I know the previous two chapters were a bit rushed, especially at the ends, but I was practically falling asleep at the keyboard when I was writing them, so I'll try to make this better. Enjoy!
Yeah, sorry for ANOTHER long delay. I was focusing on school.
edited 8/26/22 for continuity
Chapter 11: The First Reveal
Heather sat frozen, staring at the screen in an emotion that was impossible to describe.
"This is awesome! I can't believe... Heather? Are you ok?"
Heather shut the laptop and stuck it into her backpack.
"They lied to me. How could they lie to me? Why?"
"Maybe they were doing it to protect you?"
No reply. She hugged Alex, resisting the urge to cry. Her whole life was built on a lie. Nobody told her of what she was.
"Heather, they had a reason. Maybe you should talk to them about it."
Heather came out of the hug. "I can't tell them. How would they react? They would never let me leave the house! They'd force me to train and train until I fall apart!"
Alex sat silent for a moment, thinking of a plan.
"We have all the information we need of humans and ghosts with that laptop. The book describes the ghost zone, and I'm sure that the laptop gives more info. We can get back into your dad's lab and check out the stuff in there."
"But the lab is alarmed. We'll need to get Raymond to crack the system. That means letting him in on our secret."
Alex leaned against the bookcase and sighed. "I guess he's fine. His dad and your dad are friends, though, so try not to get him in trouble. We'll call him after school."
In the Foley household, the dinner was being served. Tucker brought the steaks to the table, where his wife Valerie and son Raymond were waiting. Ray was about to grab his piece when the doorbell rang. Tucker got up to get it, but Ray knew who it was. He raced to the door and opened it, seeing a slightly panicked Alex and Heather wearing a hoodie with the hood up and dark sunglasses.
He was confused, but he didn't question. "Guys, go to my room. Let me grab my dinner, I'll see you shortly." While he grabbed his dinner, he said to his family, "Alex and Heather are here. I'll be in my room."
When he got to his room and closed the door, he asked the most obvious question. "What is with the hoodie and glasses? Does it have something to do with why you called this meeting?"
Heather took off the glasses and pulled down the hood, revealing snow white hair and glowing green eyes. "I'm half ghost. My dad is Danny Phantom. We need a security system busted and this secret kept."
Raymond stood in awe. "Well... It's too ridiculous to be made up..." He spun the computer chair Heather was sitting on, investigating her. He brushed through her hair, feeling it practically float through his hands. "Spontaneous too. I guess I could help you, if you got info on the security system." He sat on the bed and ate a chunk of steak while Heather floated off the chair.
Alex pulled a few papers out of his backpack. "Here. Pictures of the system, as many as Heather could get."
Heather hovered above the boys, joining in the chat. "It was tough even finding the keypads. They were hidden behind a brick and a light switch cover!"
He grabbed the papers and looked through them, smiling. "Perfect, thank you. Now, this ghost thing, I'll help you out with it. I'll be your tech specialist, and I'll keep it a secret."
"Good," Heather said. She changed back to human form. "And thanks for getting straight to business on this. I'm tired of dealing with ghost stuff today."
"You're welcome," replied Ray.
The next few days for Heather were filled with training with Yoltrun and Alex. When the weekend finally came and Heather had the house to herself, Alex and Ray came over for the security system hacking. Three days was enough for Raymond to create some clever technical devices to aid in his trials. He was lucky to find the info on the internet for this system. This system was slightly modified from the internet schematics, but it didn't matter. The three seventh graders were outside the secret room in the basement, about to hack the system. Ray was plugged into the keypad, trying to gain access to the main system in the lab.
"This might take a bit longer than expected. Good news though, the cameras and their microphones don't work."
Heather's ghost sense went off when Cujo entered the room. He jumped up onto Heather's shoulder (luckily, he was nearly weightless so it didn't hurt) and licked her ear. Heather sat down on a box and the dog hopped to her lap and curled up to sleep.
"Well, Cujo is fine with it," Alex said.
"Don't take too long, we only have a few hours. Also, don't let me fall asleep. I tend to do that with an animal sleeping on me and I might go sinking through the floor."
An hour passed, and with Alex exploring the piles of boxes and Raymond purely focused on the hacking, Heather fell asleep. She only woke up to Ray's enthusiastic yell of "yes!" and Alex falling off a box in surprise and crashing to the floor. Cujo was nowhere to be found.
"Huh? What happened?" mumbled Heather as she half stood up, half floated off from the box she fell asleep on.
"I did it! I'm in! No more cameras, no more ghost shield, no more alarms! And, watch this!" He unplugged the computer from the keypad and took out his cell phone. He tapped on the screen a few times until the bricks parted, revealing the secret storage room. "Unfortunately, the second wall still needs ghost energy to open."
A well-timed sneeze from a half-awake Heather shot ghost rays straight at the wall, opening up the secret room. It certainly woke her up completely when she was launched at the boxes behind her. The boys laughed.
Heather got up, alert and awake. "You let me fall asleep, didn't you? I told you-" she paused when she saw the open lab. "Woah, you opened the lab!"
"With your help," Alex noted with a laugh.
"Come on, let's go," sighed Heather. "We've got work to do."
Thanks for reading!
