerie asked hesitantly. Not only did she not know ghosts could cough or get sick, but she felt seriously uncomfortable with asking if he was healthy.
He nodded. "Sorry about that," he said. "Anyway, if I hadn't gotten the net off you'd have landed on me."
Part of Valerie stomped in frustration. If he hadn't gotten the net off… But hearing that her body had been controlled by a ghost was infuriating, especially if it meant she was dangerous to people she wasn't supposed to be dangerous to. "How do you think he did it?"
The ghost shrugged. "I don't know. Well, I have an idea, but I forget what to call it. What does it mean when you can move things with your mind?"
"Telekinetic, you mean?"
"Yeah, that." Danny leaned forward, happy that Valerie was being civil with him. "It's not strange for ghosts to be able to control the movement of regular objects, but its usually limited, and I've never seen a ghost keep a human in place before without some kind of bond." As he spoke, a few extra pieces seemed to slip into place. He reached around behind his head and rubbed the base of his neck absentmindedly. "Cyrus is definitely powerful. I admit… I don't have a clue as to what exactly he did to you humans. Or why."
"You know, other than almost letting your name slip, he can sure act well."
From above the space where the two ghost hunters were talking, Sam and Tucker hung their heads over to listen. As long as Valerie didn't decide to take a leisurely look up at the blue sky, they were safe from being seen.
Tucker nodded thoughtfully at what Sam said. "It's a good thing, too, otherwise Val would guess something was up by now. Not that it was too hard to figure out he's telekinetic," he added. Sam raised a brow at him. "What? I'm just being honest."
"Ugh, can you hear what they're saying?" Sam chanced bending more of her body over the edge of the building, but Tucker caught her around her collar and pulled her back. "You're stretching my shirt out, Tuck," she complained, wrenching away from him. "I'm just trying to keep up with what's going on."
"Well, stop it." Tucker walked away from the edge and leaned against a generator. "Danny said to stay out of sight, so I'm staying out of sight."
Sam rolled her eyes, but then froze. She looked at Tucker cautiously and asked, "Are… are you being sensible?"
That deserveda moment of thought. "Usually only one of us is the sensible one," he said, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "It's usually you, but hey, I get my shining moment sometimes."
She averted her eyes and sat on the edge of the barrier. "I guess I'm just shaken up by what happened earlier," she murmured, biting her lip in her nervous fashion.
"You mean that fight you had at the Nasty Burger?" Tucker suggested.
"Yes, Tucker, the stupid teenage fight I had with Danny," she said sarcastically. "Because petty high school spats are way more traumatic than having my body controlled by some freaky bald ghost."
"You sure you're okay after that?" Tucker asked. He looked at her with concern. Sam scoffed, but he knew it was just a Sam thing. Hadn't she just said the words 'way more traumatic'? It was hard not to tell that she was still bothered by it. Plus, there were the bruises she'd gotten when Tucker tried to pull her and two little kids up a fire escape. That escapadewas a nightmare.
"I'm fine," she grumbled. She turned her head to look down at Danny and Valerie with a mysterious frown on her face. "I'm surprised that she hasn't even tried to blow his head off since last night. Then again, she'd not an idiot, is she?"
Tucker rolled his eyes. How many times had he heard someone say that lately? "No, Sam, she is not an idiot."
"I mean, at least she's serious about it," she continued, not moving her eyes from the spot below her. "Sure, she still probably wants revenge on him, but she can rationalize. Right?" She turned back to her silent friend. "Right?"
Nodding, Tucker smiled slyly. "What are you thinking, Sam?"
"Nothing…." Sam turned her head back to the alley. "Just that… whoa, wait. Rewind a couple of minutes. How did you find out about the Nasty Burger?"
"Danny told me… oh, was I not supposed to tell you?" Tucker tried to remember the conversation he'd had with Danny before getting Sam's call, and couldn't recall Danny telling him to keep it on the down low.
"Well, no, I just didn't figure he'd tell you about it." She pulled her feet over onto the edge as well and held her legs close to her body. "I think it's just so stupid, what he said about it."
Tucker smiled. He figured that he knew why Sam was even more aggressive with keeping Valerie at a distance than even he was. It was such a girl thing. He knew this even though the only experience he'd ever had with girls had been her and Valerie. "Look, Danny knows what he's doing." He walked back next to her and looked down at the two. "He's not going to let anything get to him, especially that. There's no reason to be jealous."
"That's what I told him," she sighed. "He wouldn't listen to me."
Wait… what? He was confused now. "Um, are we talking about the same fight?"
Sam turned to face him, looking just as puzzled. "What are you talking about, then?" Her hair flew forward into her face and Tucker's beret slid to the side from a violent rush of wind. They looked up and saw the bottom of Valerie's hover board flying up and away from them.
"Well that was definitely interesting," said Danny from behind them.
Tucker looked back down and saw Danny floating up slowly, smiling to himself. His eyes landed on Sam and he hovered over her, looking at her closely. "Danny, the only thing allowed this close to my face is my hand," she said, squirming underneath his gaze.
"You are definitely okay?" he asked again.
"What, you didn't make sure of that before Valerie came to?" she asked. "I'm not great, but I am okay."
Danny floated back over the roof and two rings of light appeared around his waistline. When he landed, the last traces of ghost left his body. He grasped a bit of his shirt and sighed. "That gunk was really starting to get annoying."
"Save it. Fill us in on what was so interesting about your little chat," Tucker said, sliding down to the floor and looking up expectantly.
Danny nodded, but he held up a hand. "First I need to ask Sam something."
"God, Danny, I already told you I'm –"
"No, I'm not going to ask if you're okay," he said, moving his patience hand to her. "It's important though." He dropped down to the floor on his knees, one propped up un a kneeling position. He continued studying her intently until the laughter that Tucker couldn't contain anymore erupted. The images that his position sent through his mind were too hilarious to bear.
"What?" they asked, confusion written in their knit brows.
Tucker took in a deep breath and composed himself. "Nothing. Just... just continue, please."
The two looked back to each other and shared a shrug. "Whatever," Danny said. "Are you sure you can't remember anything about what happened to you?" Sam nodded vigorously. "No, I mean, was there anything… different about it this time than last time?"
"I… I don't think so," she said. Was there anything different? Why, exactly, was he asking her?
"Because last night," he persisted, "whatever he had tried to do didn't work. This time, he did it again, with a lot more people, and for the most part it worked on you. Can you tell me if it felt stronger, or anything?"
Sam leaned back, her hands supporting her from falling off the edge. She forced her mind to review everything from when she was walking down the sidewalk to when she opened her eyes to see Tucker. There was something there… some empty, black space that didn't seem to take up and time of her life, but it was there. "I think," she said slowly. "I'm not a hundred percent sure. It wasn't more powerful than last night, but it was different." Her hair fell in her face as she looked down. "I can't describe it very well."
Danny stood up and put a hand on her shoulder. Tucker moved closer to her as well, leaning forward to peak through her hair. "Come on, Sam," he said, "it's cool. Cheer up, Gothic kid."
A sharp pain in his upper arm resulted from that comment. "Don't say that to me again, and I will."
"See?" Tucker said, smiling and rubbing his arm. "She's okay."
What a freak, Sam thought, but inwardly she was grateful. Humor was just how Tucker handled things. She looked up to Danny again. "So what exactly did you and Valerie talk about?"
Danny blew out loudly and reached behind his neck. It was easily recognizable as a stalling reflex he'd picked up a while ago, something he did when he was nervous or thinking. "I didn't tell her too much," he confessed. "Just enough to get some insight. She's totally focused on finding out his weakness, but we couldn't think of one right now."
"Do you think keeping her in the dark is such a good idea?" Tucker asked.
"No," Danny said. "But I'm in the dark, as well, and the rest of my ideas are all just stupid theories." Angrily, he kicked at a pile of dead leaves that had made their way to the rooftop. "He got away, too. He's going to come back and I'm not going to know how to beat him."
Something wasn't right about the way Danny was handling this situation. It hadn't even been a day and there were already two fights with him, but they'd been faced with a lot more serious situations. As much as Tucker wanted to ask what was going on inside of his friend's mind, he didn't think now would be the best time. Danny needed more time to cool off some of his adrenaline, and Sam wasn't in much of a state to hang around any more.
It was weird. Sam, no matter how good she thought she was at hiding it, was definitely put off by Cyrus's attack. They were all confused, but Sam was always trying to avoid describing it and having people worry over her. He'd have to ask her about that, later, too. That, and what she thought he was talking about earlier.
"It's okay, Danny," Sam said, breaking the silence. "I guess I just want to go home. And I think that you should get back to your parents, too. They've got to be wondering where you are, if they saw me and Tucker out there. Plus, you should fill in Jazz."
Danny took a moment to consider, but nodded. "Yeah, you should probably relax, huh?"
"All I need is to listen to my Morbid Anti-Social Youth CD and I'll be fine," Sam said, standing up and dusting off the back of her skirt.
"I thought your parents took that way from you after Danny got it," Tucker wondered out loud. He stood up as well and walked over to Danny.
Sam laughed darkly. "As if I wasn't smart enough to burn it to my computer." The two wrapped their hands around each of Danny's arms as he changed back into ghost form, each of them with different, dark thoughts plaguing their minds.
Tucker's just happened to be the least grave.
This was going to get seriously annoying after a while.
If all Jazz was going to be able to do when something like this happened was sit on the couch, watch the television and bite her nails hoping for a glimpse of Danny, then she was going to have to confront her brother about her part. Ghost hunting wasn't a major importance in her future plans, nor did she want it to be. It was, unfortunately, the biggest part of her family's lives.
It was easy to hold back the impressions of ghost fighting when it was just her parents. It was normal for her to oppose the bonds of family at her age, despite her maturity. Then she found out about Danny, and ever since then she'd felt herself being sucked in to her parents' world. For the most part, she'd accepted it. Now that it was totally obvious that ghosts existed there wasn't much room left for her to argue, was there? Darn it.
She heard the door open in the entrance hall. She jumped up to meet whoever it was that entered, hoping that it might be Danny.
It wasn't. Maddie opened the door, followed shortly by Jack. Jack had a small piece of bandage tape on his chin, and both looked tired and confused.
"What happened?" Jazz asked, taking some of the weapons in her mother's hands from her and following them both into the basement
"A ghost attack on North Gresham and Kingston Drive, downtown," Jack said, making his way toward the weapons cases. It was where they kept frequently used weapons so they didn't have to deal with going all the way to the weapons vault everytime a ghost attacked. "At least, that's what the reports said."
"Our readings said that there were two ghosts in the vicinity," Maddie continued, "but the only one we saw was the ghost kid. Other than that, it was just humans." She placed the last of her guns into its placed and pushed down the door, pressing the automatic lock. "At first, we thought they were possessed, but they weren't showing up on the ghost detector."
"Can ghosts in human bodies be detected on that?" Jazz asked.
Her mother nodded, taking off her blue hood. "Usually, yes. But all at one moment, the people collapsed and seemed to go back to normal. None of them could remember anything about it."
"Loss of memory is a sign of being possessed," Jack countered, walking up behind her. "I should know. I was a meat puppet," he growled, suddenly looking very surly.
Maddie nodded, but didn't seem to think that it was news. "I know, Jack, but something was strange about that whole thing." She ran a finger through her hair and sighed. "Is Danny home yet?"
Where was he now, anyway? Usually he'd get home well before his parents would from a fight. Was he hurt? "He called earlier," she lied. "He, Sam, and Tucker were at the park."
"Really?" she asked. The tone of her voice was suspicious, and Jazz felt her face heat up. "That's funny… we thought we saw Tucker and Sam at the battle scene."
So they were there! The only thing left to be answered was if they were hurt or not.
Maddie furrowed her brows and seemed to be considering her memories. "It must have been someone else. We didn't see them after everyone returned to normal."
"Okay, well, good luck with figuring out what happened," Jazz said, smiling enthusiastically. "I have to go upstairs and read. Call me when dinner's ready." She turned tail and raced upstairs, turning corners sharply until she reached her bedroom. She shut the door behind her and sighed, relieved. "You're okay."
Danny's eyes popped open and he sat up straight. He had been lying on her bed, knowing she'd bother him until he told her about everything, and waiting for her to enter."How come you get all the good pillows?"
"Come on Danny, spill," she said. "Mom and Dad are downstairs, totally stumped about what happened. Do you have any clue what went on? Was there really a ghost? Sam and Tucker were there, weren't they? Did either of them get hurt?"
"Whoa, Jazz, slow down," he said. "Lay off the all-nighters and caffeine. Only you would stay up during the summer to study."
"It's my senior year, thank you very much," Jazz retorted, "and, fine. What happened today?"
Danny leaned back on the bed and closed his eyes again, seeming very quiet and peaceful amidst all the stuffed animals and light colors. "Well, Sam's dad woke me up by yelling in my face about being –"
"Danny. Seriously."
He smirked to himself but kept his eyes closed. "Fine, I'll tell you. There was a ghost, and his name's Cyrus. I'm not sure what he did, but a lot of people seemed to be under his control. We figure thathe's telekinetic, or something."
"You mean Sam and Tucker?"
"Yeah, them," Danny said quickly. Jazz raised an eyebrow. "Sam and Tucker were helping me out, trying to keep the crowd under control, but when they saw my parents they ran away so they wouldn't be caught. Neither of them got hurt badly."
"Badly?" Jazz repeated, worry meter rising.
"I mean, they weren't hurt," he corrected. His face contorted as a yawn escaped his lips. "I'm pretty beat. I didn't get much sleep last night at Sam's, and then this whole thing. I'll be taking a nap." He disappeared from her sight, and she jumped. She still wasn't fully used to his invisibility. When his voice filled the room, it was more shocking. "Tell Mom and Dad I'm home so that they don't freak out and think I'm doing anything inappropriate again, will you?"
"Sure," she said, smiling to herself. "But you're not telling the truth, Danny. At least not all of it, I can tell."
When no one answered her, she shrugged and shook her head slowly. Whenever Danny decided to fully trust her would be a great day, indeed. She reached for her AP Calculus textbook and opened it up halfway, beginning to read.
I wrote this in one day. I find that I'm getting better at writing chapters, including the details and such. Would anyone object to me, at some point, going back and rewriting Cold As Ice? Not all of it, just adding and subtracting here and there. Also, if Mind Over Matter becomes a four-part series…? I'm sorry it just keeps filling up!
See you in the afterlife,
Saramis Kismet