Alex thought about what he had just heard Danny and Sam talking about. Was there something wrong with him? Was it abnormal to be capable of being utterly ruthless? Maybe for a normal person, he thought, but necromancers were not normal people. He was raised to be a Lord of the Dead. Raised to fight, raised to rule, raised to be better than the world around him, raised to, when necessary, kill. Necromancers were the nobility of the dark, hidden places of the world. They had to be able to survive in those dark, hidden places. And they had to prove that they were better than those who inhabited those places.
Alex knew that he shouldn't have gotten so mad at Dash. It was just that…bested by a mere unadulterated, average-Joe human? Necromancers were the Lords of the Dead, and lords did not like to be bested by commoners. But he had gotten mad, he had drawn undue attention to himself, and he had aroused Danny Fenton/Phantom's suspicion--and this just his second day at Casper High! He was the worst spy ever. Mother was not going to like this.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"Man, this homework Mr. Lancer gave us is killing me," Tuck complained.
Alex sat down. "That homework Mr. Lancer gave us sure was easy, wasn't it?"
Tuck glared at him. "I hate you."
Alex laughed. "You did that problem wrong."
"Say, you wanna hang out by the Nasty Burger later?" Tuck asked.
"If I can. I'll have to ask my mother if I'm still grounded," Alex said. He hadn't actually been grounded, but he knew he was going to be in trouble tonight.
"Tough break," Danny said. "What for?"
"Oh, just some stupid thing. You know parents," Alex said, shrugging. Except for me, "grounding" will probably mean time in the dungeon. It was just lucky that the house they were living in was too small for them to build a properly-equipped dungeon. Necromancers; Alex had known less vicious werewolves. "So, any good movies out?"
"ZombieKiller VII comes out this week," Tuck said.
"Pfft. That movie is so fake," Alex said. "Could those zombies be any more retarded? All they do is walk around and go 'ugh, ugh, ugh.' Nothing like real--ly good zombie movies." He had almost said real life.
They were staring at him. "You've seen ZombieKiller VII?" Tuck asked.
"Um, no, but the prequels were totally lame," Alex saved.
"I thought those zombies were pretty scary," Tuck said.
You've obviously never seen a real zombie, Alex thought. "Please. Monster movies suck. The graphics stink, the plots stink, and the acting is so horrid that I find myself rooting for the monsters pretty quickly." Of course, it helped that he was one of the monsters.
Sam nodded, "I know what you mean…" They talked about movies that sucked until the bell rang. In spite of his best intentions, Alex was beginning to like these people. He had to suppress those feelings, though. After all, they were the enemy, weren't they? Well, Danny was, at least. He was in enough trouble as it was; the last thing he needed was to become soft towards those he was spying--he collided with someone, losing his train of thought.
"Oh, sorry, man," Alex said. "Totally my bad." He bent over to start picking up his textbooks and--
"Here, let me help," Danny said. He reached for a book bound in black leather.
"No, don't--" it was too late; Danny touched it, and was shocked by the ghost-guard. He yipped. "I tried to warn you," Alex said. "It's a gag," he lied, "like those lighters you get at the joke shop, the ones that shock you when you try to use them, you know? Except in book form." He gathered his stuff and walked away. Somehow, he didn't think they believed him.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Sam knew that Alex was lying. Those kinds of gags needed a mechanism, because if they ran continuously they would drain their batteries and also shock everybody that touched them. If Danny had opened the book and gotten shocked, that would have been believable, but all he did was touch it. That wouldn't have made a very good gag: the person giving it would get shocked before the victim.
There were twelve characters in tiny gold print on the cover of the book, which Sam committed to memory and then to paper at the first opportunity. The school had one of those dictionaries that briefly examined the archaic forms of letters. She went to the library and looked at it during study hall.
There were twelve characters in the word. She went in alphabetical order through the dictionary, checking to see if any of the characters matched with the ones in the book. None of them were As. None were Bs. The two X-shaped ones that were third from the front and third from the back turned out to be Ancient Greek Cs. No Ds. The one in front of the first C, which looked like a backwards three, was an E, which sort of made sense, and the next letter to turn up, I, also looked kind of like it should. The I was in front of the other C. Sam looked at what she had so far?ec?ic?. No clues yet. The letter in front of the I, which looked like a lowercase U with a bloody nose, was an M, and then there were three Ns (which looked like Vs), and for some reason even the first one was lowercase. What she had now was: nec?n?mic?n. An idea occurred to her. The three characters that looked like Os turned out, indeed, to be Os, and then she skipped ahead to R. The one which looked like a P was an R. The word was necronomicon.
Sam shivered. The Necronomicon? The Book of the Dead? The book which, if the movies were anywhere close to correct, allowed people to raise zombies, summon ghosts, and do all sorts of other freaky things? What the hell was Alex Gentry doing with this damn thing, carrying it around school in his backpack like it was a textbook? She had to tell Danny and Tuck.
She found Tuck first, and told him what she had found. His eyes widened. "That book didn't look like it was bound in human flesh," he said.
"That's kind of doubtful," Sam said. "Still, we ought to tell Danny."
They found him in the hall. "Hey, guys. Can this wait? I forgot my history book."
"That book Alex had, the one that shocked you when you touched it? It was the Necronomicon," Sam said.
"You mean like in Evil Dead?" Danny asked.
"Possibly," Sam said.
"What the hell would he be doing with that?" Danny said. "Not that there isn't something strange about him."
"I don't know, but it seems we might want to find out more about him," Sam said.
"I'll handle that," Tuck said.
"We'll keep our eyes and ears open," Danny said. They got to his locker. "There it is again; that creepy, ghost-like sensation." He looked both ways to make sure the coast was clear, and went ghost. Then he went intangible and went into the locker. He came out holding his history book.
"You know, you could have just opened the locker, you don't have to show off," Tuck said.
"No, it's in here," Danny said. "When I went intangible, there was some sort of resistance when I touched it."
"But when you go intangible, doesn't that make you…well, intangible?" Sam pointed out. "To everything?"
"That's what I thought," Danny said. He flipped through the pages, like he expected the host to pop out and go "Boo." "What the?"
"What is it?" Sam asked.
Danny ran his fingernail over the edge of the cover, just a few millimeters from where the endpaper ended. "Glue?" He worried the corner of the endpaper, and then tore it from the cover.
"Danny, no! That's school property; don't rip the cover off. You'll have to pay for it," Tuck said.
"What is that?" Danny asked. Sam looked. It was sort of a…
"It looks like a stop sign with spokes," Tuck said.
"Actually, it kind of looks like a pentagram, but with eight sides instead of five," Sam said. "Is there such a thing as an octogram?"
"I don't think so," Danny said.
"In that case, I coin the term," Sam said. "That's an octogram."
"Alright," Danny said. "What is it doing in my book, and why is it radiating ghost power?"
"Well, pentagrams are supposed to be used for spells, right?" Sam said. "Maybe you should borrow my history book for a while, Danny."
"I think that that's a good idea," Danny said, somewhat disconcerted.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"There it is again; that creepy, ghost-like sensation," Danny said. Alex heard this in his mind. Pretending to be reading, he closed his eyes and astroprojected himself so that he could see what was happening first hand. Danny went intangible and floated around the locker, searching…
Surely, he won't be able to find-- Danny came up against his history textbook, and stopped. Why did I make it intangibility-resistant? The answer was that it was second nature for him, when dealing with ghosts. After all, what was the point of making a charm if the ghost could just go intangible and escape? He watched, mortified, as the three discovered his octogram. He almost cried; it wasn't fair. Mother was going to kill him. Not literally, but it was going to be bad enough that saying not literally wasn't redundant.
"Well, pentagrams are supposed to be used for spells, right?" Sam said. "Maybe you should borrow my history book for a while, Danny."
"I think that that's a good idea," Danny said.
"Hey, why do you hang out with those losers?" Dash asked, breaking Alex of his trance.
"Wha--huh?"
Dash smiled. "Asleep? I can totally relate; this class is boring. I said, 'Why do you hang out with those losers?'"
Alex shrugged. "I guess I got off to a bad start." He wasn't in the same class as Danny, Sam, or Tucker this hour.
"Seriously, you are the best damn football player I have ever seen," Dash said, "especially for a little guy."
Or ever will, Alex added silently. "I'm not that good," he said modestly. He should have pretended to be worse than he was. It wasn't wise to attract too much attention to himself, as a necromancer. "I just caught you off-guard, is all."
"Yeah, well, I'm throwing a party next week," Dash said. "Thinking you might like to come…we could talk about signing you up for the team."
Alex looked at him, thoughtful. He had dealt with the politics of necromancers, vampires, and werewolves long enough to have a fair idea of how thing worked in high school. He was being offered a spot in Dash's circle. Dash was a powerful person in this court; he'd be a good ally to have, if Alex was to claw his way to the top of this food chain. Not that he could care less. As much like the politics he was used to as it was, it was also a lot less lethal. Still…
"I'll see if I can't be there, but I may still be grounded," Alex said.
"Grounded? What did you do?" Dash asked.
"I was caught," Alex said. Ironically closer to the truth then what he told his "friends."
Dash smiled. "Amen, buddy."
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Alex kneeled on the floor, sitting on his ankles, face turned down. Strands of hair got in his face, but he dared not lift a hand to fix it. His mother paced in front of him.
"Why, exactly, did you feel the need to confront the hellion on your first day of school?" Ann demanded.
"I was…ashamed of myself. When I faced Plasmius, and he turned into Vlad Masters…I panicked. I fled."
"And you thought to prove your bravado by facing another of the creatures," Ann said.
"With all due respect, Mother, we went over this yesterday," Alex said.
Ann snorted. "You say that as if it meant something. We go over what I want, when we want. And why did you feel it necessary to put a charm in the hellion's textbook?" she asked.
"So I could spy on him," Alex said.
"And when did I tell you to do that?" Ann demanded.
"You said to keep tabs on him," Alex said.
"I meant stay close to him, be on the scene when he fights ghosts, that sort of thing," Ann said.
Oh. "I misunderstood. I apologize." He started to bow deeper.
Ann cuffed him on the back of his head. "Did I tell you to move?"
"No, Mother."
"Then don't."
"Yes, Mother."
"Tonight, at midnight, I want you to hex the Amity Park Graveyard. I want to be able to raise any corpse in there as a zombie at a moment's hesitation, understand?" Ann ordered.
"Yes, Mother." Preparing a corpse in advanced for a zombie-raising was handy if you planned on getting in trouble later, the kind of trouble where you needed muscle fast and didn't have the time to go through the complex rituals involved with raising the dead. Preparing an entire graveyard would have been a tough call for even the most skilled of necromancers, and would likely be impossible for Alex. Never mind that tomorrow was a school day; going to school beat was part of the punishment. If he was lucky, he'd pass out; that way, at least, he'd get a little sleep.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"What did you find out about Alex?" Danny asked.
"First, his family moves about a lot. At first, I thought that this was because of trouble he might have been causing, but his record is spotless. Then, remembering just why it was that I was looking into his history, I got smart and started looking at the paranormal sights. Virtually every town they have ever lived in or visited has had some sort of paranormal…thing. Ghosts, zombies, vampires, you name it," Tuck said.
"I looked into hospital records next," he continued. "His family has a long history of suspicious-seeming injuries. I mean, going back generations. Dog bites that had to come from an animal the size of a small pony and mysterious losses of blood, among other things. I also noticed that their dead are all shipped to a place called Gentry Hills in England. I assume that that's some sort of cemetery, but I can find nothing on them aside from a mailing address. And of course I notice that 'Gentry' is also Alex's last name."
Tuck took a breath, "This got me looking at the family as a whole. As in family trees. Guess what? He's a pedigree."
"He doesn't look like a dog," Danny said.
"No, I mean, his family has a history of marrying distant cousins. Not inbred, but like you would expect of some sort of nobility, or clan. Also, when they marry, they tend to take the woman's name," Tuck said.
"What's wrong with that?" Sam asked.
"Nothing, but think about it: this is a trend going back centuries, as far back as I can trace the family lines. And it's the rule with them, not the exception. Doesn't that seem weird?" Tuck asked. "If one of them would be arrested, they would disappear from jail and never be heard from again. A lot of them would be found drowned in a river somewhere, covered with ritualistic-seeming cuts. I mean, it's weird. Also, they have had dealings with the Circus Gothica."
Danny winced; having his mind controlled by Circus Gothica's creepy ringleader Freakshow was not one of his more pleasant memories. "Going how far back?"
"Generations, right to it's birth," Tuck said. "The person who founded it bought a rod, the description of which is eerily similar to that of the one which was used to control Danny and the other ghosts, from the Gentry family for an exorbitant amount of money. Alex specifically hasn't been anywhere near Freakshow or anyone associated with Freakshow, though.
"Back to Alex, he visits a site called ' rather frequently, which I have tried to access, but the you need a password or something, and the security is tight."
" 'Nexponomixon?'" Sam asked.
"Yeah. Why? Does it mean anything?" Tucker asked.
"Well, on Alex's book, the word 'necronomicon,' was written in ancient Greek letters. The Cs looked liked Xs and the R looked like a P. But other stuff looked like stuff it wasn't, too…" Sam said. She shook her head. "Go on."
"Also, the guys in white have a file on him," Tuck said.
"What's in the file?" Danny asked.
"Don't know," Tuck said. "Still trying to hack it. But I know that it's there, and that alone says something."
"What about the necronomicon?" Danny asked.
"I tried to find a reliable source on what, exactly, the necronomicon is, but it was impossible," Tuck said.
"You couldn't find anything about the necronomicon on the internet?" Danny asked, unbelieving.
Tuck shook his head. "Just the opposite: too much crap. And that's what it was: crap. Movie fan sites, internet cults, just plain inane stuff. I did learn that 'necronomicon' is literally Latin for 'book of the dead,' so for all I know there is no original mythos. A movie producer could have sat down one day and said, 'hmm, I want to make a movie where an evil spell book has the power to raise the dead, but what can I call it? How abut the Book of the Dead, but in Latin… "Necronomicon?" That's perfectly hideous-sounding!' Well, the stuff on the internet claims that there are legends about the Necronomicon going back thousands of years, but I'm beginning to hate the internet."
Tuck did a double take, "Did I just say that? Oh, God, what have I become!"
"Uh, sounds real frustrating," Sam said.
"So, any theories?" Danny asked.
"A crazy one," Tuck said.
"It's better than nothing," Danny said.
"Well, that rod that Freakshow used to control you? It had to come from somewhere. Someone had to make it. What if that someone was the Gentry family? What if they have some sort of…of power, a psychic energy that can be imbued into an object and used to control ghosts? What if all of these strange injuries came from dealing with ghosts? What if the whole family is a bunch of…"
"What?" Danny asked.
Tuck shook his head.
"Just say it," Sam said.
"It's too crazy," Tuck said.
"What, crazier than what we deal with every day?" Sam asked. " 'What if the whole family is a bunch of necromancers?' There, I said it."
"Wait…like in Dungeons and Dragons?" Danny asked. "The bad guys dressed in black who are always trying to take over the world with armies of skeletons and zombies and vampires and ghouls and gh--" he stopped.
"And ghosts," Tuck said.
"Why would a necromancer be here?" Danny asked.
"With all the ghost activity that has been going on the last few months, why wouldn't one be here?" Sam said. "But I think he's here for you. I mean, putting the hex in your book and all."
"Of course. The freaks always come after me," Danny said.
"He seems nice for a freak, though. He even helped me with my homework," Tuck said.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Alex was tired. He had been in the graveyard from midnight until dawn zombifying the corpses of Amity Park's dearly departed, and then he had to go home, shower, change brush his teeth, and go to school. Shit, I forgot deodorant. Gee, this day was going to be just swell.
He also did horrid in gym. The other kids could keep up with him half of the time, and he even fumbled the ball once! He then pretty much slept through his next hour class, and after that he went to lunch.
"Whoa, you don't look too well," Danny said.
"Long night," Alex murmured.
"Long night doing what?" Sam asked.
Alex looked at her. "Do I really look that bad?"
"You look like one of the undead," Tuck said. He winced as someone kicked him under the table.
"Seriously, what have you been doing?" Danny asked.
Alex looked at him, really looked at him. "You really are concerned, aren't you?"
"Yeah," Danny said.
Could it be that they were completely wrong about Danny Fenton/Phantom? Could he be…dare I say it…one of the good guys? Alex shook his head to clear it, and nearly fell out of his seat doing so.
Danny caught him before he hit the ground. "You alright?"
Alex nodded. "Thanks, man. You're alright, you know that?"
"What have you been doing?" he asked again.
Alex smiled weakly, "Third time's the charm, eh? Well…I don't want to talk about it." He leaned his head against the table. "You know, I have had cohorts, even lackeys, but I think you are the first friends I have ever had. I like you people; I really like you." Alex knew it to be true when he said it. He just didn't think that it was a good thing. After all, what would he do if he got orders to kill Danny Phantom?
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"Yo, Alex," Andy said. "You are alive, right? Mom didn't kill you, then raise your corpse to throw suspicion off of herself, right?"
Alex glared at his older brother. "What do you think?"
"Seriously, though, you look like shit," Andy said.
Alex stood straight and tried not to show weakness. Even though he loved his brother, they were still both necromancers, and one necromancer did not show weakness to another. The Lords of the Dead were a highly competitive people. "I'm going to my room. Unless, of course, Mother has orders for me?"
"No, the 'rents are out on the town with their new friends, the Fentons," Andy said. The tone of his voice said how likely he thought it was that they genuinely liked Jack and Maddie Fenton, as opposed to them just befriending them in order to dig up more information on their son and Vlad Masters.
Thank the gods! Alex nodded and went to his room. He put on headphones and put a CD in the player. He lounged on the bed, listening to music, like any normal kid would. Of course, the CD he was listening to was one of the rare surviving copies of the only record put out by Ember (it's mind-controlling effects were negated by his necromantic power). The necromancer community had destroyed most of them. They didn't want a ghost taking over humanity; they were humans, after all.
It was too bad she was a ghost bent on ruling humanity, because Alex actually liked Ember's music. She was cute, too. For a ghost, that is…
Alex's eyelids grew heavy, and he fell asleep, after being awake for thirty-four hours.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Danny tossed Sam the Fenton Thermos. "Remind me to put that away," he said, panting.
"Damn," Tuck said. He pulled a hand-held tape recorder out of his pocket. "This stupid thing was recording. I'd better rewind the tape and record over that fight with some white noise or something."
"That seems incredibly low-tech for you," Sam said.
"It's for this stupid assignment in some class or other," Tuck said. "You don't have it."
"Uh-uh. Maybe you should refresh your memory as to what you're supposed to be doing with that thing," Sam said. It was a good bet that if he forgot what class he was doing the assignment for that he also forgot what exactly he was doing.
"Ah, man, that stupid ghost--" Danny started.
"Great. Now I have to stop the tape again," Tuck said.
Sorry," Danny said. "Anyway, as I was saying, I'm beat. Not as beat as Alex was today, but beat."
"What the hell did he do to end up in that condition?" Sam asked.
Danny shrugged. "Necromancer stuff, maybe."
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
"Gentry, you've been called to the office," the gym teacher said.
"Right," Alex jogged down the hallways. He went into the office. "I was told I had a phone call?"
The secretary nodded, and handed him a phone. "Hello?" Alex asked.
"This is your mother," Ann said.
Alex shivered. She wouldn't have called unless it was really important. "What is it?"
"We just got a message from Mother," Ann said. "Vlad Plasmius has been consorting with the Fright Knight."
Alex's stomach dropped. He hadn't realized how much he had hoped that he could be friends with Danny. He might have even been able to swallow his pride and stomach being in the same room as Vlad Masters/Plasmius, eventually. He had honestly started to believe that Danny Fenton/Phantom was one of the good guys. But if they were in league with the Fright Night, they were also in league with his master, and Pariah Dark was the sworn enemy of all necromancers. "Confirmed, or rumor?"
"Rumor, but the queen bitch doesn't want to take any chances," Ann said. Alex's mother and grandmother were almost exactly alike, so of course they hated each other. Still, Ann followed her mother's orders, just like Alex followed his mother's orders. Necromancers were a fiercely matriarchal people.
"Have any others of their kind been found?" Alex asked.
"No. They think that Vlad must have warned them," Ann said.
"Orders?" Alex asked.
Ann sighed. "You are to capture the local hellion," she said. "Use whatever means are at your disposal. And Alex…be careful, okay?"
Was she showing maternal feeling? She must not like his odds. "Yes, Mother," Alex said. He thanked the secretary and went back down to the locker rooms. He needed to get Danny away from the others, but how? Then it hit him that he had a ghost sense. Well, now it would prove to be his downfall. Alex ripped a hole in the fabric of space-time to the Ghost Zone, and summoned the most powerful ghost that his family had to call on.
"Dracolich, Dracolich, Dracolich/Thrice summoned, once received," it was a short incantation, but they didn't necessarily have to be long. A ghost shaped like a Japanese dragon poured out of the tear and into the locker room. Danny was sure to sense this. Sure to fall into Alex's trap.
:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:-:
Danny could see his breath. A ghost. Something near, something big. "I've got to go to the bathroom," he ran into the locker room. He paused when he saw Alex, flanked by a giant snake-like ghost.
Alex smiled evilly. "What's the matter, Daniel Fenton? Or should I say, Daniel Masters? Don't look so surprised. There are only two of you half-ghost freaks that we have been able to track down in all of America, and you expect me to believe that the fact that the other one just so happens to be in love with your mom is a coincidence? Sorry, don't think so."
"Ew, gross!" Danny said. "Don't even joke about that."
"So there's more of you out there, then? I'd love to hear all about it--and I will hear all about it. We have ways of making you talk," Alex said.
"No, I--"
"If you resist, this is going to get ugly," Alex said. "Now, I would rather not fight here, where innocent bystanders could get hurt, but don't think for an instant that I'm squeamish. I will use whatever force necessary to subdue you."
"Well, then, let's have this fight in the parking lot," Danny said. He went ghost and fled. He looked behind him and saw that Alex and the ghost were giving chase. What the…how is he going intangible? He remembered that he could turn Sam and Tucker intangible with him. Surely other ghosts could do the same.
Alex jumped off of the snake, which Danny now saw had legs and other non-snakelike features, and said, "Dracolich, subdue him."
Danny shot three plasma bolts at Dracolich and one at Alex. All were dodged nimbly. He flew upwards, charging a very large plasma blast. Dracolich pursued, and then Danny hit him with everything he had. Danny thought the ghost had gone down, but he was only paying attention to the head; Dracolich slapped him with his tail. Danny crashed into the parking lot at speeds high enough to crack the blacktop. He sat up and tried to clear his head. Danny looked for Dracolich, and found that he had knocked the beast out, after all; the ghost had just gotten a lucky hit in.
Alex ran at him. Danny shot a plasma bolt at him, he dodged. When he came within range, Danny tried to punch him, but Alex blocked. Jeez, no wonder this kid was so good in gym.
"Lightning!" Alex intoned. A bolt of lightning shot from Alex's hand, hitting Danny at point blank range. Everything went black.
